hippies, fruit, and scooby doo 11:45 PM

its 11:45 and it feels late to me. this is very strange considering my usual "late" is more like... 4am. so many things have been happening, it feels like its been a week or more instead of just 4 days! we've done some really cool things and met some really cool people. hmmm highlights for me:

at His House orphanage on wednesday as we were leaving Carmen, the head of donations there, she said "ok, now go out and win the world." that really stuck in my mind.... the thought of going out and winning the world to love. soon after that we got our bussiness cards... and holding one of those in my hand and feeling the smooth glossiness and reading our mission statement on the back made everything feel so much more real! its crazy that we're doing this! it feels so hippy (which of course i'm totally cool with :P)

another highlight was meeting this boy named caleb today. we clicked automatically. he's 3 years old and he loves scooby doo. we chased each other around the house and hid from ghosts, found burried treasure, and rescued daphne. he took to calling me shaggy.... :P

this morning i read john 15 in my bible (As reccommended to our group by a good friend) which talks about God being a vine and us being branches, a verse that stuck out a lot to me was 4, which says, "remain in me, and i will remain in you. no branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." that really spoke to my spirit because i know i havent been reading my bible enough or meditating enough on God's word. Love is a fruit, and i can't be love; live in walk in act in love, unless i'm remaining in God which means reading his word and spending time talking to him about whats going on and listening to what he says to me.

This trip is going to be so full of growing and stretching! i could say many more things but as i said 25 minutes ago... i'm pretty sleepy :) goodnight mountains, goodnight banana pudding, and goodnight you.

~gingaa

day 3&4!! 8:49 PM

these last few days have been filled with a lot of learning

Friday we drove 14ish hours to get here to Knoxville, TN and it is beauuutiful! I forgot that real green does not exsit in Florida. the trees and mountains and flowers here are lovely to see :)

today we helped out at True Purpose Recovery Super Thrift Store. True Purpose Recovery is a Christian organization that works with men overcoming different addictions. in the program they study the Bible, work to organize and run a thrift store, and work different construction jobs to make money while in the program. they are doing some great things and helping a lot of guys get free from things that once held them down. Jason and Stan were able to talk with some of the guys there and hear their story. it sounded pretty cool :)

tomorrow we're going to explore the city a bit more and then move over to Nashville monday. I think theres going to be some great opportunities to help there with the flood relief that's going on.

like I said these last few days have been a big learning experience. I've really be reevaluating how I act towards people in my daily life and how I can better show love always.

<3 emilyy