"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

I'm getting a late start on this so hopefully I can at least remember at least a couple of weeks ago. The frist day of the internship was a retreat to Fort Clinch. We arrived.. blindfolded.... We were blindfolded because sometimes God is going to ask us to do something and he's not always going to reveal a whole lot to us. It's also because we need to live in the NOW. Stop asking questions and just do what God has asked us to do. Lee, one of the directors of the internship told us about living in the now. For me it was just a conformation to a sermon I had heard in Indiana. The sermon was titled, "HERE and NOW." The Pastor at Campus House in West Lafayette Indiana said, "You can't change your past and you really have no control over your future." The first day there we broke into teams and adventure raced around Fort Clinch. One of the catches was we couldn't stray 10 feet from eachother. Point being if we're the body of Christ how can we be if we're too far away from eachother? It'd be like Jesus with a broken arm.

That night Lee told us he kind of enjoyed pain. We may find this a little odd sounding but it's because it makes us who we are, in a sense. Like if we don't know how down we can get then we don't know how much we need to cling to God. How can we fully appreciate him if we don't go through a trial? The second day was more of a get to know everyone. We hiked around Fort Clinch again, but not really racing. A lot of getting lost though. We went to the beach that night for worship. It was amazing with the ocean right behind us. The leaders there wanted to pray over all of the first years. Erika, the other director of the internship, put her hand on my shoulder and prayed outloud, over me. Once her hand was on my shoulder and her words came out of her mouth I realized I had never been prayed over. You know I know prayer is important but this is just because people always told me so. You hear people say, "Oh I've been praying for you." That doesn't really have an impact on me because I kind of view that as someone asking, "Hey how are you?" but they continue walking on never stopping to hear if you're good or bad. I feel that it's just been something that Christians say as small talk. But at that moment I felt the intensity of prayer. At that moment I truly knew the importance of prayer. Right before we went back to camp we were all looking up to the stars and I don't know but I loved what Lee said next. He said, "Look at how big our God is, look how big his creation is, you can't box that up. To even try would be foolish." We silently walked back to camp with those thoughts racing in our minds.

Before we headed back to the church we picked up all the trash at the empty campsites. We did this so we'd know no matter how small or how annoying the job is, we are to still serve God. We don't need to be a pastor or a worship leader to serve God to our fullest.

So far I've started the beginning to my awesome relationship with God, met some pretty amazing people, and have realized that I have a grand pair of directors. You can tell Lee and Erika aren't doing any of this for their own pride, they're doing it soley because they're Godly people and living a God-first life. We have something called corporate prayer, which I don't think defines it well. It's just a room where we go and pray together and then alone, just a nice meeting place with God. Now I already said that I found the importance of prayer but that does not mean I'm what so ever comfortable with it. I mean what could I possibly say to the creator of the universe that would be of some worth? At our second "corporate prayer" Erika came over to me during our one on one time with God. She told me she didn't mean to interupt me but God told her repeatedly that he wanted her to come over and pray with me. I immediatley started balling my eyes and told her that praying has been placed on my heart. I told her I felt the intensity when she touched my shoulder at the beach. I think that was my first revelation. You know just a conformation. That if I am to ever doubt God and his existense I should remember that moment. There is no way any of that was a coincidence.

Lee talked to us about sharing what God has revealed to us. I appreciate this.. he said,"If God gives you a revelation to benefit you don't share it with someone that's not at the same spiritual level as you, you could easily lead them astray." Basically people would probably think I'm a crazy person if they don't know God the way I do, it makes so much sense.

I think that's all I want to type sorry so long... I hope you enjoyed let me know! I'd love to actually have a conversation with you guys! Who knows it might provoke something...