Adventures

Well, life is as busy as ever! The past week has been mostly just school and normal life, but tomorrow I leave for Florida! I am am So excited because 1) I have never been to Florida, seen the ocean, or even been on a plane before so it is a new adventure, and 2) My very dear friend Katy happens to be 10 minutes away from where I am going (my grandma's cabin) and she just had her first baby very early this morning so I cannot WAIT to see them both!

My life is a wonderful adventure these days and I am loving every minute of it. Here's a sampling of some of the wonderful things going on in my life these days:
1) Practicing Moonlight Sonata (3rd movement) for a recital on may 17th, and my part of an 8-hand arrangement for church in 2 weeks
2) Reading the book Radical and studying it with our youth group
3) Planning for a month long trip to Arizona this summer to intern with a missionary pastor's family in a Hispanic church plant (which happens to be only a few hours from the Grand Canyon - maybe I'll get to see it!)
4) Going on a plane for the first time this week
5) Looking into/praying about going to New Tribes Bible Institute after high school
6) Going to Florida, seeing the ocean, and maybe even swimming with manatees - how cool is that?!
7) Seeing a friend who is now married, in her own home, and a mother! I can hardly even comprehend it!
8) Going to a "Heart of Addiction" counseling conference next week at our church
9) Watching another brother move away and my last one preparing to be gone for the summer - yikes!
10) Experiencing my walk with Christ becoming more personal than ever in prayer

I am so blessed!

Busyness

Wow, my life has been busy lately! Between school, friends, music, and everything else, I hardly have a calm day! But it's wonderful... I've really enjoyed the busyness of the past few weeks.

One thing that is keeping me busy is: Practice for a musical! Yes, that's right, I get to be in "The Fiddler on the Roof" musical with a christian school nearby! I'm so excited. I don't have any lines; I'm a towns-person. I sing a lot of songs though, and I even have 3 words of a solo in one song! Haha. We have practices almost every day, and often I spend the evening with my best friend and her family afterward. It's so much fun!

I also am busy with schoolwork, church, youth group/youth events, and friends. Last Thursday and Friday I stayed at the home of a good friend who I hadn't seen in a long time, which was such a blessing! On Sunday I went to 2 youth group and 2 church services. It was very fun, very uplifting, and very tiring. ;)

Well, speaking of my busyness, I had better finish this post up because I've got a busy day today, too. Thanks for reading! :)

Blessings galore :)

My brother, Zach, turned 19 yesterday! Woo-hoo! Also, my grandpa came to visit, which was really neat because he lives far away and we don't see him very often. We all had brownies and ice cream to celebrate Zach's birthday last night, and he's also having a party tomorrow night. What fun!

Sunday School was a real blessing to me last night. We talked about sharing our faith, and some of the essentials of it. Our youth group is planning a 3-day rafting (and camping) trip for mid-August - I can't wait!

This morning my grandpa stayed for breakfast, and left around 9:00 AM. We've done some chores and such today, but it has been a restful day overall. I got a chance to read a couple chapters of the book, "A Quest for More" by Paul David Tripp, which a mentioned in a previous post.Only one more chapter left! It is SUCH a good book; God has taught me so much through it! You really should read it - it's very helpful and encouraging!

A Quest for More

Well, the summer weather didn't seem to last very long. Recently it's been really chilly. That's good, though, because it rained a lot and we desperately needed rain. Because of the rain, the trees have gotten a lot greener.

Youth group with Circle C is mostly over for the summer; the camp has staff training week starting Sunday, and then a whole summer of camp. My brother, Cody, is working there this summer, so I'll miss him.

I've been reading a book called "A Quest for More" by Paul David Tripp. It is SUCH a good book!! I've really enjoyed reading it; it has opened my eyes to a lot of things. It has really helped me understand what a life of purpose is and looks like. Instead of the typical "Christian" book, it shows that serving Christ is SO important, and what we are really fighting against. I highly recommended it to any Christian of any age.

I have been absolutely loving serving God. It is so fulfilling and He brings so much joy. Keep fighting the fight, everyone!!

It's been a while...

Well, I haven't felt like writing on my blog for a while so I just... didn't. But, now I feel like it, so I will. =)

Life has been interesting for me lately. I've been busier than usual. I started going to another youth group at a really awesome camp nearby which has been really good for me. It's been fun meeting everyone from their group and getting to know them all. Wayne, the director of the camp/youth group leader always has really phenomenal teaching. What I also love about it is that he splits us up into groups each week and has us find passages in the Bible about whatever topic we're talking about, and then find a real-life application for it. That is SO important, because you can hear truth all of your life, but you need to look at it for yourself and apply it to life to really make it come alive in your life.

God's been teaching me so much lately. He's been teaching me a lot about trusting Him... through everything. For one thing, my TMJ has been really giving me a hard time lately. My jaw, neck, and shoulders are in constant pain and it's just really, really hard to deal with. But a verse that keeps coming to mind is Deuteronomy 8:2 -

"And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not."

God has been showing me just how faithful He is. In spite of TMJ, stress, school, insecurity, and everything else in life, He is my one true friend and confidant. It's so awesome to have a friend to turn to, and He is the most faithful friend I could ever have. <3

School and skits and stuff

Hi! Sorry it's been so long since I've written (do I say that every time? lol =]). It's hard to keep up with posting. A lot has happened; I'll try to post a summary of it. Let's see... I started school this past Tuesday. It was hard to get used to it the first couple of days, but I think I'm adjusted to the new schedule now. I usually like school because I'm the kind of person that likes a very structured, scheduled, orderly life. (You may not know it by my bedroom, but it's true =P)

This past Wednesday I did school again, then in the afternoon was drama team practice for the Teen Power-Up. I mentioned before that we're doing the "Everything" drama, which is REALLY awesome and powerful. I'm not in it, but I go to the practices anyway to fill in for anyone who couldn't make it, and just to help whenever I can. We stayed through from practice until prayer meeting that evening. At prayer meeting we got some disappointing news.... we might not be able to do the drama. There was some concern that the dancing/choreography wouldn't be appropriate, and a couple of other things. Everyone has been REALLY praying about it these past few days. I think that it has a really powerful message that is exactly what we want to express at this event, and if we do it it will be a huge ministry. At the same time though, we don't want to offend anyone, or cause anyone to stumble. So PLEASE pray that we would figure it out and be able to make it happen.

Yesterday I went to piano lessons! I am on my 5th year of lessons and they just started up again for the school year. I'm really excited - I love piano! Then today hasn't been terribly exciting, just school and chores, but it's been a good day. Tomorrow will be busy... we have drama team practice at 10 AM, then a picnic to go to, then I'm babysitting from 4 PM until late that night. I'll write more later I guess! :)

August 28-30, 2009

Wow! It's been a busy weekend! On Friday we headed out in the morning to go see some of our friends from PA who we were meeting at a mall a couple of hours away from our house. We got delayed by a whole bunch of stuff - road work, traffic, etc. and we got there almost an hour late, which was a bummer since we only had a short amount of time. We met our friends at the mall, then window shopped for a little while, just talking and enjoying ourselves. We had conflicting interests though... my friend Emily and I wanted to look around in Deb, but the boys wanted to go to Zumiez. We all just sort of went around and had fun and then went to Subway for lunch. We ate and then continued to walk around and look at stuff. Emily and I went to Deb and tried on some really pretty prom dresses. The one she tried on was yellow and she looked like Belle from Beauty and the Beast! It was really pretty. I tried on one that was off-white and really fluffy and lacy and it was so pretty. If it was a little longer and was pure white it would have looked just like a wedding dress! It was really, really pretty. After that we had to leave, so we said goodbye and headed to my grandparents' house to stay for the night.

The next morning we had to go to a funeral for my Great Grandmother. I was really encouraged to find out that in her last days she had accepted Christ as her Savior and so now she is in heaven with Jesus! Hallelujah!! After the funeral and a meal we headed home.

On Sunday, my mom and I had nursery during the morning service. There ended up being 7 kids there - all under the age of 3! It was pretty busy, one was wailing and crying for her mommy, one was really tired, one had an accident in the middle of the floor, and the rest were playing happily, but quite noisily! It was fun though; I love little kids. I found out that a family in our church who lives about 15 minutes away from us is in need of a babysitter, so I am REALLY excited about that!! I love babysitting!

Today I got up early and did chores throughout the morning. We had auditions today for a skit called "Everything" that our youth group is doing on September 19th, so I headed out to go to that around 11 AM. Different people tried out for different parts, and after a lot of practice we finally decided who the cast would be. I didn't get a part and was pretty bummed about that at first, but I'm glad because we got the perfect people for each part. After we had the parts chosen we practiced it a few more times. It went very well for a first practice. I'm really excited to see what God will do with it!

And I think that pretty much sums up my weekend. God is good! :)

An eventful week :)

Wow! The past week has been good. Last Saturday I went to a youth event called the Gathering and it was REALLY good! I had to show up at my church at 8:30 AM because it was a 2 hour drive. We all carpooled and had a fun van ride. When we got there they were giving out door prizes different things and we all had fun trying to answer the questions, and just talking and hanging out. Then the whole group of about 430 people all sang some really awesome praise songs to God and it was so encouraging to hear that many voices raised in praising Him. After that, there was a message presented by a speaker and it was really good. It was about living out our salvation. When it was over we all filed out and made our way through the lunch line and just ate and enjoyed the nice day for a while. We laughed and had a ton of fun, then headed back in and there were more door prizes, and then more awesome praise music. There was another message which was REALLY good. It was about Esther, and how huge of a sacrifice she was willing to make to do what's right. If you think about it, she was really well off. She was the queen of Persia, she was considered the prettiest girl in the country, she probably had servants catering to her every whim, and basically anything she wanted could be hers, but she was willing to sacrifice all of that, even her very life, to do what God wanted. She was willing to live a truly dangerous life for Jesus Christ. I was challenged to do the same. I must be willing to sacrifice anything (including popularity, friends, reputation, etc.) for Jesus.

On Sunday I went to the morning service and really encouraged by the sermon to stand and fight. Pastor spoke form 1 Kings 19, about Elijah. Elijah was a man of God, but in this chapter, things got tough and he went and hid and pouted. He listened to Jezebel's threats even though he KNEW how much more powerful God is. We can't let the enemy bully us into that state! We have to stand our round and not try to run from our problems.

That afternoon we went to a coming home party for my friend Abby, who just got back from Papua New Guinea. It was SOOO nice to see her and her family again! We all spent time together and had a crazy and fun time. We stayed there until 12:30 AM talking and it was really encouraging.

The other days this week haven't been very eventful, so I won't write about them. That's all for now!

Some hard times.

Hey everyone. The last few days have been hard ones. On Sunday, I found out about 10 minutes before church started that I had to play morning offertory. I have played piano for 5 years now, but I still don't think I'm very good at it. I don't even know why they choose me to do morning offertory, but it's fine I guess. It was a little crazy, though, because I had no time to prepare or practice something to play. I didn't do well at all, but I got through it, and I didn't do it for man's applause, and that's all that matters I guess. Sunday night was a lot of fun - it was SNAC night. SNAC stands for Sunday Night After Church, and so that's what it's called because that's exactly what it is! We have it about once a month, and this time was a TON of fun!! Someone left the dehumidifier off in the gym, so the floor was crazy slippery, which made for some funny (and some painful - lol) falls. There was soda and some snacks, and also lots of fun games. After we played a bunch of crazy and funny games, including human tic-tac-toe and capture the flag in the wet, dark softball field outside, I was able to talk with a few friends and it was really nice and refreshing.

On Monday evening, things took an unexpected turn. My parakeet, Julie, was sitting on the floor of her cage and was not looking good at all. I was really concerned, but I didn't know what to do for her at that hour of night since she was sleeping, and I very much wanted be. So I decided to see what I could do in the morning. I slept in a little, and around 7:45 my mom came in and woke me up. Then she told me that my bird was sitting on the floor of the cage. I knew this already, but I had forgotten. I got up and looked at her. She looked awful. I was thinking about what I should do for her, and then she let out a feeble "peep," and fell over on her side. What I didn't realize was that right then, she died. I thought she was still alive , so I was talking with Mom about what we should do. I didn't know if she was suffering and I should put her out of her misery, or if I could nurse her back to health. Then I suddenly realized what had happened and I said, "She may already be dead!" I reached in and picked her up and found that she was. It was the most awful thing... picking up her stiff, little body and realizing that she was gone. I held her and cried for at least an hour. I would have cried more, but I had to get ready to leave for the day, because I had an appointment at the dentist.

We headed out for a long day. First we went to the dentist and I got my night-guard (something sort of like a retainer that I wear at night because I grind my teeth and I have TMJ) fixed. After that, we headed to an oral surgeon for my brother, Zach, who had to get all 4 of his wisdom teeth out. We got there 1/2 hour early, and they were an hour behind schedule, so we ended up being there for a total of 2 and 1/2 hours. In that time I read and memorized a lot of scripture and read part of the book "Set-Apart Femininity" by Leslie Ludy. It was a long time to just sit there, but I had a good time with God and managed to forget Julie's death. On the way home, I remembered it. When I got back I sat on my bed and cried more. Julie was more than just a bird, she was a very special pet and friend. She wasn't just a family pet, she was MY pet. I bought her, kept her, cared for her, and trained her. She was like a little friend.

Wednesday, I got up and worked most of the morning. Then I went out and buried Julie alone. I had a parakeet a long time ago who belonged to my great grandma before she died. We kept him (the parakeet) for a long time. For the first few years he was cared for by my older brother Erik, and then Erik passed him to me. He was a very special friend, too. He eventually died of old age, and that was really painful for me. That happened about 4 or 5 years ago. We also had to have our dog, Misty, put down a long time ago, maybe 7 or so years ago. Both of those pets are buried near each other in our woods. Their deaths were hard for me to bear for a long time, especially since I was so little when I lost them. But, time goes on, and we've since gotten a new dog, and I got a new parakeet. Then when Julie died, and I buried her near the other 2 pets, I felt the pain of losing all 3 pets all over again. I cried the whole time.

The rest of the day was dull and hard. The only reason it was hard was just because it was so hard on me emotionally to lose Julie. In case you're wondering how Julie died, she has been sick for probably about a year now. I don't know how she got sick, or what she was sick with, but I could tell she was. I have nursed her through several times when I thought she was going to die, but she never got completely better. I guess this was just all her body could take, and she died. I feel horrible about it. I feel like if I had paid more attention she might still be here, but I don't know. Without a vet, she probably wouldn't have lasted long, and I couldn't afford to take her to one. She served her purpose on earth, which is to bring glory to God and pleasure to both God and man. It really comforted me to remember that God says that He sees every sparrow that falls, and cares about it.

I guess, over all, it has been very hard these last few days. The pain won't go away for a long time, but it will eventually. It's not like losing a person, but it's still hard. I have really been taught to lean on God through it, and to trust Him, even though it doesn't seem fair that I should lose her. God does not withhold any good thing from those who love Him, so I know that even though it's hard, it will be okay. God has lessons to teach me through this, and I am ready and willing to learn them. Please pray for me, this is a really hard thing for me. I know it sounds childish to make such a fuss over such a small thing, but it is really big to me. So please pray for me. Thanks.