SBC and more VBS

Southern Baptist Convention Team minus Micha.

Southside Baptist Church 5th and 6th Grade.

Well I loved the Southern Baptist Convention. Everything was great. I loved registering all the messengers. I even got to sit in on the convention. It was neat to see the process of how everything worked. I loved it. We all had so much fun together as a team too. I got to see Josh's family - Stephen and Natoisha as well as Mr. Paul and Mrs. Carolyn. It was great.
Then....on our way back..i got to leave from Brentwood with my stepdad (he works there) and enjoy a weekend in CLARKSVILLE! I surprised my mom by showing up. It was great. I got to see all of my family and swim. So when we swapped buses i just didnt go to dyersburg. Then my parents brought me back on Sunday.
This week we are leading a VBS Backyard Bible Club for Macedonia Baptist Church in Ripley in the morning. And at night we are leading a VBS at Fowlkes Baptist Church.
We have 75 kids at the BYBC and 40 to 50 and Fowlkes. I love all of it...especially just loving on the kids.
I am going home for the 4th of july too and then off ot Cleveland, TN for my stepdads family reunion. It should be fun though.
Well thank you for your prayers and contiue to pray for the kids and our team. Pray also that I would have the opportunity to lead a child to Christ.
I will update soon.
:) Kacey.

Well VBS at Southside ended tonight! I loved it and I'm going to miss my group of amazing kids (pictures soon). I almost cried when I left.
Tomorrow we are headed to the Southern Baptist Convention to work the registration desk! I'm SO excited to get out of the small town of Dyersburg for awhile! haha!
Here is what we will be doing while we are there. Where ever it says Tennessee Team that is when we work :) and we do crossover and training too!

Saturday:

CrossOver Assignments -- Friday night there will be a most important CrossOver Orientation Meeting.

Bill Noe, Campus Minister at University of Louisville, will be meeting with all our groups at 7 PM on Friday night,

at Heeren Hall, in the music building behind the Chapel on the Southern Seminary campus. Each student is

encouraged to bring a backpack for CrossOver on Saturday; the backpack is primarily for holding water that the

students will be handing out as part of your CrossOver assignment. Dress for Saturday CrossOver is very casual.

Shorts, tennis shoes, T-Shirts are best. Warning about flip-flops….lot of walking this day! Lunch

On CrossOver Saturday will be provided…..Pizza and drinks will be brought to your site.

BCM Team Training for Registration Saturday at 4:00 PM Convention Center

In the Registration area for the convention. Brief training session everyone will learn how to work the

computers and do the Registrations. All our students and Leaders will make their Official Name Tags on

Saturday afternoon. This Training is MOST Important!

The Tennessee Team will be bringing the Shirts to this meeting for distribution to all the

Registration Team members.

Sunday:

We would prefer to have all our BCM Registration Teams…dressed in the official BCM Polo Shirts and khaki pants…on Sunday

morning. It makes a large impact! We will worship together at Sojourn Church at 9:30 AM, 930 Mary Street, Louisville, KY 40204.

This is a new Southern Baptist Church Plant with a lot of Young adults. Keith Inman and Lizzi Spence worked it out for us to worship

together at this site. Please join us!

Sunday: SBC Registration Duties Begin!!!

Tennessee, Indiana & South Carolina Teams report in at 3:00 PM 6:30 PM to work

Registration Desk

Kentucky Team will report in at 6 PM to work Registration Desk until closing at 9:30 PM.

Monday:

Tennessee Team report in at 7:30 AM to work Registration Desk until 11:30 AM…lunch break will begin for Tennessee

Indiana & South Carolina Team report in at 9 AM to work Registration Desk

until 1 PM…Lunch break will begin for Indiana & South Carolina

Kentucky Team will report in at 11 AM to work Registration Desk and needs to eat

Lunch prior to arrival…..Kentucky will get an afternoon break around 3 PM.

Tennessee Team will come back in at 2 PM and work until 6 PM.

Indiana & South Carolina Team will come back in at 3 PM and work until 7 PM.

Kentucky Team will come back in at 6 PM and work until closing at 9:15 PM.

Tuesday:

This is the busy day!!!

Tennessee Team, Indiana and South Carolina Teams report in at 7 AM.

Kentucky Team reports in at 8:30 AM…TN, IN & SC can begin taking short breaks.

South Carolina lunch break: 11 AM 12 Noon

Indiana lunch break: 11:30 AM 12:30 PM

Tennessee lunch break: 12:15 PM 1:15 PM

Kentucky: take a long break as soon as South Carolina & Indiana return from lunch (around 12 Noon to 12:30 PM)…..Kentucky

returns from long break at 5:30 PM

South Carolina, Indiana and Tennessee should be allowed to leave for the day at 6:45PM and Kentucky can stay until closing at 9:15 PM.

Wednesday:

Tennessee, Indiana & South Carolina report in at 7:30 AM and work

until 11:00 AM.

Kentucky Team reports in at 10:30 AM and works until closing at 1 PM 1:30 PM.

So thats my week next week and I get to see the Bungers ( Mr. Paul, Mrs. Carolyn, Stephen, and Natoisha,) while I am there!

Thank you for your continued prayers! :)

Well I will update soon.

The Past Few Days...God has moved...in me!

Wow! God has definitely moved.
This week we have been doing VBS at Southside Baptist Church. These kids are so precious!. Everyday is so much fun with them. They are so eager to learn about God. They are definitely hungry and thirsty. I know of one that is saved and I think two more might be. Two of my kids have been asking questions so God is definitely working in them. I am continuing to pray that God will work even more in them. I know soon that they will accept Him as their Lord and Savior. I may not be there to see it, but they definitely are going to go back to that church. The adult that is helping me is one of there favorite parts of the whole day, and he loves being with the kids and he teached RA's at the church. Although God isnt moving how I expected He is definitely moving and thats all that matters. God doesn't answer to me and move how I want Him too because He is God and I am not. I cannot tell Him what to do. He tells me what to do and I obey. He has called me to share the gospel. I have done that and the rest is for God to do in His time.
God has really taught me a lot in the past few days through my quiet time also. Last Friday the topic in My Utmost for His Highest was: Where our self-interest sleeps and the real interest is awakened. It talked about dying to yourself and your desires and choosing God's. And thats definitely happened a lot in my life lately. He is molding me and shaping me into His image. His desires for my life are also becoming my desires for my life. Missions is going to be such a large part of my life. I still don't know the details, but I do know I am suppose to go. One quote I loved out of this devotion was: "A true disciple is one who has his new name written all over him - self-interest, pride, and self sufficiency have completely been erased." That is what I am striving to be : a true disciple of Christ. The next day went along with this. The topic was Where our individual desire dies and sanctified surrender lives. Here is a quote from that day: " A saint realizes that it is God who engineers his circumstances; consequently there are no complaints, only unrestrained surrender to Jesus." Thats another thing I am chasing after is for me to fully surrender to God's will with no complaints. The next day talked about abiding in God. It talked about how Jesus never chose His circumstances, but He always submitted to His Father's plans and directions for Him. I am suppose to do the same exact thing. It amazes me the intimacy that Jesus and God shared with each other. And to think that we can have that same intimacy with our Heavenly Father is mind boggling and so amazing. The next day was about adding to your faith in the matter of drudgery. It talked about forming godly habits in our daily lives. This is probably my favorite quote out of the whole book: "We are not meant to be seen as God's perfect, bright-shining examples, but to be seen as the everyday essence of ordinary life exhibiting the miracle of His grace." I also learned that one of the greatest hindrances in our spiritual life is that we look only for the big things to do. Which is what I had been doing all summer til God got a hold of me and said I called you as my messenger....share the Gospel and let me do the rest. "I must realize that my obedience even in the smallest detail of life has all of the omnipotent power of the grace of God behind it. If I will do my duty, not for duty's sake but because I believe God is engineering my circumstances, then at that point of my obedience all of the magnificent grace of God is mine through the glorious atonement by the Cross of Christ."
God really spoke LOUDLY to me yesterday about my future and His will for my life. The title was "Will You Lay Down Your Life?" The verses that were in it were John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. And in John 15:15 it talks about how He has called us friends. In my Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers says "Jesus does not ask me to die for Him, but to lay down my life for Him." This means God wants all of me everything. Not just part of me. So I layed down my life for Him and gave myself to Him for Him to use me for His kingdom! "It is much easier to die than to lay down your life day in and day out with the sense of the high calling of God. We are not made for the bright-shinig moments of life, but we have to walke in the light of them in our everyday ways." God calls me to live for Him even in the dull non-bright-shining moments of everyday life. So all if this has brought me to the point of following God's plan for my life and reminding me that I am the messenger and my job is to tell, it is God's job to create the change and save people for He is God.
Regardless of results...God has definitely changed me this summer, and I know He has more great plans in store. And I can't wait to see what else God is going to do.
Thank you for all of your prayers continue to pray.
In Christ, Kacey.

5th and 6th Grade at FBC Trimble

5th and 6th Grade at Beech Grove Viar

Wow! Its amazing how when you give up and give everything to God and let Him be in control...EVERYTHING changes and falls into place. God has only had to teach me this lesson 876525984357357397504320754 times! Because I'm a control freak!
Well my roommate and I talked for a long time last night. Our whole team is getting along great!
Then I had a wonderful time at VBS last night and this morning. I played with kids, loved on them, and came up with fun stuff to do when we had dead time. The Bible study time has been great. They are very attentive and ask questions. Its been great. I'm sad to leave the kids at FBC Trimble tomorrow. We have Track 5 Bible Study with them, VBS family day which is the program thing, then lunch with them in the morning. Then that afternoon/ night we head to Southside Baptist Church for VBS at night! I can't wait! After this week its off to Louisville for the SBC! Well I will update later :) Thank you for all of your prayers. Continue to pray that I have the opportunity to lead child to Christ. Pray for the children we are working with and will be working with that they will understand and come to know Him as their Savior and Lord. Pray also for our team. Thank you for your prayers once again.
:) Kacey.

Dear God, Show me why I am here. Give me strength and speak through me and use me. I give you my self-interest, my self-sufficiency, and my pride. I can't do this on my own, I need you, Father. In Jesus name. Amen.

I am not really sure why I am here, but I know God has a plan. I feel like our team isn't bonded as much as I expected. I feel like I'm not seeing any change, or anything happen. But then I was reminded by Scarlett to "Expect God to do what He wants to accopmlish through you and not what you want to accomplish." Which is a paraphrase of Isaiah 55:11. But Isaiah 55: 8-11 really spoke to me:
⁸ "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.

⁹ "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.

¹⁰ As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

¹¹ so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."

God is in control. And He has me here for a purpose. And even though I am no seeing results, I am planting seeds. And before anything can grow, seeds must be planted. God also taught me that I am the messenger. It is up to Him to change and save people. He has just called me to share and tell. So I said to God, "Here I am, your servant, use me. Use me how you want too and not how I think I should be used. For you are God."

So the rest of my summer I am going to remember to "Stop expecting something and expect nothing." and to "Expect God to do what He wants to accoomplish through me and not what I want to accomplish."

Along with all of this I got homesick yesterday. I talked to my grandma. And my aunt Joy called me. And Alissa got on the phone and told me how she had moved up to the preschool class and how she would graduate next year. And I told her I missed her. Then she said I miss you too. Then she said Kacey, I love you. And with tears pouring form my eyes I said I love you too. And that made me miss her so much.
But I know I am here for a purpose and I have to fully trust and rely on God.

I am reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan, and I love it. In chapter 5 it says to put the book down and read the 4 Gospels. I have never sat and read the four Gospels all the way through. Francis Chan says to read the words form Jesus's point of view and think about how He wants use to live and serve and love. I have done that and God has shown me so many wonderful things about Him. About how initmate Jesus and God's relationship is and how that very same God desires that kind of relationship with me and how I desire that. Not only does He desire that kind of relationship with me but He desires that kind of relationship with EVERYONE! Thats so amazing that He wants to know us so personally. I cannot wrap my mind around it. All I can do is surrender everything to Him and follow Him because that is what He deserves is ALL OF ME! God has also given me a hunger and a thrist for His word. I am the type of person who just wants to read a devotional - short story and a verse. But now I can't stop reading God's Word. I cannot put it down. And I have longed for that type of passion. I am so excited to have it. God's Word is truly amazing and so powerful and full of life and I could go on and on. I am def. falling in love with my Creator more and more. And its so amazing.

Well thats about everything. Oh I forgot about VBS...last night was great we talked about worship. And I had one of my kids tell me her memory verse. Our verse is 1 John 4:9 God's love was revealed among us in this way. God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. And yes I did that from memory. I am having fun teaching VBS. And results or no results God is at work and seeds are being planted.

I will update soon.

Please continue to pray for the children at FBC Trimble, for me, for our team, and anything else.
Thank you for all your prayers.
:) Kacey.

FBC - Trimble

We are at FBC Trimble this week until Sunday afternoon. I love it, but its super busy. I have 17 fifth and sixth graders. They are such amazing kids. They are very energetic too. Some of them don't know much about the Bible, but they are so eager to learn and know more. They are def. searching and it seems as if some are close to wanting to accept Christ. They are all in different places in their journey, but they all want to know more and want more. So please pray for these kids this week. Pray that God will use me and speak through me to these preteens. I want Him to move me out the way and for Him to speak and guide me and my words and my thoughts. Pray also for our team and that we will all get along and everything. Pray for the team also as we lead music, missions, Bible study, help with rec and crafts too. Also as we lead the worship rally. Just pray that the kids will understand and ask questions and maybe even accept Him as their Savior and Lord. That is my greatest concern and my biggest prayer request is that we point them to Jesus and that they learn and want to follow Him. Thank you for all your prayers :)

Beech Grove Viar

Today we passed out flyers in Southside Baptist Church Neighborhoods. We will start their VBS next Sunday night. Well our first VBS is over. I will miss the kids. They were so much fun and even taught me how to play football. I love the vbs theme and the music. Its great. This stuff is so much fun. We had one little boy make a decision for Christ but it wasn't at VBS it was at home Sunday night. :) Tomorrow we start a 5 day VBS at Trimble Baptist Church. Its a little bigger and I can't wait! Continue to pray for the children we will work with. Pray that if they haven't decided to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior that soon they will if they are ready. Pray for boldness, courage, strength, and rest. I'm also getting a little homesick, but it will pass. I know I am here for a reason, and God has something GREAT planned. He has already shown me that it doesn't matter if someone makes a decision all that matters is that we are planting seed and loving on children. And thats what we are supposed to is love them like Jesus. :) Well I will update soon. Thank you for your prayers :)

First VBS - Beech Grove Viar

WOW!!! I LOVE SUMMER MISSIONS! I WILL DEFINITELY DO THIS UNTIL THEY WON'T LET ME ANYMORE! :)
Tonight we kicked off VBS at Beech Grove Viar. Now I'm from a big church and used to hundred of kids at VBS and this was completely different for me and actually out of my comfort zone a little. We had 17 kids...preschool to juniors in highschool. EXTREMELY SMALL CHURCH! and i only had 4 5th and 6th graders. It was def. out of my comfort zone to teach that small of a group but the kids are great. They are 3 boys and one girl. Well the boys wanted to go outside and play football so I told them if yall pay attention and interact and understand the lesson we will. They were great and we had a great Bible Study and they asked A LOT of questions and I could tell they are growing and learning and understanding. :) So when we finished I held up my end of the deal. I, yes me Kacey, went outside learned how to play two hand touch football in 30 seconds and next thing you know I passing, running, almost made a touchdown, and I played two hand touch and stopped 2 of the guys. :) It was a blast and I can't wait until tomorrow. I love the music for VBS - its amazing! I am so excited for all God has in store. This morning we went to Enon Baptist Church which is where Stan my supervisor for the summer is preaching as the iterim. I was in a completely different world than Hilldale thats for sure and was a little uncomfortable then realized that God doesn't care if I'm comfortable, He wants me to worship and serve Him NO MATTER WHAT! This cute little country church had 35 people and I sang out of a hymal which I haven't done since I was like 7 or 8. And yes we sang all 4 verses of every song which I have probably only done about 5 times in my life. Because normally we sing the 1st and last or 1st and 3rd. But I loved singing all 4. It was def. a change and a growing experience. Please keep our team and more importantly the kids we will encounter in your prayers. I also would like you to keep praying that I have the opportunity to lead a child to Christ this summer.
Thank you for your prayers :)
<3 Kacey

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. Titus 2:11-14

God showed me this in my quiet time today. And to me it sums up what we are supposed to do and how God has given us the tools to do this and shown us how. I love these verses.