Abundance

Would you look at that? I found my blog after an eighteen-month hiatus... Oh well. I could say that I am going to be a more consistent blogger, but we all know that it wouldn't be true. So I will just share this with you today, and give a bit of an update on what has been happening in my life.

For those who may not know, I am going back to camp this summer. I am beyond excited, and it still doesn't feel real sometimes. But it's happening.

After last summer, I had resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to get a real job this summer because (surprise!) university is expensive. All along, my family and I had more or less assumed that I would just get a job as a summer student at the mine where my dad works. Aside from the occasional desperation prayer of "Please, God, don't make me work at the mine this summer," I figured the full-time job was pretty much a guarantee for me.

In December, I went out to camp for the staff Christmas party. It was a great time, and I was a little sad that it might be my last time out there for a long time. But as I was getting ready to leave that night, I was talking to the camp director, and he suggested that maybe I could still come back again this summer if I raised short-term mission support. Honestly, I had never thought about it in that way, but I told him that I would think about it. 

I prayed the entire foggy drive home, asking God what he wanted for my summer. Now it's funny to look back on that drive, as the road was so covered in fog that I couldn't see anything. I knew where I needed to go, but I couldn't see the way to get there. I prayed that God would get me home safely, which He did (see, I'm still here!). But it became a metaphor for the next few months, as I felt God start calling me to go back into camp ministry again this summer. I couldn't see what was going to happen between a given day and the summer, but He only called me to trust that He had a plan, and that He would get me there safely.

I still applied at the mine a few weeks later, just to be on the safe side, even though I had already pretty well decided to go back to camp. That was confirmed when I found out that the mine wasn't actually planning to hire summer students this year. I asked around a bit about other jobs, but nothing came up. 

So I wrote a support letter and made a presentation at my home church, officially telling them what my plans were for the summer. The love and prayers that came from them were so overwhelming.

School finished a few weeks later, and I moved back home for the summer. Although, I wasn't home for very long before I left for a week-long Bible study with the IVCF group from school. It was a week of such strong community, and I loved being able to get to know my fellow IVCF-ers better. They are a pretty swell group of people.

During this Bible study, in which we studied half of the book of Mark, we talked a lot about how conflict in worldview causes such huge misunderstanding. One of the best examples of this was during the feeding of the 5000. The disciples had a worldview that said that there was no possible way to feed that many people. They had a worldview of scarcity. But then Jesus shocked them all when the small amount of food they had became enough to feed the multitude. And not only was it enough to sustain them, but the people ate their fill and there were twelve baskets of food left over. Jesus took what looked like virtually nothing, and made it abundant.

Reading the account of this miracle inspired a great discussion on aiming to have the same worldview as Jesus and trusting that with him, there is always plenty. Plenty of food, plenty of energy, plenty of time, plenty of money, plenty of love. So often we cling to the plans that we make, believing that it is the only way to scrape by. But if we trust that God's plans are greater than our own and walk forward in faith, there is always more than enough. This was such a great reminder to me that I need not worry about where the last of my finances are going to come from, because God has it covered.

On the last day of the Bible study, I got a message saying that I had been offered a job. But the thing was, I hadn't applied for a job. I had already committed to camp, and didn't want to apply for a four-month position with the intention of only being there for half of it. But they wanted to hire me for two months anyway. So when I got home that weekend, I went for a meeting and officially got the job. What a way to hit home the message of God's abundance. Oh, and the job I'm doing until then? It's great.

The path to camp has been a foggy one. I knew that serving at camp was the goal, but I didn't know exactly how I would be able to afford going back to school this fall. I'm not quite there yet, but fortunately God sees the whole path even when I can't, and He is able to work out those little details.

Camp starts at the end of the month, and I can't wait to see what God has in store for this summer. It will be exhausting and busy, but it is the most rewarding job on the planet. I get to do crafts, play games, and most importantly, I get to share Jesus with the campers who come through my cabin. There will be days this summer when I have absolutely nothing left to give, but I can press on, knowing that with God there is always more than enough.

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"And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work."
2 Corinthians 9:8

NaNoWriMo and Other Forms of Mental Instability

It's been a while.  Too long, really.

Last month, I participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).  It was a crazy adventure, but it was so worth it.  I wasn't planning on participating, but for some reason that is beyond me, I did anyway.  I guess I am just a sucker for punishment.

On the morning of November 1st, I started seeing people tweet about participating in NaNoWriMo.  Now, I did a half NaNoWriMo a couple of years ago, and it nearly killed me.  Even though the actual challenge is for 50,000 words, I set my own goal of 25,000.  It was the first time I had written anything of that magnitude, and it was insane.  After that, I had no intention of doing it again.  I figured that once was enough, and that I would write a novel in my own time. 

But as I sat at the kitchen table, having breakfast with my Mom, I started thinking.  Our conversation went something like this:

Me:  NaNoWriMo starts today.

Mom:  Oh, yeah, I guess that is today.  You don't really think it's a good idea, do you?  It was almost the death of you before.

Me:  No, I actually don't.  It's a terrible idea.

Mom:  Okay, good. 

But that morning, something inside me snapped.  I had to do it, I had to do NaNoWriMo.  Maybe it was the writing bug coming back with a vengeance, maybe I truly just lost my mind for a few minutes.  I suspect it was a combination of the two. 

As I sat in school, I made an account on the NaNoWriMo website.  I wasn't sure what exactly the next month was going to look like, but it didn't matter to me at that point.  But I started writing, and that block I got about 800 words done.  It was not much, but it was a start.  I mean, only another…  49,200 words to go?  Yes, I definitely lost my mind that day.

When I got home, I kept writing.  It was slow, and kind of painful, but I was writing.  But it wasn't long before my Mom came to check and see what I was doing.  The conversation went a little like this:

Mom:  What are you doing, Allie?

Me:  Oh, just writing.

Mom:  No.  No.  You did not seriously sign up for that, did you?

Me:  Well, I made an account today…

Mom:  Really?  Really?  Why?

Me:  I honestly have no idea. 

And that was the truth.  I hadn't a clue why I had signed up for this.  The 1667 words that I needed for the first day were a struggle, but they finally got finished.  It felt good to be writing, even though I was feeling slightly overwhelmed at that point.  How on earth was I going to keep this pace for 30 days straight?

The next few days went pretty well.  I was even 1000 words ahead of schedule for a few days.  It was only for a few days, though.  Because being me, I caught a horrendous cold just over a week into NaNoWriMo.  My word count was so far down for a few days, I thought I would never get it back. 

But in a mad fit of writing, I wrote 3000 words in one afternoon.  It took me until 11 o'clock at night, but I got myself caught up.  Actually, I did that a couple of times.  Between being sick, having a wedding to go to, and a couple other things, I was behind right up until the last day.  My family was mentally preparing me for the fact that I might not make it to the 50,000 word mark.  But I was too stubborn to give up, a fact that I am so thankful for now.

On November 30th, I wrote 2400 words while still at school.  Actually, it was all in the middle of class.  But because of a couple supportive teachers, who actually encouraged me to write rather than do schoolwork, I managed to meet the 50,000 word goal.  Like I said, it was in the middle of class.  So there were only two other people in the room when I hit 50,000.  I was so thrilled, but there was nobody to share it with for a while.  Most people

Looking back over the crazy days of November, I am so glad I did NaNoWriMo.  Without it, I would likely be in the same spot as I was in October: having a detailed outline for a novel that was never written.  But now, I have 50,000 words of a novel.  It's not finished, by any means, but it's getting there.  And I have the winner's certificate to prove it. 

Some people would argue that NaNoWriMo is a terrible way to write.  They say that the quality of writing is too awful, the pressure of writing that much is too much.  But I would say that while the challenge is massive, it works.  I have a novel to show for my hard work.  And yes, the quality is terrible, but I can spend time editing and rewriting.  It's all a process.

My sudden fit of insanity paid off, even if people thought I was crazy right up until the end.  The looks I got when people heard I was writing 50,000 words in 30 days were hilarious.   But it didn't change the fact that I was going to do it.  And I did.  So if you think you're too busy to do something you want to do, you're not.  If I can balance school, family, and piano lessons with writing a novel, you can do it too.  If you want it bad enough, you will make time for it, even if it  means that you are sleep-deprived and a little crazy for a while.