2010 Summer Intern Blogs

You know, I really hate saying goodbye... so I guess I'm not considering this to be one. Of course getting to know all the Holy Hands Interns this summer has been a blessing to me, and I will never forget any of them; but I think the end has come at a perfect time. This experience has been more than amazing for me- as you may have read in all of my other blogs, and I can't thank Jay and his family enough for their guidance and incredible leadership throughout tour. I know this year has been a struggle for many of us, but we're a team; we're united as a team, and more importantly, we've established ourselves as a family. These people challenged me EVERY day to be a better woman of God, and I don't think any of us really realize yet how much we've all grown and changed. Holy Hands Tour 2010 has been one of the turning points in my life- one of those experiences you know you'll never turn your back on or forget. This summer has possibly been the most amazing experience of my life; so therefore it's not the end. God has more. He always does, He always will.. until next time,

 

~I'm Meg. My life isn't over yet.   

So many emotions are flooding my head right about now. Describe Holy Hands in a blog? I think that's impossible.. but it's worth a try.

 

 My heart:
God has completely broken my heart for these cities. This amazing experience is one I will never forget; there are too many people to thank for that. I've never really had an encounter with God this way... for two months straight God's been speaking words of wisdom over my life, and I didn't even realize how much I've truly grown. My heart has expanded in leadership, humility, servanthood, daily perseverance, and SO much more; God gave me a specific mission: to love the lost and lead them home. I think I'm going to listen.

 

My soul:
Jesus has never been more at work within me. My soul aches for people to know Him, and I can honestly say that I've never felt that way before. I can't even begin to explain to you, whether you know me or not, how much different I am than when I started tour. You know, it's funny- God told me to go on tour this summer with Holy Hands, and I didn't want to go. In fact, I hated the idea a lot; but I listened. And boy am I glad I did. If it wasn't for this summer, who knows how different my life would be.

 

My mind:
My focus has never been more clear on the goal God has set for me. It's interesting, the transformation in people's lives from their old lifestyle to their positive encounter with Christ. You always hear about how much somebody's changed, or what amazing things God has done in their lives- but does anybody really understand fully how much God really has done? My mind is on so many different things, and it has been all summer, but first and foremost my mind is on LOVE. I mean, that's what we're called to do, isn't it?

 

My strength:
Yes, I've been beasting puppet stages, sound system equipment, boxes of food and ridiculous amounts of poweraid, luggage (sucks to be a girl on tour), inflatables, and much more this summer; but my strength has grown far beyond muscle. God has opened up a door for spiritual growth in a lot of people's lives this summer, and for me that means being strong and having faith enough to know my God will take care of me. Our "intern song" for the summer pops into my head as I say this.. mind if I share some of the lyrics with you? I didn't think so:
"If Our God is for us, than WHO could ever stop us!? And if Our God is with us, than WHAT could stand against?"
STRENGTH. It means more than your using own capacity to do what needs to be done- it means looking forward at what will be carried out, trusting that God will do everything He says He will and more, and asking Him for His heart, energy, spirit, and power as you command the nations to encounter Him.

 

I can't share everything about this summer in one blog. I don't even know if I can share everything about this summer in words at all- I just know that if you read this and don't feel something, than you're spirit is dead. God needs you- just like He needed me. I didn't want to go, but now I don't even want to think about what would happen if I didn't. Do you want to go? Because you should. And if you don't, then I guess it's time you took a risk and tried. There were so many times where I would have ordinarily "thrown in the towl" if I had been back home, in my own comfort.. but I didn't, which tells me that I learned a very valuable lesson from Jesus, and Holy Hands:

 

"The most important commandment is this: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these."

 

GO. What are you waiting for?

Saturday July 24th, 2010:

I impacted lives. I did more than I'll ever know. We as a team poured our hearts on the battle field, and God was all over that place. I will never, ever forget that day. Those kids that we ministered to may have felt true love for the very first time; over 700 families that received  groceries will never walk into that park the same, ever again. All this for a KING. Once again, I'll repeat- All this, for a King. God smiled upon us that day, but more importantly, he used us as vessels for a greater purpose; to advance His kingdom, and spread his love among the nations.

I think it's only wise to start with your own- for He's called us to love our neighbors. Why not think of America as a nation in need? There were thousands of people who came in contact with the gospel on Saturday, and though they may not have received Jesus that day, they heard our voices. They felt our hearts. They knew something was different when they walked into that park that day. I wasn't expecting my heart to break so intensely, but God broke it. He did what I asked Him to do. My heart is still in Washington Square Park, Syracuse NY. I don't think I'll ever get it back.  

 

 

We arrived in Syracuse this afternoon! I can't even begin to explain how badly I want to be here. I was talking with Bekah and Lex in the van on the way here and they were explaining what outreaches were going to look like in Syracuse.. they told me that the kids there were never going to want to leave my side because they are so unused to love; to true affection, and this is exactly what I asked Jesus for. I want my heart to be completely broken into a million pieces for these kids.. I already know that I'll be sobbing by the end of this expedition- and I'm preparing for it. I'm praying that God will give me divine opportunity to pour every ounce of love I have into the lives of those living in Syracuse.. and I'm SO ready. I think this is what i've been waiting for for a long time. I'm ready. 

Man.. today was SO awesome. It was technically our 2nd day working with our Quakertown team in Boston- and let me tell you.. they are incredible. I've been loving their energy and spirits so far, and spending time with them is what i look forward to when i wake up. We had two outreaches today (both awesome!) and the students did fantastic; and with only 1.5 days of training- usually we have 3 full days.. craaazy! But anyway- i won't keep going on about that. During our second outreach today we put on a great puppet show for the kids (there were TONS of kids..) and did some garbonics and a human video, and afterwards I was looking around to see who i could go up to and talk to. I spotted a woman sitting on a bench from across the park- i found out later that she was there with her grandchildren, and i decided to talk to her. She was so much fun to talk to.. i can't even begin to tell you how much energy she had in her heart, and I'll be honest, i was taken back by it. She was so willing to talk to me right away, which is pretty unusual. I was almost expecting her to be stand-offish and difficult to converse with, but boy was I wrong. Right away I could tell that she wasn't lost- or at least not completely. I could tell that God was in her life in some way, simply because of her incredible sense of life; she was happy, and it was very apparent. But... anyway- I asked her a few questions just to get conversation rolling, and she started asking me about our human video, so I told her what it was all about and how much I really felt connected to those characters. She then began to open up about her past, which is exactly where I wanted to be in that conversation- i wanted her to tell me where she was in life and how she got there, but most importantly, what i could do to help. She admitted to a lot of difficulty in her past- abuse, drugs, homelessness.. the list goes on.. and it hit me so hard, because she just seemed SO happy.. and so i continued conversation by asking her when she changed and how it all happened. She told me that she went back to church, and that she'd been clean from drugs and alcohol for 10 years now- and it just blew my mind. She was the epitome of strength to me, and I found myself being inspired by her probably more than she was inspired by me. But, long story short- I got to pray with her (because as we all know, life doesn't magically become perfect after we let Jesus in) and it was awesome.. I believe that we both got to bless each other with our conversation, and I know that I'm never going to forget that experience. If anything, I know that it's going to keep motivating me to move forward and spread the love of God- because it's working. Little by little, you're going to be running into people and starting conversations with other christians, but we have to keep the chain going. If we don't do anything, then nothing will get done. I loved simply talking with her and having Jesus just rock my world with his awesome love.. my day was pretty sweet. How about yours?

Hello all! My name is Megan. I hope you don't mind if I share something personal- I think it's something a lot of people struggle with. SO! here we go. I was doing my devotions yesterday morning and apparently what I had to say was pretty good, so Bekah had me blog about it. God really hit me hard with this verse in Proverbs: 

~Enemies disguise themselves with their lips, but in their hearts they harbor deceit. Proverbs 26:24

Now, hopefully I'm not anyones serious enemy (haha..) but I really thought about what the verse was actually saying in the context of my life. I'm a person that hides my emotions and feelings inside my heart- and more dangerously, my mind. Things that don't seem to bother me on the outside are actually infesting my thoughts and causing me to dwell on everything that went wrong instead of finding grace through forgiveness. I try to apply all scripture to my personal life- so my "deceit" is bitterness, and in some ways grudges. I'm very good at that, which i'm not too proud of, and I've hurt myself and others in doing so. I have a way of covering the way I really feel, and eventually I get to a breaking point- I guess I just haven't realized that I do it all the time. This is truly something God has convicted me of in the past few years, but I'll admit it, I've been ignoring it. This is a simple prayer I prayed yesterday that will hopefully help any of you who might be in a similar situation:

 Jesus, I don't want to bottle anger and hatred inside of me- I want to be free from that. Give me opportunities for love and not anger; peace and not hatred. Let me love others and not fall into gossip OR think badly of them, even if it's hard to leave my mind. I pray for peace for the day.

I don't want to be an enemy to the world- my mission is to help free it! Through that, I've learned that so much can go wrong if I try to control situations on my own. And trust me- like everything else in life, it's certainly not easy to overcome bitterness; but God is bigger than that. He'll help you, I promise. God is truly amazing- we would be no where without him.