The Paducah Trip and Other Exciting Adventures

Guys...the AIMers just got back from our trip to Paducah! It was a crazy, hectic, stressful, exhausting trip. I had a blast! So, this trip had several different parts, so I think the most fun way to do it would be to break it up by days...at least, the most fun way for me.

Sooo...

Day One (Thursday #1)

The first day of our trip was a really long day, driving wise. We left home at 4am, and drove for what seemed like forever. (The plus side of this day was that I hadn't slept much the night before so I basically slept straight through it.) For dinner that night (I know, crazy long jump...but like I said, I was asleep most of the time.) We went to a place called Lambert's. And it was freaking awesome. That's the only way I know how to describe it. They gave us sooooo much food. I got the catfish, and it was probably the best catfish I've ever eaten. For real. Lambert's is famous for the fact that they deliver your rolls to your table by throwing them to you. Basically what happens is that a guy walks out with a cart full of rolls, and you hold your hands up and he throws them to you. Since I don't eat bread, I didn't actually catch a roll, but it was a lot of fun to watch everyone else try and catch their rolls.

After dinner, we headed to this church, where we were going to spend the night. We get there, and we're all getting ready to take showers and such. There was only one shower for the girls and one shower for the boys. Which was cool, because we don't like to complain... ;) But anyway, I was one of the first few to call dibs on a shower, simply because I really wanted to wash the day of travel off of me. So, I go to get in the shower, I walk in the room where the shower is, turn the shower on, walk out to throw something away, and when I try to get back in, I discover that the door is locked. So I go and get one of the AIM assistants, and he literally tries to take the door off its hinges. But the door won't budge. So we end up having to call the guy who let us into the church originally to bring the key to the bathroom door. Needless to say, by the time he drove all the way back across town to bring us the key, my shower was freezing cold and so was everyone who went after me...oops.

Day Two (Friday #1)

The second day of the trip was a lot of fun. We traveled in the morning, until about lunch. Around lunch time, we got to St Louis. We pulled up and they let us out at the arch, and told us what time to be back. A group of us decided that we didn't want fast food, so we went on an adventure to find the spaghetti factory! It was so fun to eat there, I hadn't been in a long time, and it's definitely one of my favorite restaurants. A little bit of a splurge, but it was so so worth it. When we got to the restaurant and sat down, we noticed that Kris, Pat, and the other assistants who were on the trip were at a table across the restaurant. Lacy and I immediately texted Kris and Pat and said "We see you!" to which Pat replied "We couldn't escape!!!" haha. We thought about several different things we could do that would be silly, but we ended up deciding to have one piece of mud pie with two forks delivered to Kris and Pat, from their secret admirers. Obviously they knew it was us, but it was still fun to do something like that.

After lunch we got back on the bus and finished the trip to Paducah. When we got to the Lone Oak Church of Christ, we ate dinner with them, and then found out who our host families were. Ashlie and I stayed with the nicest lady. Her name was Ruby, and she's a real sweetheart. I really enjoyed talking and laughing with her every night.

Day Three (Saturday)

So, day three...Saturday. Saturday morning, we got to the church, and Kris announced that we'd be spending the morning sightseeing in Paducah, and then also going to Metropolis, IL to look around there (hello, Superman...). We went down to the waterfront, and looked at all the murals that they have painted on their floodwalls. It was so neat to see the way that people have taken pieces of their town history and documented it in such a cool way. I really enjoyed that. Then, we went to Metropolis, which was really cool. There's this big statue of Superman, and all this other cool Superman stuff, and then a store with basically anything superhero you could imagine. Luckily, I left my wallet on the bus, so I couldn't really buy anything.

When we got back to the church from Metropolis, it was time to start setting up for the community fish fry that the church would be having that night. It was fun to do service work, and serve others. That's probably my favorite thing to do. When it came time for the fish fry to start, we just started serving people food. There were soooo many people, and so much fish. I don't think I've ever seen so much fish in my life, for real. It was fun to serve others, but it was soooo nice to sit down and eat as well. :)

Day Four (Sunday)

Sunday was a really fun day...we went to church in the morning, of course. We went to the high school class, which Pat taught. I really enjoyed his class, and talking about defining ourselves by the fact that we're children of God, and not letting our worldly views define us. In the actual church part of it, we went in and sat down. I sat with three of the friendliest ladies I've ever met. (Ok, I've gotta go off on a little bit of a tangent for a second. When I came to AIM and went to Denver City for the first time, it was super hard for me to find people to sit with, and it was difficult for me to feel comfortable. But I didn't feel that way at all when I sat down with these ladies...proof that I'm growing? I'd like to think so!) Kris was the one who gave the sermon this morning. He talked about AIM and missions in general. Then he called all of us to come up on stage, had us answer some questions, and then we sang Do Not Fear. People in the audience started crying, and Megan, a girl in our class who's from Lone Oak started crying, and it really reminded me of my last Sunday at Alvaton, when they called me up front and prayed for me and all this other stuff. So then I started crying, which made me feel silly, so I tried to hide it...yeah.

Lunch was a potluck...since I came to AIM potlucks are my best friends. For real, that's the only way I ever eat anything that's good for me...so lunch was obviously good.

Sunday afternoon we all broke off into groups and spent time with our host families. It was fun to just hang out with Ruby and Ashlie. We went and walked around downtown, and then went to Coldstone and got ice cream. Yum!

Sunday evening we went and worshipped in Murray, Kentucky at the Glendale Rd Church of Christ. It was their singing night, and the song leader is a man who used to lead singing at Lone Oak. He just recently found out that he has a very aggressive form of ALS, and he's not really expected to live much longer. So, for a lot of people, this was their last time to really worship with him (until Heaven!) so it was kind of emotional for them. I know I'm getting off topic, but if you could keep him in your prayers (I feel bad, I totally forgot his name!) that would be great! For dinner we had Culvers. It was the first time I had Culvers in over two months, so I was pretty happy! :)

Day Five (Monday)

Monday wasn't a good day for me. Being in Kentucky was making me really homesick, and I was missing my mom, and it was leading me to be in a really bad mood, and be really sensitive. I basically just tried (unsuccessfully) not to cry all day. I guess I was feeling isolated, and it wasn't anyone's fault, I was just sensitive and things were hurting my feelings and stuff like that...nbd.

But anyway, Monday morning we had class. We had two different classes. One was taught by a man named Richard, and he talked to us about life, and his experiences, some that were pretty heartbreaking, and he also told us about making brooms. It was cool to hear his story, because he told us about his daughter, and how she told him she was gonna do this "mission thing" in Lubbock, TX, but that she never told him what it was called or anything like that. Well, then his daughter was killed (I think in a car crash?) and he never thought of that conversation again until he heard we were coming. The AIM world is a small place...

Then, we heard a lesson from a man named Mike who's basically a genius (if you've heard him speak before, you know what I'm talking about). He talked to us about this Bible study method that we can use with people when we study with them on the field. I think that it's gonna be really helpful information to have.

In the afternoon on Monday we all split into different groups and did different service projects. Because I have a hurt foot and really am not supposed to move around a whole lot, I did some data entries for the church. I made a database of all the people who had come to the fish fry and filled out one of the cards they gave out. It was cool to see all the little town names around the Paducah area. Word really spread.

Monday night we worked with the church's benevolence program. They prepared a dinner, and we were split into groups and assigned different jobs. Some people got to serve dinner, some got to take prayer requests and pray with people, and some of us were told to basically just hang out in the Lobby of the church and talk to people. I'm gonna go off on a bit of a tangent here (surprise, right?) and talk about this congregation and how impressed I was by them. I don't think I've ever been to a church that was more dedicated to helping people, or helping each other. This church is really a body full of servants. It was so impressive to see how they just want to serve others, and glorify God with everything they have. The AIMers went to serve, and we did serve, but I felt as if I was being served by the people there more than I was serving them, even. They're all so open and friendly, and unified. It was really just way cool.

Day Six (Tuesday)

Tuesday morning we had class with Mike again. Yay! Then, after lunch (which was BBQ nachos, by the way) everyone got ready to travel to Western Kentucky Bible Camp, but I didn't go with them, because my mommy came and got me and took me home with her! It was so nice to spend 2.5 hours with my mom just doing nothing but talking and catching up. I really had missed her.

I had planned to go home, and then go to Stakz with the Heltons. I hadn't told anyone but my mom, dad, and them that I was coming into town a day before I had originally planned, because I figured it would be nice to just spend time with them, or surprise people if I got the chance. Well, I ended up getting into town early enough to get my mom to drop me by marching band. It was so much fun to surprise Mitch. He look so excited, and it made me happy.

Then, I got to Stakz about 20 minutes early, which was cool. I was planning on just sitting and waiting...you know, spending some alone time. But, as I'm walking in, I looked up and saw Bailey standing at the counter. She turned around and saw me and screamed soooo loud, then ran across the room and gave me a hug. It cracked me up how quiet everyone got. Then, I had fro yo with Ryan and Melinda, we just caught up and stuff. :)

So I had some free time and decided that it would be fun to go surprise Abby. (In case no one could tell I really love surprising people...) And it was. She was in the middle of writing a college essay, but she took some time out of it to talk to me. It was well timed, because it gave me a chance to tell her that she should consider AIM rather than college... ;)

Day Seven (Wednesday)

Wednesday morning my mom and I got up and went shopping. We bought some clothes and shoes for me for the winter. Then we went out for Chinese food, which was awesome. So so good. I'd missed it!

Wednesday night was so much fun, because it was when all the AIMers came to Alvaton. I got to church early, and hung out with Melinda and Elsie, and all the youth group kids as they got there. So that was nice. Then, when all the AIMers got there, it was fun to watch them start building relationships with church members. I looooooved getting to see all my friends and family. It really gave me a reminder of who I am, and where I've come from... (I'm gonna write a post all about Alvaton and how much the people there mean to me really soon!)

After church the three girls who stayed with me and I went to GADS and hung out with my dad for awhile, and that was fun. Then we went back to my mom's house and played a board game, which was also fun! I'd really missed playing games with my mom, since that was always kind of one of our things. Game nights are seriously deals at the Hockman household, y'all.

Day Eight (Thursday #2)

Thursday was just another long travel day. We traveled all the way from Bowling Green to East Texas. We stayed in a barn on this familie's farm. Some of the girls slept in an RV while the rest of us slept in their attic. It was fun to sleep there and get to know that family.

Day Nine (Friday #2)

Friday wasn't really that eventful at all. We got up in the morning, got on the bus and drove all the way home. Then, we were back and I was way more happy than I would have expected to be. I think I'm starting to love Lubbock...uh oh.

Other adventures...

We started new classes, and I think I'm gonna really like this term. Also, we've been having more field presentations lately, and I think it's really awesome and I'm enjoying it. So far, my favorite has been the presentation for Sucre, Bolivia...but I'm still not sure yet. It doesn't matter, though! God is gonna send me where He wants.

Also....I LED MY VERY FIRST SMALL GROUP LAST NIGHT. It was totally nerve wracking, and I thought I was gonna die for sure. But I didn't, so that's exciting. I think it'll be much easier next time. :)

Now, I have a trip to pack for, because tomorrow we leave for OCU, we're going to the World Mission Workshop. I'm pretty excited, but I'm also sort of dreading it, since I'm so exhausted.

Alright, I gotta jet. So much to do!

I love...

So, the other day, I wrote about how homesick I've been feeling. And it's true, I miss my Kentucky home, and all my family there. But, at the same time, this is my new home. It's kind of interesting, having two homes. I miss my friends and family in Kentucky. But, at the same time, this new place and my friends and family here hold my heart, too. So, I want to take some time to share about my new friends and family here and the things that I actually love about Lubbock.

I love how blue the sky is. I love the way, when we're driving to Denver City on Sundays, I can look out the car window and see so far in either direction. The sky is  everywhere I look. I think it's so cool that, initially thought everything here was super ugly, but now I'm starting to see the beauty.

I've loved my classes. I really loved learning from the intelligent, God loving me that are my teachers. It's crazy to me that they're not really just teachers. I know that they all genuinely care about me, and want to see me succeed. It's a nice feeling.

I love that my entire belief system was basically torn down and is now being rebuilt. It's not like I'm not relearning some things that I already knew before, I am. But one some things I'm gaining brand new knowledge and on others my perspective is totally being changed. I'm thinking and studying the Bible in ways that I never have before.

I love love love how real Jesus has become to me. I love God, and I've always been really grateful for Jesus dying for me, but I'd never really thought of Jesus as a person. I knew, on an intellectual level, that at one point he was a man who walked on the Earth. But I'd never really thought about the fact that Jesus was a living, breathing man, and how he had feelings, thoughts, and temptations. I'd never really thought about the fact that Jesus got his feelings hurt sometimes. The same way that it hurts me when someone says something to me that's kind of mean, Jesus wasn't immune to that. It wasn't like Jesus was made of stone, he got his feelings hurt, and felt bad when people treated him poorly. Because I see Jesus in this new light, it's been easier for me to develop a more serious relationship with him, and God as well.

I love that I've made so many new friends. High school ended pretty crappy socially, for me, at least. I wholeheartedly believe that part of the reason God put me in AIM was to help me remember what it meant to have healthy friendships. It's making me so much happier. I feel better about myself than I ever have before, and it feels soooo good.

I love that, for once in my life, all of my friends are trying to build me up rather than tear me down. I can't think of a single relationship I've built here in which I think someone doesn't have my best interest somewhere in their heart, and I feel the same about all of them. Not that any of us are perfect, we're not. But we all have a common love for God, and for each other.

I love that I know these people love me enough to drop anything and everything and pray for me, at any time, if that's what I need. Like I said the other day, I've been going through some rough stuff the last few days, and it's been pretty hard on me. The other night, I was supposed to lead small group. I was really nervous, and I felt really unprepared, and it kind of amplified all of the other stuff. Long story short, I kind of ended up having a breakdown. I was pretty much crying uncontrollably, and couldn't really pull myself together. They all asked me if I wanted to talk about it, and when I started to tell them about everything that was going on, Amy Jo, my small group assistant, basically said that we'd push my small group lesson back a week and pray for me and the stuff I was upset about. So we did. They all prayed for me, and then read Bible verses to me about comfort and how much God cares. It felt so good to know that they all love and care about me enough to drop their plans and be there for me when I needed them.

I love that there are people here who are willing to lovingly call me out when I'm doing something wrong. That there are people who are willing to just come up to me and ask me how I'm doing in a certain area, and hold me accountable. I love that I know they don't see me differently because of things that I have struggled with in the past and struggle with now. I know that the things they say or do are out of love, and I love that they trust me with theirs just as I do with mine.

I love that there's a sense of unknown and adventure that taints everything I do. There's so much here that's so out in the open and up in the air. I know God is working in all of this, and is taking care of the rest of my AIM time, and the rest of my life. He's going to make my life so crazy awesome when the time is right. There's something about so fully dedicating my life to God that has made it so exciting. I don't usually like to not know what the next step is, but God is teaching me how to be patient, walk by faith, and find excitement in each step of the journey. I've never been so wholly open to God's will before, and because of that, He's making everything come together for me.

I love that it's not easy. I know it's weird to love being challenged, and I don't really love it when it's happening, but I love how much AIM is stretching me. That I'm being forced to grow. I'm glad that it's hard to live with people that, two months ago, were total strangers. It's making me have a more mature perspective on situations, because if it didn't then I would constantly be living in conflict with people.

I love that it's forcing me to get out of my comfort zone. That's one of the things that I love about area church. There's something about going into a church, meeting people and building relationships, serving them, and knowing that you're making a difference that's just so cool to me! I've been really blessed by the way this is causing me to be a more outgoing.

I love that, as I'm growing and learning more about myself, I'm also starting to learn what my gifts are. As we're starting to think about where we'd like to go for our field time, and we're watching all these field presentations, I'm having to think and pray about what kind of ministries I'd like to be involved in, and it's forcing me to think about what I'm good at. As a result, it's opening my eyes to what the gifts God has blessed me with might be.

Sometimes, I even love that I'm homesick. For real, I love that I get the chance to miss all the things and people that I'd taken for granted all my life. I never fully appreciated the support system that I had back home, and I love that I get the chance to miss them and wish that I had them around more often. I know that it's going to make the time we share and do get together all the more special and sacred to me.

All in all, life here isn't perfect. But, I love that, too. Life isn't supposed to be perfect. Life is flawed, and broken, and messed up. I don't think that AIM would be challenging me and causing me to grow in the way that it is if it was perfect all the time.

What I love most of all, though, is that I know without a doubt that God is blessing this journey. I know that God has always been blessing me, and would have continued to bless me even if I'd chosen college or something else over AIM. But there's something about the ways He's so obviously blessing me during this time that makes me so sure I've made the decision He wanted me to make. That I'm right where He wants me to be. I know that I'm going to continue to be tested and tried, but I believe that God, and my new family here, are going to continue to support me through whatever those may be, whenever they arise.

Now I want to share a few verses (or parts of verses) that have been really been on my heart and mind since I've been here...

"God has made everything beautiful in the right time. He has planted eternity in the human heart. But even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end." Ecclesiastes 3:11

"The secret things belong to The Lord." Deuteronomy 29:29

"I may roll the dice, but The Lord determines where they fall." Proverbs 16:33

"I must teach the Good News in the Kingdom of God in other towns, too, because that is why I was sent." Luke 4:43

"I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on Earth you will have trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world." John 16:33

"Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for everything He has done." Philippians 4:6

"You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away from me my clothes of sadness and clothed me in happiness." Psalm 30:11