Not the case today

It used to be, that a man would respect a woman enough not to use foul language in her presence, or in a conversation with her, but that is not the case today.
It used to be, that a woman wouldn't dare use foul language in her speech, but that is not the case today.
Many guys don't treat girls like ladies, and the girls don't ask for them to. They make up excuses, and say that's just the way guys are. Well that's not true, we all have a choice in how we behave.
Now don't get mad at me for being preachy, I'm just writing what is on my heart.
What happened to the respect people used to have for God? Church used to be a priority; Sunday was the Lord's day, not just a day to sleep a little longer. I'm not saying that everyone who goes to church is a Christian, but it saddens me that most people don't even give God a second thought.
Where is the loyalty that used to be between friends? Some of you may remember David and Jonathan, and how they cared about and loved each other. Friends now back-stab, gossip, betray, lie, and hurt one another. Friends are supposed to be those people who love you. Who are trustworthy, and are there to lend that extra hand. Who care enough about you, to gently tell you when they see you going down the wrong path.
Families are being torn apart. Children should not be divided between two homes. Problems will come, but if parents give up and separate, they are showing their children that marriage is not worth fighting for. That if you get tired, you can give up and start over.
Christians, will we resolve to let God work though us and change what our world has become? We are not better than others, we have just given up control, and now let God direct our paths.
I will resolve, I will let God use me. I may stumble and fall at times, but God will pick me up and use me again. I will not be typical. God will take my fear, and be my shield. I may be uncertain at times, but I have confidence in my Savior, and will stand strong for Him.
Things are changing everyday, but God can use us to see that things change in a good way; change so that people would have a heart once more for Him.

My Savior

Tonight I was once again overwhelmed by the incredible greatness of God. Three months ago I was in Haiti, and my team and I were in a terrible accident. The truck's brakes went out as we were driving down a mountain, and the truck tipped, sending us all out of the truck, sliding and landing on the rocks. All of us should have died on the mountain that day. But apparently God had other plans, because every single one of us lived.

Tonight I was reminded of the wreck again, but also of the perfection of God that as displayed that day. Our team took nurses for the first time in fours years of going to Haiti. God gave strength to one of the, even though he was hurt, and Seth was able to take care of all of us. And in all the commotion, and the truck tipping, the bag of medical supplies was still hooked around a metal bar, hanging exactly where Seth had put it. Talk about incredible.

God had a reason for saving us all that day. I have no doubt in my mind that He still has things for me to do, and people to minister and love. I will love Jesus, and I will continue to live my life for Him. What an incredible God we serve!

Broken People

"So the Lord was sorry He had ever made them. It broke His heart." Genesis 6:6

Our Maker looks down from heaven, and His heart begins to break.
These people so carefully, and beautifully crafted by His hands,
Were turning their hearts away.
His own creation, and they follow their wicked desires.
His heart is broken, and we have sinned.

Our Lord makes up His mind to get rid of His work;
People and animals alike.
He, a perfect God, should not have to put up with a sinful race.
At first our days were just numbered, to 120 years,
And now we have tested His patience, again, and again.

Oh, what a terrible day, when we turn so far away from our God,
That He wants to destroy us.
Sinful people, fall on your faces!
There is nothing we can do to save ourselves;
No way to appease the terrible wrath of God.
We are hopeless, unworthy people.
If our God destroyed us, and threw us into hell, we would deserve it.

Our God is a jealous God, wanting total devotion of His children.
He will not tolerate disobedience, yet He will not force us to follow.
He wants us to make that choice.

What a glorious day, for the whole human race,
when our Father uttered the words, "I forgive you."

Despite all of the hatred, malice, arrogance, mockery,
misery, and pride that we have shown God, He still loves us.
Us, the people who make Him so angry, that He got rid of all but eight.
Us, who spit in His face, and tried to conquer Him with death.

He sent His precious, loving, compassionate, holy, wonderful,
and Only Son, to be slaughtered in our place.
He sent His Son to take on our guilt, so that He could even look
at our faces.

Us, who are so vile, can be made new.
Not by our own goodness, because that is something we don't posses.
But by the very grace of God.

Fall to your knees, wicked sinners.
Repent from the evil ways of the human flesh.
Let God break you, wash you, and put you back together,
And have you shine like the evening star.

We have broken our Savior's heart,
and now is the time to give Him our hearts,
and turn our lives back to Him.
We are beyond the help of humans,
But not beyond the reach of God.

A Terrible Blogger...

So my dear friends, I've come to realize that I am absolutely terrible when it comes to keeping up a blog.
However, a very dear, and longtime friend, who is an incredible writer mentioned that I should keep up a blog to help get my writings out for people to see. It's a bit more of a challenge than the other ways that I have been getting my writings out, but this is a place where people come when they are really interested in what I have to say, and take time to read it. I can't promise anything absolutely amazing, but I will be writing what is laid on my heart. I love to write stories, poems, devotions, anything... Anything that points people to my True Love, Jesus Christ. Yes, I write crazy, and random stories, but that too can show my love to God, because He is the one that has given me the talent to write.

I've recently been contacted by a self-publishing company, and an thinking about getting one of my stories published. It would take some money and time, but sometime in the near future, I just might do that. But for the time being, I will attempt to once again keep up this blog.

So, this post isn't going to be very long, just a few words to let you all know that I am back again, after 7 months of silence, and I'm going to be posting some of my writings.

I hope that you are all having a very fabulous day. :)

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!