God is good, all the time.

It's always fun for me to read over past blog entries (or my old journal entries) and see what has happened or how the Lord has worked in me since writing them. Since writing that last blog entry almost 2 months ago, God has done a mighty work in me. I guess He's always doing a mighty work, sometimes I'm just more aware of it. The last time I wrote I was in the midst of struggling hardcore in the community here. While I've always been able to see God at work through it, I haven't always been very pleased to go through it. But I'm FINALLY beginning to see fruit from the struggles of this year. The intern community has begun to greatly improve. I don't really know what caused the turnaround other than we all sat down and had a "family meeting" where we talked about what we felt was wrong in our community and tried to discuss ways to fix it. It wasn't the most pleasant meeting or even the most productive but seeds were planted and fruit has begun to grow. The majority of us also had discussions about how we need to be intentional about hanging out together and doing fun things together because otherwise, the only time we spend together is work and that's not always fun. We also decided that even if not everyone participates, it is still helpful and good for us to spend time together, even if it's just a few of us. We had our staff retreat last week and that helped a lot too because we all had the chance to hang out and do things that were fun for us without even having to think about work. More about the retreat later. But we've made an effort to have dinner together more often, we've gone snowboarding/ skiing together, watched movies together and I even just went to a concert in Colorado Springs with 2 of the guys yesterday. All this has made such a difference, at least to me, in how our community functions. It's been ENJOYABLE to be here and spend time with the interns lately. I feel like I have a little bit of a grasp of what's going on in their lives- and I don't miss and long for friends from the ranch or home or Taylor quite as much because I'm happier here. It's such a blessing and it's something I know so many of my friends have been praying for me for a long time. Thank you for your prayers; I can't tell you what it means to me. Things aren't perfect, and not every intern is invested, so please continue to pray, but praise God for the work He's done already.

So what's been happening lately? February was kind of blur. I went snowboarding a few times and I'm gradually improving just slightly. I know I have a few more times this season to go so hopefully I'll continue to improve and remain unhurt. Praise God for safety thus far. FRIENDS has been the keyword of the last couple weeks. It all started with one of the girls from my floor at Taylor who is a year older than me- she lives in Denver now and her dad was the key speaker for one of the weekend groups here so she came down too. We didn't get to catch up as much as I'd like but it was such a blessing to see Taylor friends and to remember that there are a lot of Taylor friends in the area, which I haven't taken advantage of at all. Next, I had the opportunity to go to my favorite church in Colorado Springs one Sunday and met up with most of the girls at the Ranch this spring. It was just beautiful to stand in a church praising the Lord, to hear TRUTH and be challenged by it, and then enjoy a meal with people I love so dearly. It was already snowing and the weather was not ideal so my time with them was short but still wonderful. My summer roommate, Bekah, was home for most of the month of January and I got to see her and talk to her much more often then when she's at school and it was wonderful. January was tough here so I was incredibly thankful to be able to talk to her so much. February just flew by- I can't honestly remember a lot of what went on. I got to watch one of the girls I worked with at HoneyRock compete in the Olympics which was awesome. While I certainly didn't know her well, I was SO proud to watch her compete for USA and to hear how much she strives to glorify the Lord in everything she does. I have started my retail rotation which will also be my summer placement. So far it has been good and I feel like I'm slowly but surely connecting with my boss who I'll work closely with for the next 5 months. The pace in retail during the school season is pretty laidback, almost slow really. Sometimes it's tiring because there isn't enough to really keep me busy and it makes me antsy for summer. It is nice to already feel pretty comfortable in my position and to keep growing and learning things so I feel I can really contribute to the store. When the store is open, I really enjoy getting to connect with people and talk to them about their experience at Frontier. Like I mentioned before, 2 weeks ago was our staff retreat. We went to Horn Creek, a camp that is just outside of Westcliffe, about 2 hours south of us. It also happens to be the camp where 2 of my guy friends from Taylor work. While they are so close, I haven't seen them at all since they moved here in August. They're also yearlong interns and have an extremely similar job description/ community as we do. The staff retreat was a blast! Honestly, just about every part of it was enjoyable, including the drive to and from, which is beautiful. We arrived before lunch and settled in to our rooms and just had time to sit around before we ate. I saw JP and Christian at lunch and it was so fun to see such familiar faces and also see how time apart has changed and grown us a little. Tuesday afternoon we had a photo scavenger hunt which was great. I love things like that and it was fun to be mixed up with other staff and just one other intern and work together in a place we're all unfamiliar with. Then we had free time for the afternoon and since Horn Creek has some pretty great rec facilities, I capitalized on the opportunities to PLAY. I spent Tuesday afternoon playing volleyball and climbing and watching others bowl. We then had the results of the photo scavenger hunt, dinner, and a worship session/ meeting where the camp director talked. We had a little more free time after the session where I just hung out at the rec center. Wednesday we had breakfast and a morning devo and a session where we talked about the vision of YoungLife and YoungLife camping and where we should stand. After lunch, we basically had the entire afternoon to hang out and play more. Played some cards, went tubing, climbed (climbed stuff harder than I think I've ever climbed before and finished! all that snow shoveling is paying off!) and played a 6v6 vball game with a bunch of staff people. By the time I got back to my room to shower before dinner, my body could feel the workout. After dinner we played this card game called caravan which a favorite of the staff at Frontier. It's great because everyone gets involved and competitive and it's really easy to play. We even had some of the Horn Creek staff watching and wondering how to play. After caravan, I found another staff member who knows how to play euchre and we taught 2 others. I can't even tell you how fun it was to finally play again. We played 2 games and my partner did alright, but it was nothing like playing back at Taylor with people I could read so well. We were tied in the 2nd game 9-9 and we ended up losing because my partner forgot to discard. It kind of broke my heart. After that, I headed over to the rec center to see who was hanging out and to catch up a little with my friend Christian. We got to sit and talk for a while and it was so good to hear about his year and to hear how similar our year as interns has been, especially in the struggles. It was encouraging to hear that another small community has and is going through a lot of the same struggles our community is going through. It makes me realize that we're not crazy, that things are intense in a small community, and that no matter what stage of life you get to, you will always encounter people who have stuff to work though. It was just fun to hang out with a friend and for it to not feel like work. Wednesday we just had a session and then some time to pack up and get ready to leave and we took off right after lunch. Last night I went to the Zac Brown Band concert in Colorado Springs with Josh, and Levi ended up meeting us for dinner and coming to the concert too. The concert was awesome! I would definitely recommend a Zac Brown concert to any country fan I know. You don't even have to be a country fan, you just have to appreciate great music. Two of my ranch friends ended up getting tickets for the concert at the last minute (like half an hour before the show started) and while I didn't end up getting to see them, it was still fun to share the concert with them. Well, that's been life as of late. March is another month for friends with multiple Taylor friends coming to visit over the course of the month and then going home at the end of the month for a week. Well, that's all for now.