Wowwwww hello people!! I live in Georgia now!! Crazy!!
On September 11 I said bye to my family and hello to tent life, the most loving community I’ve ever met, storage container showers, and some of the most radical heart changes I’ve ever had in the span of two weeks. It’s been…SO GOOD.
With so many teachings, wisdom gained, life experiences had, and memories made, I’ve really been putting off writing a blog. But here I am! There are so many things to share and speak on, but I thought I would share with you what life here in GA is like!
First off, i absolutely love it here. I love my people. I love my tent. I love the teachings. I love my leaders. I have moments in worship or on my morning walk to breakfast where I can’t help but tear up with gratitude. What did i do to deserve this beautiful life?
But I wanted to let you know that not all the moments are like that. Days where it hits me I’m really not coming home and all I can think to do is sit in my tent and cry. Days where it rains for a week straight and my pillow gets moldy and I haven’t done laundry in 2 weeks and I just want to feel relatively clean. Days where it’s just emotionally hard and I’m tired in all aspects. My time in Georgia hasn’t been all cute and fun, but even though these moments are so hard, I still could not be more thankful for this life and more excited to grow where my feet are.
So with that said! Here’s what life is like!
Monday-Friday my schedule is basically:
6:30 am wake up, watch the sunrise, and spend some time with Jesus before i do anything else!
8 am breakfast! The time where I get to walk around and give my sweet family good morning hugs and brush my teeth by the portapotties. I am also usually drinking a little cup of steeped coffee or one of my squadmates will be making some for me!!
9 am we all go sit and spend an hour sitting with the Lord alone. It’s perfect.
10 am! session time! This is our first teaching of the day. We have heard some INCREDIBLE teachings from amazing, anointed people. We have learned about honor, guilt/shame, vulnerability, how to honor cultural differences as we prepare to head to other countries, how to pursue missions well, and so much more.
12 pm we have cleaning. We go through the campus and clean the area we are assigned that day. This allows us to honor the space we are in and love on AIM <3
12:30 lunch. The food here has been so incredible. So thankful for the kitchen staff. We don’t get to choose what meal we eat and we never know what it’s going to be! It really teaches you to have a heart posture of flexibility and be okay with being uncomfortable.
After lunch-3 pm we have free time! Honestly it varies so much depending on the racer when it comes to what we do with this time. Lots of people workout or go on a run, shower, watercolor, spend some extra time in the Word, chill in our hammocks, take a nap, read, play spikeball, have a one on one with a leader, and literally so much more.
3 pm squad time 🙂 What we do with this time varies each day. We have days where we work on fundraising (or help our other squadmates fundraise) or we work on storytelling and writing blogs. We also just play games and hang out as a squad!
4pm session/teaching #2 yayyyy
5pm dinner!!
6pm team time. This is where me and my team of 7 girls spend time together laughing, crying, and praying and speaking truth into each other. We have nights like bible study nights where we are studying Revelation, debrief nights, and gratitude nights!
7pm depends on the night. Monday we have men’s and women’s nights, Wednesday we have corporate (all squads) worship, and Fridays are movie night. But after all of this we have more free time for the night!
Saturday is kind of a Sabbath but also a day we go do some fun stuff. One day we got to go to the lake and see 2 of our friends get BAPTIZED, and this past Saturday we went to an event in Atlanta called OneRace where we worshipped and learned about what reconciliation in the church looks like!
Sunday is Sabbath! Before the race, I kind of took Sabbaths, but I didn’t truly lean into them. I am realizing how important it is to have a day of receiving from the Lord and sitting in stillness. It enables me to grow in my faith and be a more healthier version of myself in the weekdays to come. Sabbath doesn’t have to be on Sunday, and can even be little moments throughout the day I take to reset and renew my mind. We also have squad church on Sundays, where one of our teams leads us in worship and a message 🙂
So ya! Hoping this gives some insight on what my life is like at the moment! Every day cam vary, and there are so many emotional and spiritual things that come into play as we prepare to go international in a little over a month. These past couple weeks have already been life changing, and I can’t wait to see what is to come. We have 3 weeks left here then we are off to serve in Louisiana in hurricane relief!
Bye for now 🙂 -MG
I cherish these moments of your day you share! So beautiful what you are doing. Love you MG.
MG – You are living a great life right now – well not the moldy pillow. I pray you continue to lean into the present moments you have. Stay present. We are hot and sweaty here in Austin. Expecting some rain this weekend. Tom, my hubby, and I are replacing a septic tank at our house – jealous? Louisiana will be wonderful. I hope you get to soak that culture in a bit. Thanks for posting and updating us. You matter and I look forward to reading your future posts.
Hi our sweet girl,
We miss you so much & we are so proud of you for accepting God’s calling to bring His word to the uninformed.
We ate dinner Sunday night at your home with Mom & Dad and we could feel your presence with us. Papa sat in your chair!!
Thank you for sharing your experiences with all of us and just know how much we love you and we pray for you & your squad everyday. God Bless you all!
Thank you for sharing your heart and your day to day life with all of us! Love to see the Lord glorified! Love your raw beauty and honesty! Praying for you and the rest of your team as you head to Louisiana! Love, Diana
MG….you’re Amazing!! Your perspective at your age blows me away!! When I grow up I need and desire the wisdom God has given you. I’m still so excited for your journey and love being able to hear about it. God has got you right where you’re needed. Oh the journey ahead sounds exciting, tough, amazing, and adventurous!! Praying for your warm and safety always. Keep learning into Christ and have so much fun with all your new squad peeps! Love so much !!!
Katie, I just love you.
It’s difficult when you know that your daughter is sobbing and stinky and you can’t just hold her, rub her hair, and tell her that it’s all going to be okay. That’s what moms do. But yet I don’t get sad at all, instead I have a vision in my head and heart of Jesus sitting in that tent with you doing the exact same thing I would be doing. HE is your comfort; HE is your soft landing place. I wouldn’t want it any other way. I cannot tell you the peace that He has given me with you being there surrounded by the family that He hand-picked just for you. I know you’re exactly where He planted you and I won’t stop praising Him for that. Be Amazing & keep shining that big, beautiful light of yours. I love you so much my sweet girl.
MG- Love hearing where you are, what you are experiencing, and how you are processing it all. I love being able to picture you and your surroundings as I pray for you and your team on this amazing life adventure y’all have chosen to take. Thank you for sharing your heart with us and I look so forward to hearing more!! Big big hugs!!!