Youth Retreat!

Youth retreat was wonderful! We thoroughly enjoyed all the fun, food, fellowship, and teaching. Not to mention the wonderful sermons brought to us by Bro. Jared and Tim. Bro. Jared preached on "Get up and win the race." It was a good message. Tim preached on "We have a Great God and that is why we can finish the Race." Of course those might not be the exact titles of their messages but that's just my interpretation. Mom's class was "Racing to Glory in the Fear of the Lord." Sister Ginger's class was "Running in Holiness." They went along together really well. We didn't have a very large group this year. I counted 29 including the staff. (only the ones who stayed overnight.) That was kind of nice. Everyone was together all the time and everyone knew each other and was comfortable with everyone else. We didn't have to waste time getting comfortable with one another. We played Basketball, Four square, Volleyball, Football, Cranium, Apples to Apples, Scrabble, and Catchphrase. Cody Haffley is the King of catchphrase. Anyway There are many stories that could be told but I prefer to talk rather than type so I don't think I'm going to tell them on here. It would be really neat if there was this machine that you could talk into and it would type whatever you said. Maybe I'll get better with electronics and invent it. HMMMM....... Ok I'll let you guys get back to your lives now. Oh, Pray for me on Friday morning I'm getting my wisdom teeth cut/pulled out.

A Visitor

I told my sister, Bethany, that I needed to tell everyone about our visitor and she said which one, the strange man who came and spoke or the bird. Okay I'll start at the beginning. The "strange man" was the Gideon man he came to do a boost on the Gideon work and we gave him an offering. I was talking about a little bird. We had a wren come into church at the beginning of sunday school. He sat on the window sill and watched us during sunday school. After Sunday School ended he flew up to the front of the church, behind the pulpit. Dad was the sunday scool teacher this sunday and he said that the bird was one of the best students he's had. He didn't hear a single peep out of him the whole service. :-) After the Gideon man spoke Pappaw preached. While Pappaw was preaching the bird started hopping around behind him. After a while it got up it's courage and started flying. He "buzzed" Pappaw while he was preaching. Pappaw just made a joke about it and kept preaching. Dad said the kids eyes never left the front of the building it was one time they've never been told to face forward. And absolutely no one fell asleep. After church we helped the little bird find it's way out. In other news Zach had his wisdom teeth out Friday morning. He came through the surgery fine. He's doing pretty good though he does have some swelling. This weekend is ..... YOUTH RETREAT! We are all looking forward to it. Mom is studying. She has to teach a lesson this weekend on the Fear of the Lord. How does it relate to the Finish Line racing to Glory? We can't even start the race without the fear of the Lord. Well, I'd better get going. I'll post again later. If I have anything to say......

Counseling Seminar

Hey everyone! I'm back!!!! I had a really exhausting week but I can truthfully say that I learned a lot. We had to get up by six every morning but mom always set her alarm for 5:45. When it went off it always woke me up and then I couldn't fall back to sleep before I had to be up! We had a very full schedule. We were in class most of the day. We got meal breaks and that was pretty much it. Curfew was at 10 but most nights we didn't get out of class till just before 10. By the time we actually made it to our rooms it was usually after 10. Then we would get ready for bed and study for the big exam on saturday till 11 or 12. Then start over again the next day. We had the exam on Saturday morning and........ I passed! Yay! I didn't think I was going to pass when i first turned my sheet over but I prayed and God brought things back to my memory. While we were at the seminar Mr. Gothard told us a funny story. He was driving down to the Counseling Seminar with a bunch of his headquarters staff and they stopped at crackerbarrel for lunch. As they were being seated Mr. Gothard noticed a young man across the room. This man had long hair and at first Mr. Gothard couldn't tell if it was a boy or girl. He had tattoos and piercings all over his bod and was wearing jeans that were really tore up and a black leather jacket. As Mr. Gothard noticed this he thought to himself that young man could really benefit from going to a basic seminar. Just about that time the man looks up and sees Mr. Gothard. He stands to his feet and runs over to him yelling excitedly, " Bill Gothard! You changed my life!" As the young man talked to Mr. Gothard he told him that he had attended 10 basic seminars and was now a youth pastor at his local church. We all thought that was so hilarious. Mr. Gothard told us that we can't judge a book by his cover but man does and we should always have an appearance that would bring glory to God. We stayed overnight with Brother and Sister Buckner going and coming and went to church with them on Sunday morning. Then we drove home Sunday afternoon and made it in time for church at Farmville Sunday evening. Today we started back up on our school schedule. Burkeville CoGoP is having a revival this week. An old friend of our family is the evangelist and we are going over there tonight. Tomorrow is VLB service we are still showing the assembly dvd's. Last week we had a business meeting. I have a new assistant. Sister Gayle Sandy. I think Pappaw said he was going to appoint Tonya to jr. VLB's and gleaners. I still have all the responsibilities I had last year. Dad is now the local CPMA leader. And the boys and dad are all ushers and Dad and Bro. Tony were appointed assistant pastors. Anyway that's about it for now except that Tomorrow is Noah Cox's Birthday and Saturday is Micah's Birthday. Anyway I'll probably have more tomorrow or maybe not!

Happy Birthday Mama!

Sing with me, "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Mama, Happy birthday to you." Of course you guys can insert something else in there in the place of Mama! :-) Mom is the big 50. So Happy Birthday to Mama!

Update!

Hey everyone. We had Minister's Convention last week-end. It was wonderful. The Spirit was there in a wonderful way. Our theme was "I'm Having a Revival! How About You?" We were encouraged to have revival in our own hearts and lives and then challenge others to allow God to work a revival in them. Now if we all take that home with us.... think of all the wonderful things that God can do this year! Guess what! My birthday is Saturday, I'm turning 18 this year. Next week Mom and are going to Indianapolis for a seminar that I need for our home-school program. If I want to take advantage of any of the college courses or ministry opportunities I have to have this seminar. It's called the Counseling Seminar. It's supposed to equip you to work with others. Anyway I'll be gone all week. The only problem is I have to miss Apple Butter! It's so sad. Dad and the boys and Beth will get to go to Apple Butter though. I'm going to try and post the latest pictures I actually have on the computer. Some of them anyway. They are from February when we went to see the Cox's. Everyone's grown some since these pictures were taken.

Pictures (Hopefully!)

(TJ, Eric, Chelsey, Megan,Kaitlin, Isaiah, and Allen)
(TJ, Allen, me, Megan, Chelsey, and Eric)

Hey everyone. I'm posting again. TJ Orcino sent me a couple of pics that he took of the IYC crowd at the Assembly. These are just some of the young people that were at IYC. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so I don't have any pics except these. Kaitlin didn't attend IYC but she visited one night with Bro. Carter. Apparently everyone was looking for me and couldn't find me that's the reason I'm not in the first picture. Isaiah had already left by the time they took the second picture. Wow I actually successfully posted a picture. In fact 2 pictures! Ha! With this triumph I shall retire for now. Goodbye!

Surprise! I'm posting!

Hey everyone! I'm posting! Now isn't everyone proud of me? You think with a grand total of 1 hr. of computer time every school day I would find some time to blog. No instead I go and blow it all on sending personal e-mails to my friends. You think I would have figured out by now that the best way to communicate with everyone is to send a group e-mail or a little note saying "Go look at my blog." But no I just can't be impersonal like that. I have to go and spend 45 min. responding to 3 (count them 1, 2, 3) e-mails. School has gotten started (obviously) and we are on a schedule. My only complaint is that I only get to talk to my Canadian friends on the weekend because of time differences. I have a pretty light load this year for school. I'm just finishing off a few things and I'll graduate this spring. I don't know what I'm going to do next though. I do feel a burden for our young people and little ones. So many of our young people need training and not just training but a real relationship with God. I want to see some of the things I've heard my parents and grandparents talk about. I want to see people healed. I want to see the Spirit of God come on the place so strong that no one is able to stand before Him. I want to see sinners walk in the door and conviction hit them so hard that they run to the altar right then. I want to see children seeking God with all their hearts, souls, minds, and strength. I want to see the Church moving forward toward perfection. I want to see the latter rain. I want to see the Lord pour out His Spirit like He promised that He would. Sorry for preaching at ya'll. As Josh says to me, "You're not a preacher but sometimes you get to teaching pretty good." Anyway Micah started guitar lessons last Wednesday. He learned four chords came home and started picking out songs by ear. He can play Psalms 100, Amazing Grace, and How Great is our God. He has even showed me how to play several chords. I'm happy with that because as some of you know, I have secretly wanted to learn how to play the guitar for several years. My Grandma Miller played the guitar. She was really good and I have memories of standing next to her and singing with her while she played when I was just a little girl. She went to heaven 10 years ago and every time I hear a guitar it reminds me of Grandma Miller. Anyway I rambled long enough. G'bye everybody.

A wonderful Assembly

Hey! IYC was great! I made new friends and spent time with old ones. The workshops were great we got a lot of good teaching and training. I loved it. I felt like I was actually learning things that were applicable to my life. I learned new things. At regular camp you mainly get milk in the services and in the classes at IYC we were fed meat. The Assembly was wonderful as well. This year there was a spirit of unity that has not been there in the past. Sunday after IYC and before the Assembly I spent the day with the Cox's untill Mom and Dad got to Cleveland. It was great spending ime with them. The little ones were so happy to see me. They were literally fighting over who was going to sit next to me or hold my hand. I felt like a celebrity or something. I love those kids. The baby is getting so big. Soon she won't be a baby anymore! It was great hanging out with the boys too. Just about every night after we got back to the hotel we would go to the lobby and play Dutch Blitz. Aaron Brooks and the Williams kids found their way to the lobby by the end of the week. One night we had like 3 decks of Blitz cards going. It was crazy. I enjoyed seeing the kids from Midway, SC and the friends I had made at IYC like Megan Mack, Joleesa Nowling, Isaiah Peters, and TJ Orcino again. Megan and TJ worked in the Children's Assembly as ushers. I got to see them often. I was really busy this year at the Assembly. The VA/NC choir had to sing several times and our family sang plus I was in the IYC choir and involved in the Parade of Nations and the Children's Assembly. I really enjoyed the messages this year. I just enjoyed the entire Assembly. Every bit of it. The only problem is that it went by so fast. Anyway I have to go. Later.

Home! (Only for a week-and-a-half)

Hey everyone! I'm home again! The homeschool conference was great. I worked as a teacher in the children's program. It was originally created for 6-12 year olds but we used it for 4-7 year olds. We did a lot of changing in the curriculum to fit the ages of our kids. It was great. I always learn a lot from working with that age group. This year I learned how to deal with kids who cry when they don't get their way.... ignore them but first explain to them that if they cry you aren't going to pay any attention to them. I had one kid who cried almost constantly the first day but by the last day he had gotten a lot better and only cried once! There is actually more to it than that but i am really not that good at explaining things to people! This year at the conference I received a Presidential Award for volunteer community service. I was also in the Congressional record for service overseas. I got to see 3 of my closest friends from the Asia mission team that I was on last summer. It was really good to see them again. Anna and David Beaulieu and Brianne Norcross. Anna saw me the first day and found out I was a teacher in the Children's program and requested that her brother be put on my team. I saw her name as a teacher in the program bethany was in so I requested that Bethany be put on her team. Bethany asked her if she was friends with me. She replied, " Well what do you think? I asked for my brother to be on her team and she put you on my team." I only saw David a couple of times and we really didn't have a chance to talk much. I got to talk to Brianne a number of times. Surprisingly she never ran into Anna or David. I was the only one any of them saw. Except Anna and David of course saw each other. We did get to see our Canadian friends. We spent all of our time hanging out with them. Their last name is McMillan. They have 3 sons. Josh is my age, Seth is a year older than Micah, and Nic is Bethany's age. It was nice to see them again. We kept up our old tradition of trading kids and then getting lost. We wandered around Indianapolis for our whole supper break one night trying to figure out how to get to the place we were having the conference. It was a mess. It was also funny. Well that's about it. I am going to spend the night with my Mammaw tonight cause Pappaw went down to visit his sister and he doesn't like to leave Mammaw alone. If any of you guys know of someone who is interested in working as a Children's Assembly usher please let me know. Our family is in charge of the Children's assembly ushers this year. Next Tuesday I am leaving for Roanoke. I'll spend the night with some church folks there and then the next morning early Chelsey and I are riding down with Tim to IYC. So I will see a bunch of you guys at the Assembly. Bye Bye

Home from Camp

Hey everyone! I'm back again. Camp was good. We had a lot of fun. It seemed a bit different to me this year, but maybe I was just out of it. We had Over 90 people including staff at camp this year. It was cool. The weather was perfect. We had like 0 humidity. That is amazing for VA. One night a little girl testified and said that she had been "Sanitated." She meant sanctified. It was funny and she was so cute. One day this guy nearly walked into girls swim time accidently, he was stopped just in time. (Names are purposely being left out so no ones reputation gets ruined.) :-P Another day 3 guys had to drink baby bottles in front of everyone at camp. Someone else was proven to be a big monkey. And someone else will forever be known as "Traitor." Lots of things happened. Bro. Jared is a good baseball player. He's an awesome fielder and if he ever hits the ball it's going somewhere. Sister Connie Wilson preached the 1st night. She did a great job. Brother Levi Stephens preached the 2nd night. He did a great job. He is a good preacher. Brother Justin Lott, from Georgia, drove up to be the boys lifeguard and he preached the 3rd night. I really enjoyed his message. Brother Tim Cox preached the last night he had a skit at the end of his message that was funny and made a point. It was good. The last night we were at camp the older kids were allowed to stay up late. We were all up till just after 2. Justin, and this guy named Angel that he had brought with him, left around 2 a.m. to drive 10hrs back to GA. They didn't even take a nap. They played Basketball and Torpedo ball all night. I hope they made it home all right. Tyler and Seth got into trouble with some nail polish. They did Tim's fingernails and Steele's toenails and started on Cody and he woke up so they tried to get Justin (from Marion) and he woke up. They had to clean the boys bathrooms by themselves the last day. Guess what! I was selected as 1 of the IYC representitives from VA/WV. I was completely shocked. I thought for sure it would be Eric Hogan this year. Tyler Sheets is the other Rep. and Chelsey Anders and Eric Hogan were selected as our alternates. Anyway I need to go now. I'll write more later.