"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things." ~ Philippians 4:8 (NIV)
Wow! Summer went by SO fast! I leave for NGU in less than two weeks! Actually, I think it is down to 10 days now. How crazy! I took a ton of pictures this summer, so I'll tell you about it through those.
The first big thing that happened for me was SLA. SLA stands for Student Leader Apprenticeship. This is a program that Fuge Camps (which is hosted my Lifeway) sponsors at two of their camp sites. I went to the one in New Mexico.
The SLAs go around the camp learning about how it is run and helping the staffers with whatever they need. We went to an assisted living home and a nursing home one day, which is the picture on the left.
Here are my fellow SLAers and I outside of the chapel where we held the worship services. My group of SLAers ended up being an all girl group so we called our group the SLAdies. :)
We were going to go ziplining (I truly was going to actually do it. Someone was probably going to have to push me, but I really was going to do it! Promise. ;) ), but it started raining right as we were climbing up the stand. We waited around a few minutes to see if it would pass, but when it started raining down some pretty sizable hail, we decided to forgo that experience.
We went backpacking over the weekend. It was a pretty neat experience to go up into the mountains and do that. (Sorry for the turned picture)
We had what I like to call 'hispanic smores' while backpacking. :) Just take a flour tortilla and fry it some in a pan and then add the chocolate and the marshmellows! So incredibly yummy.
This is me and some of the group that the staffer I shadowed and I brought to the nursing home during the second week, as well as Mrs. Bonnie. She told us all about her life and showed us scrapbooks that she and her daughter had made together. Below is me with the staffer I shadowed, Cat. She was amazing!
About a week after I got back from New Mexico, my youth group went to Fuge camp together at NGU. We were there during the week of July 4th (notice my amazing shirt in the picture to the left!). Fuge really is an amazing camp. I always grow during my week there. Sadly, this was my last year as a camper, but I fully intend on being a chaperon next year! :)
The top picture on the right is the band that we had that week. You may remember them from one of my previous posts about worship. Jarod Espy is the worship pastor at the church I am going to be attending while at college. You should definitely check his music out. It is pretty legit.
There were giant slugs... Just thought I'd mention that one.
Below is some of us with Jarod and one of the staffers, Sarah. She led one of the track times I was in, Interpretive Sign. I've posted the video of my track preforming above.
The last thing I am going to write about is my mission trip to Honduras this year. It was absolutely amazing, just like last year. It is great to get out of the country and see how God is moving in other places. This year is was good to see all the wonderful friends I had made last year as well as see how God had been working in their lives over the last year.
Our awesome translators, Carlos and Gabby.
The team I was with.
We did VBS everyday with the village kids. That was super fun! :)
I'm not kidding when I say that these kids LOVED to have piggy back rides. (Yes- Carlos has two on his back!)
We poured concrete floors for several of the village homes.
We helped to roof a few houses, too.
Washing our hair in FREEZING water! It felt great afterwards though.
In the picture above, we were having one of our nightly worship services.
Colton Dixon is a contestant on American Idol this season. He has always kinda been on my list of favorites but yesterday, he moved to the TOP. Why you ask? Well, I'll tell you. Because he isn't afraid to stand up for God! Yes, once again, thats right. I read this article yesterday that my Mom posted to her facebook page. It is really short and I encourage you to read it. I really believe that we need to be backing him up as his family in Christ through prayer and encouragement (and voting...). He is doing the right thing by sticking to his faith even though people around him are telling him that he is going to fail because of it. He is trusting God and that isn't always easy to do.
So, please be praying for Colton and what God is going to do through him. :)
So, this past Saturday, my church's youth group went to Winterjam! It was amazing. :) My two favorite groups there were for King & Country and Sanctus Real. I love those two groups! Here is a song from each band (don't forget to turn of the sidebar music first!) :
'The Redeemer' by Sanctus Real
'Busted Heart' by for King & Country
All the other bands were pretty great too. I'm not much of a Skillet fan though :P They were the featured band this year. Now, I will admit, they did the song 'Hero' really cool! They had blazing fire and TONS of blinky lights on all the songs, but on this song, the guitar players came up and were raised up and down on pieces of the stage that went up and down. Also, the drummer (who just happens to be a girl, which I thought was pretty cool) was up on a podium looking thing that (only during this song) came forward and then raised her up even more that she already was. As if that wasn't enough, the thing then spun her around in circles! And she didn't even miss a beat. If it had been me, I would have fallen off! Let alone actually play drums... Shew.
Hey all! I hope everyone had a wonderful NEW YEAR! Happy 2012! :) My youth group and I went to a local concert on New Years Eve. The Justin Warren Teseniar Band played and a local pastor spoke. Afterwards, we had a bonfire (where my dad ate 4 hotdogs...). It was really fun! The band was REALLY great! They currently have an EP out and I would really encourage you to get it! The songs on it are very well done and immensely encouraging! It is available on iTunes.
The front of the band's EP
Some other news is I will soon be having a giveaway here! It's Jill William's (one of my most favorite authors) newest novel, Replication. More info on that later.
So what did yall do for News Years? Have a wonderful day!
