Can't Complain!

Hello all!

I’m finally finished with my chores, ready to settle down and write. The bathroom mirror is spotless, my carpet is dirt free, and my whole apartment smells like Glade goodness. I love keeping house. ;)

I am so pleased with the progress that this place has made. It is really coming along! This past week, Sarah and her family decided to be the most kind and generous family ever! Sarah gave me some furniture that she isn’t using right now, her mother told me to give her a list of things that I needed and has been going to Mission Mart to search for them. Not only that, but Sarah’s dad is going to look at my car this weekend and diagnose it. (Poor Howard died twice last week and we had to jump the battery to bring him back to life. The poor old car…)

I also went to Hobs Lobs (Hobby Lobby :P) this week and bought a beautiful canvas picture!! A woman named Jenny gave me a gift card (Jenny, you’re seriously the best) and I got to use it on this gem!  I also lucked out!! It was originally $60 but because they accidentally left up a 50% off sign, they had to honor it, and I got it for $30! Boom behbeh!

I’ll post some pictures of the place coming along! By the way, to all the ladies that I told I wouldn’t invite over until my place was a little more homey, I think the time has finally come. Feel free to now visit and invite yourself over anytime! ;)

Well, let’s see! This week has been a mixture of draining, somewhat discouraging, yet fun, relaxing, and encouraging! I know that doesn’t make much sense, so let me explain. My week looked like this—

MONDAY

11am-2pm | Work at the Hyacinth

-   This is always fun and stress free! I love the ladies I work with and the products that we sell!

2:30-3:30pm | Teach Hip Hop Fitness at Manual High School

-    This was the first week that I taught here, and the kids were not that into it. :\ I had to talk super sternly and tell them that they simply could not choose to participate whenever they wanted to. I kid you not, these students would walk off to the side and sit out when they didn’t feel like doing what they were told. It was completely mind blowing to me. I felt my cheeks get really hot and I haven’t felt that angry in a long time! I am going to change the format of the class and hopefully move it to a different location in the school. You see, we were in the lobby, so tons of people were constantly walking by. I understand that these kids probably felt silly when their friends walked by and laughed at them or when strangers were constantly walking by and looking over at us. So anyways, I’m hopeful for next week. The mentorship part went well. They were willing to be open and honest. And there is no doubt that I made it more than clear what my expectations were for them next week. Whew!

3:30-5:30 | Teach at Friendship House

-    I’ve been teaching here for about 2 months now, and I’m really starting to see progress and enthusiasm in some of these kids. Last week, a little girl gave us a drawing addressed to “Boom boom boy (Josh), Ballet girl (Liz), and Mrs. Silly (that’s me! Haha) That was so incredibly heartwarming. Like… okkaayy, maybe we really are making an impact here??

TUESDAY

11am-3pm | Chill wit my soul sistas ;)

-    My girrrls! I luh them so much! We always have so much fun together!

3:15-4:15 | Teach Math at The Dream Center

-   This week, there was no supervisor in the room with me for the first 15 minutes, so some of the students were just so disrespectful I couldn’t believe it. At one point, after 2 girls had been rudely talking in the back for about 5 minutes, I turned around, looked right at them, and said, girls you need to stop talking. It was as if I wasn’t in the room. They didn’t even look at me, they just kept talking. Nuh uh. No no. That was it. I raised my voice and that got their attention! Some of the students were like, “whooaa!” as if they didn’t think I had that in me. Honestly, I didn’t know I had that in me, and I hated that I had to do that. I don’t want to gain their respect by yelling at them, but people have told me that sometimes, that is the only thing that will get through to these kids. It’s heartbreaking, really. When the supervisor came in later, he laid it on them hard. He told them that he didn’t work at the center to work with kids who didn’t want to learn. He flat out told them that if they weren’t going to take advantage of what was given to them, then they could leave. Ayiyii. Talk about sobering.

I got on the phone with Amanda later that day and told her what had happened. She told me that sometimes outreach is just hard. You might get students who you can really develop relationships with and see change in after a few months, and then you might get some that you never get through to. It’s sad, but that’s the reality of it. So, as I continue to be a light in these dark places, please pray for me! And pray for these kids! They don’t know what they are missing out on. I got to drive through some of the neighborhoods that they live in, and my heart broke. They live hard lives, and for many, they choose to harden their hearts to lessen the pain. God help them.

WEDNESDAY

9-10am | Teach Hip Hop at The Children’s Home

-    Ok, this was the most encouraging teaching experience that I’ve had so far while being here! It was my first week at this new place, and I was told that I would be working with kids who had developmental delays and behavior management problems. I was slightly nervous because I was going to be teaching hip hop by myself and I wouldn’t consider myself quite qualified to do that! But I actually surprised myself! I choreographed a combo that isn’t half bad ;) Anyways, these kids are true sweethearts. They would get discouraged when they didn’t get the movements right away, but I just had to keep encouraging them and reminding them that they were not going to have it perfectly their first day, and that they should be so proud of themselves for trying so hard! During the mentoring at the end, the kids opened up right away and I came to the conclusion that I’m going to love teaching here every week. :]

So, there’s a sneak peak of what my week has been so far. I’ve gotten to see my fiancé a lot this week, and that is always the best. :] So all in all, I really can’t complain! God continues to take care of me and showers me with blessings that I don’t deserve.

Thanks for reading, friends. Until next time. :]

Grace: I Just Can't Get Enough!

I apologize for the delayed post! While I should have been better at making time to write, I have been so happily distracted! I’ve been busy with work and mostly, having fun with friends. Praise be to God, I have made another bosom friend… Sarah! :] 

I met Sarah through my soul sister Amanda, and now we are a soul sister trio! Hehe! Our alternate identities are Bri-Bri (me), Ray-Ray (Sarah), and Day-day (Amanda). Anywho, while we all have a lot in common -mainly silliness, weirdness, love of laughter, crafts, beautiful things, and food-we each come from very different places and are able to offer new insights to one another. Both of those women looovee Jesus! And it’s amazing to see what the Lord has done in their lives over the years. 

Here's a picture of the two beauties :]

Well, recently, Jesus has been doing a lot of work in my heart. Two Sundays ago, our pastor talked about being discontent with your character without bearing guilt or shame. He reiterated that “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1) and told us that growth is continual, not completed. Now, when he said that we should be discontent with our characters without bearing guilt or shame, literally, the first thing that popped into my head was, that’s impossible. I can’t do that. I become so shameful when I mess up, when I let people down, or feel like I have let God down. I feel unworthy, undeserving, and unlovable.  Well, because this attitude is exactly the opposite of the attitude that we should have in light of the gospel, it is pretty unacceptable that I keep falling into that pattern of thinking!

So, once again, theme of the week: GRACE.

As I was sharing with Amanda and Sarah one night that I felt like a failure, their responses were that of concern, honesty, and truth. I’ve been battling my tendency to think of the God in heaven as a God who looks down at me with a furrowed brow and shaking finger. I have to continually remind myself that I am in Christ… meaning, God seems me as he sees Jesus. But when you have to tell yourself that 300 times a week, it becomes so exhausting! So, these wonderful women graciously 1) pointed out that I was putting unfair blame on myself and 2) pointed me to scripture. The next day I decided to look up as many verses about grace that I could! I flipped to the back of my bible and went down the list of verses about grace given in the concordance.

Here are the ones that fed my soul like no other:

John 1:16
“And from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.”

Romans 5:20-21
“Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Romans 6:14
“For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under the law but under grace.”

After a lot of reading and journaling, I came to these realizations:

I am a bad accepter of God’s gift of grace. I don’t take it when he holds it out for me take freely because I forget that it is a gift and not something that I can earn. Choosing to feel shame is basically telling God that what Jesus did on the cross was not enough. This verse says it how it is…

Galations 2:21
“I don’t set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing.”

I decided that I needed to memorize these verses to keep that fresh in my mind.

Our sinful self is the old self. The old self is no longer who I am. I am a new creation under a new reign: grace. My new self is covered by grace and defined by Jesus’ righteousness.

Amazing, right? God’s love for us is so overwhelming. Why he loves such sinful creatures, I will never understand, but I am so thankful that he does!

Well, let me briefly share with you what else the Lord has done these past couple weeks. Praises and prayer requests…

• City Dance was given a bigger space to hold studio classes! Not only that, but mirrors, paint, and other supplies have been donated to us. We’re really hoping that from now on, enrollment and class offerings will grow.
• We’re going to be using this space on select afternoons as a place where parents can drop their kids off while they run errands. While the kids are here, we will do crafts and activities. Again, all of the art supplies that we need have been donated. God is so good, right?
• We have a few events coming up that will really allow us to get our name out there and hopefully boost enrollment. Please pray that these events are a success!
• In addition to getting a new job at The Hyacinth, Barnes and Noble called me yesterday apologizing for the delay and asking if I’d still like a job! If we can coordinate availability, then I am going to take it. God is providing left and right!
• My homies and I want to start a Bible Study once a week. I can’t wait to grow with these women!
• I started shopping for wedding dress fabric this week and wow oh wow it was fun and successful!  We’re still looking for a location, so pray that we find one soon.
• I get to go to Bloomington once a week until the end of October to work on a flash mob dance that a few girls have volunteered to do with City Dance!! I’m so happy I get to do that because it’s the perfect excuse to hang out with them ;)

Well folks, as you can tell, the Lord is great! And he is faithful. That’s all for now :]