Attitude check

Do you ever have days where you just feel like being grumpy for no reason? I know I do!

Lol! Here's a great reminder of what we should be doing whenever we feel that way. This was during testimony time over the weekend at Northland Leadership Camp. Brother Will Galkin just wanted all of us to be aware of our attitudes in the upcoming week, it was very cool =)
Btw, listen for the echo ; )

Saturday!

It's already the weekend? Craziness!

Ok, so I said that I would finish talking about Leadership Camp soon, & now I finally have a few minutes =)

So week two of LC was also amazing, just in a different way. For our second week, each of us would be assigned to a cabin, either in Pioneer Village, which is their junior camp, or we would be assigned to a jr. high, or sr. high cabin in teen week. I knew that wherever God put me He would work in my life, but I was really praying that I could be in a sr. high cabin, because I felt like I had been through a lot of the same struggles that girls face at that age, & God had taught me a lot through all of it. The first week we were there, it was a BIG week. There were close to 500 campers. But the second week was pretty small, & there were only 2 sr. high girls cabins. But I ended up being put in one of them, so that was awesome!

The first couple of days were a bit of a struggle for me, as I was trying to apply what I had learned the week before about servant leadership. But the more God worked in my heart, the easier the week went. I got to know the girls in my cabin really well & ended up having a great week- & best of all, on Wednesday night, one of the girls accepted Christ as her savior!!!

The following night was also a huge blessing. I was able to give my testimony during cabin devo's, I talked about a lot of the things I had struggled with, & how through EVERYTHING, God is always faithful, & just talked about a lot of what He has taught me. God really used that time to help the girls in the cabin open up about their own struggles & insecurities, & from what one of the girls had told me, I became really burdened for her.

The next day the LCer's had a session on prayer & how powerful it is. I have been finding out the more I pray, just how powerful it is, but this session really challenged me about my prayer life.

That afternoon I started praying specifically that God would give me a chance to talk one-on-one with the girl that had really opened up the night before.

It was the last day & I was just hoping for an opportunity to maybe encourage her. And of course, God worked it out so that we ended up being able to talk for over 45 minutes on our own! It was a huge blessing =)

Now that I'm thinking about it more, SO MUCH happened over those two weeks. I met some really great people, & learned so much about God. It was just fantastic!

I'm always amazed to at how small the world really is. Lol! One day, I wore an Inca Kola shirt that I got in Peru, & I met like 8 people that had been there on missions trips! One of the counselors ran up to me & yelled "Inca Kola?! I thought that looked familiar, I love that stuff! Did you know you can get it in Miami?" Haha! It turned out that the staff member I had my interview with had been there twice & is going back this January. None of them had ever been to Tacna, the area our group went, but I did meet a girl from West Coast Bible College that apparently knew the missionaries we stayed with. Weird huh? But very cool =)

Well, I am extremely tired, which means I better get off the computer & get busy. Lol. Thanks for checking in! Ttyl =)

Like trying to take a drink from a fire hydrant.

Lol! That was how one of the Leadership Camp speakers described how our 2 weeks would be at Northland Camp as we tried to process all of the teaching we would be hearing. It was true. We had a lot of sessions over the two weeks that we were there. I think that there were about 40+sessions all in all, & they were AMAZING! We had some phenomenal speakers; Will Galkin, Steve Pettit, Jeremy Frazor, Aaron Coffey, & Tom Farrell. The program was headed up by Brother Dave Coats, & I can't thank him enough for putting everything together. It was an amazing experience, & God did such a great work in my heart over the past few weeks.

I was able to go with 3 of my friends too, so that made it a lot of fun as well =)

The first week mostly focused on our own spiritual life, & we had around 4-5 sessions a day. I learned SO much that week that I think I am still trying to take it all in. Lol. Another thing that really taught me a lot was the one-on-one I had with a lady on camp staff. He name was Reba & she is the pianist for the Will Galkin evangelistic team. It was so great! She was such an blessing to me. One thing that she challenged me to do, was to read through some Psalms & make a list of all of the characteristics of God that I could find. Talk about encouragement!!
How could I go through writing down that God is: My chosen portion, ever present, my rock, my strength, my salvation, steadfast, mighty, faithful, merciful, my refuge, & countless other titles & not find encouragement?!
I would highly recommend going through Psalms whenever you are discouraged. Sometimes I think we forget how amazing God is, & the Psalms are a great reminder =)

Besides what God did in my life that first week, He was also doing great things throughout the rest of the camp. There were about 40 people in Leadership Camp, & there were new testimonies & blessings from everyone, everyday! It was such a blessing! Also, we were there during Teen Week III, & 26 people got saved that week!!! So cool!




















Our youth group was there during that week & one of the girls I have been praying for was able to go.
She has had a hard time with her family & everything recently, so I was so happy to find out that she would be going. She gave her testimony on Friday night, & she said that God had worked in her heart, & she was able to let go of a lot of bitterness that she had been holding on to. How great is that? God is so good!
















That weekend, the LC group went hiking at Pier's Gorge, which was a blast! It was SO beautiful out there! And it was also great to be able to hang out with everyone, & get to know each other better. I made some amazing friends, that I already miss terribly.

The girl on the left is Kara. She is such a sweetheart! She will also be going to Northland this fall & she's going to be majoring in piano =)And that's Blaire to the right. I had so much fun with her! She is from Canada & probably one of the coolest people I've ever met. I'm going to have to take a road trip to Canada to see her sometime. Lol!

Anyways, I'm going to wrap this up for now. I'll post about the second week sometime soon. I'll also try to get all the pic's & videos up soon too =) Thanks for stopping in, & stay tuned to hear about one of the biggest things God did in my heart last week. I'm super excited about it! Well, I'm off to get some shut-eye. Have a great week!

Happy 4th of July!

Ok, so it's a little bit early, but I'm not going to have time to post tomorrow. Lol!
Just want to say a quick thank-you to all of our soldiers who are serving, or have served & sacrificed so much to keep our nation free. And also for my brother, who is in Bahgdad right now, I love you & miss you Jeremiah!!!

Well this past week I have been getting ready to go to Leadership Camp up at Northland. It is a 2 week camp, & I'm looking forward to seeing how God is going to work in my life while I'm there!
The first week there will be alot of sessions & sermons, that sort of thing. Northland always has great speakers, so I'm excited to have such a great opportunity to learn & grow.
Then the second week we will be kind of 'assistant counselors'. Some of us will be in Pioneer Village, which is for the elementry age kids, & then some of us will be helping with the teenagers.

To prepare for Leadership Camp, all of us that are going were sent projects that we needed to complete before we go, & those have been such a blessing! We needed to memorize the Romans Road, & James 4:1-11 (great passage!) & we also needed to listen to a series of sermons on walking in the spirit. It was really fantastic & I learned ALOT.
So I'm very excited to go! I just wish it wasn't the same time as my sister's ultrasound =(
Amber is 6 months pregnant & she is having her 3D ultrasound during the first week that I will be at camp, so I'll be missing that. But she says I can watch the dvd, so that makes me feel better! Haha!

Well, I'll try to post over the weekend if I get a chance, & I will definitely put up pictures as soon as a can. Have a great holiday weekend everybody!!