Life After California...

The last 6 days have been some of the best, worst, and craziest days of my life. I came back to Texas on Sunday afternoon/evening and I have to say that Sunday was one of the hardest days of my life. I've struggled alot over the last several weeks with wanting and not wanting to come home, and Sunday all of those feelings hit me like a brick. I wanted to come home and see my family and friends, but at the same time, I didn't want to leave all that I had known for 10 weeks behind. I got to go to church on Sunday because my flight didn't leave until the afternoon, and while I'm glad I did, I think it made leaving that much harder. As I left 2nd service a little early to make it to the airport on time, I felt like I was leaving a piece of my heart behind. Dave met me outside the auditorium and asked if I was ok and I could only say "no" because I wasn't. I held it together pretty well on the way to the airport and when Dave dropped me off, but when I got on the plane, I couldn't do it anymore. Kara and I had made a CD earlier in the week of songs that kinda defined our summer in California and as I listened to those songs as we flew over Fresno/Clovis, I lost it. The lady that was sitting next to me probably thought I was a basketcase, but I am okay with that. I'm not normally a real emotional person in public, but I couldn't really help it. I loved Clovis and California and the people there and it hurt in my heart that I didn't know when I would be back to see those people and that place that had impacted my life over the course of a summer. It was a highly emotional time.

This week I've been busy with seeing family and getting ready to come back to Waco. It's been good to be surrounded by people and to be busy because I haven't had a chance to think about the fact that I'm back in the real world and not in California anymore, but at the same time, it's been kinda challenging. I've realized that I'm going to have to work hard not to revert back to Kimberly pre-California, that I'm going to have constantly pursue my relationship with God to stay solid in the decisions that I made this summer.

I ask that you guys (whoever is still reading this thing) to continue to pray for me. I'm really struggling with wanting to be here (school/Waco/Texas in general) when my heart just isn't in it. Some of my relationships here are suffering because of that because I just can't put into words what is going on in my heart. As I drove back to Waco yesterday I prayed for contentment, to be happy where God has me now-at Baylor, because I know that I have to finish school and I know that I have to live here at least until May.

Thanks guys! I appreciate it! I'll try to update more so stay tuned...
Kimberly

Camp...

This is from an email that I sent out a week or so ago...

Wow! It's hard to believe that I'm starting Week 10 here in Clovis this week! That means that in one week, I'll be on my way back to Texas! Craziness!! Anyway, I just wanted to send out a quick email and update you guys a little on what's been going on out here in the great state of California!

I've been at Camp for the last two weeks, the first week with Junior Highers and this past week with High Schoolers. We went to Centrifuge (a youth camp put on by LifeWay) up at Jenness Park, which is where we also had Summer Missionary Orientation. It's a beautiful place in the middle of mountains (I think the elevation is like 4000 feet or something but it might be more...). Junior High camp was a lot of fun and God moved in amazing ways. We talked about God with the abandoned, the poor, the sick, and the oppressed. It floored me how much some of our junior highers are going through and the family situations they come from. As we talked about God with the abandoned, some of their stories of times in their lives when they felt abandoned were so overwhelming. Wow. It was amazing to see God work in their lives and free them from some of the chains that have been holding them down for way too long. God definitely did a work in my heart as well as I experienced freedom in some areas of my life that have been holding me back for a while now. It was super sweet! :)

High school camp was amazing as well. It was good to reconnect with some of the kids that I met @ World Changers and hang out with them again. God did some amazing things in their lives, including calling one of my girls to missions and another one rededicated her life to Christ. It was simply incredible. Emerald, the girl that was called to missions, is such an amazing young lady. She just graduated from high school and will be attending a community college in Fresno in the fall. She was in my room @ World Changers and we really connected there and I've been praying all summer that she would accept the call that God has put on her life because I could tell God was working on her at World Changers. :) It was a great week and Clovis Hills has some amazing kids in their youth group, some of 'em have pretty rough backgrounds, but they are amazing nonetheless. :) I miss 'em already and I'm not even gone yet!

Anyway, needless to say, Camp was a great experience and I'm kinda sad it's over. God did some amazing things in my life as well as the life of our students! I am glad to be sleeping in "my own bed" again and without 20 girls in the room (peace and quiet is so nice!), but I kinda miss it already. :)


I'm sorry that I've been lazy in updating this the last few weeks. It seems like I've either been really busy or really tired. See all of you soon!

Kimberly

Picture Time!

I posted pictures from the last 5 weeks on Facebook today...check 'em out...if you don't have Facebook, you can go to the links below...I'm working on writing captions and stuff like that, but I wanted y'all to be able to see them...:)

Priceless Week, 4th of July, and Shaver Lake...http://baylor.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2120677&l=9a412&id=9203501
Road Trip, Part 1...http://baylor.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2120667&l=3a800&id=9203501
Road Trip, Part 2...http://baylor.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2120679&l=3f132&id=9203501
Junior High Camp...http://baylor.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2120683&l=50b6b&id=9203501
High School Camp...http://baylor.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2120684&l=4ff7a&id=9203501

Enjoy!!!

Sacramento, San Francisco, and SoCal (Vacation Week!!!)

So, as most of you know, Kara and I took a sweet road trip during week 7 of our California summer missions experience. We went to Sacramento on Monday and Tuesday and stayed at Kara's host mom's mother's house. It was a lot of fun and quite relaxing. I think we laughed more in those two days than the rest of the summer combined. Let's just say that we love adventure and those two days were definitely adventurous! :) We saw the State Capitol of California (sorry, no Arnold), shopped at the Outlet Mall, saw Evan Almighty, and visited Old Sacramento. It was a lot of fun and nice to get away for a couple of days. On Wednesday morning we got up and drove over to San Francisco for the day. What an adventure! Up to this point in my life, I had never driven in a "big city" except a couple of times in Houston and DFW. Thank goodness for good Mapquest directions and a lot of patience! :) We went back to Fisherman's Wharf and the Golden Gate Bridge as well as Coit Tower and a trip down Lombard Street (the crookedest street in the world)! It was fun to be able to see all of it without chasing junior highers down. San Francisco is such a cool city...so many different people...:) I loved it! There will definitely be pictures posted soon...:)

We drove back to Clovis on Wednesday evening and finally got back into town around 9:00 I think...to find out that Kara's host mom had hooked us up with a place to stay down in Santa Clarita (north of Los Angeles) for the next couple of days. So, we got up on Thursday morning with our amazing Thomas guide map and directions to a bunch of cool places to go and left for Santa Clarita/Los Angeles. It was totally different than anything I ever expected. I guess I didn't realize the mountains went right into the ocean and that they were everywhere down there. On Thursday we went down to Malibu and Santa Monica and hung out on the beach and at the Santa Monica Pier. It was so much fun and so beautiful! We watched the sun set (well kind of) and then went back to Santa Clarita. On Friday we got up and drove to San Diego to go to the San Diego Zoo. We also made a side trip through Newport Beach and Laguna Beach...so that we could say that we drove through the OC...hahaha...:) It was beautiful...and I'm a huge fan of the Pacific Coastal Highway now...:) So amazing! :) The Zoo was wow...simply incredible!!! It's right near downtown San Diego, but you would never know it! I got to see the pandas and polar bears and giraffes and elephants and lions and everything else you can imagine! The San Diego Zoo is somewhere I've always wanted to visit, so now I can say I have! :) On our way back to Santa Clarita, we stopped in Escondido and had dinner with the amazing Torrey Eckert (a Baylor/KXA friend) at Chick-Fil-A! :) It was refreshing to get to see someone that I have known longer than two months. :) On Saturday we went to Beverly Hills and Hollywood. It was not what I thought it would be, but it was fun to see all the places that people always talk about (Chinese theater, walk of fame, Hollywood sign, Rodeo drive). Again, pictures will be posted soon I hope. :)

All in all, the week was a lot of fun and Kara and I had a blast together. Our quest to see as much of California as we could in six days was very successful and I'm glad we had the opportunity to do it. I really want to come back someday and see all of it again and more. Oh how I love this place!

Priceless Slumber Party

The rest of Priceless was really good. Our slumber party was quite successfull, with lots of pizza, sugar, and girliness! :) We talked about Self-Esteem/Self-Worth on Friday night and our friend Hayley shared her testimony with the girls. She did a wonderful job talking about how she struggled with those same issues and how, through Christ, she is overcoming it every day. After that, we let the girls have some quiet time and talk to God about some of the things that we had discussed throughout the week. Some of them laid some pretty heavy sutff at the feet of Jesus that night. It was so cool to watch. Pray that they will always know that they are Priceless Princesses. :) After that, we did some good 'ole "I love you because..." and then the night of sugar and movie watching began! It was so much fun and finally, at 5am, I went to sleep when the last girl fell asleep. I then got up @ 6:45 because one of the girls had to leave early. Yay for taking a nice nap of 1 hour and 45 minutes! :) It was worth it! They had so much fun and so did Kara and I! Great relationship building time!

Oh Junior Highers...

I've been absolutely terrible about blogging these last few weeks and I'm going to try to remedy that this weekend, but I wanted to post a quick blog about this week...

I'm at Centrifuge (youth camp) this week with the Junior High students from Clovis Hills. It's definitely been an experience. They are so high energy and I'm definitely beginning to feel the effects of being "on the go" for most of the summer (not to mention our quest to see as much of California in one week as we could last week). For the most part, the week has been good and I've really enjoyed getting to hang out with them and get to know them. Centrifuge is a little different than what I am used to as far as Youth Camp is concerned, but I'm learning to like it more every day. :) Anyway, that's what I'm up to this week. I'll write more when I get home tomorrow about what I've been up to the last couple of weeks. I'm also going to work on posting pictures from our trip around California as well as the Sleepover and things like that...:) Love y'all and can't wait to see you soon!

Kimberly

Sacramento, San Francisco, and SoCal...

So this is our "off" week...which is Summer Missionary talk for "Let's see as much of the State of California as we can in 6 days." Therefore, I just got home from two days in Sacramento, today I was in San Francisco, and tomorrow I'm leaving to go to Southern California (aka LA and the OC). It's been fun and I'll definitely update more when I get the chance, but for now I'm going to bed so I can be up early in the morning to head south!! YAY FOR CALI!!!! :)