The summer

Well, it's been a long summer of fun and fury, beaches and bar-b-ques, rain and relocation. So, let me update you on the highlights. I was in Acadia National Park for summer project in the first part of the summer. It was an amazing time of seeing God work and realizing that the ideals of Lifelines are all that they are cracked up to be and more. I realized while I was there that I really believe in what I have been doing for the last year and it energized me to do it again this year. There were students and staff alike who learned a ton about who they are and how to interact with others more effectively. It was amazing. Not to mention the fun expeditions sea kayaking, rock climbing, bike riding, and hiking. It was great.

After that, I went down to southern Maine to work with John's mom, Michelle, at her quilt shop in Cape Neddick, Maine. It was awesome to be there. I got to use the creative side of my brain to help customers pick out what fabrics to use for their projects while also being able to chat with the customers and even minister to them sometimes. There were actually three people who came in from Minnesota! That was a highlight for sure! Another highlight was the people that I worked with. My co-workers were so kind in helping me understand the ins and outs of quilting. They were just so kind and hospitable! Ultimately, I was spoiled the whole summer.

At the end of the summer, I got to spend some time at the Knight's lake house that they rented for a week. What a treat! We had amazing weather and it was so nice to relax before we had to go back to school. I am truly blessed by that family!



Now, I have come back to school. I moved into a new apartment Wednesday of last week. I have already vacuumed five times and still don't feel like all the dirt is out of that carpet but it's feeling more and more like home. The Lifelines team has already gone on three trips so far and we have gotten a great response from the students. I will be meeting with some of the girls already this week. I can't wait to jump in! I am still behind on my support raising but I'm trusting that God has it all under control. I still just need to trust HIM. This weekend Lifelines has a hiking/rafting/camping trip for the students that will be going on for four days. I will update you on how that goes later. Thanks for reading!

"And what have you been up to little lady?"

So...Remember that April Fools day prank we played on the boys last month?? Well, they got us back. Here is a picture of just the beginning of the "spoils of war" we'll call it...and not the kind of spoils you want! I have to say, when we walked into our apartment and saw how much work the boys had put into getting us back, we felt very honored! We were actually laughing the whole time we took down the prank material. I'm really blessed to have great friends here who care about me enough to prank me back when I prank them! What a riot.

The next day, my friends Jaime and John and I returned to the American Legion for saturday night with "Rockin' Ron" It was such a blast! I got to practice my swing moves that I learned in high school...it took a while to get into the 'swing' of things but it was really fun!

The next picture is of Maine Day where I got a group of people together to play "Oozeball". It was a little chilly but well worth it! I think my friend Morgan (in the middle of the picture) really enjoyed it since she hadn't played before. That is one thing that I'm really looking forward to next year is inviting all the people that I can to come out to some of the events that the University of Maine puts on. They offer so many fun things that are usually free so I want to use that opportunity to invite people that aren't always thrilled to go on outdoor trips with Lifelines just to hang out and share my life with them.

After the morning of oozeball, I went rock climbing with a few friends at a place called parks pond. I hadn't been there before but had a great time! This is a place where I would love to take some students next year. It had all different levels of climbs and it was a beautiful hike in! That was such a great day!



Finally, I have a picture from my room mate's bridal shower that I went to. This picture is both happy and sad. I'm happy for Michaela because she's getting married and it's a time of joy but I'm sad because she was such a great encouragement to me and I'm going to miss our morning talks and the advice she gives me. Luckily, Michaela and her soon to be hubby Nate are going to be joining staff with the Navigators on campus. This is another ministry group on campus that is focused on discipleship and studying God's word. I'm excited to be collaborating with them next year and working to reach UMaine for Christ!

Please pray for a few things that are important for me right now.
#1: Pray that UMaine would see a revival next year. I'm not kidding...do it right now before you forget! I'm going to be praying for revival every day this summer and I would LOVE for you to join me in this challenge! I can't wait to see what the Lord does next year.
#2 Pray for my support to come in quickly and a place for me to live next year. God has showed me that He wants me here so I pray that He would provide for all my needs speedily while I serve Him for a second year next year...I know that He will but I need patience and TRUST too!
#3 Pray for Acadia Summer Project. I'll be leaving for 6 weeks in Acadia starting May 23rd. I'm really excited but also nervous because I will be in a leadership role this time. Please pray that this time will be truly awesome for all the students and staff.
Thanks for your support and prayer!

COMING BACK!

Hey everyone. This is going to be a short post because I have a busy day today but I wanted to make sure that I posted something TODAY because I have just decided that I am going to intern with Lifelines for one more year next year. I've just been inundated with people coming up to me and asking if I'm going to be coming back and God's most definitely given me assurance that UMaine is where He wants me next year. Just make sure to remind me when I am in the middle of support raising and want to quite that this is where the Lord wants me! Thanks for all your support! I'll post more soon.

Quick Update

Well, I see it's been a while since I updated my blog. I guess I've been a little preoccupied lately! I'm sorry to all of you who have been waiting to be updated on the excitement that is my life. I'll see if I can do the past month justice in a short update. First, I took a guide course for sea kayaking with my fellow Lifeline workers. Yes, you are seeing the picture clearly, that is snow on the ground and yes, there was ice in the ocean! Luckily most of the time we were in a pool and didn't have to worry about hypothermia.

After finishing our kayak course, we went up to Moosehead lake for a weekend retreat with 5 students and 5 staff. It was really amazing. We had a good time ice fishing and were able to make "fish chowda" one of the nights after catching toug and cusk. It was pretty exciting. We also had some amazing sunsets every night. But the fun part was snowshoeing into the camp. We really didn't need our snowshoes until we hit the actual camp property where, if you didn't have proper equipment, you would fall in past your waste in the deep snow. Very fun. The night we came, I wish you could have seen the stars. They were exquisite!

Then came April Fools Day. What a day. My roommate Ali, and my friend Jess and I all went to the boys house (where 10 guy friends of ours live) to give them an April fools prank to remember. First we all woke up at 1:30 in the morning and made ourselves some blueberry pancakes...you know, to get our energy up. Then we snuck over to the guys house in all black of course. When we got there, the fun began. We put bologna smiles on their windshields, put honey on their door handles of their cars, put a maze of twine in their kitchen, tied their sprayer down so when it turned on it sprayed them, put a bucket of water above one of their doors, taped newspaper in their doorway, put gummies in their shoes, tied their door handles to other door handles, and finished it off with writing "you've been april fooled" on their kitchen window! The best part was, they had no idea (until we revealed it to them at the Cru meeting that night). We got some good laughs from it...and eventually they did too!

Finally, the last picture is of my friends Ty, Ali, Jaime and I all going to the American Legion building for a dance. At first, we thought that it was going to be a fun swing dancing night. It ended up being more like wedding music...which was still fun. We learned lots of "contra" style dancing and we made up a few moves on our own. I actually had a great waltz with a man named Gene who was about 40 years my senior. It was a fun night.

Sore muscles and other fun things

You wouldn't believe the beautiful day it was last Sunday! Here at UMaine there were a group of us who went down to Acadia to celebrate the nice weather. It was SO fun. We had 8 students and staff who came down and had a great learning experience involving cross country skiis.
The day before, on Saturday, the staff (and Ali) had a great day in the University forest having a snow shelter clinic. I don't have any pictures because I forgot my camera but steph got a great shot of us all in the snow shelter after the fact. I know I've said this before, but it was SO much fun.
Finally, the last picture shows Drew. What a surprise right? Well, this particular day, I felt that I needed to show the public the "-stache" that Drew had grown. He and his surveying buddies were off to a competition in Salt Lake City and they all decided that they were going to grow mustaches for the trip. It was pretty funny to see, just because it was out of character. So, I hope that this blog has uplifted your spirits. Spring is almost here and Lifelines will be having more and more trips (let's pray!)

Valentines, before and after.

Hello Everyone! Well, it's the day after Valentines day and I am getting some much needed rest and relaxation time. I have been going pretty strong for the past few days and I have the photos to prove it. The first picture here is from the beginning of February when me and some friends went sledding down Essex street hill. We had a great time sledding down the tubes and sleds in the background. The most fun was when we connected them all and made a train down the hill. There was also a time that Ali and I were on a tube and, had we kept going, could have made it out to the bog below...luckily we stopped about 10 feet short. I got some snow in my face that time that tasted like sulphur. Not pleasant.
The times on campus have been just as busy. I've been meeting with about six to eight girls each week who are really interested in learning more about Jesus. It's always so fun to see girls on campus who are really excited to take their Christian walks to the next level. These girls are the reason why I do what I do. At the same time, Lifelines is losing interested students so we are trying to problem solve and come up with new ways to talk to students and get them interested in going on trips.
While all this was happening on campus last week, Steph and Ryan had to go to a conference which meant that they needed someone to watch their new cat "Ranger". I know, I know, some of you are thinking, but Tessa, you're allergic to cats. Well, this cat is so cool that it was worth any allergic reaction to hang out with him for a few days. He's really more like a dog which is why I think I like him so much. Anyway, while I was watching the cat, a few friends came over for a game night at the Bethels. It was fun to be able to play catch phrase and darts for a few hours. Well, that brings us up to yesterday. I started the day off right by watching Drew participate in the "Polar Bear Dip" on the mall of UMaine. It was pretty cold and windy just watching these guys jump into a pool full of rusty colored water...I can't imagine what it was like actually participating! After that, Drew watched his sister Shelby play her final home basketball game for Husson (where she came SO close to getting her 1000th point for her team! Way to go Shelby!) Afterward, we had a nice dinner of swedish meatballs and potatoes with a fruity dessert to top off the evening. Thanks for reading. Feel free to call and let me know how your Valentines day went!

Snow adventures

I thought I should update my blog because it hasn't been done in a while. I've been pretty busy lately with meeting students and planning trips, I have put the blog on the back burner but
not anymore! So I'm sure you are wondering about these pictures I posted. Well, these are from a snow adventure up Chick Hill where we snowshoed up and sled down this big hill outside of Bangor. It was pretty sweet except for the fact that the powder was too fluffy to really sled very well unless you had a really slippery plastic sled, which Jamie happened to have. But it was still a fun time. At the very end, I got a chance to sled down the big tube and went pretty far, before I bailed right in front of a telephone pole. Overall this was a good trip. I'm doing it again this Saturday so it couldn't have been that bad right? I'll update you on the injuries then!

Fun for the Birthday

Well, I can't say I feel any different now that I am 24 but I guess it's hard for that to happen in just one day. Drew and I had a combined birthday party this year which consisted of cake (made by my roomie Ali), crowns, and bowling. We had a lot of fun with a total of about 15 people, both students and staff attending the big event. One of my favorite parts of the night was when I looked at the score board and realized that not only had I broke a score of 100 but I had beat Drew. Very fun!

As far as Lifelines goes, these days I am getting pretty discouraged about money. I really hate how big of an issue it is and how we can't really live in this life without money. But I'm trying to tell myself not to worry and that God has everything under control. It's just much less convincing when I am saying that to myself as opposed to one of my students.

But to end on a happy note, I hope that you all enjoy these pictures from the big night of bowling and please write me soon because I love hearing from you!

Sledding and Cake!

It's sledding season here in Maine. Ali, Jaime and I went to Essex street hill the other day with a large Tupperware lid, a dry bag, and a red sled to see if we could use these tools to get down the vary large and daunting hill. Turns out the sled worked the best. We did pretty well in the beginning but then after a while, we would sled down the hill and the sled would be ripped out from under us. After a few runs like this, there was a lady who watched us go down and judge the performance. She told us that the problem was we were all holding onto eachother and not holding onto the sled so when we went over a bump, we would all fall off the sled but end up staying together. It was pretty great.
After the great sledding trip, Ali and I came back to the apartment to bake a cake for Michaela's birthday. This was the first of three cakes to be baked by Ali this week! Lots of birthdays mean lots of cake. As you can see, the first cake was a cookie monster creation. The second was a soccer ball cake for Drew and the third is going to be entitled "Tessa-hontas" (aka a Pocahontas cake for my birthday). Yay for sledding and cake.

So many journeys, so little time. I just got back from going home to surprise my family in Minnesota. It was so great. I have never seen my mom cry with happiness so much or be so surprised. This was only possible because my great bosses, Joe and Angie, suggested that I could go to Minnesota if I helped out with a conference that was there called TCX. It was a great time and great timing because I was able to celebrate the Berg family Christmas at home (see the picture for how Adrianna made-over some of the family). I was also able to help out by sharing what Lifelines is with the Midwest. I know that there are people like me who are looking for something that is "outdoorsy" and "God-filled" at the same time. So after a great time surprising my family and talking with old and new friends about Lifelines, I went straight to Boston for the Boston Winter Conference. This conference was a great time to learn how to step up and lead some small talks and an outreach. It was also a great time to get to know more of the students at UMaine. We have some awesome people
within crusade and some great leaders. I'm excited to see what they will do for UMaine in the years to come. Here is a picture of our UMaine grouop along with some other students from within Maine. We had just finished going on an outreach to a neighborhood in Boston to ask the community what they felt the need was and to talk to them about God. It was pretty amazing. So after all that, I'm now back at home trying to organize all my belongings. Thanks for reading.