“What are you actually doing in Georgia?” I cannot tell you how many times I have received this question.
I know many of my supporters are wondering what my life at CGA actually looks like. Before moving up to Georgia, I wasn’t entirely sure what being a CGA Apprentice meant, and therefore, couldn’t always convey to people what the program looked like. Now having lived in Georgia for exactly one month, I plan to use this blog as a more detailed outline of what my life here looks like. This blog will look very different than my usual blogs, because it will be more informational and filled with all the wonderful details of my current life that is a mystery to so many.
Here are some definitions and acronyms you will need to understand in order to make sense of aspects of my blog:
-Adventures in Missions (AIM): The missions organization I am currently apprenticing with
-The World Race: A 9 month long mission trip, led through AIM
-The Center for Global Action (CGA): A discipleship school that focuses on discipleship, community, inner transformation, scripture, and outreach, put on by AIM.
-A Track: A chosen area of specialization by CGA apprentices, either being field leadership, worship, or liberation/sex trafficking
Now that all of you are brought up to speed, I have broken down categories of what CGA looks like so you will have a better understanding
Living Situation: I currently live in a 7 bedroom household that is shared among 11 people, two of which are children. Here at CGA we live in what we call community homes. 6 of us apprentices live in a home with our house mentors, Bill and Katie Swan, and their two children. Max is their 3 year old son and Ruby is their 14 month old baby girl. This is designed so that we live in intentional community where we have a safe space to be vulnerable about what’s going on in our lives, support each other, and to hold ourselves accountable to our commitments and the things the Lord is trying to do in us.
Class time: Monday-Friday, all 27 CGA apprentices are at the office from 9-12. This is when we have our class time and the actual discipleship school comes into play. AIM staff will come in and teach on many subjects, such as emotional health, aspects of God’s character, theology, spirituality, leadership, and so much more. Together we work through bible studies and scripture memorization. We do actually have a classroom with tables where we listen to the speaker who teaches on the above listed teachings.
Leadership Track: This has by far been the most fruitful and challenging aspect of CGA. Our track leaders, Ben and Ashley, challenge us both physically and mentally every time we have track time. They challenge our way of thinking by taking us through scripture and revealing to us how Jesus led His people and how drastically different it is than our preconceived notions of what is means to be a leader. We are also pushed out of our comfort zone by our assignments, the most recent one being, “Come to track next time with a 15 minute speech on an aspect of World Race/AIM culture that you would like to change and I am inviting everyone on staff to come. It is safe to assume we all freaked out. They have done such a wonderful job of calling us encouraging us in our doubt and supporting us in our failure. Every time I have track time, it wrecks my world and so far someone has cried every single class time.
Part-Time Job: For the first time, CGA apprentices were asked to get part-time jobs in the community, which is why we have afternoons off. The thought behind this idea is that we would go out into the community the Lord has us in and actually live out everything we are learning in class. This past week I started my first week at the YMCA, where I work in an elementary school as a after school counselor. I have around 17 k-1st I spend every afternoon with that I pour into and love on.
Community: When I am not in class or at the AIM office, where I spend lots of my time, I m almost always investing in the community that the Lord has blessed me with. There are 27 apprentices, and I have already made some amazing friends. In our off time we like to go hiking, spend hours at each other’s houses, go to fall festivals, go on road trips to surrounding areas, have taco nights, and a whole lot of parties. There has not been a moment since I have arrived where I didn’t have something I could do or someone to spend time with it. In fact it has already proved to be hard to balance my classwork and job with the amount of time I spend with my friends. If you met some of the people here, you would understand why it is such a struggle. They are so great.
My hope is that this blog provided clarity to how this next season of my life will look as so many of you have so generously invested in me. I am still raising financial support for anyone who feels led to invest in me and the work that the Lord is doing through me to bring the Kingdom of God here among us. Thanks for everything.
