My Beautiful Creator

Oh wow, I can't even begin to put into words my wonderful experience with God last night. It was just way too cool. But I'll try to explain it a little. :)

Well see, lately I've been having my quiet time outside under this huge oak tree on the hill behind our house, and it's such a beautiful, quiet spot. Yesterday it had rained, so I decided I would have my quiet time in bed before I go to sleep like I used to always do. But I really needed to pray, but I just wanted to do it outside where I was alone with God. It was still wet and it was gettin dusky outside, but it had stopped raining, so I went up on our hill and was about to sit down under that special oak tree when I saw and remembered some beautiful honeysuckle growing on a fallen tree just a few yards away. But the beautiful thing about them was that they were white and pink! They were so gorgeous! And I was even more amazed because it's the end of September, and there they are growing! And let me mention a side-note really quick: The other day, on like Sept 21, I was kinda sad because it was like the last day of summer (even though I really like the fall too). It's just that it's been such a wonderful summer, I didn't want to see it go. But after I told God about that, I saw those gorgeous honeysuckle (which typically are summer plants, right?), and I think He was giving me a little hug. Or maybe a big hug, just because He's God and He does that sometimes. So I walked over there and looked at them, and I could smell them- maybe because of the fresh rain- and it was just so pretty. I wanted to get a good picture of them, so I tried to take some, but I just couldn't capture the way they looked as I was seeing them- they were just so beautiful! But here are a few of the pics I got:

This is just some of the beauty I was surrounded by. And this was just the beginning of everything I saw yesterday.

(Ok, in the first pic in this row, do you see the little tiny cluster of white a little to the left above my head? Well, that was the honeysuckle! Just those few little ones! And yet they were growing so prettily. And, well in the other one of me you can't necessarily see the nature around me, but I just thought it'd be a fun pic. lol )

Well, so after I saw these beautiful honeysuckle, I was already pretty much amazed with God and His beauty, so I decided I wanted to see more. So I just began walking. Now see, we don't live on a farm or anything, and we actually don't have many woods either, but there are some behind our house. So I just went walking, and I was praying and praising God for His beauty. That just kept popping into my mind (or it does now anyway). Beauty. God is a huge, mighty, powerful, awesome, star- breathing God (see Louie Giglio speak of this on the How Great is Our God tour), and yet He cares enough about the little things- like us- to make us happy. To excited us. To exhilarate us. We're so blessed to have a creative God. A God of beauty.

Next I went up a little ways to this tree that had fallen and been pulled up out of the ground, and it's roots and everything were so huge, it made a little crevice in the earth. Again, a camera obviously can't capture everything the way I was seeing it, but it helps. A lot. So here's this, well, root...

This might not seem very beautiful to you. Actually it didn't really strike me as beautiful either. But it was soo cool and I just really liked it.

I was in a very wonderful mood by now. Actually I was when I began with the honeysuckle. But I was getting more excited now. I decided to walk around some more. I mean, I had no idea where exactly our property line ended, but our neighbors are all so nice and wonderful, I'm sure they wouldn't mind me walking around in their woods too. I mean, after all, they're woods, right? And plus, who would I be bothering? It's not like most people go hiking around in the rainy woods behind their houses. Well, besides me maybe. So anyway, I walked on, more and more amazed at the beauty and creation around me. And Iwas thinking "Why haven't I done this before? Why don't I do this all the time?? I have an awesome God!" And I realized my problems were very, very small and insignificant compared to our huge amazing God. Yet He cares about them anyway! He cares about me! I was just swept off my feet, and I realized that God was saying "Everything will be ok" and I was just like "God, You are so amazing." He really is. I hope you know that. Because after I came inside, I knew I couldnt keep this to myself. We're supposed to share about what God does for us. We're supposed to tell of His mighty acts, even if that's just a little walk through the woods. So I hope I'm getting my point across. Our God is amazing. I want you to know that OUR GOD IS AMAZING!!!

So I was just thinking all this stuff, and I couldn't really stop smiling. I'm sure it probably was a sight- some 17 year old girl walking around in the woods on a rainy evening with my boots on, my camera in hand, and a smile I couldn't wipe off my face. The good thing is- no one saw me! haha. So anyway, I was seeing all this beautiful stuff, but I obviously couldn't get pictures of it all. But I saw pretty leaves and tiny lavendar flowers and just all kinds of stuff. But this next thing I'm about to show you actually made me smile so much. I don't remember, I may've even laughed or made some exclamation or a gasp or something. Again, a camera can't portray the amazing thing I was seeing. I mean, the whole tree looked like this! But here's a little portion of it:

I did these pics extra big because I wanted you to see how awesome they looked. Like, all this fungi stuff is growing from them and it's absolutely amazing!

Well, then I went on, amazed all the while, and then I saw a maple tree, and I was like "We have a maple tree?!"- I think I said that aloud. So then I got a picture of one of its pretty, wet leaves.

Then I also saw this really cool lookin stump that was pretty and had more of that cool fungi stuff growin on it, along with leaves and other green things. So here's a picture of that too. (Ok, here I was practically in a neighbor's back yard. Well, I guess you wouldn't call it yard, but you know what I mean. I'm sure he wouldn't mind, but after I took the pic, I scurried back into "our" woods for a little while.)

Well, so that is the last picture I took while I was on my little walk with God, although I still saw some cool stuff. But I was (and still am) just so wowed at His creation. At His majesty and His power. His compassion and His creativity. His beauty. I felt so in love with Him. When I came in, I was just so happy- like I still couldn't stop smiling. I took my Bible and went up on our hill to have a prayer time with God, but I didnt even open it up. He ended up not speaking to me throught His Word that day- but through His creation. Through His creativity. And through His beauty.

Hope for Africa Children's Choir

Well, it's been another good week of my senior year. I'll begin by explaining the fun things we did last weekend. Well, actually after I finished typing this, I realized all I wrote about was the African Children's Choir, so I'm gonna leave it at that and write more later, because it was such an amazing time, and I wrote more than I thought I would. :)

Well, first of all, I slept in very late on Saturday morning, and it felt so wonderful because I was very tired. Then that evening we went to Central Park where the Hope for Africa Children's Choir was performing. The spring before this last one, they had come to our church and we were a host family to three beautiful girls and one of their chaperones, and it was really amazing. But let me back up to that Saturday over a year ago.....

Well, when our church found out the children's choir was coming, they asked us (my brother, my sister, and myself) to come entertain the children a couple hours before the host families for our church would come pick them up. So we agreed, but when that Saturday came, I was very excited about hosting some little African girls in our home, but I was not too excited about entertaining thirty or so kids for two hours. Yet we went to church anyway, and my thoughts were immediately changed when we got there. We walked into the building, and a few little African children greeted us w/ "Hi, Auntie!" and w/ large hugs. I was shocked. These children had never met us before. Their smiling teachers told us they had just finished their schooling for the day, so they were free to go play w/ us. So we took them outside, and the first thing we did was sing. I had brought my guitar, and we stood outside on the breezy, spring evening and sang w/ the children. And let me tell you- those African kids can dance. We did the song "Cast Your Burdens," and they sang along, and even the kids who didn't know the song danced. It was so wonderful to see such young hearts dance, sing, and be joyful before Jesus. It was so great.

After we sang a couple songs, we played a game w/ them- elbow tag. That lasted for a while, the children being so thrilled and happy and smiley. I don't think I could wipe the smile off my own face the whole evening.
Then the children just played on the playground and laughed and talked. They talked so quickly, and even though they were speaking English, it was still hard to understand them. The children had been taken from the streets of Uganda not even a year before, and been brought to a refuge, and were schooled and taught English, and some got the opportunity to visit America w/ the traveling children's choir. They were so precious.
All the children had short, black hair- even the girls. So when the girls noticed that my sister and I had long, blonde hair, they rushed over and asked if they could play w/ it. So we sat down and they gathered around us and began to play w/ our hair, and tie it and braid it and do whatever they could w/ it, and they were chattering so quickly to each other as they worked that I had no idea what they were even saying. But they were happy, so we were happy.

Then the host families came to pick them up. After all the children got to the places they were supposed to go, we took home our three. And we had such a fun evening. We went home and w/ the girls in our front yard, we played catch w/ a ball, and played tag until it was time to go in and eat. My mom and dad had made spaghetti- the girls had never eaten it before.

After the meal, which the girls were so grateful to us- "Thank you Auntie; Thank you Uncle- they immediately began taking up our plates doing the dishes in the kitchen. We told them they were guests and they didn't have to, but they insisted and quietly and humbly cleaned up the kitchen.

They got their baths, but before they went to bed, they came in and said they would like to do devotion w/ us. They sang a beautiful song and prayed a beautiful, heart-felt prayer, w/ their arms lifted to our Father above, and I was in awe that children so young- our girls were 9, 11, and 13- could have hearts so pure and sincere.

The next morning we took them to church, and the service was to be the children's performance. It began w/ the praise team leading a worship song, and one or two of the African men w/ the children's group helped lead worhip too. It was so cool. And then, they dimmed the lights, the sanctuary got completely silent, and suddenly the entire front row of the little children in their matching African attire, rushed onto the stage in an excited whoop and constant yell, as the first four ran and banged on the bongos while the other children got to their places. And then they began their songs. Oh my goodness, it was incredible. Those children could dance and sing and they were so joyful the whole time they did it! And it was really cute, because in one of the first songs, the smallest little boy, Derek, who was only 5, lost his shoe while they were dancing, so he went off the stage and got it, but instead of going back up, he just stayed and sat in the back row. So my brother motioned for him to come over and sit with us, so little Derek came and sat on my brother's lap. A few minutes later I almost cried when I saw Derek's little brown hand in Gabriel's larger white one. This is the kind of thing Jesus intended- and I know God was happy.

I don't remember exactly what the last song was that they did, but when they finished, everyone was crying. It was an absolutely amazing service.


Afterward, the host families went over to the family life center where breakfast was served to the children. Here is a picture of us w/ our three girls:

And before they left, they sang us another last song. It was so sweet. Here it is:

Then it was so sad because as the children were hugging us all good- bye, some of them started crying, and it made us cry, and when we walked them out to their bus we cried some more. But it was a wonderful experience, and we were soo blessed by it.

We missed them because they weren't coming to the churches around here this year- they trvel around to different places- so we were so excited when we found out they were coming to the park. It was a whole different group of kids because they try to give many more African children a chance to come to the US each year, and they were just as good. It was really cool, and it made me so happy.

And I realized that that's how we are supposed to be- so grateful and joyful and pure in heart, and overflowing with love for our Jesus- just like the African children.

Campfires and Break Dancing

Well, it sure seems like a long time since I last posted- that was the first day of school. Today I just finished my third week. And thankfully it's not been hard, I'm just tired.

Well to begin, I'll just explain the title of this post. And if you're wondering how campfires and break dancing go together... well, they don't except for the fact that those were the highlights of my weekend a couple weekends ago. (As I said, I'm a little behind =])

So on that Saturday night, my dad and brother came home w/ hotdogs and marshmallows, and they built a campfire! It was so much fun. My dad came in and un-bent a couple wire hangers to use as the things to roast our food w/ (I can't remember what they're called), and we did just that. We brought out some lawn chairs and sat around the little fire and roasted our hotdogs and then made s'mores. They were sooo yummy. I ate three of them.

Then we just sat there under the beautiful stars and talked and I played my guitar some, and we just had a cozy little family time. It was really fun.

Then Sunday evening was the annual talent show at our church. I sang and played a song on the piano. It was Beloved by Tenth Avenue North. I had just pretty much learned it that day, but I really wanted to share it w/ the church because it's such an incredible song- it's like Jesus is singing to us, to me, and He's pursuing us, and it's such a cool song. But then......

Break Dancing!!! Yep, that's what we did. See, our youth group did a skit like "America's Got Talent," and the act our friend Hannah and my sister and I did was break dancing. It was really fun. See, we really don't know the first thing about it, which made it sooo much more fun and funny. We were in costume and everything- I was wearing my chucks, jeans w/ a hole in them, my brother's shorts over those, a big hoodie, and a sideways ballcap. I have to admit, I felt pretty gangsta. haha. And I would have a couple pictures, but we never could get them on here. So anyway, I think we had a TobyMac song playing, and we walked out on the stage then just like dropped to the floor and started spinning and flopping and acting like we knew what we were doing. It was sooo much fun.

But that was two weeks ago, and now it's the weekend again, and I'm very happy. School has been good, and I don't hardly have homework so far this yr, which has been nice. But weekends are always so wonderful, and this is gonna be another good one. Last weekend our parents were out of town, and I ran my brother around everywhere. Friday night we took him to a birthday party. Saturday morning he had a car wash because their class is raising money for as fieldtrip. Then Jacqui and I bought groceries, pet food, recycled, picked up my brother, got his allergy shot, then came home and relaxed. Then Sunday was Mark Walz Sr.'s funeral. Even though it was very sad, it was very good too because he was a great man who God had really used to reach other people's lives. The church was packed, there was worhip and there was laughter, and it was cool to see a huge body of believers who had gathered for a funeral be able to sing our praise to God.

So I know this weekend will be very wonderful too. Well, tomorrow I have to take Gabriel to another car wash, but that's always fine. Then Sunday and Monday we're doing a bunch of stuff w/ our whole family, and I'm really excited, so I'll have to write about that later. But so far it's been a great yr, and I'm sure I'll have much to tell as it goes on. :)