SHARP TOP

Sharp Top was incredible. More than I could have ever hoped for. God is so good. I loved spending time with these awesome sophomore girls and spending time with the west side leaders. It was great to get away to such a beautiful place for the weekend. The weather was wonderful- a little chilly, which made the half coffee/half hot chocolates that much yummier. These girls have captured my heart.

pink punk pirate

While I was being super lame and writing a paper on Halloween... this is what Olivia was prancing around in. Apparently one of the houses gives out homemade kettle corn every year, so she brought me some and it was incredible. I like kettle corn and I like popcorn but I LOVE this stuff. It's pretty much a mixture of both- a little sweet, a little salty, and a whole lot of deliciousness.

She's sassy.

My teacher required that our paper be in Turabian style. You're probably wondering what in the world that is, and so am I... even after I've turned in my paper that hopefully somewhat resembles it. It took my dad and I HOURS to figure out how to make the footnotes correctly. I would've actually been done with the paper at a decent hour had I not had to cite it. Never knew citations could take SO long... so I didn't even leave my dad's til 2 and then woke up early to proofread my paper. There really wasn't any point in that because I don't have a working printer so I couldn't fix the mistakes. Oh well. I'm just glad it's over with... this week should be easy which is good. I need time to rest, relax, and spend time with the Lord preparing for this weekend. I'm so so excited to get to hang out with 19 of my favorite sophomore girls at such a wonderful place! On that note... time for a nap!

It's the little things in life that mean the most.

This is going to be a sporadic post with lots of random thoughts because that describes my life... and my brain. I really am losing my mind. My brain has pretty much decided to quit working this semester- I write everything down and still forget things, I am always out of it (making me even more awkward than I already am), and I haven't been a good friend lately.

On that note... I know this is really selfish of me, but I just can't put forth the effort that I have been into some friendships anymore. I literally can't. It's so draining when I get absolutely nothing in return from some people. Especially when I feel like they don't care about our friendship at all. If it doesn't matter to them, maybe it shouldn't matter to me so much. Yes, there are people that I still feel led to pursue and don't *shouldn't* expect anything in return (which should always be the case probably), but those people that I'm not feeling really called to pursue a friendship with right now... I'm just going to let it go. I hate that and it is so so difficult for me to say (will be even harder for me to actually do), but I have to do it because I have so many other things (God, other relationships, Young Life, school) I need to focus on. I have to get rid of some of the "drainers" in my life so that I can be filled in order to pour out.

Something that I'm looking forward to that I absolutely love- Panera with Jessie tomorrow. This time once a week seriously keeps me going. Time with her always makes me think about life, really consider the things I'm doing (whether they're actually worthwhile or not), and she always points me to the Lord. My time with her is always rich (NOT exhausting!). I don't know how it happens or how she does it- yes, I do... She lets God use her and speak through her. Incredible.

Jamie and I went to Bearden's Young Life tonight to hear Lindsey speak and she was AWESOME. Wow. You could hardly tell she was nervous at all and her message was great. She spoke so much truth to those high schoolers. It is amazing to watch God use my wonderful friends in such cool ways to share His love. I am SO PROUD of this girl.

Team.

Have I ever told y'all (whoever that may be) how awesome my team is? Well since words can't describe them and a picture's supposedly worth a thousand words... I'll let these pictures do the talking:


(miss you Weez)

(miss you Ashley)

Turns out I don't have many recent team pictures... we need to work on that. And since Der didn't make it into any of these:


This was a lot more pointless than I had intended (because I didn't realize how few good pictures I had and how none of them were recent)... but my team is just really great and very encouraging. Love them.

Because I'm bored in my 3 hour night class...

8.2.10
I finally got to contact my parents for the first time! I emailed them both and then decided to try and call. A man at the front desk at the lodge of our hotel let me use his cell phone for $5.00. I called Dad first because I knew he would have his phone with him, told him to call Mom to tell her I'd be calling her next. I'm so glad I finally got to talk to them! Dad and Matt Rob both emailed me back (so good to hear from my best friend!), and I got to facebook chat for a second with Scott and Nicole (Stridde is engaged!!!!!!!!). I feel so much better now that I've contacted home!

We woke up this morning to watch Annalise, Jack, Jesse, and Lindsay do the "half day adrenaline"- gorge swing, zip line, and flying fox or something like that. Then we went white water rafting which was a lot of fun. My arms will definitely be sore tomorrow along with my legs because we had to hike down to the river and then nearly 2 miles straight back up at the end (NO ONE WARNED ME ABOUT THIS!) When we were about 2/3 of the way to the top, I had stopped for a second and two guides came by and told us we were almost to the halfway point. This is really embarrassing, but I started crying because I didn't think I could make it more than double the distance we had already come. I was exhausted! Meghan and Lindsay were so sweet and walked slowly the rest of the way with me (the guide "Colgate" stayed with me and made me stop every few minutes to breathe- told you it was embarrassing!). Colgate felt really bad about making me cry!

After that we thankfully had sometime to relax before we went on the dinner cruise (aka booze cruise because we didn't actually get dinner, just had an open bar). Pierre cooked dinner for us when we got back to the "hotel" (a cabin type thing with one side open to the outside- just thick curtains to close at night to keep anyone/anything out!) and it was very good.

The past two days have been incredible. In a way I'm sad to leave this luxury and head to the rural area where we're going to be "roughing it" even more than we have been, but I am so excited to see what God is going to do because I know it's going to be BIG! I'm just fully trusting Him to get me through the rest of the trip because we aren't even halfway, and I'm almost ready to go home.

8.3.10

(this is a quick one!)

• drove from Vic Falls to Matopo Hills
• stopped for snack, gas, and at Pierre's
• trailer fell on Anna's shoulder
• Jesse's wallet got stolen
• great dinner by Norma
• talked about Spiritual Warfare
• trying/frustrating day
• have no idea what camp will look like

8.4.10

(morning)

2 Timothy 1:14

Proverbs 4:23

Psalm 141:3

Isaiah 52:12

Mark 13:33

1 Corinthians 16:13

Philippians 4:5-7

Mark 1:2-3

**Be alert**

**Guard your heart**

8.4.10

(night)

Today leaders from Matopo arrived at Morning Star. We went to two orphan feedings, but at the first one a widow had lost her child so everyone was at the funeral. At the second we were too early and had to get back so we only saw a few children. Then we went to climb the world's largest piece of exposed granite (or something like that) that was 4 miles long. The view at the top was beautiful. 
We also saw some farms that were "farmed God's way."

I no longer feel homesick and loved getting to know the new leaders. One guy, Andy, was telling me how he's never met his father and doesn't even know if he's alive. I also talked to a girl, Stha (spelling?), that told me of her first encounter with Christ and how he healed her from her physical suffering- nose bleeds, chest pain (she had been in the hospital for 2 months). It was really neat to hear their stories.

After dinner we had a bonfire and many people shared what they had learned today which was awesome to hear the things they had taken in about being a leader and putting on a Young Life club.

I've really been missing my Young Life girls and thinking about them a lot- how I can reach out to them and be a better leader to them when I get back.

In my life, be lifted high.

This is the cry of my heart. That God will be lifted high in my life. That He will be glorified. That others will not see me, but see Him in me. That people will be drawn to Him.

The verse I've been trying to live by this week is Ephesians 4:1-2

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

We had CAK ice cream Olympics on Monday night, and to be completely honest, I was really dreading it. I was in a terrible mood the whole day, but was constantly praying for God to change my attitude. As soon as I picked up the first two girls, they were so excited that it got my spirits up... when we got to the Kolinsky's there were already a bunch of cars there and people just kept coming. So many kids came and everyone had a great time (including me). It really encouraged me for my ministry this year and for club. I learned a lot and was reminded of so many things of what Young Life is about and what it means while I was in Africa (ironic that I learned when I was supposed to be the one teaching, but that was true for the whole trip in general pretty much) that I hope I can bring into my ministry at CAK.

I think all of CAK must have shown up... so many kids!

love these girls

all the sophomores

Happy (early) birthday, Steeny!

I would not be the person I am today if it weren't for this girl right here.

I remember the first time I met her at my very first Young Life club. Freshmen year was not my peak, but I still don't believe that I was truly as awkward as Christine swears I was. :) Now I have experienced how she felt trying to pursue us, and I feel so sorry for her. We were young, awkward, bratty, dumb, dramatic, not nice, self-centered, lost, immature... typical high school freshmen. Oh yeah, and I was depressed, and I'm pretty sure I piled that all on her the night I met her. Via Facebook. I grew so much as a person and in my walk with Christ through my high school years thanks to this beautiful young woman I called my Young Life leader, but she was (and still is) SO much more than that- a friend, a role model, a mentor, a listener. I could go on and on about how wonderful she is and how much she means to me.

Christine, I cannot thank you enough for investing your time in our lives. For pursuing us even when we didn't know we wanted/needed to be pursued. For putting up with all our BS, and continuing to build relationships with us even when we did not treat you well. For always being there for us. For listening to our drama. For taking us to Frontier. For speaking truth into our lives. For never giving up on us. And for being completely out of your mind and taking us on our senior spring break trip. Can't wait for the reunion trip! :)

(still hate that I'm not in this picture)

Words cannot describe how much you mean to me.

Happy birthday!

I LOVE YOU.