The cook out fundraiser went GREAT! I come from a very small church and we managed to raise nearly 2,000 dollars!!!! Thank everyone SO Much for your prayers!
On July the 7 my church is having a cook out for me, if every ticket is sold that will be 2,800 dollars added to my trip! So please pray that every ticket is sold and that we have a great turn out! :) Thank you guys love ya all!
I thought I'd just share a little bit more about my week with the church youth group on our camping adventure.
One of the last things that we were going to do was go caving. Sounds simple enough I was kind of wishing that we would skip it and go home! I was really tired of the outdoors :). The outdoors was really tired of me; we needed a separation! Unfortunately for me though God had other plans; or not unfortunately.
To start out with we had to hike down a mountain through a field with super high grass! This was more frightening then anything else on the trip because I am terrified of snakes! All I could think about was stepping on one but I kept up with our guide so if I was to meet a snake I could just jump on his back or something if I was going down I wasn't going down alone!
Well we made it through the field climbed under a barb wire fence ..lol..and went deep into the woods only to climb another mountain! Luckily it wasn't a very long climb before we had another climb back down. This was where the fun began. We had to hold onto a rope that had been tied from one tree to another down the mountain because the rocky hill was so steep! It was fun hopping from rock to rock not knowing if you would be taking a tumble or not :).
Once we were at the bottom of the rocky slope there was a tiny little opening into darkness this was the long awaited Cave! I'm thinking WHAT???!?!?! We have to go in there in that little hole? Yeah my claustrophobia was about to take over. I hadn't brought my own flashlight because I thought the cave would be simple I could use the light of someone else ya know just a walk in the park. Wow I underestimated allot of this trip!
Once we entered I could barely breathe even with a flash light or two beaming in my midst I was terrified beyond my expectations. I couldn't see anything it was so dark and the excited shadows of the people ahead of me were moving into a tiny crevice that led further up into the cave. I quickly gathered up my fears and pushed them a side I didn't have much of a choice because I didn't want to get left alone in the dark! I crawled up the drippy wet muddy rocks and kept going. Soon the fear really did leave without force because I was having the time of my life!
This was so much of a FUN challenge it was constant climbing over rocks through tiny little spaces it was an incredible adventure through darkness and ended up being my favorite thing on the trip. We all had to depend on each others hands and lights. Some of the rocks we couldn't get up without a push or a pull of our friends. God again showed me the importance of trusting others. There were a couple of times when Amanda a really small girl put out her hand for me to pull myself up with and I told her if I grab your hand were both going down :D...but it was easy to trust the youth pastor with his muscles :). Although this is silly it made me think of how wise we need to be with our decision and where we put our full trust is it in God or is it in Satan's' lies. Satan often comes to us and tells us that his way can support us just as good as Gods can but we know that isn't true! God is always there to remind us of his way before we make a decision he is always there offering his hand in opposition to Satan's' all we have to do is choose the right way he is there he will never let us fall as Satan will.
The Lord is Faithful to all his promises and loving toward all He has made." Psalm 145:13
In that little bit of scripture I feel so much comfort. God is so faithful and his love astounds me when i think about his love i feel so safe in knowing that he is always there to take care of me. God showd me this past week to what extent he can and will carry me. I have never been too great with sports or anything like that. I try to stay fit but most of the time I fail I've never been the perfect size but its never bothered me too much. I am what I am I try to improve myself but I dont stress over my looks too much. I dont like looking week though if my brothers can do it i want to be able to do it too. :) This past week I was a Chaperone on the church youth group trip to the Mountains for camping-hiking-White water rafting-tubing-caving- ect. ALOT oF ADVENTURES :). I had no idea that any of these would test my physical fitness! The first day of the Trip was the hiking. I thought walking through the woods not much fun but it wont take long everything will be cool. YEAH WRONG! We had to climb Hill after hill after ROCKY HILL. As soon as you would come to a flat surface you would be back to another steep rocky incline and this hike lasted almost our entire day. With some of the kids falling down and resorting to crawling up the mountain! This didnt last long though we would just help them up and try to drag them the rest of the way. Boy was this extremely hard for me I felt like I couldnt catch my breath and at some points i was just like okay thats it I cant do it anymore I've got to stop! Unfortanetly stopping wasnt an option so God started to Carry me. He kept me going and going and going until finally we had reached our destination! I was suprised at the endurance God had helped me come up with! He showd me that I could make it with his help. Sometimes I forget to ask for his help. I'll try to come up with my own way or i'll ask for his help his answer and never listen to see what he says. This week not only did i have no choice but putting all of my faith in God I had to put it in others too. The whole week you couldnt acomplish any task without the help of your team. I was taught so much about working with people and Im so excited about this trip to England with my new team/family. If God could teach me so much in one week I can't wait to see what he has instore for my life over nine months!
Im so excited to be posting for the first time!!! Yeah well its not going to be that great because its about midnight :D...but thats ok atleast its something. :) Too much has been going on in my life lately! I've been really sick and on top of that I've had exams and things just seem to never slow down! All I want is some sleep!!! :)
As soon as I start thinking about all my problems I realize just how simple they are and how easy I have it. Sometimes I can have a heart attack about the things in life that hardly matter...well they matter to me at the time..but overall they dont mean much. When I take my life and compare it to others I see...like this family in my church whos two year old is fighting a brain tumor...my problems arn't problems anymore. God has been so good to me and is continuing to bless me as he prepares me for this trip to England. I can't wait to see what hes going to do when we all get together!!!!
