Go out and change the world

Well I think I am about recuperated from last week!  I had the privilege of going with our youth as a chaperon for their mission trip this year in Moberly, MO!  And boy did I have a wonderful time!  I always love going on these kinds of trips cause I always feel like I get more out of the trip than they do J We have such a special youth group here, I miss my one back at home but now most of them are becoming such wonderful adults! 

We left early Sunday morning, had a blast on the bus, those boys sure can make the time go by fast.  We mainly just got settled in on Sunday.  Monday we got our assignments, I was in the group called Bone Crushers.  Now that is a cool name, our other group was the Roller Kings…but we kinda changed it to the Roller Queens…complete with a song.  You know the song “Dancing Queen” well we changed it to “Roller Queens”.  Yeah I know kinda mean but yet so funny!  At our site we were to bust up the top layer of Ms. Mary’s front porch and to hang new ceiling tiles in her basement.  Ms. Mary was a sweet older lady who knew about her Savior and was so thankful we were there.  For me I knew we were there to help Ms. Mary but I also believe we were there for a greater purpose.  There was a family of next door and they had 3 kids, two girls and a boy.  When we first got there the older little girl, Kirsten, would come out and just kinda look to see what we were up too.  Scott (our youth leader) started to ask a few questions to see where her heart was.  Come to find out her family was Catholic but she said that she really did not follow that religion, she said she believed that she did not have to got through someone to talk to her God, she could do it herself!  Man that was so refreshing to hear. 

As we were passing out tracts in the neighborhood Kirsten’s little brother Brayden asked if he could come along and we told him sure.  He knew a lot of people in the neighborhood so he would tell us who was home and would walk up to the door with us and introduce us to them.  Made it a bit easier.  Some of our group actually got to pray with a couple of people but there was one house where when one of our group youth leaders, Madelynne, asked if she could pray for the lady the lady turned to her and said “you know what my life is good right now, you all are doing a great work for the Lord, let me pray for you!” How awesome is that, man tears were just flowing from my eyes when I heard that.  Another moment was after lunch we were having our group devotion time outside and Brayden again asked if he could stay with us.  So as Madelynne began she was talking about how great God’s love is.  She then asked Brayden if he knew how much God loved Him.  Brayden just shook his head no, so Madelynne began to share how God sent His son to die for us but how He rose from the grave but what I love is that she got down to his eye level so she could look him in the eyes.  You want to know what Brayden said…..all he said was “WOW!” that is it.  Man streams of tears came again, I just sat there amazed at how much we take for granted just knowing who He is and how much He truly loves us and here was one little boy who lives in America and had no idea. 

Oh before I forget this, I picked up an eighty pound bag of concrete by myself…stupid I know but I was proud that I did it.  See we were all trying to get the bags off the van and Beverly and I worked on one together and I went back to get the last one, thinking she was coming back…nope.  So I thought to myself how hard can this really be, I mean I have 2 boys.  I shimmied it off the van and into my arms, turned the corner and that is when…plop!  Down went the bag, now you would think some sweet, kind young gentleman would come help…wrong!  They all just cheered me on from the front porch including Beverly J  Oh and to top it off the World Changers camera crew were there and filmed the whole 15 minute saga, ok it was about 3 minutes but it felt like longer.  I finally got the bag off the ground and there was our sweet youth pastor there to take the load from me…and to throw a handful of cicadas at me!!  Oh did I forget to mention that this was the 13 year of the cicadas for this area, umm yep!  There was thousands upon thousands and I am not exaggerating.  Want to know what one looks like well look below!  The first half day I was terrified of them but because there were so many you just learn to pick them up by their wings and throw them.  Oh we did come up with some games like cicada baseball, make them fight each other and see how many you can stick to someone shirt.  Yeah I know we were mean but they were dying anyway J

Look at those beady red eyes!

A few more highlights, our other group built a wheelchair ramp for a lady named Charlotte.  They built the ramp in one day when it was suppose to take 2, they work so hard.  A couple of the youth got to sit and talk to Mrs. Charlotte and found out that she had not been to church in awhile because she had no way of getting there so one of the volunteers who lives in Moberly said he would come by every Sunday and take her to her church that was just down the road.  How awesome!!  I just love seeing God work!  Also Tuesday night we had a prayer of commitment, it was just a time for us to pray for our hometown, the people in our town, the houses we were working on, etc.  And I was just taken back to see all of these young youth committed to prayer and to hear their heartfelt prayers.  Always an amazing site to see so many in prayer and worship and then to pray that it continues beyond this place and this week. 

We left on Wednesday and headed to the St. Louis Mall!  We got to spend like 8 hours there and I thought I would be in heaven…wrong, that is just too much shopping for me.  I did pick up a really nice winter jacket for $25 it was originally $160!!  Oh yeah steal of the day!!  Also me and my other SIC’s (sisters in Christ) kinda got in some pickles having to do with a toy snake, Justin Beiber, and a talking hamster…well I think you get why we might have had so much fun!!  They were such a blast to hang out with.  Thursday we went to Six Flags and I was so excited cause I LOVE roller coasters.  But there were two rides I had already said I did not want to go on Superman and Mr. Freeze.  I did good for the most of the day then we saw some of the youth/ college and career kids.  Which by the way we had not seen for the whole day, they were telling us about Mr. Freeze and I had made mention that I was not riding that one…STUPID!  Next thing I knew I was being carried by two former high school football players one on either side of me!  I kept trying to get out of it but they would drag me back.  Finally in line and my knees were so weak.  This thing shot you out at like 60 mph!  But I am here to tell you I did it and survived, now I did have to get Madelynne to help me get back off of the ride because my knees were too weak but I did it!!  All in all it was a wonderful trip, I actually got to know the heart of those who I went with and that is something I will always cherish!  Well I hope I did not bore you too much but thank you for reading J

just look at that thing! Yes it just goes straight up!!

Our crew with Ms.Mary

Us with Justin Beiber!

I have more pictures but blogger is acting up, you can check them out on my FB page =)

"We are just attempting, unless God is attracting!"

Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. ~Psalm 127:1

Fun in the Sun

Whew, I think I am still recovering from our fun filled vacation.  We had such a blast last weekend.  This post will just give a small glimpse in our vacay and overload of some pictures, if that is ok with you…oh it is, great! 

We drove down on Saturday morning, the boys were so excited because we were in our new vehicle and they could watch their movies in there.  As soon as we got into town we went straight to my parents’ house to get kinda fixed up.  We would be taking some family pictures in about 2 hours.  Well to my surprise when we got there my parents’ air went out!  So umm yeah I was trying to blow dry my hair in about 90 degree weather, can you say frizz!!!  Before we arrived at the park where we were having our pictures made, I kinda told…ok maybe threatened a hair that they better put their best smiles on :)  They did great a little too great, Carrie who was taking our pictures asked them to act silly and all they would do was smile…opps

Woke up Sunday and had breakfast at one of our favorite breakfast places…Coram’s, if you are from the PC area you know where I am talking about!  Then we headed to Shipwreck Island for a day in the sun.  The boys LOVED the park, they played really hard and never showed any signs of being tired, unlike their parents.  Their two favorite places to go was the wave pool and the “crazy” river ride as Caleb likes to call it - or you may know it as the Lazy River.  We got there soon after the park opened and left just a bit before it closed.  Fun in the sun it was. 

    

Monday we were headed to Navarre Beach to visit some really good friends of ours and their boys and ours are really close.  But first we needed to go have some breakfast, but they just opened a Bob Evans near the mall and I have eaten there before and it was so yummy!!  So we decided to give it a try, bad move should have stuck with Coram’s.  The service was ok but it was so slow!!  And what I got was not like what I had before but we eventually finished and made our way to the Platt’s.  Each time we get together with their family it is like we have never been apart and I just love that!  The boys stayed up until 11:30 and until their heads hit the pillow they were all playing hard!  Tuesday Josh and Greg went to some gun exhibit in Eglin so Linda and I took the kids to the park.  This park was awesome!  It had a really nice play set, and water pad thing that water shoots up from the ground (it was really neat!), a pier and was near the beach.  So we did them all!  I have to tell a short story about myself.  As we were walking along the pier, Linda looked over the edge to see the turtles but to her little eye she saw a snake and called the boys to come look.  Well of course it would be my son who would look over and drop his flip flop right by the snake.  So I told Linda to keep her eye out for it and I was going to go and get the flip flop, well I stand here to tell you that I did it!  Now the snake was only about this long _______________________________________________________________ but it was still a snake.  There is actually a funny story to go with it but it is too long to write.  We came back and rested a bit then headed back out to the beach that evening, and boys could not have been any happier.

Well we packed up Wednesday and headed home, the boys did not want to leave and Evan even told me he did not want this day to end L  Had a really great visit and can’t wait to do it again.  We headed back to MS but made our last stop to visit 2 of our other friends, The Gables.  Kelly has said we are now Mississippi sisters and I love that, because we are two girls born and raised in good ol’ Panama City, Fl.and MS has been quite a change for us both, so it just seems fitting for us. We had a good dinner with them just chatting and catching up.  Finally made it home around 10pm.  Whew!  Now that I am starting to catch back up, I will be heading out on Sunday to be a chaperone for our youth’s mission trip, looking forward to it but please pray for me. J  I’m sure I will be telling you all about that soon too!!!