Busy Busy
Hey so I just wanted to send out an email letting people know what I've been up to for the last 5 months. At the beginning of February I applied for a school that is run by my church called School of Ministry. They have a few different courses but the course that I took is known as the Heart Module. I've been thinking about applying for this school for about 2 years but I finally got my stuff together and after a really tough time with depression earlier this year I decided that I need to do something that will help me change my life. Some friends that I have graduated from the school a few years ago and recommended it to me so I figured why not? I don't have much to lose; I was in a pretty crappy place in my life anyway.
Right off the bat God blessed me because I did NOT have the money for tuition. I haven't worked much in the past 4 years and money is something that I don't have much of. My family has given me so much grace and luckily I was working a part-time job at the end of last year, saving what I didn't have to spend. I was putting my money in a jar that I've decorated and called my God Jar - it's where I put my hopes and dreams and goals into and symbolically let God do what He wants with those things while I just focus on one thing at a time. As I was hoarding money in my jar during my time working, I did buy some things that weren't really in my budget like a new TV and a new laptop... but having money for the first time in forever that I had actually earned myself was pretty awesome. Anyway when I went to count my money I had $3200 saved up which was much more than I thought I would have! Later on when I received my T4 from that job it turns out that I only made $3800! It was just short of a miracle :) Family and the remaining space I had left on my credit card covered the rest of my tuition ($4000) and I was set to go. I was also able to bring Max to a friend's house while I was away at school, which was a prayer answered as well.
The school is located in the east end of the city near Pearson International Airport and Woodbine Casino. Even though I live in Toronto, it was a requirement to go live in the dorms-- probably because they want us to support each other and really embrace the experience. Also, we had quite a few late nights and some early mornings, so staying over was for the best. The building has an auditorium type room with a couple lounges, a classroom, and an office connected to it. There is also a hallway that has some bedrooms, the laundry room and the community kitchen. Upstairs are the rest of the bedrooms. Each room had 4 people in it, and there was a full bathroom in each one. Girls with girls and guys with guys, obviously. We ate meals across the parking lot in the church cafeteria where they were prepared for us.
Community living was difficult at first because I've been living by myself for awhile and even before I had my own room when I was living at my mom's or in Peterborough. My roommates and I bonded in a way that I don't think I ever have with anybody, other than my sisters maybe. My roommate Rebecca is 19, from Ottawa and she was only in class on Thursdays and Fridays. During the rest of the week she was working. She was in a different course than I was. My second roommate was Karissa who is 24 and from Seattle, Washington. She was the momma of our room. My third roommate was Jenna! Jenna is 23, and from Helsinki but she's been living in India, working there with a grassroots organization. It was really fun to have a Finnish roommate!
Every week at SoM was a teaching on a different topic. The first month was the core values month where we learned how to hear God's voice, what God's heart is for us, the importance of forgiveness, and how to identify and break ungodly beliefs about ourselves and others. During this month I learned how to forgive and release my parents from expectation and judgment. I also did some inner healing that addressed my ungodly beliefs that I am a victim of my circumstances and that I am not enough. During this time was also when I stopped taking my antidepressants. I learned that it's okay to cry and that there's nothing wrong with me. I am loved and it's possible to be strong but still cry sometimes. I learned about performance orientation- it's the belief that your value lies in what you do opposed to who you are. I definitely struggled with that. During the whole school, I've been learning more about my true identity and that I am capable of succeeding and it's okay to fail. I've learned the benefits of positive self talk as well :)
Our schedule was super packed. Staying in bed all day wasn't an option, like it had been before I went to the school. Whether I showed up or not DID matter, and I was held accountable for attendance and doing what was required of me. I think I only had two sick days the whole time! (That's an accomplishment for me!) Teachings were only in the morning. In the afternoons we had different things ranging from small group, sermon writing, and outreach prep. At the beginning of school we also needed to sign up to an area of the church we wanted to learn more about. There were different ones for example pastoral, media, kids ministry, financial, street ministry. After careful consideration, I joined the street ministry tract because I felt like I came to SoM to give every bit of myself and I knew it would stretch me. We basically went downtown 2 days a week (Thursday afternoons and Sunday afternoons) and walked around in groups of 2 or 3 asking people if they need any prayer for anything. Even after weeks of doing it I'm still not really into it (I don't like imposing myself on other people I guess) but for me the victory wasn't in being good at it, but rather my victory was in signing up, showing up, and trying. For those of you who know me well, I'm not really a fan of going downtown but I embraced the opportunity (as best as I could) to stand up to fears and anxiety.
As SoM students we were also required to help with the conferences that they have once every couple of months. We were all assigned duties: from cleaning, to serving, to setting up, to tearing down, to greeting... plus we also had to practice praying for people aloud which at the beginning was super uncomfortable. I've struggled with the ungodly belief that what I have to say isn't important. (Which I now know isn't true!) We were also on a rotating schedule of cleaning our school building building and serving/washing dishes in the cafeteria the whole 4 months we lived there.
After the first month of school it was announced where our outreach destinations would be. We were split into 4 groups of about 13 students and 2 leaders each. My team as you've probably heard by now, went to California. The other teams went to Denmark, England, and Victoria (British Columbia). To get us better acquainted with each other, we had to do things as a team. In addition to outreach prep every Monday, we had to go to House of Prayer every Thursday night and 5 weeks of Friday night church service and 4 weeks of working at a homeless mission in downtown Toronto on Tuesdays. House of Prayer is a time of praising God and also a time to pray for our community, city, country, and society as a church. We often prayed for Syria, for example, and against sex-trafficking in Amsterdam-- that kind of stuff. At the very least it was an opportunity to practice public (sort of) speaking. The homeless mission we went to was called Followers mission. It's a small building that is used as a church to reach the lost out on the streets. They have music, and some prayer, and then there's a really short talk (about 10 minutes) giving people the opportunity to come to Jesus, and then they give out food :) usually hot dogs or pizza. It was tough, but a very humbling experience to show them the love of God. It isn't about preaching or convincing people to become Christian; it's about following the teachings of Jesus and showing people love. :)
At the beginning of May we went on a weekend-long mini outreach in our outreach teams. First our team went to Hamilton, ON, to do some more street ministry. We walked around, and prayed for people if we felt led to do so. We also went to "the mountain" known to locals as the Devil's Punch-bowl to pray over the city. Hamilton's downtown population is very oppressed and a lot of Toronto's homeless get sent out there. Mental illness is also very common. That night we attended a church service in Niagara Falls where my church (Catch the Fire) is doing a church plant. On Sunday we led worship and gave testimonies/sermons at the CTF Hamilton location. It was a busy weekend but a lot of fun to work as a team.
During the school there were two special days that were "unofficial": Guys' Honoring and Girls' Honoring. The days are organized by the opposite sex (ladies organize guys' honoring and guys organize girls' honoring). Basically it's a day to honor the opposite sex for who they really are in Christ. It's a day to love on each other (in an appropriate way!) and come against any negative stereotypes and ungodly beliefs that may have been created from past experiences. I had some inner healing from both of these days and I know that it really impacted everyone involved, both times!
Classes ended June 19. We had a week break until we had to leave for our outreach destinations. As I mentioned earlier, my team went to a place called Oroville, California. I wasn't sure if I was going to go at first because I was really nervous about it. I didn't like the idea of going someplace I've never been especially since we had little information about what it was going to be like. In the end I decided to go because I had made the commitment to go all-in at this school. Our team had to be at the airport for 4am on the 27th. About half an hour after we got there, we were informed that our first of 3 flights was cancelled. After an hour or two of sitting around we were told that we would probably have to come back on the 29th instead to fly the route we were supposed to take (Toronto to Charlotte, NC to Phoenix, AZ to Sacramento, CA) but after some more waiting we found out that we would all be able to meet at the LA airport and fly to Sacramento together in the evening but we would have to split up. One of our leaders, 2 other girls and myself flew together, the other leader and one of the guys had to fly a different route together, and the rest of our group (7 of them) had to take a different flight as well. Instead of flying 3 flights with 2 layovers, I ended up getting to fly BUSINESS CLASS!!!! and direct flight to LA! wooop :D so after 24 hours of traveling, we finally got to Oroville (2 hours north of Sacramento). We got there at around 1am their time, and we had to be up at 8am for chapel... O.o
The church we were staying with and working at was called The Father's House Church (TFHC). I stayed in an LRM house. LRM stands for Life Recovery Ministries. It's a ministry that takes people off the streets and straight out of the county jail and gives them an opportunity to live in an environment where they are separated from their old lives and given a second chance in a Jesus-centered environment. I lived in a house of 6 women in the LRM program and one other person from my team. There are 4 different levels in the 12 month LRM program- blackout is 30 days where they are basically separated from their old lives. Not allowed to leave campus unless accompanied by the house leader and not allowed to use their phones, or internet or watch tv. Also, people on blackout aren't allowed to talk to other LRM people of the opposite sex, because often if people leave the program it's because they run off with someone they are in a "relationship" with. After 30 days (give or take) they level up to level 1, then level 2, then level 3, then they graduate. As they level up they get more freedom as well as responsibility. Because most of the LRM people come from the streets and/or jail, they often don't have money. They live for free on the church campus in houses but they are required to work.
TFHC has a few different businesses. The main ones that the LRM people work at are Helping Hands for the guys (odd jobs like mowing, gardening, roofing, moving, etc) and doing maintenance on the property, as well as working in the church garden (they grow vegetables and give them to the community for free!!) and Restored Boutique for the women (a second hand shop that takes donations and refurbishes/restores/fixes them up and then sells them). I worked at Restored during my first week there and I absolutely loved it! I got to know the LRM women better and I also knew that what I was doing there was helping out so many people. Restored has a project called Keys of Restoration- they take old, donated keys and punch words into them and then put them on a chain or rope so that you can wear them around your neck. For example, the LRM women gave me a key that says "BEAUTIFUL" on it. When I meet someone who needs to be reminded that they are beautiful, I take the key off and I give it to them for them to wear. It's really sweet :) All money from both Helping Hands and Restored Boutique go to living expenses of the LRM people. TFHC also has a yogurt shop similar to Menchies that was donated to them, and a Gym called Lord's Gym. The Lord's Gym is working on raising enough money so that their upstairs can be made into a youth center which will help the youth stay off the streets and from doing drugs. Membership at the gym is really cheap ($5/month for youth and $20/month for adults).
The church campus was built in the poorest area of the poorest town in the poorest county in California. There is a lot of heavy drug use (heroin and meth), and gang activity. The church currently has 3 mens LRM houses and 1 womens LRM house. They have a dining hall where everyone eats together during the week. One of the LRM women is the cook, and one of the weeks there in the afternoons I was helping her cook for everyone. It was a lot of work!
There are also various ministries: children's ministry (nursery, toddler, and school-age), foodbank, adopt-a-block (going door-to-door, bringing food/water/vitamins/diapers/etc to people in the surrounding vicinity of the church), eldercare (going to visit with the elderly), homeless outreach (making sandwiches for homeless people and then driving around town to hand them out), and Hope Center (partnering with other organizations to give a hot meal and prayer to people who are homeless or affected by poverty). It's all done selflessly to love on the town of Oroville and make a difference in the community.
There is also a School of Ministry there that is associated with the same SoM that I attended here in Toronto. The students there are often graduates of the LRM program. After SoM, TFHC has an internship called Kingdom Awakening. Once the internship is completed (6 months to 2 years) then you can become staff of the church. I had the opportunity to sit in on some of the SoM classes and it was similar to what we learned in our classes :)
Our schedule was jam packed. I was up almost every morning by 6:30am, because in the LRM houses they do devotionals every morning at 7am. At 8am our jobs start. We get an hour break for lunch and then we'd have our afternoon jobs. Dinner would be served in the dining hall at 5pm and then on most nights of the week there are other activities that started at 6:30 or 7pm. We were there mainly to create relationships with the people there, so we attended the 12-step program once a week and we attended all 3 church services (Sunday, Wednesday night, and Friday morning). The LRM guys have their own softball team and the LRM girls have Bible study once a week. It's very God-centered but it's about laying down your life to save others' lives. Most nights we weren't free until 8 or 9pm.
I thought I would burn out but I didn't at all. I got up every morning not just because I had to, but because I actually wanted to. It was a place where being myself was good enough. Speaking encouragements to people and telling them they mattered, was needed and appreciated. Loving people was what was required, and I'm good at that. It was a place where showing up and helping out directly impacted others, and that impact was visible. I touched peoples' lives but they also touched mine. My experience there was amazing. I also got baptized on my trip :) I fell in love with the people that I met - they are so awesome!!! And full of soooo much promise!
Last Thursday (July 25) I graduated from SoM. At the beginning of the school I was so broken and full of despair. They asked us what our dreams were and honestly other than get out of bed on any given day, I didn't really have any. During my time at school I discovered my identity and I found my strength. I've found purpose and joy. I want to thank the people that supported me even when they didn't really understand what was going on or why I wanted to do this school. Instead of feeling like I can't do anything, I now feel like I have so many options I don't know which one to go after :P
If you want more information about some of the stuff that I learned on my spiritual journey, I have a blog which I will be updating sooner than later. Or, you could just talk to me about it :) I have sooo many stories!!!! I hope all is well with you
Right off the bat God blessed me because I did NOT have the money for tuition. I haven't worked much in the past 4 years and money is something that I don't have much of. My family has given me so much grace and luckily I was working a part-time job at the end of last year, saving what I didn't have to spend. I was putting my money in a jar that I've decorated and called my God Jar - it's where I put my hopes and dreams and goals into and symbolically let God do what He wants with those things while I just focus on one thing at a time. As I was hoarding money in my jar during my time working, I did buy some things that weren't really in my budget like a new TV and a new laptop... but having money for the first time in forever that I had actually earned myself was pretty awesome. Anyway when I went to count my money I had $3200 saved up which was much more than I thought I would have! Later on when I received my T4 from that job it turns out that I only made $3800! It was just short of a miracle :) Family and the remaining space I had left on my credit card covered the rest of my tuition ($4000) and I was set to go. I was also able to bring Max to a friend's house while I was away at school, which was a prayer answered as well.
The school is located in the east end of the city near Pearson International Airport and Woodbine Casino. Even though I live in Toronto, it was a requirement to go live in the dorms-- probably because they want us to support each other and really embrace the experience. Also, we had quite a few late nights and some early mornings, so staying over was for the best. The building has an auditorium type room with a couple lounges, a classroom, and an office connected to it. There is also a hallway that has some bedrooms, the laundry room and the community kitchen. Upstairs are the rest of the bedrooms. Each room had 4 people in it, and there was a full bathroom in each one. Girls with girls and guys with guys, obviously. We ate meals across the parking lot in the church cafeteria where they were prepared for us.
Community living was difficult at first because I've been living by myself for awhile and even before I had my own room when I was living at my mom's or in Peterborough. My roommates and I bonded in a way that I don't think I ever have with anybody, other than my sisters maybe. My roommate Rebecca is 19, from Ottawa and she was only in class on Thursdays and Fridays. During the rest of the week she was working. She was in a different course than I was. My second roommate was Karissa who is 24 and from Seattle, Washington. She was the momma of our room. My third roommate was Jenna! Jenna is 23, and from Helsinki but she's been living in India, working there with a grassroots organization. It was really fun to have a Finnish roommate!
Every week at SoM was a teaching on a different topic. The first month was the core values month where we learned how to hear God's voice, what God's heart is for us, the importance of forgiveness, and how to identify and break ungodly beliefs about ourselves and others. During this month I learned how to forgive and release my parents from expectation and judgment. I also did some inner healing that addressed my ungodly beliefs that I am a victim of my circumstances and that I am not enough. During this time was also when I stopped taking my antidepressants. I learned that it's okay to cry and that there's nothing wrong with me. I am loved and it's possible to be strong but still cry sometimes. I learned about performance orientation- it's the belief that your value lies in what you do opposed to who you are. I definitely struggled with that. During the whole school, I've been learning more about my true identity and that I am capable of succeeding and it's okay to fail. I've learned the benefits of positive self talk as well :)
Our schedule was super packed. Staying in bed all day wasn't an option, like it had been before I went to the school. Whether I showed up or not DID matter, and I was held accountable for attendance and doing what was required of me. I think I only had two sick days the whole time! (That's an accomplishment for me!) Teachings were only in the morning. In the afternoons we had different things ranging from small group, sermon writing, and outreach prep. At the beginning of school we also needed to sign up to an area of the church we wanted to learn more about. There were different ones for example pastoral, media, kids ministry, financial, street ministry. After careful consideration, I joined the street ministry tract because I felt like I came to SoM to give every bit of myself and I knew it would stretch me. We basically went downtown 2 days a week (Thursday afternoons and Sunday afternoons) and walked around in groups of 2 or 3 asking people if they need any prayer for anything. Even after weeks of doing it I'm still not really into it (I don't like imposing myself on other people I guess) but for me the victory wasn't in being good at it, but rather my victory was in signing up, showing up, and trying. For those of you who know me well, I'm not really a fan of going downtown but I embraced the opportunity (as best as I could) to stand up to fears and anxiety.
As SoM students we were also required to help with the conferences that they have once every couple of months. We were all assigned duties: from cleaning, to serving, to setting up, to tearing down, to greeting... plus we also had to practice praying for people aloud which at the beginning was super uncomfortable. I've struggled with the ungodly belief that what I have to say isn't important. (Which I now know isn't true!) We were also on a rotating schedule of cleaning our school building building and serving/washing dishes in the cafeteria the whole 4 months we lived there.
After the first month of school it was announced where our outreach destinations would be. We were split into 4 groups of about 13 students and 2 leaders each. My team as you've probably heard by now, went to California. The other teams went to Denmark, England, and Victoria (British Columbia). To get us better acquainted with each other, we had to do things as a team. In addition to outreach prep every Monday, we had to go to House of Prayer every Thursday night and 5 weeks of Friday night church service and 4 weeks of working at a homeless mission in downtown Toronto on Tuesdays. House of Prayer is a time of praising God and also a time to pray for our community, city, country, and society as a church. We often prayed for Syria, for example, and against sex-trafficking in Amsterdam-- that kind of stuff. At the very least it was an opportunity to practice public (sort of) speaking. The homeless mission we went to was called Followers mission. It's a small building that is used as a church to reach the lost out on the streets. They have music, and some prayer, and then there's a really short talk (about 10 minutes) giving people the opportunity to come to Jesus, and then they give out food :) usually hot dogs or pizza. It was tough, but a very humbling experience to show them the love of God. It isn't about preaching or convincing people to become Christian; it's about following the teachings of Jesus and showing people love. :)
At the beginning of May we went on a weekend-long mini outreach in our outreach teams. First our team went to Hamilton, ON, to do some more street ministry. We walked around, and prayed for people if we felt led to do so. We also went to "the mountain" known to locals as the Devil's Punch-bowl to pray over the city. Hamilton's downtown population is very oppressed and a lot of Toronto's homeless get sent out there. Mental illness is also very common. That night we attended a church service in Niagara Falls where my church (Catch the Fire) is doing a church plant. On Sunday we led worship and gave testimonies/sermons at the CTF Hamilton location. It was a busy weekend but a lot of fun to work as a team.
During the school there were two special days that were "unofficial": Guys' Honoring and Girls' Honoring. The days are organized by the opposite sex (ladies organize guys' honoring and guys organize girls' honoring). Basically it's a day to honor the opposite sex for who they really are in Christ. It's a day to love on each other (in an appropriate way!) and come against any negative stereotypes and ungodly beliefs that may have been created from past experiences. I had some inner healing from both of these days and I know that it really impacted everyone involved, both times!
Classes ended June 19. We had a week break until we had to leave for our outreach destinations. As I mentioned earlier, my team went to a place called Oroville, California. I wasn't sure if I was going to go at first because I was really nervous about it. I didn't like the idea of going someplace I've never been especially since we had little information about what it was going to be like. In the end I decided to go because I had made the commitment to go all-in at this school. Our team had to be at the airport for 4am on the 27th. About half an hour after we got there, we were informed that our first of 3 flights was cancelled. After an hour or two of sitting around we were told that we would probably have to come back on the 29th instead to fly the route we were supposed to take (Toronto to Charlotte, NC to Phoenix, AZ to Sacramento, CA) but after some more waiting we found out that we would all be able to meet at the LA airport and fly to Sacramento together in the evening but we would have to split up. One of our leaders, 2 other girls and myself flew together, the other leader and one of the guys had to fly a different route together, and the rest of our group (7 of them) had to take a different flight as well. Instead of flying 3 flights with 2 layovers, I ended up getting to fly BUSINESS CLASS!!!! and direct flight to LA! wooop :D so after 24 hours of traveling, we finally got to Oroville (2 hours north of Sacramento). We got there at around 1am their time, and we had to be up at 8am for chapel... O.o
The church we were staying with and working at was called The Father's House Church (TFHC). I stayed in an LRM house. LRM stands for Life Recovery Ministries. It's a ministry that takes people off the streets and straight out of the county jail and gives them an opportunity to live in an environment where they are separated from their old lives and given a second chance in a Jesus-centered environment. I lived in a house of 6 women in the LRM program and one other person from my team. There are 4 different levels in the 12 month LRM program- blackout is 30 days where they are basically separated from their old lives. Not allowed to leave campus unless accompanied by the house leader and not allowed to use their phones, or internet or watch tv. Also, people on blackout aren't allowed to talk to other LRM people of the opposite sex, because often if people leave the program it's because they run off with someone they are in a "relationship" with. After 30 days (give or take) they level up to level 1, then level 2, then level 3, then they graduate. As they level up they get more freedom as well as responsibility. Because most of the LRM people come from the streets and/or jail, they often don't have money. They live for free on the church campus in houses but they are required to work.
TFHC has a few different businesses. The main ones that the LRM people work at are Helping Hands for the guys (odd jobs like mowing, gardening, roofing, moving, etc) and doing maintenance on the property, as well as working in the church garden (they grow vegetables and give them to the community for free!!) and Restored Boutique for the women (a second hand shop that takes donations and refurbishes/restores/fixes them up and then sells them). I worked at Restored during my first week there and I absolutely loved it! I got to know the LRM women better and I also knew that what I was doing there was helping out so many people. Restored has a project called Keys of Restoration- they take old, donated keys and punch words into them and then put them on a chain or rope so that you can wear them around your neck. For example, the LRM women gave me a key that says "BEAUTIFUL" on it. When I meet someone who needs to be reminded that they are beautiful, I take the key off and I give it to them for them to wear. It's really sweet :) All money from both Helping Hands and Restored Boutique go to living expenses of the LRM people. TFHC also has a yogurt shop similar to Menchies that was donated to them, and a Gym called Lord's Gym. The Lord's Gym is working on raising enough money so that their upstairs can be made into a youth center which will help the youth stay off the streets and from doing drugs. Membership at the gym is really cheap ($5/month for youth and $20/month for adults).
The church campus was built in the poorest area of the poorest town in the poorest county in California. There is a lot of heavy drug use (heroin and meth), and gang activity. The church currently has 3 mens LRM houses and 1 womens LRM house. They have a dining hall where everyone eats together during the week. One of the LRM women is the cook, and one of the weeks there in the afternoons I was helping her cook for everyone. It was a lot of work!
There are also various ministries: children's ministry (nursery, toddler, and school-age), foodbank, adopt-a-block (going door-to-door, bringing food/water/vitamins/diapers/etc to people in the surrounding vicinity of the church), eldercare (going to visit with the elderly), homeless outreach (making sandwiches for homeless people and then driving around town to hand them out), and Hope Center (partnering with other organizations to give a hot meal and prayer to people who are homeless or affected by poverty). It's all done selflessly to love on the town of Oroville and make a difference in the community.
There is also a School of Ministry there that is associated with the same SoM that I attended here in Toronto. The students there are often graduates of the LRM program. After SoM, TFHC has an internship called Kingdom Awakening. Once the internship is completed (6 months to 2 years) then you can become staff of the church. I had the opportunity to sit in on some of the SoM classes and it was similar to what we learned in our classes :)
Our schedule was jam packed. I was up almost every morning by 6:30am, because in the LRM houses they do devotionals every morning at 7am. At 8am our jobs start. We get an hour break for lunch and then we'd have our afternoon jobs. Dinner would be served in the dining hall at 5pm and then on most nights of the week there are other activities that started at 6:30 or 7pm. We were there mainly to create relationships with the people there, so we attended the 12-step program once a week and we attended all 3 church services (Sunday, Wednesday night, and Friday morning). The LRM guys have their own softball team and the LRM girls have Bible study once a week. It's very God-centered but it's about laying down your life to save others' lives. Most nights we weren't free until 8 or 9pm.
I thought I would burn out but I didn't at all. I got up every morning not just because I had to, but because I actually wanted to. It was a place where being myself was good enough. Speaking encouragements to people and telling them they mattered, was needed and appreciated. Loving people was what was required, and I'm good at that. It was a place where showing up and helping out directly impacted others, and that impact was visible. I touched peoples' lives but they also touched mine. My experience there was amazing. I also got baptized on my trip :) I fell in love with the people that I met - they are so awesome!!! And full of soooo much promise!
Last Thursday (July 25) I graduated from SoM. At the beginning of the school I was so broken and full of despair. They asked us what our dreams were and honestly other than get out of bed on any given day, I didn't really have any. During my time at school I discovered my identity and I found my strength. I've found purpose and joy. I want to thank the people that supported me even when they didn't really understand what was going on or why I wanted to do this school. Instead of feeling like I can't do anything, I now feel like I have so many options I don't know which one to go after :P
If you want more information about some of the stuff that I learned on my spiritual journey, I have a blog which I will be updating sooner than later. Or, you could just talk to me about it :) I have sooo many stories!!!! I hope all is well with you
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