It's not good-bye, but see you later

Yesterday was my last night in Raleigh for a while, bittersweet for sure. Had a wonderful family dinner with the Bolash's (my host family for the past 9 months!) followed by an adventure to Shelley Lake for a fam photo shoot. The Bolash's have become my family this year as we have done life together, and I am forever grateful to them for how they have cared for me and loved me well this year as a Raleigh fellow. Now before I "settle-down," whatever that means, I'm trekking across the states with two friends to end up in Marina Del Ray, California for the summer. Today I began the journey by getting a ride to Greensboro, NC where Sara (my partner in crime for the summer) picked me up and drove me back to Huntersville, NC where we will begin our road trip. Let the shenanigans begin:)

Eric, Robin, Me, Mila, and Risa

Miss you already Beth

Ta-ta for now Raleigh

Snow Day Adventures

Friends, Fun, and Food

The last few weeks since being back in Raleigh have been a blast (despite my horrible car accident...). Last Saturday Bethany and I had a Girls Night Out with our director's daughter, Molly. It was such a blast. Molly wanted to go to Golden Corral, and how could you say no to that face! After eating disgusting amounts of food, we headed home and watched Taylor Swift and One Direction Youtube videos and sang on the top of our lungs. My kind of night.

Molly Girl:) Girls Night Out

Then Sunday night my two good friends Sara Tinsley and Sarah Steinke came to Raleigh!! They joined me for my middle school event at Sam's pizza. It was really sweet getting to combine two different worlds and let my college friends meet the girls who I'm pouring into this year. And my 6th graders are just absurd and hilarious which always lends to eventful nights.  

6th grade small group girls!

 MLK day with Sara and Sarah! We had an amazing brunch at the flying biscuit (a Raleigh favorite) and then walked around downtown. The weather was amazing and it was just a breath of fresh air to hang with those two girlies:)

Sara(h)^2

So incognito 

Fellows Mid-Year Retreat

Last week the Fellows had the opportunity to go to Fancy Gap, VA and stay in a beautiful mountain house for our Mid-Year retreat. We had Bill Fullilove come on the retreat with us and speak on the important of vocation and calling. We had done the Highlands Ability Battery Assessment and the Belbin Team Roles Report before coming. While there, we each had a session with Bill to go over our assessments and talk practically about next year, job applications, and general career paths. IT WAS EPIC!!!!! So practical and helpful. Bill is the man! Plus, the location was incredible and we got to play and just enjoy time with each other:)

Christmas & New Years

Santa?!?!?!

Christmas time with Sara

Gingerbread house decorating with Beth:)

From left to right: Grandma Gracie, Megan, Granga, Great Aunt Trudy

Papa Charles & Billie with the 4 grandkids:)

 Once again, I figure better late than never. Christmas was great. I started Christmas with a road trip. Raleigh to Huntersville, NC. I spent two days with Sara and the Tinsley family. Mexican, Starbucks, movies, a Christmas party, ice-cream daily, home-made margaritas, and more. It was the perfect way to start my Christmas vacation. After Huntersville, I continued West to Morganton, NC to visit Bethany and the Doster family. Once again, pure joy. I had a blast. We had yummy food, played games, built a camp-fire and had s'mores, played tennis, watched movies, jammed to T-swift. On December 23rd, I drove the 6 hours home and made it just in time for dinner with Papa Charles and Billie. Once home, I had lots of family time, good friend time, and a plethora of rest time. Exactly what I needed in my life.

The beautiful bride-to-be

For New Years Eve I went out with Katelyn, one of my best friends, and all her bridesmaid's for her Bachelorette party. WE HAD A BLAST!!!!!! Drinks, food, dancing, games, good conversation. I loved being with her those last few days before she got hitched. Saturday January 3rd Katelyn got married to Jeff! Eek. It was amazing. I was so honored to stand up there with them and to be a part of it.

Thanksgiving!!

Travey Boy and Nate-Dawg playing some casual chess

Thanksgiving Dinner! So yummy

Me and the boyzzz

Not Cool Hipsters. Mean. 

Sibling date day: walked the Indian River Trail

I had the chance to go home for Thanksgiving and it was such a wonderful week. Good time of rest, family, and adventure. Felt super thankful for my family. So thankful for this time of peace and healing we are experiencing!! Also, over a week and a half period I had 5 official Thanksgiving meals, it was ridiculously amazing. 

Operations Dominate Frisbee

AKA Fall Fellows Retreat

Mission: Fellowship and Edification (and play some serious Frisbee)

Location: the beautiful Camp Oakhill

Time of Occurrence: 7 November- 9 November: 2014

Theme: Justice-- Micah 6:8

Status: Completed

Results: SUCCESS

Earlier in November, the Raleigh Fellows had the opportunity to hit the road with the Crutchfield family and head to Camp Oakhill in Oxford, North Carolina for the annual Fall Fellows Retreat. The weekend was amazing. For starters, we got to meet the other Fellows groups! As you can picture, it was wonderfully awkward at first then incredibly fun and interesting. It was nice to get out of our Raleigh bubble, meet all these incredible people, and remember how big and widespread God’s kingdom is. The other Fellows programs are all over the place and more are popping up each year, what a cool testimony in itself. As we were taken out of Raleigh, we were able to hear and see what God is doing all over the States. Then to top it off, we were taken out of the States and mentally transported to India when we spoke about the abolition movements there. Talk about broadening your horizons. The focus of the weekend was Micah 6:1-8 and specifically about God’s call “to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8b).” I personally have heard sermons and conferences on justice many a time, yet I gained fresh perspectives on justice and great insight from the weekend. We had the privilege of hearing from John Richmond, a passionate follower of Christ, previous director of IJM’s slavery work in India (aka a man risking his life to free slaves), and now federal prosecutor serving as the Special Litigation Counsel with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit. He was a truly great speaker and story-teller, and what he had to share about Micah 6:8, his personal experiences working with slavery in India, and now in the States was 100% a blessing and 100% convicting.

As you can see, we learned tons and talked about some difficult topics. We also had a ton of fun and got to be silly and ridiculous (a Raleigh Fellow specialty as the other groups learned quickly). We made a camp fire, played corn hole, took crazy golf cart rides, took walks around the camp, jump-roped, etc. Saturday afternoon was the infamous Frisbee tournament that our lovely and talented director, Ashley Crutchfield, looks forward to every year. There is this wonderful, playful (yet actually semi-real) rivalry between the Raleigh Fellows and the Trinity Fellows in Charlottesville, VA. Lets just say that they often beat the Raleigh Fellows in this highly competitive tournament. Let’s also just say that the Raleigh Fellow’s class of 2015 does not mess around and we brought our A-game. We beat Trinity 15-2 and it was a highlight of the weekend no doubt.  We also just had a really great time working together as a team, encouraging each other and sharing together in victory and loss. The weekend was short, but super sweet for sure.

Over and out.
Kelsey Riggs.