Step Out in Faith

CRAZY LOVE
What in your life requires faith?
-normally something that scares you

*we tend to try to set our lives up so we don't need to have faith (play it safe)

Earth is temporary. Life is temporary.
Why as Christians do we want to stay here?

Heaven is our real home.

Our material possesions here don't matter, the relationships do.
-material possesions sin but can be silly

What do I keep to myself?
~plans --> my future

Matthew 25:
-Whatever you didn't do for the least of my brothers you didn't do for me

What are our priorities? we only have so much time.

After coming back to school from youth group I was talking to Alina and she gave me a new perspective on things. We were talking about Drew and what I had just heard and how we shouldn't want to stay here when Heaven is so beyond amazing. Then Alina said that as a Christian Earth should really be the only Hell we experience. I immediately went wow! In all reality how cool is that?!

Drew Swank

In loving memory of Drew Swank. <3

Holy Cow! Things just hit you like a ton of bricks sometimes and this is by far the worst! I can't believe that in just a matter of moments the whole world changed. Or at least the world I've known.

Last Friday night during a football game against Lacrosse/Washtucna Drew Swank was hit during a play that knocked him flat on his back. He was able to walk off the field but then had to be immediately flown to Sacred Heart Medical Center.

This morning He was officially gone. The doctors did all they could and now Drew has gone to be with the Lord.

This weekend hasn't been the same anywhere! Its hard right now to see what good can come from this tragedy but I know this is obviously God's will and we have to be willing to roll with it.

Its been really hard for me to not be home right now. I want to be with my family, hug my friends and laugh and cry with them. I remember finding out that He had gone to the hospital on my way home from our game yesterday. I thought "ouch that sucks! I hope he's alright." Nothing could have prepared me for the weekend ahead of me.

I got a few updates saying He was still in the hospital, and I didn't worry. Life went on like normal. Then Sunday came and it was all real. For real a life was lost prematurely. Someone I had known, someone from my school. That doesn't happen. Valley Christain is too small for something like this. I guess I really thought we lived in a bubble. And because of that my world was shaken.

I had people asking me why God allowed this to happen and why wasn't He working a miracle when we all were so desperately praying for one. I didn't know how to answer. I mean I did "This is God's will" but saying that didn't help. It didn't make it better or go away. Prayer was the only thing I could think of. I constantly called out to God for understanding and peace.

God kept beating me over the head with the same thing I had already known was true, that this is His will. And once I was able to come to terms with that along with it came peace. The process is far from being over but it has begun.

Please pray for the Swanks! I can't even begin to imagine what this is like for them!

Maryland

Off to Maryland!!! Woohoo! After about 3 hours of sleep last night I was very much so looking forward to laying down and spreading out on the bus. Only this morning it was different, the bus was midget sized! For the four hour bus ride to Baltimore, MD we had to ride in the short bus! Man Coach got mad! Haha.

Without a DVD player or any of our usual luxuries I totally slept the whole way there! I needed it, although I had felt pretty awake before.

We won! We played four games and won 3-1!!! So far we are 2-0 in conference! :D

Nocturnal Nightmare

Yay for an all nighter right before a volleyball game! lol. We went out to camp Leibenzell, which is not too far away from the barn. Set up was a basketball court, food and a dance party in the loft. There were about 20 kids there and right off the bat it was time for Fear Factor! The first round was dog food and milk. The second, cow tongue. The third, anchovies and sardine smoothies and the fourth and final round was pigs feet!

Then people played basketball, soccer, rock band, and sang karaoke the night away! After I was done working my shifts at the food table and outside I was way tired. It was like 4 in the morning and I had to get to sleep! I had to wake up at 7 in the morning to leave for our game.

Yummy!

Paula, Simon & Randy

Contagious Truth!

Keith & I.

Octoball!

Are you in Tune?

There are two parts to being in tune:
1) faith
2) and actions because of that faith

Staying properly connected to God is an every moment tune-up.

- You can be in tune to what you believe but be out of tune with your actions
- You can also be in tune with your actions but out of tune with your beliefs

What are your thoughts about this? Do you think people can be in tune in one aspect and out of tune in another?

Doing Some Decorating

Boredom. It happens all too often around here, so I tried to change it. Jillian wasn't doing anything so we headed out to Wally World and Target to look for a rug and room stuff. We were very successful and our room is starting to look lived in.

Our Door.

Our Rug.

Reaching Out

I did some major itunes shopping today with card I bought yesterday and I realized something. A popular topic to write about right now in the Christian music genre is spreading God all over. All the songs got me thinking about going to Africa. I want to go so badly!!! I am ready to go where He leads me. Hopefully I will be able to make a trip to Africa with Mocha Club. That would be so stinkin amazing!

The songs I'm listening to:
~Albertine by Brooke Fraser
~Million Voices by BarlowGirl
~Speaking Louder Than Before by Jeremy Camp
~Until The Whole World Hears by Casting Crowns
~City On Our Knees by tobyMac
~Lost Get Found by Britt Nicole

House

The new season of House premiered tonight! Candice and I made some popcorn and loved watching two hours of an awesome show.

Earlier today I went shopping after my class. I went to Staples and got a tape dispenser and a notebook and then I went to Target and got some Itunes after looking around for a really long time lol. I found a rug there that might work in my room, but I don't know we'll have to see. Jillian and I need to go shopping.

Street Fair!

I had the best Sunday to date today! On my way to Church this morning Main St. was blocked off and a whole bunch of tents were set up in the street. It looked pretty interesting so once I got back from Church and had some lunch Candice and I went down to check it out. THE CUTEST THING EVER!!! Oh man I fell in love with that little street fair. It only went down a couple of blocks but it was enough for me!

I had been bummed to have missed the fair at home for another year in a row but this totally made up for it. There were so many different little tents to look at! There were jewelry, clothing, business, and food tents along with a couple live music stations.

We were walking around and saw Pastor Don from campus ministry so we said hi and got a tour of the Methodist Church there on Main St. Then we got some pretty legit tats! :D Glitter ones of course. We walked around some more and then got crepes. Yummy! I got strawberry and neutella and Candice got bananas with neutella. We sat on the curb and enjoyed some music as we smeared chocolate all over our faces!

I had to leave to meet Kathleen at the barn to take clean our care horse, Marcus's, sheeth. Yeah that was a blast and a half. Haha not! He tried to kick our heads off. With some help we finally got him settled down and completely clean. He even got a white horse purple bubble bath. I went to go graze him so he would finish drying but he had other plans. He hopped and kicked out at me then took off running. Apparently he was done being told what to do. That was just great.

Once he was back in his stall with some food I headed straight back to the fair. Candice and I did some more looking around. Ice cream sounded good so we walked down to Rita's and had uber delish mango something or others lol. We went back to Candice's room to watch some House, we didn't actually but it was fun to hang out. Then I was off to campus ministry.

I wish all days could be like this one! Sunny, unstressful, and with friends!

I <3 the street fair!

Glitter tats!

My sunflower.

With Mr. Alligator.

If you didn't know already Candice is amazing! <3

Revival of the Basics

Pastor Bart Young

How can I get control of my life all the time?
~Joshua 22:5

*God never commands you to do something that is impossible or unreasonable.

TO LOVE THE LORD:
-Deuteronomy 6:5
+ in the n.t. they added "your mind"

<3
but your emotions are all over the place
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
God is the same yesterday, today and forever!
-------------------------

your soul = when you aren't trying
your strength = with all you have
your mind = your thoughts

you can't just pick one - you will be renewed when you use all

GRACE -> our motivation
when you just have salvation you are missing out on more that God has for you
~serving God is a way to get closer to Him

I have salvation & forgiveness of sins. Why do I need to do anything else?
-you don't have to but once we fully understand what God has done we should want to

1. Put God first
2. Take out the trash (change)
~Romans 12:2
3. Take some responsibility for your life
4. Have a plan
This week *Finish my devotional and start my new one*
If you have a plan, its ok for it to change, but at least you are going somewhere and doing something
5. Do something
~Proverbs 24:30-34

God will meet you where you are if we take that first step

Volleyball Tourney

Yesterday and today I spent most of my time on a bus going to and from Lebanon, PA. It was a two and a half hour drive so we watched movies. On the way there on Friday we watched The Last House on the Left. Not one I ever need to see again! Not like I want to watch any of them again lol. We played two matches. They didn't go so well :(. Then on the ride home we watched 1408. It wasn't too bad, a brain twister, so I kind of liked it but not enough to watch again.

Then today we had to leave at 6am! I am definitely not good with that early of mornings for anything other than horses haha. So I was late :(. I somehow slept through both of my very loud alarms. I woke up to Kelly calling me trying to find out where I was. So I hurried like no other and we hit the road. We didn't watch a movie on the way there because everyone slept.

We played another two games today. The first one was just as bad as yesterday. After we finished we had like three hours to wait till we played again so we had a team meeting/discussion. We all were feeling completely unconfident in our own abilities and felt a lack of trust between each other. For me it has been an odd switch. People are required to do different things in their positions and just a whole bunch of stuff so I'm feeling like I've never played before and am totally lost!

Our second match was againt a team that we will face again in season so we all wanted to do well. We won the first two games, it was a fight but we really did great! Sadly we started to lose it the next game and we ended up loosing in five games.

Thirsty Thursday

Normally this saying thirsty Thursday is connected with drinking galore because the upperclassmen don't have Friday classes and its time for the underage drinking to begin. Well I was a different type of thirsty this evening. I was thirsty for a good in depth conversation with fellow believers at the campus ministry get together. Well I just got back to my room and I'm still parched. And now everyone must go, its not like I would know who to talk to anyway. I guess thats why I blog. I can say all I need to and feel like people listen when really its just empty cyber-space.

Anyway. I find it ironic that tonight the topic for discusion was redifining the church, and in the middle of getting started, I think, of a good conversation when the right hour rolled around it was time to pray and go. How typical "church" is that? You are only here for a certain time and then its time to go about and live your merry lives. Argh. I am back in my room right now more frustrated about everything said in the last hour being totally contradicted. It overshadows all the good that happened to me today. Having a really good jumping lesson, a perfect standing wrap, an ok practice, a 100% on my math test, its all gone, I am just now left with a craving for that perfect end to my day. We can't say that something has to change and then not allow people to talk for hours getting somewhere!

A girl mentioned the song by Switchfoot Dare You to Move. Well I dare you! I seriously double dog dare you to move. You call yourself a Christian? Prove it to me. Our actions speak louder than our words. There is a song that says "they will know we are Christians by our love." No one sees your love if you don't give it away! Giving it away is moving. Its reaching. Its being a true Christ follower. That is redifining the church.

Can you handle that?

God goes with Ice Cream

I had a great time at youth group tonight! I really do like it there, everyone is so welcoming and I like being able to remove myself from school and really focus on God. Before we got started with the message there was a relay race lol in giant underwear!

Here are my notes from the topic tonight:

Crazy Love
~ The world sees two types of people; the followers of Christ - those who live radically for Christ and the Christians - you are saved and will go to Heaven but you don't really have to change much
~ Is there such a thing as a Luke-warm Christian?
Luke-warm: going through the motions ("church") but no sacrifice

There is still always going to be sin but you always get back on the horse
We don't need to be perfect. That's been covered!
~ If Christianity was all about perfection then it wouldn't even be
Solutions for the Luke-warm Christian:
The answer is NOT try harder it is to fall madly in love with God!
"It all comes down to a heart issue." D.T. ;)

You should want to change and be noticeably different
To be a true follower of Christ it is a lifestyle *Like running up the down escalator*
Sometimes we have to go against the grain in order to see a difference

Nothing in this life will matter unless it's about loving God and others
-They will know we are Christians by our LOVE

On my way home everything just felt so peacefully great that the Dairy Queen I pass on my way home was totally calling to me so I just had to stop. They're having this special that has oreos and cookie dough all in one! So thats exactly what I had to get. And to make it better they don't scrape the top off, the guy gave it to me with inches of ice cream sticking out the top!

Yum!

Welcome

Today instead of our AFC class we had freshmen convocation. We marched around the school through the gates and into the gym. It was so crazy I look around and the bleechers were fully packed and I couldn't believe this was all one class. My class! Ah! There were so many people! Everyone took their turn saying their welcome and other "important" things lol. And then we all had to sing a song about Hackettstown.

It was pretty funny and about the extent of interesting things for the day.

Flyin' By!

Dang! I can't believe a week totally flew by just like that. I have been pretty busy with classes, riding, volleyball practices, and the few other things I try to fit in.

I had my first team practice this Friday. It was fun and I rode Nino.

Then I got to play in my first games this weekend! We had a tournament in Long Island, NY. We won our first match and lost our second on Saturday and lost our first and won our second on Sunday. Our last game totally rocked!!! I would love it if we played like that for the rest of the season. My personal stats for the weekend were 8 Kills, 3 Aces, and 4 Blocks! :)

Game Night

Church this morning! I finally got to go to Breakpoint for a Sunday morning service. It was good, I like it. Its really small compared to Valley Nazarene but that's alright. Its not about the size because when two or more are gathered in God's name He is there! Joel and Linda were so nice and Wednesday invited me to dinner later!

So in between Church and Dinner I didn't have much to do. Everyone had gone home for the three day weekend so I went outside because it was beautiful and did a lot of reading. It was so peaceful!!! And when my eyes got tired from reading I just sat there listening to my ipod and admiring the natural beauty around me.

Dinner time! They only live like 2 min. away from campus and I had no problem finding their house! I think the first time I haven't gotten lost lol. We had these super yummy mushroom turkey burgers and cheesy greens lol. After we were done we went outside and played botchi ball. After three games we went inside because of the nasty bugs that were everywhere! We played snakes and ladders and Monopoly. Even the fast version of that game took a long time! Once we finally finished we watched Bedtime Stories. That is a really cute movie! We also had some cookie dough ice cream <3 lol.

Thank you so much Joel and Linda! I had a great time and your hospitality was greatly appreciated!!!

Volleyball

Early mornings always suit me oh so well! Haha. This morning I got up and went with the volleyball team to the second day of one of their tournaments. It was really nice to be able to start getting to know the girls. They all seem really nice and welcomed me into the group dynamic right away :).

I warmed up with them before their first game and boy am I out of shape! But I didn't look too out of place, I was able to somewhat pass and hit the ball, more than I expected. After being all ready to play it was hard to have to sit back and just watch.

Sadly they lost both of their matches today but everyone assured me that they never play like this so I'm excited to see what it can really be like and just hope that I'm not too far behind.

TGIFriday!

Today was the try-outs for the IHSA team! That stands for Intercollegiate Hunt Seat Association :). We all had to fill out a questionaire before hand that somewhat placed us based upon previous show experience. Based on that and how we rode today determines what level we will get to show. I got put in the Novice Flat and Jumps division. Which means I will show in roughly the 2'3'' classes. The catch to IHSA is that you don't ever ride the horse before you are being judged. So you don't know anything about the horse you are riding while trying to be the best working team out there. I can't wait to see what its like!

Once I got Teekoop put away (the horse I rode for try-outs) I had to go to my History of Art class. After class I was going to go to Ruby Tuesdays for Art's (a guy from youth group) going away party, but I really started to not feel well. That stupid cough, sore throat and runny nose thing that has been going around. Haha SWINE FLU!!!

The RunAround

I thought yesterday was crazy, but boy was I kidding lol. Today after class I had my lesson and then Coach wanted to talk to me so I headed to school to talk to him. He said that I needed a newer physical and that I had to go today. Another girl was considering playing too so we both headed out in search for the freeway. The doctor's office we were looking for turned out to be over an hour away and we got turned around like 10 times!

We finally find the place and the physicals take max. two minutes each! Then it was time to turn right around and head back to school. We hit traffic and I was going to be late to my 6pm Math class. Thankfully the Prof. was nice and everything worked out, but omg what all lot of running around!

Absolute Craziness!

Man today was an interesting day! After going to class I was checking my mail box and I had a package so I was in line getting it. Once I had gotten it, I turned around and was asked if I had ever played volleyball before lol. It was the women's volleyball head coach. When I said I had he asked me to consider playing on the team. So I went down to his office to see what the commitment would be like. Practice would be everyday for three hours and there were many weekend tournaments. So I had to look at my schedule to see if it would conflict with any of my classes or riding.

It turned out that there weren't many conflicts that couldn't easily be worked out. So guess what. I am now on Centenary's volleyball team. Coach immediatly got me all the paperwork that I needed to fill out and I got straight to work on it. This should be interesting for sure! Before I was worried that I had so much time and nothing to do. Well that is no longer a worry.

Always See You Later

Today was an odd/sad day. Today was the day Mom, Dad, Audrey and Libby had to fly out. I drove them to the train station and it was so weird to wave goodbye to them as it pulled away. But like I said, its never goodbye, its always see you later! I can't tell anyone goodbye, no matter what the circumstance.