...but have not love, I am nothing

The last two days I have been more aware of how special it is just being with family and friends. It doesn't matter where you are or what you are doing, whether it is going out for food, grocery shopping with a friend, seeing someone play air-hocky for the first time, playing Trionimoes at 11:00 at night, walking around IKEA, or hanging out at the mall - the point is that time is spent together. God made us to relate to Him and to others around us. And granted we love spending time with family and friends - people we like being around. But what about those who are different than us. Perhaps we are repulsed by their appearance. Perhaps seeing them makes us what to run away to a deserted island to get away from the corruption. But as I was so calmly reminded by a friend, Jesus was known for spending his time with sinners, prositutes, and I'm sure even homosexuals. He sees through their facade and sees a never dying soul. He loves that person no matter what sins they have commited, and may I remind you that we all have sinned. We all stand on even ground - without Him we are nothing. Why - oh why - do we brush by them, trying to avert our eyes, act like they are not there when the only thing we accomplish is deceiving ourselves that all we need to worry about is ourselves. But they are out there, by the millions, searching, searching - they are searching for God, but don't even realize it. Why then don't we turn aside and care and love and give and show them that God does make radical changes in our day? That they can truly experience joy and peace and wonder and forgiveness? When will we stop living so shallowly? What will it take for us to give all that we have into people - the only everlasting thing to invest in?

Lest you think I'm on some rampage - this little post is for me. God help me to live deeper, give deeper, and love deeper. For if not to do these things, what is our purpose to live?

Well, it's over

the interview, that is. Got there around 4:55 p.m. and there was a line of about six people - group interview. So not only was it my first "real" interview but I had to do it in front of 7 other applicants and two interviewers! It really wasn't that bad. Most of them were my age; one lady was older. It's funny - I spent just a little over an hour with them, and I already feel like I know them. Strange huh? Basically the format was the interviewer would ask a question and then we each would answer trying to be as creative and unique as possible so not to "ditto" the last person's response. They asked us a whole slew of questions like, "What personality traits do you think a Kohl's associate would have and do you have those traits," or "describe any community service work you've done that involved teamwork," or "what would you do if you saw a fellow employee steal something from the store?" So, it was a lot of on-the-spot thinking and trying to sound as sophisticated as possible! :)


Even though I'm not sure I'll get the job (there were 7 other applicants than me, and they had a second group of applicants waiting for us to finish), I'm thankful for the experience, because now I kind of know what goes on during an "interview." lol


I had Kingdom Kids tonight. I just love those kids, even when they are all talking at once, and all of them want to pass out the cups, and I'm trying to keep one boy from talking during prayer, and two girls to not talk during the story, and on and on and on. But seeing them sing and do the motions to the VBS songs, and watching them in amazement as I measured 9ft. out on the tape measure to show them how tall Goliath was, and hearing them request prayer for their daddies and cats and dogs - I just can't help but love them!

I was listening to Focus on the Family today w/ Dr. Dobson and he had a guest on his show and they were talking about how overstimulated we all are. He was explaining it all out scientifically, but basically overstimulation lowers our ability to receive pleasure. So the little things in life don't bring us pleasure because we need something "more" to get excited. I don't know - it's all interesting. So if you want - you should listen to today's program.

So - in order to be less stimulated, I'm going to sign off and enjoy taking a shower and reading my Bible and getting a good night's sleep!

PTL (Praise the Lord)

Today I stopped back into Hallmark, Panera, and Kohls to talk to managers about my applications. Hallmark was first. The manager was very nice but told me that they were well-staffed right now and didn't have openings. I stopped at Panera next and asked for the manager. I told him that I had turned in an application about a week ago and was wondering if someone had looked at it. He took my name and asked me to wait while he looked at the application. When he came back, the first thing he asked was if I would be able to work any Sundays. I told him probably not, because I was very involved in my church. But I did tell him that I was very flexible during the week and could work as much as he needed me to work. He also asked if I would be able to work in the fall. I told him that I live at home and commute to school, so I could work probably 10 - 15 hrs. a week. He said the general manager was on vacation till Wednesday, but he would make a note for him to call me and set up an interview. So I was pretty excited about that. I then stopped at Kohls and was making my way back to Customer Service when I saw who was behind the desk. It was older lady who I had asked about my application last week, and she basically told me that I had to wait until/if someone called me. So, I didn't really want to talk to her again. I was hoping to talk to somebody else. So I looked around Kohl's for a little bit - and realized that I was probably wasting my time, because I don't really have extra money to buy clothes - hence the reason why I need a job! So I went home and told my mom about it all, and started working on my Independent Study. Then mom told me she needed to use my cell phone, so I went to get it out of my purse and realized I had a voicemail. It was a 722 - number that I didn't recognize. As I listened, a Joanne from Kohl's had called me letting me know that there was an interview on Wed. at 5 p.m. and to call her if I wanted to come! Isn't that crazy!?! So I called her back and said that I indeed did want to come to the interview. So now I have one definite interview and possibly another one from Panera! God is good! And even if these interviews and job opportunities fall through, I'm not going to worry (too much :-) because I know my life is in God's hands and He will take care of me.

Well, just wanted to share the news. I'll keep you posted. And your prayers would be appreciated. This will be my first "real" interview with people I don't know! :)

The Days are Just Packed...

This is why I love summer:

• VBS - which means awesome new songs like "A ya wiki, B ya wiki, C ya wiki"
• Church softball games
• Singing a reggae version of "Silver Bells" accompanied on guitar by my brother
• Watching Youtube videos late into the night (Carnival of the Animals, Trans-siberian, the 5 Browns)
• Playing Clue at 12:05 a.m. with Andrew
• Thunderstorms
• Fresh Gardens
• Having to watch for garter snakes in the plants
• Vacations
• Catching up with friends
• And lest I forget - endless time for READING and I don't mean textbooks!

Yup - summer is just awesome.

P.S. Know where my title came from?

VBS, Garden, Job Hunting, and "A Tale..."

This week back in Ohio has consisted of Vacation Bible School each night. Our theme is an island theme complete with decorations, huts, and island songs. I have been in charge of the Bible Study Beach Hut. Here I try to help the kids learn and remember the Bible Truth and memory verses. And tonight I did the illustration about Jesus bridging the gap between man and God, a little illustration I learned from Mr. Bird. :) But it has been a good three nights. Tonight the count was 102! You never know how these VBS's might reach kids and their families for God (which is why so much energy and money is invested in them)!

The weather here has been so very nice and cool - like 70s. My mom, brother, and I (finally) planted our veggie garden. Hopefully in a month or two we'll have tomatoes, green peppers, hot peppers, squash, and cucumbers! Yummy!

I've also been filling out applications and running around trying to talk to managers. The two Starbucks that I applied at basically said that they have too many employees as it is. But the one mananger said that since I stopped in to talk to him, he will put me in a file of people that made an extra effort. So I guess that is a good thing! :-) Who knows, some crucial employee could quit tomorrow and perhaps they'll call me! :) At the beginning of next week I need to stop in at Kohls, Panera Bread, and Hallmark and talk to more managers. I should have started this whole thing mid - May...why do I always wait this long??? Oh - well....God has it all in His hands. He has always provided.

I guess I do have some small jobs which I need to be thankful for! Like tomorrow I'm going to babysit for a couple of hours to give the mom some time to run errands. This should be a weekly job, so that is good. And then I will still be working for my Aunt Brenda - she is the best "boss." She usually treats me to lunch! :-)

So tomorrow, since I am still without my precious car, I will drop my mom and brother off at LBA, work on my independent study a bit, go babysit, go work for Aunt Brenda, then pick my brother up at his friend's house, pick my mom up at work, grap something for supper, and head down to VBS. Whew -- I have a headache just thinking about it!

Well perhaps tonight I'll get in bed a little earlier! Have a great rest of the week!

P.S. Sometime I'm going to start reading a Tale of Two Cities by Dickens. I've never read it, but figured since it is a classic, I should read it. (Which I know isn't always a good reason) The first sentence is quite intriguing:

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way."

Wow - that has to be the best first sentence of any book - it pulls the reader right in! Too bad - I have to wait until I get my Independent Study finished till I can start. (my stipulation!)

Hilton Head Island Vacation

I'm back! Our vacation to HHI was quite wonderful! Earlier this year my dad's boss invited us to go with them and his daughter and family to Hilton Head Island because they needed another family to go with them. My parents have been to HHI, but my brother and I haven't. So this was the perfect opportunity, and that word perfect can very well describe the whole vacation. The weather, house, food, beach, pool, biking...it was all perfect! I'll let the pictures tell the rest! (We took a day and went to Charleston, South Carolina and toured the USS Yorktown and a submarine and another smaller ship. It was very hot outside, but a very neat experience. The Fighting Lady -USS Yorktown - was quite a ship!)

I must give credit to my dad for taking these wonderful pictures!

One thing that is nice about taking our family vacation so early is that we still have all of summer left! Wahoo! V.B.S. is next week, so every night we'll be there. It is usually alot of fun though!

Well it is getting late and I should go to bed. I still haven't told ya'll about the big storm we had two weeks ago that blew down one of our nice Bradford pear trees and tore sections out of the other ones. And I haven't written about my car that mysteriously broke down, quite providentially though. Hopefully, I will find out its status tomorrow. So even though I have more to say, I'm surrendering to sleep and the fact that I have much to do on the morrow!

Kansas Trip / Memorial Day

Well, I have a little bit of time, so I thought I would give a little update. I just got back from a weekend trip to Kansas to celebrate my cousin Janette's graduation from highschool. We also helped them move to their new house they are building. It was a fun and fast weekend. We flew which helped out so much! I love flying! I would fly every day if I could. Maybe I'll include some pics later.

It has been some busy days getting ready for Kansas. And now we have four days and then we are going to Hilton Head Island!! It is going to be crazy getting ready. Monday night my dad and I are driving two hours to Jackson, OH to meet my two uncles and my cousin to pick up my Papa's truck that we will be taking to HHI. Then Tuesday night, my brother is graduating from LBA. Wednesday night is church and then pack Thursday night and leave Friday morning. Why is it soo much work to leave on vacation??

Here are some Memorial Day pictures. I spent most of the morning working and then we had Howard, Elena, Brandon, and Misty and Aunt Brenda over for the grill-out.

Misty and the pretty peony she picked.

Howard and Andrew picking a few

The "Dreams" Pillow I "made" for my Aunt Brenda -- something for her Mary Kay meeting. I never know what she'll have me do! :)

I realize this is a picture of plastic cups, but I thought the reflection on the table was cool.

Fireworks - aka Sparklers

One BAD Habit

I have been out of school one week and I have already develop a very bad habit! Almost every night I have stayed up til 1 or later and consequently don't get up till 12:00 or so. I've yet to write my "summer goals" so I feel like I haven't done anything this whole week! (Which really isn't true...) So I am saying "Good Night" to 1:00 A.M. It was fun while it lasted, but I think I would rather get up at a nice hour like 9:00 and go to bed at a decent hour of 10 or 11 o'clock. So -- signing off!

Yours truly,
Ms. Night Owl

Tragedy

I just heard this on the radio and confirmed it online. For those of you who might not know, Maria Chapman the youngest daughter of the Steven Curtis Chapman family was struck by a SUV driven by one of her older brothers in their driveway and later died of injuries. When I heard this, my heart just fell. I guess the brother just didn't see Maria. Maria and her two sisters were adopted from China and the Chapmans began a ministry called The Shaohannah's Hope Ministry which helps families adopt by reducing the financial burden. Please pray for the Chapman's during this horrible tragedy. My little worries and concerns pale in comparison to what has happened to them.

Picture and information from: http://www.christianmusicplanet.com/music/artist/steven_curtis_chapman/11576057/

A Good Day, this Sunday

Today I woke up late (what's new) and was somewhat out of it as we drove to church for Praise Team practice. I've had several late, late nights and was feeling it this morning. But as we began practicing our worship songs this morning, my attitude lifted. Praise does that you know, even if we were just practicing. We had a bigger Praise Team this morning. Kenny and Rhonda were there and Kenny played his sax and I played my flute on some songs. After our practice we had Sunday School which, like usual, is enjoyable because of Kenny's personality and awesome storytelling. He shared about Gideon (not Gilligan) and how he trusted God and obeyed God in the face of certain death. A good truth to remember.

As I was getting reading for the worship service, Dan came to me and said that the order was going to be a little different this morning. We were going to sing one song, the special song, and then Pastor would preach and then we would sing the rest of our songs. If you know our Pastor, he always does what God tells him (which hopefully all pastors do that), so sometimes our services are a little - umm - unconventional? Shocking that God doesn't always stay in the box we put Him in.

Well, I digress. We sang Come Now is the Time to Worship, and then sang our special - a new Brooklyn Tab song. Then pastor preached an awesome sermon about tithing. Yeah, I know what you are saying -- tithing? He did talk about tithing our money, which I totally believe is a topic that needs to be preached more! It's God's money anyway. But he also talked about giving back to God in such areas as time and worship. And he spent the rest of the message talking about worshipping and praising God. This makes the third confrontation I have had with this topic this week. A lunch conversation, Bro. Bullock's message, and then my pastor's message. (Which I think, Pastor Cox went to GBS and heard Bro. Bullock's message because he talked about Jehoshaphat and Paul and Silas too.) So needless to say, I think God is trying to tell me something! :)

Anyway, after the message, the Praise Team sang / played our songs. I love our little group. We have amazing guitarists from Belize and India and my brother, who is learning guitar, has been playing with them. My dad is the worship leader and I usually sing lead with him, but today I was singing middle with mom (who plays the piano) because Rhonda joined us and was singing lead too. And Kenny was singing tenor (I think). Then our Music Minister (the Boss :), Dan, plays the keyboard, his wife Desta sings low, and their son Daren plays the drums. So that is our little group. We have a wonderful time singing/playing together and leading the people to worship. I am so blessed to be around awesome people.

Our worship time was wonderful, giving praise to God for His goodness. We had a short altar service, then the instruments played a little while everyone left.

Let's see Sunday dinner: we had barbecued chicken on the grill (by my bro), mashed potatoes, green beans, corn on the cob, crescent rolls, and fresh strawberry pie with whipped topping! YUM! My mom is the best cook! :)

I was able to take a much needed nap this afternoon since we didn't have kid's club. I know I should have gone to the 2:30 service at GBS but, alas, I slept instead. Got ready for service tonight and hurriedly drove over to deliver Katie her freshly laundered choir tank top that I borrowed last night because I forgot mine.

The choir met in the Music Hall and had prayer time before the service. I have tremendously enjoyed being in choir this year. We have been such a close and united choir which was evident on our choir tour. I love learning under Mr. Wolf. He is such a godly, honest, transparent man. I think everyone should be in choir just to sit under the direction of Mr. Wolf. He will make an impact on your life; I know he has mine!

The instrumental ensemble played It is Well with my Soul for congregational singing. Chen told me to take everything up an octave because we didn't have mics. He said the only person that would hear me was Mr. Miles. Poor man, probably has hearing loss now. :) Just a word about Alfonso Chen (from Mexico). I have grown and matured musically because of him. He is so kind in his advice and affirms when I've done a good job. I love hearing his testimonies in service and seeing his big smile. And Lord willing, I will be going to Mexico band camp this summer. Please pray that God will provide the money that I need to go.

Our choir sang for the last time tonight. We sang And Can it Be, There is a Remedy, and Unto the Hills, some of our best songs. I think the choir and the band has had such good songs this year. I enjoyed playing and hearing them sung one last time.

After we sang, Mr. Avery shared about the financial need of the school. I know everyone is feeling the pressure, with gas and food prices increasing. But that pressure is just compounded in a larger institution like GBS with all the buildings and people. Bro. Avery felt like God wanted him to raise $50,000 tonight to go towards the deficent. And thanks be to God, the people responded and we raised that amount.

Mr. Bullock's message on revival was right on, tonight. It is something I know I need personally, my family needs and my church needs. This summer especially, I want to draw closer to God in my devotional and prayer time. This past year it has been difficult for one reason and another, but I want to make that time and give that time back to God. After the sermon, we had a beautiful prayer time with God.

After the service I said goodbye to several of my friends who I am really going to miss this summer! But I pray that you all will have a God-filled, blessed, relaxful summer and I will see some of you back in the fall.

Thank you God for such a good day. I praise You for being faithful to me, loving me, dying for me. Thank you for Campmeeting and the encouragement and guidance I've received. Thank you for my wonderful friends and the awesome memories we've made this year. Please bless us, help us, make us more like You even this summer. Father, You are a good God and worthy of our praise. Thank You for all that You've done.