Proverbs 31:30 Blog
FRIDAY | Final Day
Written by Hannah Speck, Upper School FacultY
Our last day. 🥺
We started the morning with an amazing video that totally wrecks my heart by Hosanna Wong called, “I Have a New Name."
The video talks about all the names the world calls us and how many of us give power to those names by answering to them. But these ARE NOT the names the Lord has given us. We are free. Chosen. Loved. Accepted. Worthy. Child of God. Beautiful. Hand made.
We then got on the bus and headed for a cooking class in downtown Woodstock at Leaning Ladder. The girls made scones, fruit salad, and cucumber sandwiches. We had tea and enjoyed our meringue cookies as a side!
We then took balloons and wrote all of our new names. We owned those names. Prayed and released them into the sky! God is good.
The girls enjoyed a walk around downtown Woodstock and smiles were all around!
This has been a fantastic week!!! 💖💖
Loved spending time with my girls and with my costar Danielle Hamilton. I couldn’t have done it without her!!
THURSDAY | Day Four
Written by Hannah Speck, Upper School Faculty
Today was an absolutely amazing day!
Kate Marie began our time this morning with a beautiful devotion on having a servant's heart. She discussed how God gives us all specific gifts, and, even in moments of weakness, He provides us the power and strength to use them. This was the perfect introduction to our service project for the day.
We headed to Rome, Ga, to offer support to the North Georgia Potter’s House for Women. We brought along some house donations, such as paper towels, toilet paper, dish soap, bottled water and most important COFFEE. We spent a bit with Mrs. Julie who founded the house to aid women struggling with addiction and offer them a path to Jesus. We met the ladies who lived there, and they were all amazing with such sweet spirits. One by one these ladies went around the room and offered intimate details about how their lives were turned upside down by addiction. The girls were so attentive, and I was proud that they were soaking it in. Mrs. Julie very clearly said, “Be careful who you let play on your playground,” meaning be cautious who is in your circle of friends that could bring you down. The words were not lost on the girls.
Once we had talked, the girls dove into any and all projects they could get their hands on. We popped interior doors off hinges and took them outside to paint, while other girls got started with yard maintenance. The ladies had been in the house for almost a year and had accomplished a lot of projects but were happy to have additional hands to help. The girls aggressively pulled weeds and used a shovel and pick to get rocks out of the mailbox area and garden beds by the house. They cleared the area, planted some flowers, and spread pine straw to give it nice curb appeal. We also had some brave ladies who eagerly volunteered to get on the roof to clean out gutters and throw down any debris that was stuck. It was amazing to see them work together with rakes and a leaf blower to get the gutters “squeaky clean.” Lily also commented on how fun it was to clean gutters, and she should do it more often! The positive attitude of these ladies has amazed me this week.
We were so blessed to have the Potter’s ladies provide us with pizza and salad. We ate together and laughed. After lunch, the girls got back to work, finishing up some huge leaf raking projects and knocking out last clean up and finishing touches. I am so proud of these young women! Also, know that they come back with a ton of yard work skills, so be sure to put them to work at home!!
Mrs. Julie reached out later to me and thanked us again for all our work and for honoring them by choosing them to help when we could have chosen so many others. She said that the ladies were shocked at how hard the girls worked. This group of girls has been phenomenal!!!
WEDNESDAY | Day ThreeWritten by Hannah Speck, Upper School Faculty
Today started with a beautiful devotion from Mrs. Hamilton that revolved around the Rebecca Principle. She talked to the girls about how Rebecca willingly gave water to the men who had been sent out to find a wife for Issac and were looking for a hard worker. Not only did she give water to the men, but she also offered to water the camels, as well. Mrs. Hamilton did some math and calculated that Rebecca offered at least 300 gallons of water to the camels. What a servant's heart. She went above and beyond without complaining. What a reminder in our own lives.
After our devotion, the ladies grabbed the baby blankets and bracelets they made and a bus load full of diapers and wipes. Some of these were donated by our Kindergarten prayer partners. These little ones were tasked with praying for our ladies this week and have been so blessed by them.
We departed after loading the bus and headed to Salon 316 for some self care. The girls spent a relaxing morning getting nails done, which they deserved after their 26 mile bike ride on Monday! Once we finished there, we drove to the Swheat Market in Cartersville for a delicious lunch! We had an enjoyable time eating and laughing.
At 12:15 we loaded up once more and headed to the Bartow Family Resource Center to serve. The director of the center, Rachel, gave us a tour and explained how the building used to be an old hospital that was built in 1930. We met Tonya, the case manager there, and she lovingly explained that her job is to walk alongside the women that are in tough places and as a center they come together to get women to make decisions with their hearts and not their heads. She explained that our heads give us 100 reasons to do something, but the heart is waiting for us to make the best and brighter decision. The center offers counseling services as well as medical services.
We also learned about the mobile unit named OPAL that goes to three places each week to offer outreach to the community. OPAL stands for Operation Preserve A Life and offers mobile ultrasounds. The center also has a baby boutique that allows families to shop for clothes and supplies after going through a course and informative family program.
The girls were split into two teams and got busy working. The first group started making Mother's Day cards that the center will place in mom bags that they hand out. The second group started sorting baby clothing and putting the items on hangers to get them ready for the boutique. Halfway through the time allotted we swapped roles so everyone was able to make cards and sort items. The girls worked hard breaking down the diaper donations we had, placing them in bags of twenty and placing the bags in the correct diaper sizes. They had a blast and commented they wanted to serve here more often. Mrs. Hamilton and I are brainstorming on that!
We also met a young lady named Riley who was working at the center and assisted with their marketing department. She spoke to the girls briefly about how she attended KSU and that she was a part of the “Young Women’s Club of America.” This group encourages women in their Christianity while also helping fight problems like sexual exploitation, offering paid internships to Washington, D.C. to be involved with politics and trips to Israel. She told the girls that her chapter is trying to start a high school group, and she wishes she had something like it while she was in high school because it allowed her to connect with other young women with Christian views and equipped her with resources to share the gospel. She was very insightful, and I got her information in case any girls were interested.
We thanked the center and headed off to ice cream at Coconuts before heading back to the school. The day was full of blessings, and the girls had such willing hearts to serve. Their team work is phenomenal and our hearts are full!
TUESDAY | DAY TWO
Written by Hannah Speck, Upper School Faculty
Today was a FULL day! We left immediately from school and headed for a drive through the mountains to Mineral Bluff, Ga, where we had reservations at Appalachian Trail Rides. The girls were given an introduction to everything horse, and they all listened attentively. The barn was able to accommodate all 16 of us at the same time which was special. We had a handful who sat comfortably on a horse and a few ladies who had never ridden before. The girls were given names of horses and told to remember them. Those names were called one by one, and the girls mounted up. Names ranged from Tiny (who was not tiny), to Petey, Ransom, Moonshine, Skywalker and many more. I was saddled on the biggest horse at a whopping 2,000 pounds, who was ironically a turtle with one speed and that was S-L-O-W!
We had two awesome guides who instructed the girls as we went. The gentleman would call out orders like, “Lean forward as we climb these hills” or “Lean back and push your heels down and toes up as we go down the hills.” The girls learned how these moves helped the horses as we made our way on the trails.
Once the ride was over, we thanked our guides and headed off towards lunch and the escape room. We had arranged Moe’s for the girls for lunch and then broke into two groups to tackle the space room and the jungle room. Both had a different set of puzzles. The jungle room was more about locks and traditionally styled puzzles, while the space room utilized color codes and sounds. The girls decided to split into freshman and sophomore groups. I went with the freshman and was surprised to discover that Morgan and myself were sequestered into a room all by ourselves and then imprisoned by being cuffed to the wall! We laughed and laughed. We had to communicate through the wall to the other group who could see us, but we couldn’t see them. The girls did an amazing job freeing us, and we continued until we solved the room and got out. The jungle room was able to make it out before the time was up, as well!
Once we finished our escape rooms, we got back on the bus and headed back to school. Tomorrow, we will be heading out for some self-care at a local salon, eating lunch and then heading to the Bartow Family Resource Center to serve and bring diaper/wipes donations that our group and our Lower School prayer partners were kind enough to donate!
MONDAY | DAY ONE
Written by Hannah Speck, Upper School Faculty
Monday morning our fabulous group of ladies gathered at school and quickly departed for bike riding. The drive was rainy, and we crossed our fingers it would move out by the time we began.
We got our bikes, and thankfully the drizzle was minimal. We began our 26.2-mile bike ride with laughter and giggles, and I am pleased to say that when we got to the halfway point, everyone still had smiles on their faces!!! I am seriously so proud of these ladies for working hard and facing this challenge. We stopped halfway to have our snack and drink water before heading back to the bike rental area where pizza had been delivered and was waiting on us.
The terrain was beautiful. We rode over bridges and train tracks, passed bamboo areas, rode between rocky areas, and saw streams winding through mossy rocks. Many of the girls stopped to take pictures along the way. We saw many squirrels, a deer, and even chickens!!
Once we returned our bikes, we waddled to the pavilion to enjoy pizza. The girls still had smiles on their faces and laughter filled the air. We all joked about how many slices we could eat and quickly scarfed them down.
After food had settled, Mrs. Speck did the devotion over Proverbs 31 and covered two out of ten virtues of a Proverbs 31 woman. We discussed that she is faithful and that she loves the Lord. We also discussed how many interpret Proverbs 31 as being a guide to “a perfect woman” when really it's a poem about praising women for doing the everyday tasks that can sometimes seem mundane. God recognizes that even when we are not fighting a giant or sitting in the lion’s den, we are able to serve Him faithfully through our everyday activities and that we are capable of doing those with valor. God entrusts tasks for us, and we can perform those with grace and love. Life will give us challenges, just like the bike ride we had today, but we trust that God gives us tasks that we can handle with his help.
After our devotion, we left for Brusters and ate some delicious ice cream in the gorgeous sunny weather that made us all wish we were laying on a beach.
Tomorrow morning we gather together to head for horseback riding in the Blue Ridge Mountains, a delicious Moe’s lunch and the challenge of an escape room! Let the fun begin!