the countdown begins with a little summer backtrack

Only 3ish days till I step on an airplane that will take me farther than I've ever been, and I'd be lying to you if I said that I wasn't nervous. I trust in the Lord, so my current prayer is that He'll free me from this anxiety I have. He's made it clear that this is where I'm supposed to be. For real, the Lord has blessed me every step of this process. The cost is less than it would be if I were staying at Ole Miss for the semester, my visa came through, I worked at Sky Ranch this summer.
SUMMER BACKTRACK:
I feel like I should put something in here about my summer because I feel like the Lord used the summer as a time of preparation for Spain and never in my life have I been so changed in the short time of 3ish months. So when I reference my summer in the future (because it's gonna happen), here's a little background. I had the amazing opportunity to serve as a Quest counselor with Sky Ranch, so here's a little bit about my summer and what the Lord did.

WHAT is QUEST? glad you asked...
Quest is a two week leadership camp for high school kids. The first week is spent at Sky Ranch @ Cave Springs in Oklahoma learning how to do inductive Bible studies, playing in the ice cold springs, doing a wide variety of activities such as ATVs and the ziplines, participatin in tribal comp (ZULU bleed blue!), having a blast at the stinkin' awesome night events (MI is a total exception- haha), learning how to love each other, and tearing down walls. The second week is spent at Sky Ranch Ute Trail in Colorado where everything learned at Cave is put into practice through practical experience, doing the ropes course, whitewater rafting, hiking up to the top of the world (rock in tow) and spending the night outside, and learning how to serve others through various chores around camp.

WHO MAKES QUEST AWESOME? even better question...
The Lord blessed Quest with two sets of fabulous assistant directors (ADs) with Chris, Kendra, and Brenton at Cave and Courtney and Malcolm at Ute. They planned everything, loved on us, and overall, made our jobs much easier, as did Dustin and Ryan, the camp directors, and their wives, Julie and Jen. I was put on a team with five of the most incredible people you will ever meet, should you all have the opportunity to meet them. Together, we traveled over ten thousand miles across Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Kansas. We were together for obscene amounts of time, and by the grace of the Lord, we never ran into serious conflict, well, none after the Lord healed mine and Josh's relationship. Together, we loved on kids and we loved on each other. We survived a crazy 13 hour delay in Amarillo, Texas, a month without a true day off, JP, Carmie, and Coach Mullins- our fearless bus drivers, dinners of cheese sandwiches and cocktail weinies, two hikes up the mountain with hail (Abbie, Reeder, and Courtney) and countless other things that have not made this list. I may never see these people again, but to Kirk, Abbie, Josh, Rusty, and Reeder, I am forever changed because of the role you played in my life this summer. Thank you for your encouragement, your laughs which kept my sanity, your shoulders that caught plenty of my tears, your prayers, and your love. I love all of you and I pray that the Lord will continue to use you in the lives of others.

WAIT, SO WHAT DID YOU ACTUALLY DO? besides ride a bus for insane amounts of hours...
Basically, my job was to love on the girls that came through the program, while pushing them beyond their physical and spiritual limits. My cabin was the Palace, primarily 15 year old girls, and I got to be a big sister/friend for two weeks. The Lord created a safe environment within my cabin and allowed my girls to open up and share who they are with me. In return, they had the opportunity to see who I am, a college kid trying to live my life for Christ. These girls kept me laughing and kept me relying on the Lord. They asked tough questions, and the Lord provided answers. I'd be lying to you if I said this job wasn't hard, just try spending crazy amounts of time on a bus and having to be energized at all hours of the day and night. The Lord is faithful, and He provided- he kept me energized and healthy and filled with the Holy Spirit. He also kept me on my toes and never allowed me, or the rest of my team, to get comfortable. Comfort brings complacency, and really, who benefits from complacency? For real, it was the best job ever. I learned how to love and what it really means to be a servant of the Lord.