Great.

Yes, that’s my word for the Georgia Apprentices. “But that’s only one syllable” you may protest. Yes, that’s very true, and usually one syllable words are inferior to those of more syllables, but it starts with a “G” – same as “Georgia.” And it has a cool definition:

very good or satisfactory; excellent

So stop complaining about my choice of adjectives.

My Georgia Apprentices were (are and ever shall be) great. I walked by Jetpack (the designated Apprentice room) several times, and quite frequently I heard them singing worship songs as they worked. It made my day. I also greatly enjoyed the fun debate (and… no that doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that the resolution was about me. Not anything at all.) They were also greatly efficient and hard working. If I needed something done, I could ask just about any of them to work on it and didn’t have to worry about it anymore after that. So pretty much, my Georgia Apprentices were fabulous.

Oh. I meant Great.

Oh my goodness! Three cheers for the team! Hip hip, huzzah! Hip hip, huzzah! Hip hip, jolly good! Our last Evening Program performance was A-to-the-Mazing. No joke. We had such an amazing time in Atlanta, Georgia, that I’m sure we shall never forget it. The entire team put everything we had into the last performance, and by the grace of God it all came together and went off with a bang. As the team dropped their heads one last time to the applause of the audience I thought about how thankful I was for the way the Lord had brought each member of the team together to impact our culture with His love and joy. The performance far outranked all of our previous performances, and the conversations I had afterwards only confirmed for me how much the Lord was able to use the program to impact the people who saw it. And it didn’t just impact the audience, but every single intern who was a part of it. I will never be able to write in words how much the Lord’s grace and mercy and love were revealed to me through participating, not only in the Evening Program, but also in the entire national tour. I have been blessed.

My prayer for each of you is that the Lord will fill you with the same joy and love and hope that I was shown throughout tour. And I pray that each of you will be inspired to take that out into your everyday life, to everyone you come into contact with, and show your culture that you have the greatest message.

Walk in His light, in His love, in His hope, and in His joy. Be blessed.

Kelsea Mort

And the last conference was spectacular! Not only was I able to meet and hang out with some amazing people here in Atlanta, GA, but one of the most inspiring things was looking back after the conference was all over. Being able to recount stretching experiences, relive fun memories, and see how far we have come is slightly overwhelming at times. We have come through a lot. God has brought us through many difficulties and has blessed us with great times, wonderful people, and each other. I truly love these people, and will miss everyone more than I can say. Thank you to everyone who helped make this conference tour possible, either by helping coordinate, attending, or praying. These past four months have changed my life and thank you so much to all who were a part of it. And I thank the Lord for the time I have had with this incredible team, the inspiring Moon family and Justin, and for all of you who came to the conferences.

Tour was definitely well.

The definition of a stalker is basically someone who follows another everywhere they go. Well, I was labeled a “stalker” as I followed the intern team to the last three conferences of their tour.

One of my most memorable experiences was oddly enough not at a conference. I learned an enormous amount at those conferences and had a blast there, but my favorite part was at our hotel in Tampa. My fellow “stalkers”, Marisa and Josh Fisher and Ethan Bonin, arrived together at the hotel around 8pm. We were happy to just sit back and relax after a long two weeks.

To relax, we decided to go downstairs and sit in the spa. There was just one girl there. We walked over and stepped in, but the situation got awkward immediately. She glared at us and got out of the hot tub, but a few minutes later she came back. This went on for quite some time…she would leave and come back. Marisa had a pressing feeling on her heart to silently pray for her.

We all started talking about what we planned to do with the rest of our lives. Of course, God was a major topic in our conversation. She finally looked at us and asked “Are you guys Christians?” My heart leaped when she asked. We said yes and she replied that she was a Christian too. All of our faces lit up. We started talking to her and it turns out she needed conversation and counsel badly. She had just accepted Christ this month and was struggling immensely. In fact, that very day she had had a rough time with her cousin who is also a Christian. Unfortunately, her cousin had the wrong view of what being Christ-like is. It became a ripple effect, and in turn her view of Christians was also twisted. She thought she had to be absolutely perfect, without even a speck of wrong in her life. Tears streamed down her face as we just talked and prayed.

At the conference in Naples we had gone to classes with Janie and Devin where we talked about these exact situations and topics. We know this was not just a coincidence. This was God’s work being done through us. Thankfully we had the right skills to communicate with her, ones we had thankfully acquired at our ICC conference experiences. At the end of our conversation, this young woman had new hope in her heart and really understood that God loved her. It was like watching a story unfold…the whole situation just resolved itself, and we all felt as if God’s work was being done.

Josh Craddock

The participants in Atlanta were fantastic! Some of them had debated before, so they were prepared for the topic and the format of debate. I was really excited to see how much they had learned and improved; even since the first time they had done it. Looking back over the last few months, I realized that I’ve learned a lot too… Since the first time I tried Public Forum for myself at ICC Camp, I’ve been privileged to learn more about the nature of persuasion alongside the students. With a vision for how Public Forum can be helpful for Christian communicators, I’m excited to take these skills back home and apply them for myself as well as preparing even more challenging and exciting opportunities for the students at Masters.

Kelsea Mort

Last Beginning Public Speaking conference of this tour…

*Sniff* But what a wonderful group to end with. We had the largest one-day conference this week, and every one of the students did a fantastic job. But there is no doubt about it, the apprentices made it all possible. With this many students, the apprentices all had an opportunity to work with the young students by leading breakout groups. I was extremely impressed with their competence and the love that they all displayed throughout the day. Not only were they a huge blessing to me, but also to the kids. Thanks to them for making this last BPS day a possibility and for making it a perfect note to end on.

Conference hosts are like a box of chocolates: sweet. The guys were blessed by our hosts in Florida. We walked into a building left unlocked for us and couldn’t believe it was only the guest house. The fridge was stocked, beds made, pantry overflowing, shower towels piled high, money ready on a card for extra groceries and a convertible pool/ping-pong table begging to be played. Our host family taught us a lot about hospitality and sharing what God has given you in order to bless others. This tour was made possible by people willing to give of their time, funds and other resources. Some were blessed with much, some were blessed with little but all gave back to God what God gave them first. So I am grateful for all of you who made this incredible tour so epic. Thank you.

Awesome. Yes, that’s the word. Awesome. My Apps were awesome in Naples, FL. I challenged them all in different ways and areas, and they did such an awesome job. Not only did they completely assemble the Evening Program playbills in 15 minutes flat, but they also rocked at the fashion show. I think they probably had the most attitude of any fashion show in CFC history. But aside from attitude and pizzaz, they also proved themselves proficient in all manner of leadership. I knew I could give any of them any task and they’d be… awesome.

Joshua Craddock

My Apple dictionary defines contentment as “a state of peaceful happiness.” That describes how I felt this week as I spent time with the Scofield family and the rest of my team. As it becomes more apparent to me that tour will soon be ending, I have begun to savor every moment of quality with the traveling team that has become like family to me. After the conference in Naples had ended, we went downtown for dinner and walked down to the end of the pier to look at the stars and look at the ocean. When we talked later, we marveled that God can number the stars in the sky and call each one of them by name!

The next day we went to the Scofield ranch to relax and have fun with the team. I was pretty proud of myself for hitting 9/10, but Eric, Janie and Austin outdid us all with their sharpshooting skills. Then Hannah and I decided to drive the go-kart around. That was a very bad idea. Hannah is bad luck for vehicles on tour. The back wheel flew off while we were speeding down the dirt road, leaving us to slide to a screeching halt. However, because it broke down we got to see an alligator swimming in the swamp (which is the other reason that I feel content right now; my wish to see an alligator while I was in Florida came true!). After escaping from the Alligator swamp with our lives and braving many other dangerous wildlife encounters (such as with banana spiders and baby rattlers) we all went on a Jeep ride in the swamp buggies. It was a lot of fun to pretend to be on an expedition while we drove through the jungle and swamps at sunset. Finally, we all returned to the cabin for dinner and s’mores. Even though the day was exciting and adventurous, I would still describe it as peaceful and relaxing. I guess if I had to wrap up all the random thoughts I’ve put into this post, I’d say that I’m thankful. I’m thankful for this ministry, for the people that put life into it, and thankful to God giving us this incredible opportunity. As I fell asleep in the car on the way back from the Scofield ranch that night, I’m pretty sure there was a smile on my face.

I love the Florida Gators. Because of this, when I go into a restaurant or hotel while a game is on, I tend to zone out of life and am absorbed into the game. A few nights ago the team stayed the night at a hotel in northern Florida. I knew the game was on, so I went to the manager at the front desk and asked if he would change the channel for me. We stood there for a while searching for the game (and at this point Kristen and Hannah had come over) while he asked us questions that were very to the point. “This whole internship thing, what’s in it for you?” and “Oh you teach kids to communicate truth… What truth, any kind of truth?” I have to admit it took me slightly by surprise, but the girls and I answered his questions, finished explaining the mission of ICC, and why we were doing this. After this we introduced ourselves to him, and he commented on how impressed he was that we looked him in the eye, shook his hand, and not only had previous debate experience in high school, but were now teaching it to other students.

My plan was to be diplomatic and therefore be able to change the channel. However, myfootball question led to another conversation about topics including music and our culture today. Although the majority of the time we aren’t looking for or expecting these kind of opportunities to arise out of a simple inquiry, God allows them to fall in our path so that we can reach out to others and be stretched ourselves in the process as well.