M A Y

oh man. it's may. i cannot believe it, really. exams were this week so that was quite chaotic. i have one more exam left and i cannot wait to say IT'S SUMMER! camp is coming up very soon and i am just so excted about that. i just cannot wait to embark on all the wonderful adventures that i know i'll encounter! so wonderful! i just cannot wait for another amazing summer. i'm going to miss my family a whole lot, but i'm thankful for the twenty days that i'll have with them before i go :) good stuff. i'm also kind of bummed about leaving all my friends at school. they have become staples in my life--weird to go months without them. ^^ roomie love ^^

you know-on a different note, i've come to realize a lot about forgiveness and genuine-ness (idk if that is really a word). it is a very cool thing when you experience genuine forgiveness and genuine repentance. it is just another reminder of how real God is, that those things are possible. there there is such a peace in forgiveness and repentance. no more knots in the stomach or mindless day dreaming of what-ifs and worries, but just peace. awesome stuff.

i'm really looking forward to these next couple of weeks. hoping to be able to blog a lot more than usual. i do enjoy a good blog. get my feelings out there. awesomeeeee stuff. looking forward to the wonderful month ahead of me. praying that God would put a relentless passion for Him inside me. a deep desire that nothing could change. i'm needing that.

relief. sweet relief.

so...just got back from my doctors appointment. all is well! thankfully! the doctor was stinking awesome-he had a medicine bag! he performed a lot of small tests and did a very thorough evaluation. his conclusions were that nothing serious was happening and that this was a chemical thing going on in my brain-which an MRI couldn't show. basically, when you go-go-go all the time your brain is working super hard to mantain this schedule you have on your life. you have plans and duties and your brain works super hard to make sure you remember them and complete each task efficiently. well-the moment that the brain has time to relax and 'breathe' it stops working as hard as it was and gets a little careless. hence the problems accuring a lot while i'm at my apartment and not out-and-about. also, these problems can be made worse and more apparant by the amount of daily stress.

so-i'm so blessed. i'll never know if there was something there that the Lord removed or if there never was. all i know is the Lord has blessed me. and that is all that matters. He is still just as good :). the appointment made me consider my life a lot. the things i believe the Lord has made for me to do in this life shouldn't bring me stress, they should be relievers of stress. they should bring me complete joy, but why is it i spend the majority of my time stressing and going-going-going from task to task? i think it is time to really look at finding true, complete joy in the Lord in every task i have before me. what does that even look like? i'm not even that sure. whether it be school, work, or relationships it should be all focused on the Lord and the blessing that He is wanting to use me in those situations. so-i need to cut some stress. actually, the things i 'have' to do, should be viewed as things i 'get' to do. all because Jesus wants to use me, grow me, and impact His kingdom. perspective change 101.

almost birthday

we are now back in shocco springs. yay. hah. my birthday is tomorrow! yay for being 19! and then, the next day my family is coming! i'm so stinking excited for them to be here. i miss them so much and i'm super excited for them to see what kids camp is really like. we are having chad norris this week as the speaker and jason berry as the worship leader. i've never been with jason berry before, but we are all excited because we've heard wonderful things! chad is an amazing speaker and i'm really excited to hear him again. i've been doing resources lately and i'm loving it! it is awesome to work with kylee. yay for kylee and me. kyleesha is what they call us!!! i miss everyone! hope to talk more soon. today is registration day! 900 kids coming! next camp, two hour turnaround, into 1300 kids! whoop whoop!

TEXAS.

TEXAS. incredible. hot, but wonderful. just delightful. this week has been just spectacular. lots of hanging out with kids, my own room, and extra sleep. the fourth of july in texas was also great. we had a big cookout and then went to walmart. our first night in texas we went to fresco  (sp?) and went to a big mall. some people saw Public Enemy, but i chose to just shop. i got a few new items. :) well today we have some intensities planned...my family comes in like 12 days and my birthday is in 11! woo woo!

moving on out.

we are now finishing up our last full day of kids camp. camp week one for kids. :) yay. it was an incredible week. it was great to see all the little children! i am in love with kids camp. i wish i could just do kids camp. woo hoo. it was neat to see how kids worship the Lord. it was really touching last night to watch them all. i'm excited for what tonight will bring me! God is so good! woohoo. and tomorrow we are leaving shocco springs in talladega, alabama to head to austin college in texas! yay. long ride. 2 days. gtg, bye.

children.

IT IS KIDS CAMP TIME! yay! in about 30 minutes we'll have kids arriving! over 1000 of them! this will be the first kids camp ever for me and the first one for the team this summer. we are all really excited and just ready for it to start. we have 51 churches to register today. yayayayayaya. it will be a super long day for us all, but we are all really looking forward to starting! yay. some of our team is sick and that isn't very fun, but most of them are feeling much better than they were before. my job today is to go through childrens minister packets with the ministers as they arrive and then later i will set up the room with coffee and enough chairs for everyone...then, i will go and work with resources. yippee. i'm going to be helping out more with resources nowadays and i'm really excited for that. i enjoy doing that a lot. me and kylee (the resource coorindator) will now be helping out one another more. yay. two is always better than one! well, i'm going to go and make sure everything looks nice and put together. yay. i've said yay alot, but at completely necessary times. oh yeah. we are going to texas on thursday! we will load out and head on over there. we'll stop overnight in louisanna then continue our journey on friday. i believe it will be july 4th. i know texas has big things in store for us all. well God has been growing me a whole lot and i'm now starting to see myself growing and changing. i like it. well, adios amigos. thanks for reading.

this is mary beth. she was my first roomie here with student life. she was my roomsie for the first 5 camps. we are now separated, but she still sits next to me all day so i guess we can just live with that. she is the family group coordinator. she goes to union and i also love her.