Anyone still here?

Well, I've totally neglected this blog. I've been posting a little more regularly on my livejournal, but I decided it was about dadgum time to update this thing. It's been over half a year, so there's plenty to catch up on.

First of all, I no longer have the job mentioned in the previous post. It shut down and I was very sad. But now I clean toilets and everything else at Wesley. It's not the most glamorous job, but I can work whenever I want. Besides, I spend a large portion of my week there, I might as well do something productive and clean it up.

I recently finished my first senior year at Auburn! I only have one more semester of classes, then I'll intern in the spring. Still have to figure out the whole interning thing. I won't be doing marching band any longer. It was wonderful, but four years was enough. Even if I wanted to, I'm taking 18 hours and have class during band time. I'm looking forward the following: sleeping late on a Saturday, having the choice of attending games, wearing a t-shirt when it's 90 degrees instead of a 10 layer uniform, seeing the eagle fly for the 1st time, and funnel cakes/dippin dots.

After school ended, I went to the Yucatan for nine days. It was incredible.
I just copied and pasted my latest post from livejournal just to kind of encompass my most recent craziness in the Jesus area.
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Mexico was amazing. We built a house, worked on a church, and hung out with some totally awesome kids. It was very humbling. Every American should travel and experience life in another culture at some point. We're spoiled and unappreciative. It definitely changes your perspective on things.

I'll be leaving for camp tomorrow. Training was last week, and I think it went well overall. During vespers, Bob (new director) said something that really hit me hard. He talked about making the transition from "who am I" to "here am I." Wow. When I first changed my plans from nursing to ministry, I was scared. But I was excited. It finally felt right, and I had never been so certain about anything. Well, the initial excitement of such a big decision has worn off. Over the past year, I've found myself asking God if He's sure about this. I KNOW that everyone in any type of ministry position should ask "who am I". But for me, it goes beyond trying to be humble. I feel totally inadequate. I'm not great with people. And instead of making improvements as I get older, it seems like I become more terrified and paranoid each day. I get so caught up in the thought that I'm not good enough. How am I supposed to do this for the rest of my life?

After thinking about what Bob said, I've decided that it just doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if I don't have the best social skills. It doesn't matter if I'm not the best public speaker. It doesn't matter if I have no clue as to exactly what type of ministry God is calling me to. What I do know is that I've been called. I won't lie, I'm not always happy about it. But that's okay. While "who am I" should always be a question that I ask, I think I definitely need to focus more on "here am I".

Last night we were singing Amazing Grace at worship in the founders chapel at AUMC. We got to the line, "we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we'd first begun". And for the first time in a long time, I was content with that. I've been burnt out, and the thought of a full time career in the ministry has been more of a let down recently than something to look forward to. I'm just so annoyed with what we've turned Christianity into. It drives me crazy. My trip to the Yucatan came at the perfect time. People there loved Jesus...and it was raw. Just raw passion. It makes me excited again.

Wow, I said I was going to try to keep it short. Actually, it's still pretty short considering all that I could have written. So consider yourself lucky. In other news...

I'm seriously looking into the peace corps. I never realized exactly what it was before yesterday, and it rocks.
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LIke I said, I'll be leaving for camp today. So if you get bored or you just feel like totally making my day, you can send me mail!

Halley Power
Camp Sumatanga Lodge
3616 Sumatanga Road
Gallant, AL 35972

I'll really try to better about updating. Until next time, peace out.

Update

So...I got a job. I start Tuesday at the Caramel Apple Gift Company. I'll probably gain twenty pounds within the first week, but that's okay...because I have a job.

Halloween was pretty fun this year. I was proud of my make-shift costumes. I went to the band party as a nudist on strike. So, basically I wore the same clothes I had been wearing all day and carried around a sign that said "on strike". On Halloween, I put a little more effort into my costume. Only a little- but I thought it was pretty funny. Can you guess what I am?

In case you belong to the large majority of the human race and don't get it, I'm a ceiling fan.

I carved quite a few personalized pumpkins this year. If anyone is still interested in buying one, please let me know. It's past Halloween, but these pumpkins are actually artificial so you can get them whenever and use them for many Halloweens/Thanksgivings to come. Or you can be like Meagan and just use it as a lamp. :o)








It's been fun. Oh, one more thing. I got a letter from Nelson the other day. It was adorable. I've gotten about three or four letters from him so far, but this was the first time he wrote a sentence by himself. He'll be nine next month, but the grade equivalence in Uganda is 1st grade here. He wrote, "I love you along with my parents." It's just so neat to see it in his handwriting. The rest of the letter goes on to say that it's cold and rainy over there, he's improving at school, and has been playing football and learning mathematics. He enjoys singing to God and has discovered that God loves children so much. He has also learned that it is good and necessary to love God with all your heart and all your mind. The letter ended with two things. 1)He hopes to see my physically, and 2)He will be praying for my studies and future. Wow. It blows my mind that he's praying for me. Hopefully one day I will be able to go see him. That would pretty much make my life.

God is good. Just had to say that after this week.

*PS: I just added the links to 5 new photo albums. Enjoy.

Until next time, peace.

Hello.

Yes, I'm still alive. Sorry I've been neglecting the blogging community. Not sure if anyone actually checks this anymore...oh well. I post on livejournal a little more frequently. You're welcome to check it out if you want. Here ya go.

Life in my world has been pretty crazy lately. And random. So I'll just start blabbing.

The semester is more than half-way through. I don't really have the motivation that I should, I'm just tired of it. I suppose I can keep going through the motions until Christmas. I'm taking 17 hours right now, and if I want to graduate next spring (09) I'll have to take 18 hours the next two semesters, followed by an internship. Changing my major at the end of my junior year put me a little behind...okay, a lot behind. But I don't regret it.

Wesley's going well. I'm a freshmen leader this year, and a member of the worship band. It's been challenging, but I think God's using it as preparation. Wednesday starts a new 6 week session of Bible studies, and I'll be leading one of them. Honestly, I'm freaking out a little bit. Prayers are appreciated.

I really like fruit. A lot. And Swedish fish candy.
(Told you this would be random)

I'm going to Africa. I don't know how or when, but I'm going.

Halloween's coming up soon, so I'm trying to decide what kind of pumpkin I'm going to carve this year. So far, I've done Napolean Dynamite and Steve Irwin (see previous posts). Any ideas for this year?

I think that's enough randomness for now. Peace.

The Aftermath

The official Displace Me video is finished! (see previous post for Displace Me info)



Man, that was such an awesome experience.

I suppose I'll give a quick update as long as I'm enjoying internet access during my week off. Camp is halfway done. Weeks 1-3 were great overall. We definitely had a few stressful occurances, but we've pushed through and made it a positive experience. I'm ready to head back up there...I've had my break, slept late for a couple days...I'm starting to go through withdrawals.

It's pretty funny...the part I was dreading the most about being on staff is actually one of my very favorite aspects of the job. During the counselor meeting at night, the staff walks the halls. This means dealing with all the homesick campers. I was not looking forward to this in the least bit. But it's really been a blessing. There's something really great about walking into a room with a crying kid and saying goodnight a few minutes later to a smiling kid. I love it.

The Chrysalis flight last weekend was totally awesome. I went straight there from camp Friday night so I was pretty tired, but I was definitely blessed by being there. Patty and I led music...before I got there she was the table of Lujah....we then became Halle(y)lujah!



We had a blast. Speaking of Chrysalis, I'm about to head back up there to work the boys' flight/journey. I'll be heading back to camp bright and early in the morning. I'm looking forward to my birthday Wednesday- camp birthdays are awesome.

Oh yeah, camp pictures and some Chrysalis pictures have been posted over there
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Alrighty, then. Peace.

REALLY Overdue Update

Well, I made it back safely from Jamaica. It was incredible...detailed post about the trip coming soon.

There's so much that's been going on lately. I'll do my best to summarize the last couple of months to get you up to date.

On April 28th, I attended an event called Displace Me, hosted by Invisible Children. (see a couple posts down for more info) Basically, 67,871 people across the country total were displaced for one night in 15 major cities across the United States to simulate the 1.5 million people displaced in Northern Uganda for the past 10 years. The closest city to Auburn was Atlanta, so two of my friends met at Wesley early that morning and headed that way. However, we did make a pit stop at a hardware store to go dumpster diving for our home. 3,477 people were displaced in Atlanta that night. We spent about an hour filming (as did the other 14 cities) so IC can put together a video to send to the House and Senate. I'll post the video as soon as it's done. We also wrote letters to senators, had the privilege of listening to a speaker named Reverend Vincent from Northern Uganda, and had to ration food- we had one bottle of water and a sleeve of saltine crackers. I didn't sleep at all...I'm not sure if I've ever been so cold and uncomfortable. But it really put things into perspective. Very awesome experience.



For more pictures, click here. Also, you can go to the Invisible Children Displace Me page to get more info or stay updated on the impact it's making.

Let's see...I went to visit Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky about two weeks ago. Nolan and Susanna were gracious enough to let me crash with them for a few days. We definitely had lots of fun jowling and cheeking. I was so honored to finally jowl with the folks who introduced me to it in the first place. If you have no clue what I'm talking about, check out the "Jesus jowled" album to the right. Cheeking picture is below. I'm not sure if I've ever laughed so hard. The campus was absolutely beautiful. I had very high expectations going into the trip. Everyone has told me about how incredible it is, mainly the sense of community. The experience exceeded my expectations by a long shot. I felt so at home. It's the first divinity school I've visited, so I'm keeping my options open. I'll probably visit Candler (Emory), Duke, maybe Vandy. But I could definitely see myself at Asbury.



On the way home from Wilmore, I took a detour in Woodstock, GA and crashed with my former youth directors. They love me so much they even got me to come back the next weekend. (If I'm there, the kids wake ME up at the crack of dawn to play instead of their parents. I know their secret motives.) Nah, I always have a blast going up there. They're the bomb diggity.



For more Asbury pics/other misc. summer fun, go here.

Whew, this post is getting really long. Maybe I should update more often. My bad! Now, onto current endeavors. I've spent the last week at Sumatanga training for this summer. I'll be on elementary staff (4th-6th graders) leading crafts and the afternoon hike. I'm super excited. I'll be heading back up there Tuesday to move in. I think it's really going to be great summer. If you really want to make my day, you can write me a letter! It's the best feeling in the world.

Halley Power
Camp Sumatanga Lodge
3616 Sumatanga Rd
Gallant, AL 35972

Basically, I'll love you forever. I'll try to update periodically, but you know how that goes. Oh yeah, I'll be doing music on the next girls' Chrysalis flight (Central Alabama) so hopefully I'll see some of you there. I won't be able to be there until Friday night, but I'll get to stay until closing since we have the week of the fourth of July off. Glad it worked out that way.

Besides the picture links above, I've also posted a few new albums including Jamaica pics over there ---->
Thanks for reading. Peace out.

Jamaica, mon!

I'm leaving for Jamaica in approximately 15 hours. Woo hoo! I haven't started packing...I still need to go shopping...this is going to be a long day. We're leaving at 3 a.m. Saturday morning. We found out yesterday that there was a mix up with the camp we were supposed to be staying out. So, as of now we don't know exactly where we're staying/eating/showering. Fun! Actually I'm kind of glad. It's exciting.

Please pray for the entire Wesley mission team (about 30 folks). We will be doing construction/painting/physical labor, etc. as well as children and youth programs. We are partnering with a cool guy named Rev. Joseph that's in charge of 6 local churches in Trelawney to help orchestrate a Palm Sunday service also.
I'm both nervous and excited. I know God's going to do amazing things there and I will be sure to fill you in when I return. In the mean time, stay safe and God bless.

On a lighter note

Sorry that last post was rather depressing. Here's a little something to brighten your day.

I like hugs. They're pretty much my favorite thing ever. I saw the original Free Hugs Campaign video on youtube a few months ago. If you haven't seen it, go watch it- it's incredible. So, Ross decided to do his own free hug campaign at Auburn. Check it out. I helped film it...and you can see me jump in near the end for a group hug. :o)



We had a lot of fun. So, the Auburn Wesley Foundation is sending teams to Jamaica and Liberia for mission work this spring break and summer. As one of our fundraisers, we sold singing valentines. A person pays ten bucks and a small group of us go to the recipient's home, work, class, wherever to sing them a song and give them a rose and message. It was quite an experience. Tuesday I got to deliver one to a guy in class. That was kind of awkward...everyone just kind of looked at us. But yesterday was the real treat. We had to deliver two singing valentines to two different assisted living centers. We ended up putting on a concert at one of the places. I think I enjoyed it more than the old folks did. It was a blast. Here's a pic of me and Jerel at Camellia Place- don't you love the vest?



I think Jerel summed it up perfectly after we finished. "If my heart had a mouth, it would be smiling."