It has begun!

CGA has begun in full force. Twenty-nine apprentices are safe and settled here in good ol’ Gainesville, GA, and I couldn’t be more excited to see what transpires this semester.

When I was recruited for this job, I was thrilled that someone thought I could handle alllllll the various aspects that they were offering me. As the days got closer to the new semester, and you could almost feel the anticipation in the air I started to get a little nervous. What if I do a terrible job? What if I can’t balance the administrative demands AND the face-to-face ones? What if I can’t be fully present with the apprentices because I’m trying to figure out all the behind-the-scenes work? And so on and so forth.

But with our new students’ arrival last Friday, their launch into a four-day hiking-and-camping-in-the-Appalachian-wilderness, and their first day of orientation afterwards, the word I can use to best describe my current state of mind is: full. So, so full. 

I am amazed at how eager, generous, willing, and mature these new apprentices are. Granted, it’s the beginning of the semester and everyone is obvs on their best behavior, but it seems that- as a whole- this group of eager beavers is absolutely solid. We’ve already set them to doing lots of processing and digging in, asking them to figure out how they’d like to grow in specific areas and then making commitments to chase those goals. The apprentices have also agreed to commit to both blogging and sending out newsletters to stay accountable to their supporters and donors back home. They’ve started thinking about what it looks like to live above reproach, especially on social media. We’ve introduced them to their apprenticeship supervisors- their bosses- and shared with them what their in-office work will look like. We’ve asked them to live in close quarters with a giant handful of strangers, and to be vulnerable and open and honest with them, and they agreed joyfully and without hesitation. 

These apprentices are cannon-balling into this semester with everything they’ve got, and I feel nothing but genuine excitement to see what the Lord does in them, how they grow, and where they go from here.

Thanks for being a part of my journey, for supporting me with your prayers and thoughts, for sending me encouraging notes at just the right time, and for financially supporting Adventures In Missions through me, to help me fulfill my commitment to support raise for this incredible nonprofit organization that spends its time training, activating, and sending the next generation to the world. I hope to give you an inside-look at the goings-on behind the scenes of the fabulous discipleship school I help run, as the semesters go on. If you have encouragement or feedback for me, as always share away. I love to keep growing. And maybe we can learn a thing or two from each other as I figure out what it means to serve well these souls in my care for the next several months.