I finished Genesis today. Good evening, Exodus.

operation: neighborlove

I'm starting a little project. :-)

I asked God to give me some ideas, and He TOTALLY did!!
I love when that happens.



Let's just say it involves:
- 1 John 4:9-11
- markers
- construction paper
-lots and lots of ink
- and hand cramps

Aww heck, i'm sure the suspense of it all is killing you, so i'll let you in on the secret...just don't tell my neighbors!

on the outside of the little cards is 1 John 4:9-11 ( "This is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we ought to love one another." )

Uhh, life motto much?!
It's so great. Anyways, on the inside it saysssssss: *drumroll please
** now i feel anticlimactic because it's nothing deeply profound,
it just says "God loves you. And you're being prayed for. Have a great day!"

Once I make enough, i'm going to put them in the mailboxes of all the surrounding neighborhoods!
I only have 16 made right now, (hey, it's a long verse to write, okay?) but i'm so excited for when I have a whole bunch!

Let me know if you are interested in helping with the making of the cards, the passing out of the cards, praying for the 'hoods, or all of the above!
If this idea caught on..... gosh, that would be SO COOL!

I know I haven't published the journal I kept on tour.
I'll probably re-discover the scribbled pages months from now, and being bored, i'll type it out.


It was so amazing, God did His thing, and it rocked :)

Agape Tour two thousand and nine :)

Hi Blogspot!

Tomorrow the agape singers are leaving for our TOUR!
Highlight of my year much? Oh heavens i'm excited!
God's going to do some pretty cool things.

I'm bringing a journal on tour to write in every night; just about the day and where we went and what we did!

I'm mostly doing this because when the homecoming concert rolls around, (5 o'clock June 28th and ABF! COME!) Chad always asks us about the highlights of the week, and if this year is anything like last year, monday will feel like it was yesterday and a year ago at the same time... You think you remember what you did and where you sang but after going to so many places in such a short amount of time it all starts to blend together into one big, long 168 hour day!

I'm excited :)

Things you could pray for (please! :D) :
* Safety driving all over this state, and for our bus driver, if he doesn't know the Lord, hopefully this week will change that!
* Health. If one kid gets sick, we allll get sick!
* That God uses every one of us and the talents He's given us to further His Kingdom and to bring more people to a saving knowledge.
* Happy attitudes! Early mornings and 30 teen's don't exactly mix very well :)
* Love love love! That we can show this world some more of God's LOVE!

Amor.

You shower this world with Your love, yet we carry around our umbrellas.
We should be dancing in Your rain, listening to what the drops quietly tell us.
Lets get soaked in Your love and lets hug a friend, they won't dry off because Your love never ends!
God made a promise to not flood again, but you made no promise, and neither did i!
Water's been done, lets try something new, a flood of love! starting with you.
Say a prayer, and have lots of hope, we're going to pop this bubble the world's using as a boat.
Clinging to safety, comfort and friends, release your grip! this storm will not end.
A violent storm it's not. as we see the clouds roll in from above we know that this, this is a storm of love.
Calmly forceful, swiftly silent, this is just what we prayed for!
Just what God sent.
Drowning the world one drop at a time.

i'm praying for rain :)

LOVE LIKE ITS AUTOMATIC

letsgoletsgoletsgo!

do you remember being 3 years old and how great it felt to just run? for no reason, other then just being hyper?
i haven't quite grown out of that stage, i still get random urges to just go sprint.
when i'm frustrated, when i'm angry, when i'm excited.. running is always a swell idea.

Acts 20:24.
Paul analogized life to a race.
Paul's a smart guy. If i was to look at my life as a race, i would be so much better off.
You don't think about too many things while racing. one thing is on your mind, (and it's not who's watching, what you ate for breakfast, or who's running next you to) it's the finish line.

what if we put God as our finish line?
we would be solely focused on Him, growing closer to Him with every step we took.

the snowball effect has begun :)

The ball is rolling.
Today in my small group at church, we were all talking about grace(a great topic that i totally dig, but i'll save that for another post ;)).
All of a sudden I had an urge to say "All of us are agreeing that showing others God's love/grace is a great idea. It's so frustrating that none of us are doing anything about it!! Matthew 28:19 says: Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. . .
You guys, we live in a nation, we don't need to all drop everything and move to Uganda (but that would be so awesome!) to share Gods love with other people!!! Honestly, does Agoura Hills know about this church? Do people feel comfortable enough to just randomly show up to church on a sunday when they feel led?
Those people who live across the street, do any of them come to this church?? They live across the street!
We all agree that something should be done. Talking about it is cool, but when Judgement Day comes, I don't know about you, but hearing the God of the Universe say "Well done, my good and faithful servant" would be INCREDIBLE! Lets work towards making God proud to call us His own.
We don't have to go all out right away, raising $10,000 dollars to throw the worlds biggest Jesus-lovin' party, but why don't we start something. A revolution? Why not? I want everyone to be in Heaven with me, but they aren't going to get there without someone showing them some Christ. Lets stand out on a street corner. Just stand there, no yelling and screaming, just hanging out and offering strangers a prayer or two. People long for someone to care for them, so why not us? Lets get the whole church involved and lets show Gods love to everyone."

This week all of us girls agreed to brainstorm on ideas. simple stuff, like printing flyers to put on everyones doorsteps, inviting them to come and hang out at a park and eat some food! And I don't want this to be just a ABF thing, I want Calvary and Gateway and every other church in the area to make an effort!! We all love God, so we could totally all work together to spread the word!!

an itching inside of me.

God is so cool. He's laid a few things on my heart this past weekend. Here's the jist of it all:
Agape got back from our mini tour last night. 6 concerts from friday night to sunday night. they were all great, don't get me wrong, but one concert stands out in my mind by a mile. after a long two days we pulled up to Teen Challenge. the name suggests a place for teens, but actually it's for women ages 18 +. Something to do with the government in california and the fact that God is a big part of teen challenge; if minors were involved God would have to be taken out of the equation, so 50 women who were 18 or older lived atop a beautiful hill surrounded my green mountains, birds, trees, and every other awesome thing God has created in nature.

While the sound crew set up the sound equipment and risers, the rest of us got to walk through the rows of women, starting conversations. A few other girls and I started talking to 5 ladies and we quickly figured out how great the concert was going to be. They were all funny, nice and chatty! (characteristics we don't often come across on agape tours.)
it was time to start the concert and we were already pumped up. They clapped and cheered whenever anyone had a solo or a intro, sang along with our songs, and worshiped God openly.
After a full set and lots of smiling, one girl who was probably about 20 years old got up and announced that all 50 women wanted to sing a few songs for us! we sat down in their seats on the lawn and they got up on our risers, sopranos and altos. it was so much fun! they sang three songs, and they weren't focused on whether or not they were standing in the correct way, singing the exact part, making the phrases energized or dropping their jaws, they were singing to God.
After their songs we all got into a HUGE circle and held hands. It was probably my favorite prayer i've ever been apart of. Two women from Teen Challenge prayed, but something about it was so different. not only were they praying completely selflessly, but they were just so humbled and... I don't know! something about it was so different!
We then helped them take all the chairs back inside, it was dark out by then and getting chilly!
they encouraged us singers to find a girl or two and just talk with them. They were all so willing to share their testimonies.
a few other girls and I were standing in a circle with Jillian (23) and Ashley (19). We weren't asking them questions about their walks with the Lord or trying to encourage them with Gods love, it was completely opposite of what we were used to doing. They were asking us about our stories and families and hardships, and as soon as the first of started crying Jillian asked if she could pray for us. They prayed for us! Gosh, they're so awesome.
There's so much more i could say about that experience, but I would be writing for days.

We have the mindset of going into a situation with Agape to encourage people, but these women completely flipped the scripts and were acting like older sisters! Praying for us and caring for us like they'd known us forever!
They were ON FIRE for God. It was kind of like being up at Hume lake, everyone loved the Lord, and no one was afraid to say it.
A "pocket" of Jesus lovin' if you will.


I want my church to be like that. I want that SO badly. Pretend everyone in the world was a Christian, loving God with all their hearts. Would that change the way you talked to everyone?
See, these women wouldn't change the way they spoke to me if I wasn't a Believer. "Praise Jesus", "I will have 50 women praying for that", "God is so great" are just a few of the phrases that those women say in their everyday conversations! It doesn't matter if you know the Lord or not, because they do, and they are excited about it.

Chad talked about submitting to authority on saturday night.
Read Matthew 8:5-13.
Jesus" was astonished" with this man. How often does Jesus, the Son of God get astonished by a man? not often, i'm sure. That centurion knew what's up. He had 100 men under him, but he didn't let that get to his head. He really got it. Jesus was clearly above him on the authority chain and that man understood that.
Chad dug a little deeper with the whole subject, but i won't preach his whole sermon over again. :) It was just an awesome thought, and a good reminder to respect my elders.

Then the next morning Jon preached at the church we were staying at, about how WE are the church, not the pretty building with the white, shining steeple. Another cool thought.

I want my church--us-- to be madly in love with Jesus, to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit", and to be focused on God.
Enough with the drama of who's sitting with who, what so-and-so is wearing, where you're going to stay on your missions trip, when the sunday school teacher will let your kids out of class, and why he chose that verse to speak on. Who what where when why.
I'm an awful example myself. Lets ALL change. This world terrifies me, and I feel like/know that i'm running out of time to change things!

I don't want us to be lukewarm for Christ. Revelation 3:15-17.
Choose a side! HOT or COLD. Either be all-out for Christ, or don't be at all. Sounds harsh, I know, and I want everyone to be hot, on FIRE for God.


I'm clueless as to how i'm going to change things in this world.
I'm not going to stress it, it'll happen in Gods time, I just have something itching inside of me to get out and get everyone in the right place with God.
Future missionary much? Sounds like it as of now, but i'm for sure not going to get ahead of God and start planning out my whole life. Just going with the flow. :)

come out come out where ever you are!

I have so many ideas in my head. Mostly art concepts, things i want to draw or paint, I just can't express them in the way i want too. mah.
I wish my hand could draw what my mind can see.

Tiempo

Wake up. Eat Breakfast. Start a load of laundry. Load the dishwasher. Take out the trash. Water the plants in the backyard. Shower. Vacuum. Start another load of laundry. Unload the dishwasher. Clean the counters. Fold a load of Laundry. Walk around out side. Take pictures. Edit pictures. Fold another load. Have a snack. Learn lots of piano. Send an email. Memorize lines. Talk to a neighbor.

How did my day feel so uneventful...but it was full of events?
No, i'm not a slave at my house, don't worry, but my mom and older sister are in chicago, liz was at the ranch working all day, my dad was at work and nate was out with his friends after he woke up at noon. What else was i supposed to do? sit around and watch TV all day? mmm, no thanks.
I went from feeling busy and stressed to bored and lonely in a matter of minutes. I've realized that when i'm alone i work well; i get things done. for instance: yesterday, being a lot like today, i went through every shirt i own, purged several and completely reorganized. Then i went through my closet, found a bunch of things that were too small for my sister (since they've been in the closet for quite some time), and was able to give out next-door-neighbor all kinds of new things ;). as satisfied as i felt after doing all that, i still wanted more. I'm, for the most part, a people-person, so a day of just me is tough. It makes talking to God much easier, but i think i'm too used to being in a family of 6 to fully enjoy the silence.

I guess i realized that unless i have too many things to accomplish in one day, and only one day to do them, then i'd thrive. i like having deadlines and being rushed. well, part of me does, anyway.
That's one of the major reasons why i love summer so much! Wake up, soccer game, church, another game, lunch, agape, dinner, shower, sleep. That's pretty much my dream day. oh gosh, thinking about being busy makes me jealous of... last summer? haha.
So maybe junior year will be amazing. i've heard it's the busiest, with classes and college planning and SAT's and all that great stuff.
Wow am i the most scatter-brained person ever, or what??! sorry :-\

Dear God...

I watched The Passion last night.
I can not believe what Jesus went through for me and you. Seriously, it's ridiculous all that He went through. Thanks Lord :)

Happy Resurrection Day!!

Good Friday

Good Friday. Today is the anniversary of Jesus' dying on the cross for us. Thanks God :)
My mom and i spent a big majority of our day baking. and baking. and baking. One hundred sugar cookies, all shaped like a cross. It's a bummer, no stores sell cookie-cutters shaped like a cross :(. Soooo, we improvised. free-styled, if you will. i would make the dough, she would roll it, cut it and place it on the cookie cutters, i would take them out of the oven, transfer them onto individual plates, and put some sprinkles on the side of the plate.
You might be wondering what inspired us to make 100 cookies?
Mrs. Brookman at church asked my mom too, for all the kids in sunday school. A huge task, but we did it!


^^ that was when we were at fifty-two cookies!

Monday: Mosquito Monsters and Denise.

Wowie. what a weekend of fun. The only sad part was not being able to go to Cornerstone on sunday night. (thanks rebekah.)
Monday started as a fairly uneventful, school-filled day, but then my best friend/neighbor, Lauren texted me and asked if i could go over to her house! YES! i love her! we perfected home-made popcorn with the perfect amount of butter in salt, sat on the couch, and watched the Tyra show. hahaha. oh! i can't forget the amazing iced tea we made! (and sipped out of our Jonas cups) :).
after the Tyra Banks show and two big cups of iced tea, i had to go to the bathroom. so i go in there, close the door, look to my right, and see the HUGEST mosquito bug i have ever seen. it was a beast. and it terrified me. i screamed for lauren because i was cornered in the bathroom, and so she came in and we started screaming together!! after a minute i was able to sprint past it and land out in the hallway, leaving her with the monster....alone.
the monster started to fly a bit, so lauren got out of there quick. we ran to the garage where my brother, nate and lauren's brother, ricky were. they didn't even look up or care to ask what we were so afraid of...so i threw an almond at them and got to big cups full of water! you see, my plan was to have lauren chuck all the water and the thing, causing it to fall a little bit lower in the shower, so that she could then turn the shower on and he would be sprayed to the ground.
the title wave part worked, but we got to scared to turn the shower on...so it stayed kind of curled up (but even when it was bent it was like the size of Maine..) we think its dead... so i was able to go to the bathroom and we moved on with our day!
we both had our dinners, i watched the ACM's with her family, then went over to my house! rebekah was in the kitchen...so we decided to try to pants her...over...and over...and over again. we never succeeded... but it has hysterical.
We then moved the party into rebekah's room, where we locked her out...got into her bed...and pretended to be asleep! once she unlocked the door we took some pictures, made some amazing 80's music videos to a song i wrote called "Denise" and we called it a night! (oh, and we had a fashion show, can't forget that!)

What a great great great monday!!

Crazy!

--This is from Francis Chan's book, Crazy Love.
One page of it. One page says this much, I can't wait to finish it! Read if you'd like. i love.
Did you just that a caterpillar has 228 separate and distinct muscles in its head? That's quite a few, for a bug. The average elm tree has approximately 6 million leaves on it. And your own heart generates enough pressure as it pumps blood throughout your body that it could squirt blood up to 20 feet. (I've never tried this, and I don't recommend it.)
Have you ever thought about how diverse and creative God is? He didn't have to make hundreds of different kinds of bananas, but He did. He didn't have to put 3,000 different species of trees within one square mile in the Amazon jungle, but He did. God didn't have to create so many kinds of laughter. Think about the different sounds of your friend's laughs--wheezes, snorts, silent, loud, obnoxious.
How about the way plants defy gravity by drawing water upward from the ground into their stems and veins? Or did you know that spiders produce three kinds of silk? When they build their webs, they create sixty feet of silk in one hour, simultaneously producing special oil on their feet that prevents them from sticking to their own web. (Most of us hate spiders, but sixty feet an hour deserves some respect!) Coral plants are so sensitive that they can die if the water temperature varies by even one or two degrees.
Did you know that when you get goose bumps, the hair in your follicles is actually helping you stay warmer by trapping body heat? Or what about the simple fact that plants take in carbon dioxide (which is harmful to us) and produce oxygen (which we need to survive)? I'm sure you knew that, but have you ever marveled at it? And these same poison-swallowing, life-giving plants came from tiny seeds that were placed in the dirt. Some were watered, some weren't; but after a few days they poked through the soil and out into the warm sunlight.
Whatever God's reasons for such diversity, creativity, and sophistication in the universe, on earth, and in our bodies, the point of it all is His glory. God's art speaks of Himself, reflecting who He is and what He is like.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. - John 3:16

For the Lord loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones. . . - Psalm 37:28

I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. - Proverbs 8:17

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. – 1 John 4:9-11
A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. - Proverbs 17:17

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. . .And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. - excerpts from 1 Corinthians 13:4-13
---
lovelovelovelovelove.
i can't get it off my mind!!
my mind is on the verge of exploding these days, with thoughts and questions coming in and out of my head as fast as i can process them! but one thing that has consistently been on my mind is God and his love for us, and our love for each other.
it's stressful to have questions and concerns all the time, but i've also been really excited these days. my future is a huge question mark at the moment. i know adults always love saying "you're just a kid! you've got TONS of time to figure everything out!!", but in the next week i have to find out/decide if (i can/should) take classes at moorpark in the fall, if it's even possible for me to graduate highschool in two years with my AA, if i should combine my junior and senior years into one year, graduating with my brother in 2010, and what all the pros and cons of doing all that would be.
whoa.
as of right now, i want to go to Joshua up at Hume Lake, but the thought of graduating in '11, and then going to Joshua for a year while everyone else in my class is going off to colleges scares me!
i don't know. i think Joshua would open up tons of doors for me in the future, but getting there is a terrifyingly daunting thought. anyways, back to loving others...haha, i think going to Joshua would be such a good thing for me, learning in a God-centered environment would be so cool! and it would make showing Gods love to others so much easier because everyone around me would be in the same mindset!
on that note, though, i don't want to go to Joshua just for that. i should be surrounded/surrounding others with that same mindset of love already! :)
i don't know if i make sense. probably not, but i'm just as confused as you probably are. i
t's hard to know that God knows my plan and i know i don't!
eeeek!

LOVE

Spreading The Love.
Does that make sense?
I drew a picture a few days ago that pretty much sums up what i'm trying to write, but basically, this is what i'm thinking:

--

What if someone planted a hypothetical seed in your heart. And that person (hypothetically) watered the seed, nourished it, and helped it grow. Soon the seed would grow and grow and after a while that person would be so filled with love that they were ready to plant a seed in someone else's heart. It's not a complicated idea. Showing someone God's love. The person could have the hardest heart in the world, but what if you slowly started showing them you loved them? He would slowly start to appreciate what you were doing, and maybe even open up to you. Soon he would be happy as a clam when you were together, whether it be at church, the neighborhood, school, anywhere. but that love he feels when you are with him wouldn't be stationary. Soon his wearing of several different masks, (one for school, one for family, one for friends) would get old. He can only hide his joy for so long before he wants to go out and spread his love to others! All it took was you, loving one person who needed it. A ripple effect. Be the stone that drops into the water! Be the first wave. Change one person in your life, and he'll be able to change one person in another's.
Spreading The Love.

Friday day.

Wowie! 

i'm so tired. today rebekah and i went to the topanga mall, and walked around in a big circle over and over and over again. partly because that mall is so huge now getting lost is easily done, and partly because i'm indecisive.

after lots of stops and starts and several "maybe" dresses, i finally found "the one" for the soiree! then we looped back (because going in circles in our specialty) to get shoes for our dresses, and we got a marvelous deal: buy one pair and get the second for $10! sweet! oh and we got the accessories for it, so even though it took us 4 hours, at least we won't have to go back there anytime soon! 

oh, well, actually, we both need to find clutches still...but i won't bring that up until we've both rested our legs for a few days :p.

anyways, i look forward to writing deep and emotional things ( < slight sarcasm--with a hint of truth) but for right now this is all you're gunna get. sorry :(
tomorrow is Worldquest in the morning, then baseball game! woop! fun day. ciao!

Invasion.

Cancer. 
every aspect of it is Scary.
the word alone is enough to give you chills.
those commercials make you a little sick inside, those letters you get in the mail, from the hospital you've never heard of still upset you a little. . .
somehow, the word Cancer always sticks out.
i think it's because it's a Scary word.
looking up Cancer in the dictionary, you'd see that Invasion is one of the listed definitions.
Invasion.
no one wants their home Invaded.
no one likes their 'personal space' Invaded.
i think something Invading your body is the ultimate Invasion.
God lets us control a lot of things. what we wear, what we eat, who we talk to, what we do. . .
but when Cancer Invades your body, there isn't much we can do about it.
i think we're so used to being able to control everything that when God puts something in our lives that we can't control, we get Scared.
Cancer is Scary to everyone, but what does Scary even mean? causing fright or alarm.
since we all love to control things, can't we control what frightens or alarms us? why not? why not stand up, face our fears and get rid of whatever is Invading our bodies? 
i think it can be done. i think we could do it.
God puts us on this earth for a reason, and it's not to live for and by ourselves. if we're here together, we might as well help each other through our trials.
Cancer.
it's a sickening, awful disease, but not something we have to be Scared of. lets beat it :)

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I with uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10

-in-tro-duc-tion-

Hi. This is a old blog that i'm reviving. I read through all my old posts, decided they were dumb, and deleted them. I'll make more, don't fear. My throat hurts.