Rekindle part 2

picture time! enjoy =)

Day 1 - Sunday

getting on the bus!

sisters ^_^

Day 2 - Monday

morning walk on the beach with friends =)


dodgeball!


our meeting room

beach volleyball

there were lots of pretty shells this year

random swing dancing during free time

Day 3 - Tuesday

i love the note rope!

foosball

making macreme bracelets


gorgeous sunset!

Day 4 - Wednesday

our rooms

some cool trees

blind-folded musical chairs


pink beach house

my best friends =)


pretty clouds

giant jelly fish, run!

Day 5 - Thursday

burying Kate

she's a mermaid with wings

verse on the wall of our meeting room

tearing down the last night

Day 6 - Friday

they stayed up all night, so they slept pretty much the whole bus ride back

don't they look tired?

Rekindle part 1

This week has been hard. Getting back to reality after Rekindle wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't been sick. Pretty much 90% of Mission28 was sick this week. Not fun. But God is still good! And today I feel almost completely better. =)

Ok. Here's my Rekindle update.

The theme of this Rekindle was There Is No One Like Our God. The messages that impacted me the most were the ones about God's power, and God being unchanging.
God has the power to do whatever He wants. If something doesn't happen the way I want it to, it is not because God can't make it happen. It is because it is His will for it to not go that way.
God never changes. He will always be there for me when I need Him. He will always love me. He will always call me child, because my relationship with Him is based on His glorious gospel which never changes.

God really strengthened my faith and trust in Him last week. He showed me it doesn't matter what my circumstances are, because He is all I need. He gave me more boldness to share my struggles with my friends and ask them how I can pray for them. I feel like I can tell my friends what's going on in my life more. And that's a good thing. =)

God is so good to all of us!

coming soon...

post on Rekindle coming soon. i'm too tired to do it right now.

REKINDLE!!!!!!!

Oh my goodness, we leave for Rekindle tomorrow!!!!!!!! So excited!!!!!!! =)

I was thinking yesterday, "My life is too hard. There's so much I need to change. I can't do this any more." And you know what, I was right.

Jesus said in John 15:5, "Apart from me, you can do nothing."
And in Matthew 19:26, "With man this is impossible."

I cannot change anything in my life on my own. It's just not possible.

But:

"With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26b
"Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10
"The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary... He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might He increases strength." Isaiah 40:28-29

God showed me how foolish I was to think I could change myself. I can do nothing apart from Him. He is the One who changes me. All I need to do is humble myself and acknowledge to Him that I need Him. If I do that, He promises to help me.

"If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, then I will hear from heaven." 2 Chronicles 7:14

God is so amazing! =)


Only 8 days until Rekindle!

12 DAYS!

Rekindle is only 12 days away! I'm so excited! =D

There's nothing really to update on. Life around here hasn't changed. In a way that's good, but in a way I wish there was something to do an update on. Oh well.

short update

Wow, i need to post again. Let's see....

Last weekend we had snow! =) Work closed, so we all got to stay home on Saturday. And church got canceled, so it felt like 2 Saturdays in a row. It was lots of fun! Here are some snow pictures.

we got 3 inches!

I've been opening at work 5 days a week. I think I'm going to keep doing that for a long time. It's really not that bad getting up at 4:30 every morning, as long as I get to bed around 8:30pm. I like getting up early and going to bed early. =)

No news on school yet. I'm still trying to decide if I should go or not. Hopefully I'll know soon.

Oh my goodness, REKINDLE is only 26 days from now!!!!! Excitement!!!! =D

God is faithful

ok. that last post was a bit depressing. sorry about that.

i think now i'll post about God's faithfulness to me in 2009.

For one, God broke my fear of man. one year ago i would never dream of talking to anyone except my closest friends, i would only talk to someone else if they talked to me first, and i would hardly ever ask anyone any questions. God showed me that i was treasuring man's opinion of me more than God's opinion of me. then he gave me grace to change.
Today i don't mind talking to complete strangers, and i love asking people questions. i don't care if others think i'm weird in what i say, as long as i'm pleasing God in my speech. true, i do prefer listening over talking, but i'm much more willing to contribute to a conversation than i was a year ago.

Another thing God showed me was how to be a better friend. God convicted me of being selfish in my friendships. i wanted people to pay attention to me and invite me to hang out and ask me questions. it was all about me, and i felt like i didn't have any friends.
God showed me i needed to reverse my thinking. i am supposed to benefit my friends, not the opposite. i'm supposed to reach out to my friends and ask them questions and invite them to hang out, make an effort to get to know them better. if i do that consistently, then i will be a true friend, and others will start to benefit me.
i still have a long way to go in being a better friend, but God will help me grow. at least my thinking is correct now.

The most wonderful thing God did for me in 2009 was open up His Word to me in a new way. i used to hardly ever get truths out of my devotions. but now i almost always learn something from reading my Bible. it's definitely the work of the Holy Spirit revealing truths of Scripture to me. And now i love, love, love reading my Bible and theology books. there's nothing i would rather do than study God's Word. i couldn't say that a year ago, but i'm so glad i can today! :)

Wow, God really did some amazing things in my life last year!