You guys!
My first few weeks at CGA have been PHENOMENAL!
Just in this short amount of time, I:
-turned 24 and was SO well celebrated by my teammates 🙂
-stayed in the most beautiful retreat space EVER as my team had time to get to know each other and pray fervently before the official start of CGA classes
-have gotten to know the wonderful 7 women and 3 men who make up the rest of our class (they are GREAT!)
-have spent some serious time reflecting on and praying about the material we’ve been focusing on in class so far
Here’s a glimpse at our weekly schedule:
Monday:
9 am worship with all Adventures in Missions staff
10 – 12: class (often we’ll have guest speakers come in on Mondays)
1-5: class (teachings, group discussion)
Tuesday:
8:15 – 9: Bible study
9 – 12 pm: Group ‘activation’ time; we do an activity/exercise/outreach to practically apply what we’ve been doing in the classroom
Wednesday:
8:15 – 9: Prayer time
9 – 12: teaching
Thursday:
8:15 – 9: worship time
9 – 12: teaching/activation time
Friday:
9 – 12: Track time (each apprentice with CGA chooses either the Worship Leading track or the Church Planting track and has class time and application time with these as well)
[basically class in the mornings and time for work in the afternoons/evenings and on the weekend]
(in the CGA classroom)
Just a few of the awesome topics we’ve had discussion on in class:
Inductive Bible study, perspective, pride vs. humility, dependence on the Father, failure, and servant leadership just to name a few.
We also read Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards this last week together, and it has really shaped my view of leadership, brokenness, and humility toward God’s appointed authority (Romans 13:1). This week we’re reading Richard J. Foster’s Celebration of Discipline.
Covering these topics and having discussion in class has been so good and so challenging at the same time. We’re talking aloud very candidly about our fears and failures and lies we’re believing in order to disarm them and completely be renewing our minds and replacing those things with the truth of Scripture. A sort of mantra for CGA is “know yourself, lead yourself; know others, lead others.” We’ve been focusing on ways we ourselves aren’t believing who we are in Christ, so that we can be fully secure in being sons and daughters of God who invite others to reconciled to God in the same way!
(our class along with the staff/interns!)
ANSWERED PRAYERS:
-God is beautifully and quickly establishing my class and our leadership into a family! We’re asking hard questions and being real with ourselves and each other, and yet we know it is a safe space to be messy!
-Some of my classmates already have jobs! So PRAISE! I am still praying about a nursing job as none of my job prospects have gotten back to me. I know the Lord has a job for me here somewhere, I’m just fighting to trust His provision and am continuing to seek out options.
-In the midst of all the learning and discussions, we’re asking Jesus to really grasp these concepts and see where we need to align our lives with Him in truth. EVERY SINGLE TEACHING we’ve had is so applicable not only to leadership but to so many circumstances I know will arise later in life. We’re learning these concepts and asking the Lord to open these chapters of knowledge and application that He will continue writing in again and again so we can be more healthy and better daughters, employees, mothers and fathers, and disciples of Jesus anywhere and everywhere! I am SO EXCITED to be where I am!
And though it is hard work to keep processing these hard questions and look honestly at what the cost of leadership and of following Jesus is, it is so sweet and beautiful!
Thank you all for your prayers and love and making a way for me to be where I am certain the Lord wants me planted! I am miraculously already 71% funded, meaning I have only $1,650 to raise to be fully funded!! 😀 HOW AMAZING?!?! If you’d like to support me financially, please just click the ‘donate’ button at the top of this page, and if you’d like to support me prayerfully, simply stay tuned here for more updates!
If there is anything I can be praying for YOU about as my support team, please don’t hesitate to send me an email at [email protected]!
LOVE YOU!
-Abby.
(p.s. below are a few more pictures for you! :D)
(the family room of our lovely girls’ cabin where I get to live for the next few months!!)
(my beautiful roommate Morgan!)
(my reaction on my birthday to my sneaky mom sending me flowers to the retreat house!)
(the family room of the AMAZING retreat home we were able to stay in! :D)
(an awkward CGA family photo, half of our eyes closed and all… ha!)
