Last Day of Orientation
Well, today was our last day of orientation here in Boone, NC. The last ten days have been wonderful and it is very evident that every member of the internship program was brought here for a specific purpose. I have never grown this close to a group of people this fast before. It's only been a week and a half and each one of us loves everybody else like brothers and sisters. It's been really great and we're going to miss each other. The cool thing is that we know that these friendships that we have made over the past several days will continue on long after our internship program is done. It's not the 15 of us have replaced our families, but that we all have become part of our family. I think that's a God thing.
Over the past ten days we have been through a whole lot of training and preparation. We've learned about every single project that Samaritan's Purse has throughout the world, as well as things such as Field Finance, Field Logistics, Communications, Cross-Cultural Evangelism, Culture Shock, and NGO Lingo and Procedures. Just to name a few. We've also had a great time participating in team building activities and spiritual development activites. Some really fun things that we've done have been horse back riding, a ropes course, and going to Grandfather Mountain. You can check out pictures from all of this over the past ten days in my photos through the link to the right of the page. They're in the Orientation photo album.
God has been doing some really cool things in my life over the past several months and especially the past several weeks. Growing in the Lord is a pretty exciting thing I think. One thing that I've really come to enjoy lately deals with getting older. Since my 23rd birthday was last week, I've had a good chance to think about this. It's nice to get older because as the years pass by we have the chance to see how God has been working in our lives over the past several years to prepare and set us up for what He's doing at this current time. Some times things or events in our lives don't really make sense as they are happening, but eventually God pulls them all together and great things happen. Also, another aspect of this is that as we grow older we start to see blessing and miracles happen to other people and in our own lives, that we didn't really notice when we were younger. For me, this two things have kind of added a tangible aspect to my walk and my relationship with Christ. Before, Christianity just really seemed like words on a page and something I did. Not ever really resulting in tangible things that I could seem around me. Atleast not anything that couldn't be explained away. I enjoy those moments when something happens and the only explanation for what just happened is God. That's when God comes alive and becomes real to us.
God is good and I'm excited for what I am about to experience. Both good and bad, I know that the next five months will yield a variety of experiences that God will use to further develop me and my walk. If it turns out to be any where near as good as the past ten days have been then it will be a great time. I will be trying to up-date this blog once a week or every other week, so please try to check in as often as you can to see what's going on in Sudan. I will always try and post prayer request on here as they come up. Thanks again for taking the time to check on me from time to time and to see what God is doing in Africa. Enjoy life and every day that you have because none of us are promised tomorrow.
Sincerely,
Cliff
II Corinthians 2:17
II Corinthians 3: 4-6
II Corinthians 3:17
Prayer Requests:
- Safety Traveling for me and the other interns. (They're names are Ryan, Jeff, Travis, Josh, Claire, Katie, Jessica, Christine, Erin, Dayna, Amy, Jennifer, Stephanie, and Leigh-Anna.)
- For all the SP Staff throughout the world
- The people that we will be serving in our countries
- That all of our baggage will make it to where we are going.
- My family, girl friend Kristine, and my friends who will miss me while I'm gone
posted by Cliff @ 12:06 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Look at you, Mr. Blogger himself. That was a fine entry, sir, a fine entry. Thanks for giving us not only an update but some of your thoughts on what God has been doing in you as of late.
I am so proud of you.
Clifford.. I am so excited for you. And a tinge jealous. ;) But mostly just excited. This is going to rock your face OFF.
I will be praying for you. And I love you a lot.. like you are a brother. Which is good, because technically you are. ;) Just thought you should know.
Have a friggin' BLAST.
-Natalie
Have a great ride while it lasts
and maybe we can join you when it
slows down. We love you. Dad
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