Before I Head For London...

having trouble viewing my newsletter? try clicking the link below:
Rachael's Summer Newsletter

summer time

 

well, howdy-do to you!
every time that I write a blog, I tell myself that I am going to write more often. and every time, it doesn't happen. so with this blog, I will tell you everything (kind of) that I am doing this summer. everything(ish) I have done so far, as well as my current plans for the rest of it, just in case I don't get back to this for awhile. now, of course I hope to continue to write throughout the rest of my summer after each stop. post a few pictures, and share my new memories, you know. but if that does not happen, I apologize in advance.
however,  I now have the blogger app. on my new iphone (so thankful for upgrades). so this should, in theory, make blogging as I travel a much more feasible feat. we'll see.

here we go...

this summer has already proven itself to be one that will be highlighted and remembered through the rest of my days. first off, this is the last summer I will spend with my baby brother before he heads off to college in jackson, ms. on a soccer scholarship to belhaven university in the fall! secondly, I am not holding anything back, and God isn't either.

if you know me, or read my previous blogs, you know that I am BLESSED to be a missionary with arts with a mission, and that each summer I work with performing arts summer camps that "raise up an army of artistic ambassadors". we pour as much Jesus and creativity into them as we can in the first few days of camp, then we spend the final days going out as a camp and pouring out everything we have gotten into this Jesus-thirsty world! read more about the camps here: http://www.artswithamission.org/AWAM_Camp-Tyler.html

we, as AWAM, run these camps in tyler, dallas, and (for the first time this year) san antonio, tx. as well as in chicago, il. the camps in tyler and dallas have already been completed. here are a few pictures and attached stories:

 

one of our morning worship times 

me sharing at a morning session in tyler

my cousin Ethan (the bleach-blonde cutie in the hat) got to come in from colorado for our camp in tyler. it was so fun getting to have him around for a week! Bryann was the recipient of our inner-city scholarship, and came in from Dallas. he's attended camp in dallas for  number of years, and was such a blessing to have in tyler this year. Ethan and Bryann became good buds, but were also awesome and caring nursing home ministry partners.

 Jonathan (the baby brother that's leaving me for college in the fall) ministering at a nursing home in tyler.


at the end of the week we take the oldest group of campers on an overnight outreach to dallas. this is the "delta group" performing on that outreach

tyler campers talking and praying for a man at the dart(metro) station

meet emilio. he just moved to dallas from houston, and I met him while the tyler camp group I was leading on outreach to dallas was ministering at the dart station. we had a powerful spanglish conversation, and an even more moving and powerful time of prayer full of not only english and spanish, but tongues, and laughter. I believe that God sets up and orchestrates divine appointments, and I believe that this was one of those. after our meeting, I don't think either of our lives will be the same. and I am thankful.

 

tyler campers performing at six flags

(most of) the whole tyler crew after our final performance

DALLAS:

me sharing at the dallas camp

Holly (artreach-er) praying for her small group in dallas

Victoria (my sweet little sister) praying with her small group in dallas

my small group on the last day in dallas

in dallas our team went rollerblading. all the pictures are blurry... cause I was skating so fast...or at least that's what I'm telling myself

dallas camper and Luke (artreach-er) ministering at a nursing home

dallas camp's final ministry location: dallas international street church

meet Shemika. you know when your spirit jumps right out of your body and makes a connection instantly with another's spirit without either of you being involved in the process? well, that's what happened with me and this lovely lady a year ago when I was in dallas with the campers at international street church. this past week we got to find each other again. she told me something wonderful this time around: last year when I prayed for her, one of her main requests was that she would be able to find her children who she'd been separated from during a time when she wasn't following God's plan for her life. guess wat's happened this past year? she found them! please pray that she will continue to meet with them, follow God's plan and will, and build a relationship with her kids. her love for her children is tremendous, pray that she'll continue to be able to show and share it with them, and when the time comes, to regain full custody.

group of Dallas campers praying for a man at international street church

back to now (as in literally right now. I'm in the van) we're headed of to san antonio, where we'll be running a shorter version of the camp at a housing project, as well as doing other evangelism through the city. I am so excited for this upcoming time!

after s.a., our team will be heading to joplin, mo. where mass amounts of destruction were caused by a huge and devastating tornado last year. last summer we went to joplin to do deconstruction work with americorps, and youth work in elementary schools and with the ymca. this summer we will be going back and doing similar work with these same groups... I'll hopefully post some more about this while we're there... pray for the families who lost everything, and are struggling to continue recovering from this tragedy. nothing is ever too big for God. ever.

then last, but certainly not least on my AWAM summer outreach tour of the states... CHICAGO!! "my kind of town" I love chicago. it is my most favorite-est city in the u.s. we will be running our final camp of the summer there the week of July 8th. chicago camp always holds some kind of hidden treasure and surprise for me. I'll let you know what that is when I find out for myself...

the very ending bit of my summer will begin july 24th, and will run through to mid august. what will I be doing in this month, you ask? well let me tell you... I will be heading over to london, england to do art evangelism right in the thick of the olympic games! I will spend about a week there solo staying with a totally and completely God-orchestrated friend... it's a longer story that I'll write about on the plane ride there... speaking of, here is another totally and completely God-orchestrated happening. I was donated a non-stop ticket to london! like I said, God's hand has been all over this summer, and it's barely even started. the next week I will spend in london with a team from the ywam ålesund base, where I did my dts 2 and some years ago. I am so excited to connect with old friends, and to meet new ones. the rest of my time will be spent doing train and art evangelism as I travel from country to country in europe, reconnecting with fellow friends I met in ywam during my dts.
more information about my trip to europe will come as I discover it.

much love to you my friends, family, followers, supporters, and prayer warriors.
I appreciate the various rolls you play in my life tremendously.
shalom

ahh! I should have posted a few of these by now...

a few months back I posted about going and auditioning for the diary of anne frank at the tyler civic theatre. well, my sister got the role of anne the next day, and I now realize that I never bragged about her on here. so here I go... MY SISTER IS STARRING AS ANNE IN THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK!!!! SHE'S SO GREAT!!! here is the psa for the show:

and to think she was about to not audition! makes you wonder how many things we can miss out on in life just because we don't go for it... I am so proud of you tori, and I am happy that you came with me to auditions that night. they couldn't have picked a better girl for the job!

another thing that I should have posted about was that I had a wonderful get away with my mom for new years. we went to florida where we visited my grandma and her new beautiful home, the beach, aunts, cousins, second cousins, a best friend, and a few things in between. while I was there my cousin's boyfriend gave me my first tattoo. I have been wanting a tattoo for over 7 years, and am so happy to have finally gotten one, and am even more happy about the result. if you want to see more pictures, I have an album up on my facebook.

it is norwegian for the word love, and is the word most often used to describe the love of God.
1 corinthians 13:7-(the first sentence of)8 kjærligheten utholder alt, tror alt, håper alt, tåler alt. kjærligheten faller aldri bort.   
love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

1 john 4:8 God is love.

lastly, a few friends of mine from Norway surprised me with this little video and song "We Have The Best Chocolate, That You'll Ever Find, In the Whole Wide World. Yes!" yesterday. I have such funny and creative friends. I can't watch this without laughing.
https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?v=10150478085026721

as of late

salutations dear ones,
it has been quite the long while since summer, and I realize that I never wrote a blog about the things that I did throughout. I apologize for that. so, I am making up for it by writing it out now. here we go...

this summer, a lot of things happened. so many things, that in fact, I am going to forget to mention some of them. if you were a part of any of the unmentioned activities, please do not be offended. there's just not enough space to blog.

in the beginning (after God created the heavens and the earth), and all throughout my summer, I worked with arts with a mission (AWAM)'s summer performing arts camps (that I have been a part of, or working with, since I was quite a bit younger than I am now).

the first camp took place in tyler, texas. I lead the "D group" which is the highschool group. I was in charge of working with this group everyday, and was the point person for all things D group. last year was my first year leading this group in tyler. it is a lot of fun, and a lot of work, work that is well worth it.

 tyler campers performing at splash kingdom water park

tyler campers praying for a man we met on our outreach to dallas

the second camp took place in dallas, texas. I was also in charge on the D group in dallas. the dallas camp is geared more towards reaching inner city youth, and calling them out to the more that God has intended for their lives. the week in dallas is a spiritual battle. contending for the lives of the youth who come each day.

taylor and I... she was my right hand girl for the tyler and dallas camps

the third took place in chicago, illinois. chicago is my favorite city in the united states, each summer that we run our camp in chicago feels like coming home to me. I was also the D group coordinator in chicago, as well as a small group leader.

my small-group (the group we meet with daily,
to talk about how Jesus is rocking our worlds)
we always meet in the elevator. it's our thing every year

and the fourth, in goshen, indiana (this was the first year that we (AWAM) ran a camp in goshen. it was horse and buggy central. it was so cool).

I have mentioned the camps before, and that's because I love them. I believe in the works that God has done in and through the lives of the participants in each camp, each year. if you want to know more about the camps you can "click here" and you will be taken directly to the camp portion of the AWAM website (which I designed, by the way. it's my first full website to design.) (one of the products of my spring)

along with the 4 awam camps that I worked with, I also ran a "star" musical theatre camp at the tyler civic theatre, here in tyler, obviously. and I directed the chiluns in a mini-production of the play "antshillvania"

my little "infANT" trying out her costume

this summer we had a group of youth that have participated in our camps, as well as other various awam activities, through the years join us for our summer "artreach"

 this is the goshen group of volunteers

(you can also read a bit about artreaches on the awam website). artreaches are how I (and many of my friends, who are also now in full-time missions) first really got involved in missions during our summers. the goal of arts with a mission is "to raise up an army of artistic ambassadors" and that is exactly what they have done, and continue to do. I consider myself very privileged to get to be a part of awam as staff.

in between the four camps, some of these youth, as well as a group from my home church "new covenant church" (from here in tyler) joined awam and headed to joplin, missouri, where massive tornadoes tore apart a huge portion of the city, to do relief work.

our joplin group outside of "hope" highschool

 

 the other letters of "joplin" were ripped off by the storm

but hope remains

 armed with change collected by participants of our tyler camp (as well as others from around the world who heard about, and were moved to participate) as part of AWAM's "you CAN bring CHANGE" project.

where you take and ordinary can and go and collect as much spare change as possible, and then use that change to bring a positive change to this world.

during our time in joplin, we did de-construction of homes with Americorps:

mi familia sorting through the rubble of a home

art therapy with a variety of classes at a local elementary school with Art Feeds:

Jenica, with students from stapleton elementary

and more art therapy with multiple YMCA locations throughout the city:

I was amazed by the stories of the people I encountered; by the hope that was so evident when you looked in their eyes, despite the utter devastation that surrounded so many of them. whether they had lost a home, a friend, or a family member, the resilience of their spirit was inspiring!

another thing I found inspiring during my time in joplin, was getting to reconnect with some heart-friends from my dts, the paxtons.

these guys are something else, and I was quite blessed to get to spend time with them. let me tell ya. click here for the link to their website (and buy one of their albums while you're there. quality music, from some quality people)

well, that is a bit of some bits of my summer...

here is my shout-out to my friends that moved away from tyler at the end of this summer. I love you dearly, and anxiously await the time that our paths do come together again.
first, we have regina; she moved back to California at the very end of july

and more recently to leave my sight, we have julianne; she just moved to germany to do a dts at the beginning of september. you can check out her blog by clicking here

lastly, we have my momma. she is only gone for 2 weeks, but she is gone all the same. she is in norway teaching at 2 different training schools. one of which is where I did my dts. please be praying for her as she shares on God's original and redemptive purpose of the arts. and that jet lag will not steal all her sleep away from her. (yesterday was her birthday)

ha det, and thanks for reading

momma

today is my beautiful and fantastic mother's birthday. she is in norway, and I just wanted to post saying

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUMSY!!!!! 

I love you so much that I used capitals, and multiple exclamation points (if you know me, you know that that means something special). 

you are the best mom in the world. I love you to the moon and back.