April Update

hello again!

We hope that your spring is off to a great start!

April is one of the busiest months working at Wesley as we are trying to wrap everything up to come to a close AND prepare to start the next year in August. April is when all of our sign-ups for leadership and staff happen so we are always trying to end well and start well all at the same time! We have over 500 people signed up for Leadership next year and over 60 staff members. It is so exciting to see how the Lord is building this ministry and using it in the lives of so many students.

Golf Tournament
Each year, Wesley hosts a Golf Tournament for the purpose of Fundraising.  Aaron always gets a team together and plays--both for fun AND to help Wesley out :) This year he played with some friends from Wesley and from Two Story.  It is always a fun day--

Wednesday Nights
We finished out our services with a Dating Series by Bob and Clay.  It was one of my favorite series all year. It is something that almost all college students have questions about and it was great to address the issues. Click here to listen. I highly recommend it!

Bob with Cindy Gaultney...one of our pastors at Athens Link.

Lead Forum
In mid-April, we hold interviews for the next years Leadership group. We do all the interviews in one day and at the end of the day we have a night called Lead Forum where we all come together and worship, hear the vision for the next year and have fun. Aaron and Lindsay Allgood, Leadership/Discipleship Associate Directors, are responsible for making all of this happen. They do a great job organizing and hosting the event. This year, we had a choreographed staff dance to Coldplay and then gave away 2 Coldplay tickets as a door prize! It was a fun night and got everyone excited for next year!

Although we are almost done with our regular work schedule this year, we still have Intern Appreciation at the end of April, which is how we officially close out the year and appreciate the interns. It is always such a special time and we can't wait!

The Lord really has done so much in just 10 months. We are so blessed by this staff, the leaders, and of course--our wonderful supporters. We could not do what we do and what we LOVE to do without you. Thank you.

JAMAICA!

We are back from a wonderful trip to Jamaica.  We went on a week long mission trip during UGA's Spring Break to St. Ann's, Jamaica.

 This trip is taken every year primarily for the freshmen ministry at Wesley. This trip enables the freshmen to get involved and experience community in a deeper way. We go to hopefully bless the community where we are staying, as well as build community amongst ourselves.  There were about 150 freshmen signed up to go to Jamaica and since one place can't hold everyone, they divide them up into 3 different groups and go to 3 different locations for the week. One trip goes to Montego Bay, another to Port Maria, and the last to St. Ann's. On the last day, we meet up at Ocho Rios to climb Dunn's River Falls and hang out at the beach with each team. 

While we were in St. Anns, we worked at a school and painted the whole inside while we were there. And it was no small school. :) It was a pleasure being able to serve in Jamaica. The freshmen on the trip became a completely different group during their time there. They bonded and formed true community.  I really believe that the relationship that were built will last throughout their college years and beyond. 

For Aaron and I it was so great to get to know the students. We are in campus ministry and have a huge heart for college students, but the largest part of our job is working the the staff and overseeing the ministry from a staff perspective. We definitely have interactions with college students, however it was great to spend a whole week getting to know them and hang out with them! 

And now...some pictures from the trip!

On the way!

Huney Bay Resort, where we stayed while we were there. (Photo by Adam Greenwald)

the view from our place (Photo by Adam Greenwald)

We had a talent show the last night and the staff had to dress up like the judges. From L to R we have Randy Jackson (aka Aaron Vickroy:), Jennifer Lopez (Leah Vickroy), Britney Spears (Ashley Pierce), Paula Abdul (Christina Serra), Steven Tyler (Taylor Childers), Simon (Levi Romans), and Ryan Seacrest (Jason Dixon)

the school that we painted all week

The girls from our trip :)

We meet up with the other trips on the last day...a pic of all the directors that went!

St. Ann's Leaders

Our whole team!

It was a great week! Thank you for your prayers and support!

Fun February!

Hello!

February has been an exciting month for many reasons. It is a tradition at Wesley that the month of February be celebrated by having fun! In the past,  the month of February was dreary and slow..after Christmas but not yet Spring. Every Wednesday night is themed and staff and students will dress up to match the theme as well. As a staff, we do something special for the month of February as well. This year, we told the interns that they had to create their own fun and depending on how much fun we thought they had on their own, we would reward them accordingly at the end of the month with a steak lunch! Here are some pictures from Fun February...

Leah with Daniel Simmons and Clay Kirkland explaining to the staff the "rules for fun" for Fun February.

The first day of Fun February, the staff arrived to gifts hidden all over the building for them to find! After they found their goodies, we had a show and tell time to share what you received. All of the gifts were form the dollar store, so it made for a very interesting gifts time :) 

One of the things the staff did to "create their own fun" was go to Starbucks dressed alike and order the same drink.

A picture of the FUN Wall. This is a "fun-o-meter" tracking their fun. The more fun they have, the better meal they get on the last day of February!

"Famous Bob Night" at Wesley on Wednesday night. Stephen dressed up like our Bob, Bob Beckwith.

Staff dance for Beach Night

Acoustic Worship on Winter Night

At the end of the month, they earned Steak for Lunch!

We hope that your February has been just as FUN as ours!!!

Women's Ministry Updates!

Women's Retreat

This past weekend, we had our annual Wesley Women's Retreat. I (Leah) am in charge of planning and running the retreat. This year, 70 people joined us in the North Georgia Mountains at Cohutta Springs Lodge for the retreat.  Annie Downs, a wonderful, writer, speaker, blogger, and incredible woman of God was our speaker this year and it could not have been better! She talked about courage and how to have and CHOOSE courage in the hard and difficult situations. She challenged all of us to daily and intentionally live a lifestyle of courage. I was personally so blessed by her and hope to partner more with her in the future. She has actually written a book called From Head to Foot and is coming out with a new book later this year called, Perfectly Unique. You can find those on her website or on Amazon. It is SUCH a good read for all ages. I highly recommend it...and knowing the author, I would read ANYTHING that girl publishes!  It was such a great weekend all around. One of my biggest prayers going into weekends like this is always that the girls that come would encounter the Lord in a new way, find community, and leave transformed. Looking back on the weekend, I think that all of those things happened! It was one of those weekends where I was refreshed by what I do--I truly love my job and getting to minister to girls. Here are some pictures from the retreat:

Decorating before everyone arrives :)

The retreat facility was beautiful!

Annie speaking

Women's Bunco Night!

Every February, we have a Bunco Night sponsored by the Women's Ministry.  In case ya don't know what bunco is, you can look it up here...you will definitely want to find some girlfriends (or guy-friends...Aaron thoroughly enjoyed himself!) and play a few games. All you need are a few friends, dice and a bell. That's it!
We had the event at our house and decorated it with pink and red for Valentines Day. I won't lie--I always love an excuse to decorate girly :) We had desserts and shirley temples and had so much fun hanging out and getting to know the girls in the small groups.

Our living room transformed into a Bunco tournament! 

We let Aaron play and I think he had more fun than all the girls!

February has been a great month! Thank you for your continued support and prayers for us and our ministry here! 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope that you all had a wonderful break full of time with friends and family! We were able to spend some quality time with both sides of our families as well as some friends. Our break was very restful and we are so glad to be back at Wesley with the staff and students.

Before heading to Athens to start work for the semester, we had a staff retreat in Atlanta. The directors go back on Wednesday for some planning and catching up and the interns come on Thursday. It is always so great to reconnect with the staff and cast vision for the second semester. One of the things that Bob has on his heart for this second semester is Awakening. It is the theme of our first three weeks of services.  It is exciting to see what the Lord is already doing through the vision that he has given Bob. Our goal is to be outwardly focused this semester to impact the campus and bring them to community.

Looking Forward....

This semester will hold many opportunities for us. We will be leading a trip to Jamaica in March with the Wesley's Freshmen Ministry. We are so excited about this mission trip. We truly have an exceptional group of students and leaders going on this trip. This trip is specifically designed for our freshmen students and the freshmen student leaders. It is a way for them to build a strong community with each other as well as serve in another country. We are looking forward to the things we will get to do in the community of St. Anns. We are going to be doing everything from manual labor, painting, and VBS with the children. We have already started having meetings and it is such a joy to watch the trip come together.

We have a few different Women's events this semester. We will have a Bunco Tournament at our house. If you don't know what Bunco is, you should seriously check it out! We also will have our annual Women's Retreat in February. Please be praying for our retreat, the girls coming, and Annie Downs, our speaker. I am very excited about the weekend and all the Lord has in store for us!

Please be in prayer for us as we start a new semester at Wesley. We believe that the Lord is going to do SO MUCH this semester and we can't wait!

Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas! 

We (along with everyone else) always get so busy during the holiday season. It seems like there are always so many things to go to, people to see, shopping to do, etc. But it is my favorite time of year and I do it happily. :)  We start "Christmas" the day after Thanksgiving normally. Since we were on a cruise with Aaron's family this year over Thanksgiving, we didn't get to decorate until the next weekend. We go and select a tree and then watch Home Alone and make cookies while we decorate!

Ashley, who shares this tradition with us each year :)

Here are some pics of our house decorated this year: 

our Christmas card tree

The week of Christmas, we head to Atlanta area to celebrate with family. Luckily, both sets of parents only live 20 minutes away from each other so we are able to see both sides of the family each year. We are so thankful for this! 

There are a few differences in Aaron's family....

and my family....

notice Mom with the camera...always has the camera :)

here is our Christmas through Instagram:

from L to R: Chocolate Balls (a christmas tradition, Aaron and Leah, Leah's new sewing machine!, playing a game with Lili, Leah and Lili, Lili, Lili excited about HER new sewing machine from Lala and Bunga, Leah and Norah, Aaron with his favorite gift...a personalized ketchup bottle from Jim and Gina, Aaron and Norah, our tree!, chocolate balls again..? :)

We were so blessed this year! Being able to spend time with family is truly the best thing. We always look forward to this special time each year.

Chocolate Balls!

 

Today, I am going to share with you one of my favorite recipes. But you can only eat them at Christmastime. Mainly, because I'm pretty sure if you ate them more than once a year, you would have a heart attack. (they are not the most healthy :) but everything in moderation, right? 

Here is the recipe:

22 oz. crunchy peanut butter
2 lbs. powdered sugar
2 sticks + 5 tbs. butter
12 oz. bag of chocolate chips
2/3 block of paraffin wax

directions:
-melt the butter and mix it with the peanut butter and powdered sugar in a big bowl
-roll the batter into little balls and place them on wax paper
-melt the wax in a pan and then add the chocolate chips and let them melt (make sure not to burn the chocolate)
-dip the peanut butter balls in the chocolate and let them cool on the wax paper, and put them in the fridge

 

enjoy!