Thanks Mr. Swirves-alot for taking me to the Hayden Outdoor Recreational Slides

I cannot believe that it has been almost a week since Keira and I have been home from California.

We left last Saturday, bright and early, and drove to Huntington Beach. When we got there we ate at BJ's. It was a crazy time. I have never seen so many half naked people and have never heard so many F-bombs in my entire life. It was totally awkward because Keira and I prayed before our meal and I was wearing my Honesty Purity Integrity shirt from Hume Lake. We went to her Grandma's (which i love!) and swam in her pool. Oh one-piece bathing suits, crack on our legs and horrible tan lines. Best thing of my life.

On Sunday, we drove up to Simi Valley to see Francis Chan preach at Cornerstone Community Church. I cannot even begin to describe the experience. For the last couple of months crazy things have been going on at church. Pastors leaving, new pastors coming, giving away a car, getting an ice cream machine. Some of it I just can't take. It was refreshing to go to a church with no production and hear a message that convicted my heart so much that I cried. We talked about honesty and how so many of our lives are wrapped up in lies that we have told ourselves in an attempt to make ourselves feel better. We spent probably 80% of the time in prayer because Francis Chan knew that nothing he could say would change our hearts. Only God can do that. We saw two people get baptized after Francis' message and at the end of the service he went up to meet him and he prayed for Keira as she travels to Africa to do mission work.
As I try to tune my life into the will of God, I see Him working all around me. I am in awe at the fact that God never quits pursuing our hearts. He desires for us to be in complete unity with Him, and I am trying more and more each day to understand and follow God's plan for my life. I know that I am nothing without Him, I have no purpose outside of His will and although it is hard, I so desperately want to live a life completely devoted to him.

On the way home from Simi Valley, Keira and I sang ALOT of worship songs off-key and listened to some other sermons by Francis Chan. I started reading his book, Crazy Love, which I highly recommend! I am glad that we got to experience this journey before she left for Africa.

Honk if you love Jesus, Cause We Do!

Butt pictures and scalp picking

I am not even going to begin to explain the title of this blog because it would take so long to explain why this describes Katie Sterbenz and I really do not feel like doing that.

Hume lake was so amazing with her! Although, she is slightly abusive. Over a week she kneed me in my freshly pierced ears and made me bleed and she kicked me in the throat and made me collapse. But I guess I can endure the abuse because I would never give up our friendship.

I have never met anyone that would eat Mexican food five times a week with me. She is obsessed with bean burritos and I am obsessed with bean chimis. it is like a match made in heaven!

It is crazy to think that this time last year, I met her. It was a lovely Monday morning at the cafe and she was "training" me how to work there. Gotta love the cafe! We worked Thursdays together and then Saturdays and I loved every minute of it. We complained ALOT about how bored we were and ate a lot of Einstein's bagels. We talked about boyfriends and high school drama, God and Merge and she introduced me to Breanna Maples and I have fallen in love with that family.

I don't know what I am going to do without seeing her all the time next year. if she would just invite me over for dinner ASAP we might be able to be SNL. (anyone other than Katie don't try to understand that last sentence. Only she knows what I am talking about)

I love you SGL!

Alligators at my front door drinking hot chocolate

This last week has been one of the greatest of my life. it sounds so cliche but it is so true. Hume Lake 08 was amazing!

It was so different from any other camp I have been to. At all the others, I have cried atleast once if not more. Last week I didn't cry at all. We learned about theology which is almost emotionless. As a group we discovered who God is, why Christ had to die for us, and how important it is to live in community. I feel equipped to go tell the whole world. I'm not afraid because this is eternity we are talking about.

I met some amazing people and so many of my relationships grew. My cabin mates were great! Breanna, Megan, Bree, Ashley, Courtney, Chelsea, Alli, Lia and our fearless leader Katie. I love them all. I got to meet Leslie and she helped me fall in love with Liberty University. Our lizard Geico keeps us together and since Breanna and I tortured her all week we have friendship bracelets that signaled a truce. Tamara and I are convinced that we will make it to Liberty University some how some way. We want to be roomies! I spent a lot of time with Keira and Shannon and pretending to hook them up with hot Christian boys! They were kind of mad but it was super fun. And of course I can't forget Katie. We talk about everything and she treats me more like a Shepherd then just a sheep. Bean and cheese burritos and losing our suitcases. I know God taught us so much this week!

Our week was filled with an endless amount of pranks. Breanna and I are so sneaky. Here is a list of the thing we did and the things we took.

• Leslie's entire suitcase except for a pair of shoes, her sleeping bag, and pillow. Then her make up bag, perfume and lotion.
• Keira's sleeping bag, cell phone, laptop and power cord.
• Shannon's rainbows, wallet, cell phone, charger, and tylenol
• Megan's cell phone
• We put baby oil on Keira's cabin door
• We put pinecones in Leslie's bed and wrote "Silly Silly Leslie," "You are so naive," and "You mess with the bull, you get the horns" in shaving cream on Leslie's cabin mirror
• We put a fake lizard under Katie's pillow

After all these things the only payback we got was

• getting our cabin silly stringed
• having our sleeping bags and blankets hung on a tree and
• finding pinecones in our pillowcases

We are so good. Thats all I have to say. It was fun and I'm sure people got mad and were annoyed but it was a blast for us.

I loved getting bean burritos, sitting by the fire and singing worship songs, dancing like crazy during the Exodus concert, canoeing to slide rock and not falling and watching the sunrise over the mountains surrounding hume lake.

I've never felt this way before. I don't have a camp high but I have information; I have knowledge; I have examples. I have the stuff that other people will never know and I am blessed. Two amazing girls accepted Christ this week without the emotional appeal, simply because they KNEW that Christ is the only way. Their names were written in the book of life and at the end of this life we are going to be having a party in heaven together. Six girls were baptized in hume lake. I am so jealous. What an amazing place to show everyone the transformation that has happened in your heart.

I learned that things of this world are just stuff. Katie and I lost our suitcases on the way home and my first reaction was to cry and be so upset that I didn't have my clothes. Over the next few days I told God that it didn't matter, it was just stuff. I didn't need it because I needed to rely on Him for everything I have. Someone came up to me and told me that I can't take any of it with me and that is so true! After Katie and I both gave the situation to God and told him "your will be done" our suitcases showed up. They are in Flagstaff and we get them back on Friday. Our God is still of miracles and he never ceases to amaze me.

Life doesn't always work out the way you want it to, but God is steering my ship and that's all that matters.

Debatement (yep I just made that a word)

On wednesday Keira and I were debating a very interesting topic. Not debating like screaming and yelling, cause i can do that, but debating God stuff which is my favorite. the question is...

how can we have free will and God still be in control of everything? Does not control limit free will?

chew on that for a bit.

after a while of talking in circles i have come to the conclusion that it is one of the greatest mysteries of this earth.

Definitely going to have to take that one up with the big man up stairs.

peace, love, happiness!
T

Long, Long, Long Day

I attempted to wake up early today to start packing and getting ready for hume. yeah right! when you don't have a curfew, you stay out super late and wake up super late so I am still adjusting to that.
Then it was off to the cafe for five long hours. I ate lunch with Katie and Keira, laid on the floor and read a book about death (for one of Keira's classes at ASU) and made two whole drinks.
Small group was amazing tonight. I love the girls that I get to hang out with.
Rooted met for the first time tonight and boy was that a joy! Honestly I love it so much! I went to the dating class that was taught by the Sterbenzs (thats really hard to say) and I sat next to my new best friend Breanna. ha ha if i was only younger we could be better friends. oh gosh.
I really liked the dating class but it just stinks when you know what is right and everyone is telling you what is right but you really want to do what is wrong and a lot of times more fun.
As I gained and grew friendships today, I have to let go of other ones. I want to change people's lives and help them understand but thats not my job, that's Christ's job.
I was put on this earth to encourage others to know Christ, not attempt to transform people's lives while putting my own spiritual well being in jeopardy.
Life sucks sometimes but as I learned in 1 Peter, I will continue to live a life of hope because I have eternal salvation.
And that is something to be grateful for.

peace and love!
t

Finally Here!

So for the last month or so I have been debating whether or not I should get a blog and after our adventure last night, I was convinced.

As of Sunday, Merge (aka Cornerstone's High School Group) has a new youth pastor. His name is Nathan Maples. He spoke on Sunday during the high school service and I don't know about anyone else but I really like him. I feel like he will be a perfect fit for our youth group.

In order to welcome him into our crazy church, a bunch of girls and I went to his house (which is SO far) and we streamered and side-walk chalked it. It was so much fun! Since we cannot drive away fast enough and Katie is a bad liar (which is a good thing) we got caught and ended up going to Sonic with Breanna.

I learned a few things from last night...
1. I can side-walk chalk really fast
2. Ocean Water is delicious
3. I love high school group so much and I don't know what I am going to do without it next year
4. Attitude is everything!

peace!