Running Free In Heartland

Life.....

So, things have been pretty good for me lately. I have been having a great summer so far, hanging out with friends, going on outings with my youth group, and enjoying time with relatives. It has been so fun!! Then, next week, I'm leaving on a missions trip to Vancouver, BC, with my youth group. I'm really excited!It will be really incredible! It will be really fun, too, cause our group is small, so we will hopefully all get really close.

Right now, the other team is in Vancouver, and a bunch of my friends are with them. So...if you all would pray for them, that would be maginificent! Thanks!

Everything else in life, has been going fine. I'm am begining to realize how complicated and frustrating life can be sometimes, though. The whole issue with on of our friends, is going ok, but a few more people have become frustrated with her as well.  For the longest time, one of my close friends, who has been going through this struggle with me and who has also been feeling the same way, and I were begining to think it was getting near time to confront her. We weren't certain ,though, but we knew that we needed to wait a little while to see what would happen. We had been advised not to talk to her, and I wanted to listen to that person, but I wasn't sure if that was what we were supposed to do, or if it was even the best advice. Last night, I talked to my mom about it, cause I haven't talk to her about it for a while, and she gave me the same advice, as well as some others. It is clearer to me now, that God doesn't want me to talk to that person, but that he wants me to wait for him to put things to right. He also told me the reason why he has put my friend(the one who has walked this journey with me) and I through this: 1) to help us practice being patient  2) to leave God to be in control 3) to learn to "not make mountains out of mole hills", cause both of us really struggle with that. It's really cool when God tells you why he is putting you through the trial you are in. In a way, it is also kind of relieving. It's so cool!God is SO SO SOOOOOO incredible! I love you, Lord!

Well, I should go

I will talk to you all later

God bless!

Love,

Sarah 

Life

So, it's been a while since I last wrote. Well, since then, school has somewhat finished for me, and we have been on our trip down the Oregon Coast to Disneyland. We had a really good time, and we did a bunch of interesting things. If you would like to read more about it, feel free to go onto my traveling blog at: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/beyondtheopendoor/ .  That it the blog I wrote on, so that all of my friends could keep in touch with me and up to date on what I was up to while I was away. I didn't use this one, cause some of my friends are males, and I love them and all(like brothers and friends), but don't really want them to read this blog, cause this is the one that I really pour my heart out into, and I want to keep it that way.  So, yeah, feel free to check out the other one. It has a slide show from our vacation.

Things have been going pretty good. There is a little bit of confusion and hurt going on in my group right now, but we are hoping that it will work itself out. We have been praying about it too, but this is one of the many situations in life, that is hard to know how to deal with. I'm not going to say any names, but one of the girls who recently joined our group, has kind of taken over the attention of the group. Like we love her and all, but she is constantly hogging "the spot light" and one of my other friends and I are/ were finding it hard. We love her and all, but she was making us feel like what we said wasn't important or intersting anymore, and that it would just be better off if we didn't say anything at all and just kept quiet and let everyone else talk. It is kind of frustrating too, cause she is kind of expecting to be involved in all of our social events. Like me and one of my guy friends had briefly talked about doing a Indiana Jones movie night, cause he owns all of them. Well, we had just talked about it, and haven't actually done it yet, but I told her about it, and she was practically guilt triping me into asking her if she would like to do it too. If we ever do it, I would really just like to have it with him, me, and one of our other amazing friends(the one who has been feeling the same way as me about her). I know this sounds really mean, but I just want a couple people from my old group doing it with us. There are times I am not invited to every social event that my group does, and I am learning and am getting used to the fact that I don't have to be invited to every one they do. Like, they are each others friends too, and they have the free will to hang out with any of them when they want to. I guess that is something she is going to or is learning right now. If you readers could pray for my group in this time, that would be super. It is slowly not effecting us as much anymore, but we would all really appreciate your prayers. And, if any of you have any advice for me on what to do with this situation, please feel free to voice it. Thanks!

God bless you all, and have an awesome summer!

~Sarah

My Long Weekend!

I had a super fun long weekend. It actually started Friday for me. Here in my part of British Columbia, it was SO beautiful out, for the sun was shining, the birds were singing, and it was super hot(warm) out, so I was able to do my schoolwork outside. It was so nice! Then, Friday evening, I went to a friends house, and then late that night, a group of us went to see Prince Caspian,which was SOOOOOOOOO good.I loved it!

Saturday morning, I just relaxed, played around on the computer,and eventually took a shower. Then, my dad had offered to pick up a bunch of my friends, who live near us, and drive them to our other friend's house, where we were going to hang out after lunch. So, we picked up the lot , and drove to our friend's house. There we hung out for a bit, while we waited for a couple of our other friends to arrived, then after they did we walked down to a Pandago Pizza stop, and bought two pizzas. We brought them home, and there we hung out and ate pizza. When it was getting near time for us to go, I phoned my dad from one of my friend's cell phones, and asked if she could come with us to church. He said yes, so she came over and hung out at my house, until it was time for us to go to church. Pretty quick after we got to my house, it was time for us to go to church. So, we went, and there we met up with a couple of our guy friends, and we all sat together during church. Then, after, we went into the new coffee shop at our church, and hung out until it was time for us to leave. It was fun!

Sunday, we just relaxed a bit, and then midafternoon a family, who we are friends with, came over for dinner. It was pretty fun, but the oldest girl, who my sis, Katie, and I are friends with, is more into horses than we are and she likes to talk about them alot, and I don't mind that a whole lot, but after a while it gets tiring.  They stayed for quite a while, and eventually they went home at about 10 PM or sometime after that. It was pretty fun, but it was getting really long.

Monday, was a super fun day. At lunch time, a group of my church friends(many of which are in the pictures in my slideshow) and I, as well as my dad, another dad, my littler brother, and younger sister, went for the All You Can Eat buffet at a sushi restraunt in our town. It was fine, not totally fun, but the food wasn't bad. One of our friend, Ryan, bought  WAY to much of the same thing , though. For those of you who like sushi, he bought like 30 Dynamite rolls(which i don't care for that much) and 10 Californina rolls. They also bought some other stuff, but I didn't think there wasn't enough variety. Anyways.......after lunch, some of them went to see Prince Caspian, and the others went to the mall, but my dad didn't want me going, so Katie and I went home. I didn't totally mind, I will admit i was disappointed, but that is they way the way it worked out. My littler sister, Mady, was going to a friend's house, so my whole family got into the van, dropped her off, then the rest of us went to Walmart to by my little brother and younger sister some cloths, and then we went and rented some movies. We rented "Cloverfield" - which wasn't the greatest movie - and "27 Dresses", which was pretty good. Then we went home, ate junk food, watched the movies, and eventually had dinner. Later, I went on msn and chatted with some of my friends, and then I went up stairs, and my mom and all us kids went through a bunch of her cds, and listened to a bunch of stuff. Then, we went to bed.

I had a super fun weekend. It was tiring, since I did so much socializing, but I really enjoyed it. It was nice too, cause it was sunny and hot for most of it, so i got a bit of a tan! I really enjoyed spending time with my friends ,too. We almost always have a blast together!

(I will add some pictures when I can. I have some on my camra, but I don't have its program set up on our computer yet. I add the pictures soon, though.)

God's Creation

Only just recently, I have taken into really enjoying God's creation. I've always loved it, but I am seeing things a bit differently now, then I used too. Such as spiders. I have never really liked them, but I have realized that as long as they keep their distance from me, they are pretty amazing. And, the birds.... I love the birds! I live in on a mountain, and there are so many interesting birds, who each have their own unique sound. I can tell, too, that they are all beautiful in their own way. To get to the point, God has been molding me to see that everything he created is beautiful. 

For the longest time,too, I used to think certain people weren't pretty, or was like all the others out there and labeled them good looking or not good looking. But, God has shown me that I am wrong. He has shown me that everyone is beautiful, and that it isn't the outward appearance that makes a person beautiful, but it is the person that they are on the inside. For example, all of those wonderful people, who have been caught in a fires or something and the skin on there faces have melted. They are still beautiful people, for it is the person that is on the inside that counts. And, even if here faces don't look the same, they are still beautiful, for God made them, and he does not make crap. Psalm 139:14 states,  "....I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.", so no matter what some people say or think, we are all beautiful, because we were made by God. And, I know and think that you all are beautiful!

An Empty Soul Refilled

My Birthday!!

So, it was my birthday on Wednesday. I had a really good birthday. I babysat in the morning, which wasn't the most fun, since I was tired, and then my parents took all us kids out for sushi, for my birthday lunch. It was so taste! We had sushi rolls, Teriaki Chicken, Bogogi, and a bunch of other yummy things. Then, we all went to our church, to give the pastors some Krispy Kreme doughnuts, which my dad had picked up for them, and we got to see quite a few of them. Then, Pastor Chris took us to see the hole again. I had seen it on Monday for a debrief they were doing for all of the concert-goers, who had been there during the accident, and any others who wanted to go. It was still really hard to be in the santuary and seeing the hole. After I was in there for a couple minutes, I had to go and sit down on the steps of one of the enterences to the santuary, cause I was crying. I found it really hard to go into the there, cause for some reason emotions just welled up inside me and made me feel like crying. I also had to look away from the stage several times, cause I was remembering what it looked like the night of the concert, before everything happened. 

After we left, my family and I went to House of James, and my parents bought me the Jeremy Camp Restored cd, and a t-shirt that says "He Loves Me" and has Romans 8:35 written on it. I really like both of the gifts. Oh right!For birthday presents, I got a new t-shirt hoody, a new tank-top, a new pair of capries, a digital camra, and some money.

After we left the House of James, we had to go back to our church, to pick up my dad's car, which he had left there while we went to the store. We saw one of the other head pastors, so we all went over, gave him a hug, and chatted with him for a while. Then pretty soon after, my dad and two little siblings went home, and my mom, younger sister, and I went to a ice cream store and bough two big tubs of ice cream. Then we came home. Once I was at home, I went on the computer for a while and loaded my new cd onto my mp3 player. Then my mom stuck a candle in a Krispy Kreme dougnut for me, and my family sang "Happy Birthday" to me. After, I went on the computer for a bit longer, chatted with a friend on the phone, and ate Chinese food for dinner. Then, we watched tv for a while, and eventually it was time for me to go to bed.

I had a REALLY good brithday, and I would have to say going to the church and visiting with the pastors was the best part. And............Praise God that I lived for another year!God is SO good!

My Letter/Prayer To God

Dear Heavenly Father,

Things have been really odd, and nothing has felt normal since the frightning event on Friday evening. I don't really feel like doing much for school, which isn't that new(haha), but I just want to sit around, blog, see what's new on the news stations, listen to music, hang out with my pals, and relax. Mom, Katie, and I are all feeling really tired too; tired of school, and just tired in general. Last night, Mom, Katie, and I went to a meeting at our church, for all of the people who atteneded the concert that night. It was so interesting hearing what everyone had to say about it, and their different point of views. It was also really interesting hearing what people, who hadn't atteneded the concert,had to say about it. Everyone was so supportive of one another ,too, and their was much love evident last night as well.

 Everyday, since Friday evening, has felt like it has just flown by, but yet in a weird way it has also seemed that the days have been long. It is kind of odd. It is hard to go back to the regular routine,though, and life in general after such a frightning and unusual event occured. Last night, I also saw the hole again. It was hard, and I started to cry, but I know it was good for me. It made it a little easier,too, cause one of my guy friends, who is a total goof, was their and he joked around a bit, which made it a lot more relaxed. But, yeah.

Lord, thank  you again and again for all of my amazing and respectful guy friends. They are SUCH a blessing to me, and they all care about my girls and I so much. Lord, I also want  to thank YOU for always being there for me. I love YOU SOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!! Please, also take care of all of those people injured, and..... Starfield. Jesus, all of those guys have such big hearts and they are totally for you!Jesus, please bless them, and help them not to feel guilty or hate any of their songs after what happened. Please help them to have gotten much stronger in their walks with you.

I should go now.

Jesus, I love you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much!

Love,

Sarah

The Floor of My Church Collapsed!!!

I don't know how many of you heard, or how far the story has spread, but on Friday night , during a Starfield concert, a part of the floor in our santuary collapsed, bring down with it a number of people. But, I am getting ahead of myself, please allow me to share with you ,from the beginning, what happened.

So, , my sister and I were  meeting one of my friends about an hour before the concert, cause we wanted to carpool with her so we wouldn't have trouble finding each other in the crowed. So, we left a little bit before 6:30, and drove down. As we  were pulling into our church parking lot, my friend and I got super excited for we could see Starfield's, Bethany Dillion, and Shane and Shane's trailers. I hadn't really dawned on us until that moment that we actually had a famous christian rock band at our church! Pretty soon after, we saw the HUGE line up of people waiting to get in, and thankfully we didn't have a hard time finding some of our other girl friends. So, we stood around for a bit, and at one point, we saw one of our guy friends and so at different times we went over to say hi. When I went, as he saw me he smiled, waved, and said hi to me.I just waved and went over to see him. We talked a bit, and kept walking with him until we were getting near the door, and then my friend, who I went with, and I decided we should go back, cause we didn't want to budge again(for we had already done it once when we found some of our girl friends).  Our other friend said that we should just come, but we decided to go back.

Eventually we got in, and it felt so weird, cause the whole look and vibe in the church, made it not really feel like out church. As we were going up to the balcony of our church, we noticed that one of our other good friends,was selling t-shirts and c.d.s, so we went back down to give her a hug and say hi. Then we decided to sit down, but there wasn't really enough room for us all, so we were kind of looking for somewhere else to sit, and while we were looking, some of my other friends, who were with us, as well as my sister found our guy friend again and his friends, and they made room for us to sit!It was so nice of our guy friend, too, cause he moved down so that he was sitting near us. After a couple minutes I said to him, "Are you sure you don't want to sit with your other friends?" and he replied, "You guys are my friends, too." along with some other things, but I just thought that was so nice. Then we talked for a bit, messed with one of our friend's mind, and just had a good time together while we were waiting for the concert to start. It was kind of funny too, cause my guy friend's guy friends, who he had come with, were making fun of him, since he was sitting near a bunch of girls, but he sat with us anyways. Eventually the concert started, and he first one up was Bethany Dillion. We listened to her, and while she was performing, one of my amazing youth leaders came in. I went over to say hi to her and give her a hug, and then I decided to go out and talk to my friend, who was selling t-shirts and cds, about something. A couple minutes later, I went back in and we listened to Bethany Dillion, and later Shane and Shane came up to perform. They were really amazing and interesting to listen ,too, and one of the Shanes spoke about how God sometimes puts firey furnaces in our lives, and that even through them we need to stay strong in our faith. He also said that there may be some of us in one of those firey furnaces right then, but that if not, there was definitely one coming. Then after, the guest speaker, David Nasser, came up and helped some christians, who were seeing Jesus as more of a religious figure than their Saviour,re-transform. A number of people were transformed, and all of my friends and I could see how powerful God was being there. After David Nasser had finished his sermon, he got some people from World Vision to hand out pictures and some information about children in third-world-countries, who's parents couldn't provide food for them. He got us to pray for the one we were handed, and after everyone prayed, he said that if anyone wanted to, they could sponser the child. Some of my girls and I decided that we wanted to sponser the little boy we had been handed a picture of, and I told our guy friend that we were going to sponser him. He said that he would have liked to sponser the little boy, and I told him that if he wanted to he could sponser him with us. And, he smiled and said "Really?!" and I said "Yeah!". So together we are all sponsering a child!After we went back in to our seats, pretty soon after, Starfield finally came up, and started their part of the concert. It was so cool,  cause they had great music, and the lights made it even more fun and amazing. Tons of people went up near the stage, and I wanted to, but since none of my other friends went up, I decided not too. Then some of my girl friends went up, and I turned to my guy friend and said to him "Do you want to go down there?" and he said "Do you want too?" and I said "Yeah". So him and I went down, and eventually my sister and the friend we came with, came down too. We were all so excited, and my friend, who was working there, and I were saying that the lead singer was "RIGHT THERE". The first song they sang was their amazing song "Hosanna" and then they started to sing their first track of the "I Will Go" album, and as they were like 1/4 or 1/2 through it, the metal beam holding lights and speakers, came down, and  people were jumping to the song, and I can't remember if it was after, or if it was at the same time, but pretty soon after the floor beneath the people jumping collapsed!! Sadly, before it had collapsed, the lead singer of the band had yelled for everyone to stop jumping, but it was too late. It was like some awful event from a movie; it was as though the metal beam came down in slow motion. And, in my eyes, a couple seconds after the beam fell, the floor collapsed. 

After it fell, I looked back at my guy friend and my sister, but they were already starting to leave, then I turned to my otherside, and one of my other girl friends was there,and she was already crying. We all had to evacuate the building, so my sister and I(after I found her again) went back into the room to quickly grab our things. Then we went outside. By then, many of my friends were crying, out of fear and shock, and I started to cry too. All of my friends and I went around and gave each other hugs, and comforted one another. Then my guy friends little sister came out with one of her other friends, and she was sooooo upset. He quickly went over to her, and we all prayed together for the ones still inside. Then we slowly realized, that all of our guy friend's friends were in there, and he was pretty sure they had fallen along with one of our friends, who didn't go to the concert, was there, and we hadn't seen him since. Eventually, my guy friend told his sister that they should go home, so he phoned his dad, and I phoned my mom and him, his sister, my sister,and I all walked over to a near by gas station to wait for our parents to pick us up. It was smart of him too, cause their were so many rescue vehicles, other cars, and people around, that it would have been REALLY hard for our parents to find us.  So, we went to the gas station,and it was so nice, cause these two girls came over to us and asked if we needed to barrow a phone, get a ride, or anything. And, after we told her that our parents were coming for us, we all held hands and prayed. My guy friend and his sister left pretty soon after, and pretty soon after he left my mom came and got us.

Everything that happened that night, really scared and shocked many. Praise God ,though, for he was so evident there that night, and even though it was a really hard fall for everyone who went down with the floor, not one died,and most of the injuries are just minor ones. There is one lady, though, that hurt her spinal cord, so along with the others injured, we really need to pray for her.

Starfield was also really amazing when all this happened. Some rock stars whould have probably just fled the scene, but these guys all stuck around and helped people out of the hole. The lead singer even went down the hole to help people!They have such big hearts!God bless each and every one of them!

I am so glad that no one died, and that all of my friends are physically fine. Many of us are still in shock,and many of us, some more thatn others and at different levels, are emotionally injured. It was really hard on everyone, and we would all really appreciate your prayers. God be with you all!

Sarah

P.S. Also, here is a picture of the hole in our church.

As you have probably already noticed, the seat is holding up the metal beam. One of our pastors said that God sent his angels and they were holding the seat and metal beam up. If the puew(seat) had fallen, so would have the metal beam, and it would have killed many. I totally believe and know that what the pastor said was completely and undoubtingly true. Praise God's name!

Also, another comment I almost forgot to make was that even through this hard time. God has kept us all strong in our faith, brought us all so close to him and to one another, and has helped us to still praise his name. The community has also really come together, and one of the colleges is allowing the church to hold our services in their gym. God is SOOOOO amazing.

The Large and Small Trials of Life

Through out life, you are faced with trials, both large and small. Some are easy and take a short amount of time to go through, while others are more difficult and take longer to get through. I have been going through a smallish one myself with a couple of friends. One of them won't talk to the other, for he  has missunderstood something and is mad at her, even though she didn't do anything wrong. He won't even give her a chance to explain what happened, and sadly his action is not only effecting him and our other friend, but it is also sort of effecting the me and the rest of out group, even if they don't know it yet. For a while, I wasn't sure what to do about this, but then God told me to love him anyways, to still be a friend to him,even if he isn't being the nicest person to us right now, and to keep praying for him. He also told me that I can't defeat evil with evil, so if I want to overcome this, I will have to defeat evil with good. I also think that God has been telling me, that if the opportunity comes up, to explain to him what happened and tell him her side of the story.

Trials are not fun to go through, but in a way they are actually wonderful. Right now you might be thinking to yourself, "Is something wrong with her?Trials wonderful?!?!?!". Well, please let me explain. Even though they are challenging and extremelly emotional(at least for some people), God uses them to strengthen our relationship with him and to teach us life lessons. Like, right now, God has been teaching me how to deal with people when they aren't being the nicest, and he has shown me how to deal with the situation the way he is and the way he wishes for me to deal with it as well. Such as, loving the person his way no matter what they are doing , still being kind to them, praying for them, and overcoming their cruelty with good. I am also learning to give everything to him, to trust him with it all, and even when it is tough to wait for his timing for things to work out. And, through all this learning God is bringing me so much closer to him(God), and is helping me to realize that even though I would like too, I can't protect everyone all the time, so I must leave that job for him.

I hope this has been a help to any of you reading this, who are going through a trial that may be similar or totally different. To sum it all up, that best thing you can do during trials is to stick close to God, no matter what, willingly accept what he is wanting to teach you, and to pray a lot. Also, one other thing that I forgot to add(until now of course) is that God doesn't put you through trials out of cruelty, but out of his love for you. I am not going to explain to you what I mean by that, cause I want you to figure it out.

Well I have a good week, not matter what you are going through!

God bless you all!

Sarah

Last Weekend... Oh The Fun Times...

For all of you who live in the Vancouver Area, wasn't the hot summer-like day on the weekend of April 12 amazing?! I loved it! It was so nice, but it caused my mom, siblings, and I to get the Spring Fever. What is the 'Spring Fever' you may be asking?Well, it is when you become really restless for summer,and you just don't want to continue with your regular routine. It was so nice though, cause on the Saturday, a group of my friends and I hung out.

 It was fun, cause at first we were just planning to hang out at a park near all of our houses, but then lots of us agreed to go to our friend Emerald's house to help her dad with yard work. So we went, and we had a fun time, but soon it was almost time for dinner, and we were all wanting to have dinner together. So, my friend Jessica phoned her mom, who was just around the block, and her mom kindly offered to make dinner. So myt friends Emerald, Jessica, Becky, Olivia, and Nigel all went to Jessica's house, and while her mom was doing other things, we washed Jessica's parent's cars. Later, a while before dinner, two of our other friends, Josh and Tyler, came and together we all helped Jess's mom to make dinner. It was so fun, and I never thought that all of us would be in a kitchen helping to prepare dinner together. It was so nice though. We all sat outside while we at dinner and we took a bunch of pictures. Here are some of the pictures that we took while we were hanging out:

                                 From the left is Jessica, Becky, Ryan, Me, Laura, and Olivia( Laura had to go home, and Ryan had to go to work)

                                               Here is Beck again, calling one of our friends.

             From the left, there is Jessica(again!lol), Ryan(he came back during dinner and hung out with us some more), Emerald, Nigel, Tyler, Olivia, Josh, and I. This was taken while we were all finishing up dinner.

                                                                  Here is some of us again.

                          Here is a bunch of us again. Us girls were trying on the Ryan and Tyler's glasses.

                               Here is us again, all pointing. Sadly, I was pointing in the wrong direction. I got so  much heck for that!!lol

                   Here is another picture of us. In this one, we got Nigel to lie down on the ground, and take a picture of all of our heads. It was funny, cause at first it wasn't working out, but then Nigel realized that it wasn't working out, cause it was zoomed in. I love this picture!It is so cool!

After dinner, we all walked over to another park near Jessica's house and we hung out there for a bit. Then, near 9 o'clock, when my dad was going to pick me up, we all walked back to Jessica's house and hung around in her driveway, and chatted for a while. Then, my dad came to get me, and I went home.

The next day, Sunday, was just as fun! We all went to church, and it was cool cause the day before brought us all so much closer together. We all went to Sunday School together, and then we all sat together in church. Josh, Emerald, Nigel, and I all had a Team Building Session that we had to go to, cause we are all going on a missions trip, and so after church we went to the soup lunch that the church was serving. Then together we went to the Team Building Session.

That was one of the most amazing and fun weekends that I have had in a long time. It was really cool too, cause God brought all of us so much closer and he strengthened my trust in my friends too. I love them all so much, and I think it is so cool that God put them in my life. I couldn't  ask for better friends!

Well I should go, I have talked enough!

All of you have an amazing week, and God bless you all!

Take care ya'll!

Sarah

Spring Break

Hey Everyone,

How are you all doing?Did you all have a good spring break?Mine was great, busy but great! I did a bunch of socializing, which I will tell you right now is one of my favorite things. On the Monday, of our first day of spring break, my hometeacher came and looked at all of the work that my sister, Katie, and I had complete for the second term. Before we new it, we were finished, and then for the rest of the day I messed around on the computer, watched tv, and just relaxed and enjoyed the begining of my spring break. That night, my mom took me to Walmart, and she purchased a paint-by-number for me and all of my siblings(one for each of us), and once I got home, I painted for a while. The next day, Tuesday, my friend Becky phoned and asked if we (my sister, Mady, her sister and Mady's best friend, Katie, her and I)wanted to hang out. So they came over after lunch, and we hung around at our place for a bit, and eventually we and my sister, Katie, all walked down to the 7eleven near our house. On our way home, her mom drove past, and after they dropped my sisters and I off at our house, the went home. On Wednesday, we did do a whole lot, but my friends, Emerald and Jessica, and I continued to plan a sleepover we had been organizing for a few days. My mom, siblings, and I also went to visit my grandparents for the day, and that was fun. The next day, Thusday, was a super busy driving day. My siblings and I went over to a friends house, and Katie and I went to watch their oldest daughter do her riding lesson. After we got back home, I had to quickly make myself a cheese sandwitch, and then my mom had to drive me to Jessica's house. We hung out their for quite a while, and I ended up eating dinner their. A while after dinner, Jessica and I went with Emerald and her mom to a courner store near our house. There we bought a bunch of junk food for our movie that night. Then Emerald's mom drove us back to Jessica's house, we picked up one of our other friends, Makenzie, and then she drove us to our youth group. It was fun, and I got to sit with most of my friends. It was a lot of fun!Afterwards, we went back to Jessica's house, again, and we watched a movie and eventually went to bed. Makenzie and Jessica fell asleep pretty quickly, but Emerald and I stayed up til almost 3 in the morning talking, and we had to get up at 7 something to get ready to go to our church, cause we were serving communion there.

The next morning we got up (Emerald and I were super tired), and after breakfast we sped off to our church. We thought we were super late, but we got there and all of the other volunteers we talking amoungst themselves. We did our thing there and then, and then we evertually we went back to Jessica's and pretty soon after I went home. Then for most of the rest of the weekend we did the usually Easter things- family dinners, Easter egg hunts, people over for Easter dinner, etc. It was fun though. For the rest of the next week we did a bunch of other social activities, but their are so many that I am not going to name them all. Spring Break was awesome, and I really enjoyed it.

Well I should go

Talk to you all soon!

God bless you!

Sarah

Peace and Joy & A Different Perspective

Have you ever felt down, upset, or confused, because you found something out that may ruin one of your valued friendships with someone?Well, I have been feeling sort of like this for the past few weeks. I found something through one of my friends, that may have put a damper in a friendship with one of my friends. It has been bugging me, cause our friendship doesn't seem the same anymore, and that makes me sad, cause that person is so much fun to hang out with, and I really don't want to lose that person as a friend and sibling of Christ. But the interesting thing is, one of the days in this passing week, I was feeling a bit down because of it, and I was doing school and awaiting the time for me to go to my dance class, when I suddenly realized that it wasn't bothering me anymore. I felt at peace and some of my joy had returned. Immediately, I knew that God had placed that peace in me, and it felt so good. Ever since, my perspective has changed a bit. I have been thinking that maybe that friend of mine is going through something, which is making our friendship different, but maybe they're going through something and it doesn't have anything to do with us and I am just seeing it differently than they are. Or maybe that person doesn't realize that whatever he is going through is hurting our friendship a bit. I will may never know for certain, but I do know that I can pray for my friend and just love them as God wishes for us to love others. If you all who are reading this could pray for this person, that would be magnificent. Also, could you pray for our friendship?If you would that would be super. Thanks!

Unfortunatelly, I do not know just yet, if my change of perspective will help me to see differently, but once I do, I will let you all know. Until then, good-bye for now! And, God bless you all!

Sarah

The Surprise Party

"Heyyyyyy...get up......get loouuud....start pumpin up the party now". Man, it's bad when you start quoting Hannah Monatana! No, just kidding. The surprise party was amazing. It totally worked out. Not in the way I thought it would, but it was really good. Almost everyone showed up, except for our friend Josiah and some others, but it was still fun. My friend Becky was so super surprised and excited, and she had alot of fun. Our friend Josh was late though, so he missed the "surprise" part, but he came a bit later, and we all had a great time. But now I am getting ahead of my self, let me start from the beginning.

So, Shayna, Behn, Becky's brother Ryan, and I got there sometime after or before 5:00 PM. For me it was more like 5:30, cause I had to wait for my mom to finish getting ready. I eventually got there, and pretty soon after, the boys put up the decorations. I was really impressed with their decorating, and the room looked really good. Then we blew up some balloons and Behn hung them on the cords of the lamps. Around that time too, the guests started coming,and before we knew it almost all of them showed up. Then, it was time to call.... We got Ryan to phone, and we didn't find out til later that Becky's mom made it sound like an emergency, and they came pretty soon after. We had all the lights off, and I was standing by the cd player, ready to hit the play button to play "Happy Birthday" by the Beatles. She came pretty soon after, and she was so surprised. Here are some pictures from it:

                                  This is Becky after we yelled surprise, flicked on the lights, and started the music. She was soooo super excited and happy. She gave Shayna and I a big hug!

                             This is my youth pastor, Colin. He got my friend, Emerald, to take this picture.

                                This is my former leader's baby, Molly, and one of my girl friends, Natasha.

                              These are two of my amazing girl friends, Emerald and Laura. They are pulling off some pretty amazing green streamers(lol..just kiddin).

                            Here is Becky, and our amazing youth leader, Jenny. Isn't she pretty?

                                     Here is the birthday girl again, with our other amazing friend, Olivia.

                                  Here are two of us girls(Becky,me,Olivia, Laura, Emerald, and Shayna's) friends, and one of them our former leader. They are/were both leaders in Lifeline. The blonde to the left, is Courtney, who is no longer a leader, and our former leader, Mandy, who still is a leader. Like their week girl guns?

                                    Here are two of my girls. Olivia, and Julie. There both pretty amazing!

                                   Here is Shayna, the girl that planned the party with me, Heather, on of the 11th grade girl's leader and our sweet friend, and one of our other amazing leaders, Megan. I love them all to pieces!

                                                      Here is Shayna, Emerald, and me!!!!

                                    Here are some more of my amazing friends. From the left, There is our co-youth pastor, Steve, behind him is, Cam, then there is Nigel, Tyler, me, Emerald, Olivia, Josh, who for some reason wasn't smiling in any of the pictures, and Becky's big bro, Ryan. They are all pretty rad!

                             This is a picture of the cake that Emerald, and our friend Jessica made. Nice huh?

                                   Here is a picture of some of my boy buddies. There is Josh again(see he isn't smiling...grrr), then there is Nigel, Behn(who kindly helped us set up, supervised us, and helped us out alot), and there at the far end is Olivia!!

                                  We had a bit of sibling rivalry going on. No, just kiddin, here is Ryan, Emerald, Behn's brother Dan, Becky and Ryan's sister Katie, and Becky herself. We were playing the animal game, which was pretty fun. And you see that Coke bottle that is in Ryan's hand, well we used that to hit people with. It was surprising how painful that thing could be!!!

                                Here is Becky blowing out her birthday candles, and on the otherside of the cake is our sweet friend Jessica.

                                 Here is Jessica, Becky, and Shayna. At the end of the party, Jessica, Shayna, Katie(Becky's sister), and I mushed cake in her face. It was fun, but we stupidly decided to do it  after Behn had finished moping the floor. He wasn't very thrilled, but we made sure we helped him to clean up. Nice huh?

So, yeah, that party was a blast. We had a good time, and that night Becky, Shayna, and I all had dreams about it. Becky was so happy too, and yeah. Praise God that it worked out, and I seriously mean that. God was the one helping this to all work out, and I know that it wouldn't have worked out if he hadn't been the one totally leading this. God YOU ROCK!!!!!!

Well I should go

Talk to you all soon!

God bless you all!

Sarah

Party and Praise God

On one of my posts from a few weeks ago, I wrote a bit about a surprise party that me and my friend, Shayna, are throughing for one of our other friends, Becky. I am becoming excited, cause it is TONIGHT!!!!Lots of us, Shayna, me, and some other friends are going early to set up for the party, and it should be pretty fun, cause we have a great set up, and hopefully  clean up, group. Coming early are our friends, Josiah, Heather, maybe her fiance, Tim, Jackie and Steve(one of the youth leaders, and our co-youth pastor), Becky's big brother, Ryan, Shayna, our friends, Emerald and Jessica, and I. Oh, and possibly my former youth leader, Anj, and her husband Steve. I am really excited, for we have a great group of people invited and coming, and it should just be a fun time. At least, I hope it is.

God has really been helping us with this too. For I while I didn't think to ask him to help us and involve him in this party. It wasn't until things started to fall apart, that I realized that Shayna and I needed his help to make this party a success. Every since, we have been able to rent one of the rooms in our church, have some of the money to pay for the rent, and almost everyone has replied to say that they can come. I am really looking forward to this, although I am also not totally sure what to expect. Please pray that God will be in our party tonight, and that everything else we need his help with, will be provided for. That is another thing that God has taught me through this. God CAN provide you with all that you need, if you just ask. Sometimes he just does it, cause he knows that you need his help with the situation, but other times he just waits for us to ask him. It is really cool what God can do, and if he doesn't do something right away, don't give up on him but just wait for his timing, cause God's timing is much different then ours.

Praise God, for he has done so much for us!Lets give him TWO rounds of applauds!!!

Well I should go

Have a great day, and God bless you all!

JESUS LOVES YOU!!!!

Saralf

Forgive And Forget & Don't Let the Devil Steal God's Blessings To You

My Friend's Surprise Party

I am soooooo super excited. My friend, Shayna, and I have been planning a surprise party for a friend of ours, and God has totally been helping us. He has provided us with a huge room, at our church to hold it, and even the money to pay the rent. It is cool too, cause we need to have a youth leader, or someone to supervise this event, and one of our friends, Behn, he has kindly offered to supervised it and pay for some of the rent. I was nearly shaking with joy, when Shayna called me to tell me!Her mom also came up to me on Sunday, and said that it will work for us to have it this month, and when i told her about the room(which is called Fusion) she said that they could pay for some of it, and that if we needed anything for her daughter's party, that we can just let her know. I was soooo happy when i heard that. God has been sooo good too us, and for a while it was looking as if we couldn't have the party, cause both of the people whose house we where hoping to hold it at, said that it wouldn't work. But, God sent us Behn, and now we can have it!I am sooo very excited. Please continue to pray that it will go well! Thanks!

Well i should go

Talk to you soon!

Sarah

Our Friends From Indonesia

Hey Everyone,

Sorry I didn't blog last week. I tried too, but my brother's blog was being annoying, and wasn't allowing us to log in to  our accounts. But, here i am blogging now!Anyways, our missionary friends from Indonesia have been here since Christmas, for they are awaiting the arrival of a new baby! Today she went to the doctor, cause they have been a little bit worried about the baby's size, and it is going to have to be induced, cause it isn't growing anymore. She is a bit worried, and I need all of you to pray for her. If you would that would be so wonderful! And, please also pray for the baby!

Well i should go

Talk to you all soon!

Saralf

The Sweet Candy Apples

Hey everyone,

Sorry if my posts have been sounding depressed. I am really not, i have just been going through somethings and God has been helping me. I also just wanted to be more deep in my posts and share how wonderful God has been to me. I am sooooooooooooooo blessed to know him!

Anyways, my dad he went away for the week on a business trip, and he came home a day early(yesterday). It was nice to see him again, and I was missing him for some reason. It was odd, cause i don't usually miss him that much, but i guess God has brought me closer to him. He usually brings us something home, and yesterday he bought us this really tasty, yet expensive, candy apple. It is really good! Here are some pictures of it!

                                  This was the candy apple my dad brought me, it's a Black Forest Candy Apple!

                                   This is the one my dad brought back for my little sister, Mady, and this one is a Cheesecake Candy Apple!Nice, huh?

                                 This is the candy apple my dad brought back for my little brother, William, and as you can see it is a Marsmallow Candy Apple.

Here is the one that my dad brought back for my younger sister, Katie. This one is a Score Candy Apple!

Here is a pic of my little brother, William, and little sister, Mady, with their candy apples. Nice, eh?lol

Well I should go, I have sooooooooooooo much more school work finish up!

I will talk to you all soon!

God bless you all and have an awesome weekend!

Your sister in Christ,

Saralf

The Healer's Hand

At least a couple times a week, there is something that weighs you down - life, school, friends, things that are going on with your friends, doubts about faith, sin, wrong decisions you have made, you name it. It is all hard to go through, and it is difficult to be totally happy through it. This is one of many reasons why we need God in our life. Recently, I have been experiencing the healing hand of my Heavenly Father, from being in his presence. It is wonderful, and afterwards, you feel happy, at peace, and like a huge weight has been lifted off your heart. If you have things in your life that you need to give to God, or just need to be cleansed, go somewhere were you can be alone with him, find a comfortable position to sit or lie down, and close your eyes. Picture a throne room and ,somewhere in that room, a throne. Next, picture God sitting on that throne - use your imagination to picture him the way you thing he looks. As you enter the room, does he stand to great you, or does he stay sitting - it may be different for different people? Does he ask you too come close?How close are you aloud to go?Or, does he come over to you? What is God's facial expression?Is it happy, loving, a little bit sad?Does God give you a hug?Does God say anything to you?Next, picture a empty box in your hands. Then, take all of the things that are bothering you that God brings to mind, and picture yourself placing them all in the box. Once you are done, close the box, and picture yourself handing it to God. Then, imagince God, taking the box and placing it at the foot of the cross. If you want too, in your imagination, picture yourself crawling into his lap, and him wrapping his arms around you. Then you may want to talk to him, or just quietly listen to what he has to say to you. Does he say anything?Once you are ready, you may open your eyes. If you want to, you can take a piece of paper, or a journal, and write about it. You may want to write it down as a letter to God, thanking him for the time you spent with him, or you may want to write it some other way - you choose.

What you just did, is called A Listening Prayer. My mom is the one who introduced me to it, and i love it.  We did it yesterday with our Bible Lesson, and it made me feel really good afterwards. For me, the sensations were of peace, cleanliness,  joy, and that a weight had been lifted. Also, don't be afraid to cry. When you cry from spiritual things, it is a sign that you have been in the presence of God. God always wants to spend time with you, so you may do this as much as you like.Lets praise God for all that he has done for us!

Trapped and Freed

How many times have you gotten into a situation were you feel like you have just wandered into a dead end, and there is no way out? I have recently felt like that with one of my friends. She has been making wrong decisions lately, and i got into a conversation with her that made me feel trapped for a couple days. I unfortunately clung to it, and it felt like a cat trapped in a corner, with no way out. Eventually i told my sister about it, and I went to God with it too. Talking about it, and surrendering it to God is the most freeing thing. You may have to do it more than once with different or the same situations, but once you do, you feel much better. God also wants to free you from your sins. Incase some of you don't know what  sin is, it is the wrong things that every person, except God, has  committed. Sin can continue to entangle us, until we feel like we have been trapped in something we can't get out of, but if you ask God for forgiveness and and surrender everything to him, it will help you to feel free and things will turn out for the better. God is the only one who can free you from the traps of sin and everyday situations, so if you are dealing with tough stuff right now, just pray to God and ask him to help you and free you. I can garentee that doing that will help so much.