Summers at the Fireworks Stand

Hot summer days, rook games, foot long subs from Winco, sleeping in parking lots, yelling with cardboard signs in our hands on the sidewalk, riddles, inside jokes, Jess and CoCo days, creating "art" out of the supplies, throwing wall balls over flags....the list goes on and on of the memories that I have had over the past five summers I have helped out at my youth group's fireworks stand. I have many great memories in my years in Crosswalk, but being at the fireworks stand is definitely one of my favorites. It has been a great way for our youth group to raise money, and the youth always love coming to help out in the tent. This year is the first out of the last five summers that I have not helped out at the tent. Although I miss it a lot, and wish that I could be helping out there again this year, I will always have the memories of the summers I have worked at the fireworks stand.

Sixteen Years of Life

Every one can remember when they were a kid and they would think and dream about when they would be sixteen. They would be so cool and have life all figured out. I turned sixteen this past weekend, and I honestly don't feel any different than I did last week.=) And I sure don't have the rest of my life figured out either. It is really cool for me to look back on the past sixteen years of my life and see all that God has done for me. The friendships I have had, the ways my faith has grown, the things I have learned, finding out how to be the person God has created me to be...the list goes on and on. God has blessed me with sixteen great years of life, and I am thankful for every day.
Even though I wasn't able to celebrate my birthday with my friends and family in Oregon, (or get my drivers license) like I wanted to, I still had a great birthday. I had a party with my friends on Saturday and we had a blast. We went to the mall and took pictures with a bunch of crazy stuff, then came back to my house and made a scrapbook page out of the pictures we took. The next day I had another party with some friends that live in our neighborhood.
Thank you to all of you in Oregon that called, emailed, or thought of me on my birthday. You guys made my birthday all the more awesome!

Faithful Servant

The past twelve weeks, I have been able to attend a missionary teen girls Bible study. We went through a study learning all about what it means to be "His (God's) Girl". God has blessed me in many ways by going to this Bible study. I have learned a lot the past three months! I have grown and been challenged in my faith in many ways. One of the coolest things that God has blessed me with by going to the Bible study is I have been able to make some new friends. I miss my friends, family and youth group in Oregon like crazy, and I was in need of some girl friends my age here in Guadalajara.
Last Tuesday, as we were finishing the last section in our books, our leader had us turn to Philippians 4:4-10. She had us all read the passage by ourselves and then each of us shared with the group what it meant to us. We all had different ways that the passage impacted us. As I read the passage, verse nine really stuck out to me. It says "Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me-put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you."
God sent me to Mexico to serve Him. He has called me, and all other Christians to boldly go out and share our faith with the world. If we do this, if we do what God has called us to do, has taught us to do, we will be at peace with Him. With out Christ, there would be no peace in this world today. I encourage you, don't be like Jonah and run away from what God has called you to do in your life. Take what He teaches you and share it with the world. Make a difference by living for Him. That is my goal as I am here in Mexico, to make a difference by living my life for Christ. I want to have the peace of God in my life. Someday when I get to heaven, I want to be able to look into the eyes of my Savior, and hear His voice say to me, "Well done, my good and faithful servant."

Shout to The Lord

I don't know if you all are American Idol watchers or not. I don't watch the show each week, but last night was the "Idol Gives Back" night, where they donated money to charity. The song that they sang while watchers could call in and donate money was a very commonly known song by Christians, "Shout to The Lord". They did an awesome job on performing the song, but what I couldn't get over when I was watching the performance on Youtube was how many people watched American Idol last night and heard the song all about worshiping our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Here is the link to the video if you are interested in watching it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chXEraRnE4o

My trip to Tecate

I had the awesome opportunity the last two weeks to go to The United States. I flew into Portland, Oregon on Monday, March 17th. I arrived with the warm welcome of my youth Pastor, Pastor Joe, and some of my good friends from Salem. I stayed at my grandparents house and my aunts and uncles as well. I was only in Salem for a short time; about four days. I then left early Friday morning with my Church, Bethany Baptist and we began our drive through California to Tecate, Mexico for a week of ministry. It was my second year going on the trip to Tecate; I had such a blast! It was fun to be able to hang out and have fun with my friends from Oregon. I have missed everyone in Salem like crazy, it was so fun to be able to be myself and have fun with my great friends that speak the same language that I do, as well as being able to see God work in our lives and the lives of others on the trip. I became more close than I ever have been with almost everyone on the trip, and I left with friends that I didn't have before I came. I am so thankful for the awesome opportunity that God gave me to go and serve him, as well as to see my amazing friends for 12 days. I finished my time with my friends at Disneyland on Friday. It was extremely hard to say goodbye, the days we had together went by all too fast. I look forward to getting to see some of them in August when the group from Bethany comes here to where we are in Mexico. I have been pretty down the past two days, I miss my friends and family in Oregon a lot. I begin school again tomorrow and I will get back into the swing of life soon. I was very happy to be home and see my family. I was very tired (still am) and it was nice to be able to catch up on some sleep. I had such a great time with all of my friends in Oregon. I have so many memories that I will keep forever from the past two weeks. Thank you all for praying for me as I went on the trip. It was an awesome trip and I saw God work in MANY ways. It was so cool to be challenged in my faith and want to do better at living for God. It was also really cool to look around as we were doing vbs or devotions and see all of my Christian friends and know that we have the same goal, the same purpose, the same passion in life, to serve our wonderful Creator. I found out that six or seven kids came to know God at vbs when we were in Tecate!I know that just by us being there, and shwoing the kids of Tecate, Mexico that somebody cared about and loved them that we made a difference in their lives. Even if only one child came to Christ when we were in Tecate, all of us would have came home with happy hearts because we boldly went and shared our faith with others. We have furthered God's kingdom by seven more people and we did it one heart at a time. That is the way it is done and how God wants us to do it, one heart at a time.