Devotion: God-Pleasers

Here is one of my devotions that I recently read and really spoke to me. It is very hard but EXTREMELY important:

"God wants us to please Him first. It's not our job to make everyone happy.

There will be a lot of times when God's Word goes against what all of your friends are doing. Sometimes grown-ups and other people you trust might be going against God's Word too. How will you know? Ask God to help you know right from wrong and keep His Word in your heart. If you study God's Word everyday, you will know when other people are going against what the Bible says.

 If all your friends decide to cheat on a test at school, they won't be very happy if you tell them that it's wrong and you aren't going to do it. But that's okay! It's not your job to make everyone happy. It's much more important to make God happy than all of your friends. All you have to do is trust in God and do what's right. That's all that matters in the end!"

"Obviously, I am not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ's servant."
Galatians 1:10

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!!!!