Chapel

Chapel time was awesome! It was neat to see so many students engaging in worship together.

We had chapel twice a day all week--once in the morning and once at night. If you went to dawn patrol, you were spending roughly 3 hours a day in Chapel. But it was all good. The worship was good. The speaker was excellent. His name was Chris Simning this year. The theme for the week was God's sufficiency. It was a cool topic because Chris has a disability that affects his motor skills. But his mind is completely intact. He had so much to teach us!

At first, it was hard for me to look past his disability, but as the week went on, I grew quite fond of him. He's really a likeable character. And it made me realize that I do have a little bit of a discrimination against disabled people, as much as I would've denied it. It made me think about society's view of disabled and how I don't want to pass that perspective on to my children.

I Love My Church Family!

Today was our Annual Celebration! (Which for those of you who don't know, commemorates the beginning of our church. We had a short church service, in which several people (including myself) gave testimonies about what God has been doing in the last year.

Then in the afternoon, we went out to the Puffers for a big party! And as I looked around, I struck me, not for the first time, how much I really love my church family.

Good old Knock out. The classic basketball game that guys get bored with while girls love it to death. The object is to stay in as long as possible. And you can get people out if you are behind them and you make your ball in the hoop before they do. (But of course, the person at the front of the line gets to make the first shot, before the second person can make theirs.)

 Lenea is a doll! She was praying for her dinner and it was so cute! My heart melted!

 The Elder Team!

 Jake keeping the little ones busy!

Praying over the elders..

All in all, it was a wonderful day full of fun and fellowship and LOTS of good food!

Hitting Houses with Song!

Christmas Caroling!!!

A new tradition for us is to go Christmas caroling! We've done it every year since we moved to Tucson and it is so much fun! I love it!! I even went twice last year!! (Because I had other friends who were doing it as well.)

We usually do our whole street and maybe one or two other streets as well. It feels a bit awkward at first but once you get the hang of it, it is really really fun!

Every year it really blesses people and this year was no exception! I think a lot more people answered their doors, compared to previous years. In fact, we got goodies from three houses! It was like they were expecting us!!

One woman gave all of us candy canes. Another older couple was so blessed that they gave us a whole bag of the most delicious cherry chocolate chip cookies ever!! They said they'd been caroling through the neighborhood but we were the first to ever carol to them. There were a couple families that said that. There was another older couple that gave us snickerdoodles.

We made a point of visiting Carl, a man we sort know. And I freaked him out by running up and hugging him! It was dark so he wasn't sure who I was but after I identified myself (which, in my excitement, my dad had to help..) we all had a great laugh!!

Then there was the cute three and a half foot little lady with the foreign accent. We caroled at her house last year and she was so thrilled that she gave all of us hugs! Well, she came out again this year with more hugs!

And there was another elderly gentleman. We met him and his wife the first year we did it but they were sick last year. He told us he was so sick he almost died!!

After we were done caroling, we all came back to the house for hot drinks and cookies and we visited with each other and it was great fun!

We didn't take any pictures but here are some from the first year:

Whiplash and Lotsa Lotsa Mail!!!

It's been a while... But I have not disappeared completely!! And I have pictures from the Grand Canyon which I will post...eventually. Probably after this week.

Anyways! Boy do I have a story!!

So on Wednesday, we decided to play chase and we were running all around the church. Inside and Outside and around the back and through to the front... It was great!!

Until...

I crashed into my friend Christian! We just collided into each other. I hit him in the knee and he ended up on the floor and somehow he hit me in the face and while I was still standing, I could not feel half of my face for about two minutes! After the numbness wore off, it stung for a little and then I had a headache.Thinking it would go away in the morning, I took some tylenol and went to bed. When it was still there the next day, I told my mom. When it hurt with more intensity yesterday morning, Mom scheduled a doctor's appointment.

The doctor (who also happens to be a chiropractor) said I had whiplash and my neck was way out of alignment. That was causing the headaches. So he adjusted me up (which is pretty scary if you've never been adjusted before. This was my second time and it was still freaky!) and that was that. Then he gave me neck stretching exercises and told me to rest up.

Mom had been afraid that maybe I had a concussion. Or maybe I fractured my skull or something weird like that. She thought my summer camp (for which I leave tomorrow!!!) would be in jeopardy but the doctor said I can go as long as I took it easy until I left. So I've been a good girl and I took a three hour nap on the couch this afternoon! And y'know, when you lie flat on your back, there really is nothing you can do besides sleep. My neck is still a little sore but I felt immediately better when the doctor snapped me back into place!

And also, this week, I have just gotten a TON of mail!!! Wow!

These three (THREE!!!) letters came this morning!! Courtesy of Melissa, Sydney, and Kerri. Melissa sent me a sweet letter and Sydney sent me a couple ATC's to swap and Kerri sent me the most amazing letter ever!!! It was so colorful inside with lots of marker doodles in pretty colors.... it was amazing and it made me laugh!

And these two lovely letters came from Sabrina and Milea yesterday!!! They were both very sweet and nice long letters too! So, lots of mail to reply to!! And a lot of it I probably won't get to until after I get back from summer camp. =( Oh well.

And THIS is some amazing mail art that I sent to Kerri last week!! It's kinda hard to tell but the theme of the envelope is the zombie dinosaur apocalypse. Coming to a city near you in 2012!! It's a joke but I had a lot of fun making it. And Kerri said it made her laugh so much!! Which it always makes me smile to discover that my mail makes others happy.

Grace Like Rain

I thought this was so cool! I just had to share it with everyone! And it's been a while since I posted anyways....

So at Youth Group tonight, we began the night with worship in the sanctuary and Jake led us on the piano. It was an amazing worship time and he led us in "Grace Like Rain". It was so neat; the moment the song finished, there was silence and in the silence, it was pouring rain on the roof. It was so cool!! It was oawsome! We just had an awesome time of worship; it was really moving.

I kept thinking about how God continually gives us second chances. And third chances and fourth chances and fifth chances! He gives us hundreds of chances! And it just struck me how much He really does love us! =D

Annual Celebration!

Every year, around March-ish, our church celebrates the time that we became the church we are today! We had a beautiful worship service this morning and everyone was really getting into it. We had an open prayer time, during which, everyone spoke out their praises to God. It was so amazing. A man was visiting and he praised God for everybody in the church and our leaders and he praised God for moving in us and through us and that he was glad he stopped by today. Isn't that just the nicest thing? It was really encouraging.

After church was over, Melissa, Mom, and I slaved over enchilada casserole (fit to feed an army) and creme puffs for four hours. It was fun, but also hard work. In the end though, the creme puffs were worth it. Then we all loaded up in the car and drove to my friend Christian's house for a mega huge party!!

It was so much fun! We just ate food til we were stuffed and enjoyed one another's company, playing games and talking. We watched the boys play "Horse" and egged them on. (Personally, I'm not a basketball person. Actually, I don't much like it.) As it grew dark, we started a campfire and sang worship songs on guitars together. The singing was lovely and the food was amazing! Dad was the camera man and he took a lot of pictures! (Which still need to be downloaded...) There were a lot of really good action shots of the Horse game. I got some good shots on my camera as well.

All in all, it was a great party and I enjoyed hanging out with my friends so much, as always!!

AWANA–What Happens in the Van, Stays in the Van

Or not. ;)

Yesterday, we had the annual Awana Quizzing/Games competitions in Phoenix. These competitions test the students' skills in Bible memorization and athletic games played on a circle.

The drive up wasn't so bad. We had to meet together at 5:30 a.m.! It was impossible to sleep in the car either. So, I just listened to the chatter and studied my notes, trying to calm my nerves. Our whole high school team(s) went in the same van–all 15 of us!! But the atmosphere was lighthearted and my friends made me laugh, so I wasn't as nervous.

Once we got there, we painfully watched the Trek (middle schoolers) quiz. It wasn't painful because they were bad (the Trek actually did really good.) but I was really nervous. I guess it was apparent because my leader kept telling me to take deep breaths. My quizzing partner Grace told me not to listen to the Trek questions so they wouldn't throw me off. So I recited the preamble of the Constitution over and over to myself. It helped. You can't study any extra materials once you enter the auditorium so I had nothing else to do.

Once it was our turn to quiz, I felt much better. In quizzing, there are two parts. The first part is multiple choice and the second part is called "speed quizzing" and you must be the first person to buzz in to answer the question. We got all the multiple choice questions correct!

Then we went into speed quizzing. I answered the first question. The guy only got through four words before we buzzed in. And then I got the answer correct! Our team couldn't answer any other questions cuz we weren't fast enough on the buzzer. You would not believe how fast these high schoolers buzz in. It was insane!!

The other team from our church took 5th place. With 340 points, we came in THIRD PLACE!!! It was awesome! We got "medals" and we took tons of pictures (coming soon, since I never so much as touched my camera.) We had sandwiches for lunch and got into a rousing game of Tips which is a basketball game played in a circle. I'm not very good at it but it was fun.

Shortly after, the games competition began. One church had FIVE teams competing in the games. It was crazy but nonetheless, we did so good! And we screamed so loud for each other! (And the other green team in Flight 2) If you'd been sitting next to me, you might've been temporarily deaf. I screamed until my mouth was dry and I was hoarse. It was great. And in the end, we got FIRST PLACE!! We have never ever gotten first place in Awana games so it was doubly awesome. Fifteen minutes later, I was still saying "oh my gosh." in disbelief. We all thought we were getting second but we owned in the last three races and that clinched the win for us.

There was much revelry at In-N-Out afterward. I indulged myself by ordering a vanilla milkshake and extra crispy fries. And they were tasty! We all ate together outside and did goofy stuff (but no french fry wars this time.) The boys were going to do an awesome mime of a tug rope across the drive-thru (One person stood on each side and when the car came, they were going to pull on an imaginary "rope" to see if the car would stop.) but they got in trouble before they got to test it out. The idea was hilarious though.

And then, we mustn't forget the Starbucks. Yes, after In-N-Out, once we got closer to town we stopped at Starbucks.

Ten caffeinated teenagers in a van makes for one interesting car ride! Joe was crazy. He screamed and went supersonic at random intervals. We also sang several tuneless versions of songs such as "We are the Champions" (very appropriate for our victory), "Amazing Grace", "The Song that Never Ends", and "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" among others. (I have no idea how our leaders out up with us but secretly, I think it all greatly amuses them.)

Joe began singing "The Wheels on the Bus [Go Round and Round]". He then proceeded to make up his own hilarious renditions of the song. For example, "The kids in teh van are spazzing out." and "I am about to be threatened". (The meter got messed up here but nobody cared.) There were lots of verses about different things going on. I think it was the most interesting car ride I've ever had the privilege to witness.

It was such a good day. I could not stop smiling and laughing (even with my nervousness). I had the strangest urge to say "That's it?" once it was over. We studied and practiced so hard for weeks and weeks and it was all over in a single day. A few days ago, I wanted the madness of studying to be over but it was definitely worth every minute of awesomeness.

I♥Awana!

Let the Madness Be Over!

It's that time of year again! The rains are slowing down (marginally), the sun is coming out more often, flowers are springing up from the ground... and I am studying. Awana Quizzing and Games is THIS weekend!

Can I just say that I can't wait for it to be over? I have been studying SO hard over the last few weeks and I will be glad when I am done. I put several projects on hold for this. As the excitement mounts, I am studying harder than ever. Verses, references, passages, questions, spiritual gifts...

All I can say is that we are going to kick boo-tay this weekend! And despite the fatigue I am feeling at the edge of my consciousness, I will keep on studying!
Only a few more days!! Let the Madness be over! =D

Youth Worship

At our church, we have a thing, for lack of a better word, (Serious lack of a better word.) called Youth Worship. One Sunday a month, some of the youth lead our church in worship. They do an awesome job and now I'm one of them!! I sing on the youth worship team now. We had a practice-run this evening and we'll play on Sunday. This is my second time singing with them and it's really fun. I am getting much better with the mike. At first, I was rather tentative behind the mike but I'm a fast learner. Now, I can take the mike out of its stand!! (I feel so accomplished.)

Ben leads on guitar and Jake co-leads on the keyboard but this week, he's playing the drums (And he is a very good drummer.) so that Christian can play the keyboard (He is really good too.) Joe will be playing his Bass guitar for the first time and Sarah will be singing too. Joe was going to play his Bass the last time youth led worship but then he went and sprained his wrist that Saturday. sprained wrist=no Bass. ☺

I am so excited and I love worshipping with my friends! It really ministers to the hearts of the people in the church. Ben picked beautiful songs for us and we're trying out a new song called "Always Forever" by Phil Wickhan and it is a great song. The melody sings almost like a harmony-but in a good way. I sing the harmonies if I know them but usually I just stick to the melodies. Sometimes Sarah and I will switch back and forth. Singing with her is fun! I'm so excited about Sunday.

Fun Times with Chris!!

Chris is an engineer in our C3 group that we host here. Sometimes, he comes a little early and then we get to do fun things before everybody else gets here! We've done stuff like new math problems!

Last time, we made an awesome donkey piñata for my dad! (shown left) We filled it with candy and made him bust it open with a plastic wiffle ball bat. It made for a great video!!

Today, Chris brought a really old (really old) box camera that was his grandfathers! It was super cool! It didn't have any film in it so we couldn't take any "real" pictures, but it was really neat to look through the view-finder. This camera is like 100 years old! Yee haw! I love old stuff.

Chris took the camera apart for me and showed me how it worked. He even drew a very nice diagram for me on the whiteboard! But when he found out I'd never made a home-made box camera, we had to make one! I dug up a shoebox and we made our own. It was really cool. We made a simple one and then we upgraded it, slowly adding to it to make it better as we went along. Chris said that to make it take an actual picture, we'd only have to add light-sensitive paper to the back of the box. The light would shine through the pinprick to the light-sensitive paper and the paper would record the image. I'm not sure how to explain it better but it's really neat stuff! So the above right is a camera that's 100 years old. And this (at left) is a homemade box camera, and THIS 

 

is a modern camera. Actually it's a camera+phone=ipod. Yes it is the Iphone!