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....