I Will Praise Him Still

Check out the lyrics to this song...can you honestly sing this?

When the morning falls on the farthest hill,

I will sing His name, I will praise Him still.

When dark trials come and my heart is filled

With the weight of doubt, I will praise Him still.

For the Lord our God, He is strong to save

From the arms of death, from the deepest grave.

And He gave us life in His perfect will,

And by His good grace, I will praise Him still.

I will praise Him still...no matter what happens. This life is temporary, a vapor - it doesn't last. No matter what happens, God is sovereignly in control. Romans 8:28 - God works all things for good for those who love Him. The "good" in that verse isn't necessarily something that we think is good - it may be a trial that He uses to bring us closer to Him. Whatever it is, we need to trust in the Lord. -Much easier said than done, I'm afraid, but pray and ask God to help you to trust Him.

Prayer

I have not posted in a while...ok, a long time. I'm really bad at keeping this up! Anyways, I'm posting now. :)

As you can see I've entitled this post "Prayer". Well, the reason why is because I want to become a "prayer warrior". I have been convicted that I need to pray more often and just talk with God. I mean, 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says "pray without ceasing," so that's what we should be doing, right? Anyways, I want to pray for You. You know, we all struggle with things in life, and even if I can't do something physically for someone else who is struggling, one thing that I can do is give them over to the Lord in prayer. So, I've come up with a journal that I'm going to document prayer requests in so that I will be able to remember to pray for your prayer requests. I'm not fancy with words, but I don't think that it matters to God :)

As a result of keeping this journal and praying on a more regular basis, I'm hoping that a few things will happen:

1. That I will become more dependent on God.

2. That I will grow in my walk with Him.

3. That I will continue to keep a journal of prayer requests.

So how can you help? Well, you can pray for me, that I will just grow ever so closer to our heavenly Father, and send me your prayer requests!

I'm really excited for how the Lord is going to use this in my life and the lives of those I am able to pray for. To God be all the glory.

A Mighty Fortress

Check out this song...I posted the lyrics below. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4H-iWayY5M

Our God is, a consuming fire,
A burning holy Flame, with glory and freedom
Our God is, the only righteous judge,
Ruling over us with kindness and wisdom

We will keep our eyes on You
We will keep our eyes on You

A mighty fortress is our God
A sacred refuge is Your Name
Your Kingdom is unshakable
With You forever we will reign

Our God is, jealous for His own
None could comprehend, His love and His mercy
Our God is exalted on His throne
High above the heavens
Forever He's worthy...

We will keep our eyes on You
We will keep our eyes on You

We will keep our eyes on You
We will keep our eyes on You
So we can set our hearts on You
Lord we will set our hearts on You! 

Christ Is First IN Everything

Wow, it's been forever... I think I forgot how to blog! jk jk... :P

Anyways, I decided I would finally get back on here and update what has been going on in my life since the last time I posted:

I am home from Tapawingo - I've been home about six weeks now. Another summer ended well, many lessons learned, and great friends made. Back to school and work now for the past six weeks, which has been keeping me busy.

There have been a few changes in my life since I've been home that were rough to adjust to...I guess the most predominate one would be my being an "only child." Yes, it's true...all my siblings have gone and left me! It's weird being the only "kid" at home, but I'm excited for my siblings and what they get to do. It was definitely an adjustment and I felt lonely a lot, but things are getting better as the semester goes by.

Anyways, I have been learning a great deal about the Lord and really just have this desire to serve Him! A couple of weekends ago I went to the Ekklesia Conference in Jupiter, Florida (great conference!!!), and I believe it was Rick Holland who said something along the lines that "Jesus is to be number 1 in everything in your life, not just above everything." - I've been thinking a lot about my life and if Jesus is number 1 in everything...it makes me think of the verses in Romans 6:15- 18 where it talks about being slaves of sin or slaves of righteousness; and in Matthew 6:24 where it says that you cannot serve two masters. Who is the Master that you/I want to serve?? It should be evident in our lives. Just something to munch on.

Sunrise

The sunrise at 5:20 last Monday morning...one word: beautiful.

Surprise Visit ...

Well, I don't have much time, so this will be short, but I wanted to update. I've had a great two weeks of camp so far - my cabin has been great (and we even won cabin clean-up this week and had an ice cream party!)! That was pretty exciting! However, the most exciting part of the end of these two weeks was that my sister and mom came to visit! I knew Emily was coming, but I was surprised to see mom! I'm really glad that she made it up here this year...and that she was able to keep it a secret from me! Unfortunately they could only stay a couple of days, so it was sad to see them go.

Session 3 is starting this afternoon! I can't believe I've been up here for 5 weeks already...it doesn't feel like it's been that long - but I have 6 weeks left.

If I had to choose one thing I liked most about Tapawingo, it would be growing in the Lord. I've learned a lot even just these two weeks of camp and am excited for the next six weeks. I've probably learned most about just the Lord's faithfulness and provision. He has provided various ways that I wouldn't expect...He is awesome.

Well, I've got to get ready to go back to the island... I'd love to hear how everyone at home is doing, if you get the chance to send me letter :)

The end, yet the beginning...

I don't even know where to begin... Well, staff training has come to an end and campers are coming on Sunday - wait! that's tomorrow! time does fly by... Let me rewind a little bit:

The last three weeks we have had staff training which includes, but is not limited to, welcome program planning, hiking, activity area training (sailing, tennis, camp-craft, wildlife, etc...), lost swimmer/camper drill, work crews, some staff did lifeguard and WFA (wilderness first aid) training, four other girls and I became archery certified, the barge drill, wisdom walk, co -pairings, pre-season banquet, and finally we ended training with banana-boating. I'm sure I'm probably missing lots of things that we did, but this is just a taste of what my life has been like the last three weeks.

So, yes, I did get archery certified and I have successfully hit the bullseye more than once! Okay, it hasn't been in the exact middle, but still in the bullseye! :) A few of the girls and I ended up with stellar bruises on our arms from the string snapping against our skin as we released the arrow. I guess we've all learned our lesson to roll our arms/elbows down. I also shoot left handed because I am left eye-d. (I wondered why I was so bad all those other times I had tried to shoot before...!)

Another fun time was the barge drill scenario - two counselors didn't know what was going to happen and the rest of us pretended that the barge caught on fire. We made a big scene including jumping off the side of the barge while it was still moving at a good speed, hiding under the bench because of the "inability to swim," and I "lost" my life-jacket after getting in the water and pretended to drown, and the boat boy (who didn't know this was going to happen) found out it was a "pretend fire" and just walked off the boat. Anyways, it was just a big lesson on what to do if there's an emergency on the barge.

One of my favorite parts of training is the Wisdom Walk. That is where we split up into different groups and walk around to different stations on the island where different admin are. The admin share some wisdom and encouragement with us from God's Word.

Yesterday afternoon we found out what cabin we were in and who we were cos with. I am yet again in Winnebago (11-12 year olds) with Becky!

Finally, we had our pre-season banquet last night. It was rainbow themed because of the reminder of God's promises. All the counselors received awards of promises. I received the promise of Philippians 1:6 - which is kind of ironic because I had been thinking about that verse throughout staff training! Obviously God knew all along!

With the conclusion of the banquet, the boat boys took us banana-boating, which, for those of you who don't know, is a banana-shaped tube/boat.

Anyways, I cannot express how much God has already taught these three short weeks, but it has been good. I am excited for what He is going to teach me the next eight weeks as I will be pouring into campers. God is so good - He's always been faithful to me.

P.S. Here's a link to some pictures!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=220065&id=729082455&l=ad2ab4a832