Sunset over the Pacific Ocean :)

View of the courtyard outside my dorm room 

Team go pro picture on the beach in San Diego :)

Lauren, Christine, and I at registration

After the San Diego camp finished, Jenny rejoined our team and gave me the biggest bear hug I have ever received in my life. ;) This girl is such a blessing!

This is my "I'm tired but so happy face" ;) My family sent a care package to me and it blessed my socks off :D

San Diego was such a week of growth for me in many ways. There was laughter and there were also a lot of tears. I was comforted and encouraged, challenged and surprised, loved and revived......

A passage that stood out to me at the end of the week was Jeremiah 17:5-8, "Thus says the Lord, 'Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. For he will be like a bush in the desert and will not see when prosperity comes but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitant. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trusts is the Lord. For he will be like a tree planted by the water that extends its roots by a stream. And will not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be green and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit." At San Diego, my strength ran out in a whole new way when I heard sobering and painful news from back home. I realized that no matter how much I fretted about it, I could not change the situation. God convicted me about how I was trusting in my own strength and not in his. I was like the bush in the desert described in Jeremiah 17....but God was calling me to be like the tree planted by the water. As I wrestled over the weekend, God's mercies became very evident to me in a new way. I love how closely God walks with me both when I am doing well and when I am struggling.

Here are my bullet points of blessing from the week. 

• Having my roommate Jenna surprise me by tickling me until I was giggling really hard ;)
• Palm trees
• The gorgeous ocean
• Trip the the grocery store as a team late at night
• Seeing "Inside Out" with my team 
• Finding shells on the beach with Lauren, one of the faculty kids, who is my buddy. :)
• Warm showers
• Finding a neat little notebook at a beach shop in San Diego to write more blessings in because I have almost completed my current blessings book
• Good long talk with Ashley
• Sunsets over the ocean
• Getting to play "nurse" for the various injuries on our team ;)
• The wisdom of our leadership team
• Having my heart break for one of my students....I realized that it is easy to become numb as the weeks go on, but I was encouraged again to let my heart be both excited for and broken for my girls each week
• The huge hill on campus that gave me a workout each day 
• Peppermint tea on an unsettled stomach one morning
• Ultimate frisbee game with just the staff when the students were in a lecture
• Having my female staff director, Amy, surprise us girls with a bible study time complete with fresh raspberries, strawberries, and 70% dark chocolate and studying the book of Philippians.
• God giving me fresh ideas for questions to ask my girls even when my mind was tired
• Peaches and pears in peanut butter
• Hearing one of my quieter girls pray for the group
• American Idol staff skit where we all got to act ridiculous and make the students laugh. ;)
• Getting my tears out and being comforted by Amy as I sobbed
• Talking to a dear friend on the phone twice

I can look back on this week and proclaim the truth of  Lamentations 3 when it says, "The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease; for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness." In the midst of my exhaustion and weakness, God blessed me each day with new mercies and truly helped my heart to sing even when it was difficult. 

I am excited to continue to see what this next week holds and how the Lord will continue to mold and shape me into his image.

~Rachel