thankful | my church family

To my church:

thank you.

thank you for your support.

thank you for listening to my stories, for asking me how i'm doing, for caring so incredibly much.

i'm so blessed to be a part of a church that supports the youth so wholeheartedly.

I thought it was the norm, having a church who is so supportive of the youth and young adults- financially, through prayer, through emotional support, and through helping us debrief by listening to our stories. apparently it's not... and i'm so beyond blessed.

thank you for absolutely making my day by coming through my till at my old job, chatting about how I was doing and asking about this trip.

thank you for donating financially for everything i'm doing, whether camp or Guatemala or SOAR or YWAM.

thank you for reading my blog, for your emails, for checking up on how i'm doing.

being gone, I have realized how much I actually miss you guys. I miss how everyone sits in the same spot every sunday, youth on the right and c&c on the left and young parents in the back. I miss laughing at church, every single sunday. I've been learning that one of the ways the Holy Spirit can show itself is through laughter, because the joy of the Lord is our strength. I think the Holy Spirit shows up in how you, the congregation of FGMB, love on each other. He shows up in how you laugh, how you care for each other, even if they haven't been to church in a long time, how you invite God into every decision, and how you are so mission focused.

one of the 18 values YWAM has is to go and champion young people. to support them and raise them up to do great things, to pray for them and to give financially to them. You, church, are the living embodiment of what it means to champion young people. it seems like every few months i'm up sharing about something else that I've done and that God's been doing in me... and I can't WAIT to come home and share with you what God's been doing in my life.

to the youth- thank you for being my family. you were the place I always fit when I never thought I fit anywhere else. with you guys, I could be myself. we were a family, where we supported each other, prayed for each other, and loved on each other. you were the best example of faith community that I had. I loved every night we had together; playing alien night squadron, making soup, discussing the just war theory, getting banished to the bottom of the stairs for hanky panky, jamming out to DC Talk and Stryper and U2, dancing together, sitting at the back in the sanctuary at SOAR together every year, and just generally laughing together.

church, I miss you so much. please keep us in your prayers as we continue to serve and learn. keep praying for my stomach, as we're under attack from Satan this week as we learn about spiritual warfare... and I get attacked by bad health quite often.

thank you church for all you've done for me. i'm blessed to be a part of the congregation. thank you for giving me my best friends, my mentor, and the people I look up to. thank you for challenging me, supporting me, and loving me.

you are the church.

thank you.

-Cailey

"Give me all of you! I don't want so much of your time, so much of your talents and money, and so much of your work. I want YOU! ALL OF YOU! I have not come to frustrate the natural man or woman, but to kill it! no half measures will do so. I don't want to prune a branch here and a branch there; rather I want the whole tree out! hand it over to me, the whole outfit, all of your desires, all of your wants and wishes and dreams. Turn them ALL over to me, give yourself to me and I will make of you a new self- in My image. Give me yourself and in exchange I will give you myself. My will shall become your will. My heart shall become your heart." -CS Lewis, Mere Christianity