Finally a post

Well Friends.... I am finally putting up another post. I know, I have been neglecting my blog greatly. I have been very busy, but I also have just been neglecting it. :) I now have a second part-time job. I'm working at a local farm store called Farm and Home Supply. I've been there for about 3 months, and I love it. I also got another cleaning job, and that makes 5. So I'm staying busy with that, and with school.
Well, I know that I could write so much more, but it is snowing, and I need to go outside. I will talk to you again soon friends!

Summer Adventures

Wow.... I can't believe that it's been almost two months since my last post. Several times I would start to write something, but then I would get distracted. So now, at the close of my summer, I find time to write.

This has been and interesting and exciting summer, for sure. I have had the opportunity to do all kinds of exciting things, and go to new places. It's been a summer of stretching my abilities, pulling me out of my comfort zone, and growing in my faith. Now, I suppose I should share what I have been up to since the last time that I wrote.

Let's see, I wrote about my week at Camp David. The week after I got home, I got the opportunity to go to a Civil War Re-enactment in Jacksonville, Il. with one of my friends, and her family. It was so much fun to take a step back in history. It was extremely hot, but we had so much fun dressing up, and camping and going to the ball. Oh yes, the ball...it was so much fun. I got asked to dance for the first time ever!! What a blast we had that weekend.

The next week Mom and I ventured down to Branson to visit Josh and Mandy. Their church had invited me to come down, and do a presentation on my trip to Haiti. It was so good. The presentation went so well. I was really nervous about it, but it went great! Josh told me that I had captured everyone's attention. Not a person stirred as I was talking about Lonia, and the mission, and the Dorces! And, someone even gave me money for the ministry! I could hardly contain my excitment. We spent a couple of days down there with them.

The week after that, Mom, Brianna, Megan and I roadtripped to North Carolina to visit Aubrey!!! 13 hours in a car is a long time, but getting to see a dear sister is definitely worth it. Mom and I split the driving time, and I got to drive throung Nashville. :) That got me very excited. We spent a week with Aubrey out at Ridgecrest, N.C. We had a week full of hiking, shopping in adorble mountain towns, and much more. While we were there, we had to opportunity to go to the Billy Graham Library. It was incredible!! Getting to learn all about this man, and the amazing ministry that God used him to start, and about his wife, Ruth. I absolutely loved it. Aubrey and I also managed to squeeze in a sister date while we were there. At the end of the week I had to say goodbye to dearest Aubrey, and beautiful N.C. I loved it there.

Now to the third week of July. During this week I got to help at children's camp out at Camp Inlow. What an awesome week!! 130 campers, and 30 workers. Since I am not yet 18, I could not go as a counselor. I didn't mind though. I got to share a camper with three other girls. Nancy, Lauren, and Sam. We had so much fun rooming together that week. Since I went as a helper, I got to do whatever they wanted me to. In the mornings I got to help Thea Y. with missions!! I loved doing that. This year we got a very good response on missions. A lot of the staff said that they really liked it, and well as some of the campers. In the afternoons, I got to man the checkers tournament. Wow...I had to sit through a total of 12 hours of checkers that week! It made for a long afternoon, but it was fun. It gave me the chance to get to know the campers better. In the evening I got to help with the games. These games went from dumping creamed corn, flour and eggs on kids eggs, to playing volleyball with waterballoons. I also got to dress up one night as a pillow person (ask me and I will be more specific) and dance for the campers. I'm sure I looked like an idiot, but it was fun.
One night I got put on the spot. I was asked if I would play the piano one night before chapel. I agreed. But that night while I was playing, Michelle Todd told everyone that I was going to sing something for them, and everyone started clapping. It completely put me on the spot, but I got to sing one of my own songs that I had written, and it was neat.
Camp food was even worse than I remembered it, but I somehow managed to survive that week. I was also unfortunate enough to get thrown in the pool on the last day of camp. I hadn't gone swimming all week, and two guys took it upon themselves to see that I went swimming at least once. Well of course they planned it to where I already had all of my clothes packed and wouldn't be able to change. So, I was thrown in, and had to drive home sopping wet.
All in all, it was a great week!! God taught me a lot, and He worked in the lives of the campers as well. It was so neat to watch.

The next week I got to help lead music in our church for VBS. We went to Australia this year. It was a blast!! I always love helping with bible school. It's so much fun getting to sing and dance all day, and to get to know all of the kids. We had a great year this year. Almost a hundred kids the whole week, and 40 workers. 19 of which were youth from our own church. We had a rough beginning, but we got things smoothed out, and the rest of the week was a success!!

This past week I got to go down to Springfield, Mo and visit my friend Sarah Graves. I spent the week with her and family. While I was there, I got to see several other friends which was a lot of fun. We spent the week talking, relaxing, running errands for her mom, going to her church, and having movie nights that we all fell alseep during. It was great.

So, this summer has brought many adventures my way, and I have loved every minute of it. The theme of this summer has been serving, and God has shown me several different aspects of service. How I don't have to leading something, or getting a pat on my back to be serving. Most of the ways that I have served this week have been jobs that don't get much notice. But I was still serving God. See, it's not how much your service gets noticed that matters, it's that you are serving where God wants you , and doing it wholeheartedly. It was such a great summer!!

Well....I will leave off for now. I will try to write again soon, and not let two months go by. Goodbye for now friends....

A second journey to camp david

I know it's been a while since I have written. My summer has been so busy so far. I want to write about my newest adventure. This past week I had the exciting opportunity to work at Camp David. The camp that my youth group went and worked at over Easter break. I was not planning on working there this summer, but God had other plans. A couple of weeks before camp started, my youth leader called me and said that they needed kitchen help. She told me that she was going to go down and work for a week, and that she wanted me to go with her. I was excited. I prayed about it, and it just felt right, so I turned in my application, and was told that I would be working the second week of camp; senior boys week.

A week before camp started, Ms. Thea and I traveled down to the camp for training for a day. That day got me so excited about working at camp.

Last Sunday we traveled down to Rolla, where we would be staying. There wasn't any room for us to stay on site, so we stayed with Ms.Thea son in his apartment. I can't even begin to say what an awesome week it was. I'll admit, I had somewhat of a hard time the first few days that we were there. At the end of May, they had a whole week of staff training. I didn't go, so I hadn't met any of the other staff (besides the kitchen staff) that was working. So most of the kids knew each other, and for the first couple of days I felt like an intruder.There were a lot of highschoolers who were working. Also, most of the kids who worked there were homeschooled. Quite a switch....

When I got down there, the director of the camp told me that I would not only be cooking, but that they were putting me on support staff. I would be doing extra jobs around the kitchen area. At first I was a bit nervous about this, but it opened up opportunites for me to get to meet some of the other staff.

The night before the first day of camp I was reading my Bible. God showed a first to me. It's Ephesians 4:28, "If you are a thief, stop stealing. Begin using your hands for honest work, and then give generoulsy to other in need."
That verse got me thinking....that is exactly what I would be doing at Camp David. Honest work with my hands, and giving to boys who were in need. That got me excited to see what God had in store for the week.

I met some pretty awesome people throughout the week. It was hard work though. Long, tiring days. I was helping cook constantly. 3 meals a day, for 60 people. Along with cooking I was doing dishes, cleaning, serving meals, and other small jobs. There was hardly ever a time that I didn't have anything to do. Because I was in the kitchen working all day, it was harder for me to get to know the staff, and the campers. But other support staff would help me with dishes, and with serving. So I got to know a lot of them that way. There was this awesome girl named Kristin who helped in the kitchen as well. Only fifteen, but what an amazing girl she was. I am so glad that I got to work with her for the week.

God taught me a lot about serving behind the scenes that week. It was great to take a week from my life, and my problems, and focus on serving others; something bigger than me. Like I said, because I was in the kitchen a lot, I didn't get to interact with the campers much. But one day, God gave me the opportunity to get to know one of the guys who had come to camp. I was sitting in the main building writing in my journal one day, and Anthony came in. He walked up to the small stage in the room, and started singing. Then he started talking to me, and telling me about the songs he was singing, and how he had written them. He sang to me for over an hour. After a while I got up and went over to him. I asked him if he could play anything on the piano, and he sat down at the small keyboard and played a few songs that he had picked up by ear. He asked me if I played, and I told him that I did. He then asked if I sang and wrote songs. When he found out that I did, he urged me to sing for him. So I sang a couple of songs for him. For the next hour we sang to each other and talked. It was such a good time. That night I went home and wrote Anthony a letter. I gave it to him on the last day. It was just encouraging him to keep with his music. He really does have a great talent. After he read the letter he ran over to me and gave me the biggest hug. We are hoping to meet up next year at camp. I can't describe how excited I was about getting to know Anthony.

This is getting long. I could go on and on about my week. So much happened. I loved serving in the kitchen. It was a really neat experience, and I could have asked for better people to serve with. I may write more later with a few more stories, but I will leave off here for now.

Camp David has touched my heart in such a big way. The week flew by way too fast. I would have stayed several more weeks if I could have. I am most definitely planning on going back and working there for several weeks. What a great ministry. They still have four more weeks of camp. Please pray for the staff and for the campers. God is working in big ways at Camp David. I'm glad He allowed me to be a part of that this summer!

A moment to breath.....

I finally have a few minutes to sit down and write.....

I had thought that once I was finished with school for the summer I would have a lot of free time. However, it has not been that way for the past two weeks. I have been out of school for a week, and my life is still busy. I am keeping up with my cleaning jobs, as well as work here at home.

So many things have happened in the last week, but unfortunately I do not have the time to write about all of them at the moment. I will have to come back later when I have more time.

So for now I must say goodbye, but I leave off with a promise to continue another time.

So long for now friends....

Here I am again with so many thoughts on my mind, and really not enough time to try and sort them all out......

Friendship can be a funny thing. Have you ever been caught between two people who are your friends, yet they have issues between the two of them? I have been caught in three such situations in the past year, and it can get exhausting. How do you handle situations such as these?

Well...I have so many other thoughts to write, but I simply don't have the time. I will have to resume my collection of these thoughts, another time. Goodbye for now!

There's a song in my heart....

Once again I find myself up on a late night....

If only I could have one whole day that is night. That may not make sense to most people, but I just love the night time. For some reason, I am able to connect better with my heavenly Father, in the stillness of the midnight. Thoughts invade my mind, and words pour out of my heart.

Music is what's on my mind tonight....oh music, how it makes my heart smile. I find it nearly impossible to pass by a piano without sitting down and playing a song. There is hardly ever a time that I don't have a song in my head. Music is all around us. I truly believe that it is a gift that God has given to us. Just think about the passion that there is in music. Music reflects our thoughts and feelings. Our passions....my mood comes out in my music. There are times that I wish I could just sit at a piano and write music for hours. All I need is a melody, and a song begins to form. It may not be perfect, but it is just one of the many ways that I can worship my amazing Father who gave me this gift.

Well friends, it's rather late, and the day ahead holds many tasks and jobs for me to do. So, I will bid you all goodnight, and continue in my collected thoughts soon.....

Camp David

Ahh...I am back again. Life likes to keep me busy.

So, where do I begin? Camp David.....not the president's camp for those of you who are wondering. Camp David is a camp down in the hills of the Ozarks for inner city children. The couple who runs the camp, Ben and Grace, rely a lot on youth groups to come and help them get ready for camp every year. This past weekend, my youth group had the privilege of going to Camp David and helping them get ready for the summer.
There were five of us youth who went....we left Thursday night, and started work early Friday morning. It rained all day Friday, so we had to work inside. We helped them with the new dormitory, kitched, dining hall, and staff quarters that they are building. I spent 5 1/2 hours insulating water pipes that afternoon....we were all exhausted by the time we finished working that evening.
On Saturday, the sun was shining!!! We had the perfect weather for working. I got to spend
7 1/2 hours shoveling, hauling, and spreading mulch.
It's really hard for me to describe just how amazing this weekend was. Seeing all the jobs that we had completed gave me a feeling of accomplishment. It may not be everyone's idea of a mission trip, but knowing that we were helping with such a great ministry was so awesome to me!
God taught me a lot about different kinds of service this weekend.....I can't wait to go back!
This is brief, but some things are just hard to describe.....but this weekend touched me in such a powerful way.

Well, here it is, my first blog. I must say, this is really exciting for me to start this blog. This is the kind of writing that I really enjoy. Where I can just sit down, and write how my thoughts and feelings.
So, I know this is short, but I am going to leave off for now. But will return soon, I'm sure!