Good friends and fellowship!

Hello all! Hope your late Thursday or early Friday is treating you well. I just got back from an amazing night and new friends all around. I went with Erin to her school, Eastern Michigan University. While we were there, we had many adventures: we went to a Bible study, visited a yummy bakery, and finished the night with her roommates.

We started the evening by attending a Bible study at His House Christian Fellowship. I'm lucky enough to call this fellowship my church home, but only at Central Michigan University, and not EMU. As soon as I walked in, I was greeted by some familiar faces and welcoming smiles. Last week, Erin brought a few of her friends over to the house, and so I had met some of them before which was nice. One of them is Marc. He is about to go to the Dominican Republic to serve God's people over there for 4 weeks, so be praying for him! I've had the pleasure of meeting him 2 or 3 times prior. I'm really encouraged by him. Through conversations I've had with him, I can tell he is really trusting in the Lord to lead him where he needs to be. Scott was there too. I like Scott. When I first met him a few weeks ago, I learned he writes his prayers down as a form of poetry. It's really cool. And really deep. I've spent the most amount of time with Scott and Marc, and I am really encouraged by them both. I forget to tell people how much they mean to me, so I did that tonight.I think I caught them off guard, but I'm glad I did it nonetheless.

Tonight we talked about the story in Genesis, where Joseph is to take after Portiphat's property while he is away. Portiphat's wife tries really hard to sleep with Joseph, but still he resists. Once her husband (and Joseph's slave master, by the way) return's, his wife blames Joseph for sleeping with her, when they really did nothing at all. Portiphat outs Joseph in jail, and the Lord found favor in Joseph and all was well. It was really good to see that the Lord will remain faithful when you do. Not that I ever had any doubt that He wouldn't, but it is definitely reassuring! But it also opened my eyes as to how we may be Portiphat's wife in some situations. I was really challenged with how in my past or even now, I may try to get away with something just because of who I am associated with or because I have any sense of entitlement. Think of any time someone is trying to get out of a ticket by playing the pastor card, for instance. Or even taking advantage of our family and friends (whether it be borrowing money for lunch, asking them to help when you know it just adds stress in their life, etc) I'm realizing it is really not in accordance with the Spirit BY ANY MEANS, and has challenged me to find specific areas in my life that need revamping.

Today has just been a great day of cleaning. Not only have I cleaned out things in my spiritual life, but we scrubbed the house from top to bottom today. It smells so good, and looks as though we just moved in, too!

Continue to pray for us as we end out our internships. The last few weeks can tend to be a bit crazy, and the unity in our house definitely needs strengthening. Your prayers and support truly mean the world to me, and I'm glad that you are able to join us for our summer journey! This is by no means the end of this blog, but it felt appropriate to add it. So thank you!

Jessy here. I have a real quick post before I go off to the Outpost today.

One of our roommates, Erin, is really sick today and is staying home to get some rest. Please pray for her as she continues to get healthy. Pray that God's healing hand will come down upon her and rejuvenate her.

And lastly, whatever she has, it is going around the house. I gave it to her, and she is giving it to Cari as we speak, so please pray for health in this house!

Thanks, much love!

Rough Day... In need of prayers

Hello everybody!

Let me start off by apologizing for not updating until just now. Things at the Outpost have been really crazy lately, and I come home just about ready for bed!

Speaking of the Outpost, I definitely need a lot of prayers of patience sent my way. Today was definitely one of the toughest days that I have had…and it’s only 11:35am as I am writing this! But this all didn’t go down only today. It probably started at the beginning of the week.

Here’s what happened:
So starting either last week or the week before, the Outpost had a new boy come. His name was Caleb, is 9 years old and is a very sweet boy. He also has Downs Syndrome. Before I go any further, let me take this time to recognize all people who work with Special Needs children (or adults) Thank you for your love, patience, kind-heartedness, and straight up awesomeness. I cannot thank you enough. On the days that Caleb acts out, he is very difficult to deal with, and Tuesday was one of those days. He wanted to go outside and play, but he was not allowed to at that time, so he was kicking and scratching, screaming and spitting! Boy, did he give me a work out! He also tends to take off, so I got him to settle down, but not after a few battle wounds. I ended up drawing blood in a few different places, had a fat lip for a day, and a few bruises here and there. Needless to say, Caleb is strong willed! So since Tuesday I became very tired...


Every Thursday is game day because I like for the kids to have fun. (I mean, it is summer afterall!) Today my 9-11 yr old class was playing Fraction Hangman. This game is played just like any other game of hangman, except they have to guess the numbers instead of the letters. To spice things up, I added a bonus round where they actually solved the problem afterwards. Kids soon started complaining that this wasn’t fun, and they wanted to play regular hangman instead. Naturally, I became frustrated. I told them that fraction hangman was the only option, and if there was enough time at the end, we could play hangman. That didn't quite fly with the kids, so they boycotted the game by drawing on paper, talking to their friends, etc. The frustration kept building, and my tiredness from the week all collapsed into one giant ball. I was quickly becoming upset, so I needed someone to take over for a minute while I composed myself. I called in a fellow intern to watch the class. The kids knew I was upset from that moment.

If you could send prayers of patience my way, I would really appreciate it!

Thank you for your constant prayers and thoughts. I love you all from the bottom of my heart.