Kansas City ATF

Okay, so the Aquire the Fire I was calling for was this last weekend. It was so cool to meet the youth pastors you called or just see all these kids pouring their hearts out to God in worship.

Yeah, I know some were just there because their boyfriend was or someone they wanted to impress or something, but you could tell that some of the people there were really crying out to God.

I remember at one point when I got to step into the arena for a bit as worship was going on, and I just started crying as I looked out over all those youth groups and prayed for them to be real. Not just singing the songs, but really pouring out to God and opening up their hearts to Him.

Also, I got to see this weekend just a glims of all the work that goes into an ATF. It is insane! I do not pray for the Ministry Team (the 2end year interns that put on all the ATFs) near enough.

Time to brag

Okay, so we all know what yesterday was... singles awareness day.

:P

Well... I have never had a boy friend, nor was Valentines day ever a hugde deal to me (other than in grade school when you gave little cards to all of your friends). Infact, I think this was the first year I got anything from guys, even a note (other than my dad or relatives), when their mum was not making them give it to me. LOL! At the Honour Academy, where you are not aloud to date!

...Okay, now you must bear with me for the rest of this story...

So, during work yesterday I got emails from tones of people, guys and girls alike. Well, one of those emails was from my brother core to my core and my sister core. Adam (my brother core CA) was very disciptive of what he wanted us to do. In otherwords, he told us to meet him somewhere which was to be told to us later, but we did know we were to meet our brothers at 10 pm. We finally found out where we were going before we walked out the door at 9:55 pm!

Once we got back to the long houses (where the missionaries sleep in the summer and the campers), we were shown into one by Bryce and Jacob. There was a table with papers on it, candles, and a vase of white roses. Sean began to play the guitar as we started off into worship.

It was awesome just to get together as a family core for worship.

As we were singing, several times one of our brother's would get up and read a verses about God's love and Alex (the January one) told us the story of St. Valentine. Then, once worship was over, our brother's had each one of the girls in our family core come up, they would give us a rose and read one of the things they chose to write about us on a card to each of us. The things on the cards were good things they saw in us.

Here is what they put on mine:

Joyful
Altruistic
Comical
Quaint
Unforgetable
Enjoyable
Lively
Yearning (for God)
Noble

1 Corinthians 13:4-7
1 John 4:18

Yep, pretty much we have the coolest brother core ever.

TL

I got to see my Teem Leader (TL) from when I went to Peru, when I was 14, Friday. He was up for the PD Summit (the PD's are over the TL's on a trip), and he knows I am here at TM so he was keeping his eye out for me.

We got to talk for about an hour...

It was odd seeing him again, after four and a half years, but it was cool. He wife was not able to come up because she is taking claasses to teaching english, and Sarah and Jefferey were in school so I could not see them either. Still it was cool to see Jeff and talk about our time back in Peru and also Teen Mania.

Jessica's mum

Jessica and I both have the same Birthday (Jessica that is in my core but not my room), and her mum came up for the weekend. So, last night she decided to through a Birthday party for both Jessica and I. I have never met her and she decides to through me a party! How crazy is that.

Anyway, it was cool. It was just for my core and also our RD, Callie, came. We ate most of a cake(the rest I believe will be gone by the end of today), and half a gallon of ice cream (we had like 12 people so that is okay). Then what we did not eat we gave to our brother core. After all, what is a brother core for? They eat the food you cannot, protect you from other guys, and they are the commic relief. :D

Okay... Okay...

So a brother core is for more than that... :P

Once we had all eaten, everyone got around Jessica and I and prayed for us.

It has been so good to have this family away from home. I mean, I was thinking it would be so odd my first Birthday away from my family; kind of wondering if it would be lonely (lol, even with all the people around me here on campus), but it has not been. Yeah, it has been a crazy weekend with the PD Summit (those are some of the leaders that go on TM mission trips that are up for training this weekend) and I might not really got to do much for my Birthday, but it has still been good.

Happy Birthday Jessica and my twin brother Josh!

I fixed it!

I got my blog to look how I want it to now on the side! No more random big letters that I never planned on being bigger than the rest.

:D

...it is beautiful...

Xanga...?

Okay, so I now have a Xanga site.
Yet, the only reson I do is to link you to my blog.
**smiles**
he he he...

Tears with a youth pastor

I have been calling for a little while now, it has had its good days and bad, hard calls and ones that you get off feeling all happy inside. Yet, today was the first time I cried. No, it was not because a youth pastor was mean to me, but when I asked him if there was anything I could pray for him about, my heart ached for the words I soon heard.

One of the girls in his youth group's nine-year-old cousins had been rapped and beat very badly. The little girl told her family that life was not worth living anymore, and killed herself earlier this week.

Nine.

She was nine.

One year older than my little sister Julie.

How could I take in what I had just been told? Tears worked there ways to my eyes as soon as I heard. Then as I prayed with him, it was all I could do to make my cracking voice hearable.

I am having a hard time getting words together in my mind for this. So many half formed questions are just flying through my brain.

How could this happen?

Why?

What have we come to?

She was just a baby!

What kind of a world is this "Christian Nation" when a nine year old little girl has to go through this? When any girl has to go through this?!

We are so lost...

Please pray for this little girl's family.