CGA in 5 pictures + WHAT’S NEXT!

A recap of what CGA & 2021 has looked like so far! 

January: I moved to Gainesville to start CGA, a 5-month discipleship and leadership school through Adventures in Missions. I moved into a house with 14 other women (yes, you read that right), started going to class every day, and got a job working at Chipotle. January was filled with a lot of transition, meeting new people, and learning new rhythms. 

 

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February: My two friends and I baptized our best friend, Brooke, in our backyard! No better way to start a new season than with new life in Christ! 

 In class, we learned about holistic health through emotionally healthy spirituality. We read Emotionally-Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero and Daring Greatly by Brene Brown which helped lay the foundation work for the semester. We had a couple of weeks where  “practical tools” were taught, such as time management, conflict resolution, and creating healthy boundaries. 

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March: Our first public speaking project! After two weeks of learning about ourselves through the Enneagram and Myers-Briggs Tests, we were tasked with creating self-portraits and given 5 minutes to explain them. There were no boundaries on what medium could be used to create them; it was incredible to see people express the creativity of the Lord through their self-portraits. People painted, created videos, drew pictures, sculptures, wrote a spoken word, etc! 

For my self-portrait, I painted on a grocery bag (ha). I used coffee and dirt to paint to represent two things I am passionate about: coffee and the outdoors. I included a picture of a house and twigs to represent how the Father feels like Home to me and how I desire to cultivate that wherever I go. I cut out the words “MORE!” because there is always more in the Kingdom, and that’s how I view the world! There will always be more of the Father to experience, more people to love, more places to visit, more jokes to laugh at, etc. There’s always more 

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April: Every Friday, we have house-church with our class. It’s a space where we let the Holy Spirit move and have fellowship with each other. Some weeks it looks like sharing a meal and other weeks it looks like edifying and uplifting each other. 

One of my favorite weeks was when we read John 13 together, washed each other’s feet, and prayed. We followed the teaching of humility and servant leadership that Jesus displays for us in John and walked out what He did for His disciples. 

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May: Final Teaching Week! At the end of CGA, every student is given 45 minutes to teach anything related to discipleship and leadership. Some topics were on Diversity, Humility, Grief and Transition, Being a Powerful Leader, Spiritual Authority, Battle of Urgency, etc! 

I taught about Women in Leadership and more specifically, how the Lord uses women, what the Bible says about women, and how women have a place in leadership. Hearing and seeing my class teach each other what the Lord has taught them over the course of these 5 months was just… insane. It was tangible that week how much we have grown, individually and collectively.  

 

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 And now June! A busy month of moving out, going on a family vacation, and figuring out what’s next…

Starting in July, I’ll be coming on as staff with Adventures in Missions and interning with CGA for the next year! WOOOOOO!!! 

The Lord transformed a lot in my heart, my friendships, and my relationship with Him during my time at CGA; and He’s just not done yet! 

My role as an Intern will be primarily to help disciple and mentor the apprentices, and more specifically meeting with a handful of them weekly, walking with them through areas in their life that need emotional or spiritual healing, and providing wisdom about the material being taught in class. Outside of discipleship, I’ll teach multiple times throughout the semester and help facilitate hands-on activations. 

I’ll be working roughly 30 hours a week, and a large portion of that will be spent every day in the classroom with the apprentices. I will also be living in CGA housing in Gainesville! I’m very passionate about life-on-life discipleship and living with the apprentices is such a huge step in that direction.  

Outside of living and working with the apprentices, a couple of my other jobs as an Intern will be helping out with marketing, admissions (interviews, mobilization, and fundraising coaching), events and future planning, curriculum (activations, curriculum development, and scheduling), and communications. 

It’s a huge honor to be trusted to steward huge Kingdom work like this. I really am so excited to see what the next year entails!! 

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 If you have been here and have followed along since my World Race Gap Year (or if this is your time here!), I want to thank you so much for supporting me, encouraging me, and praying for me!!

 I mean it when I say I wouldn’t be here without you. 

  It’s been such a journey the past two years and to think we’re just getting started! 

 

During my year of interning, I’ll be support-raising my income. If you feel led to support the mission and calling the Lord has put on my heart for this generation, please reach out at 678-708-8430. The Lord is doing so much with Gen Z, and I want you to be a part of it. 

 

Blessings, 

Lauren