Why I am Blogging (This is a long post, oh so sorry! They all won't be like this I promise!)

I started this blog to document my summer working on staff with World Changers. I have been thinking about blogging for quite awhile now, but I never knew what I would blog about! I feel though that this summer is going to be amazing, and I want to share it with you guys! On my blog, I am going to try to be as transparent as possible. I enjoy transparency in people's blogs that I follow. So if I am having a tough day, I am going to tell you that I am having a tough day! Or if I am beyond joyful, you are going to know that I am beyond joyful! I want my blog to be very real and not sugar coated. I also plan on posting some serious as well as insanely funny things, whatever I am in the mood for really! Haha!

Well, you may be asking yourself, "What is World Changers?" Well, I am so glad you asked! It is a ministry through the North American Mission Board that allows youth groups from all over the country to come into urban areas and do construction work for people living in lower income areas. Youth groups are split up and put into teams aka "crews". The crews are then assigned to a project, and they work on their project site for the whole week. The crews could be doing anything from painting or power washing to even roofing! It really depends on what all the homeowner needs done. Even though the construction is rewarding at the end of the week, that is not the primary reason World Changers is there. I mean, the roofing that the crews do will need to be redone in a few years, or there will anyways need to be another coat of paint in a few years....etc. This makes me think of the verses in Matthew that say, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21 ESV). The ultimate goal of the construction is to show the community that the Body of Christ loves them. And through the meeting of the physical needs that they have, we are able to open the door to share the Gospel with the community. In my previous experiences with WC as a student, I was able to talk to not only the homeowner of the house, but also neighbors and other people in the community who had questions about why some youth were spending a week out of their summer to do hard manual labor for people we didn't even know in a community where we didn't even live. This obviously presents the opportunity to share the Gospel to them!

Now you may be thinking, "Well Carly, how did you get on staff and what will you be doing all summer?" Well, aren't you too sweet for wondering! I started the application process in the fall after my youth minister, Nathan, told me about it. I prayed a few weeks about it and then started the application process, which consisted of a lot of paper work, a phone interview (which for me ended up being in person since the amazing Ashley Tucker was at Union for the weekend! whoop whoop!), and then an interview weekend in Nashville. Surprisingly, throughout all the various interviews, I had a peace about the whole thing. I never was really nervous or anxious, which is soooo out of character. Haha! I found out in February that I had been hired for the position I had applied for, which is an "Office Manager." There are a lot of things that I will be responsible for, but I won't go into any details now....but lets just say it is a great thing that I am a type A and organized person. I am going to be using my organization and multitasking skills all summer long! I am on the "Mid-West Team." On our team, there are four college students (2 girls and 2 boys), and we will be together all summer long and work all of our assigned camps together. If you would like to pray for them by name, that would be great! Logan is our AV guy/team leader. Jared is our worship leader. And Devan is our Missions Communicator Specialist! I am super pumped about our team. Jared and Logan have worked WC before, and me and Devan are both new! We will be working camps in Salt Lake City, UT, Tulsa, OK, St. Louis, MO, and Joplin, MO! I am so excited! I fly out for training early (like 6am early) on Sunday, May 29! Well, I guess that is all I will write for now! Here are some pictures from last years World Changers that I participated in at East St Louis! **I am posting these because I can't stand reading blogs where people don't post pictures! Haha! So I will always try to include pictures on my blog! :)**

Me and my girls being cheesy in our WC shirts and clean tool belt thingys! (this was obviously the first day!)

My crew! We were hot and sweaty...which is to be expected at WC!

My crew, the local church that provided our lunch each day on the work site, as well as the homeowner Mr. John!