laurenlafferty - I GOT BAPTIZED

Hello Everyone!!! Last week felt like a full month, this week felt like 2 days. Time is going by quickly but I’m enjoying every moment. We learned so much this week about topics such as hearing God’s voice and the many ways he speaks to us, different cultures all around the world and best ways to interact with, love and eventually share the Gospel with, and then how to practice the Sabbath. We also got to leave campus for the afternoon and went to Walmart to chat with people there and then went to a church service. We even got Chick-Fil-A. Had so many laughs with all my squad mates, specifically at meal time interviews. My water bottle is always used as the microphone, making for sometimes very deep conversations and sometimes falling out of our chairs laughing.

Also, I GOT BAPTIZED THIS WEEK. Some of you may be thinking, hey didn’t you get baptized last summer? Yes, yes I did. But there were many reasons why I wanted to get rebaptized. The Holy Spirit felt very present this past week and I no longer wanted to feel like there were still dead, dark parts inside of me. So when I was dunked under the water and brought back up I felt light, I felt so much joy. The ends of my fingertips and my toes were tingling and I could not stop smiling and laughing. One of my friends, Yeye, said that she’s never seen me so joyful. When I take an internal examination of my soul there are no more small crevasses of darkness. I feel new. It’s been so cool to walk in this freedom.

I also got chosen to be one of the three Beauty for Ashes coordinators for our Squad. It is an organization through Adventures in Missions that is a redemptive women's ministry that we will do in each of the countries. The three of us plus a leader with plan retreats, some last 2 hours, some last a few days, for women in the community to be able to share their stories and learn their worth in the Lord. So there will be many more updates on that throughout the year.

And finally, last night we won squad wars!!! There are 5 squads here and we competed in a sponge relay, dodgeball tournament, egg toss and choreographed dance. We got first for the relay, dance/song, and second/third in the other ones. So now we have bragging rights.

Here are some photos from the week.