Boston Day 7 :)

This was our fun day. We started the day with our devotional at the ABP. Then afterwards we went back to the hotel and were going to do the walking Freedom Trail Tour, the historical tour of the city with Donny as our tour guide. It was raining pretty hard so we decided to do the walking tour the next day. The ECU girls went shopping. We stared by going to H&M where after trying on oodles of clothes, I walked away with a scarf! Then we tried to walk to the Forever 21 store. The guy giving directions said we could take the T. Well we thought we could walk it, in the drizzly rain. We walked past Boston Commons, and even the concert hall where the Hillsong Concert was going to be that night. We would all loved to have gone, but the tickets were $73. So we opted out!

Our surroundings began to get slightly sketchy and we figured out we were in China Town. We redirected ourselves and ended up in a nice area. We walked past the really pretty park which I don’t remember the name of. Then we hit Newbury St. This was a really upscale shopping area. We pasted many stores: Chanel, Burberry, Giorgio Armani, & Vera Wang to name a few. Luckily, we found a reasonably priced place for lunch. At the Mediterranean place we ordered grilled octopus for an appetizer. I ordered a scrumptious pasta dish and we had a great time! I felt so under dressed and out of place with my frizzy ponytail but it was so much fun. Grace said we need to have a pack that we will be friends for life and not get married yet. She was the only one to put her hand in the middle! Ha! But really there are no prospects heading my way now anyway! :) Her point was that we needed to do fun stuff like this and travel etc. When I do get married I hope I can still have fun girls nights and weekends away!

After lunch we passed even more stores on our way to Forever 21. After seeing Kate Spade & Lilly Pulitzer I was nearly drooling. I had to tell myself, “It is good for me to not get what I want.” We finally reached Forever 21 and it was packed! After scooping out all 3 floors, my pile of clothes was weighing my arm down! In the forever long line to the dressing room I talked with 2 girls from Northeastern that were in a sorority! This is when I remembered these are my types of girls! :) (Not girls discussing Chilean pesos...)Lord as long as I work on a campus with girls who love watching tv, cooking, dressing up and eating out I will be set!

Lexie, our new friend that moved from Florida to help with Aletheia joined us for our girls day! Then after purchasing some cute jewelry we went to JP Licks for ice cream. We headed for the T and made our way back to the hotel where we freshened up. We meet up with our whole group and then went to the North End to the Italian District. We ate dinner at a restaurant the L’Esperance’s told us about. It was fun to watch the people who worked their b/c it looked like they were all related. I got lost looking for the bathroom and thought the waitress told me to go into the dark broom closet... she thought this was funny!

After a fun dinner Grace and I went out to go see her sister Dana. It took us forever. We had to ride on a different part of the T line we had never ridden before. We made it but then walked about 4 blocks further outside then we needed to, walked back and then eventually found Dana’s apartment. She goes to Boston University. Her apartment was a part of the school’s housing and was in a Brown Stone. It was really cute. It was really good to meet her and talk to her. Grace wasn’t going to see her in a while so I know she was really glad to see her and that made it special. Riding back on the subway I was surprised how non scary it was at night. All of the people riding the T looked like normal people just riding the train late which was reassuring. We got back to the hotel around 11:30 and I know papa Jones was happy.

Boston Day 6 :)

Today was Harvard’s day where the freshmen figure out what house or dorm they will be in for their next 3 years. Most Harvard students live on campus, it’s the exception when they do not. It is sort of like Harry Potter when, there was a lot of life, camaraderie, celebrations, etc going on outside of the Memorial Hall & Science Tech Building.

I don’t know if this had anything to do with it or not, but the people we talked to on campus today seemed more open to talk.

We walked towards a section of campus we were unfamiliar with, behind the science tech building, and came across a girl there. Lord I pray she will come to know you, I don’t remember much about our conversation. Then we tried to walk near Divinity School but got lost. We found a neighborhood about a block from campus with big beautiful houses. There we meet Kirk. He was a freshman from Northern California. We had a great natural convo with him. Then we talked to another girl. Lord I pray she will come to know you. Grace and I were able to share our testimonies with her.

Our follow up meeting with a girl went well. (I had some Yerba Mata, its a type of tea I saw on the Sarah Snow show on the Discovery Channel so I was excited to try it. It had a really woodsy taste.) She had some questions for us that we tried to answer. One I remember was “What part of the Bible are we me associate with the most “~tried to tell her that the God of the Old Testament is the same as New Testament... We also tried to explain the importance of Jesus vs just living a morally good life. My favorite part was when we were able share our testimonies. After we shared our testimonies she asked where the church was again. So we told her and gave her a card and then we talked some more. Lord I pray that Ruthe will come to know you! She really was really sweet and open to talk.

Then Grace and I ate lunch at the clover. It was uber modern, delish and super fun. I have never eaten anywhere like this before. After this we went back to the church and then set up to give out free candy bars and hot chocolate again. This was fun and a good way to invite people to the church and strike up conversations. One guy asked me why we had a name for our church and why we had to differentiate ourselves from the body of Christ. I was glad Donny stepped in to talk to him, b/c I didn’t know how to discuss that and kept thinking who cares, we have to have a name to idetify what body of believers we are in the community.

Then we all walked to the Fishers house for dinner. Janna and her sister made bbq, sweet tea, and dump cake! It was all delish. Aaralyn and Elise were super cute. They were being snuggly and sweet. Then we place the bowl game. This was fun and I wrote out instructions for us to play here in Greenville!

I am honestly relieved to not go back to the Harvard campus. It was really hard just to get people to stop and talk to us. I am definitely glad we did and think the conversations we had were great but, glad to not go back. Honestly, I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb.

I didn’t mention earlier, but the first day we did evangelism on campus, Grace, Calvin and I were asked to not talk to students on the Harvard Yard again. We were actually talking with the girl we meet with today for the 2nd time. They told us we could talk to student around the Science and Tech building. The guy who told us had a golden retriever with him. His shirt only said “Landscaping Services” so he wasn’t a real security guard but we got the message. Grace later said, she wished she would have said “what authority do you have to make me leave, you are just a landscaping guy.” Ha! Well ever since that altercation, I felt like a terrorist on campus. My mind went into overdrive and I even thought their was a school-wide email sent out to warn students not to talk to us. So Day 5 on campus was not fun! I felt like I looked suspicious and that people were looking at me weird. This was not the case but how I felt! So I was so glad that today went better! Thank you Lord for sending people our way to talk to!

Boston Day 5

This day on campus was hard. Calvin and I were matched to be buddies again. No one I talked to wanted to be my friend. So we ended up going into the Harvard bookstore a few minutes then ate lunch with Nick and JT. I felt really sick all day and didn’t feel like eating anything. If you know me, I love to eat so this says something. All i ate for lunch was a cup of white rice and a banana. Then after going on campus, we all came back to nap. After our nap we were going out again to pass out candies (as Madge says) near the Harvard campus. I didn’t feel good at all so I stayed back at the hotel. I made a run to CVS for medicine and Whole Foods for dinner. Then campus back and cuddled up with my laptop and the remote. Nothing does a body good like a little screen time. ;)

-------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm already home but I had this one waiting to post, still finishing writing about the rest of the week and am excited to post those as well! :)

I forgot to add that I did have a good conversation this day with a guy that worked in the dinning area of the Science and Tech building. Lord I pray he will come to know you for who you really are!

Boston Day 4 :)

Well today Lauren and I overslept! But that was the only hitch in our day. So I ate my fave breakfast of hardboiled eggs and Mussolini style oatmeal while we went over our Devotional about St. Patrick. Which was quite fitting for our first day of evangelism at Harvard. We learned about how St. Patrick went to the "Dangerous and warring culture of Ireland in the 5th century. The Druids dominated the nation, advocating witchcraft, pagan rituals, and child sacrifice." That is pretty scary, Harvard may seem an intimidating place to go preach the Gospel, but it's not as scary as speaking to be people who practice child sacrifice, just saying.

After our devotion we hopped on the T to the church in Cambridge. From there we got our game plan for the day together and headed out to Harvard. We ended up splitting up into groups. Calvin and Grace and I were together and we headed to stand outside of the library. We talked to several students and had some good conversations. Some people didn't know what they believed, some believed all sorts of things, some were open to hear more about Jesus!

Lunch was at Brattle Square. We just ate at a subway, but the whole area was beautiful. The little shops and restaurants reminded me of Chapel Hill or Nantucket! I loved walked the streets today. The history of the buildings and the culture is sooo good for my soul! :) would love to live somewhere with the cobblestone streets like we walked on at the Quincy Market earlier in the week! After lunch we had an awesome convo with a girl Grace and I are going to hang out with later in the week! :)

After doing evangelism we went into the Science center to sit and thaw out. I had the most amazing white hot chocolate of my life! While sipping this cup of delight, I was talking with friends and realizing even deeper my love of campus ministry. I told Grace and Calvin earlier today that I doesn't matter where I talked to students Harvard or ECU, I love talking to students about Jesus! Being on the campus today just confirmed the fact that no matter the type of student or the type of campus, all campuses need campus ministries. All students need to know Jesus, be involved in a community of believers, and actively reach others. Lord please sent out more laborers to the college campus, whether it's for a season or for a lifetime.

Around 3 we meet Donny back at the church, talked and relaxed. Then we passed out free chocolate bars and hot chocolate. It was amazing that some people really wouldn't take the free candy or cocoa. Some people thought there was a catch, some were skeptical, but the kids were hovering! :) I really hope that people will come to the church because of simple acts of kindness like this!

Dinner was at Brattle again. Flat Patties was a delish cheap burger place! Loved it! Loved talking to the cashier in spanish! So fun!

After this we did a prayer walk. Some of the Aletheia members came and joined us! We split up into groups, walked around the campus of Harvard and prayed. Loved doing this. Holy Spirit please fall on this campus that was founded on Christian beleifs and used to send out our brightest ministers to preach the Gospel. We sadly learned that all of the scriptures on the buildings have been etched off except for on Philosophy building which says "who is man that you are mindful of us."

Lord, we pray this campus will be a campus that sends out your best and brightest ministers to preach the Gospel. Lord we pray the city of Boston will once again be a city on a hill!

Harvard Facts:

-tuition: around $50,000 a year

-as of 2010, Harvard employs about 2,100 faculty to teach and advise, approximately 6,700 undergraduates (Harvard College) and 14,500 graduate and professional student

-Eight U.S. Presidents have graduated from Harvard

-75 Nobel Laureates have been affiliatedwith the university as students, faculty, or staff.

-Harvard is also the alma mater of sixty-two living billionaires

(thanks wikipedia!)

Boston Day 3 :)

So I have been writing a lot about the devotionals we are doing. That's b/c for Baja, shh don't tell anyone, but I really didn't spend a lot of time reading them or mulling over what it has to do with my life. I'm not even sure I read for every day. So for this trip I knew I had to read and get as much out of it as possible. So this morning we had a great discussion about Perseverance. It was on Mueller. The devotional talked about all he did for the Lord and how he prayed for 5 different individuals to give their life to the Lord. He prayed for them for yearsssss. One man even got saved at his funeral. Talk about dedication. Many times I write a list of people to pray for and my little slip of paper gets lost or thrown out. I want to be more deliberate to pray daily (sick or not, sunny or rainy weather) for people.

Today we did a service project for the YMCA where the Aletheia church meets. We painted two different rooms and we got our project for tomorrow ready. Tomorrow we will be going to Harvard and MIT to preach the Gospel. So today we taped some cool church business cards to the back of a ton of candy bars without eating any! Tomorrow should be super fun and cold!

Grace and I left the service project early to rest b/c we were going to go babysit tonight for Adam and Hope. Grace and I just came back, napped, I showered and then got bundled up to take the T back to the Y. We saw the completed paint projects which look great! Then we walked with Adam to his home. This may have been the highlight of my day. Grace and I picked his brain. We asked lots of questions about how he and Hope started helping with a church plant in Scotland and Boston. Basically the differences on how each started. For Scotland, they heard the voice of God calling both him an his wife there. (spoke to each individually) While in Scotland for 5 years and humbly realized they were good at church planting. For Boston there were many factors that lead them here. I was interested to know that they did research on the area, learning things like many of our country's presidents & leaders come out of Harvard...

On our walk to Adam & Hope's house, Hope called to say their youngest son Cole had a 102 degree fever and that we would not be babysitting. We arrived at their home, very cutely decorated I might add, and went in for a cup of tea. Coconut Chai was delish! Loved talking to Hope and Adam, amazing couple of God. Alana, Nora Badora, and Cole are their precious children. All in all great family!

We we meet up with our team and went to Davis Square for dinner at the Joshua Tree. The little shops and restaurants were def cute. We had a fun night with the team and ended playing Morgan and Katie's alphabet game on the T!

Boston Day Two

This morning we got up and ate breakfast at the Au Bon Pain! :) Then we met back with our team to do our devotional. We spent time praying and then we read over the Ten Days Devotionals. We read about Amy McPherson and Hudson Taylor. Then we spent time praying and repenting aloud. Repenting of our selfishness, fear, doubt, insecurity etc. This was really powerful. I felt the need to repent of being selfish and being too comfortable. Hearing about all Adam and Donny have done to start this church has really put things in perspective. I raise support to work on staff at ECU and totally love what I do. But each year raising support I begin to feel like a martyr. Donny and Adam raise support for their own families of 5 as well as for the church. Wow!

I'm not sure when they moved here to start the church, but the church has been meeting since Jan 30th. When we got to the YMCA where Aletheia meets we started helping do odds and ends jobs. Putting out signs, cards in chairs, setting up beverages... We got there at 9:30 am. Donny and Adam left their houses at 6:30 am to walk to the Y, getting there around 7. Their unending servitude is amazing. They didn't once complain or pull the martyr card. I keep thinking how yesterday they said they didn't feel like heros, they were just doing what the Lord laid on their hearts to do. I overhear Adam say he only got 4 hours of sleep last night. Wow! Not only did he preach, he played guitar in the band too. What can't he do! This is not meant to make these amazing guys out to be idols, it's just amazing to see their heart for the Lord and His people. This motivates me to do exactly what God wants me to do, with a smile on my face, & no complaints on lips.

Recap of the rest of the day:

I meet lots of really cool people at church. They needed help in the children's church so I helped with that. There were snacks, potty breaks, guinea pigs, crafts, & penguins. I was sad to miss the sermon on the Reason for God but glad to serve. I enjoyed seeing a different level of the behind the "sceneness" of church planting. They had to set up and tear down the church

Ate lunch at Four Burgers and got a veggie burger with guacamole and sweet potato fries. We had fun but we had to go downstairs to use the bathroom and it was quite scary. Then we went back to the hotel. Some groups went to H&M. Grace and I napped/ read/. Then we went out together at 5 to walk around. We went to Quincy Market. This was so fun and beautiful! We saw a statue of Samuel Adams and some other guys that we couldn't find the markers for :). There were tons of shops and kiosks. We found one of the Cheers locations. (Not the original where it was filmed but still cool.) This was fun!

We walked back to the hotel to meet up with the group and the group decided to go to Quincy Market too. We were happy to return. When we went the second time we walked through the actual Quincy Market seeing all of the restaurant stands. Then we walked through a Holocaust memorial. One quote from that that stands out to me said something to the effect of: "The United States knew about the concentration camps in 1942 but did not do anything about it." The memorial consisted of around 5-7 glass towers several stories high. On the inside of the glass, the numbers of each person killed in the holocaust here lithographed. There was an outer layer of glass with quotes from Holocaust survivors. It was really incredible.

Next we ate dinner at an italian restaurant where we made friends with the waitress and talked about the day. We are hanging out with our new friend Christy on Wed!

PS. I talked to someone today about the housing situation. They said that many houses are like that. That they houses are built to have each floor a different apartment. (Which I think is so cool b/c it is so much prettier than apartment buildings, but their are still apartments up here too...)

In Boston!

So it's the first night in Boston. I'm sitting on the hotel bed, Grace is reading her Bible next to me and Lauren is getting ready for bed. It's so fun to be with friends and serving the Kingdom of God.

We started today bright and early but not without a few delays. Lauren overslept so when we got to her apartment she was asleep and Calvin met us late too! :) Victoria said it wouldn't be a trip if someone wasn't late! She was right. The ride was fun signing old songs like "Sing, Lavish Him with Love... open up your hearts in the sanctuary..." Then we all said aloud the "virtuous woman" confession Victoria had on her ipod! Things like "I am a virtuous woman of God. As a righteous woman of favor I have a right to expect great things..."

The flight was great sitting next to Papa Jones. As we flew in we could saw snow and frozen lakes. I have never seen that from an airplane, it was really cool looking, no pun intended! ;) All of the little islands off the coast off Massachusetts were beautiful, some were just large boulders in the water.

Donny met us at the airport where we also met other new friends Darrick & Madel. We later met up with Adam as well. (Donny and Adam are the pastors of the Aletheia Church. Which in the greek means truth.) We made our way to the Holiday Inn which is really nice. Then had a blast picking out foods at the Whole Foods Market buffet for a late lunch. This is always a fave even though it's only my second time eating there. I have a feeling we will eat there a bit more since it's so close to our hotel.

After a short respite we started to make our way to Donny and Adam's house around 6pm. They live in a triplex? (One house where each floor is like an apartment..) We walked and took the "T line" their subway. We walked through Harvard's Campus which was really cool. Ps, when I was in middle school my family visited New England so this is my second time to Boston. I recognized the statue of John Harvard but can't wait to see the campus in the daytime! I Can't wait to take pictures of all of the brick architecture. It was really exciting walking through the campus. I was glad I saw the move the Social Network about Facebook. (Fb was started at Harvard.) It is so cool to think that this campus is where lots of our political figures, presidents, and other influential people study.

Walking through the old neighborhoods to their house was cool. I loved seeing all the old houses and thinking about who lived there over the course of history. It was so good to meet the Donny and Adam's wives Janna and Hope. They had the most precious children. Combined their were 6 kids; 2 babies and 4 little girls sitting at a small children's table eating pizza like little ladies.

Both wives are really nice but I immediately connected with Janna and felt like I had known her for years. I told her we could be best friends and she said we already are! ;) Can't wait to talk with her more and get to know her! Donny and Janna worked for 7 year I think in Florida doing Campus Ministry and Adam and Hope worked in Edinburg, Scotland. Hearing their heart for the city of Boston was incredible. Donny spoke about how he love campus ministry. His heart beats for C.M. so much that he felt God calling him to move is family away from their tight knit extended families in FL thousands of miles away, to another culture to advance the Kingdom of God. Nick told Donny and Janna something to the effect of don't thank our team of 12 for coming for a week, we thank you. Y'all are the "heros." Janna said "we don't feel like heros." Gosh that is so much their heart, that they have really laid down their lives for the Gospel. Not just in ministry but to ministry but to do it all humbly for Him. Not for themselves but for eternity.

They gave us pointers for evangelizing. As it turns out, I don't feel I missed anything for not reading those books. For one Adam is doing a 12 part series on Tim Keller's book The Reason for God. He also shared on how you don't have to get into an argument or debate on the theory of evolution. He talked about how people will want to pull you into conversations about their area of interest or specialty, but not to go there, to talk about Jesus and focus on talking about Jesus. At the end of the day Jesus is what everyone anywhere need to hear about no matter your background, IQ, or ethnicity.

They also talked about how the only thing that "works" in Boston to reach the people is the Gospel. Shocking I know.. ;) They said that cool graphics, slick advertising, strategically planned events etc don't "work." Only the Gospel. This was refreshing for my soul to hear. It is true the Gospel is the Gospel and is the only thing that will change anyone's heart.

BOSTON TOMORROW

I'm so excited about going to Boston tomorrow am. We have to wake up at the crack of dawn! :) We are leaving Greenville at 6am to drive to Raleighwood for our 9am flight. I am packed and ready to go. With a huge suitcase to check under the plane, a tote bag and a pillow for a carry on. Alex has been spending the night this week (she came down to help with the church children's consignment sale) so that has been nice. Except She got sick last night and still feels really bad. I hope she gets better soon. But it was nice for her to help me pack.

I got my hair cut today and ran a ton of errands so it's nice for all of that to be done!

We were supposed to post our expectations on the TenDays Facebook page, so here is what I posted:

Expectations:

-to be able to flow in the gifts of the spirit and for that to open someone's heart for the Lord. I think it would be so cool to pray for healing and see some healed or receive a word of knowledge etc.

- to meet some girls from political families or interested in politics themselves and for them to come to know the Lord I think it would be cool to meet someone influential!

-to bring more excitement for evangelism back to ECU. I love doing evangelim on ECU's campus so I am really excited to evangelize in another city- especially a northern city. I wanted to read all of these books to help with evangelism (More than a carpenter, the reason for God, I want to bear fruit...)before I left but haven't completed that! Will maybe take something to read on the plane.

-to learn about church plants and campus ministry plants This is something I am interested in long term so I really would love to learn all I can. This is also something I think that you would have to learn a lot about from hands on experience rather than just books.

-to have fun and bond with ECU friends! :) Super excited about everyone going.I'm sure there will be good times had by all! :)

PS:

-My endoscopy went well. The doctors found nothing!! They have me taking my medicine twice a day now instead of once!

-My car still has the big black smudge. Waiting on the check from OLD BAY Insurance to come in....

-FYI Ollies has many books, but no good study Bibles. Unless you want a Catholic one or one with Apocrypha. Not up my alley. Wasn't thrilled with Barnes and Nobles selection and when I wheeled into Gville's Christian book store they were already closed... So after break that's where I will be headed before 6pm :)