First trip as a Class!

The trip we went on to I think Champion Church of Christ, was absolutely amazing! It was such a blessing to just be there with the kids! At first I was a little intimidated, it seemed as if the people didn't really want us there. One of the things that I try so so hard to change is that I become extremely shy in situations where I don't know people very well. Not only was I was surrounded with 100 people I had never seen before, but out of all the people from HCHS the only person from my grade and the one person that I feel extremely comfortable around was Michael Vaughan. And I've never really seen him be shy, so he was already hanging out with all the people there :) Anyways, after about 15 minutes, the book of Joshua popped into my head and all I thought about was "Courtney! Be strong and courageous!!" So I went inside and started playing ping pong with Laura, Lindsey, Taylor and some little kids. It was so fun! This sweet little girl was just having the time of her life playing ping pong with us! She was stuck like glue to all of us all night and it seemed like every five seconds she was saying, "THIS IS SO FUN!" She had Laura and me cracking up all night long! She quickly told us that we were all her best friends and it was so sweet to see a little girl that had so much love inside of her! One of the things I just adored is how much all of the girls wanted to dance! Girls would just run up grab your hand and pull you to the dance floor! They were completely filled with joy and they would have been able to dance all night long! There was soo much that we did that night that I would be delighted to share! but I'd rather not bore you with every little detail that I remember :) However there was this one little girl. She is in the 5th grade and I met her towards the very end of the night. She was sitting alone eating and I sat down and started to talk to her. It took a while to get her to open up to me, and when she finally did I understood why. I had to ask questions to get her to talk to me at first, but then she just opened up and told me everything. She told me about her family and her home life and to say the least it was pretty rough. We started talking about school and friends and she told me about how she has no friends and she hates school. She said all of her teachers hate her because she's not good at school and that all the people at her school hate her too. That hit me so hard and I just wanted to cry for her. I started encouraging her and we talked about how Jesus is the best friend in the whole world! I told her how I've been through some tough times and that God always gets me through them and he has become my best friend. For a fifth grader, she was a very strong christian! She has gone through tons of trials, but God remained her number one! We talked about heroes and how Jesus is both of our heroes. This made me think about how usually when I think of a hero, I think of my brother, or someone famous, one of my last thoughts its JESUS! How crazy is that?? I think alot of us are like that. I talked to some of my friends about it and they agreed with me saying that Jesus doesn't usually come to mind as our hero. but how bizarre is that?? John talks about how the Word became FLESH and made his dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. At church we focused on this verse and how two completely opposite things came together! God became man. And he saved our lives! but He's not our hero?? How crazy is that? When you think of your hero, your hero is someone you want to be like, it is someone who you admire and someone who is your role model! I don't know about you, but I want to be more like Christ in SOOO many ways! I want to walk like Jesus, I want to talk like Jesus, I want to live like Jesus! Jesus is my HERO and I want to be like Him!! This sweet girl I met is facing rejection just like Jesus did, and she wants to act like Christ. This past weekend, an eleven year old inspired me to live like Christ. The meaning for this mission trip was to show others love and to inspire them. However, as I showed love to others, I received love. And as I tried to be an inspiration to these kids, they inspired me. That is why this trip was such a blessing. I'm going to be praying for this sweet girl consistently and I am definitely going to go back whenever I can! I'd rather go to this church every friday night, than go catch a movie with my friends. I am soo excited to go back soon and to bring people back with me! This trip was such a blessing and I can't wait to see what God has in store for these kids!! This video I posted at the bottom of my blog is one of my favorites! I just wanted to share with you a little about my HERO, a little bit about my KING! :)