Big Creek Missions

The week of July 8th, I went on a mission to trip to Kentucky with my church to Big Creek Missions. We stayed at Big Creek and every day Monday through Friday we went to our ministry site. There were three different choices when it comes to your ministry: construction, community, and children. Then there are different sites for each ministry. I was assigned to children.....right up my alley. :)
Every day I had the opportunity to serve at a day camp in the backyard of somebody's home in the mountains in Kentucky. It was such an eye opening absolutely amazing experience. We got to play, encourage, and share the gospel with these kids (ages 6-14) every day. We played games, did crafts, sang songs, and just talked with the kids all day every day. It is a totally different culture there in all aspects. Here are some (well, more than some...) pictures:

 Bible Story time!

 This was the most popular craft! Even the boys loved it!

 Back at Big Creek :)

 You can't see it that well but we did face painting that day so the sweet girl in the picture and I our have our faces painted as blue and yellow dogs :)

 The last few pictures were taken one evening when all of the kids from the day camp came to Big Creek for dinner and fun!

 Here is one of the many dogs that roamed around the area that we had our day camp.

 in the rain...

 The last day, Friday, we had the day camp at Big Creek instead of where we normally have it. In the afternoon we had a Carnival with games, face painting, crafts, more games, and one of the adults even dressed up as a clown with stilts and everything! All of the kids even the volunteers LOVED every bit of it!
I was so blessed to go on this trip and meet so many of these sweet kids! It was a wonderful experience! Please pray for them and their families. They need the Lord and His love in their lives!

Big Creek

Tomorrow I am headed off on my first mission to Kentucky with my Youth Group. We are going to a place called Big Creek Missions to serve the people there in Appalachia. I am so excited!!!! AHHH!!! I can't believe it! Well, I will post pictures when I get back! Please be praying!

Jesus Friend of Sinners by Casting Crowns

This is a really neat song that I heard while listening to KLOVE. I wanted to share it with y'all. Enjoy!

8th grade!

Wow! Last Friday was the end of the school year for me!! I can't believe it! This year has been different than any other. . . . for me anyways. At our school we added a class to each grade so we had a lot of new students and teachers. I have been blessed with so many great friends, in school and out of school this year and have many fun memories ;) A lot has happened this year, good and bad, and God has led us through it every step of the way! Here are some pictures of some fun things that have happened this since last July:

This was the first day of school. . . which was also my birthday!

Our winter Chorus concert

and our Spring concert

At a chorus competition

After the competition, we went to Kings Dominion

What we do in Chorus after our last concert and we have nothing to sing :)

At the 8th grade Formal

After the formal some of us went to Goodberries :)

Instead of an 8th grade graduation we had a picnic. This is when the teachers were giving us awards. Mine was the "Silent Sweetheart" award.

These two pictures are from the last day of school... ahhh!!!

Celebrating the end of the school year!!!!

8th Grade Formal

This past Friday, we had our 8th Grade Formal! We got to get all dressed up which I thought was one of the best parts! It was a "sweets" theme so the decorations were adorable! It was a lot of fun!

 Before the formal.

 Hair!

 Dancing!!

 

Chocolate fountain!! Yumm!

The End

Britt Nicole: Gold

I recently got the new Britt Nicole album: "Gold" It is my favorite album by her so far! It has a lot of really neat songs!

Kisses from Katie and my beaded necklace!

 

    A few days after this book came out I had a friend tell me about a girl named Katie Davis who lived in Uganda. She also showed me her blog. I instantly fell in love with her story and wanted to know more about her. The first chance that I got, I ordered the book and started reading it. It tells many of her stories with the people that live around her, young and old, girls and boys, the healthy and the unhealthy. These stories will touch your heart and will change your perspective on how you view the "things" around you. I highly, highly, highly recommend this book! If you want to get it you can click the Amazima icon on the right that goes to her website. Amazing!
     Just like quite a lot of African based organizations, the non-profit that Katie started called Amazima sells beaded necklaces that a group of women she knows makes! They are beautiful! Here is a picture of one that I got on Easter : :)

book pic from: sarahhollinger.com

Wicked

                                                                       
This past Thursday for a Chorus fieldtrip, I got to see the show, Wicked. Amazing. Everything about it was "Wicked"... :). The characters, music, acting, story line, how they portrayed it, everything! It is the pre-quel to the Wizard of Oz. It is definitely a must see! Here is my  favorite song from it:

Dynamite Announcement

I saw this video on a friend's blog and was just in awe. It is the coolest thing! Adoption is truly WONDERFUL and life changing!!

The Real Reason for Easter

The Easter bunny, eggs, chocolate. That is what Easter is all about..... isn't it? Well, not really. We have Easter egg hunts, and we get something in our Easter basket every Easter morning. We eat robin eggs and jelly beans and talk about the Easter bunny, but that isn't why we celebrate the holiday. Jesus, His death, and His resurrection are the real reasons.

Good Friday, the Friday before Easter, is the day that Jesus was crucified on the cross. It is the day that He washed away all of our sin. He could have gotten down, but He didn't. He didn't because if He did, He couldn't have said the words, "It is finished". He knew that if He saved Himself, then we wouldn't be saved. He stayed on the cross for me and for you. He did it out of love.

After Jesus died, He was buried in a tomb. Three days later, Mary Magdalene, and two other women went to the tomb so that they could anoint Jesus' body with spices. When they got to the tomb, the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty. An angel appeared to the women and said, "He is not here; He has risen, just as He said." -Matthew 28:6. Jesus rose from the dead on Easter morning. Our sins are washed away, we are saved, we have a 2nd chance! All because of Christ!

Vacation in the mountains

Earlier this week we got to go on a trip to the mountains!! My family and I LOVE the mountains!! We were there for 2 full days. We had a fabulous time. We got there on Monday. Then, on Tuesday, we got to visit the Biltmore. It was really exciting because we haven't been there since I was 18 months old and my mom was pregnant with one of brothers, Micah. We stayed at Fairhaven Ministries which is a ministry that anybody can stay at. It is basically a lot of small, cozy cabins in the mountains. Our friends told us about Fairhaven and we LOVE it!

This is my family and I eating in the stables at the Biltmore. Very fun and VERY yummy! They even served gluten free food which was perfect for Micah :)

After touring the Biltmore, we went to the flower garden which had lots and lots of tulips. I love flowers, they are SO beautiful... a wonderful part of God's creation!

On the Biltmore estate, they built the "Antler Village". It had fun shops, restaurants, and, of course, ice cream! Yumm!

Antler Village was built on the area of Biltmore estate that had the farm. They had fun games, shops, and videos about what it was like to work at the farm in the 1800's.

On Wednesday we visited River Elk falls. It is a 75 ft. waterfall in North Carolina. The pool underneath it is the largest pool of water underneath a waterfall in NC. We didn't go swimming... too cold and too dangerous, but we had fun seeing the waterfall and hiking down to it! :)

Finally!

This past Friday we finally tracked out. We were in school for 10 weeks and now we are finally off for 3. This track-out we are going to go the mountains in Tennessee/North Carolina. While we are there, we are going to go see the Biltmore. Yay! I haven't been there since I was 18 months old so I don't remember anything about it. We are really excited!

Blogger

I got blogger on my ipod! :)

The Lost Get Found by Britt Nicole

This is an AMAZING song by an AMAZING singer, Britt Nicole. It's about being bold and not being afraid to share you're faith! That's something that I know that I need to work on. Hope you enjoy!!! : )