isaiah 55:12

Welp, I cannot believe that I have finished my second year of college. I'm halfway there. And oh, how the Lord has blessed this beautiful year full of glorious opportunities!

And now summer is here and the mustard plants are blooming yellow bright and the quails are running quick through the backyard and the sun shines burning hot down in the California beauty. I love being back in my element, back in the rough and hot terrain. But being home tends to throw me off. 

Something I heard that I think is real true is that the soul moves a lot more slowly than the body. The body will change locations but the soul sort of saunters along and takes its time to stroll and catch up with the flesh. 

So when I move across the country when school ends it takes a little while for my soul to get settled and set back into a prayer routine. And as much as I wish I was spiritually mature enough that I could pray the same way in every place at every time, I am definitely not there yet.

The 5:30 pm Mass that was my routine at school becomes an early morning sacrifice of sleep, and community becomes nonexistent.

But the mission remains the same. And slowly but surely my soul catches up to my body and the routine becomes apparent again and prayer can thrive. Until things change up again.

On Sunday I will be moving to Georgia for six weeks (again) to serve as a Summer Missionary with Life Teen. Wow. How am I blessed enough to do this.

Last summer I served as a Summer Missionary and traveled down south to the mountains of Georgia and experienced Christ in a way that I could never capture through words but its the sort of soul stuff that can only be felt. 

And this summer I have the glorious opportunity to go back to Georgia and lead youth closer to Christ and live in community with a bunch of the greatest people you'll ever meet. Praise be to Jesus. I love everything about it. I eat, sleep, and breathe Summer Missions and I cannot wait to go back and I am almost always out of breath in awe that God has called me back to do something that I love so very much. 

But why? What happened last summer that changed me? Was it something in that "lake" (pond) water that transformed something in my heart? Or surely it was the baked ziti or the scones on Friday mornings… Why is there a longing in my soul for a place that I had never been before last summer and that really is in the Middle of Nowhere,  Georgia. And now that even though I won't be at the same place as last summer, why does Hidden Lake already hold such a special place in my heart? 

And I truly do know the answer, because being a Summer Missionary shook me at my shoulders and screamed life into every fiber of my being. It was a whisper into my soul letting me know that one can glimpse Heaven in community and in praise + worship and in the Mass and in the down-pouring rain and the Chaco tan lines. It was Jesus who showed me who I really could be and the person that I wanted to be was found. It was Jesus who revealed Himself through my friends and fellow brother and sister missionaries and teens and youth ministers and core members and also quite literally in the Eucharist. And Jesus showed Himself in the white water rapids and the mud pit and the smile of a teen in Adoration because Jesus was there and real and true and present.

And during that summer I realized I didn't need to do anything but just soak in the grace. 

And that was really it. Just knowing that God is. And that Truth was resounding and the Joy was indescribable. 

And I get to go back. Oh, the Joy!

So on Sunday I will get on a now familiar plane to go to a now familiar airport and meet in that all too familiar atrium to begin the same mission in a new place. God has called all the familiarity into a bundle to be thrown out into the unknown. God knew that I had gotten too comfortable and that He need to call me out to something new this summer. And that will be me serving at a new camp with middle schoolers running around crazy and mercy and grace overflowing. 

I could tell you over and over that I love the mission of Life Teen and that I love camp and that I love God's teens with all my heart but I could never fully capture the sort of soul speak that is told in the stories of my summer… but I will try. God is going to do big things.

And I invite you into mission with me as my partner, as my personal prayer warrior, to witness this inspired summer through my blog, email, and handwritten letters. 

I am so awestruck that God has called me back still, and I cannot wait to fulfill all things according to His will this summer at camp. Please pray for me and let me know how I can pray for you - this is my loving request. I am so excited to serve as captain this summer and to live out the always present mission in a new and beautiful way. 

So off to camp I go - Lord, use me! I surrender all!

Jesus, I trust in You!

Live with Joy.