The way of the wolves.

Well hey. So I've done a great job on updating everyone on my summer. Sorry about that. I just finished week 5 and have not even finished blogging about Europe. Sorry. But I am here now, being super hipster, writing a blog post at a coffee shop in East Nashville. Doesn't really get more hipster than that....

But besides my apparent hipsterness (let's be real, it's actually just homlessness), I have been having quite the experience in Nashville. Let's start with my crew.

Chacos. Love.

So I am a flex, which means I am extra and mess everything up. So I don't have a particular role at camp (well for the start I didn't), which has been a struggle and a blessing. But essentially I help out with anything Leah and Laura need who are my partner's and the real deal summer staffers in Nashville.
But... it was an odd pairing, because they are extremely fully capable and outstanding at their jobs. I mean Laura is a returner, I am a returner, and we both have been trainers. This all made sense when we arrived. Nashville is kind of like a brand new camp this year. The local coordinator had only been working for two months before camp started, and most of that time she spent finding a lodging facility. So let's just say Nashville was a bit behind our other camps, and needed a lot more projects to fill up weeks later in the summer. Also, everyone wants to go to Nashville. We learned that Tennessee is known as the "volunteer state." And that is true. Besides week of hope there are probably at least 4 or 5 other organizations in Nashville doing what we do. So me, the third awkward girl got put in Nashville to help sort out all of the other stuff going on so they could run camp normally and not still be doing extra work.

Laura and I look like we're in a band. Perfect for Nashville!

Whew. Made it through that. So more fun stuff. Leah and Laura like I said are great. This was probably a great grouping because we are all really goofy, funny, love outdoorsy stuff, and are all kind of homeless. So on our roadtrip to Nashville, we were talking about how homeless we were, and somehow thought we were like 3 wolves and wanted to find shirts that fit this 3 wolfs. You know, those weird ones that no one should ever wear, with three wolves and a moon? Yeah, well our friend Bri ended up coming across those shirts and bought them for us. And then we found crop tanks of them at Forever 21, and we are truely the 3 wolf moon crew. Go ahead and search that hashtag (#wolfmooncrew) on twitter, and you will see too many tweets from the 3 of us about our adventures. So here we are in Nashville, 3 homeless wolves, and we own two shirts to represent our crew. Plus we all have Chacos which is just cool so I had to write about that. So the three of us have had some wonderful times, me getting flexed to Nashville twice, and just a lot of good memories.
Here is a link for the amazing crew shirt we own.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Wolf_Moon

But despite the chaos we all have seen God do some amazing things. At first we didn't know if our church who was hosting us liked having us there, or what they thought of us. But God has blessed us with some amazing people from the church who have helped us and encouraged us through everything we have done. When we think the work has been too hard for any of us to handle, God does something cool. And it has been a huge blessing, despite all the chaos we felt with this camp, we have had really good reviews and feedback. They have really enjoyed camp, and experienced God while we were there. Sites that were a little rough were ones that had some really cool God sightings. The first week we had a resident whose husband had cancer and she needed help on the farm. He couldn't even eat or barely speak because it was throat cancer, but they shared their lives so much with these kids and cooked them food and were a huge blessing to our kids. Also, we had a group who it was their first time, and they pre-registered for a camp next year! I know they had a great experience despite whatever we felt. God was definitely there giving us strength, and I cannot for a second think it was anything I, or Laura and Leah did.

Like I mentioned earlier, we had many supportive people from the church. A lot of the pastors we interact with, and they have been so supportive of us. Especially Pastor Steve. Every time he saw us, he had something encouraging to say to us and how he appreciated all that we were doing. He was also asking people and looking for projects for us.  There were several ladies who helped with the summer bible school that were helping with this as well. Such a blessing. Slowly but surely God has been showing us that they do believe in what we are doing, and supporting us. There was an elderly couple who adopted us as their Nashville granddaughters, and let us stay at their home. We literally hung out with them for the whole weekend! They took us to the Country Music Hall of Fame, took us to dinner, bought us tickets to the Grand Ole Opry, and let us sleep at their house. They are so sweet, and in their 90s I believe? They have been married for less than 10 years, and act just like a young in-love couple, except they are older! It is precious, and definitely been a support and encouragement to us.

Us on a hike. We were meant to be!

And then there is Betteye. She is our main contact at the church, the facility manager of the church. She is an amazing woman. Sometimes we didn't know how to read her, and thought she was angry with us, but over time, we got to know her more, and she opened up to us and said we were her favorite girls! She has had a lot of encouraging things to say, and told us to keep serving the Lord because this is where we were supposed to be. She may be going to Africa to start a ministry or something. God has great plans for her wherever he leads. Last weekend she let us stay at her house when she was out of town, which was so gracious! Every time we see her, it really lights up my day, because she has joy from the Lord.

Some other cool fun things that happened...
One was fourth of July. We had terrible weather all day, but it finally cleared up at night, so Laura and I went downtown to see fireworks and the Band Perry! That's how they do things in Nashville. Typical.
We also got to go to the Opry, see the Band Perry again, and Carrie Underwood. It was such a fun experience! We obviously spent plenty of time at the mall looking for dresses, and also went on a hike in the beautiful Tennessee hills! Let's just say, the three wolf moon crew knows how to have fun!

Carrie Underwood at the Grand Ole Opry

Another thing I have been very blessed by is the church Leah and I have been going to on Sunday. It's called the Anchor fellowship, and we have been so rejuvenated each week there, to help us better serve. Another thing that is cool about it is that they have a church plant from it in Grand Rapids which I have been a bit familiar with.

The Church Under the Bridge

Before this gets too long, I should touch on why I am still in Nashville. Week 4 began, and we had 3 htms, plus me, and a lot of holes in our matrix of projects for the remaining 3 weeks. I got a call from my boss telling me my role was going to change and my goal at camp was to finish the matrix and make sure we were set on projects for the rest of the summer. Kind of like a local coordinator role, but also a summer staffer. This is when things got intense for me. I went from being a Hospitality Team Member to intensely researching Nashville's service opportunities and making phone calls setting up projects and service opportunities. I spent a lot of time in an office and on the phone and not seeing much of camp. It was really tough at first, and I was frustrated that things were not coming together, and did not think I could finish it by the end of that week. The holes seemed so big, but eventually things began falling in place. In the meantime, I ended up meeting some really neat people and organizations. There is a ministry called the Bridge Ministry which ministers to homeless people. Every Tuesday night they hand out food, clothes, and supplies to homeless people, plus host a church service under the Jefferson street bridge. It is a really cool organization. So I contacted their volunteer coordinator and she was so excited to hear what we were doing and excited that we were partnering with her. In her emails she kept saying things like "I can't wait to see what God does through us working together this summer!" and lots of great encouraging things like that. I know that God is going to use ministries such as the bridge in these last two weeks, and I am absolutely stoked to see it all play out (as long as I don't get flexed again).

So in the midst of everything that may seem overwhelming or hard, I've found moments of grace, great people, youth groups, experiences, and seeing kids excited about serving and seeing God work in their lives. This is the part in the summer where I need to constantly choose joy because each day is a gift.
Thanks everyone who has been to Nashville this summer, y'all were awesome! And you coming the last few weeks, get ready for God to speak to you.

This has been a small piece of the journey of the 3 homeless wolves. Stay tuned for more.