Half way through!

It’s crazy that the first semester of my time with Camfel is basically over. On Thursday Dorina and I had our last show and we definitely know how to end things right--- we woke up at 6:35am when we were supposed to leave for our school at 6:30am. Keeping in mind the fact that we also needed to clean up the hotel/pack after being there for a few days! By the grace of God we were able to spring into action and make it to our school by 7:05a.m., and had our show setup with almost 30 minutes to spare. After our show we started our 18 ½  hour drive back to California! 

I am currently living at the company apartment outside of Los Angeles; this is where I will be next semester as well. It’s weird being here, it kind of feels like I never left, but 4 months have gone by. I have a few days off, then I will be doing some work at the office and then heading to Ohio for Christmas break tomorrow!

This semester has had its ups and downs but overall I have really enjoyed it. I was able to see lots of places, meet several new people, I made a 50 page scrapbook, reconnected with friends (last week I had dinner with a friend in Houston who I hadn’t seen in 7 years!), and connect with God in a way that I never had before! I feel like God has opened by eyes and my heart to see him more and I am so grateful!

As I said earlier, tomorrow I head out to Ohio. It will be so nice to be home, I haven't been back there since last Christmas. On top of going home, I will also be headed to Kentucky to see my dad's side of the family on Thursday-Saturday. I haven't seen these family members in almost 5 years, which is WAY too long! I will be home until Jan. 7 then I head back to L.A. to start my second semester.  I would really appreciate prayers for safe travels and a good time of seeing people while home but also getting enough rest/personal time. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! As time allows I may blog during break, but if not I will for sure pick it back up once I get back to Los Angeles!

Hope all is well with you and yours! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Our busiest week yet!

I've said this before but thank you for taking time to read my blog. They are long but sometimes it is hard to explain the details of situations in a few words! Once I type I just get on a roll! :)

I mentioned a few blogs back that this week in Louisiana was going to be one of our busiest weeks yet and it was! Now I have to say though that our schedule really does not compare to what other teams have been doing all semester, but we had a little taste of it this week. I was actually really grateful for a full week of work, but I'm sure other teams would be grateful for more days off!

The week was busy but it was by no means bad. We were in one school district all week outside of Baton Rouge, LA. The school district was wonderful! All of the staff we met were extremely friendly and hospitable. We were in 10 different schools this last week, 2 a day. By the time we got back to our hotels in the afternoon all I wanted to do was go to sleep, but I had to fight it until at least 9 or 10pm so I could actually sleep through the night! We had to be up between 4:30-5:30 every morning but then we would normally get back to our hotel by 3:30pm.

All the shows went great! Well except for one which I will explain soon. Our setups were easy, we had good help, and everything went really smooth. One day in particular that stands out to me is Wednesday. God really showed himself to me that day! Wednesdays can be difficult as I sure all of you know because it is the middle of the week, you are starting to feel drained and you just want it to be Friday. I wasn't overwhelmed with this feeling but it was definitely starting to creep in the back of my mind. Our first school on Wednesday wanted to start the day with our presentation so it started at 7:20a.m., which meant we had to get to our school at 5:35 to start setting up. It really wasn't THAT much earlier that the rest of the week, but it seemed that way saying we had to be at our school in the 5o'clock hour! ( I know many people have to wake up early, and when I have a consistent schedule, I'm more used to it, but that hasn't been the case)  Anyway, we got to our school and I felt like we were a little short on time but I wasn't afraid we wouldn't get things setup.   As we were working some guys walked into the room. I thought they were students and possibly here to help us. They were friendly and asked if we needed help. This was a normal occurrence for us so we took some of them up on the offer. Not to much later a few more guys came in and I noticed how all of them were dressed nice and they really didn't look like middle school students,  but I didn't ask questions.

Finally one of them asked me what all this was for. He said that he wasn't from that town and so he had no idea what was going on. Come to find out these guys, and the girls that came a little later, were taking part in an internship at a local church in Baton Rouge. Basically what they did was go around to school, meet with students, talk with them about Christ, form relationships, disciple them, and if they get permission from parents they take them to church. Now realize that the school we were in was a public school. I asked if they go to a lot of schools and they said yes! What an amazing ministry where God has opened the doors and given them so much favor. Not many schools would allow such an open invitation. Talking with them brighten my morning and just really reminded me about ministry and what that can look like in my life even though I am a little bit more restricted (because the school pays for us to come) unless a student talks with me first. I was so blessed by them being there and is kind of awakened my soul!

After the morning presentation we had over 3 hours where we could head back to our hotel before our next school. Perfect time for a nap. Unfortunately I didn't feel the greatest (thankfully this wasn't anything that progressed after a few hours)  when we got back and it was one of those things that it kept be awake instead of allowing me to take the much needed nap. That being said, I had no motivation to go to our afternoon school, but thankfully God hears prayers! I was praying that God would just get me through the show.  When we got to the school we were greeted and then sent to the gym where the custodian was going to help us. He was a super cute old man and his southern accent, language, and hospitality made me so happy! Anyway we came to help us and automatically I saw he was wearing Ohio State gloves. It was just a little piece of home!  As we continued setting up our equipment we also had some great students help us. Now after working with several groups of students you notice different things- sometimes they mean well but just make things take longer, some are just glad to get out of class, some are quiet but still do a good job helping, some just want to joke with their friends, and some can joke and have a good time while still listening and doing a good job helping. Thankfully that last description described the students we had. With them and the custodian it made the setup enjoyable and also I was feeling better by that time too! 

One other thing that stood out from that day was from my introduction at that second school. I always do the intros and explain the show and Dorina does the conclusion. After I walked away from the mic a lady came up to me and said that she works for the company who sponsors this show at the school She told me that hat a the best introduction she has heard since they have been bringing Camfel to the school and she really appreciated it. I needed to hear that! I don't include that to build myself up, but sometimes after saying the same things over and over again it can be tiring so it was such a blessing for her to verbalize some specific encouragement, I even heard about it again later that week from someone else who had heard about through the company. So God really provided Wednesday and gave me a lot of things to not only help me through the day but make it great as well!

~ Like I said earlier, all the shows went well this week except for one. Our last show of the week, Friday afternoon, we were in a pretty small gym that had high windows on two of the sides. Because of the time of day the sun was shining directly through the windows onto our screen so you couldn't see much. We were almost completely setup and decided to shift all of our equipment to a different side of the gym to try to make it better, it was still bright, but possible to see.  Once the show started the sun decided to shine even more and it basically washed out our screens. You couldn't see a thing. I felt miserable, not because it was my fault, but because of the students and them not getting to see it.  I had been sitting next to the principal and not even 10 minutes into the presentation we decided to stop it and reschedule, and possibly do it during a morning where the sun shouldn't be an issue.  

So now it was time to tear down, but it was just me. Dorina and I are allowed to alternate taking breaks during shows because both of us are not needed to sit and watch the show each time. She had decided to run to a store/gas station during the show. No big deal, but unfortunately by phone was left in the van as well so I couldn't call her. So I ended up have some help and started to tear down. It wasn't a huge deal I just really had to be on top of things. There was one student who was making me frustrated because he would just start doing things without being told anything... and the thing he was doing would actually mess up some of our stuff in potentially bigger ways! Other than that all went well. In that  moment I was extremely grateful that things like that don't stress me out. Dorina ended up getting back just as we were finishing up, having no clue that the presentation was even stopped! 

After calling our office and telling them what happened,  they contacted the school and rescheduled the show for Monday morning. We are headed to Texas next but luckily we don't have that show until Thursday so it worked out to stay in the area for a few days longer. We had a good time laughing with some of the administration while we were waiting for new plans to be made which kind brighten the whole situation!  Hopefully all goes well on Monday and this school actually gets to see our presentation.

So there was some of my week! It was good overall but I was definitely grateful for the ability to sleep past 5:30 this morning! Next week we have 2 shows, one the make-up show and one in San Antonio, Texas then we will drive back to California. Lots of driving next week, but not quite as busy!  Please pray that the shows and all the travels go well!

Next Semester

With Christmas drawing near that also means that the first semester of my job is as well. Dec. 16 is our last show and then Dorina and I will be driving back to California. I will fly home to Ohio on Dec. 21 and get to spend time with family and friends until Jan. 7. If you have read previous posts you may remember me asking for prayer about next semester and who I will be with and what location we will be at. Well we found out recently the plans for next semester. It is great to finally know!

When I leave Ohio after Christmas I will fly back to Los Angeles. This next semester I will be living at the company apartment with 5 other girls. Tours are slower in the Spring so  we will be doing some office work and things as well but between the six of us we will be covering 3 different tour regions- local shows in southern California, north Cal, and the Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Washington, Idaho).  I am excited about having some consistency by staying in the condo, having a community of people to live with, and be able to be at a church a little more consistently. I just hope that I get my fill of travel this semester-- that is one of the reasons why I signed up for the job! On top of that I really hope I get to spend some time in the Pacific Northwest... aka home :)

As for partners, we may work with a few people more than others, but depending on the tour we will switch partners as we do shows. It all depends on who is going where when and how long people work somewhere, etc.   I am excited to see how next semester plays out with all these changes! A new part of the adventure awaits!  Just pray that I get my fill of snow when I am back in Ohio because I don't think I will be seeing it once I get back to LA :) 

I'm still here!

Sorry it has taken me so long to update again (you can expect several posts in a short time!) After not having my computer working for two weeks, then having a break for Thanksgiving, and this last week and half of work, I finally made it back to blogging! These last few weeks have been pretty basic. We had shows in New Mexico and Texas. We were in New Mexico for four days and honestly those were some of my hardest days of boredom and trying to figure out what to do with myself but I survived! 

On a very positive note, the day before Thanksgiving I was able to fly from Dallas to Portland so that I could spend the holiday with some friends out a camp. It was simply wonderful! I had several days where I was blessed with the opportunity to be with some of my favorite people! We played games, went shopping at 5am, laughed a lot, and just had a great time. I also had the chance to drive to Newberg (ab 2 hrs away) to see 8 of my "kids" from this summer as well as have lunch with some friends who I haven't seen in a year and a half. My time in Oregon was full but so relaxing! It was such a time of rejuvenation!  I was so blessed by the opportunity to go there for 5 days. 

I left on Monday, Nov. 30 and arrived back in Dallas at midnight. Only 6 short hours later it was back to the normal routine. We had a show that morning, then we drove to Arkansas. The place we were at in Arkansas was beautiful. We stayed in a motel on Lake Hamilton, which meant that every morning I was able to open the blinds and stare at a beautiful lake with the sun glimmering off of it!  It was beautiful and so peaceful!

We are now currently in Louisiana. This is our second to last week of the semester and its our busiest week we have had yet. We have two schools everyday. This morning the show started at 7:20a.m. which meant we were at our school by 5:30! So early! All is going well though. I know I am tired, but God has truly provided strength and good interactions.

That's just a quick recap of these past few weeks (4 states, Thanksgiving and several shows later!). As of now my goal is to write again more regularly, weekly at the least! Thank you for taking the time to read this and support me on my journey!

Blessings!
~Tiffany

Texas Tales

Monday after we left Barclay we left for Texas. We will be here basically through the end of the month except for one day of shows in New Mexico and the 5 days I get to be in Oregon for Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!! (I'm only a LITTLE excited about that part!)  Dorina was super excited to come to Texas because its warmer and the first day we got here I was already missing my hoodies, even though the evenings have been quite chilly!  We had four shows this week. Each school we go to we normally have nice contacts, but some just by nature end up being more hospitable and into conversations. I feel like that was the case with each of our schools this week. There was even one school that made us Mocha (for D of course!) and Chai. Glorious? Absolutely! 

Currently we are staying in Midland, TX. By the time we leave we would have been here for 6 nights, which is actually nice considering that we didn't have to pack up our stuff everyday, instead there was just a small explosion in our room!  The week has been pretty uneventful. I did have one guy ask me if I actually had a room at the hotel because every time he walked by I was either in the lobby on the couches or at the guest computer, which is where I am  now (I won't have a new computer cord for my laptop till I get to Oregon!). It was pretty hilarious but it sparked a conversation.

I think two of my favorites night were Wednesday night and Saturday night. Wednesday night I decided that I didn't want to just sit in my hotel room and just be on the computer (my cord didn't die till the next day!), so I went to Starbucks. All I brought with me was my Bible, journal, and a book called Life Together that talks about Christian community. Basically I sat in Starbucks for several hours with my peppermint hot chocolate of course just reading my Bible and writing out my thoughts. It was so much more than simply doing my devotions. It was digging in and pulling apart the stories in order to understand more. It was so amazing and it captures my heart! The Bible is full of so much. I overlook so many things when I simply read just to said I read my Bible. Again I honestly believe this is part of a new depth and chapter of my life that God is taking me on and I love it! I crave more and luckily its available!

Last night, thanks to the wonderful Bri Poster for letting me know about it, I went to a Barlow Girl and Reilly concert. If you are like me you have never heard of Reilly. Look them up!! They were amazing and have battling violins and all that! It was so cool! The night was called "An acoustic winter's night." So with that it wasn't a normal concert and it had a mixture of regular songs they perform and Christmas songs. All in all though it was such a time of worship. It wasn't just a concert where I went to go listen to some people perform, it was being blessed by the talents that God has given these brothers and sisters in Christ as we worshiped our Lord and love together! After the concert I had some conversations with some complete strangers, but we serve the same God so we already had a connection that fueled our talk!  It was amazing that the concert was only 20 minutes from our hotel. I left that evening so joyful and thankful for the God that we serve! I want more of him!

As it comes to mind I would ask prayer for a few things: 1) obviously safe travels- between now and Christmas we will be in TX, NM, AR, LA, and back to TX, and this doesn't include our Thanksgiving travels.  2) I personally have been praying for more opportunities to share Christ. I know they are all around, and I am continually meeting people, but I want the eyes and heart to see people like Christ does and share with them what he has in store for them instead of just my life on the road! Open doors and open hearts!  3) Next semester: our boss has a very tough job. He is in the process of placing people with their partners, in their regions, as well as figuring our places for the vans and how people are getting home for Christmas. That's a lot when their at 14 different teams! I know the person I would really like to tour with, as well as my regions. My prayer is that I will be diligent to pray for my boss, have patience to wait, and trust that whatever happens is what needs to happen! I'm just excited and ready to know! Thank you! Blessings!

Ramblings about my journey

So I am just going to send out a warning in the beginning-- this could be a long post (not that my others haven't been!) Plus this may be my only post until Thanksgiving- my computer cord is fried so my laptop is dead. Luckily the hotel we are at now has a computer for guest use, but its super slow and the keyboard is really sticky (so another warning- there could be more mistakes than normal!)

Now that that is out of the way, I just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to read my blog! I am so blessed by the people in my life! I know that I have people all across the country that love me and care for me! And I care for and love all of you too! I am so blessed!

So the last time I wrote I shared about my technology fiasco. Well since that day we have been pretty busy.  Last Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we had double school days. Most of the days we had to drive 30 min. to an hour in between our shows as well. Other than that first morning, all the shows went well, but man we were tired afterwards.  At the end of each day we had to drive 2-3 hours as well in order to get to our next location. Now, there are several teams that have had much crazier schedules than we have but this was our first time of having this much. I am grateful to have busier days, but we did not feel like doing anything once we got to our hotels!

All of the shows were in different places in Northeastern Kansas. Thursday morning was one of the earliest shows we have had. The show started at 7:40a.m. which meant that we arrived at our school a little before 6a.m. Now really that is only 20 minutes earlier than several shows that we have had before, but its felt SOOO much earlier! I got a good laugh that morning though. As we were setting up a police officer walked into the gym and said to me "So I'm guessing that white van next to the curb is yours? I got a call about it and was looking in it and stuff." I guess one of the bus drivers called the cops because there was a mysterious van parked outside of the middle school at 6a.m. As I was walking to park it in an actual parking spot I asked the cop if he was normally at the school in the morning or if he was specifically called because of our van.... he was specifically called for our van! We drive a white creeper van as we call them. During training we had heard stories about things like this happening so it was bound to happen sometime right? At least people are watching out for the students. As I was walking to the van I just kept laughing! It made my morning!

Then the next day, Friday, our morning shows got started early which meant that we were packed up and on the road early. We were literally in the middle of nowhere so there weren't any restaurants that we could go to in order to waste some time. We decided to simply drive to the school. We ended up getting there about 2 1/2 hours early. Several times we already get to our schools early, making sure we have enough time in case a problem arises or whatever, but this time it was just too early for us to want to go in. We didn't want to burden the school by going in, but there wasn't anywhere else to go. So we parked and just read and hung out in the van. Five minutes before we were planning on going in to setup, an older gentleman came to my window and asked if he could help us with anything. I smiled and said that we were just wasting time but we were there to set up their assembly. Someone within the school had seen us pull in and mentioned that we were just sitting there. I mean it totally makes sense if you see a creepy van with people just sitting inside of it in a school parking lot to question what was going on. Its just funny that it happened two days in a row! Dorina and I are really intimidating I know! :) 

That afternoon school was really nice though. We had some students help us setup. They were a hoot! It was a group of all upperclassman guys who were just glad to be out of class, but at least they were helpful at the same time! By the time we were done setting up, Dorina and I had a little over an hour to wait until the first show. Honestly it was hard for me to be patient because after our presentation we were headed to spend the weekend with some of my friends near and at Barclay! I just wanted to get there! I just kept reminding myself that we were there for the students and all went went.

As we were waiting we met the principal of the school. He was a sweet man but definitely seemed a little scattered. About 30 minutes before the first show he asked us if we had eaten lunch. We said no and he was like "Why didn't you say anything?!?!?!" We said we were used to it and he was like "You don't get used to that! I'll go see what we have left!" It was very kind of him and of the school. Right after we ate he sat down with us and told us about his family and stuff. I love the personal interactions! After our two show he, along with some students, helped us tear down. It was one of our faster tear downs; I was grateful because we were headed to Barclay! The time had finally arrived for us to drive there!

My weekend was amazing and so refreshing. God knew exactly what and who I needed. I felt kinda bad for Dorina because there were so many people that I wanted to see and talk with and I didn't want her to be bored. We both have experienced this with each others friends! Friday night we stayed in Pratt, KS which is about 20 minutes away from Barclay. God's timing is amazing and I know it wasn't a coincidence because this weekend, the only weekend that would work to drive through this way,  was also the weekend of Judgement House. Judgement House is a walk through reality drama (not a haunted house!) that touches on hard, real life situations that people face and it ends with talking about the realities of Heaven and Hell. Since the first year they did it, 3 years ago, I have helped in one way or another. The first two years I acted and then last year they flew me out there from Oregon to lead worship. I was bummed that I wouldn't be back this year, but I was!  When I got there Friday I ended up seeing a good friend, also one of the leaders of the production. I ended up having the ability to be an extra in one of the scenes a few times, I went through the actual drama, and then I just walked around and saw lots of people. It was wonderful! 

Friday evening and Saturday morning were spent in amazing fellowship with my friend Pam! Saturday morning we stayed in our pj's until 1:30p.m. We just talked, laughed, and relaxed. It was so nice and rejuvenating! After getting ready for the day, Dorina and I then drove out to Barclay! I saw so many people that I love! When we first got there I went and spent time with my former roommate Elisa and her husband. We talked, walked to the coffee shop, and walked around Haviland. Simply talking with people is so energizing for me, especially people like Elisa and Cyle!

Afterwards I went over to Becca's house, my roommate before Elisa. I am so blessed by her friendship and how God has molded that! That evening one of our friends was playing at the local coffee shop so we went to go listen to him. I hadn't seen him in either a year or two. He was also the leader of a missions trip that Becca and I went on in 2007 to New Orleans. It was great because there were 5 of us there that night from that trip. We just sat and reminisced and laughed! Its amazing to see how God is still working in us through that trip.

Sunday was incredible but it felt very scattered because I was able to see so many people. I was able to go to church, eat lunch at the college, and I had a wonderful friend drive in from Wichita (about 2 hrs) to come spend some time with me as well! It was busy but at the same time very refreshing! After spending some more time with Cyle and Elisa I went back to Becca's house for dinner. We had such a good/lazy but meaningful evening! Becca, her husband Darin, and I ended up playing the game Sorry. Halfway through I was laughing so hard that I had tears rolling down my face and my stomach hurt! I have missed days like that. Who would have thought that a simple game like Sorry would bring such a reaction.

Monday, unfortunately the day we had to leave, I woke up early to make breakfast for Becca and say goodbye before she left for work. Despite the waking up early part, it was awesome being able to actually make food again (you don't get to do that in hotels often!). Granted it was simple, but it was still fun!  The rest of the morning I spent talking with more people. I went and saw the former president of the school as well as one of my pastors from Ohio who had since moved out to Barclay. I also attended Spiritual Formation, one of my favorite classes. Its funny that I graduated but I still sit in class when I visit!  I was still taught through it so therefore it was a good thing for me to do! Before heading back to the van and leaving, I talked with a professor about the Masters Program that Barclay is starting this coming fall. Who knows?!?!

I know I basically just went through my schedule for the last week or so, but it was such a good week. It was really hard to leave Barclay, but at the same time I was so refreshed. Not only was I refreshed because of getting to be around people that know me, but I also felt spiritually awakened! I left renewed and I am so grateful. God knew what I needed last weekend and he  definitely provided!

Technology Fail!

Those of you that know me well know that I am not one to worry often, or for long periods of time. This is still true of me but sometimes during our shows I catch myself worrying a little bit more than normal. See we run 3 DVD players synced up together and three projectors. We learned how to handle disc skips, and the like, but the idea of having an issue at a school was obviously not appealing. Well today my fear of a show messing up came true! It wasn't just one skip, but several, creating issues for the last 15 or so minutes of our first show. 

As I was watching the presentation I all of a sudden realized that the image on our left screen was frozen. My stomach turned to knots (again not super likely for me). In order to fix this problem we have to wait for each DVD player to get past the closest minute.... meaning that if they are at 3:34, you need to wait until all the players go past 4:00. (hope you are tracking!) Well it should be a simple fix. So I did that and everything seemed fine. Not more than a minute after I fixed it the same DVD player skipped the disc 2 minutes ahead. It was terrible and the DVD player wasn't responding so it took even longer to fix (trying having 200+ high school students, and their teachers and principal waiting and watching YOU!).  So finally I got it started again.  Literally 5 minutes later the same thing happened again! I was so frustrated and felt really bad for the school. So now we had like 8 minutes left in the show. I'm sitting on the floor in front of our equipment staring hard core at our DVD players hoping it doesn't happen again, and praying feverishly as well! The last minute of the presentation the same thing happened. At the end of our show we have phrases going across the screen saying "FACE YOUR FEAR" or "GROW THROUGH ADVERSITY," well because of the problem all they saw was "YOUR FEAR" or "W  OUGH  VERSITY."  I even tried to go back so they could re watch the last minute but it just wouldn't work properly so I stopped it and they left.

I felt so bad for the school although it was not anything that I could have seen coming or fixed differently; our DVD player just decided it didn't want to do its job.We had another show that was supposed to start in 15 minutes. I went to call my boss, who hadn't even made it to the office yet because of time differences (yay for cell phones!)!  Trying to call him was hard too because there was barely any cell phone coverage where we were, so we go disconnected and I had to find the "right spot" to stand in order to make the call, which obviously all of this took more time!

We were unsure if the problem was the DVD player or if that DVD was just super scratched, so for the sake of time we changed out both and it worked wonderfully. So the middle schoolers got a great show but unfortunately that wasn't the same deal for high school.

After our morning presentation we had to drive about an hour to another school for an afternoon presentation. It was so refreshing because the students we had helping us were great. They kept making jokes and making me laugh to the point where when I was trying to give directions I couldn't because I was laughing so much!  Also the principal was great! We ended up having a good chunk of time before the show started so we were just hanging out in the gym. He ended up coming and just talking with us for a while. It was great to hear him talk about the students and how they relate with the shows we present!

This presentation though was going to be our tester presentation to really see what the problem was. We used the new DVD player but the old DVDs, so one of two things would happen.... the show would run as normal telling us that we had a faulty DVD player earlier, or the second thing would be that the show would mess up like it had during our first presentation showing that the actual discs were bad. I was on the edge during the presentation, especially once we got near to the part that had messed up before. Thank God the entire show went fine!

All this to say, it was a crazy morning and a long day! I just hope the first school will have grace on us because our DVD player decided to die on us in the middle of their show! Well at least I have the experience with these issues for next time (hopefully though there won't be a next time...).