Just a day...

I’m not going to lie today was a pretty unproductive day. However, it was a good relaxing day. I think that today was a good day for us to relax before we start work tomorrow. I woke up and spent some time in the Word. I read through Psalm three and was reminded of how God is my protector. He is a shield around me and he lifts up my head. I lay down and I wake again because He sustains me. He keeps me going and is all I need. Nothing can harm me as long as he is my protector. I read this and was reminded again later of why faith in God is so important to my life.
After dinner, a few of us decided to go to Starbucks which was about thirty minutes away from camp. Tim was driving and he was the only one who knew how to drive stick. Tim is also night blind. However, we thought we would get back just in time before the sun went down. This did not turn out to be true. It started out getting only a little dark and then darker and even darker. We missed the road we were supposed to turn on because we could not read the sign. And so we were back tracked even more. This is where I was reminded of faith in God and also what it means to be a body. We could at this point only rely on the fact that God would protect us and keep us safe. Not only that, but that he would give us all focus on what was ahead of us to keep the car going in the right track. It was by his peace that we all kept calm and did not freak out. When things started to get kind of nerve wrecking, we had to depend on his peace to be within us. And we learned what it means to work as the body because we had to help be Tim’s eyes. We had to watch out for the things that he could not see. We had to work together as a car so that we made it back safely. Needless to say, God is good.
Tomorrow, we start real work and I am incredibly excited for that. However, I do not know what I am doing yet, but that is okay…I’ll figure it out, ha. Seriously though, we have an amazing staff who is already here and I am pumped to see how God uses us this summer. He has awesome plan for all of us, I know he does. Everyone here has so many gifts from God and they are so ready to use them. It is going to be a great summer.

I am really excited for God to be transforming me this summer. I am ready to be stretched and made uncomfortable. I am ready for him to move in me and to take out what needs to be taken out and add in what needs to be added in. I am ready to understand patience to its fullest and hopefully start to practice it more. I am ready to learn what it means to let go of things and allow him to have them. I am ready to learn in general.

California the past two days

Saturday:
Today was a really relaxing day and a great day to get to know some of the staff. We woke up at about 9:30 and headed to grab some breakfast. As we sat at breakfast, we pondered how we were going to get to the beach…I mean, that’s a pretty big question. Finally, our boss, Adam, called us and told us that his wife and him were going to the beach as well, so we jumped on that bandwagon and headed out with them. We headed out to the beach and hung out as a staff team and really got a chance to relax. Once we got there, the boys went to the cliff down the beach and started to have their own adventures. They decided to go rock climbing on the cliff and that is where they spent most of the day as us girls hung out reading and laying out on the beach. The weather was absolutely amazing, but we learned our lesson as we tried to get in it…it was freezing cold. Swimming in the ocean is overrated anyway, it’s so much more fun to hang out and talk. We did have some good get to know you conversations and that was fun. One thing that really stuck out from the day at the beach was my conversation with Alex (the media and visual arts intern at the camp) about children. Alex and I were standing on the beach watching kids run into the ocean with no fear. The waves were tumbling over them and the water was freezing cold. Even so, they did not care, they continued to run into the water at full speed and it did not faze them one bit. As we watched them, Alex said, “Isn’t amazing how much faith children have?” I thought about it for a bit and then agreed with what he said. It is incredible how much faith children have. They do not think about what might happen, but they just have faith. They do not doubt the situation, but trust the situation. They believe in what they cannot see and go with whatever is told to them. We watched some more and then got into a discussion about this topic. We talked about how we are told to have faith like a child in the Bible and how much faith we lose when we get older. I mean, we should test situations and be skeptical, but when it comes to God, we cannot let our skepticism bring disbelief in Him. Bottom line is: seeing isn’t believing, believing is seeing.

Sunday:

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:22-24

When I made this deal, this contract, to follow God, I made an agreement to leave my past behind. I promised him by coming into a relationship with him that I would let go of the impure way of life. I no longer would live a life that was not pleasing to him. I no longer would live a life that did not glorify him. I no longer would let unwholesome talk come out of my mouth. I would not longer live in darkness, but I would live in light as a child of God.
This is how I started out my day today. I spent a good time in the Word today and really allowed God to speak to me. It was good to have a quiet time with the weekend already being packed. It reminded me that I need this in order to gather my thoughts before the day begins. Not only to gather my thoughts, but to really have my mind in the right place.
Once Heidi woke up, we headed up to lunch and ate with the boys. As we were sitting there, Daniel looks at me and says, “Want to go jump off a cliff today?” and I respond with, “Sure, why not? I don’t have anything else to do.” After lunch, we jumped in the car and headed to Fish Creek. We hiked up a treacherous one mile trail to this water fall. The trail that we hiked up consisted of rock climbing, normal hiking, and a bit of swimming. It was a sweet hike up and absolutely gorgeous, but at the same time, pretty tough. We had a great time doing it though and it was true team bonding. The way that the guys stepped up and helped everyone out showed true leadership and that was awesome.
We got back and it was time for dinner and so we headed up to have some dinner. Following that, we took a little break before playing Apples to Apples. We finished up the night with some cards and then headed to bed. It was a pretty full and awesome day.

So let me just explain this weekend....The German Baptists were in Manchester, Indiana...FIVE THOUSAND OF THEM. Yes, FIVE THOUSAND. So here I am, minding my own business and here comes this caravan of these people all dressed in Amish gear...don't worry though, they weren't Amish, they were good old German Baptists. Here they are infesting my new home town. Thank you German Baptist, for the entertainment. One love.

Here I am in California now. I arrived yesterday and started off with a pretty packed day. I jumped in the van, almost literally, and we headed to LA Christian School. I got in the van and they said, "hey do you play djembe?" and I said, "well, I can." So, I got thrown into playing some music for LACS. So that was a blast, but we got some awesome home cooked food for lunch and then had lunch again. Oh what a life. After that, we headed to Santa Monica and chilled on the boardwalk a bit before heading to grab dinner and then going to Kaleo. Kaleo was a youth group that we went to in the World Impact Teen Center. By the time we left Kaleo, it was around 8:30pm. We headed back to The OAKS and got some shut eye for the night. My fellow co-workers are bomb dot com. They are freaking hilarious. We heading to the beach now though, more blogging later.

We went to the new house yesterday. Sort of a family bonding thing I guess. The bro and the pops did some yard stuff and the moms and I cleaned the inside. The house has a lot of work to be done, but when it's done it will look awesome. It will be good for my family to leave Upland I think. I am ready for us to have a change. However, I probably won't be around when they move, but I am excited. After we went to the house, we headed up to grandma's for some home cooked dinner. Originally there were 8 of us. About 3 minutes into the meal, the whole dang family showed up. I don't know how they all suddenly knew that we had dinner. I mean, they all live at least a mile away...which means that they somehow can smell dinner from a mile away...DAAAAAAAAAAANG. Props to you fam.

Come All You Weary

Come all you weary with your heavy loads
Lay down your burdens find rest for your souls
Cause my yoke is easy and my burden is kind
I'll take yours upon me and you can take mine

Come all you weary move through the earth
Surrounded by rest stones and kicked out of church
A couple of loaves sit down at my feet
Lend me your ears and break bread with me

Come all you weary
Come gather round near me
Find rest for your souls

Come all you weary, crippled you lay
I'll help you along you can lay down your canes
We've got a long way to go but we'll travel as friends
The lights growing bright further on towards the end

Come all you weary
Come gather round near me
Come all you weary
Come gather round near me
Find rest for your souls
Rest for your souls

His yoke is light...so much lighter...
Here's the question, why is it that we don't take it? Why do we have to be stubborn? Why do we have to keep our burdens? He wants to take them, we just have to give them to him.

Ten points for Griffindore!

Sarah Keur, this one's for you...

So a couple of weeks ago, we had this chapel...a chapel that I would like to call: Hogwarts Chapel. Now don't get me wrong, I loves myself some Harry Potter. I mean, it is one of my favorite series to read (for all you extreme conservatives out there, g'head condemn me to hell...i dare you). I mean, who wouldn't love good ol' Harry...it's british, it's magical, and quite frankly, it's a good read. However, there is one time a year where all of this comes to life...Harry Potter comes to Taylor University. I mean, no body is flying around on broomsticks and we don't have owls hanging out in the balcony, but by looking at the outfits, we all feel like we are all celebrating together as witches and wizards of Hogwarts. Honestly, looking at those dang robes that the professors wear cannot make me take any of that chapel seriously. I am just completely distracted. This year, Miss Keur and I even put the profs in the dorms that they belonged in according to what we thought if we would have been at Hogwarts. Thank you Taylor University for making my life so magical.

On a more serious note, as this year has now come to an end, it is time to start thinking about how I want to see myself grow this summer. With every new summer comes a new beginning. Time away from the bubble and being surrounded by old friends and family or maybe being put into a whole new setting. So what does this look like for us? For some of us, it looks like being comfortable and not allowing ourselves to change. For others it may look like stress and trials. For others it might look like an opportunity to learn. Hopefully for all of us, it is the third option. Different settings than the ones that we have been in all year gives us a chance to step back and see ourselves in a different light. By doing this, we can see what we need to improve and what we need to change. The thing is, we have to make that decision.

i want to quit school.

we have two weeks left.

Kelly

Kel...I freaking miss you.