doin the thang

Been here for a little over two weeks now! Life is simple and SO sweet. I have been learning so much, growing so much, and just enjoying life.  I want to share with you what has been going on down here. I’ll start off by telling you about the everyday life so here we go!

Everyday Life: Everyday looks a little bit different each day. I usually wake up around 7ish to get ready and spend some quiet time with the Lord before breakfast.  Breakfast is at 8 every morning & that could look like eggs, bagels, breakfast burritos (my fav). After breakfast we have devotions: a time for us to spend time in scripture, and with the Lord. The past two weeks one of our leaders has lead them. One of my favorite method of devotions is a rewrite. A rewrite is basically when you take a passage of scripture and rewrite it in your own words. To me- it makes the scripture personal and easier to read. After devos we head to our meeting point for a session/teaching. Some sessions that we have had were sessions on vulnerability, the cost of discipleship(surrendering), honor, and guilt vs. shame. After our session we have lunch. Then rotations which include showers (we were taking bucket showers for the first two weeks and now we are taking hot showers in storage containers built by the amazing staff) , free time, exercise, laundry, cleaning, and squad fun. Then we have dinner! After we finish our food we get to have team time-this is a time to spend time with our team. We have fun, feedback(constructive & affirming), bible project(learning about the Bible in depth), and gratitude(recognizing what we are thankful for and writing notes to people so far). Sometimes at night we will have worship, and let me tell you it is so powerful and the best I have ever experienced. 

This week has been crazy and I have grown SO much in my relationship with the Lord so I also want to share what that has looked like for me!

First this week has been GREAT. Our squad was split into two “cohorts” at the beginning of being here and we weren’t really able to have much contact BUT this week we joined together and started living together on a campsite!!! Tuesday we had the best devotions! We were able to journal all of our thoughts and then we were given a verse to meditate on. Here’s the verse, “If you have the faith of a mustard seed you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to here’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. However this doesn’t come out except by prayer and fasting” Matthew 17:20-21 — Reading this made me realize how I get so distracted by things at home and not being in the present that I cannot really grow to the fullest with the Lord with all of these distractions in the way. I chose to give up social media (instagram&snapchat) until I feel like I can handle the distractions and still be able to focus. I cannot emphasize enough how much doing this has helped my relationship with God flourish in the past few days. During worship the next day I was given a vision-something that I really never really thought happened but it did. I had this picture of a completed puzzle, but some of the pieces began to fall out of place- those pieces had things written on them that I needed to surrender- something we have been talking a lot about around here. It felt like the Lord was showing me that when I surrender the things that I need to give to God, he will replace those ‘pieces’ with something so much better. And then the day after that we had session on Forgiveness. WOW-it was such a powerful message. The first time I really cried since being here, and I was really able to forgive someone that I have had such bitterness towards for so many years. I felt so free and my mind was blank and completely clear of any bad things that happened between us-I legit could not think of one. I want to share a few of my favorite points from this message that were so powerful: 

• we can only receive as much grace from God as we give grace to others
• Forgiveness doesn’t change the past but it changes your future
• You don’t need faith to forgive-it’s a simple decision you have to make
• The offense made doesn’t get bigger, its how long you hold onto it for that makes it seem way bigger than it is
• Finally!–How to be set free?=Let it go!!!

That’s a little bit of how God worked in my life this week and I hope you are able to get something out of it! I love you all so much and thanks for making it this far :))

Thank you for reading another blog!! 

If anyone wants to reach out to me about my trip or to just talk feel free because I would love to talk! You can reach me by email ([email protected]) or by phone (716-261-0902) Also if you want to receive more daily/weekly more detailed updates contact me so I can add you to my newsletter!!!!!

 How can you help?: 

• Pray for me and Encourage me: Feel free to reach out to me by email or text: 716-261-0902. It is not going to be an easy road ahead, but it will be worth it. That being said, I need you guys ! 
• Share: share my journey, blog and story with others !
  
• Donate: You can donate by using the link at the top or by venmo-ing me @morgapplegate. The money covers my transportation, food, and housing 🙂 Any amount will help me reach my goal !