We walked into the Community Center. Sunlight streamed in through one window. Quickly, we turned on the high ceiling fans to get the air flowing. Then, we began setting up everything for the kid’s club.

I looked at my watch. About 15 minutes till 1:00PM.

“So, I set everything up with the apartment complex.” Pastor Mark’s voice interrupted my thoughts. “They were excited about the 5-day clubs. They made these flyers to advertise it, and they said they sent out a group email as well. Hopefully kids will show up—but just in case, we should probably walk around and see if we can hand out any more flyers.”

Following his advice, we split into groups of two and walked around the complex. Besides an occasional car driving by, everything was oddly silent. Everyone’s probably staying inside on such a hot day like this, I thought.

We met back a little before 1:00. Time ticked on…no kids.

Once again, I fought the urge to question God’s plan. Why would you bring us here, God, only to waste our time? We don’t have any time to waste! As time went on, the reality that we had no club finally set in. It was time to experiment. Apparently God had other plans for us.

Looking around, there was only one thing to do. Outside the Community center, there was a pool. Despite the hot day, there were just a few kids outside playing. However, in our minds, a few was better than none! At that moment, all our presuppositions and expectations for the clubs went out the window as we embraced God’s alternative path for what it was. We grabbed popsicles out of the freezer, opened the door, and went outside.

“Hi, would it be okay if we gave your kids some popsicles?” Josie called out across the pool. With that question, we launched into our week long, unplanned, spontaneous, SPIRIT-LED 5-day club. It would be unexpected and new every single day. It would be unconventional. I mean, who’s ever done a 5-day club in the pool? And yet, despite all this, it would be rewarding. Little did we know the opportunities God would give and the seeds we would be able to plant.

– AGY Entry #2 –

Well…now that I’ve set the scene for you a bit, let me share more about what’s been going on in the Growth Year!! (If you want to read all the DETAILS about this program, click HERE to visit the official website!) Want to hear all my updates? Sign up for my email list below:

So, our first official day was July 15. After just a week of settling into seminars with the local pastors, Bible college, and more, our team of 12 was launched into 2 hectic weeks of 5-day clubs! Overall, we ran 12 clubs during that 2 weeks (we were split into smaller teams). It was super crazy, but also super rewarding!

Just a little bit more about our “Pool” 5-day club…

As I said, it was very unconventional. Every day there were brand new kids playing in the pool, and every day we would go out, offer them popsicles, and ask to tell them a story. The answer was always yes, and we were able to share the Wordless Book (a method of sharing the Gospel) each time! A lot of the kids had never gone to church, or at least weren’t familiar with the Gospel message. It was such a blessing to just hang out with the kids each day even though our time was so short. A lot of them asked REALLY good questions—things like “Who made God?” and “Why is there racism in the world?” Tough questions to answer. Yet God gave us the words we needed in every moment.

Though this club was not anything like what I was expecting, God intended it to be this way, and it was good. I believe that God sometimes changes our plans just to see how much we’re willing to rely on Him and trust Him. That’s not to say it wasn’t a struggle at times. Each day, I would hope that the kids from the previous day would come back. It was a struggle to trust that we weren’t just wasting our time. Yet, I realize now that those doubts that came into my head were a lie. Looking back, I know God used us to plant seeds in these kid’s lives. He also taught us so many things through this experience. It is definitely something I will never forget!

Now, the 5-day clubs have been over for a few weeks, and we’ve been focusing solely on our studies of God’s word. This has been intense in a totally different way. It’s almost like now, I have to fight to not let everything become a “to-do list.” Do you know what I mean? I start to get in school mode—doing things just to check it off my list. But when I have that mindset, I’m forgetting why I am doing this whole program in the first place! Which is totally STUPID! It is a privilege to be able to learn the things I’m learning. And I AM learning a lot. So, please pray about for me and the other students, that we would have grateful attitudes, and that we wouldn’t waste this precious time that we have.

That’s it for today…if you’ve made it this far, thanks for listening! Don’t forget to sign up for my email list to receive updates right to your inbox!

The post Pools, Popsicles, and Plans: AGY Entry #2 appeared first on .

If you guys have been following me on Instagram for any amount of time, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve started doing a lot of posts expressing my faith…sharing Bible verses, other quotes, etc.

The truth is, my faith is a HUGE part of everything I do! I can’t help but talk about it and share about it.

I’m doing this post because I have a big change coming in my life starting this summer. I’m going to jump right in to tell you about it!

The Growth Year

The Growth Year…when you hear this, what does it make you think of? I know, it sounds kind of unique! And the truth is, it is unique.

Basically, the Growth Year is a program starting up at my church for young college students who want to dedicate a year of their lives to God, delve into His Word, and serve him. There are twelve of us who have decided to jump into this journey; 6 girls and 6 guys. We are all extremely excited to see what God has in store for us!

So what will we be doing?

1. Delving into God’s word—we will be taking online Bible college classes as apart of the program, as well as doing lots of in-depth seminars taught by the Pastors at my church.
2. Serve in our Community—each of us will be choosing specific ministries to serve in. We will be reaching out on our local Community College campus, as well as serving in Good News Clubs in the Public Schools.
3. Adventures—we will be going on several overseas adventures…
4. The first adventure is ISRAEL! After studying the Old Testament, we will get to go to the land of the Bible and walk where Jesus walked! I cannot wait for this!
5. Lastly, we will be going on a 2 week missions trip to the Philippines! Missions trips are always amazing for stepping out of your comfort zone to serve God in another culture.

A few things have ALREADY happened as well…make sure to read to the end of this post to see!

How does this impact you?

First of all, we need your prayers. This is the most important thing I could ask for from you. If you are willing to pray for me, please comment on this post to tell me! It is so encouraging to know that what we are doing is backed by the most powerful tool we have: prayer.

Second of all, I am currently raising money for this. The total cost for this year is $9,000—which is actually an incredible price, considering everything we will be doing. However, it is still steep for most of us involved.

So, first of all, thank you for even reading this post…just the fact that you’re reading means you’re supporting my business and helping me raise money! But, if you want to go further…

My Etsy Shop is on Sale!

For the next few days, my ENTIRE SHOP will be 50% off! You can snag my patterns for an incredible deal right now! If you’ve been thinking about getting one, now is the time! (These types of sales are rare!)

VIEW THE SALE HERE!

If you would like to support me in a more direct way (friends and family, this is specifically for you!) please contact me for details.

How this Impacts My Blog

There is one more thing I will cover in this post. I want to be completely honest with you guys—I do not know right now how this next year will affect my Blog.

What do I mean by that? Well, this year is going to take a LOT of my time. I am going to be doing everything I can to keep up with designing and publishing patterns…but the truth is, there may not be as many. I hope you guys will continue to support me even if there are random weeks where I’m not answering your questions.

ALSO…I am going to try to update you guys with what we are doing! When possible, I will be publishing posts telling about my faith journey. As I said at the beginning of this post, my faith is integral to everything I do. I will be publishing posts with pictures, stories of God’s faithfulness, and more as the growth year goes on.

With that in mind, let me show you some of the things that have already happened!

The picture below shows our “dedication” at an all-church picnic at the park!

We soon after went on a weekend missions trip to Mexico, which was tiring but SO rewarding!

Besides this, we’ve also done 3 programs of VBS (Vacation Bible School), as well as a week of Camp up in the mountains. Currently, we are doing 5-day clubs in people’s homes, which is an amazing opportunity to share the gospel with kids! I am going to publish a post about this soon…if you’re interested, please sign up for my FAITH email list below. This will notify you about all future posts concerning the growth year (this is completely separate from my crochet email list).

Finally: if you’ve made it this far, I just want to say thanks for reading this. I am so excited to see what God does this next year, and I hope you are too. Thank you for your prayers and support.

— Rachel

The post The Anthem Growth Year: My Faith Journey appeared first on .