Well I Had A Lovely Day.

I had such a lovely birthday on Friday!!! Between phone calls, IMs, lunch with the staff at the local Mexican place, dinner with my mom, and Tiffany dedicating a blog post to me:o), I was in a continual state of being wished "Happy Birthday"! But while my 25th was absolutely wonderful, Esmerelda's was not. Esmerelda was a gift on my 24th birthday from a sweet, but slightly misguided, friend and co-worker, and had a very dismal first birthday being dead:




You see, I am a plant killer.

Whew! I feel better now that I've confessed. (And by the way, a lot of things get named around my place of employment ~ don't even ask who Deliah or Hans are! Or who the pillow person is.).

If you look closely, you'll see the words "This is a flower, I promise" on the yellow piece of paper. You know it's bad when we have to identify what the object is.

The one consolation I have is this. Esmerelda was brought back to the land of plant-ness by another co-worker while I was in Thailand, and I've been told that mums die in the winter. So we'll see if Esmerelda makes her grand re-entry.

In the meanwhile, meet Murdock:

Do you see how vibrant and full of life he is right now? Another misguided soul placed Murdock in my office this week. Of course he was without a name, so Emily and I had to name him. We are so humane... at least we name the plants before we kill them! Enjoy that color and life on him, because his clock is slowly ticking to his doom.

And it really won't be my fault:o).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This evening was a Father/Daughter Banquet for the girls in the youth group, so another single girl and I spent several hours decorating for the grand event:

Why is it that it takes 4 hours to set everything up, and 20 minutes to take it down??? Ah well, the girls looked so pretty and I'm sure it will be a lasting memory!

Have a great Sunday!

It's That Time Of Year Again.

February is my favorite month of the year because at LVBC, that means it's missions and Faith Promise time. I love hearing the reports of various missionaries coming through and seeing members seriously seek God's face as they consider their part in world missions for the coming year.

A familiar sight to see is flags resting on a window sill; a silent testimony of the souls who still wait to hear the good news of Jesus Christ.

I love the way this picture turned out. Doesn't it look like a cross is over the bulletin board? Only the cross of Christ makes it possible to move forward by faith, and the reason for missions is because of the cross!

When I look at all these flags and consider that they represent only a small portion of the world's countries, I then begin to realize just how small and insignificant I really am. Isaiah says, "Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing." (40:15) Wow.

This ought to be the cry of a Christian. Notice Alaska is also on this chart. Missions is not just overseas... it begins at home.

Just a small smattering of missionaries all over the world, but they are making a big difference!

So very true... the mission field is right outside our own front doors.

Pray For Kenya.

Have you seen the news articles aboutKenya? While many of us were in the post-Christmas celebrations, this African nation slid into a wave of ethnic cleansing following what appears to be a rigged election. Here is yet one more article talking about the events taking place.

One article I read said this:

The top U.S. diplomat for Africa, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer, said Wednesday that she believed the month of violence has descended into ethnic cleansing.

Frazer said she did not consider the killings genocide.

(Lawmaker killed in Kenya's Rift Valley )


If it's not genocide yet, it will be pretty soon... pray for this African nation.

I Am Blessed!

I've been (trying!) to read through the Bible in a year; I don't think I'll mention the fact I started last January:o). There really are too many gems in Genesis and Exodus to dig out! But over the last three months, my reading has really taken off so that I'm now in Nehemiah (woohoo!). I read this verse yesterday morning and again last night:

"Yet thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way wherein they should go."

Nehemiah 9:19

I literally got goosebumps up and down my arms after I read that verse. Did you catch the wording there? "In thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness." God's mercies are so great that He didn't forsake the children of Israel in the wilderness. If it were up to me (and thankfully it was not...), I would have probably left over a million complaining people to fend for themselves for forty years. But God did not. A couple of verses later, this precious truth was found:

"Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not."

Nehemiah 9:21

Doesn't that just make you want to shout?!?! For forty years God sustained them in the wilderness so they lacked nothing. Don't over look that miracle:o). Show me the closest store where I can buy shoes, clothing, and household needs that will last me for forty years and they will have my business!

But I have something better than any man-made store. I know the God who says "For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills" (Psalm 50:10). I know the God who made "a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters" (Isaiah 43:16). I know the Lord who promises to be a "sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly" (Psalm 84:11).

Isn't that sweet?!? Walking along this path of life, I can rejoice that He has ordered my footsteps and that "He will keep the feet of his saints" (1 Samuel 2:9). Oh what a blessed thought!

I might not read through the Bible in a year, but I am so blessed to be able to glean the riches found in His Word. One of these years, one of these years....:o)

In Time.

"The gospel is only good news if it gets there in time."

- Carl F. H. Henry -

10 Years... They've Been Good.

If you could see what I once was

If you could go with me,

Back to where I started from

Then, I know you would see.

A miracle of Love that put me in it's sweet embrace

And made me what I am today

A sinner saved by grace.

I'm just a sinner saved by grace.

When I stood condemned to death,

He took my place.

Now I grow and breathe in freedom

With each breath of life I take.

I'm just a sinner, saved by grace.

How could I boast on anything

I've ever seen or done?

How could I dare to claim as mine

the victories GOD has won.

Where would I be had GOD not brought me

gently to this place.

I'm here to say I'm nothing but

A sinner saved by grace.

January 25, 1998 -January 25, 2008

10 years of sweet salvation with my Lord!

I will never forget that sweet Sunday morning Debbie Wilhite led me to the Lord, after doing a 4-week Bible Study with Debbie Lytle. It is only by His Grace I am here today!

Finally Getting Around To It!

As I (very briefly!) said, camp was very good. This was my first time in several years actually getting to hear the messages, and that was my favorite part:o). Bro. Paul Morrison was the speaker for camp (click here to listen to the messages) and preached on being an unmovable teen. He started off at church Sunday evening preaching from Acts and I would really encourage you to go listen to the message if you can. I believe you will be blessed and challenged by the preaching of God's Word.

While at camp, we learned a new song about Naaman and how he went to the river and got dipped seven times. Here is Jon and Bro. John leading the action part of "Dippy, Dippy, Dip"!

Everyone was divided into four teams and each team was named after a mountain (in keeping with the unmovable part). Here are the Mt. McKinley girls ~ my team! ~ trying to stay in pyramid formation long enough to win some points.

The house where the girls stayed was about 3/4 of a mile from the preaching. Normally I wouldn't mind the walk, but it was c-o-l-d out, so two ladies nicely drove us back and forth in the vans. This particular time there was only one van at the preaching place, so 28 girls and counselors piled into the van:o). It was a lot of fun!

The Internet is a great place to find games! This game had 6 parts to it: 1 person shoveling, two people skiing, three Vikings screaming (don't ask), 4 people bobsledding, and so on and so forth. The point was to randomly eliminate people by calling out "3 people... now 5 people...". Here we were acting as a 4-person bobsledding team:o).

This game was all about protecting the egg on the inside. Each team was given: one egg, one bag of straws, a handful of rubber bands, a packet of tissues, one glove, and some krazy glue. The point was to keep the egg unbroken after being dropped. Three of the eggs survived the initial drop (sorry Jen!), but when the senior boys from opposite teams threw the eggs, they were all broken:o). Hey, it entertained the girls while the boys played football:o).

I'm so glad I got to go to camp... Bro. Morrison was a challenge to me and to many of the campers as well! Thanks for praying... God is still working!

More To Come!

Camp was good!

(Rebekah, Selena, Bethany, Anne, Alayna, Rachel ~ the Mt. McKinley girls!~ minus Kristen)

More to come later :o).

I'm Goin' To Camp!

Last year I went to camp as a cook...

(Raichelle, Jen, and I ~ Winter Camp 2007)

But this year I've been asked to go as a counselor, so that's the plan as the whole teen group heads down to camp Sunday night after church services. This camp is very special to me, because I've been going for the past ten years: 4 as a camper and 6 as a cook.

Many decisions have been made at the altar... many friends were prayed and cried over... many fun (and muddy!) memories were made in the wide, wide field... many special chats were had... many long walks were taken... many good men of God have come and preached their hearts out... many lives were changed as a result of camp.

But many teens I knew, who sat in the same services, headed down the wrong path of life. I'm thankful for the impact camp has had on my life. But for the grace of God, I would be heading down the wrong path too.

So I ask you, as you finish reading this post, would you take a moment and pray for the teens going to camp tomorrow night??? You might only know me or you might actually know some teens going to camp. Camp is a pivotal time. Each prayer is vital. Would you uphold in prayer a faceless/nameless group of teens that you don't know over the next few days?

• Decisions need to be made.
• Teens need to be saved.
• Standards need to be formed.
• God's call on a young person's life needs to be heard.
• Counselors need to have some chats with a few young people.
• God wants to come and work.

You may never know until eternity the difference your prayers made.

Third Wind.

For the third time this week, I have gotten my second wind - right on time too! It's been hitting me around 9ish at night, making me feel like I can clean the whole house, bottom to top:o), within an hour and organize it all too. So I'm off to do something... I'm not quite sure what since I have so many interesting things awaiting me!

So while I go work off my second wind for the day, I thought I would leave you with a link to another blog I have faithfully read since its beginning - Amy's Humble Musings. I'm not quite sure how I found Amy, but I must of been looking something up on the Internet and her title caught my eye. At the time I started reading, Amy had 4 children and was living in a rather smallish apartment in CA for 6 months while her husband worked on a project. Amy had a humorous way of portraying life in CA in an apartment and I was hooked. Now Amy has 6 children and is back in Florida, but preparing to move into an "Amish" home.

As with most blogs I read, I do not endorse everything on the blog, so I'll once again remind you to please take in the good and left the rest behind:o).

Happy reading... I'm going to go clean!