I can't wrap my head around the fact that I've been here a month- it has gone so fast yet it also feels like I have been here for a very long time.

Some things I have been loving about MAPS:

• How everything is everyone's/ open to the whole community- the cafeteria. kitchen, community coffee pot (definitely a highlight, that thing is rarely empty), the cleaning closet- it's like a big house everyone in the family gets to enjoy and work to preserve.
• The huge beautiful campus I walk around outside to drink my afternoon Spark (if you know you know).
• Seeing everyone in the community every day and then eating lunch together every day, having the same rhythm of life. Again, like a big family in a big house.
• The head worship leader's title is "The Chief Musician"... just try and come up with a cooler title than that. You can't.
• Joy is a nonnegotiable at MAPS. "In Your presence is fullness of joy"- where His presence there is joy, so if joy is missing they re-look at everything as it is the overflow of dwelling with God. If you're ever here, you will feel the joy in the hallways and in the smiles of the people walking down them. It's beautiful.

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Overall, it has been an incredible first month. The Lord has been uprooting a lot of things, showing me again what is available in Him, depositing joy, teaching me to live in the present, and all in the context of a loving and embracing community. My time is spent in the prayer room, in classes learning about the person of Christ (which has been transformative), singing worship sets, and in my downtime either enjoying nature or attempting to cook. Sometimes it works.

All that to say, I wouldn't be here without you, and daily I am so grateful. I am so excited to see what the Lord continues to unfold.

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Skyline Drive in Shenandoah

Singing workshop in Indonesian ​ Student set in the prayer room ​

Camping at Switzer Lake ​ ​