A Moment of Triumph

So our staff of 14 college age students arrived at training camp a week before our students did.  We were a unique mix of personalities and backgrounds.  I want to share with you one of my favorite moments from training camp.  Job and Bethany (our team leaders) challenged us to successfully jump rope at the same time (thats right all 14 of us).  It was super hot and took us a long time to figure out how to do it.  But after we accomplished the task, we began to come together as a family!  I love all of these people so much and couldn't have asked for a better group of people to have as my family!  So I leave you with the video of all 14 of us successfully jump roping at the same time...be sure to watch the end as we are filled with excitement over our accomplishment!

Sorry for the delay!

I know! I know! It has been forever since I updated this!  But cut me some slack, I've been busy!  I have enjoyed time with my family, I spent a week and a half up at camp, I subbed, I thrifted with my mom, and I have just enjoyed being lazy!  Today I am going to post my support thank you letter that I am sending out to those people who supported me financially.  I hope to get them in the mail this week (cross your fingers)!  This letter is just a small look into what I did this summer!  It is hard to fit a summer's worth of amazing experience into one page of typed words.  Even if I could write a book about everything that happened it would still not come close to describe God's amazing glory!  So here you go:

Thank you so much for supporting me this summer as I shared the love and amazing grace of Christ Jesus to the people of Ireland.  It was an amazing experience that changed me in so many ways!

God cares more about your character than he does your comfort.  This was a reoccurring theme for me this summer as God continually stretched me outside of my comfort zone.  The first two weeks of my trip were spent at training camp in Chicago, IL.  This was a huge learning experience for me! No buildings, no air, no mirrors, no electrical outlets.  For two weeks (in 90 degree heat) I slept on the ground, used porta potties, cooked outdoors, did my laundry outdoors, brushed my teeth outdoors....and oh yeah, took one shower a week!  Everything we did was designed to make us all on the same level as a team and to allow us to focus on what our trip was truly about…God.  Training camp was intense....lots of physical stuff, spiritual stuff and worship.  Surprisingly, I learned to love every minute of it!

When our team of 46 arrived in Ireland, we were ready to dive into ministry!  And dive in we did despite jetlag.   The very first morning of being in Derry, Northern Ireland was spent working with moms and their children in a program called Tiddlers.  That was just a taste of what was to come!  We spent our time in Derry doing VBS, street evangelism, hanging out at the park with the teens of the city, helping out with the teen program at the church, helping out with the local school’s summer program, and just loving on the teens of Derry.  God truly worked in the lives of the people of Derry. We saw 16 people come to Christ in the week and a half that we were there and many more seeds were planted into the hearts of others.

We then traveled to Skerries in The Republic of Ireland.  This was the first time that Skerries would host a missions team.  So we drew quite a lot of attention during our time there.  God did amazing things in Skerries  through our team.  One moment in particular stands out in my mind.  We had spent all week interacting with the youth in Skerries and on Friday we had a Block Party.  Kids from all over Skerries turned up for food, football, and hanging out with the Americans.  None of us could anticipate what God was doing: as the night wore to an end and some of the Irish imitated our dance and drama performances, laughing and not bothering to pay attention even as one of our staff shared his testimony, many of us became discouraged and started to wonder if we would see any results from our ministry all week.  Then God began to work.  As I looked around I saw small goups of Irish students gathered around one or two of our students listening to every word!  They were hungry for God and wanted to know as much as they could.  We saw many Irish students come to Christ that night, many of which started out mocking us!  God is truly amazing!

The Irish youth are hungry, and they're looking for something greater than just drinking with their friends all the time.  They're not afraid to ask us hard questions about our Christianity or to poke fun when we can't understand their accents.  They're searching, and all they need is for someone to show them that there is a God who is real and who has a greater purpose for their lives. 

God used me this summer to do just that.  To show the Irish people that there is a God who is real and who has a greater purpose for their lives.  He also worked in my heart as well.  He taught me how to be bold in my faith.  I thank you because without your help this experience would never have been possible!  I pray that God would continue to use me to further his kingdom wherever that may lead me.

God Bless,

      Kellyn Atkins

Pictures!

I'm Home from the best trip of my life!  Here are some pictures:

My Ireland Family!

I'm Sandwiched between my D-group girls!

That's right! I'm sporting an Ireland Soccer Jersey!

I'm coloring with a little Irish girl at a ministry called Tiddlers.

It's Stephen!

Here we are walking in twos (which is how we always walked!) on the walls of Derry.

Shannon Kristi and I with Dunluce Castle in the background

Me with a Castle behind me

Some of the girls with the Irish coast behind us

Shannon and I sporting our raingear.

The staff on top of a tomb

My D-group girls (the girls I mentored)

Yeah that's right...that is Big Ben!

Ireland (week 1)

I love Ireland!  It has been amazing!  There is so much history in Londonderry involving conflict between Catholics and Protestants.  We are learning so much and getting a chance to interact with the youth of the city!  Everyone is so welcoming here and excited to have us here!  We do have to be very careful how we present the gospel though because this area has been so rich in religious conflict.  Even the name of the city is an issue!  We have to be careful because some people don't want to be associated with Ireland so they want it to be called Londonderry while others want it to be called Derry because they don't want to be associated with England.  It is a confusing thing that not a lot of Irish people are open about talking about because the conflict is still so very recent.

I ate fish and chips...it was really good.  There is also weird but yummy candy here that alot of the Irish kids have given us!  I will try and bring some home.  There is a store called Primark that is amazing!!  It has scarves for 1 pound!  I love it!

We are working with a church in Londonderry.  One of the challenges is that our schedule packed with ministry opportunities. Last week we worked with the high school age youth during the Identity program, and many relationships formed then are continuing this week as some of our group hang out at a local park and talk to the kids. Some of the students accepted Christ into their lives which is really cool.  This week, we’ve also started ministering to the primary age students (ages 5-11) during the evenings for the Holiday Bible Club.

Keep praying God will open opportunities for us.

Update (at long last!)

So sorry for no updates... no time to hunt out a computer and even then internet access is sketchy.  (Thanks to my mom for getting this update up.)

Training Camp
  Who says I am a girly girl!  Not any longer.  My parents dropped me off in a hay field in 90 degree heat.  No buildings, no air, no mirrors, no electrical outlets.  For two weeks (in 90 degree heat) I slept on the ground, used porta potties cooked outdoors, did my laundry outdoors, brushed my teeth outdoors....and oh yeah, took one shower a week!  Everything we did was designed to make us all on the same level as a team...plus students going to third world countries do not get shower much so it is good practice. (Everyone reeks so you don't even mind after a while)   Training camp was intense....lots of physical stuff, spiritual stuff and worship.  The first week was just the staff disciplers so we worked to get ready for the high schoolers.  My ministry on this trip is not only to Ireland, but to the high schoolers I am discipling..  I had a little trouble at first because the heat combined with my medicine made me not eat which drove my blood sugar really low.  Solved that problem by keeping food in my pack to eat throughout the day.  I have learned to love roughing it.  One thing I will never learn to love......malt-o-meal.  We have it everyday for breakfast.  Here are few shots of training camp.

Tent City

Meal Time

Prayer Time

Large Group Teaching Time

Team Building

The Trough

It is here!

It is finally here!  I leave tomorrow to go to training camp for my trip!  How crazy is that?!?!  I have a mixture of feelings....nervous....excitement....anxious...basically everything!  I am ready to go, but I am not ready to go at the same time! haha  I hope that makes sense! Please be praying for me!  I will try my hardest to update this blog as much as possible but if I don't update as much as you like please don't hold it against me!

God Bless
KJA

1 week!

It's Official!   I leave in a week!!!!!  I am still getting everything I need together!  But I am sooo excited!