Well guys...

God has taken me on quite a journey. I've been here just over a week and have been offered the opportunity to work at an adolescent center. Something I've known, since my 4th month in Teen Challenge as a student, that I was supposed to do. Nothing is set in stone at this point and I'm waiting to hear back about it. I love both the staff and students here and they've brought so much to my life in less than two weeks! It's been weird not being in Oklahoma but I know that God has GREAT plans for me! The adolescent center I would be going to is still in Virginia about two hours away from where I am now. Please keep me in your prayers as this decision is being made!

Week 1

Okay, so it's been a few days! It's been the same ol' same ol' around here minus the move which has gone really well! However, I may or may not have big news! I just don't know yet! Stay tuned! :) 

Staff

One of the weirdest things about being here is being a staff member. I graduated Teen Challenge over a year ago and I never thought I would be here. It's a different side of TC. I have to set an example to these women. To show them that God is just and righteous! That He's not a big guy that sits on His throne bossing us around. He is the Healer, The Lord of Lords, and King of Kings! He is more than we can EVER want or imagine! He loves us so much that He sent His own Son to die for us! People who are so unworthy of that kind of love! But more than that, they can find healing from their addiction, sin, hatred, bitterness, and resentment. I got asked what my "drug of choice" was and I told the woman that drugs weren't my struggle. However, I did have one: unforgiveness. I had hatred and resentment buried in my heart and I THRIVED on it. I didn't get a high from it, but I was so addicted to those  feelings that I couldn't live my life anymore! I couldn't function. I hurt those around me. I caused a scene wherever I went. I was depressed and a VERY unhappy little girl. I say that because that's not how a woman is supposed to act. This wasn't a planned post, it just kinda happened. All that I can say is that God has set me free from those things and it's such a wonderful place to be at!

Big Changes!

Today has been pretty chill! I probably won’t post my schedule anymore. Mostly because it’s usually always the same. The things that will normally change is what we do for work! Today we went and painted! The family attends Potter’s House, the church SVTC attends. I mostly supervised because they were working on trim and I can’t do trim. If you saw my bedroom when I painted it at Dad’s house, you know that it was a DISASTER. I got paint in all the wrong places! Ahhh! Anyway. The girls did so well today! They(all three of them) worked really well together and we laughed and had a great time! A lot got accomplished and we go back tomorrow to do some more.

Onto the big news…

WE’RE MOVING!!

In order to make room for the men on campus, the ladies and female staff are going to what used to be the chapel! Although I’ve only been on the mountain for a short time, I will miss it! Thankfully, it isn’t far so I can come photograph anytime! J

That’s really all I have for tonight! It’s been a wonderful day! :D

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Today was my first full day of work and it was absolutely wonderful! Here was my schedule for the day:

6 AM – Wake up

                Devotional

                Read my Bible – That usually consists of opening up to a random page and reading a chapter. Anyone have any suggestions on a good daily plan?

7 AM – Breakfast

7:30 AM – Leave for work!

8 AM – Work time! Today we bagged phone books! It was definitely something I had never done before, but the girls had a system going that made it a lot easier! Since I got my nails done last week I just bagged and one of the girls tied them all for me. It actually made it A LOT faster to do it that way! We bagged, tied, and stacked 3,200 phone books and finished them all by 1! We all forgot about lunch because we were so determined to get it all finished! J

1 PM – Swimming in the creek! Since we finished so early we(the girls, myself, and another staff member) all hung out at this creek that was under a bridge! Hearing the cars pass by really freaked me out! Eventually I didn’t even notice them! It was really relaxing until everyone but me and one student saw a snake in the water. None of them wanted to get back in! Hahaha! They did after about 20 minutes and the fun continued!

5 PM – We came home and hung out for a bit. The girls went and cleaned and stuff and I hung out around campus until dinner.

5:30 PM – DINNER. It was so yummy! I love hamburgers!

5:45 PM – Ladies’ Staff Meeting with Pastor Ashley. We went over some rules and our schedules for the week and talked about some things around campus. It’s weird being in this position having been a student. I always wanted to know what was talked about at Staff Meeting when I was at NLH and I bet it was like this. I had to get onto one of the lady’s because of her attitude and I wasn’t sure if I handled it correctly. Being a teenager in a position of authority over someone with children my age(or sometimes older)  is strange. I was afraid that my age would be a disadvantage but a couple of staff members have reassured me that it didn’t matter. I was told that a lot when I was at Teen Challenge. Age is just a number in the program. I feel honored that I have been placed in this position!

6:30 PM – GSNC class! I remember taking this class at Teen Challenge and loved it! It was very interactive which I enjoyed! This is actually for the girls led by Pastor Ashley. I went tonight because she reviewed some of the rules and I’m not completely caught up on them. The review was good! Some of the rules are more lax here than at New Life House so I don’t want to write them disciplines for something they’re not doing wrong! I would feel really bad!

7:00 PM – Down time! I am off for the rest of the night so I just get to hang out! Right now it’s storming so I’ll probably take a shower soon. If it doesn’t pass I guess I’ll just take one anyway! LOL. Creek water is icky!

I got my schedule for the rest of the week! My first night watch is Saturday! Since the girls will be sleeping I’m not too worried about it, but it’s weird being called a staff member and having some of those same duties that my staff members had!

The girls(They’re all older than me, but I’ll still call them girls. I’ll always be a “New Life House Girl.”) are so fun! Like all TC students, they have their struggles but their personalities still shine through! They each remind me of at least one girl I was in the program with! 

Picture time! :)

Some pictures I took after dinner today. No words are necessary. God's Creations are truly beautiful! :D 

I Made It!!

So I got in at about 10:30 last night(EST)! My roommate Stephanie is such a sweetheart and everyone here is extremely welcoming and just all around wonderful people! I don't feel nervous at all and apparently I've been talked about because the staff have been coming up to me saying, "Are you Taylor? I'm so and so!" I feel such a peace here! 
I got up this morning and did some exploring of campus and it's just gorgeous! I wish everyone could see it! I will post pictures as I take them, but they don't do this place and justice whatsoever! I've been seeing pictures on the SVTC Facebook page over the past few months so it's awesome seeing everything in person! I feel like I'm back at New Life House! It a lot like the same, but I'm not a student. It was always strange going and visiting being a "graduate." Here, the students know me as a staff member. Which is strange because I'm the youngest person on campus! 
Today is my day to just relax and explore and catch up on some things so that's what I'm going to do! :D 

Denver!

I just made it to Denver about half an hour ago! I'm waiting on my next flight into Washington D.C. I can't believe I'll be in Virginia so soon! :D

 

Last Day

Today is my last day full day In Edmond! I'm really nervous and it's really bittersweet! But instead of being able to enjoy these last few hours, I'm sitting watching the news and a tornado that is one mile away from me. My roommate is really nervous and then others are out in their swimsuits watching it outside. Silly people. There's hail. And it's golf ball sized. It just passed us but another one has touched down out by my mom. Looking at tornado number 5 here in Oklahoma. Please pray for the safety of those in OKC and the surrounding areas! Stay safe!! 

Hail and Farewell.

Over the past week I've been saying goodbye to family and friends. I don't think it's really hit me that I'm leaving yet. Tomorrow is Sunday and it will be my last day at Spring Creek Assembly. I haven't attended for very long but I'm very sad to be leaving.
I haven't even begun to pack. Instead of doing that I'm watching CSI: Miami and blogging and pretty much anything not related to packing. I HATE packing. It's so tedious! I leave Monday out of OKC! It's so close!

My Testimony

I’ve known that God had big plans for me from the moment I was born. I’m a miracle, you see. I was born 3 ½ months early. In 1993 that was kind of a big deal. The doctors really weren’t sure that I would make it. They said that if I did I would be mentally retarded and unable to ever function on my own. Fortunately, my family serves a VERY big God who had plans for me just as large and to this day I’ve never struggled with much as far as my mental/physical functioning goes. I got a 26 on my ACT the first time I took it and made A’s and B’s my Junior and Senior year of high school and got a 3.5 GPA my first semester of college! 
Anyway, my birth mother wasn’t at a place where she could properly care for me and she and my father weren’t married, so they decided to put me up for adoption. I wasn’t legally adopted until I was 10 months old because of all the time I spent in the hospital. My adoptive parents divorced when I was 7 and that’s when things really started affecting me. My first 7 years of life were fairly uneventful. Well, except for when I was first born, but I don’t remember it.

When my parents divorced my mom immediately remarried and my mom and I relocated to Moore, OK where we moved in with my stepdad. I had never even met him yet. Regardless, things were going extremely well. He welcomed me with open arms and loved me like I was his own daughter. I had never seen my mom so happy! I started playing softball and absolutely loved it! My stepdad was my coach and my mentor. I loved him like he was my dad.

My father and I weren’t very close when I was little because he lived in Texas and had other priorities and he was also trying to get his practice up and running(he’s a chiropractor).

Everything was fine for the most part, but my mom had a bit of a temper and one night it got out of control and I was placed in foster care because she left a huge bruise on my shoulder. I was 10. Ever since then I’ve known that I am going to be a foster mother.

When I was 13 my stepdad had an affair with my mom’s best friend. It really shook up our family, but even though my stepdad was the one that lied and didn’t come clean, she decided to stay with him anyway. Things really started changing after that. He became very bitter and wasn’t like himself. He had never raised his voice to me or my mom but that changed. He would work overtime so he wouldn’t have to come home to us. Sometimes I wish he would have filed for divorce, but he never did.

Then two years later, when I was 15, things changed again- for the worse. That was when he started molesting me. When I finally told my mom she didn’t get angry with him. She got angry with me. She said that she couldn’t believe that after all she had been through that I would try to ruin her marriage. To this day she doesn’t believe me. Things were very tense the next 9 months. I begged and begged my dad to come and get me and take me away from my mom and stepdad but since he didn’t know what was going on, he thought everything was fine.

Then one day I came home from school and there was this ugly green station wagon in my driveway that I had never seen before. It was weird! So I went inside and on the couch was my uncle Tiger. He drove 9 hours from Austin, TX to come see us which was extremely odd. He told me to pack a week’s worth of clothes because he was taking me to Norman to stay with my grandmother. I had absolutely no idea what was going on. At the time my dad didn’t either. My mom called him and said that he had to go get me from my grandmother’s house because I had to go live with him.

My dad wasn’t too thrilled but he took me in anyway. Things were alright at first. It was the summer before my junior year of high school. I got a job, started attending a local church, made some friends, and even got a boyfriend. After the third day with him I decided that I didn’t want a boyfriend at all so we just stayed friends. Looking back, I wish I had stayed with him because when school  started things really went downhill. I quit my job, started hanging out with the wrong people, started skipping school, and getting into a lot of fights with my dad and stepmom. I’m not even sure why.

My stepmom decided to leave and divorce my dad and he really blamed me for it. It was October at this point. She told both of us that she planned on leaving in December anyway, so it wasn’t my fault. That didn’t stop him from believing it was. Things were just really tense and I began rebelling in my own way. It was slowly, but I did. My dad got tired of it and decided to send me to Teen Challenge. In the beginning I was glad because I was out of that town. I didn’t even care about being away from my dad because he didn’t want to have a relationship with me anyway.

I entered the program on January 21, 2011 and it was hard and crazy and fun and everything in between. I lived with 14-19 other girls at a time and there was a lot of drama, but every moment was worth it! I remember when I finally gave everything to Him and it was like this huge weight was lifted off my shoulders!

The day I graduated was very bittersweet and I’ve regretted not staying on as an intern. Now that all this time has passed I know that God will open doors so I can continue to be a part of this ministry!

Countdown: 8

In 8 days I board a plane in Oklahoma City that will take me two hours away from Washington D.C.(Come on, did you really think that I would post where I'll be living on here?) ;) I will be an intern for a year with a ministry called Teen Challenge. I won't go too in depth because it would take a long time to explain all about Teen Challenge! However, if you would like to know more about the history, you can click here.

A link to my testimony can be found here.

Today is Mother's Day. It is also my farewell with my family today. I've never been away from home, aside from my time as a student in Teen Challenge. Which, let's face it, was not like being away from home. While I'll still have guidance and counsel, I'll have much more responsibility and freedom. It takes the right person for those two things to coincide, but I know I am up for the challenge, no matter how scary.

Lately I've been really stressed. I'm trying to find someone to takeover my lease on my apartment, packing, going to class and studying for finals. In all of that I've slipped up. I've lost focus on the goal that God has set before me. I've been praying and seeking wise counsel and going to church, but I haven't really RUN after God with everything I have like I used to. And I am ashamed. I gave Satan a foothold by letting everyday life become more important than my walk with Christ. I've done this over the past couple of weeks and I've really noticed a difference in my life.

 I don't think people realize what life is like without Christ. I don't know if I've really and truly known that place. That sense of complete confusion, loss, and just... Emptiness? I was raised with a belief in God but it wasn't until I started participating in my youth group that I really knew what a relationship with Him was like. I want to be that girl in middle school and early years of high school again that was so on fire for God and that so longed to draw nearer to Him that I would BEG my mother to take me to church! Where did that girl go? The girl that was 2 months away from graduating from Teen Challenge? Where is she, because I want to find her again!

I just opened up my Bible to Psalm 28 and read it and I couldn't hold back my tears. God always knows what I need without fail!

1To you, Lord, I call;

you are my Rock,

do not turn a deaf ear to me.

For if you remain silent,

I will be like those who go down to the pit.

2Hear my cry for mercy

as I call to you for help,

as I lift up my hands

toward your Most Holy Place.

3Do not drag me away with the wicked,

with those who do evil,

who speak cordially with their neighbors

but harbor malice in their hearts.

4Repay them for their deeds

and for their evil work;

repay them for what their hands have done

and bring back on them what they deserve.

5Because they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord

and what his hands have done,

he will tear them down

and never build them up again.

6Praise be to the Lord,

for he has heard my cry for mercy.

7The Lord is my strength and my shield;

my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.

My heart leaps for joy,

and with my song I praise him.

8The Lord is the strength of his people,

a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.

9Save your people and bless your inheritance;

be their shepherd and carry them forever.

Shawn and Shanon(the director's at New Life House and Brush Creek) always talked about how God doesn't call the equipped. He equips the called. And believe me, I have felt everything but equipped these past two months. I've messed up. But here's what's so amazing about my God!! His mercies are new EVERY morning! And He forgives me even when I can't forgive myself! Isn't that just amazing?! I am so incredibly blessed to be apart of Teen Challenge! I know that even though I graduated the program a year ago that Teen Challenge did not end for me! I want to go to college after this internship is over but I know that I will go back to Teen Challenge one day! Praise the Lord for His grace and unfailing love!