My daughter's blog

My daughter was gone all week on a trip to Memphis with the Jr High youth group. I was worried about how she would be able to adapt on the trip. First of all, she had to leave her ipod and her cell phone at home. Secondly, she is allergic to work. I really wasn't sure what to expect from her when she got back.

She got back late last night and spent 3 hours talking about much she learned. She was on fire. I teared up a lot because normally she won't contribute to conversations about God. But last night she initiated the conversations. I couldn't believe I was talking to the same Hayley. She said after listening to the speaker that week, she finally understood how selfish and materialistic she was. The sermons, the music, the people they helped... all of it together changed her. I pray that this is a change that will last. We'll see the next time she asks for something and I tell her we're too broke to buy it for her. ;)

Here is the blog she wrote about her week. It's also posted on her facebook and on her myspace. If you are friends with her on either of those forums, be sure and leave her a comment. :)

I went to Know Sweat in Memphis TN this week. It was definitely a changing experience for me, it took us eight hours to get there but we finally got there. When we got to where we were staying I thought that we were gonna be stayin nice dorms but when we got in there I thought what a dump! It was pretty gross in there we didn’t even want to walk in there without shoes on, that’s how gross it was. But after awhile we just got used to it and loosened up about it but it didn’t look very nice. But the first day of work, we met the couple we were helping out and they were the kindest people ever! Every chance I had I would try and talk to them and listen to their stories, the first time I listened to them I thought “WOW! They have been through and seen a lot of stuff!” they were so interesting they were talking about what it was like during all of the segregation and said that it was hard to live when that was going on because they weren’t treated with the most respect. They also talked about how many places they’ve been because of his career, (artist) they have been to Paris and a lot of other places that I can’t remember. He has also painted a lot of stuff for the REAL Elvis. Also his wife has had cancer for ten years! (I know that’s a long time!)
The first day of work we did some yard work, then some painting the second half of the day. On Tuesday we did a LOT of painting, but on Wednesday we were painting then it started raining so we had to stop, but it was also supposed to rain on Thursday too, so that night they had a prayer meeting asking no rain so we could get some work done, and it didn’t rain! Isn’t that kewl! So on Thursday we did a LOT of weeding and we finished the house. So we got back to the dorms and it felt weird to finally be done with the house, it just went by so fast! That night we packed and got ready to go for the trip back home. On Friday we went down to the cafeteria and ate some breakfast and went to the zoo (which was real kewl!) and had a scavenger hunt. Then we got on the road home.
This whole week I was looking at all the houses in Memphis and almost every one of them had bars on the windows and iron doors (scary). On Wednesday we had to go to the cafeteria for a little while because someone was breaking into dorms and stealing some stuff, so we couldn’t get into our dorms for a while. Also where we were working, it wasn’t even the bad part of Memphis. Also they told us not to where any bandanas cuz it was a sign of being in a gang and they didn’t want anyone to get shot. Every night after dinner we went to this thing called connections which is just like a worship time. It was really awesome. There were two songs that really touched me. Hosanna and God Of This City.
That’s about all I did during Know Sweat. But I have learned a lot about how lucky I am to have all of this stuff I have, I am definitely gonna be more thankful of what I got. I even asked my mom if I could plant some flowers in the backyard to make it look pretty. But I will never forget about what I did this week, and how good it felt to help someone in need.