Out of My Comfort Zone [part 2]

Yay, it is part 2! I know you are all so excited to read it. :)

In my last post (in case you haven't read it, but you probably should to be up to date), I ended with how I had no idea what God had in store for me the next two days. So let's start back at Nazarene Youth Camp, the second full day there, Wednesday.

That morning when I woke up, I did NOT want to start the day. All I wanted to do was roll back over and go to sleep for forever. But that was not an option, I had to wake my campers up and make sure they would all get to breakfast on time, all with a smile on my face. We went through the normal day routine, breakfast, morning worship, the leaders all had a leaders lab, then we had lip sync battle practice. YES, we were going to have a lip sync battle contest! We had the song "Happy" by Pharrell Williams. After practice we had lunch, then more game competitions. I had originally wanted to do volleyball, but then was put on the flag football team. I was annoyed then got excited to be on it! But at the last few moments of trying to make sure everyone on the Red Team had a sport to do, I was kicked off the football team. I was disappointed, but I was a leader, and having a bad attitude about not getting my way would not have been very Christ-like (ok, even if I wasn't a leader, having a bad attitude would still not have been Christ-like). So Mrs. Tammie and I went around to take pictures, and I ended up staying with the dodgeball team and cheering them on.

I had planned on taking a nap in my free hour before I had to go lifeguard the Sr. Highers again, but my plans were interrupted when a few people wanted to practice our lip sync battle song again. So I dragged my already tired self over to our practice area, and we pulled a few ideas together. Finally, I ran back to my cabin hoping to take at least a 15 minute nap. Of course, that didn't happen, so I decided to walk to the pool early. Image my surprise when I got there and I was the only adult there.

Immediately I went into lifeguard mode and began to get serious. Soon it was time for the Jr. high kids to leave. Sr. High hour came and a BUNCH of kids showed up at the pool. I kept telling myself to breathe, only this many minutes left, and you can calm down again. At 30 after, there were about 30 people in the pool, and I was the only one out of the pool, watching everyone.

Normally, I would have been sort of ok by myself. But these kids were splashing all around, being rowdy, and there were a few special needs kids in the pool as well. I kept a close eye on them, but they seemed to be doing alright. I turned my head to look at the other end of the pool when all of a sudden I heard even more splashing and turned around. A boy had grabbed a girl by the shoulders and was dragging her to the deep end, and it was clear by the look on her face that she could not swim. He let go and left her there, struggling to stay afloat. Trying to remain calm, I told her I was coming and jumped in after her. Praise the Lord she did not seem too shaken by the time we reached the side!

I have saved someone before, and although every life is very precious, something about saving someone you know and care about it different. This girl was on my color team, and I had made it a point to reach out to her and to love her. She was very sweet and had a wonderful smile. Going in and saving her, who I cared about, shook me up more than I thought it would. After swim time was over, it took me forever to get ready for supper because I was still shaky and was still all during supper.

Thinking back on that experience now, I see how true that phrase 'My Lifeguard Walks On Water' is. God is our lifeguard. In rough times in our life, we need to only call out to Him, and He will always be there for us. He will never leave us nor forsake us. We may feel like we are drowning, but with our God, we will never drown. Each life is so precious to Him, and He does not want to see any one person drown or go down the wrong path. We trust the mere human lifeguards in our life. Is there any reason to not trust the One True lifeguard in our life who will never fail us?

That night, the preacher spoke about forgiveness. He said if there was anyone we had wronged in our youth group (or outside our youth group) we needed to throw our pride away and ask for their forgiveness. Without hesitation, God was pulling at my heart. "You know exactly who you need to ask forgiveness from. Throw your pride away. This is only building up a terrible wall inside of you and making you bitter towards this person." I felt like I was going to fly into a million pieces if I ignored the voice. Finally I practically ran out of my pew to find this person. I found the person and asked to talk. I poured my heart asking, asking for forgiveness of judgment, and bitterness, and pride that had built up inside of me for the past 2 years. Tears flowed as I asked for forgiveness, which was so very hard and I was ashamed. This person forgave me and prayed with me, and as we were praying, I felt an incredible amount of peace welling up inside me. Our friendship was repaired, and God brought us back together as two friends, free from the walls that had been built up, and ready to support the other in whatever lay ahead of us.

God was incredible that night. He broke down walls that I had no intention of being broken. He cut down my pride and jealousy and showed me unconditional love. Our God is an awesome God. That whole day was one long, tired, hard day. But God was faithful, and He never left me.

The next day, Thursday, was our last full day. It was awesome. We had paint wars, I got stung by something on my hand, only a few people showed up to swim at the pool, I made even more new friends, and Red Team placed third in our lip sync battle! We were all tired and ready to go home, and the next day after JM challenged us again with what our youth groups could do to minister, we took a camp picture a left for our homes. We always have that feeling of "I'm going to do this, and this, and that when I get home!" Some people actually carry through, and some people don't. Do not let the fact that you are away from the camp atmosphere change what you wanted to do to spread God's Word. We only have one life, and do not waste it because you were too tired, or didn't feel like doing anything today. Those goals you made with your youth group? Actually carry them out. That pledge you made to read your Bible and pray more? DO IT. The God you found at camp never goes away. He's always there. You just have to take those 5 minutes of silent to listen for Him.

Out of My Comfort Zone [part 1]

So yes, I am aware I haven't posted anything in almost a year. I could lie and say I didn't have anything to say, but that is FAR from the truth. There have been plenty of things to say since this past September. But I want to start this new June 2015 blog post afresh. You might have noticed that I've edited my blog and "spiced" it up a bit. It was time for a change.

And speaking of change.

This past week, I was taken out of my comfort zone. I had the opportunity to be a camp counselor to 14 junior high girls (junior high is rising 7th, 8th, and 9th graders). And let me tell you... I WAS NERVOUS. That was something I had never done before and was sure I never would do! Except there I was, facing a week of being a camp counselor, a color team LEADER, and had the title of responsible adult.

Yikes.

Me? An adult? Please, I'm only 20. And I don't even look 20, according to two of my campers, both which informed me of that fact 15 minutes of me walking into my cabin. Ok, maybe if I act all confident, people will think I really am an adult and confident and completely together and chill.

My brain was totally not chill. My mind was racing a million miles a minute and a bajillion thoughts were running all through my brain within the first couple of hours. "Ok, I know about 15 people here out of 200. Since I'm an adult here, who do I hang out with? The adults? The campers? Myself? OH MY WORD WHERE DO I GO. Breathe. CONFIDENCE IS KEY." Thankfully I had my good friend Rebeca there too to help me! Mostly, I was worried if any of my campers and color team was going to like me.

The first night we all went with our color teams and played a game which I have forgotten the name of. But it involved putting panty hose over your head and sticking a RAW egg underneath. You were given two halves of a pool noodle and then given permission to whack other people in the head with the noodles to get their egg to break and they would lose. I was a team leader of TEAM RED and we beasted in that game. In the end, one of our leader's and my pastor's wife still had her uncracked egg (how she managed to get away with that, I will never know), and my other team leader Chris demonstrated the proper way to dispose of an uncracked egg... he smashed it ALL over my head.

On a side note, the first night I brought out a box of snacks that the wonderful Mrs. Tammie had supplied me with for my campers. My campers gasped, looked at the box like it was a pile of gold, proceeded to pounce upon it, and then proclaimed me the coolest camp counselor ever. SCORE.

The next day was Tuesday, the start of our first full day at camp. We started with a message that the preacher for the week, JM delivered. The theme for the week was Filtered. We have so many filters around us and we put up so many filters for other people. JM challenged us every night to not put on a filter, or put God in a box. Do you see God as a little old man? Do you see God as anything besides what the Bible says He really is? Sometimes we have this mold of what we think God should be, and we put a filter on God.
     Then we split into our color groups and had game competitions. Ultimate frisbee, dodgeball, volleyball, spoons, spikeball, and bean bag toss were some of the competitions that were going on. It was super hot outside so the games didn't last that long! Then I had about a 30 minutes break before I headed to the pool to lifeguard for the senior high swim hour.

Lifeguarding is no joke. I hadn't officially lifeguarded in 2 years, but once I got to the pool, I immediately snapped into lifeguard mode and got all serious. There is no time for messing around when it comes to watching out for people's lives. Thankfully, that first day was uneventful and I made some new friends while guarding!

The rest of the day was filled with laughter, food, fellowship, an incredible worship service, and an awesome late night game that involved the counselors running all around and "tagging" campers with pool noodles to keep them from getting balls to add to their basket. I think it was some version of pac-man. It was exhausting running all around and keeping up all my energy and pretending like I was not tired!

Now, don't get me wrong. The first two days were great. I was challenged, pushed to my physical limits (I'm sure I died a few times), laughed too much, and questioned myself. God was working in me, and I'll be honest. That Tuesday night of worship, I couldn't engage in it all the way. Sure, I felt the Holy Spirit's presence and knew God was in there, but it was like Satan was fighting within me and saying "no, tonight you are too tired and besides, you have heard all of this before". But little did I know what was going to happen on Wednesday and the message God was preparing for me for that night.

This was part 1. The next part is even better, or so I think. It's when God really starts getting my attention and saying "see, this was part of my plan, and I had to pull you out of your comfort zone to do MY work".

Until part 2, smile, love people, and rejoice in God's plan for you :)

A Little Bit of Writer's Block...

     It's been a while since I've last blogged... a little more than 114 days! Because it's been that many days since I left for Europe! Now I'm all back safe and sound. What a trip! I'll try to post about that, but later!

      Currently, I've got writer's block! Also probably because it is almost midnight! Well, we have a Bible Quiz meet tomorrow and I am quiz mastering! Scary! The kids are doing the book of Acts and it's been going really well! They're learning a lot and I'm super proud of them all!

Till later! Tschüss! (that's German for bye! I'm studying that in school!) :D

The Count Down Has Begun!

     In 2 weeks I will be back at BJU to make the final preparations for my trip abroad to Europe for 10 weeks! I am SO excited and nervous! This will be the first time in my life where I will be doing something different with my summer. It's kinda scary! But I know that with the Lord's strength I can do it! Anyways, gotta run now! I'll give more updates later :) :D

Easter and Smiles

"Life is short. Smile." ~Sarah, my RA

I smile. A LOT. And in case you haven't noticed...I do. I have a plaque here in my dorm room that I brought from home. It says,

"Never frown even when you are sad because you never know who is falling in love with your smile."

Ok, that's NOT why I smile! :) The reason I smile is because I am saved. JESUS reigns true in my heart! How can I not smile knowing this? Another one of my favorite quotes is this.

"Joy is the flag that flies above the castle of our hearts indicating that the KING reigns within."

This past Sunday was Easter Sunday. I must admit, I hadn't had much sleep the night before on account of being home from college. I was tired and a little bit irritable. As much as I loved Easter, I did NOT want to get up for the sunrise service. I wanted to stay in my cozy, warm bed and sleep for the rest of my life. But I finally got up, threw on a shirt and jeans, and walked out of the door. I was totally just going through the motions and not really caring. I mean, my hair spoke volumes on how much I cared. As soon as we got into the service, the worship leaders were leading us in a song that I hadn't heard in a very very long time. (and for the life of me, I cannot remember what the song was) As I listened to the words, I began to feel convicted about how I had been acting a few moments before. It certainly was not a Christ-like attitude and I most definitely did not have a smile on my face. During the service, hearing the preacher talk about MY Savior and how He bled and died for ME almost made me want to stand and shout for joy! I am FORGIVEN! Jesus is alive and well and he CONQUERED the grave! He rose victorious and death had lost its sting! During the closing prayer, I asked the Lord to help change my attitude about being so tired and grumpy. I asked Him to fill me with joy and happiness because HE had died and risen for me! The last song we sang was one I had sung on my Impact singing tour from last summer. The words are SO powerful.

Smile today. Smile tomorrow. Let everyone you encounter see JESUS shining through you! Radiate God's love so much, that that is all they see. :)

Glorious Day by Casting Crowns

One day when Heaven was filled with His praises
One day when sin was as black as could be
Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin
Dwelt among men, my example is He
Word became flesh and the light shined among us
His glory revealed

[Chorus:]
Living, He loved me
Dying, He saved me
Buried, He carried my sins far away
Rising, He justified freely forever
One day He's coming
Oh glorious day, oh glorious day

One day they led Him up Calvary's mountain
One day they nailed Him to die on a tree
Suffering anguish, despised and rejected
Bearing our sins, my Redeemer is He
Hands that healed nations, stretched out on a tree
And took the nails for me


One day the grave could conceal Him no longer
One day the stone rolled away from the door
Then He arose, over death He had conquered
Now He's ascended, my Lord evermore
Death could not hold Him, the grave could not keep Him
From rising again


One day the trumpet will sound for His coming
One day the skies with His glories will shine
Wonderful day, my Beloved One, bringing
My Savior, Jesus, is mine


Glorious day, Oh, Glorious day

Tanning, Sunshine and Happiness

     Hey Y'all! I actually have a BREATHING moment! Haven't had one of those in quite awhile! Anyways, my life's been pretty busy, especially with the usual... school. It's so crazy! In less than one month, I'll officially be a college sophomore. It seems like yesterday when I was a petrified freshman, not wanting to go anywhere by myself. Suddenly I am almost a Sophomore! My roommate, Sarah was just bringing that little tid bit to my mind last night! Scary...
 
     This summer, I will be saying goodbye to normal. I'll be hopping onto a plane and traveling halfway across the world to Europe for 10 weeks. May 26-August 1. I will be traveling with BJU's Musical Mission Team all summer long. We're going to France, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic, and Austria! I have never been overseas before. I'm both excited and nervous. And I'll be doing something totally different for my summer for the first time in my entire 19 years. Prayers would be greatly appreciated!

     Well, I can't think of anything else to spout out. I'm sure once I'm done typing all this I'll remember 100 things I was going to say. I'll just leave you with two funny stories.

Oh the bliss of running into a bathroom with too big shoes on to yell at Hannah. Of course this would happen to me  heehee Lesson I learned: Check the floor to make sure it wasn't recently mopped before running in a bathroom.

Me: I Can't find my laptop! It was right here!
Megan: How could you lose your laptop?! It's so big! Look in your chair!
Sarah: Maybe if you cleaned the room...you would find it
Me: Megan!!!!!!! I can't find it! Of course it's not in my chair! It was on the floor! I think I need counseling. 
Megan: First, you're worried about your computer before anything else, meaning you're putting it before God therefore you have idol-ment issues. Second you have not prayed enough about the situation, so you have prayer issues. And you're worrying, so you're not trusting in God!!!
Me: (wallering on the floor moaning) WAIT! I remember where it is! It's in the chair!!
Megan: I TOLD you it was in the chair! And you didn't listen to me! It means you didn't accept other people's advice meaning you have pride issues along with everything else!! There. You have been counseled. My teacher would be proud.

Aida 2014

      Last night, BJU had its last performance of Aida. It. was. incredible. I am beyond blessed that I was able to be in such a production. The blood, sweat, and tears that was poured into this opera was truly worth it! I've made many new friends, and my memories of all the rehearsals will be in my memory forever! And to top it off, a ton of my family and friends came out to support me and watch me in my Priestess role! That meant the world to me! Here are a "few" pictures that will give you a glimpse of all the fun I had. :)

                                           (Above) Picture of the stage from a catwalk

                                           First cast meeting!

                                            Us priestess had no idea what was going on underneath!

                                               Amy and I with our priestess lamps!

                                            Andy (Radames) top left, Joel and I top right, Wes, Joel and I bottom left,                                                    and Judson, Joel and I bottom right!

                                               First costume night! Rebekah and I!

                                                             Ben, Rebekah and I!

                                         Yeah, I sat in between these two a lot! Joel and Wes.

                                                                 My dear friend Olivia!

                                                             My friend Bethany! She played in the orchestra!

                                                     One of my favorite altos, Sarah!

                                                 OH MY GOSH IT IS THE GUEST ARTIST!

                Ok, Wes and I were trying to get a good picture, but Joel kept creeping!

                                                   Last night of Aida!!!! :(

                                      This is our, "Aida is finally over I have a life now!" face!

                                                                       It's the Peppa!!!! <3

                                                             I love those two so much <3

                               We will be unstoppable next year! Hannah, me, Lauren, Lydia

                                                              Cousins, Ben and Hannah

                                                   My friends came to see me! Rebecca and I!

                                                                 Sarah Jane and I!

                                                               Molly and I!

                                                                    The bestie and I! Megan!

                                                                  Marc and I!

                                                                       Amy and I!