After spending the day in Greenville, I realized that Sunday would probably be one of the last days that I was going to be able to eat dinner with mom before heading back to Clemson so of course we decided to break out the baking and make a cake! We found a recipe for this chocolately mousse cake and it tastes 100x better than it looks! But it was great getting to spend some time with mom in the kitchen before making my way back down to TigerTown!
Saturday, a few of the Clemson crew decided on a spontaneous trip up to Pretty Place for the afternoon. It turned into a pretty gloomy afternoon but we made the best of it. We worshipped for a little while, prayed, climbed on the roof, explored around the chapel for a couple of hours and had a blast! I have some amazing friends!
Friday I made a little detour stop by the Y to see the middle schoolers one more time before my internship this semester. I got to spend all last semester with these 15 middle schoolers and as much drama as there was, I still loved every minute with them! So, I decided to bring them some cupcakes and of course the girls decided they wanted to have a little photo shoot. Miss them already!
Then to top the night off, a game of glow-in-the-dark ultimate frisbee with the North Main Gang after a home cooked dinner with John! Great Friday!
So I realize it is already January 6th but as I sat here catching up on things, I decided to chronicle the journey of 2012. Come May, I will be leaving my 4 year journey at Clemson and stepping into the next chapter of life, so I thought a daily recap of that journey would be neat to have and be able to look back on. Some days may end up being a short paragraph recap, some a picture, and even some videos but I am determined to keep up with life through this blog. Here’s a little back track to help get things started…
January 1st: To ring in the new year, a crew of us gathered down in Clemson for a night full of lots of laughter and fun. It’s crazy to think that there were people in the room I didn’t know existed over a year ago but couldn’t imagine my life without them. I cannot get over the amazing community of friends that God has placed in my life at Clemson. Lesson learned from 2011 is to never take anything for granted, its all according to His purpose and plan and who knows what good will come out of it!
January 2nd: 45,000 college aged students packed their bags and headed to the Dome in Atlanta for Day 1 of an amazing Jesus conference called Passion 2012. Louie Giglio opened up the event with a challenging message that left us all ready for more! This year, Do Something Now was aimed at raising money and awareness for the 27 million people in slavery around the world, the most there has ever been in history!
January 3rd: After a night spent in 1 hotel room with 1 bed, 8 girls, and very little sleep, my energy level was amazingly high because I was still so pumped for the full day of worship and incredible teaching! That night, we sang “How Great is Our God” in several different languages and my heart immediately went back to the place I fell in love with exactly 1 year ago. And of course the sweet African children’s choir on stage didn’t help the longing to be back! Our God is a great God whose love doesn’t stop in the Dome, it extends to everyone around the world. Don’t be wait to step out and be bold. Make a difference for the Kingdom!
January 4th: The last full day of the concert, we visited the Freedom station where we donated money to the call for freedom of the 27 million. After we gave, we were given a little white flag to put on our lanyard that let us into the plaza. There we wrote prayers and scripture on pieces of old clothing and other objects for those trapped in bondage of slavery. These articles were combined and constructed into a 100 foot tall statue of a hand reaching up as a cry for freedom in the middle of the plaza between the Dome, Georgia World Congress Center, and CNN center. Later that night, there was a candle light service were the statue was illuminated as prayers were being lifted up. The hand not only got the attention of the 45,000 people at Passion but CNN couldn’t ignore what they saw and did a nation wide story on what the Lord was doing through a bunch of 18-25 year olds in Atlanta, GA.
February 5th: During the last session of Passion 2012, Louie announced how much money had been donated by a room of college students. Over the course of 3 days, the goal set by the Passion team was $1 million, keep in mind, these are college kids. As a whole, we raised 2.6 million dollars to help end the bondage of slavery! God is a limitless God and we can’t allow ourselves to put limits on the work He is capable of doing. We have a calling and purpose in life and that is to FEARLESSLY proclaim the mystery of the GOSPEL. His will, His way, ALWAYS!
A couple of weeks ago, FCA leadership and the Missions team went up to Chicago to start some planning for our spring break mission trip. When we go back in the spring, we will have around 350-400 college students giving up their spring break to serve the city of Chicago. We were told going into this trip that it was going to be a lot of planning and meeting with ministries. I think I speak for most of the team when I say that I was not expecting Antoine to walk into the picture.
We were on our way to a meeting that ended up getting cancelled, so we decided to run to the gas station and get some gas while we were waiting on the rest of the team to get done with their meetings. The first gas station was closed so we used the trusty gps to find another one close by. As Evan was pumping gas, 16 yr. old Antoine walked up and asked if he could wash our windows for food. A few of us went over to McDonalds across the street and got him some chicken nuggets and fries. Evan had been talking to him while we were gone and when we gave him the food, he said he wanted to save it to share with his little brothers when he got back. We continued talking to him about his family and began asking questions like “who do you think God is?” We ended up taking him to the grocery store to get a gift card that he could use to buy his family more groceries. He had said that he had a small Bible (more than likely one of those small new testament plus psalms KJV Bibles), but he didn’t read it because he didn’t understand it. We began explaining to him that once you accept Christ, your receive His Spirit that will guide you and help you to understand it better. We also gave him a Bible with a translation that is easier to read. We read him Romans 6:23 that says “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” We then elaborated on what that free gift was and what that meant for us.
He asked us if we were going to pray with him before we left like we had said, then he looked up at us and told us that he wanted the Spirit in him, he wanted to be able to understand. So right in the middle of a downtown Chicago parking garage, we prayed for Antoine and then got to listen to a sincere prayer to the Lord God from a 16 year old asking for forgiveness and guidance from the Spirit to help him live for Him.
God is already at work in Chicago! Be praying for hearts and lives to be changed in Chicago, not just for the hundreds of Clemson students that are going, but for the people we will be in contact with. Let’s not stop at one, live it out, live it out boldly!
“Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.” 1 John 2:6
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“Christians no longer need to pretend to be better than anyone else. We don’t have to put on any show of being good, for we know we are not. We are not good—we are forgiven; and so we are free to be honest before God and before others. We are free to be ourselves. We have given up trying to be good little boys and girls, and whenever we catch ourselves striving to please either God or others by dint of moral effort, we are the sort of people who react to this danger signal by falling on our faces before the Lord. For one of the secret privileges of being His child is knowing that it is all right to fail. It is all right to get tired…as His followers we know that if we are ever truly to reflect His goodness or His power, it will not be by human effort by only by grace.”
~Mile Mason
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Getting back into the swing of college life has been tough the last few weeks. It’s been so busy! I’ve had to force myself to take some time just for me to relax and think. Through the chaos, I’ve let myself get overwhelmed and bogged down. Today I had a wonderful person challenge me to start my days off praying, “Lord let me see your love in or through someone today.” When you see the love of the Lord being evidenced through the life of others, you can’t help but smile and be encouraged. Look for those little opportunities, look for Lord at work in the lives around you. Don’t walk through your days in darkness, find the little glimmers of hope, the little reminders that there is Someone bigger than our problems will ever be!
Well, since I struggle keeping up with the blog, I have decided to try out tumblr instead! Check out http://kristenbouchillon.tumblr.com
Tomorrow is the big day! I fly out of Atlanta at 12:24pm to Branson, Missouri, my new home for the next month! After the 2 weeks out there for staff training in May, I fell in love with that place and the people there! I didn’t want to leave and come back home, just wanted to stay on the island as long as I could. Slowly but surely, the excitement is continuing to build as I pack and chat with other staffers about to head that way. I am having a hard time wanting to leave home and the awesome community here, but I know as soon as I get back to kamp, I’m going to have an absolute blast with some absolutely incredible people! In case you don’t know, I’m going to work at Kanakuk Kamps for the second term. I’m going to be at K’Kauai, the family kamp, where families come to grow closer to one another and strengthen their relationship with Christ and I’m so excited and blessed to be a part of that! I can’t wait to get back out there and hear some more stories of what the Lord has done already through the staff that is out there now and be able to see that firsthand in the next 4 weeks!
If you would, please be praying for us out there. Pray for the families that are coming out there. Pray for open hearts, mended relationships, and life-change for everyone! Pray that the staff will have full reliance on the Lord and that we would look to Him as our strength giver. Pray that this summer would be a summer of awesomeness for everyone involved, that we would see Jesus in a way that we have never seen before, that He would constantly be in our thoughts and that we would live a life like Jesus, loving and serving with open hands and forgiving hearts! So pumped!!!
ps…no technology except once a week so I would LOVE some snail mail from you 
Love yall!
Kristen Bouchillon: 833 Lake Shore Drive, Branson, MO 65616
It’s crazy to think that’s its been just over 2 months since I’ve been back from Kenya. There are still days when I look at pictures or even a closet full of clothes and break down for the people there. Kenya opened my eyes up to the needs of everyone around me, whether here in Clemson or around the world. My thoughts are continually over missions, ways to reach out to people around me and show them a glimmer of Christ’s love for them.
Tomorrow morning, a group of around 350 Clemson students are loading up on 25 vans to caravan up to DC to serve in the city. I am so pumped! The groups are going to be working with different ministries in the DC area. Our group is going to be working with Earth Sangh
a, removing weeds and cleaning up some of the parks. At first, I was kind of bummed out because I was looking forward to loving on people who are in need, not picking up “alien invading weeds”. But God was quick to show me that its not about me and what I want. He soo has a purpose and plan for the ministry that we are working with(which I later found out is a Buddhist ministry). Every person has a role in the trip, no matter how big or how small it may seem. God has intricately planned every aspect of the trip. We can only see a small glimpse of what is going on around us, but He can see the whole picture and smiles with joy at seeing His children work for His glory. I honestly cannot wait to see what God does in and through our team there!
Please join me in praying for the team. My prayer is that we would be so focused on pursuing the Lord while we are there, that our faces remain unveiled and shine all over DC. Pray for hearts to be changed, within and through us to the people we are able to come in contact with. May God get the glory for EVERYTHING on this trip!
