Graduation

At the end of each semester at bible school, there is a graduation dinner and graduation. Since I was at Capernwray for two semesters, this was my second of both. The grad dinner is a fun night where we dress up and play games and be the goofy people we are. Last semester's theme was "Robin Hood" and this semester's was "Decades" so each family group was assigned a different decade they dressed up in. My family's decade was the 1980's which I was more familiar with than most of the other students in my family.

Here is Rachelle, Caroline, me and Heather at grad dinner. It was so fun to see what everyone did for their decade and Heather and I had a really fun time getting ready together.

This is me with Megan and Jen. Megan was the chef intern this semester and is from Colorado. We ended up being roommates for the second half of the semester and would stay up talking almost every night! Jen and her husband, Jesse, are from Canada and were the RAs for the semester and lived in the Homestead. The three of us girls would talk almost every morning and both were amazing encouragements to me and inspired me to grow deeper in love with Jesus with their lives.

Here I am with Anneloor. She is on staff as the House Manager and was my discipleship leader my first semester. We instantly connected and became friends. She offered countless encouragements and advice when I needed it. She also would give me organizing projects on work day because she knew how much I love to organize and we both were kind of geeky when it comes to cleaning.

This is me and Rachel a very very good friend of mine that I met way back last July when I first got to Capernwray. We did the first semester together and that's when God really put us in each other's lives. Next we did ABS together and our friendship grew and I think when you share an experience like that with someone, you will always be close. After Adventure Bible School, we both came back to Capernwray for internships. Rachel was the coffee shop intern and I was the graphic design intern. Once again our friendship grew and changed and saying goodbye to her was one of the hardest that I had to do. I have been so blessed to watch her grow in her relationship with God and I know we will be friends for a very long time.

This is Dawood Latif and his wife Judy. Dawood works with Gideons International and I met them last semester. They are wonderful people and at the end of the year I spent a relaxing weekend with them at their house.

This is Suz and Dave Bruce who were my billets last semester for ministry week so I was able to live with them for a week and get to know the amazing people they are. It was an overwhelming blessing to continue our friendship over the year. They helped me plan my two week break first semester and then went with ABS for one of our trips. When I started my internship, I went to the same church as them and got to go to a few of their small group meetings which were always so refreshing. I was so blessed to find such an amazing Kiwi couple to have as friends.

This is Cloudy (Claudia) and me at graduation. She is on staff with ABS and we became friends even before that when she would stay at Monavale first semester. She has been through so much and God has shown up in her life in so many incredible ways. I learned SO much from her and her life continues to inspire me.

This is Heather who I went on ABS with. She ended up staying on for the rest of the semester and I was so glad because we got to joke around and hang out after ABS. She is amazing and super down to earth and we would have so much fun being complete nerds together. One of my favorite memories with her is rolling down hills randomly one night at school.

It's hard to believe that God put so many wonderful people in my life at school and this is one of them. This is Esther Print. She's originally from America but married a Kiwi and has lived in New Zealand ever since. She was my discipleship leader the second semester and blew me away each week with the wisdom she has and love that pours out of her. No question was ever dumb and she takes her relationship with Jesus so sincerely.

This is Caroline from Denmark, Heather from Canada and me. Caroline and I were roommates for about a month when I got back from ABS and Heather and I were in the same family group. They both are amazing and we share a rare form of humor that most people don't get. I have never laughed as hard as I did with these girls and loved hanging out with them. They both did ABS after I did and I got to go and hang out at the ABS lodge a couple weekends with them to help out and it was a huge blessing to go and see them.

I'm going to refrain from making this a giant blog post about every person that impacted me and that I grew to care about from school because that would be a very very long post. Graduation was very different the second time around because I was saying goodbye to so much and to so many people. My mind can't handle how God could bless me the way He did with the community I was able to be a part of and His grace that He shows me.