My Summer in Pictures

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. 

We helped paint a school on the last day.

There you have it! My summer in pictures. :)

'Everything' by Lifehouse/Colton Dixon

Once again, I am so impressed with Colton! He sang 'Everything' by Lifehouse on Wednesday. Everything is a Christian song and he says (not in this cut of the video) that it is his favorite worship song and that Jesus is his everything. I'm seriously very impressed with him. You can get the songs that he was sung on iTunes if you want! :)

'Replication' by Jill Williamson - GIVEAWAY

OK, guys! Here it is! I promised a few weeks ago a book giveaway and I finally got around to fulfilling that promise. :) Also, I was able to ask the author a few questions so there is a interview as well.

INTERVIEW

  

Jill Williamson

 

1. Why do you write for young adults?

Because they are awesome! And they read a lot. And they’re in a place in life where they and are asking lots of important questions and making decisions that will impact their lives. And there are a lot of stories out there that show characters making destructive choices, and few of those books bother to show the consequences of living in such a way. I want to write books that are real and don’t ignore reality for the sake of sensationalism.

2. When did you become a Christian?

I became a Christian my junior year in college. I had transferred to Northwest Nazarene University because a friend went there and I was trying to get closer to a fashion design major and back then NNU had a program that allowed students to take a year of school at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

My friend got married and left me all alone in a school of Christians! I was a bit freaked out that someone might discover the things I’d done in my life, where I’d come from, and what I’d lived through. One day I confessed to a fellow fashion major: “I’m not a Christian!” And she laughed at me and said, “So? A lot of students here aren’t.” Then she told me that Christians aren’t perfect. That I shouldn’t live my life worried about what people think of my life. And she said I needed to figure out what I believed about God for myself.

Well, I didn’t know what I believed. But for me, it all came down to this: truth is absolute. Fact is, either God is there or he isn’t. And if he was there and I lived my life ignoring that so I could keep living life my way, I was a fool. And when I honestly went looking for fact to prove or disprove the bible or Christ’s life, I always found proof that supported the bible and who Christ was. I never found anything to support an atheistic view. And I wasn’t only looking at Christian sources.

So I made the choice to follow God, and I have never regretted it. And when I look back at my life, I see myself standing at that fork in the road. And I could have ignored God and graduated and went to New York and became a success in the fashion industry. But I would have been a shell of a human being. I would have lived in a destructive way. I would have been terribly lonely, no matter what friends and loves came my way.

Because the only one who can fill us in this life is Jesus. Fame is never enough. Money is never enough. True love is never enough. It is what it is, whether you believe it or not. And I am so thankful that I was humble enough to make that decision sixteen years ago.

3. What is your favorite kind of food?

Pasta. I adore pasta. Alfredo is my favorite. Olive Garden is my favorite restaurant.

4. Do you (on purpose haha) put yourself into any of your characters?

 Sometimes I do. If one of my characters is experiencing something that I experienced in my life, I will add the feelings that I remember. There are certain things that I “get” because I’ve experienced it. For example: living without electricity, learning to drive a stick shift, sewing, playing on a basketball team, going out in -40 degree weather, being a non Christian, being a Christian. But I try not to have my characters ever be totally me.

5. How do you pick your character's names?

 Lots of ways. I use Google searches to find lists of names. I might want a biblical name, or a name that was popular for a certain year. So I’ll search “top boys names 1950.” I have a Los Angeles phone book that is useful. And sometimes I’ll click through lists of friend’s friends on Facebook, looking for the perfect name. If I’m writing fantasy, that’s different. I usually try to find a theme for that fantasy land. So I might choose a language like I did with Hebrew in my Blood of Kings trilogy, or a country. I used maps of Scandinavian countries to come up with names for a people once, using the names of cities and lakes for inspiration.

6. What is the best compliment you have ever received on one of your books?

My favorite compliment is when the reader says he stayed up all night reading my book and couldn’t put it down.

7. How can readers get in touch with you?

 You can email me or comment on my blog posts through my website: www.jillwilliamson.com.

Here is my REVIEW of the book:

 This book is AMAZING! I was already a huge Jill Williamson fan from her previous books (‘The Blood of Kings Trilogy’, which I also highly recommend) and I simply could NOT wait to get my hands on this book! It does not disappoint.

When Abby Goyer's father is hired as a scientist at a highly secretive lab, her curiosity kicks into high gear and she goes sleuthing. Abby discovers (with the help of Martyr, a bald, seventeen year old boy whom Abby found in her bedroom and seems to know nothing of the world) that the head scientist in this lab has successfully created functional clones for an evil purpose. She knows she needs to do something, but what? As more and more comes into the light, both Abby and Martyr know that it won't be long until it all explodes and the world changes forever.

This book is a clean fiction novel for teens, but anyone of any age could read this and truly enjoy it.  I HIGHLY recommend it!

GIVEAWAY

Alright, so Mrs. Jill has kindly offered to giveaway a copy of 'Replication' one of you all! All you have to do is comment on this post telling me you would like to be entered into the drawing and your e-mail address so I can get a hold of you if you win. The drawing will be held two weeks from today (the 8th of February).

Have an awesome day!

Winterjam

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.