The end

Sometimes when two people take a journey, their paths must seperate.
This is what has happened to Katie and I. She headed north and is now living in Chigaco. She has a great year a head of her. If you want news about her she is now over here at a worldupsidedown.
As for me, well i have a new roommate and will stay at God's Resort a bit longer. For more info on me, you can find me here.
As for this blog, well its the end. For now!
Thanks for all your prayers and support.

In Christ
Megan A Calderon.

Mentor Sleepover!

We had a mentor/mentee sleep over the other night with the girls and had an awesome time doing what girls do best: watching chick flicks, painting nails, doing facials, and eating junk food! We couldn't resist doing all the stereotypical things with the girls. We had been promising a sleepover for a year and it was time we delivered!

All good things come to an end

Well I have around two weeks left here at God's Resort. I cannot believe we have been here for over a year and now my time is coming to a close. This past year has literally been the most amazing experience of my life and I could not imagine having expected to learn the lessons in life I have over the past year.

I have some updates on where I am heading next. I was chosen to be the team captain of my team of 3 girls and 2 guys. We are from all over the US and I am so excited to meet them soon! We will be living in a neighborhood known as La Villita (Little Village) in Chicago that is apparently 83% Latino. We will be attending both Spanish and English services with New Life Community Church there. I am so excited to be more immersed in Spanish culture and have more opportunities to use my tiny amount of Spanish and hopefully learn more.

Things are still going amazing down at God's Resort. We are moving forward with obtaining our status as a non-profit organization and that should be in place soon. Our church just announced that North Joplin Christian Church, which disbanded a few months ago, has offered College Heights their property in order to create an outreach ministry similar to that at God's Resort on the north side of town! I continue to be amazed at how God works in our community. It is truly amazing how much more incredible His plan is than ours. This new neighborhood faces many of the same problems as our current work at God's Resort and I know God wants to do great things there. Our church is currently meeting in preparation for a vote to determine the congregation's feelings on acquiring the property and then the elders will make the final decision, so we need lots of prayer right now for this decision to match God's will. I'm not too worried, if God wants it He will find a way.

If you want to keep up with my new adventure in Chicago check out my blog for Mission Year at www.missionyear.org/blog/katiehargrove

To much t talk about in one post.

This morning as Katie was driving to drop me off to work we were talking about how we havent really posted much over the summer. But hopefully as school starts and we get into a seady routine things will get better.
As i comment on whats been going on i will start with the newest stuff and work my way back. Instead of just throwing out information.
Last night we had the second city meeting in the backyard. THe first one was great! People showed up and made comments about things that they want done to make the neigborhood better. At the meeting last night the City of Joplin people unveiled the new plans for what will actually happen. It was exiting to stand there and hear them explain it all, and know that i will hopefully be around long enough to see that happen.
One of the things that they mentioned was the increase of police precense, and enforcement of traffic violations. As they were saying this, Katie and i both turned toward each other and giggled, probably because we were both thinking the same thing "good thing to know, i wont be speeding in the neigbothood anymore, or parking in the wrong direction". Traffic violations are a stumbling block for the two of us.
Already this morning we have seen them actually do what they promised, we passed three police cars in our neighbohood as we drove and also saw a group of inmates picking up trash under police supervision. Its great to see things happening!
it rained last nigh during the meeting, but thats ok. People still stayed, which was amazing and shows how much people really want the neigborhood to get better. With the rain its cooled down a lot. With one window unit in our house for the main living areas and two of our bedrooms, things tend to stay pretty warm. But this will be nice, and we can turn off the AC and hopefully get a break on our electric bill, which im thinking will be the hightest so far this summer because weve been running the AC pretty consistently.

Yesterday in the morning Katie, Josh and his family worked on the yard. Things (bushes and grass) had been a little out of control. It looks so great now. Sometimes its hard to keep up with everything. But their work came at the perfect time, just before the city meeting. There are no words to express our appretiation. Thanks Rick, Anna and Dom for helping out.

Camp: this summer some of the GR kids have been able to go to camp. They have had a lot of fun there. but hopefully they have grown in their faith and developed some friendships with kids that will be an encouragement to them.
I remember going to camp growing up, being away (most of the time because dad was sometimes a dean) from parents and bad friends and take a week to be in the word, to listen to great men preach and just have fun. it was at camp that i came foward and accepted Christ as my personal savior. i will always remember sitting in the chapel and holding on to the bench infront of me not wanting to go up, but wanting to soo badly at the same time. Its a crazy emotion.
i was also at College Age camp this last weekend. it was great. my favorite part of college age camp (other than staying up late playing rockband and sleeping in till noon) was the last night college students went up and talked, gave their testimonies, and encouraged one another.
What an amazing moment, it reminded me of why i fell in love with the college age in the first place, this their passion for God, people, service, and comminuty. And to be able to hear how people were affected by these things. it was truly amazing.

No Internet = No Blogging

Well, internet access has been somewhat limited lately after quitting working at the university. It's a lame excuse for letting stuff slide, but it's the only one I have. Life has been interesting for a long while at God's Resort, but summer brings a whole new element to the playing field. No school = lots of kids bored and looking for something to do. We have had a blast swimming, going to church camps and VBS, playing at the parks, and going to movies and the library.

There has been a lot of shifting in the neighborhood. One of the families moved away and that was really hard to see them go, even knowing it may be the best thing for them at this time. Eddie and Emilie moved up to Iowa for the summer to work and we were very sad to see them go, but they have come to visit a lot and that has been wonderful. Josh moved in with our friend Brandon and that has been a great time having them there serving alongside us. Abi moved out this past weekend back to Iowa in order to prepare for leaving for North Africa this Fall as a nanny to missionaries from our church. She is so awesome! We have a new roommate Leah who also plans to do missions in Africa but cannot leave for 2 years and wants to spend those two years at God's Resort. We are so excited to have her. She is an amazing prayer warrior and incredible woman. I move soon. Too soon it feels like sometimes.

I move to Chicago August 29th for team training and then go to Atlanta for a time to do group orientation and then back to Chicago for a year! I am so excited to have the opportunity to work with Mission Year, but it is a bittersweet feeling to be leaving God's Resort. One month left. I cannot believe in just a couple days we will hit our one year mark. I remember a time at the beginning where we had no idea if we would make it and here we are :) It has been one of the greatest experiences of my life, no doubt. Keep us in your prayers! A lot is coming into play down at God's Resort. We are becoming our own stand alone non-profit organization and partnering with the City of Joplin (!) in a neighborhood redevelopment program! Incredible isn't it? Who knew that one year could see so much change. Almost all of the buildings have been remodeled to better standards, we have a brilliant newly landscaped backyard, a music stage where we had our first puppet show last Sunday, and a fully functioning community house. God is good, very good.

a much needed update from megan!

For some of you that didnt know i get the oportunity to go to Italy this summer (july 4th -17th) with CHCC. The missions trip to Italy is gettng closer and closer. This weekend we have our team retreat. I am exited. This will be the first time that i take a trip to a country in a different time zone, and that speak a different language. I am hoping to come out of this trip with more experience and wisdom that will help me with my tasks here at God's Resort. I have been praying about this trip and doing support raising. I am still a bit short on the money side. just $400 more dollars to get to my goal. I try not to stress about it and know that God will provide, but every once in a while i get just a tiny but stressed. I ask that you pray for me and the team as we prepare to leave and as we are there in Italy, serving to the best of our abilities.





Because of the dates of the Italy trip i will not be able to join the Mt Zion youth group in the CIY summer conference. This will be the first summer in 4 years that i dont go with them. Needless to say i am very much bummed. I will be thinking and praying for them as they travel north, but most importatly take steps in their spiritual journey and hopefully come closer to Christ.





Thom and Erica (my sister and brother in law) have set a moving date. They will be leaving Joplin on the 30th of this month. It still hasnt become a reality, the fact that they are leaving. Im sure i will post many a tearful note on here in the future. But it is so important for them to move on and continue on this path that God has put them on.





Summer fun! we are having some fun times down at God's Resort. Here are some photos to prove it! If you are in town this summer give us a call and come hang out!




Sometimes the kids gang up on Abi (shes the one at the bottom, you cant even see her face)

Boomtown where at the beggining of june. this is me, ash and destiny at the Jars of Clay concert!

the luna boys. i think its a fun pic. once again at boomtown days

yesterday was the College Heights church picnic. its quite an ordeal. the kids got to come and play on games and hang out.

after the picnic, Sergio and Antonio joined the college age in playing some hockey. here is antonio pretending to hit katies car.

Brenda can ride a bike!

With no training wheels!


A while back, Abi and Katie went garage sale shopping for some bikes for us. They found three bikes that we have been riding. We have tanken many bike rides since.
Little Brenda is only five, she has many times been left behind on the bike ridingbecause she didnt have a bike. Her older siblings each have one they can ride or borrow. We have dried many tears as she watches a group of kids take of on the bikes.
She had a little bike, but both of the tired were pretty much gone. I had promised her that as soon as i had some extra cash we would fix her bike. But amazingly her big brother came to the rescue. He took the back tire of off another bike and placed it on hers. She came by the house the other day saying, "i can ride a bike, Tony fixed my bike, and i dont even need training wheels."
so there she is, riding non stop all day long..

...heres to awesome big brothers that offer what they can, that sacrifice for you. She will always see men in a different way because of it. And some day she will be able to him as he has given to her.

May Update

I found out, almost a month ago now, that I am going to Chicago! I cannot believe the path that God has created for me over the past year and leading into this next one. Only He could have taken me from where I was to where I am now and I am so excited to be on this crazy journey walking next to Him. I am truly psyched for Chicago. In all honesty I have wanted to move to Chicago since I was a freshman in college and knowing I am going to be living there in just a few short months is incredible. My friends I think are just as excited, if not more, that I am going to Chicago because it's the closest of MY's destinations to our "home" here in Joplin. It still is like 9 hours away, but it's the closest. I keep telling them that there are only certain times we are allowed visitors and that I can come home, but that doesn't seem to change their excitement. Many of them are from the Chicago land area and therefore I guess feel this new sense of bonding with me now that I am moving to their home turf. Whatever the reasons are for their excitement, all I know is I am so glad they are excited. My community here are my brothers and sisters and transitioning together as a group through changes for our friends has always been key. We want to be in each other's lives enough that no distance will change our commitment to one another. So moving to Chicago is an awesome high this month!
Another high has been the fifteen billion birthdays this month. Literally like 60% of our entire friend group has birthdays in April and May and so the last month and a half has been like one long birthday party, but what better thing to celebrate right? Also, May 1 marked 3 years of following Christ for me and that just rocks in itself!
The final and greatest high has been the birth of Uriah Daniel Gonzalez, the first baby in our group! The parents are my neighbors and dear friends and being beside them through the whole pregnancy has been an incredible journey. It is so exciting to have him here now with us.
This is just a taste of the great things that are going on these days. As the weather warms up, all the kids are coming out to play and biking around town has become our new favorite pastime (I even learned how to ride with a kid on the bike with me yesterday!). We have started taking cookies across the street to our local AA/NA meeting and that has been really cool meeting new people and their kids. There has been a lot to rejoice over this past month and I wanted to share just a little with you all.

Baby Gonzalez is here.

Late last night Eddie and Emilie (plus crew) headed to the hospital for the birth of their first child. Uriah Daniel Gonzalez was born this morning at 7:16am. He was 21 inches long and weighed 7 pounds.
Mom and baby are doing well. Resting and visiting with family and friends.

God is good. Please join is in prayers of thanksgiving to Him for the newest resident of God's Resort.

a cat under the hood!

Before i start this story, i must mention that the little guy is fine. No harm done. And will be returned to its owner (i think Ashley) when i get off work.

This morning started out completaly normal. I got up, showered, got my lunch together to go to work. The mailman came by (Dan Quade) with a package for Katie and I. Exiting stuff!

I get in my car, drive to work. I take my time, i left a little earlier that usual. On my way to work, i get a call from my oldroommate Bev. She wants to borrow my car to go get lunch. So as im waiting for her, to make the trade...

I start hearing this meowing thats coming from near the car. My first instinct told me it must be a bird flying by. Then as i walk around the car, it got louder. And i figure it out. There must be a cat under the hood of my car.

(you know, you always hear stories like that, most of the times it ends tragically. But katie and i lived at God's Resort, surrounded by cats all winter long, and it hadnt even come close to happening).

so i rush back to my car, pop the hood, and sure enough. There was this little fellow:

we called my boss and asked for special permision for me to keep him with me at work. He was really scared. But really im just glad he survived!

I do believe that for the next few days i will be checking under my hood before i take of driving anywhere.

Shower time!

No, our shower works fine (as long as the neighbors aren't using water). Its baby shower time. On Friday we were all able to celebrate with Eddie and Emilie as they prepare for their baby boy to be born.


Emilie's due date is May 5th. I'm praying that he will come a day early, and be born on my birthday. Emilie is ready for him to come, its hard to be patient these last few days.


Here are a few pictures from the event:

He also celebrated Eddie, all the boys had their little thing. The two groups joined for present opening. And this was Eddie's first.

Emilie is glowing.

The girls did an amazing job planning it. They had all kinds of goodies and snack to munch on. My personal favorite are the chocolate covered pomegranate drops of amazingness.
We also got a good community picture. These are the seven of us that live at God's Resort, with the purpose of ministry and service to the neighborhood. (from L to R: Peter, Eric, Abi, Katie, Emilie, Eddie and Megan)

One more pic, the boys also jumped in on this one. Note Sergio! What an amazing community we have!

Sometimes I feel like our house is just one giant extension of the outside yard. Like the walls aren't really there, but are just mere allusions pretending to keep things out. We cleaned and cleaned on Monday and at the end of it, didn't have a lot to show for our work. Things look better, but they just don't look clean.

A significant hole fell out of my closet ceiling the other day during community dinner. Water had been leaking all winter and still hadn't been fixed this past Thursday when it finally just flooded through. My clothes were soaked, boxes wet, and debris was everywhere. Not the most pleasant experience by the end of it. The bugs are back. I killed four this morning getting ready in my room. I have to say I didn't miss them at all over the winter. The basement is flooded again, nothing too bad, but enough to make it stink pretty bad by and in my room and the porch smells like wet cats right now. It's really nothing new though which is why it is so funny that I am feeling it so heavily today.

We have lived at God's Resort now for 8 months and I would not take any of it back, but the house is wearing on me today. I am sure next week I will be a different person and it will be fine, but today my spirit is worn down by the chaos and disfunctional nature of our living environment.

A New Horizon

Do you ever wake up in the morning and just have an uncanny realization that today is a new day? Usually I feel this happen to me a few times a month , but it hadn't in a while until this morning. Megan and I started going to 5:30 prayer again. Actually we told Eddie he could host it at our home so we would have no choice but to wake up really (hey, we have to go to extremes sometimes to be disciplined right?). Having prayer in our house gives me a lot of peace. I remember how much these prayer meetings changed my life a year ago and coming back to them I just feel Him again.

Anyway, so this morning I woke up and we had prayer and then I had coffee with our new brother in the Lord, Vincent. Vincent is in many ways the male version of me three years ago. The similarities in our coming to the Lord are eerie at times. Talking to him this morning though about the struggles Christians face in their walk though was just outstanding. At the same time though, it made me realize a lot of the grey I have allowed to creep into my Christian walk. Grey that should appear much more black and white in a Christian following Christ. So this morning on this brand new glorious morning where the sun was actually shining for the first time in a while, I want to do something about it. Our adult sponsor on our trip to New Orleans asked me while we were down there what things in my Christianity I would take with me to Mission Year as my foundational truths and life commitments. At the time, I gave him a very typical church response, that though true was not very specific. Well it's time to get specific. For the next few months therefore that is my plan and I would love all the help and accountability I can get along the way. I want to look at where I am still falling short of glorifying God in my actions and discipline and quite honestly make a solid, tangible commitment to action to follow Him more diligently and faithfully. I am a person who needs structure and a clear response and without that my responses get all muddled with life and humanity. Why not take this time now while I have it to really look at and seek Godly disciplines in my life? I am tired of pushing life choices aside and saying "one day when I need to I will". That one day is going to come when I am not looking and I am probably going to respond in some pretty ungodly ways without having really given thought to what my life looks like when lived in line with Christ. So here I am diving in head first ready for whatever I may hit as long as it is on the way to Him.

The Past month at God's Resort

This past month has been a blur of emotions and events that my mind has still not wrapped around yet. All of February was so stressful at work because we were recruiting, interviewing, and picking new students for the Honors Program next Fall. It's a lot of work and a lot of emotions in a very small office and to say the least everyday was tiring. Emilie, Eddie, and Abi moved in and that was amazing, but a whole period of transition. I love all three of those people so I didn't expect any problems transitioning to community in a bigger group, but the whole month has just been hard. Reshaping boundaries, letting in new perspectives on your ministry, and sharing life with three extra people in a very close and personal environment has been rougher for me than I thought it would be. No idea why actually, but I do know I have experienced a range of emotions from godly to ungodly this past month and in the end I hope to come out of it a better person. God has really opened my heart to the selfishness that still lurks in its crevices and the ugliness of it all has really defeated me at times. As Megan said there is a difference between having community and having a community that does communal living. When community now means giving up what I considered my personal space it brings a whole new set of challenges. Figuring out how to operate in a Christlike manner communally is something I have got to figure out though if I am going to live on a team with five strangers next year. Having Eddie, Emilie, and Abi down there though has been a huge blessing. I hadn't realized how much I had cut myself off from my community until they all started showing up and I wanted to push them away. I no longer wanted to be transparent or share life honestly with them and that was a pretty fruitless place to be in life honestly. So I guess all of the stress and confusion of reentering my community is God trying to bring me back to a Truth I had pushed away. He has exposed the shallowness I had allowed in my relationships with the people He has given me to love and when I see that sin exposed I cannot help but strive towards eliminating it no matter how ugly the process is. Our good friend Peter and Eric are moving in as I type and it is just incredible to see the little community of close friends God is placing in our greater community at God's Resort. I know these next few months we will see something incredible if we are sensitive to His spirit and continue to strive after His teachings. We can use your prayers for our community that we will trust and love each other to the fullest capacity we can each day.

Community vs Communal living...

...we dont have it all figured out.

Mentoring

There are a lot of young teens at God's Resort. Only one of them is a guy, the rest are girls. They are 12 years old and as we all know, that is a very hard age.

One of the goals that we had when Katie and I moved to God's Resort was to start meeting once a week to talk and hang out with the "older girls"

We started in the fall, and i can admit that I didn't do such a great job at it, Ashley and I would meet about once a month. Katie did an amazing job meeting with Dominique, they would hang out once a week, eat together and just talk. It was such an amazing experience for them.

At the beginning of this spring semester Katie called me out on my lack of commitment to meeting with Ashley. So this semester we have been able to meet once a week. We usually go to Starbucks (Ashley usually orders a mocha frapuccino, which she used to call a moco frape) and talk for about an hour.

At first we would pick a random topic, on the spot and read what the Bible had to say about it. For Valentine's day I got her a year long devotional book. This has helped a lot because we read the devotional together, and then talk about the topic. This has been great. (especially when Ashley reads real loud about purity, sex and boys and the people around us give me a knowing look)

The "younger" kids have gotten jealous of the little extra time that the older girls get. E came up to Katie and I one day and told us that she had a proposal (her words not ours). Her proposal was that since Katie and I had extra time with the older girls, we should find time to spend some extra time and do fun stuff with the younger kids; and declared herself Katie's "partner" (which is the word that the young kids use for the mentor- mentee relationship) and that I was to be the other kids. She didn't really want an immediate answer, she wanted us to think about it, and then asked us every time she saw us what we thought of her proposal.

This is the amazon link to the devotional book Ashley got. Its a simple book, but very straight foward and to the point: Designer Genes Devo Book.

Lots to come!

So march is here, and we have been busy busy busy

spring break staring this week, Katie and Abi will be heading to New Orleans to serve with the College Age from College Heights.
Those of us staying are hoping to hang out with the kids since they wont have school.

at the end of the month College Heights has its "week of service"
their goal: to get the backyard ready for summer. with an area that the kids can play in that is safe.

Then, April... i cant even think that far ahead.

Finally the sun came out!

The sun finally came out last Friday after what has felt like weeks, even months of gray skys and cold. We grabbed our soccer ball and the kids and headed for the empty parking lot across from our house for a little fun and in the end a lot of pictures. Here are some great shots of the kids and our extended family here at God's Resort:

Where did February go?

It feels like last month literally blew by. Life was so busy that it was hard to stop and think about anything that was happening. I got accepted to Mission Year, an inner city ministry program, and will be moving in August somewhere unknown to me at this point. We obviously had our fun fiesta for Valentine's Day. We got a new roommate Abi, so now there are three of us. Eddie and Emilie, two our dearest friends, moved in next door to us. We went to Texas to a homeless outreach center to serve the homeless, but more likely we were the ones served. Here's a few pictures from that:

I am getting ready now for Spring Break during which I will be going to New Orleans with the College Age to rebuild houses. I am so excited for this trip. I am actually hoping to visit a Mission Year team while I am down there, but we'll see.

Things at God's Resort are going really well. The neighborhood has come alive with the warmer weather we have had off and on the last couple of weeks. We have had so much fun playing with the kids outside and getting to talk to people more. Winter is so hard because no one comes out of their homes. The kids have been coming over for homework help a lot more which is good because a lot of them have not been doing so well as we thought they were. Ashley and Dominique had a big social studies project and both of them did really well (A's)!!! There are a bunch of new tenants to get to know as well. It really just feels like having a huge extended family all around us. We have moved into the new auditorium at College Heights and it has completely changed our Sunday mornings, but so far we have really enjoyed all the changes. It just seems like lots of new things are going on and everyone is on one wild ride I guess.

Happy Valentine's Day!

So for Valentine's Day we had 19 kids, 4 adults, two tables, and 76 cookies to decorate. Here's what we got: