Ch.. Ch... Changes!

God has been doing so much in my life recently. A lot of changes and new things have come my way and I feel like I am embracing each new thing with an open heart and attitude. I perviously had been a Christian Ministry major wanting to work with youth. I struggled with this major because I felt it was very limited and I could only work in certain areas with a degree with in this. I explored my options, looking at Psychology and finding that was not something I wanted to do and then somehow came up with Social Work. I wanted to help people but I knew that Psychology was not what I wanted to do. I wanted to have people come to me, or me to them, and allow them to tell me what their needs were and then I would be able to pull from my resources in order to help them. I know that this is possible with a degree in Social Work. The first day in my Intro to Social Work class told me that I knew this was the major for me. I have fallen in love with the major and love every aspect of it. I know it will be difficult at times, probably more times than I ancipate, but I think that I am going to love it. There are so many fields and ways to get involved. I love it!!! God has been moving me in this direction and I got into the program at my school and am getting ready to interview for a placement for next Spring semester. There are no words to explain how much I love this major and the things we are learning. I feel like this is one thing I was made to do. I still want to work with youth and I can do that in so many ways within this major.
Also I have experienced recently the love and passion of the youth around me. I have been working with a youth group in Newberg at the Foursquare church and sometimes that is a very difficult place to be. Often there is no respect and disobeying of rules and just a number of things. We have been averaging about 50 kids a week and it has been really good and often chaotic. While I love this kids there sometimes it is hard to go and be there with them for such a long time on Wednesday nights when I have school and projects and papers due. However, I kept going. I never doubted that I was supposed to be there but I have considered some nights not going for whatever reason. As we have been working and praying and pouring into these kids lives we are beginning to see the results and the amazing hand of God working in and through our kids. The last two weeks after youth group I have left feeling like God is really doing something! It has been so encouraging because so often I feel like we are doing nothing and making no impact. But now I see it. There are so many stories and instances where I can point of changes in our kids and it is really encouraging. Please pray for our kids though. Many of them come from broken homes and it makes it difficutlt to reach out to them sometimes and for them to reach out to us. God is doing something and I am so excited to be a part of it!