I suppose the best place to start is where I left off. After Brazil, life went back to "normal" which I must say is quite different for an IMPACT 360 student than anyone else. In the month of March we heard from Del Tackett, John Stonestreet, Mark Liederbach, and Ed Bort and studied God's design for social order, bioethics, marriage and sexual ethics, and the problem of pain and suffering. We also went on Biblical Manhood and Biblical Womanhood retreats where we learned more about what it meant to live in the role that God has placed us in and to fully embrace what the Bible says about manhood and womanhood. While the men were away on their retreat, the women ruled campus and had a blast! We had a GNO (Girl's Night Out) murder mystery where we all dressed up and acted out different parts. I was a fairy princess heiress, which I must say was quite fun to play! And then we also did an SLP (Service Learning Project) in LaGrange helping out a woman's shelter. While the women were gone on their retreat, the men had fun watching Braveheart and eating steak for their GNO and helping out Toni Branyon with a block party for their SLP. Everyone also traveled up to Fayetteville to help out with Fayette county's D-Now towards the beginning of March.
And now for the month of April: spring break started us off, and I think it definitely gave me a little taste of what after-IMPACT life would be like. It was difficult being away from my new "family" but surely we were reunited on the 11th. During the month of April we only had one guest professor come in who was Glandion Carney and he talked about the celebration of discipline. For one week during this month, we were split into two different groups. Fifteen students and most of the staff went on the adventure module where they went backpacking and learned about the fear of God. The other ten students had the opportunity to go to Charlotte, North Carolina and work at a Chick-fil-a grand opening. Because most of us had never worked at a Chick-fil-a before, we were put on the marketing team and got to spend the week passing out coupons, being the Chick-fil-a cow (and baby cow!), going to school events, and even driving around new Mini Cooper convertibles for publicity! Unfortunately Dan Cathy wasn't able to meet us out there, but we did have the privileged of working with some incredibly amazing people (Art, Kerrie, Rob, and Dean)! On the 26 and 27th of April, we had our final presentations at Chick-fil-a corporate. Each of us had to pick an ethical issue, choose a stance on it, and support the issue or an alternative using the Chick-fil-a SERVE leadership module and three principles from Henry and Richard Blackaby's book Spiritual Leadership. I chose to talk about third party contributors to procreation (that being egg donors, sperm donors, and surrogate mothers) and contrasted it with the alternative of traditional adoption. This was by far my favorite project and paper done at IMPACT 360, and I feel like it definitely was confirmation that I am being called to adopt children later on in life. The month of April finished up with our commissioning retreat where we basically wrapped up the year (which was very sad for all of us!).
The first week of May (my last week at IMPACT 360) was definitely a bitter-sweet time. It was very sad to say goodbye to the best friends I have ever made; however, it was also very exciting to know that I am now going out into the world to take this knowledge I have gained and share it! May 7th was our commissioning , and our final day at IMPACT 360. Since then, I have been enjoying a little down time at home before I head off to Winshape Camp where I will be working this summer as a counselor for 5-6th grade girls. I will also be teaching swimming, indoor rock climbing, and tennis (which is subject to change considering I have never played tennis before in my life!). I can't wait for this summer and to take advantage of the opportunity I have to pour into the lives of twenty young girls! Please pray for me as I am away from May 26-July 31 that God will give me the words to say to these young girls and the wisdom to be the most effective witness for Him. After camp I will come home for a couple of weeks (with a visit back to IMPACT 360 for alumni reunion) and then I will head out to Mississippi State University where I plan to spend the next four years. As of right now, I plan on majoring in math so that I can be a math teacher for middle schoolers. I really feel like God has given me a heart for that age group as well as an unusual passion for math, and I plan to use both of those to bring Him glory and honor and praise all the days of my life!
