tapiocapuddin

Friday night was so neat! My church invited Jason Nightingale to come present a dramatic recitation of various Scripture verses. We sat mesmerized as we heard 1 John, most of Hebrews, and part of John spoken to us. There's just something about hearing the Word of God spoken out loud that pierces your heart. It's as if God is right there speaking to you! Mr. Nightingale has a deep voice that boomed and echoed through the woods. Each of us just sat there listening and hoping that some where out there someone would just happen to step outside their house and hear the truth of God's Word. The whole presentation was such an encouragement to me! The Scripture we heard was just a pinch of what Mr. Nightingale can recite. He has memorized 15-16 books of the Bible, including the book of Revelation! We're hoping that he can come again and share it with us! If any of you are interested in hearing him yourself, check out his website for more information.

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

It was an awesome week as I got to see God do amazing things in my 5-day clubs! My sisters, a friend, and I were able to counsel and give assurance of salvation to four children, as well as see all of the kids grow. One little girl came from an unsaved family, but by the end of the week, she knew the Gospel so well that you'd never guess that she had not been to church! When we encouraged the kids to tell the Wordless Book to someone, our hostess found the girl on the sidewalk sharing it with a whole group of friends! The little girl then came up to the hostess and asked if it was ok to share it with adults too 'cause she wanted to tell her dad about it. Praise the Lord! We're praying that God will use the hostess and her family to lead this family to Christ!

It was also a very funny week as we had some crazy kids! Here are a couple of excerpts from our conversations.

Cole: my shirt has a 'J' on it!
Cole: it's Jake's shirt
Cole: my dad made me wear it
Cole: Jake, you wanna wear this shirt?
Jake: I don't want to wear two shirts! it would make me hot!
Cole: maybe I'll go home and trade shirts
Jake: yeah, you can get your shirt out of my drawer

Jake: my uncle is a bad influence
Cole: yeah, he listens to rap!
Cole: and he's white!

Me: *sits down on the edge of the couch*
TJ: ooo, I like sitting by you!
TJ: sit back!

Jake sits on the arm of a couch while TJ sits on the other arm-
TJ: I don't know my verse
Jake: I can help you. do you want me to help you?
TJ: psh, I'm not coming all the way over there!

"I need to write. My book report needs to be written by tomorrow night. But there is a great dilemma—whatever I write, it will be wrong. I will have to re-write it. It will be in the wrong place, it will not say what I really want to say, it will repeat something I have already said, it will say what I do not want to say, or it will simply be irrelevant. Even if I actually write something that is really what I want to say, it will have to be moved and tweaked before it is where it needs to be. But the greater dilemma is that it cannot be otherwise—I cannot write what I want to say or have it in the right place unless I have already written what I do not want to say and put it in the wrong place. Only then can I write what I really want to write and put it in the right place. And so I must write, but I must write knowing that I will have to re-write--that I am not really writing because this is what I want to say and the right way to say it, but because I know that if I do not write what I am writing I will not be able to write what I want to say and find the perfect spot for it." And so I write.

[vent] I don't have much against VBS, having taught and attended them throughout the years. I have witnessed a few kids saved and boredom mostly kept at bay. It's not really the subject. Today as I visited some friends' church, they discussed how their VBS went the week before, and how everything was still good even though only nine boys attended. I sat there and agreed, but as they started giving out certificates to all the tons of people that had worked to make VBS happen, I was greatly saddened.

This summer has been very hard in that my sisters and I haven't been able to get ANY clubs in our town. And this isn't like Hat Creek, peoples! From having dogs (no, they don't even bite kids!) to working on their house (does that kind of work ever end?), the excuses ever more abound. At only 1 hour a day for five days, 5-day clubs take almost no effort! Party Clubs are even better at only 1 1/2 hours for one day! Yet no one is willing to put forth the effort to host one.

Foreign missions is so over emphasized today that Christians have lost sight of those lost in sin around them. Not that going overseas is wrong, but ignoring the neighbor next door is not right! We've come to believe that unless we're eating boiled grasshoppers in Cambodia, we're not missionaries. The truth is that all believers are called to preach the Gospel to everyone--"As you go, preach." Included is the annoying guy down the street who always wants to borrow everything to the bratty teenager running the gas station to the stuck up lady at the PTA meetings. Yes, this is part of everyday life!

Back to my area. Seeing such a lack of hospitality has been very frustrating. (Dismiss the pictures of us being closeted homeschoolers who know no one outside of our immediate family especially boys 'cause that would just be bad and wrong, so no wonder we couldn't find hostesses. That was a joke, and we're known as the family that knows everyone around even though we don't.) The irony is that so many are willing to do a little in their church to receive public recognition and praise, but few are willing to put their money where their mouth is and reach out to their neighborhoods. [/vent]

This didn't come out exactly how my brain processed it. The latter is much clearer, thankfully! So feel free to ask me about anything!

On this note, please pray for my 5-day clubs this week. My family is going to be doing a lot of traveling back and forth to nearby towns, so weariness will probably abound. I know that God is going to work mightily, though, so I am just excitedly waiting to see it!

I can't believe it! To say I am bummed does not even begin to describe how unhappy I am! The Kings are trading Ostertag (good riddance!) and Bobby Jackson for Bonzi Wells! AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!! Of the whole team, BJax is one of the most exciting talented players. He always comes out ready to give his all. Whether it is diving for a loose ball, amazingly jumping over tall centers to retrieved a missed shot, or doing one of his cool lay ins, he brings energy to the court! Grrr. And you know what's actually kinda funny about all this? Ostertag is being shipped back to the team who's hands we took him off of last year. Figures. Somehow lately we've been getting all the bad ends of the deals. You'd think they'd have learned by now, but nooooooo, their... :-X By the way, they obviously weren't thinking!!!

You Are a Frappacino

At your best, you are: fun loving, sweet, and modern At your worst, you are: childish and over indulgent You drink coffee when: you're craving something sweet Your caffeine addiction level: low

I haven't decided how accurate this is. Since none of the answers to the questions were exactly what I'd do, I had to pick second best. So take it with a pinch of chocolate! ;-)

Did I ever tell you how crazy PHC students are? Yeah, PHC and crazy. How oxymoronic is that? Though I guess the liberals would say it's accurate... Ok, back to PHC students' behavior. We loose our marbles, post on the bottom of PHC forums to be annoying, stick out our tongues at each other, are very predictable yet shocking, threaten to shower each other with water (like it was acid or something) when we get to PHC, and so much more. The only conclusion I come to is that PHC students are the epitome of coolness! ;-)

It looks like I won't be shopping at Amazon.com anymore. Their response almost makes me madder than their selling of sick stuff. Do they realize how dumb they sound when they say selling such stuff doesn't mean they endorse it? *sigh* So if you like shopping there, please e-mail them and spread the news around! And meanwhile, be like me and find a new place to find cheap books...

Quote of the day: "Wearing a retainer is like wearing a piece of flavorless hard candy in your mouth that is gagging you as much as annoying you!" -Heather Terwilliger

While discussing how the opposite of a faith based salvation is really salvation by works, Chloe (4 years old) instantly chimed in with "Fireworks??"

Staff

Camp was both awesome and awful. I learned a lot, was stretched beyond my limits, and still somehow managed to survive. I saw God work amazing things in the lives of the people around me and found that He hadn't left me alone. After all is said and done, though, I'm so glad to be home! The whole week was almost like a dream. It was different from any other year. I never had such an overwhelming sense of relief to leave it all behind as I traveled home with my family. If I had to do it all over again, I would, but I'm not sure about the future. The only conclusion I can come to is that I have a whole year to pray about it. *sigh*

Demo Club

Demo Club is where the staff put on a 5-day club for the students to see how to teach. I was responsible for putting the club together every day and let me tell you, it is one fun, yet stressful, job! The planning meetings could be quite interesting, though! Ever hear of the "dying cockroach?" Well, some of the guys felt the need to demonstrate it among other things... *rolls eyes*

Daniel & Crew

Believe it or not, Daniel had no idea there were people in the background of his pic. He just loves the way his eyes look when he does that. Imagine his surprise when he saw what I was really laughing at! ;-)

Noah's Famous Photography

My sister says this picture looks like someone was trying to take a picture of campers when Kimmy and I got in the way. *grin*

Alicia, Katrina, & Austin


Noah after Football

That's not just a bruise, that's a dent!

Crashing

What we all do after camp!

In-N-Out

After graduation, a lot of us head over to In-N-Out for one last meal together. It's actually kind of a shock to be out in the real world again after spending a week up on the mountain. You're no longer totally surrounded by Christian brothers and sisters. This is where the metal meets the road; it's time to get to work.

Eliante's Home

On the way home from camp, we stopped by our dear friends' house to see their "pond." It's more like an awesome swimming pool! You can see all the way to the bottom of the thing! They have really worked hard on their house and property, and it shows. What's so neat is that they don't just keep it to themselves, but constantly have people over to relax and to encourage them!

J's Grad Party

My sister's graduation open house was so nice! Tons of people came, eat, hung out, and played--very fun!

Girl Talk

Since all us girls were finally together again after a crazy school year, we went outside to take pics. It ended up being a time of crazy laughter and silliness. I won't even subject you to pics of it all. ;-)

M's Sparkler


Fireworks

I love the 4th of July! It's one of my favorite holidays! Quite appropriate for a PHC student, huh? After working some outside, a couple of families came over for a BBQ. We played around for awhile then headed over to a nearby school where friends gather every year to hang out, play any sport you can thing of, and watch fireworks. The fireworks show was kinda short this year, but still cool. The best came later, though, when we shot off fireworks in a Kmart parking lot! My dad bought a whole load of poppers, and we had an all out war! The people next to us were shooting off illegal fireworks--very cool, but dangerous! It was sweet to actually see someone in authority drive over to stop them. I'm so thankful to live in a free country that has been greatly blessed by God!

Remember to pray for our troops!

What is up with today's people? I had a I'm-trying-really-hard-not-to-laugh-
in-your-face experience today. So I'm working at my dad's office and a guy around my age walks in with a toothache. He tells our receptionist what's wrong and says Mondays and Fridays are the best times for him to come for an appointment. The receptionist turns to this Friday and asks if that's ok with him. He says it's too late, so to make sure she heard him right, she asks him if he can only come in on Mondays and Fridays. The guy says 'yes' and asks for a referral. He decides to go next door where they are booking two months out... *rolls eyes*

Ok, this may not come as a surprise to you, although to some it might, but I think jury duty is cool! I also think that my county has tapped into this thought because I just received another notice to report. This is the 4th time I've been summoned! For those of you that know my age, 4 times is a lot for such a short amount of time!! I think my city must be a really bad city or something like that.

Last time, I really wanted to be picked to be a juror. Sadly, though, the trial was probably going to take at least three days, and I was in the middle of tests and papers. :-/ The case was very interesting too. Something to the effect of two brother stealing police uniforms and citizen arresting (how do you citizen arrest when you're wearing police uniforms?) a guy they claimed was shooting on their land. Well, the guy wasn't too happy, so he was suing them for beating him up. And they all lived happily ever after. :P

Whoa, someone's not happy about having lost to PHC...