"Now here's the sun, come to dry the rain..."

Hello blogging world! On the right is a picture of the Cooper River bridge from Pitt street bridge. A lovely view if I do say so myself. Today has been kind of weird. I think it has to do with the dream that I had last night. I keep having dreams that Scottie and I are back together (it happened again)... it is very strange. However, with the dreams come some memories. I had to go to the dentist this morning and I was remembering things from the past 4 years and this picture came to mind. Obviously I didn't take this picture today because the sun hasn't set yet. It was taken in the summer of 2007 - to get this picture I had to find a DVD of the pictures I took that year (and trust me... there is more than one). It is weird that it has almost been two years since I took this picture. Things were so different then. I remember that day almost like it was yesterday. Scottie came down to visit me, we went to see the midnight showing of The Simpsons for free because I worked at the theater at the time, and at the time I remember I was also running from Montreat. I knew that Montreat was calling me, but I didn't want to accept it. There are other things that I remember from this photo, but just that makes me long for what was, and that isn't what God has called me to.

God's calling is sending me Mont Lawn this summer. I really struggle at running straight to things sometimes I like to go the long way around things... makes things more entertaining? I said last night that I wanted to explain how Mont Lawn came about and so here is the story. Last October(ish) I went to Don Shepson (my advisor) and we discussed what I would be doing this summer because I really needed to do an internship to graduate next spring. While we were sitting there talking I was telling him that I would really like to do my internship at a church because that is were I see myself working when i get out of college. However, many of you don't know Shepson, so you have to know that he is a camp person and I'm really not (hopefully I will get there). But while we were talking he mentioned something along the lines of 'it's your internship... you can go anywhere that you want to. Where have you always wanted to go? I say go there.' That was a little overwhelming to me because I really haven't felt the need really to go anywhere other than Montreat. A month or so later in another conversation he mentioned that he has a friend in PA that owns a camp and that I should look into it. He gave me a CD that had the video that was on my last post on it. I watched it a couple of times but I was not really convinced that I wanted to work at a camp. I remember being upset after leaving his office because I didn't want to work at this camp and walking around Lake Tomahawk with Erin Cross afterwards which calmed me down. I remember leaving for Christmas break and thinking that maybe Shepson would rethink telling me to go to camp by the time a saw him in January.
Ok now earlier I mentioned that I was running from Montreat - that is because Montreat has always been where God takes a hold of me and reminds me that 'He's got this and I don't need to worry'. So I came up to Montreat during the break for the Montreat College Conference. Which is a conference for college kids that is put on by the conference center (not the college!). The theme this year was Outrageous Generosity. Well like every other time I'm in Montreat for a Conference... or really just anytime that exams and computers are not mandatory God took me aside and said "Kira... You ARE going to PA this summer." It was not audible in cause you were wondering. It started with Tony Campolo's question and answers from the first night or second night we were there. He said something along with lines of 'work in the inner city for a while and you will come back with such a heart for God." That is really thing only thing that I could understand that entire evening so I'm pretty sure that it was important for me to here. Later that weekend that I went to Montreat Pres and listened to Richard White speak about how some people never leave the visitors center (meaning they don't venture out and do what God created them to do) and this was another reminder that God wants me to do things that are not comfortable sometimes- it is kinda what makes us grow. So leaving Montreat that weekend was hard because I knew the next thing that had to happen was to e-mail Shepson and tell him that my heart was changed and now I want to go. The rest from there is really history.

The next little bit of the internship that I haven't mentioned yet in this blog is who else is coming with me! To the left a picture of Sam, Elizabeth, and me. The three of us are going to camp together! The picture is from our contract signing party that we had earlier this semester because we thought it would be fun... and you always need a reason to randomly make cake and have a "party". There is an album on facebook if you want to see more of our awesomeness.

So just to let you guys know a little bit about them - here we go! Elizabeth is a sophomore (now junior) at Montreat. We met at the beginning of Spring semester last year. She lived on the fifth floor with me. I met her one night and we got to talking and had a really random trip to Sonic and the rest is kind of history. She is also a Youth Ministry major with me. The guy in the middle is Sam, unless you are Elizabeth and than he is Samuel, but anyway. He is also her boyfriend. They have been dating for roughly two years. He is also a youth ministry major with us. It will be a great to share this experience with them this summer. I'm really happy that they are coming with me.

Now because I'm Kira and I like to tell funny stories... here is one! The picture to the right is Elizabeth and I with our contracts that came in the mail. We thought it would be funny to write "FAIL" in red letters on our envelopes because we wanted to see how Shepson would react. Prior to this he had e-mailed Rich (the camp director) and told him that we were high maintenance... Not cool Don... Not cool. However, when we went to see him he thought that Rich wrote that on out letters and was really happy. So we failed at getting jobs for the summer... this seems kind of like one of those stories were you had to be there... but it was hilarious to see Shepson freaking out in excitement about his friend putting fail on our letters. Umm... I think that is all the internship stuff that I want to talk about today... but tomorrow is a new day!

A couple more things that I want to mention before I head off to get dinner or something... I went to the dentist today and for the first time since who knows when I didn't have a cavity! Whoop whoop! The person who usually cleans my teeth didn't clean them today which is usually bad because I hate other cleaner people but the lady wasn't bad today! Thank God! After the dentist I went to Mom's office because mom needed something and the person that has her old job wanted to see my hair straight. All the office people loved it cause it looks good right now... and I'm not just saying that Sandy (the hair dresser) did a rockin' job on Tuesday! This is probably the only picture that I have of it... maybe tomorrow I can post a better one.

The last thing that I wanted to mention was that most of the time my titles will be of songs that somewhat go with the day. Today's song is "I'd Rather Be With You" by Joshua Radin :] It is very fitting today because when I sat down to write this is was sunny after all the rain we had this morning. But that brings me to last night when I started the blog. "Faith to move mountains and hope to keep them there" is from 'Moving Mountains' by David LaMotte. 10 to 1 says you haven't heard of him and that make me sad. I love him! He is kind of Folk songish, but awesome acoustic guitar playing. Check him out if you ever have time. He actually doesn't play anymore because he is in Australia getting his masters... I think. But check him out. He is an awesome person too! And yesterday's title was from "Dark and Deep" by him as well! Also before I leave I want to say that I am truly sorry for calling the Resident Halls at SMC dorms. I will work on not doing that in the future!

Until next time!