Everyday's Thanksgiving, Part #40

I'm thankful for:

0781. seven great weeks of Fuge

0782. Regeneration next week!  I've been looking forward to this all summer; plus, the youth group from my church is coming, along with Ellie!

0783. "Jesus Paid It All"

0784. my natural hair color.  A bunch of people had a "group dye" party yesterday, and for some of them, it didn't turn out so well.  I'm so grateful I've never dyed my hair!

0785. only two more weeks till I'm done with my first education class!

0786. being able to spend 11 weeks with the people here

0787. a bunch of different cultures and ethnicities all coming together here; it's really showed me what the Body of Christ is like as it spans countries, races, and peoples

0788. a good, well paying job

0789. a car!!!!  Only by the grace of God.

0790. getting mail

0791. music majors

0792. computer plugs that work.  I've been having such horrendous problems with mine, but I'm getting a new one tomorrow!  Yay!

0793. a wedding to go to on Sunday!  Congratulations, Hope and Matt!

0794. my Fuge sweater.  So warm.

0795. fast Internet.  You never know what you had at home till you're away from it for 11 weeks.  I think I just waited half an hour so I could fully listen to one song on youtube.

0796. friendships that will last a lifetime

0797. getting up at 5:30 today to go watch the sunrise!

0798. a pretty easy week of work

0799. the opportunity Ellie's had over these past few weeks to go on mission trips with Samaritan's Purse

0800. getting to spend all day Sunday with my family!

weekdate #003

1. This past week I've been really busy with homework, especially getting ready for finals next week.  I was supposed to have a math exam last Thursday, but my teacher graciously allowed it to be a take home.  My math final is on Thursday, and over the weekend I've been preparing study sheets for my other three weeks that will be on the 1st and the 3rd.

2. On Wednesday my family and I went to the botanic gardens.  It was so beautiful!  We're going to try and go again next month when everything's blooming and before Rachel and I...

3. go to Glorieta!  In February, Rachel and I were both hired to work at Glorieta (this is where my youth group and I went for Regeneration last summer) for the summer, from the end of May to the second week of August.  We'll be living there all summer, but it's only about an hour away from home so hopefully we'll be able to visit occasionally.  I'm really nervous about moving out for the summer, but I'm also so excited to see what God will do!  Only one more month!

4. The weather has just been so beautiful lately.  Rachel and I are trying to walk a lot more than drive at school; there are a lot of places close enough that we can walk to.  It's a lot of fun!

5. Work on Friday was CRAZY.  It's spring break around here, and it's really obvious at McDs!  I only have two more full days before quitting before Glorieta!

6. Saturday night was my church's memorization group (Living Word Initiative) meeting.  It was so great!  I feel like I'm really treasuring my church family lately since I know I won't really be seeing them over the summer.  Saturday's meeting was a huge encouragement to me.

7. I rearranged my wall where I had Djamsel's picture hanging up so I could put Majoie's up too.  I put this quote in the middle because it reminds me of how God's going to provide for me so I can provide for them, however long He sees fit.

8. Speaking of Majoie, I'm going to try and write my first letter to her tonight!  I am still just so excited that I'm able to sponsor her.  I loved having a little boy to sponsor, and now I have a little girl too! :) God is so good!

9. This week I have discovered coffee!  I'm liking a walking advertisement. :)

10. Like I said in my last Everyday's Thanksgiving post, I've been going through "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie.  I really liked one of his tips in the book where it says that you should smile at people as genuinely as possible, really focusing on them and acting happy to see them.  So I've been trying to do that this week, and it's amazing what an effect it has on people!  I've really enjoyed seeing how, even with just a smile, you can really make someone's day better.

Live Free!

It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

Galatians 5:1

I've been thinking a lot about this since Regeneration--how Christ has set us free, so that we can be free.  Not as a temporary reprieve, not so that we can continue in a lifestyle of dishonoring Him, but for freedom.  How incredible is that?  That the God of the universe has set us free, and we can conquer sin through Him.  We can say "no", and by God's grace overcome.  I am dead to sin--I am a corpse lying on the ground, and sin can kick me and drag me around and try any way to get my attention, but I am dead to it.  Aren't the parallels of the Christian life funny?  Dead, but alive.  A slave, but a daughter too.  The least, but the greatest.

I have a few songs that I wanted to share today because I just love them!  I hope you enjoy them too.

Regeneration 2011, Day #6

Our sixth day at Glorieta wasn't really a Regeneration day, I guess, since everybody except for the game crew was gone.  We all went for breakfast at 7:30 and had everything packed in the cars by 9:30.  We all went up to the prayer garden one more time before leaving.  It took awhile for everyone to get there, so I explored some more.  That morning I found this poem by a walkway:

An hour spent in sacred prayer,
   Within God's sacred garden here,
Brings sweet content within the soul,
   As self I yield to His Control.

I set each human problem free,
   And in its place Dear Lord to Thee,
I build an altar deep within,
   Secure from life's depressing din.

I don't know who it's by, but I like it.

And that's the end of Regeneration!  It was amazing, and such a blessing from the Lord!

To God be the glory!

Regeneration 2011, Day #5

My last day at Regeneration began with meeting a girl from Canada for breakfast, and then going with her to the prayer garden for our devotions.  I had enough time to actually explore the prayer garden that morning, and it is just incredible!  I chose a different spot for my devotions that morning, next to the fountain and the gazebo.

That morning's session was our last real session, and the speaker was Andrew Gutierrez.  His sermon was on how to take home with us what we learned at camp.  He based it off of 2 Peter 1:8-9, and it was excellent.

After lunch was our final team game, which was the relay race.  Next to X-Treme Steal the Bacon, this was definitely the hardest and most intense game at Regeneration.  There were thirteen different obstacles that included eating weird food, toilet paper throwing, a guys' only game where they had to pull a dead squid attached to a rope through their shirts, the smallest person on our team being wrapped in plastic wrap and being carried around the field as our human baton, finding $1.73 in coins using only your mouth in a kiddie pool filled with onions and limes, etc.  The last obstacle contains the story of this picture:

I posted this picture about a week ago with a promise to tell how it happened, and I'm finally going to tell the story!

Our final obstacle for the relay race was a girls' only challenge.  Running through the middle of the field where we had the relay race was trench full of mud.  All the girls on our team had to army crawl thirty or forty (I'm a terrible judge of distances) feet through this mud.  The last ten feet were crawled not just through mud, but mud mixed with ketchup, mustard, dog food, onions, and who knows what else.  It was disgusting.  To top all that off, the game crew told us that we had to dunk our faces in the mud somewhere along the way, or "the boys would pay".  I'm not sure how the boys would have paid, but we all obeyed and got our faces dirty.  I think I went a little too all-out with that one.  I dunked my entire face in the goopy, gross mud at the end, and as a result got mud inside of my eyes.  I put eye drops in that night and the next morning couldn't open one of my eyes because there was so much mud that had been brought to the surface and was sealing it shut.  It was painful!  Pretty fun, but definitely the most painful part of the week.  That's where I got the cuts on my arms.  Apparently I haven't yet mastered the army crawl--one isn't usually an expert on one's first try--and dragged myself on my arms instead of my hands.  My cuts are all healed up now, but they certainly weren't pretty at first, were they?

During free time that day we went zip lining!

After dinner that night we gathered for our final rally session.  It wasn't really a rally session, though; it was more like a regular session with music and preaching.  Sandman ended up in 6th place out of sixteen teams.  We expected to be in 15th place or somewhere around there, so 6th was pretty good!

After announcing who had won for that week, we were led in worship and then heard a final sermon by Austin Duncan that tied in very well to Andrew's sermon that morning.  After Austin's sermon we had our final mail call and lost and found time.  This was where those who had been sent mail had it called out and went up to get it, and the lost and found items were held up and whoever owned it came up to claim it.  Now, you see, my parents had come up to visit us at Regeneration a couple days earlier and apparently Chloe had forgotten her purse somewhere on the Glorieta grounds.  I didn't know this until that night, so you can imagine my shock and dismay when Austin Duncan holds up Chloe's purse--a very distinctive purse with a dachsund on it--and says someone found it.  At first I was in denial that it was hers, but then he started pulling out the items contained in the purse: Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Pony, etc., and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was hers.  So guess who had to go up and get it?  Yes, it was me.  It was all very embarrassing and hilarious, but I got through it in the end. :)

Directly after the final rally session most of the Regeneration people packed up, loaded up in their buses, and headed off for an eighteen-hour drive back to their homes.  Since we only had an hour to drive, we had decided to stay that extra night and then leave the next morning.  We got to stand by the road and wave as everybody drove away, and then went to get some ice cream before going to bed.

Team Sandman!

The squid game

Onion/lime game

Toilet paper toss

Gross food eating game

Army crawl

Getting ready for the zip line

Getting Chloe's purse. :)

Regeneration 2011, Day #4

On the morning of our fourth day at Regeneration I wasn't feeling very well, so I skipped breakfast, got some pop tarts from the vending machine, and slept for an extra hour and a half.  It was really nice, and I felt a lot better afterwards.  I didn't go to the prayer garden that day, but had a good time doing my devotions indoors.

Our first session for that day was with John MacArthur and the topic was the conscience.  I'm not sure why, but I didn't really like that sermon.  It seemed too focused on man, and not on God.  Maybe I wasn't listening well enough, though, because everyone else loved it. :)

After lunch we went to our team game time.  Our first game was sort of like ultimate frisbee.  We had to throw a football to our teammates, and the person who caught it couldn't take more than three steps before throwing it to someone else.  Each team had a goal, and the opposite team would try to knock down a ball that was placed on top of a pole in order to score a point.  Sandman won that game too. :) We failed miserably at our second game, however.  This game was called Kajavikankan (who knows why).  Each team would have eight girls from their team link up with eight girls from the opposite team.  Your teammates would be every other girl, with the opposite team interspersed between, and each person was connected to the two on their sides by holding a piece of rope.  The object was to work together with one's team and try to drag a person from the opposite team into a trash can.  If they touched it at all, they were out.  Sandman was crushed during this game, which wasn't all that fun, but it was still fun to watch.  Just not fun to play. :)

I slept a lot for our free time during that day because I was exhausted, and then headed to our night session.  This one was with John MacArthur too.  He based his sermon on 2 Timothy 2:1-8.  This was probably my favorite sermon of the week because it was so applicable to one's life.  MacArthur's message was basically that we as believers are to be teachers, soldiers, athletes, and farmers (figuratively speaking) and thus glorify God.  We teach, we fight, we run, and we sow all for God's glory.  This sermon was excellent!

After our night session we had another night game, X-Treme Steal the Bacon.  This game is the most well-known game at Regeneration because it is definitely the most intense.  It is the only time when all the teams are against each other all at once.  The teams all come together and make a circle around about seven kiddie pools filled with water and objects that are the "bacon".  A few people are chosen from each team (for instance, they would call out "All senior girls," and all the girls who were seniors from each team would play in that round) and everyone has about two or three minutes in which to get as many items as they can from their pools and across their team line.  The bigger the object, the more points you get.  Six kiddie pools were set in a circle, and in the center, on top of several hay bales to elevate it, was the seventh kiddle pool where the items with the biggest point value were kept.  This game was awesome!  Glorieta was actually able to get two fire trucks to come and douse us all with the fire hoses (very cold!).  Apparently there were many, many injuries as a result of this game last year, and so it was made safer by surrounding all the pools with a circle of hay bales that we had to leap over.  This definitely helped slow us down, but it could still be pretty dangerous.  It was fun though!  You can catch a glimpse of it here.  You can see a bunch of the games from seconds 35-1:15, but zero in on 1:00-1:15 to watch our night game!

And that was it for day four!

After playing the rope game.

Playing soccer in the rain.

X-Treme Steal the Bacon!!!!!!

That's what it looked like when everyone who had been chosen for that round went running as fast as they could into the center of the circle.  Pretty intense!

Very blurry, but you can kind of see how it was.

The fire hose getting us all wet!