Accomplishment #1 - Summer Camp Food Coordinator
In the summer of 2009, I was asked to co-lead the food menu/process for our church’s summer camp, along with my best friend, Hollie. We were notified about four months in advance of the camp, and were given a budget of around $1,000. The camp was planned to be about 2 ½ days, and we were in charge of coordinating breakfast (x2), lunch (x2) and dinner (x3), as well as two days with mid-night snacks. The camp was expected to have around 300 students in attendance, but we knew planning for more would be better, so we decided to plan for around 400 people total. The camp was held at our church, but also included a day trip to wild waves and a day trip to the lake. When given the task, we first planned what we wanted to serve at each meal and how much we would need of each food item. After making these decisions, we formed a small team that would oversee specific areas of the entire process. We had specific leaders who were in charge of: budget, volunteers, donations, room arrangement/how food was to be served, set-up/tear down of meals, and transportation of food to off-campus areas. Hollie and I regularly checked in with each of these team members and their areas to make sure each was being done properly and timely. Our main responsibility that we oversaw as leaders of the food team was the donation and inventory of food items. We frequently went to businesses asking for donations and made sure that we had enough food for each meal. Hollie and I were considered to be on the executive team in charge of the camp, which meant we also had meetings with the other leaders that oversaw a variety of other areas (such as activities, field trips, etc).
When the time came for the camp to begin, we had everything in place. The first day began, and things were going well. Students had shown up and we had everything ready for the first dinner. Everything went great, all volunteers showed up and things went smoothly. After the dinner, we had our first mid-night snack which also went well. However, Hollie had been in a lot of pain and was starting to not feel well. The next morning came bright and early, as we had only gotten about 4 hours of sleep each. Breakfast was a huge hit, as we had a variety of donuts, scrambled eggs, muffins, and about every breakfast item you can imagine. Hollie was getting worse, and by the time lunch came, she could hardly walk. I told her she needed to go to the doctor, but she refused. For lunch, we had made sack lunches for kids to grab and take to wild waves. This was a very easy and fast process, because we had made 400 sandwiches before the camp started. After the distribution, we had a little break and then it was time to prepare for dinner. The theme for this dinner was hillbilly hoe-down so we had baked potatoes, beans, corn, etc. My dad was one of the volunteers that night, and we he saw the condition Hollie was in, he basically forced her to go to the doctor. When dinner was over, and Hollie was at the doctor, I began to prepare for the mid-night snack. While doing this, I received a call from my dad saying that the doctors had told Hollie she was in really bad shape, and even worse than the average person because she was born only with one kidney. They told her she had to take medicine and stay at home that night, getting as much rest as possible. Hollie told me she would try to come in the morning for breakfast (which I told her not to), and that she would be fine. The next morning, I woke up again bright and early, this time only getting about 3 hours of sleep, and when I woke up I realized I had received a phone call from Hollie’s dad. The message said that he had to call 911 that night and that Hollie had been taken to the emergency room. I later found out that Hollie had woken up during the middle of the night, and could not breathe or walk. This was because her kidney had gotten infected and could not function properly. Even though I had just found out my best friend was in this kind of condition, I had to continue on with the responsibilities I had been given. That day, I was in charge of all of the food for 400 students – breakfast, lunch, and dinner. To make matters worse, this day was to be the hardest, because students were going to split up and be in two different locations at the lake for lunch. However, everything ended up going well and the Lord gave me a great strength through it all. We had little problems such as a lighter not working for a barbeque and not having enough utensils, but in the end it all turned out successful. After the day was over, I went to the hospital to see Hollie (at around midnight), and then slept practically all the next day. Hollie was in the hospital for four more days and then was released, and everything turned out okay.
Accomplishment #2- Leader of Fractal for College-Age Ministry
About two and a half years ago, I felt called to do an internship program at my church. This internship gave me the opportunity to learn many different aspects of ministry, as well as leadership principles. During the first year of the internship (I was an intern for 2 years), my pastors asked me to lead the evangelism fractal of our college-age service. This meant that I would be in charge of a team that included four parts: production of services, worship, creative arts, and technology. Each of these parts had overseers of which I would eventually meet with and work with throughout my time as the evangelism fractal leader. When I first received this responsibility, I had hardly any idea of what it meant. I thought that I was in charge of the production of services and that was it – I had no idea that I was also in charge of the other three components. I merely worked with the other three leaders for a while, and then, when I had a meeting with one of my pastors, I realized that I needed to appoint someone to be doing what I had been doing- producing the services. I began to look for people who I thought would fit that position, and also had many discussions with my pastors. We later decided on who would have that responsibility and oversee that team. Once she was appointed as the leader of service production, I was able to better do the job to which I had been called. I began to look at the evangelism fractal as a whole and did not just focus on the services. I began meeting with the other team leaders and asked them how I could help build and encourage their teams. We had group meetings about every 8 weeks and discussed where each team was at, what they had been doing well, and what needed improvement. This brought our team much closer together and we could see the fruit in the college-age ministry. For example, if the tech department needed more people to serve in their ministry, the other leaders would be well aware and do their best to recruit people. This opportunity helped me to realize many different aspects about being a leader. First of all, many times I would get blamed for something that was not always directly my fault, but because I was ultimately in charge of the group as a whole, it would fall on me. It helped me to do my best to make sure every detail was always in place, and also forced me to trust the leaders of whom I worked with. Whenever we had problems, we would always discuss them and write them down so that, to the best of our ability, they would not happen again. This experience also taught me how to work well with many different people, with different passions, and come together as a whole to advance the gospel. When looking back on this experience, it always reminds me of when, in the Bible, it talks about how each part of the body of Christ is necessary…that no one part is more important than the other. When overseeing this team, it was obvious that each group had different areas and specialties, but also that each group was necessary and vital to the evangelism fractal.
Accomplishment #3 - Costa Rica
Ever since high school, I have always had a unique passion for Central America, the Spanish language, and of course, the Hispanic people. My high school Spanish teacher, who was also my Young Life leader, inspired me greatly, and during my senior year in high school I went to Costa Rica with her, as well as many other students in the Spanish classes. After high school, I went to college for a year and continued taking Spanish classes. However, after this year at college, I felt the Lord calling me to do an internship at my church, which I ended up doing for 2 years. Because this internship was strictly focused on ministry and leadership development, I did not take any Spanish classes while doing this. However, we did go on a mission trip to Mexico, of where I was able to be a translator for our pastors and interns. Toward the end of my second year in this internship, I felt the Lord calling me to go to a foreign Spanish-speaking country to solidify the Spanish skills that I had acquired throughout high school and college. I began thinking of where I could go, what I could do, and how I could afford it – also knowing I would need my parents support in it all. I first wanted to go to Mexico and work with the church our pastors and interns had worked with, but because the drug wars were intensifying, my parents did not allow it. I then began researching places in Costa Rica, since I had been there before, and found a school there, called the Costa Rican Language Academy. I presented this option to my parents, and placed it all in the Lord’s hands. I knew I wanted to go to Spanish-speaking country for 6 months, because I had heard that to become fluent it took a minimum of that amount of time, but I also knew that going would require money that I did not have. After a series of many discussions and a lot of prayer, my parents agreed that I could go to this school and that they would finance it, but that I would eventually pay them back. Knowing that this was all from the Lord, I agreed without a doubt and started doing all the necessary things before leaving (such as shots, proper clothes, etc). I had to take a written exam online for the school to evaluate where my Spanish skills were at, and when I arrived at the school I was also given an oral exam. My dad flew with me to Costa Rica to make sure the school to which I would be going to was a good place, and also to help me get adjusted. I arrived at the school, took my oral test, and was immediately placed into classes. The school included a free gym membership, dance classes (such as salsa, meringue, etc), cooking classes, and extra conversation classes. I was placed in a host home, and was shown how to take the bus to and from the school to my new house. My dad left after 3 days, and then I was on my own. At first, it was very hard for me but because I knew the Lord had called me to do this, I knew there was nowhere else I was supposed to be. The classes at first were very challenging and intimidating, but eventually got easier. While I was at the school, I met people from all over the world and built relationships with so many wonderful people. This school not only greatly improved my Spanish skills, but also taught me so much about other countries and cultures. It allowed me to share the gospel to others and have great conversations about the Lord and faith. I now have a best friend who lives in Germany (who would have thought?), and have friends in many other countries, as well. While I was in Costa Rica, I got involved in an incredible church (definitely a gift from the Lord), and built relationships with many of the local people there. This experience changed my life completely, and I am so grateful and thankful that the Lord for brought this time into my life. Currently, I am now going to a Spanish-speaking church in Bellevue, and a few weeks ago was given the opportunity to stand up in front of the congregation and advertise a conference that is soon going to take place at my home church in Puyallup. Of course, I had to speak about the conference in Spanish, and although I was very nervous beforehand, I was fine once I started speaking. This experience was surreal – like a dream come true, and the Lord ceases to amaze me.
Accomplishment #4 - High School Leadership/ASB
Ever since I was in junior high, being in leadership was always something that interested me. During my sophomore year in high school, I began to date a guy a guy who was in the leadership class. Because of this, he showed me how I could apply to take leadership as one of my class electives, and explained all of the things they did in this class. I applied and was accepted to be in the leadership class during my junior year in high school. In this class, we did many different things such as planning assemblies, leading spirit weeks, decorating the school, planning events, and much more. One of the biggest accomplishments/projects I had was being Cindy-Lou-Who in our winter assembly. We made the whole gym look like Whooville, and had all of the leadership students dress as Who people. Throughout the assembly, we granted wishes that people from the student body had submitted that they wanted for Christmas. It was a great assembly, but definitely took a lot of time, work and planning. Toward the end of my junior year in high school, my leadership teacher said that because many of the ASB officers were leaving (they were seniors), she encouraged us to apply to be one for the following year, as well as recruit others to try-out for a position on ASB. The ASB program in our high school did have specific positions such as President, Treasurer, etc., but our school strongly valued equality and therefore considered us all to be Presidents. When someone ran for ASB, they would not run for a specific position but all ran as candidates who would later become Presidents. Then, once selected as a President, the certain roles and responsibilities would be divided up. I decided to run to be a President, and had to present a speech in front of the entire student body of why they should choose me. Then, after all of the candidates gave their speeches (there were 8 of us who ran), students voted on who they wanted as their Presidents. I was one of the candidiates who won, and became an ASB President for my senior year in high school. This required that during the summer, I went to leadership camp and also had a few meetings with the other ASB officers. Throughout the school year, we had regular meetings as an ASB team, and worked hard to make our school a better place. My main responsibilities on ASB were leading/planning activities and events. One of the biggest tasks I was giving was being in charge of our Homecoming dance, along with one of my best friends, Caitlin. This required that we had to plan/coordinate food, decorations (this was the biggest and most time-consuming task), advertisement, music, pictures, and everything else that you would see at a high school dance. The name of the dance was called Romecoming, and we had everything made to look as if students were in Rome. It was very helpful that we had the support of the other students in the leadership class, for we could not have done it alone. This is just an example of one of the projects we did, as there were many more throughout the year. One of the most difficult times in our leadership class was when we planned this huge winter assembly (like the one when I was Cindy Lou Who the previous year), but the theme of this one was set to be CandyLand. We made the gym of our school look like a live CandyLand board game, and students in the leadership class were the characters of CandyLand. Two of the students were going to be dressed up as children who were playing this board game, and would move across the board and stop at each character. We had every costume made, created hundreds of different board game tiles, and put around two months of effort into this assembly. However, during the night before the assembly, we had a huge snow storm and school was cancelled the day of the assembly. The following weeks to come students did not have school, as it was winter break. Therefore, we did not have the assembly, and it was a huge disappointment and upset to our class. Although it was definitely discouraging, we continued to move forward and planned other events throughout the rest of the year. Taking two years of leadership class in high school and being an ASB officer taught me a lot of how to work in teams, be in charge of many different people and tasks, and to keep working hard and putting forth the best effort even when times are tough.
Accomplishment #5 - Preaching at Women's Group
When I was participating in the internship at my church (previously mentioned above), my pastors strongly encouraged that we seek out having a mentor. I had really wanted our church's Children's Pastor, Christina Gard, to be my mentor but I knew that Christina already had a group of young girls that she mentored. I felt the Lord telling me to be patient and wait, so I did. About a month later, Christina asked me to meet with her during one of our church services. I went to her office, and she asked me if I would be interested in being a part of the group she mentors. She told me to think and pray about it, and to let her know within a week my decision. I told her that I had already felt the Lord putting this on my heart, and therefore became a part of the group. We met every Wednesday morning at 6am and would do many different things. Many times, Christina would preach on a specific topic, or have another woman pastor come in and share with us. We always were required to come prepared knowing about current events, because Christina asked us, "How are we supposed to be praying for our world if we don't even know what's going on?" During this time in our group we also read a book together called, "The Hole in Our Gospel," by Richard Sterns, the President of World Vision. At group, we would discuss the chapter we had previous read and what we had taken away from it. We also served in a homeless shelter, went Christmas caroling at nursing homes, and did many other things. One of the biggest tasks we did together as a group was start a group for women who were between junior high and college age, and we met Thursday mornings at 6am. Christina would preach at this, or sometimes would have one of the girls from the group speak. All of the girls in the Christina's small group were required to be there, and helped facilitate this other women's group called "Unfading." While helping lead Unfading, Christina asked me to preach one of the mornings. I was very honored to be asked to do this, but also very nervous. We were doing a series about our identity in Christ, and I decided to preach from the passage in Matthew that says, "You are the light of the world - like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house." (Matthew 5:14-15). I asked the girls if they had been hiding the light inside them, and questioned them what has kept them from being a radiant light of Christ. This experience was incredible, for I know that part of my calling is preaching. Being able to do this reaffirmed my calling and reminded me of how much I enjoy public speaking. I am still a part of Christina's group today, although I cannot go the majority of the time because I am at Northwest. However, when I have spring break, and during the summer I will continue to go. This group has changed me so much, helped me truly form my identity in Christ, and walk as a woman of Him.
Accomplishment #6 Young Life Leader
When I was 15 years old, I gave my heart to the Lord at a Young Life camp. I had been raised in a Christian home all of my life, but until this point I had not been overcome by the Spirit of the Lord, and thought God was far away from me. At this camp, I dedicated my life to Christ, but did not really understand what it meant to live for Him until a year later. Once I realized what it truly meant to live a life for God, I decided to become a Young Life student leader during my junior year of high school. I helped the adult Young Life leaders plan what was going to happen at each Young Life club, and I helped lead games and facilitate activities. During my senior year in high school, I stepped back from Young Life because I was involved in many other activities and felt called to other areas. After high school, I went to Linfield College, in Oregon, for a year and there I decided to lead Young Life once again. I first began being a leader for middle school age kids (mainly because many of my friends were leading that age group), but later felt that I was being called to lead high schoolers. I switched to being a Young Life high school leader about half way through my year at Linfield, and worked very closely with one of the other Young Life leaders, named Sarah. Sarah and I were the girl leaders for McMinnville High School and we worked together with the guy Young Life leaders, planning clubs and activities, like I had done before in high school. Sarah and I also lead a small group for girls, apart from club. This group was a great experience for me, because these high school girls always had a lot going on in their lives and always asked for advice. Many of them were not Christian, but were seeking and wondering about the Lord. Meeting with them challenged me to really use the gospel as a means of leading others, and not just rely on myself. There were many things the girls would experience that I never had, or they would ask advice about topics where I really didn't know the answer. However, I knew I was qualified because I knew I had the Spirit of the Lord in me and that He would help me (and He did). We grew together greatly as a group and the girls knew we were always there for them. In the summer, we went to a Young Life camp (the same one that I had gotten saved at), and many of the girls dedicated their life to Christ for the first time. Seeing them give their hearts to the Lord was one of the best experiences I have ever had.
