Dorothy said it right!!

Dorothy said it right when she said that there's no place like home. Even if you want to get away or enjoy being away, there's no place quite like home. What makes home home for you? I have been away from home since Sunday at a forensics tournament that was actually Regionals. I got to the semi-final round with my open (Tilly) but didn't go on to finals. Anyways, I was excited to go to semis! Laura, my youth pastor's wife, helped me out. Thanks, Laura!! I was telling her today that I wanted to do three things: 1. have fun. 2. do the best I can 3. effect and change my judges. Hopefully that is what I did! Made them think and inspire them to get out and do something against abortion! I got home today and actually got to go to my youth group part of the time. Thank you, God, for helping me get that far! I love you!

God isn't a God for a box!

With my trip to Italy, something that I've been struggling with is the big green bucks. Maybe I should say more that God will provide the big green bucks. Trusting God for the money is one of the things that I've been struggling with about my trip. Not the biggest though and the biggest struggle I don't know if I'd label a "struggle". But God is big enough! Today I received a check in the mail from a couple that goes to our Church. It was a lot of money and so encouraging! God's big enough. He's big enough for anything. Yet, there are things that God CANNOT DO. One is, God cannot lie. Cannot. Don't try to size Him down to a toy God; He's more then we can ever dream! Don't put God in a box!

The drama: a success!

Last Wednesday we did our drama for our youth group and it was SO MUCH FUN!!! Thank you all of those who prayed. It was good and very, very, very fun! My sister, Bethany, who did the drama with me and I switched characters the day of the drama. I was this annoying, trying-to-help, trying-to-serve friend to my sick "friend". The script was something with our series, called I-Life. So far we've talked about forgiveness, acceptance, serve, and encouraging. For encouraging on Wednesday we talked about when our friends drift from God mostly.

So, Bethany you did good!! I had a lotta fun and hope that you did, too. Thanks for doing the fun drama with me, sis!

A snazzy, sharp, silly skit...Just had to go for the same letter!

So me and my sister Bethany are going to do a drama for our youth group tomorrow, which will be sweet! My youth pastor's wife, Laura, came to the door and dropped off the papers. The play isn't serious, really, but I've only done serious things at youth group. It has a person who's sick and another whose trying to cheer her up. I asked my youth pastor, Justin, if this was something we could just kinda make up when we had the idea. We can, but we have to do important lines and right. I've done drama at youth group before and am SUPER excited about doing it again! We are doing an amazing (serioulsly, it's like the best ever!!) series and this will go along with it. Pray for us!

Mission trip...

So there's been a change of plans. My trip is now switched over to Italy so I'll, God willing, work in towns around Rome. On my free day I we go to Rome and have the option and do two different things, one of which is going to the Coliseum and shopping in shops around it. The ministy that we'll maybe do is street drama and one-on-one evangelism. But perhaps we'll do relief work (did you hear about the earthquake in Italy and then the aftershock?) and coffee ministry. In the morning we'll advertise for the drama, in the afternoon sometime we'll do it, then go out to the people, love on them, get to know them, and share our testimony. It'll be a GREAT experience! Please pray for me and the trip and everything, wisdom, money, spiritual growth, preparation, and on. Thanks, everyone! :)

Easter!!

Isn't it funny how we make Christmas a bigger holiday then Easter? Easter is a huge holiday and yet so often we don't celebrate it as much as Christmas. Easter isn't at all about about the Easter egg hunts, Easter bunny, chocolate candy, or even the empty tomb. It's totally 100% about Jesus and God (and remember, Jesus was totally God and also 100% man). It's about how Jesus was right and that He really is the only God. What he said really was real, Who He was, really was genuine. It's about His power, His truth in who He said He was. It's about His love for us. He loved us so much He went to the cross and rose from the grave for us. It's about how we don't live with and serve a God in the grave but we serve a living God!! We have a God who has more power then anything, even death. Always remember that we serve a living God!!!
Read the Easter story today, maybe from a different gospel or from another translation. (You can find it Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, and John 20. Perhaps you can choose a verse that stands out to you and memorize it.
We have chosen holidays to celebrate things, Jesus' birth, Easter...but we can thank God anytime for what He did.

The Rock and Worship Roadshow

On Good Friday my youth group went to The Rock and Worship Roadshow where they had five bands come in, Hawk Nelson, MercyMe, Jeremy Camp, Tenth Avenue North, and they were going to have Addison Road but when the main singer who was pregnant went into labor...they didn't come. Instead we had The Afters, who began the singing. Before, we went to All Stars Sports Center and ate at Freddy's Frozen Custard or Sonic before going to where the concert was, waiting, talking, taking pictures, tossing balls, or playing... The concert was sold out! There were 11, 000 people there! Lights would swept over people, music blaring, hands in the air, hands clapping, sometimes we'd jump up and down. And while there wasn't a long message, there were some great things said!! It's a bummer I can't remember more of what they said. When I listen to the song or are going to and think about it, then I can sorta remember. The main singers of the bands/artists would most of the time speak and say great things. So you could kind of "get to know them" in a way, hear their story and stuff. Jeremy Camp told us how he had lost his wife to cancer eight years but he told us that after he had sang one of his songs with part of the chorus: And I will walk by faith, even when I cannot see. Each one of artists and on were different, probably believed different things, looked different, there were different types of music...But they were all there for God and wanted to bring glory and honor to Him. God was there smiling with tears in His eyes! God is with us!! We teenagers are in an amazing spot and need to change our generation to Jesus!

Love God and Love Others!

Last Wednesday our youth group started a new series and talked about forgiving but we also spoke about loving God and people, which was so GOOOOOOD!! Some of the things that my youth pastor said were they (speaking of people) are not going to know that we're Christians by our tee-shirts or bumper stickers but by our love. Think about it. You might see someone wearing a Christian tee or have this cross necklace but when they're yelling at their Mom or whatever else, you are seriously going to doubt that they love God, which kind of leads into something else that we spoke about (though it actually was before that :). You cannot say that your relationship with God is going good and not love other people, here. Our relationships effect our relationship with God. Here'sverses that we looked up and please do look them up, too! They are really good!

-> Matthew 5:23-24-reconile, move on. Don't bring the sin up anymore. -> John 13:34-35-love will speak to the world that we are children of the King. -> Matthew 22:36-39-The first and second commands. The first and greatest, love God with everything. The second is loving others like ourselves. The NLT says, "A second is equally important". The greatest command is to love God but the next, to love others as ourself, is of the same importance. Crazy, hun? -> Ephesians 4:1-2 tells to lead a life worthy of God's calling in verse one. Verse two tells us things we should do but they're not rules. They are commands and if I love Christ, then I'll follow them.

This week at our youth group, just yesterday, we spoke about acceptance, continuing in the second week of our series. With acceptance there is no normal. There's really no thing as normal. God doesn't make the stories in the Bible perfect but He leaves them in for us. We live much of our life to be accepted. But we need to remember that even when others don't accept us we're totally accepted by God. And if you haven't accepted God's free gift, then please think about it seriously. Place your faith in Him, in the things He said, and accept His free offer. And as a Christian, we need to follow God, you and me. Because Jesus accepted us, we need to go out and accept others. Accept!!