Molly's Musings

As the program continues to be a whirlwind of internships, friendships, papers, volunteering, and lots and lots of prayer, I continue to arrive at the same conclusion week after week: this program is pure bliss. We are continuously challenged emotionally, spiritually, and physically and continue to grow more than we ever imagined. Each week I learn something new about myself and each week my heart grows a little more for this wonderful city and the people here.

One of my favorite parts of the program has been our time spent at the Center for Creative Leadership. Every Thursday, we spend 2 hours in a leadership class where we focus on developing professionally by taking a deeper look at our personalities, strengths, weaknesses, and leadership skills. I have not only learned so much about myself through this course, but also my new family/fellows. This past week, we spent the entire class focusing on our dreams to develop personal goals for the year. We were challenged to follow the SMART model for developing goals: specific, measurable  attainable, relevant, and time-bound. While I often think about my goals and dreams, I have never sat down with a professional and built upon them to develop a goal to be accomplished. The most important part of this development process for me was that my goal was required to be time-bound, meaning that I needed to state a specific date that my goal was to be fully accomplished. This part of the model challenged all of us to nail our goal down to a date which encouraged us to get to moving on our dreams. We spent time on our own praying and thinking about each of our potential goals before gathering back together and sharing the goals with each other. Our goals ranged from becoming involved at a career center (my own), to becoming more fit with P90X. Whatever each of our goals were, they were all unique, inspiring, and challenging. Sharing our goals with each other not only allowed us to see a little more of each other’s hearts, but also to have the entire group brainstorm with us and hold us accountable to accomplishing our goals. We then chose accountability partners and spent time with them discussing the specifics of our goal and how we could support one another in accomplishing it. I not only felt a little closer to the fellows after leaving, but I think we all felt a little more inspired.

Feeling a little more inspired actually sums up most of our time spent here in Greensboro. The Fellows Program (shout out to THE Tripp Graziano) is very intentional and purposeful about providing opportunities for us to constantly grow. Whether it is attending classes at the Center for Creative Leadership, business seminars with successful Christian business owners, getting to know amazing people through our Tuesday family dinners, spending time in the Word together, or just sharing our hearts with one another…we are given opportunities every day to be challenged, to grow, to learn, and to be inspired.  It’s unbelievable to think that we are already 7 weeks into the program and I cannot wait to see what God has in store for us in the next 7 months.

P.S. I want to say thank YOU to the wonderful community in Greensboro. I have never felt so loved and at home in such a short period of time. Your support, prayers, and encouragement are part of what makes this experience so amazing for all of us. We appreciate YOU!

Thanks, Molly, for the wonderful post!

(seen front row, third from the left!)

Bloom Where You Are Planted

Hi friends, family, supporters, and those of you that may have stumbled onto this blog :) Welcome! My name is Michelle Prillaman, and I am one of the Greensboro Fellows this year. When I was asked to write a submission to this blog this week, I dedicated a car drive to silence and contemplation over what I wanted to share with you guys on my turn to post. After mulling through several different things, (there is so much to share, with everything that we are doing!), I settled on a phrase that kept coming up in my heart and mind: Bloom where you are planted.

All ten of the fellows, (in case you haven’t heard, we welcomed a new member to our group a couple weeks ago named Libby Hase!), have come from different places, different people, and different situations. In some ways, we all left things behind in order to embrace new beginnings. Even though some of us are still involved in our previous communities within the area, we have all encountered and embraced new people, places, and ideas. It has been a time full of new friendships and sweet conversations, but also a time of change, uncomfortableness, and growth. And while change, uncomfortableness, and growth is in no way bad, these are things that can be so easy to shy away from out of fear.

And so we have been faced with the following choice: do we lean into the change, the uncomfortableness, and the newness? or do we move away from these things, and choose not to invest? Everyday we wake up and we get to choose. Something I have tried to keep close to my heart is this idea of blooming where I am planted; of investing deeply in the places the Lord has placed me in. I am here intentionally and purposefully for the next 8 months. I am an intern at River Oaks Church. I am a Young Life leader at Page High School. I am a student. I am a mentee. I am a friend. I am a Fellow. All of these things, at least for the next while, are pieces of me. So I lean into the growth, the change, the uncomfortableness. Because I, as we all do, believe that we are here for a reason, and that all these pieces are just part of a much bigger puzzle that God is piecing together with our lives. Ultimately, he is weaving together all of these moving pieces to create something beautiful that we get to be a part of, all the while growing us and making us more like Christ. It is an exciting time.

I have particularly been challenged on this idea of investment in regards to time. I went to school here in the Greensboro area, and so I faced the unique perspective in joining this program not of leaving a life beyond to start something new, but of merging my previous life and community to work in conjunction with a new beginning. This process has been challenging at times to balance. Sometimes its been tempting to lean away from the change and to stay only invested in what I already know. At other times, it has been tempting to move towards what is new and exciting, and to not focus on still growing the community and relationships that I have already had here. And then, as I have struggled with these two tensions, I keep repeatedly bumping into the fact that I am a finite person, with finite resources and time to give. But through that, I have felt the Lord remain constant, and have felt encouraged to still invest where I am, in the places and people that the Lord places in front of me, all the while trusting that he will use these investments to his glory and for his greater purposes.

As our reader, in whatever capacity you are involved, I invite you to join us in this investment. While we are investing in our individual places within this program, we are also learning to invest as a community bound together by Christ. From my experience thus far, the people around us who have chosen to give time and space for investment into us and this program are the ones truly making it what it was designed to be. So grab a cup of coffee with a Fellow. Contact Tripp Graziano about meeting to share with us all. Come to our Pay-It-Forward Thanksgiving event, as we seek to bring unity and community to the Greensboro area. Join us in our quest to invest more deeply in this beautiful city, in the people around us, and in Christ. Join us as we seek to bloom where we are planted.

Thanks Michelle (far right) for the encouraging post! 

The Fellows are pictured with Susan Marie and Summer of Coordinated Events.

New Adventures

What a whirlwind! This last month in the Greensboro Fellows program has been an exciting and surprising adventure. The fellows have been very engaged in our internships, discipleship times, mentoring relationships, church involvement, and seminary class. But the true joy of the program so far has been getting to know one another. Between celebrating birthdays, going to a Kelly Clarkson concert, watching movies, and hanging out into wee hours of the morning to talk about life and Jesus, we’ve gotten to be a close knit community. I feel greatly blessed by God to be a part of this program: I see the Lord moving in ways to refine every fellow, making us more into the young men and women he desires us to be.

One of my favorite parts of my experience with the Greensboro Fellows so far has been my internship with the Rev. Alan Hawkins. Pastor Alan is the Rector (Lead Pastor) of Church of the Redeemer Greensboro, the evangelical Anglican church that sponsors the Fellows program. I function as Alan’s pastoral intern and research assistant. So far, my responsibilities have included writing the community group bible study curriculum that the church studies midweek, participating in staff meetings, serving in musical worship and setup on Sunday mornings, meeting with Alan for leadership development and formation, and participating in various church activities like last week’s men’s retreat and the church’s brainstorming meeting on beauty. I greatly value the opportunity to be so involved in the life of Redeemer, and to make a real contribution straight out of the gate. I think it speaks volumes of Redeemer and her leadership that they place such a value on leadership development – including me and all the Fellows in the life of their congregation simply with a heart to give to us, love us, serve us, and develop us, with no ulterior motives. Additionally, Rev. Hawkins is personally a great encouragement and teacher – not to mention a fire-hose: you can learn so much from him in such a brief amount of time. As a young man pursuing Holy Orders (ordination as a priest/pastor) in the Anglican tradition, I can think of no person I would rather have the opportunity to learn from and be taught the fundamentals of being a man of God than Alan.

Lastly, may I say that I look forward with great anticipation to what is in the heart of Jesus Christ for me and for my fellow Fellows this year. Knowing Him, I expect it will be wonderful, hard, sad, joyful, and surprising. To Him be all the Glory.

Thanks, Matt, for the great post. We are excited to watch the Fellows continue to grow!

Dearest Greensboro Supporters...

I cannot even begin to explain the joy that comes from the eight other fellows who were merely strangers to me just four weeks ago. My heart is so thankful for the community that they surround me with. Within this short period of time, these strangers (like Kinsley said in the last post) have become my family. It surprises me that already we have gotten to a place where when we have not been together in less than 24 hours we miss each other. It seems silly, but there is something very special about these individuals who have such a deep love for the Lord that He has so graciously tied us to each other. It scares me to think about nine months from now and having to part from one another. But I do not want to go there so let’s reflect together on what has been going on.

We are now getting into a formal routine. Where are weeks look somewhat like this:

Monday’s-

Discipleship in the mornings
Internships from 9-5
Young Life for some of us

Tuesday’s-

Discipleship in the mornings
Internships from 9-5
Community dinners with amazing host families

Wednesday’s-

Discipleship in the mornings
Internships from 9-5

Thursday’s-

Seminary class from 8-11

Business seminar for an hour an half (which might be my favorite, at least so far)

Center for Creative leadership from 3-5

We thankfully get to rejuvenate on Fridays and Saturdays with church on Sunday.

This schedule can honestly be overwhelming at times, but individuals who are in this program with me constantly encourage me. We support each other and build each other up because we desire the best for one another. Support does not just come from each of us in the program, but also those in the community. We are incredibly blessed to have such a great number of people who believe in what we are doing and want us to feel loved. I have not had a single moment in this program where I have not had at least one individual try to love me in some way--there are always people wanting to pour into our lives. I fail to express this feeling into words because this community is beyond describing. The people of Greensboro are a special bunch and I am sure I can speak for the group as a whole about how extraordinarily blessed we feel to be apart of something that God designed so specifically.

I truly cannot wait to see all the amazing things the Lord is going to provide for us this year. We look forward to what else is in store for the fellows throughout the program. God is doing BIG things and He is going to teach us an incredible amount.

One thing I have already learned over these past few weeks how really in control God is. And how he is always bleeping my mind with the way that he takes care of us as individuals. Getting to know these other fellows shows me how much he cares about me. They have taught me so much about who he is and I cannot wait to learn more about God as the year goes on. It's going to be a wild ride so get excited folks!

Thank you to those who are for this program, it is changing our lives and we hope that we can express what your support is doing in our lives. Hope that you have an amazing week!

I will leave with some loving-

Zephaniah 3:17

For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”

PEACE and BLESSINGS Y’ALL

 

 

Thanks to Skylar (far right) for this encouraging blog post!