So it's been a long time...

...since I've posted on this blog. I've been crazy busy and out of the loop for several months. :) But don't worry - I have lots of thoughts and memories to share with you all! I had an amazing time in Iowa! I learned so many lessons, made so many memories, and did so many new things. I feel like I've changed so much during my three months away from home. Looking back now, I'm even more convinced than I was before that God wanted me there!

Sooooo.... for your enjoyment and edification, here are a few of the highlights! :)

First off, here I am with the other two interns: Emily Long (left) and Kristin Youngblood (middle).

This is Mrs. Mally, Sarah, and Grace. I know we all look awful. :) This picture was taken late at night after a conference (think: exhausted, sleep deprived) because I was freaking out at the last minute because of my lack of pictures!
This is my little corner of the Bright Lights office. :) Really, it wasn't always THAT messy!

This adorable young lady is Alicia Groothuis, my 4:12 girl. 4:12 is a one-on-one discipleship group that's part of Bright Lights. It's really neat because it pairs up a younger girl with an older girl for eight weeks of Bible study, Scripture memory, and accountability. It was such a joy to get to know Alicia, as well as her sweet family. She has thirteen siblings, nine or so of which were adopted from Liberia. The Groothuis family is one of the most amazing, neatest, Christ-centered families I've ever met. They are INCREDIBLE, no joke!

On my birthday Sarah, Grace, Kristin, Emily, and some of the girls from the office took me out to lunch and threw me a party. It was such a sweet surprise, and we had a wonderful time of fellowship!
A significant highlight of the internship was discovering THE cutest, funnest coffee shop IN the whole world: Witte's End! Each room in the house is full of comfy chairs and couches and other loveliness. :) In the providence of God, Witte's End was conveniently located just behind the office where I worked. :)

It was the perfect place to come to catch my breath in the middle of a busy day! There were lots of fun memories made here. :)

I fell in love with chocolate chai, which is just about the best drink in the world I believe. I spent way to much money there. 'Nuff said. :)
The last week of April we did two conferences in Rogers, Arkansas. Here's the entryway of the church we were at. We all LOVED the globe; it was so beautiful! We were told that it's the largest globe of its kind in the world!

This is Augusta Fernando, a precious woman I met at the church I attended there in Iowa. Augusta is the sweetest, neatest, most Godly lady ever. She is the biggest prayer warrior I've ever met in my life. She became a spiritual mother to me....I'm so grateful that God brought her into my life! I SO wish you all could meet her.....you would absolutely LOVE her!!

Augusta is from India, but has been living in the States the last few years doing cancer research and trying to discover a way to cure deafness. She's a Ph.D....majorly intelligent person, but she is one of the most humble people I've been around. She also cooks the best Indian food on the planet! She totally spoiled me food wise. :) One night she went to our house while we were still at work and cooked dinner for us....just to be a blessing. That's how neat she is!

Okay, so this is what I woke up to the day before I left for Arkansas. NOT MORE SNOW!!!!!!!
The last stop for me was Big Sandy (yay!). It was so good to see some of ya'll there! This is my COMMIT team....I had such a wonderful time with these sweet young women!

The Bright Lights Internship was an amazing experience, but it was not what I was expecting it to be. There were many challenges and difficulties that really caused me to have to trust God and have faith in His plan (which is a good thing!). Three days into the internship I got sick and had to stay in bed for two days. Then, a week later I was in a car accident. No one in each of the three cars was hurt, but it was still a pretty traumatic experience. That same week I was also taking a computer class that I was barely surviving! I couldn't believe that all this crazy stuff was happening. I firmly believed that I was right where God wanted me to be and that gave me such strength and joy, but I was quickly coming to see that His plans for this experience were definitely different than my own! :) Another really hard thing was that one of the interns had to go back home after only three weeks. I had grown especially close to this girl, so the parting was very painful. However, I later came to see that God had removed her from my life for a reason. He wanted me to be totally focused on drawing close to Him!

There were several times I was really forced to step out of my comfort zone to do what God was calling me to do. Helping to teach Bright Lights, hence public speaking, was stretching, but I really came to love it! It came in handy gaining confidence on a smaller level when I had to speak in front of over four hundred people at the conference! Another thing that really pushed me to grow was passing out tracts at the St. Patrick's Day parade in downtown Cedar Rapids. I was really scared and intimidated at first (there were some somewhat creepy people), but God gave me such confidence! I actually discovered that I CAN walk up to a group of tough, intimidating-looking guys and offer them a tract!

All this to say, God used this experience in a mighty way in my life! He taught me so much about prayer, surrender, and ministry.

I love you all LOTS!

Baylie

Anna's Post

Hey y'all! I'm posting for Anna.

So I am sending this through my dearly trusted Evelyn :D, because my computer is really annoying. And the picture is one that my family sent out as a Christmas card this past year. The picture is the middle is of everyone except Tatiana who was born four months latter.

Good news first: On January 3, 2011 a niece was born, Tatiana Lisette. She is a beautiful blessing. She was born via cesarean section but both mommy and Baby were healthy.

Now on to the slightly less joyful news: back in March I had a gymnastics accident. I was doing a skill I’ve known how to do for about a year now. It was a round-off-back-handspring, (if you want to know what it is, look it up on youtube) which is a power packed and fast skill. I was the only student and there were three coaches present. There was something I just wasn’t getting right, so they were trouble-shooting for. Well, I must have had an information overload, because as I started to do it again, I did the round-off right but as I went backward something happened and I landed very hard on my neck. I stayed there, on my neck, for about two seconds before gravity pulled me down to lie on the ground. So the pain grew and reached its climax within about 30 sec. before it began to cool down. As any crazy, hardcore, gymnast, I got back up and did a bunch of back flips before I called it a day. And then it was about three weeks before I even went to a chiropractor (I haven’t been to the doctor yet), and he said he doesn’t know how I could have continued taking classes for three weeks before I went to he. He said I had a slipped vertebra. So I was getting adjustments for about two weeks and then stopped because it felt better, but I still don’t think it is healed all the way. I praise God when He allows me a few days without pain, but then there are the days when I feel it still. It’s not like a really hard pain, but a small nagging pain that get annoying. I am pleased to announce that this week has been among one of the better weeks and I feel great, but I would love your prayers for complete healing. And yet I feel as though this injury will put me out of gymnastics by the end of summer.