the bay – Allison Julia

After eight whole months, I am back. Back to the Burgh.

To everyone out there, I am SO EXCITED to be back in Pittsburgh. Like, so excited. There are freshman to be poured into and Burghs to be led and relationships to deepen and friends to spend time with and a beautiful, amazing, perfect city to live in. It has been wonderful to be back in the city, to walk the streets, to breathe in the (not so) fresh city air. I’m almost completely settled in to my new apartment in Highland Park, with my amazing housemate Cici, and it has been a joy to experience a slice of adult life with her for the past week. And by adult life, I mean buying our own kitchen curtains and calling our rental company because we find out our laundry machine doesn’t actually function… it’s been quite an adventure so far. I finally have a familiar routine (waking up at 7am every day and driving 24 minutes to campus, what a commute), which has been helpful! It has been a challenging transition, though, without a doubt. It’s difficult to seamlessly transition anywhere after being gone for such a long time, and it has proven to be quite an emotional undertaking. It seems like I’ve been moving from place to place to place too much over the past year. Since the end of last fall semester, I have only stayed in one place for three months or less. What made this bearable, though, is that I never stopped following Christ. The supporting details of my life have been changing often, but my identity in Christ has stayed the same. And I’m excited to really live that out this fall, by serving those around me and those within the h2o community.

Today marks the beginning of the second week of classes, and I’m excited for this semester’s challenge! It is a little sad to be back in a lecture hall after my last classroom was the streets of Rome. But, I’ll survive. I’m taking three speech courses, which is absolutely amazing, considering my last course load was completely unrelated to my major! My classes this semester are Intro to Audiology, Anatomy & Physiology of Speech & Hearing, Phonetics, Global Sociology, Biostatistics II, and Becoming Global Citizens. It should be a fun semester!

So anyway, I miss Silver Bay. I miss the fresh air, the mountaintop views, and the crystal clear lake. Processing this past summer has not come easy to me, for the same reason that’s challenging my transition back to Duquesne. I can remember one instance, towards the end of the summer, where I noticed my mindset changing from wanting to be back, to not wanting to leave. I was sitting in the second to last LT service, listening to my own pastor from my own church. It was what I was longing for, to be back in Pittsburgh! It was what I wanted, to leave this place of stress and trials, to be back in the place where I really felt I would thrive again. But as I sat, and as I glanced around the room, at the the people I have come to love, I realized something.

I am going to miss these people.

I am going to miss this place.

I am going to miss this summer.

I was shocked to find myself suddenly not wanting to leave. No doubt the result of time spent in prayer, I finally felt surrounded by love, friends, and one of the most beautiful communities I’ve ever experienced. What I finally felt was the reason I came back after last summer, the community. My experience became less about me and my struggles I was going through, and became us. I left so many friends and memories behind, and it makes me sad that we had to part ways. It’s difficult to say goodbye to friends who live so far away. It is a blessing, though, to have such great friends that make the goodbyes so much harder! And I was certainly blessed to bring back so many amazing friends from the summer back with me to Pittsburgh. We had such a great Pitt/Duq crew! This crew has also got me doubly excited to see God’s plans for this this fall and our church unravel.

Our church.

We had our first party and kickoff service this past weekend, and I was blown away by how many new faces I saw and how many new freshman I was able to meet. I even met a Pitt freshman I wrote a letter to, inviting him to join h2o! I ask that you join me in prayer, that these new faces would be encourage to come back, week after week. I’m also praying that our church community would receive them well, just as I was received so well back on my first Sunday of college. We had our first Schenley Burgh meeting this past Thursday, and 27 people showed up! We did not have nearly enough chairs, but praise the Lord! And yesterday, Labor Day, we gathered in Moraine State Park for a day of sun, swimming, and fellowship. A huge group of people came, and it was an awesome to spend the first day off with the h2o family.

So, back to this summer.

Even through the thick of my worst days at the Bay, I was still encouraged by the way God was moving in my life. Whether it was through a rainbow, through my friends, or another way He revealed Himself to me, He was always there. Even when I wanted nothing but to go back home, to go back to Pittsburgh, to be in my h2o community again, God reminded me that I was there for a purpose. He provided opportunities to serve and grow, and people to serve and love. I’m still processing what this summer means for my life back here, but I will tell you one thing: I learned so much this summer. About myself, about who God is, about what community is, and so much else. Looking back, I realized that he was working in my life even more that I every could have known! This summer God really started working in my heart and breaking down walls surrounding my independence. One phrase echoed in my mind for the better part of this summer: vulnerability breeds community. And God provided a beautiful, loving community for me in which to be vulnerable. For that, I am thankful.

(A few pics from the last weeks of summer.)

Below is the highlight video from this summer, so you can see all the super cool people I spent my summer with 🙂

Song of the Season:

In Christ,

Ally

PS – Here’s my new address!

5440 Jackson St APT 1

Pittsburgh, PA 15206

🙂

Hello hello hello!

Things are good. I really love the Bay, I really love my friends, and I have felt loved back. And it is a good feeling! It’s been great to live loved for the past few weeks, even though some things have been a bit stressful. To be truthful, stress is a very large part of this summer. I have been challenged as a student, as a camp counselor, as a follower of Christ, and generally as an existing person. I am typically not a stressed person, and when I do get stressed, I spiral. So this summer has felt like one giant calamity and I am still stressed BUT. But, you guys, God is still good. Things are still good.

I will not dwell on the things that have caused some discomfort. I will continue to be challenged, and I will continue to rely on God for strength in these situations. The theme of this summer is being rooted, and through these stresses I have found myself learning much more about what it means to be rooted in God’s love. It is one thing to acknowledge His perfect and unfailing love, but it is an entirely different thing to truly grasp it. Ephesians 3 talks about Paul’s prayer about just this: the idea of being rooted in His love rather than just knowing it.

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

The past few weeks alone have been full of reflection, and I’m continually realizing how many things I try to find strength in that aren’t God. Like other people, my relationships, and myself. And time and time again I find myself lacking the strength I need. Hm. I think at the root of this pursuit of strength is how deeply I place my trust in God. Trusting God more is not something that happens quickly in my life, but it is something in which I have been continuously growing. Looking to Him for strength, asking Him to be my strength, is something that comes while placing my trust more deeply in Him.

Kids Camp has been overwhelmingly better than the last time I wrote about it. Being with the Woozles makes my heart sing, and I really love spending my morning with them. I got switched to Chippies in the afternoon, so I had to leave my precious Wee-Woozles, but some of the Chippies were Woozles last year and it’s been great to be their counselor again. Some days I can’t believe I get paid to spend my days with these kids. To be honest, I still hate some days. Like the days that one of my campers drops his shirt into the porta-potty, picks it out, and brings it back to the tent. And the days that campers bite other campers. And the beach days that last 7 minutes because it took way too long for the campers to change into their bathing suits. Those days I remind myself that it is a job and I am getting paid.

Now to the exciting things that I did in the past three weeks! My favorites: Diver’s Rock, a dance boat, a weekend trip home, and a trip to Montréal!

I have had some pretty spectacular weekends up here. A few weeks ago some of the VT LTers from last year came to visit, and it was an amazing thing to see them and spend time with them. We went to Diver’s Rock, Bolton Landing, Riley’s, and I slept up at Jabe’s Pond. Such a good weekend.

One Tuesday night was spent with a boatload of people on a dance boat, the Lac du Saint Sacrement. It was such a fun evening, filled with dancing and picture taking and sightseeing!!

I also took a trip home last weekend, for two reason: Yayoi Kusama and Hamilton. My mom and I had tickets to an infinity mirrors exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Art, which was so cool! Hamilton was everything I wanted and more, and because I had attempted to avoid the soundtrack until I actually saw the show, I was really blown away. Knocked my socks clean off. I am so unbelievably amazed at the entire production, I really have no words. I can’t even imagine what it would’ve been like with the original cast! Also this weekend I got to see Bosley and Alison, two perfect friends from high school, and Chloe! I got breakfast with her family and sent her off to a mission trip in Peru. Overall, it was an amazing weekend and it was only made better by the fact that I slept in my own bed three nights in a row.

The weekend got less great when I flew back into Burlington. I was supposed to fly from Cleveland to Charlotte, and Charlotte to Burlington. My flight to CLT was only delayed 30 minutes, but I had a three-hour layover so I wasn’t worried about missing my connecting flight. I reconsidered after our second hour in the air and reconsidered even further when we landed in South Carolina to fill up the plane’s fuel tank. I ended up getting to Charlotte 20 minutes after my connecting flight left for Burlington, so I joined the other hundred people who missed their flight due to storms in the line for Customer Assistance. Where I stood for two hours. When I finally got to the desk she booked me a flight to Albany boarding immediately, so I sprinted to the next terminal only to find everyone still sitting at the gate. We began getting notifications that our flight was delayed. First it was 11:30. Then midnight. Then 12:15. Then 12:30. Then our plane was deemed “unfit to fly” so we moved gates. Then our crew clocked out. And at 1:00am, my flight was canceled. Yay! The attendants began rebooking everyone, and I was lucky enough to get a flight to Burlington the next day, flying through DC. The only problem was with all the delayed flights, all the hotels were completely full. So I slept in the airport and waited for my flight at 11am. I slept for approximately 1.5 hours, because those gate chairs are probably specifically designed to be uncomfortable for sleeping, so I wandered and bought a crossword book and finished said crossword book and sat in a rocking chair for seven hours. It was not my favorite day. Thankfully, my flights back went off without so much as a 15 minute delay. I finally landed in Burlington and finally made it back to the Bay.

My last exciting thing is my trip to Canada! The last time I went to Canada was when I was just a wee child and I’m so glad I made the time to go. Me and three other girls left right after work, made it quickly though customs thanks to a very nice (and cute) officer, and found our cute Airbnb in the heart of Montréal. We spent the night walking around, found poutine, had a Guinness for the first time in three months, and incorrectly pronounced a bunch of Canadian words. On Saturday we went to the Notre Dame Cathedral, walked around Old Montréal, ate good, boutique shopped. It was a really amazing time, and I love my friends and Canada and rooftop glasses of Rosé. On the way back to America, our customs officer told us we looked like we worked at a camp. Which was the best compliment he could’ve given us. To be fair, I was wearing a headband, a flannel, Chacos, and I was wearing an EMP shirt. So maybe it was obvious.