Ms. Lera's house!

Before..

alllmosttt therree!!!

 With Ms. Lera..ALL DONEEE<3<3 Couldn't be ANY prouder.

Worship.

These are a few songs that really impacted me this week:

These songs mean so much to me, and 10000 reasons will FOREVER be stuck in my head:)

The Philly Project.

Last week I went on a missions trip to Philly. Going into the trip, I wasn't very excited cause honestly, it's 15 minutes away from my own home so whats exciting about that? People always talk about the excitement of waking up at 3 in the morning and getting on a 5 hour plane trip to Guatemala or Mexico, and there's nothing wrong with that, but not until this week did I realize how much we need help in our own city.

I realized that the very first day we were there when we went on a prayer tour. I was taken around the town with one of the interns, Andrew. He took us to different parts that I've never been to and places I have been that I never even realized need prayer for. He just really helped me realize how much I can be praying for Philly. 

Then, we had our first "Club" time. That's when I saw the love, and passion in every single person working for the Project. Though, when we first came, all the guy interns were crazy with energy and joy it was once we started worshiping,  when I realized how much passion they have for God. 

I've always struggled with letting myself go in worship, it's something I've been working at for years. It's just funny how the first night of worship this week, I felt so free, and accepted. Just the passion in all the interns worship was so uplifting. I just wanted to jump and lift my hands for Him! 

And then, we started working!

I got the opportunity to meet the very "agile" (as told by my dear friend, Julia:) Ms. Lera who has struggled with being a hoarder. So, I was like great. I'm gonna be cleaning and throwing things out all week. But, we didn't end up doing any cleaning at all. We got to scrape, prime, and paint the outside of a second story window. So, we were out front all week, with just 5 girls. Pretty much every single day we had multiple people coming up to us, asking if we needed water, help, or just commenting that we're doing well! And one man actually got out of his car to take a picture of us to put on facebook since we were 5 girls working with no men! God really blessed us with such uplifting people all week! I don't think I would have such an amazing week without all those people.

Our last night together we had "Covenant" night. What happened was, we went up to one our leaders, I went to a close friend of mine, Sarah. First, she started painting my hand while she was talking to me about life and our friendship. Then, I put my hand print onto a poster with everybody else's hand and promised to God that I would put all my trust and hope in Him. That was really a spiritual "defining moment" in my life. UI just felt like such a new person. 

We also had small groups every night. I'm so thankful for my friend and sister in Christ, Darlena. We were really pushed to completely open up and share whats on our hearts on day 1. And that's what I did. I never would have thought I would be able to be so open with a group of people, but I thank God so much that I was. I never really thought I could cause I thought I would be judged and not accepted but I was, instead, loved and accepted. And now I know I have a group of people accountable of me, and I thank God so much for that.

None of them are probably ever gonna read this but I just want to thank all the interns for how much they've impacted me. Every single one of them impacted me in some way this week and I don't think they'll ever know or understand. Words just can't describe how much energy and love they showed me from the second I walked out of the car. I just felt so loved and accepted and again, words just can't describe how much I'm gonna miss them all.
But I got to talk to the director of the Project and she said I could possibly Junior intern next summer, so we'll have to see what's in store for me:)
I just have to say, this week was honestly the highlight of my year. I can really say I grew so much in my faith. And I know people say "I grew so much" and then a week later, they're back to how they were before the trip but I can honestly say I am changed for the better. And I know that doesn't mean I'm never gonna mess up again, cause I am. And I'll never be perfect but I know that by the blood of my Savior Jesus Christ, I am saved and all my sins are forgiven.
I am never gonna forget this week. 

This was our week:

God is so good.