I.S.C.

   So I'm home from the International Student Convention in Warrensburg, Missouri!!! It was an absolutely incredible week and I had way to much fun! For those of you who don't know, I was serving on the 'His Servants 24/7 Squad' which basically means I do what I'm told when I'm told:) Our team had around 30 members and although we were busy, I loved every minute of it! Thank you everyone who prayed for me while I was gone, it was really a growing experience for me.

The first day, during registration while the adults were filling out papers and all that kind of stuff, they had a bunch of inflatables set up outside for the students. I got to run this Velcro wall. If you've never heard of one before, you should look it up. It was a lot of fun to run! You should have seen some of the flips people did! The not-so-fun part of it was when we had a guy get his beard stuck to the wall!

Also, on the first day, I got to do some tours of the campus for new schools. I really enjoyed that, and getting to meet people from all over the world. We had people on our team from a few different countries. We had some people on our team from Australia, and I absolutely loved their accents!!!!!

The campus had a bowling alley, and one afternoon a few of us were able to take a break and go bowling! I've never done much bowling so I really enjoyed the opportunity.

I was taking pictures on my phone, so they aren't the clearest, but here's some of my team in the dining hall. We did get a group picture with all of us, but I don't have it so you'll just have to be content with seeing bits and pieces of our team.

I got to help out a bunch in the 'Game Zone' where they have open events for people to compete in. I was able to score the 'Scripture Detectives' competition and I REALLY enjoyed that!! I also got to judge and score several Scrabble games which was also really fun. I enjoyed getting to meet and interact with people from so many different countries.

 This last picture is kind of embarrassing! On my family's way to pick me up and drop off my sister at the camp she's going to be working at, our beloved brown van gave up the ghost. Now if you know my dad, you know that we don't spend extra money on vehicles. After all, a vehicles job is to transport people, not look pretty. However since my family was broken down near a car lot, their options were limited. Beggars can't be choosers and the car pictured below was the cheapest one that was an option. Imagine my shock when my family pulled up in this thing to pick me up!! It was definitely a challenge getting the five of us and our luggage and sleeping bags and a big cooler in that small thing, but it worked and we made it home. Hopefully we'll be able to sell it and get a real van again, but I guess we'll see what happens.:)

I loved every minute of the trip! The evening rallies were always so encouraging with all the great preaching, but I think the biggest thing I learned was from being a part of the team. On the team, we help where we can, whenever we can, and however we can. During one of our staff devotion times, I was challenged with the thought that we're supposed to be God's servants 24/7, not just when we're at convention. You're probably thinking "Duh, we're supposed to serve God 24/7" but for me, it really got me thinking.  At convention, if we missed sleep, or a meal, or something we wanted to do, we didn't care because we weren't there to eat or sleep or have fun; we were there to serve. (And we had fun serving!!!!!)Yet how often in our Christian lives do we get frustrated when we lose sleep or miss a meal, or miss out on something fun? We're not here on earth to eat, or sleep, or have fun, we're here to serve. So yes, sleeping and eating is necessary to life, but that's not why we're here! We're here to serve God 24/7 however we can, whenever we can, wherever we can!

And THANK YOU Mr. John for running our team!! It was GREAT!!!!!!!!!!