Running Free In Heartland

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.

My Homewood Friends

Hey Everyone,

How are you all doing?I am doing pretty good. I have all of a sudden started to miss my friends from Homewood ,though. I had a dream a couple nights ago, about me and some other people at a barn somewhere. I was hanging out with a lady and this man came up to us. When he started walking away i realized it was my friend, Buck, from Homewood and i ran over and gave him a hug. Then  i realized that the lady i had been hanging out with was his wife, Chrissy, and i gave her a hug too. That dream made me miss them. I had been keeping in touch with 'em for a while on Facebook, but then i decided to get rid of it and i stupidly didn't write down their email addresses. I guess I wasn't ment to though. If God really wants us to remain friends, then he will make a time for us to be reunited. I hope though, that i will be reunited sometime again here on earth. I know that i will see them in Heaven, for they are all Christians too. I just really really hope i will see them again next year at Homewood, or somewhere. I also really hope that they will remember me, cause there is nothing worse than being happy  to see someone and they don't remember you. Please pray that i will see them again REALLY soon and that they will remember me.

Well i should go

Have a great week and have a great New Year!

God bless you all!

Take care,

Sarah

P.S. #1  If any of you would ever like prayer for something, feel free to leave me a comment or write me a message,and i would gladly pray for you.

P.S. #2 Oh, here are a few more pictures of Buck and Darren from Homewood that i got from a friends Facebook account. Funny, eh?In these pics, they were dressed up for the Talen Show and for there just made up band "The Dying Ponies"-such a crude name for wranglers to name their band.lol Well, bye for now!

Christmas Day

Hey Everyone,

How was Christmas for you all?Christmas for me was good. It was nice to be with our relatives and God never stopped helping us to remember him in all the crazy and excitment of it all. Sunday was good and i got to see quite a few of my friends at church. The family get together with my dad's family was fine, we had some laughs and bonding time and it turned out pretty good. It was aweful though cause my mom hurt her back while Kat, my dad, my little brother, and i were at church. But, God was right there to help us. One of the Elders at our church is a chiropractor, and he was just coming up a flight of stairs near my dad. My dad vagely remembered that he was a chiropractor and went over to talk to him. Dr. Enns, the chiropractor, said that if my mom needed to she could come and see him at his house, and he would try to fix her back. So she did. It was a total God thing, cause i found out later that Dr. Enns had just brought his table home the day before. We could totally see God there that day. Christmas Eve went well too, and God helped me to remember him in it. Christmas Day was good. We had such a good time. My Uncle Mark, who we don't see very much, kindly spent (to our surprise) hours with the family. And he spent tons of time with me and my siblings. It was so nice, cause we hardly ever see him and i have been praying for him as well. He hasn't seemed to like to be with the family, and i prayed a while ago that God would give me a chance to see him on Christmas Day. I was sooo happy, and i think and hope that i made him happy. God was completely in my Christmas and i am extremely grateful for all that he has done for us. Let's all give him a round of applauds!!!:)

Well i should go, but if you have any stories about your christmas that you would like to share, feel free to message me or comment on one of my posts.

Have a great  New Year, and God bless you all!

Sarah 

Our Crazy Christmas Activities

Hey Everyone,

Can you believe it is only 4 days 'til Christmas?!It is crazy!Insain!Poposterous!Unbelieveable! Our house is a bit of a mad house right now ,too. My mom has to do a Christmas dinner on Sunday for my Dad's side of the family, a piano recital party today, a Christmas Eve dinner for us, and then on Tuesday we are running off to my Mom's parent's house for Christmas Day dinner. It is very stressful for her, cause my dad's family is into gourmey food, so that sets the expectation level for my mom pretty high. Readers, i need to you please pray for my mom, for she is going to be soooooooo tired before Christmas is over. She isn't getting enough sleep either, what with all the stress of organizing these things and having to clean the house. Last night she was up til some time after TWO IN THE MORNING!!! Please pray for her! If you would, it will be much appreciated.

Last night was really amazing. My younger sister Kat and i were mad at my dad, cause he ,as he does most years, wasn't listening to us when we told him what mom wants for Christmas. Kat and i were so ticked off!This year, we told him that our Mom wanted a mug that had red and white stripes, or something that looked candy caneish. But, my dad bought her a red and white mug, cause he thought the other one was too impractical. That part made me mad too, cause who cares if it is practical or not?!Why not live a bit on the wild side,and have some fun things?!So, Kat and I were scheming on how we could get the money and buy her that mug. We weren't feeling good about doing anything behind my dad's back, but we wanted her to have that mug. Some of the options we though were to sneak our bank cards out of his room, and go with one of our friends to Starbucks and buy her the mug sometime on the weekend, but it felt sneaky and deceitful. We wheren't sure what to do, and it was hard, cause we talk to our mom everytime we get into a predicament that is beyond our knowledge. So, Kat and I prayed for the money and that if doing this was right, then God would provide us with the money. Later, we decided to use a different object and talk to our mom, so we did and she told my dad we weren't happy with him, so he came in and Kat talked to him and he said that he would take her sometime soon to exchange the mug for the one mom wanted. It was a great learning experience, both for life and our faith. God gave us the destinction to know that what we were thinking wasn't right, and he provided us with both of those things in a way we didn't totally expect. So, the next time you all get into a predicament that you aren't sure how to handle or that you can't really talk to you parents about, talk to God and ask him to help you. I hope this lesson that my younger sister and i learned last night will benifite you readers and that it will strengthin  your faith in God.

Well i should go

Take care, drive safe on the roads this Christmas, and have a very Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

Have a great Christmas!

Sarah

Life

Hey Everyone,

How are you all doing?Man, it has been quite a while since i last blogged. Things with me are going pretty good. I made a few new friends at the Christmas Banquet i was helping out at, and it was pretty good. I found out that my job was to hang out in Fusion with any middle school or highschool kids who showed up. Only to came, though, so me and my friends, Josh and Jesse, hang out and played a ping pong, and ping pong/tennis. "What does she mean?" you may be asking, well...it started as ping pong at the ping pong table, and then it spread to some areas of Fusion, making it tennis pingpong. It was pretty fun.

My friend, who i asked ya'll to pray for with the low self-esteem, is doing ok i think, but for some reason he has been tired lately. Is it depression?School?Life? I am not sure, but please continue to pray for him. As for me, I am doing ok. I got rid of Facebook, which my mom and I figured out was one of the things causing me so many problems. Getting rid of it has helped me greatly, and even though there are certain things that were nice about it, i am glad it is gone.

 God has totally been working in my life lately ,too, and I am growing stronger in my walk with him. He has helped me so much, and he has been there everytime i need to talk to him. My mom has also helped me a lot with my struggles. For a while i felt as though i was distancing from her, but after talking to her about it, her and i have gotten closer. I am very grateful for her, for her, as well as God, have always set me straight if i was getting out of line. She has taught me so much about life, and I am thankful i have a mom like her to help me through these crazy, turmoilous teen years. Man can life be confusing!

Well i am going to go

God bless ya'll and have a very Merry Christmas!

Take care,

Sarah 

Christmas

Hey Ya'll,

So, Christmas is just coming closer and closer. Scarey, huh?lol. I am really looking forward to it this year, cause my family is taking a whole new look on it. This year we are going to give more than we receive, and I am all for it.  Next Saturday, I will be helping out  at this Christmas Banquet at our church, and I am really looking forward to it. I am supposed to be doing something in at room at our church called Fusion, but I am not sure what I will be doing. That's ok ,though, for I will find out soon enough. My parents are also giving us four kids money to buy each other Christmas gifts, and that should be fun. I feel really good about this new look on Christmas, and I am so excited about this all,too. I think God lit a passionate fire in me for this, and I love it.

 I know this isn't really Christmasy, but I have to share this. Lately,God has been so good to me. I am still going through some struggles, but i have seen him working in my life and my friends' s lives. For the last week or so, I have been earnestly praying for many of my friends. One of my guy friends is going through some struggles, and he thinks really lowly of himself,and he doesn't see why everyone thinks he is so cool. It is sad, cause on the outside you would never guess and he seems like a really happy guy. I have been praying for him for about a week now, and I have already seen God working in him. At my youth group on Thursday, the co-highschool pastor set up a prayer table, and it had a bucket of water and several hand-fulls of stones on it, and if we wanted to we could take a stone, squeeze it tight and think, or pray, about everything that has been keeping us from God, and then we were to drop the stone into the bucked, and this resembled us surrendering all those things to God. It was really cool, cause the last time i saw my guy friend on Thursday was him standing over by the table and i am pretty sure he had a stone in his hand. I was sooooo happy and I still am. I could totally see God working in his life and mine that night. I am not sure if that was the thing he surrendered to God, but i am still happy that i sawing over there by the table.  I also had the chance to draw closer with some of my friends that evening. Many of us had things that were hurting or disturbing us, and we cried and prayed for each other. It was really good and sad at the same time, but i am so glad i have those people in my life, and I am expecially glad that I have God in my life.

Well i should go.

Take care all, and God bless you!

Have an awesome week and Christmas!

Saralf

P.S. #1 If any of you need prayer or would like for me to pray for things, let me know and I would be happy to pray for you.

P.S. #2 If you would like to, feel free to watch the video at the bottom of the page. It is called "The Christmas Shoes" and it is by Newsong. It is sad, but the song is really good. I hope you like it! 

Life

Hi Everyone!

Sorry it has been months since i last posted. Things with me are good, frustrating, crazy, and confusing. I am figureing out all the whoa's of life, and it ain't that much fun. I have really been getting to know many cool people, and i love it. I am now in high school(Yikes!!!) and school is sadly taking up tons of my time. If you guys would be willing to pray for me, i really need prayer, for my school grades are slipping, and my mom isn't very happy about it. Also, if my grades don't improve i will have to stop going to youth for a while, and that would totally suck. My church friends are a huge part of my life, and i love them tons!so, if you would be willing to pray for me, that would be awesome. Also, if any of you need prayer, let me know and i will be totally willing to pray for you.

Well i am going to scat.

Have a great week and God bless you and guide you!

Take care!

Sarah

God's Protection

Hey Everyone,

Sorry it has been a while since I last posted. How are you all doing? I am fine. School is super busy, and other than Mondays, everyday has at least two or more activities. I really need you all to pray for me and my family. It is so busy, our house doesn't get cleaned a lot cause we don't have much time, and my math grades are slipping. Last year i was getting A's  on my math, but this year I am only managing about a B or C, so i need all of your prayers. Please pray that we won't get sick, and that God will give us tons of energy to get things done everyday.  If you would that would be super.

Lately I have seen God working in my life a lot. Yesterday, I made a stupid decision to go through a wooded, creek area a couple minutes away from my house with my little sister while we had our bikes, and I didn't realize until  we got half way through that it was a really stupid and dangerous thing for me to do, expecially since there wasn't an adult with us. But, God was gracious and kept both me and my sister safe and out of harms way. I am truely thankful.

 Well I am going to go

Talk to you all soon!

Take care and have a good week!

Saralf

Hey

Hey everyone!

How are you all doing?Have you had a rockin' summer? Mine was great. Man, it has been a long time since i last posted. Sorry everyone! I have really seen God working in my life this summer, and in many of my friends. He has answered many of my friends prayers, and many of mine too. Although he does not now this, one of the youth leaders at my church was used by God to teach me a very vauble lesson.He taught me that I Need To Wait For His Timing. Although he taught me this in the spring, it is still very cool, and i have seen God slowly developing a friendship between the youth leader and i this summer. He also showed me this summer that i need to fear him, and respect  him. It was kinda scary the way he showed me that, but i am glad he did. 

Well i am going to go

Take care ya'll, and have an awesome several days before school starts(Man, i the summer just flew by!)!

God bless you all!

Sarah

Songs on my Blog

Hey Ya'll

i have to make this quick, so here it is. The song on my blog are called "Keep Holding On" by Avril Lavigne, "Meant To Live" by Switchfoot, and "I Need You To Love Me" by Barlow Girl. Only the first one will play automatically, so just scroll down to the bottom of my blog and click play on the song you want to hear. I will try to post the lyrics some time soon!

Well i really have to go

Love you all, and God bless you!

Sarah

Homewood!

Hey Eveyone,

This is a post i was waiting a bit to publish, but here it is. It is all about a christian camp that my family and i went to in June. It was a blast, and i hope you enjoy the pictures and reading about it.

Talk to you all later

Take care,

Sarah

                             * * * * * * *

Hey everyone,

I just came  back from a week of fun(well....it was actually 4 days ago that i got back.). It was sooooooooo fun. I met many fun people there, although most of them are way older than me, but who cares. I also got to ride horses 5 times! It was awesome!The wranglers(horse people) at homewood also let my friend,Hayley, my sister,Kat, and I help out a bit around the barn. They let us clean up the poop in the arena, bush the horses before the first trail ride on Tuesday, lead the horses into the barn, and help untack them. It was really fun. God also was being very real to me on the last two days. U know how in missonary biographies God always answeres their requests at the very last second, well God did that to me twice while we were on vacation. The first time was on Thursday, and Hayley, Kat, and i really wanted to get on the last trail ride of the week and of our vacation. We had already gone on the first one of the day, so we quickly ran back to the sign up sheets to see if there was still room for us to take the last ride. (u had to sign up for activities at that camp since there are so many kids.) When we arrived at the sign up sheets, to our dismay, the last ride was full. So, Hayley, kat, and i went up to our cabin and sat there all depressed for ten minutes or so. Then we decided to pray.

Hours later, we went up to the stable to see if anyone didn't show up. And sure enough, 3 or more people didn't show up. It was soooo cool. The second time, we were trying to get on the 5 o'clock ferrie for horseshoe bay, and we had a very slim chance of getting on. Just as we were getting to the line to get onto the boat, on of the guys told us to stop. We were becoming disapointed, but then he told us to go, and we got onto the ferrie. I thought that was soooo cool. Well enough talk, here are some pics from our trip.

Here is a pic of my friend and our favorite horse,Cobra. Cobra was so sweet!

 Here is a pic of another one of the trail horses, Luke. Luke is the coolest horse!

 Here is one of the other horses, Nugget.Isn't he gorgeous?

Here is a picture of my cool friends in Homewood. These are i think all of the Wranglers. From the left there is Buck, his wife Chrissy, one of the other wranglers(i unfortunately don't know his name), Jenna the head wrangler, my sis Katie(she is the one in the pig tails), my friend Hayley, me, Rachel, and Darren.

I thought i would put on this amusing picture of Darren. He took it himself the day we were leaving.Nice huh?

Well that is unfortunatelly all the pictures i can put on here.

I hope you enjoyed this post, i should have posted this in June, but i couldn't figure out how to put more pictures on, cause my file is sadly full. But, that is ok, i guess!

God bless you all!

Have an awesome week!

Saralf

Tag

Hey Everyone,

I got tagged, so here it is!

Once in a land of magic there dwelt an old sorcerer who desired a dragon to keep him company. But dragons were expensive in those days so the old sorcerer (by the name of Wynn) decided to go on a quest to capture a dragon and bring it to his home in the mountains.

He packed his belongings and a case of Pepsi and set off, humming the hit song I Was Made To Loaf. He hadn't gone far, when he came to a deep, deep, trench, streching as far as he could see to the left and right.

So Wynn opened his limited edition copy of “Simple Spells for the Stupefied Sorcerer” to page 142 and read the directions that were written there. He heeded them and after gulping down three cans of Pepsi (sugar was the one thing that calmed his nerves), belching twice and chanting a few magic words Wynn felt himself flying over the trench, well half way over. After he feel he sat there for a minute, dazed and trying to figure out how he was going to get out. Wynn stood up and decided he should walk around thr trench to look for a way out, so he began to walk and hum "Meant To Eat". So on he walked till he felt something tug at his pant leg and looking down he saw a huge dwarf. He was so surprised he screamed. "Hey Hey" said the dwarf, "there'd be no reason to scream!"  "I...uh...was just startled"replied Wynn,extremely embarrassed.

I tag everyone who reads this. Here are the rules:

Rules: Every time you are tagged you must type the story on your post and add 2 lines and tag 7 others. If you choose to end a story it must be more then 20 lines and you must start another one with 2 lines and tag 7 people. Story must not exceed 50 lines. Post rules on blog and/or comment of those you tag.

Post this on your blog and add what you need.

Well, Bye for now!

God bless you all!

Saralf

Uncle Dan, Auntie Amy, and Alex

Hey Everyone,

this weekend was sooooooo fun. My dad's cousins came to stay with us for 5 days, i may have said 6 in my last post, but it is actually 5. We had sooo much fun. My dad's cousins are Daniel, Amy, and Amy has a son my little brothers age, and his name is Alex. In those five days, we got to know each other so well, that my Uncle Daniel was like the older brother i have always wanted. Auntie Amy and i are also movie buddies, and Alex is just my little buddy. I don't know how often i will see them, since they live in the U.S., but please pray that we will be able to see each other again, very soon.  I love them all, and i am sooo blessed to have them as part of my family.

Well i am going to go

Talk to you all soon!

God bless you all!

Saralf

P.S.

Oh yeah, could you all  pray for a missionary  group from my church that is leaving for Italy tomorrow? If you would that would be super. Thanks!

This Weekend

Hey Everyone!

How's it going? Sorry it's been a while since i last posted. I was have writen a post on a homeschool camp that we went to several weeks ago, but i can't get the pics on. Does anyone know how? If any of you know how to, please let me know. I would really like to post that post.

This weekend should be interesting. Sometime this evening, my dad's cousins are coming over to stay with us for six days. It should be ok, but i am not really sure of what to expect. I have met them a couple times at occational get togethers, but other than that i haven't ever seen or gotten to know them. One good thing about  having them come and stay with us is that we get tons of great food and drinks that we don't always have alot of. Such as coke and bacon. We get quite a bit of coke, but we don't usually get bacon unless it is a special occation, cause we eat almost the whole pack. But, that is ok, i guess.

Well i am going to go!

Talk to ya'll later!

God bless you all!

Saralf

Last Lifeline night

Hey everyone!

I told you weeks ago that i would post more pictures of my pals at youth. Well, last night was the last night of Lifeline for the year. Next year i will be going into Velocity, which is the high school youth. Lifeline is the middle school youth group. I will miss Lifeline, cause this year i got to know more of the youth leaders and some other kids that are in grade 6&7. Last night i also met two new people. One is a boy named Adam, who is in grade 8, and a girl named Victoria, who is in grade 6. Anyway enough talk, here are the sweet pics from last night.

This is me and my buddy, Becky. She is cool!

Here is one of me, Jessica, her friend, Emerald, and my youth leader, Bethany. They are cool!

Here is me, Bethany,Jessica, Emerald, my youth leader and friend,Jenny,(who is coming up to Velocity with me and all the other grade 8's), and Crystal.They are all cool!

This is Becky, my youth leader and friend, and Becky. They are both awesome!

Here is me with my gang. There is Crystal, Shayna, Mandy(in the back on the left), Becky T.(my youth leader), Emerald, and Becky.

Here is Shayna and Mandy being goofy. They are both really cool though.

Here is Kevin(Mandy's husband and the grade 6 boys' youth leader), Shayna, and Mandy.

Here are Becky,Becky T., Mandy, and Shayna. They are soooooooo cool!

Here is Becky, Jenny, Crystal,Shayna, and I lying on Jenny's car.

Here is a pic of Adam, Courtney(one of  the grade seven girls' youth leader), me, Becky, Behn, and Shayna.

Well i am going to go

I hope you enjoyed the pictures.And, please feel free to comment on my posts. I would love to here from you.

Talk to you all soon!

God bless you!

Saralf

Songs

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to let you all know that there are three other songs besides this one that is playing. Just scroll down to the bottom to play them, but i recommend you pause the other one first.

I hope you like them!

Talk to you all soon!

God bless you!

Sarah

A pic of me and of my hamster as well as my sister's hamster

Hey Everyone,

Here is an updated pic of me as well as a couple pictures of my hamster,Peanut, and my sister's hamster, Pipin. Here they are:

Here are the hammies sleeping in their plastic ball. Cute huh?!

Here is another one of them eating! they are so adorable!

Well i am going to go

Talk to ya'll soon!

God bless you all!

Saralf

Lifeline

Hey everyone!

I thought i would post some pics of a couple of my friends from my youth group. Here they are:

This is one of the six grade boys' youth leader Behn(nicknamed Muffin) and one of my awesome friends Becky. They are both cool!

Here is another pic of Becky!

Well that is all i am going to post for now.I will maybe take more this week.

Talk to you all soon!

God bless you!

Saralf

Hey!

Hey Everyone!

Sorry i haven't posted anything for a while.How are you all doing? I am good,to some degree. God is soooooo amazing! Ever since i got back from Stillwood on April 22, God has been so real to me. There are times when i need a verse, and after i pray to him, he sometimes gives me verses that totally suit the day. He has also answered so many of my prayers, my friend and i even got to experience one together. He is so wonderful, forgiving, and loving.I am so blessed to know him.  If anyone is wondering what the new song on my blog is called, its title is "Live My Life For You" and it is by PureNRG. They are a new kid band.

Well i am going to go

Talk to you all soon, and please don't be afraid to comment!

Have a super awsome weekend!

Saralf