Triple Header!

During these past two weeks,  I was reminded is so much bigger than I think.  His plans seemed to just BLOW my plans out of the water.  I headed into this past outreach a bit worried because we had to accomplish three big things. Our triple header.  First time ever Purity Ceremony/Senior Graduation. First  time ever volleyball camp.  Figure out a way to incorporate high schoolers in first two.  But, for cliche sake, gotta say it, God hit a grand-slam during this outreach.

First Challenger: Purity Ceremony/ Senior Graduation
This past week, we combined two important events into one big celebration. A purity ceremony as well as the graduation of our 5 seniors.  As a result of our purity ceremony, many of our varsity players decided to write out 10 promises they wanted to keep for their lives.  Not only that, but they invited their families, youth pastor, other VC Revolution teams, and other friends to be witnesses to this event.  It was an absolutely beautiful thing to see the girls nervously, but confidently read their promises in front of everyone. They proceeded to sign their contracts and receive pearl necklaces to remember their commitment.  Thank you to Blythefield Hills church for donating the special necklaces, the girls LOVE them.  Many families and parents were moved by the girls courage to do something like this.  One of our girls, Keysi, commented that it was only the second time in her life that she saw her mom crying.  We also invited the youth pastor to come and give a little talk about the influence parents can have on the girls lives.  It was a really neat thing for many of these families who never go to church to get connected with someone from our local church.  The senior graduation part was also incredibly moving as certain underclassmen talked about each senior.  Lots of tears were shed and it was a really neat time of remembering the great times we have shared with our seniors.  Its crazy to think some of these girls have played for VC Revolution for almost 4 years now and will now be going to college!!!


Second Challenger: Volleyball Camp
We wanted to try something this year to get more people from the community involved.  We hosted a weeklong volleyball camp with the morning session being 6-11 year olds and then in the afternoon 12-18.  It was a neat experience that we'll hopefully get more girls involved next year. But this year was fun!

Keysi teaching in the morning session.

Right before water balloon fun! 

Morning session: Ages 6-11

Afternoon Session: Ages 12-1

Third Challenger: Incorporate American Outreach Participants
Outreaches in the summer last 2 weeks.  Each American gets the chance each outreach to share a testimony/devotional at least once during their time here.  One of the first practices, we were all moved to tears by the devotion given by one of our high school girls.  Seriously, God blessed us with a 16-year-old preacher who has an incredible gift of writing/public speaking. SO. She became our guest speaker for our entire volleyball camp.  At the end of the week, numerous girls commented on how one of their favorite parts of the the outreach was her talks.  Another cool thing was that one of the americans was a Zumba instructor. SO. We got her to lead warm-ups each day for the girls.  By the last day of camp, the older girls kept wanting to keep doing ZUMBA and not go play volleyball!!! Here's a video of one of our jam sessions!

 It was a beautiful thing to see how God did things we totally didn't expect.  I was reminded me to remember that no matter how good of ideas I THINK I have, I need to hope and EXPECT that God will do even bigger things!