Scotia machines and 4-wheelers

I'm having a pretty good time here at Graphite. It's pretty quiet, especially in the evenings, but it's nice. I've been swimming a few times though the continuous rain has prevented me from entering the water very much. Uncle Boyd is keeping me busy around here. These next two weeks before camp starts will be really busy.

I have a bit of a prayer request. I'm supposed to be programming the overnight camps in August, there are three of them, and we're not sure if the person who was originally going to program with me is actually coming back. There's a lot of work that needs done to get those weeks all planned, and I won't be able to do it on my own. Please pray that God will provide someone soon to help in that area. It will be a stress relief for all of us.

Yesterday Andrew came for a visit and we went to town. It was pretty fun, but those silly Scotia bank machines can be a pain. First, the silly thing tried to eat my card...well not eat it really, I tried to push it back in and it didn't like it so it got jammed just far enough in that I couldn't pull it back out. I was beginning to worry, but then the machine decided that it didn't taste very good and it spit it out. Whew...that was a relief. I was then trying to update my pass book, which I hadn't updated since February, and after filling another page of it, I flipped to the next one and tried to insert it into the machine and it grabbed it, then spit it back out at me!! Goodness, what's this world coming to?! Bank Machines with minds of their own. So I've decided that they don't like me very much, or maybe I just need to learn how to use them properly. :P

Oh! I got to see Sarah "P." Lawrence when we were in town! I was super excited about that!! I hadn't seen her in ages and she happened to be working when we went into I.D.A. We chatted for quite a while, and I may get to see her a little bit this summer. :) She informed me that Tyler is going to Zambia with Courtney for the month of August. If you could remember to pray for them then I'm sure they would greatly appreciate it.

After church today Nicole W. had me over for lunch. It was a lot of fun. I like her family. Afterwards they gave me some grubby clothes to wear and we did some 4-wheeling! It was great fun! We took the trails back to the camp and picked up the camp 4-wheeler. So Nicole, Kara, and I all had one. :) They're a lot of fun to use in the sand pit. I hit a pretty sweet jump and got some nice air. :P Kara is absolutely insane! lol It was a lot of fun watching her. I came back quite dirty from all the dust and mud we went through, and I probably ate a few bugs too. One went up my nose. :P It was gross...and we saw a snake. He was kinda gross too. lol

Alright, I'm off to do some colouring and letter writing. I hope you all are doing well and that you're keeping God as your #1 focus this summer. I pray that He'll use you in great ways as you live out each day for Him. God bless, my friends. I love you all and miss you all very much.

Jeremiah 29:11 - "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Working at Graphite

I'm at camp now. I arrived on Saturday afternoon just before a nice thunderstorm. It was a lonely day, but quite enjoyable. No one was around when I got here, so I moved into my room, unpacked then tried to decide what to do. I chose to colour. I'm not too impressed with my new pencil crayons though. A couple of them just kept breaking. I was getting quite frustrated, but I managed to finish my picture with a couple of pencil crayons only half as long as they were when I started. When I finished it, I decided to write a letter. I'm not much of a letter writer, but when there's no one around it makes it so much easier to do. I started reading "The Last Juror" by John Grisham on Saturday night before bed, and I finished it Sunday evening. It was a great book!

Nicole W. rescued me from my lonliness yesterday. She came and picked me up and we went to Timmy's. Her friend Leah was there too. We had a great night. I think we ended up being there for like, 2.5 hours. :P She showed up today with her sister and a friend and we all went for a swim. The lake is soo nice. It's been so humid out that the swim was quite refreshing. Nicole and I will hopefully be able to go 4-wheeling at some point too.

I had fun working with Uncle Boyd today. He has a long list of things that need done. One thing I started working on was the music binders. :S That's one long, tedious job. I started today, but it's going to take a few days to get much done with them. I'm not really sure what all I'm going to be doing in the next few weeks. I washed the sign out front today, and got kinda wet in the process. I think there is some line trimming for me to do as well. Near the end of the month a few groups are coming in and I'm pretty sure I'll be helping lead some games and activities with them.

I love it here at Graphite. Though I will say that it's tough to compare to Malagash. :P I miss everyone so much! I miss you all so much more now that I'm here on my own, with little internet access and such. If you ever feel like visiting then please do! Visitors are a lot of fun and so are letters. :D God bless you all! I hope you all have a great summer!

P.S. Happy birthday Luke!

The awesome power of the storm

Yesterday we had an incredible thunderstorm in this area. It resulted in many trees down, power outages, and floods downtown Barrie, which weren't horribly bad, but they liked making a big deal of it on the news. I was talking to Andrew on msn during the storm and we both came to the same conclusion that storms are so amazing and even though they're so powerful and almost scary at times, they're so calming. I could sit on a porch or at a window and just watch a thunderstorm for hours. It's like confirmation of God's power. He can command these magnificent works of nature, which man has never been able to and will never be able to control. He created them. In one way this should instill a sense of fear in us, knowing that our God controls these things that we are so often afraid of. But in another sense it can be so comforting knowing that our God is omnipotent and all the things that come up against us that we have a difficult time with are just small things for Him. He is an awesome God and we should be so extremely thankful for the love He shows us from day to day. He cares about everything we're going through and He wants to help us through it all. I can understand why David said, "Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name." (Psalm 103:1) We should be praising God with our whole being. We should be giving Him the worship He deserves.

Psalm 65:5-8 - You answer us with awesome deeds of righteousness, O God our Saviour, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas, who formed the mountains by your power, having armed yourself with strength, who stilled the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations. Those living far away fear your wonders; where morning dawns and evening fades you call forth songs of joy.

Psalm 66:3 - Say to God, "How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies cringe before you."

Psalm 107:28-29 - Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed.

I'm beginning to get really frustrated with myself. I was really excited to come home, get into a routine of exercising, eating well, Bible reading, devos, prayer, and just getting things back on track. Well, that hasn't happened yet...none of it actually. I've read my Bible a bit, prayed, and I've gotten some exercise, but it hasn't been anything regular. I haven't had very much of a routine at all since I've been home because I've been all around, everywhere except home. I'm really hoping I'll be able to keep on top of myself while I'm at camp. If I can get myself into a good routine then things should start looking better and I'm sure I'll be feeling better. I've noticed that I haven't had the greatest attitude with my family and I think a lot of it is based on being frustrated with myself so I take it out on them. I really need to work on that...it's strange how personal things effect how we deal with each other. If something is bothering me about myself and I'm kind of upset about it, I tend to be a bit quick-tempered with those around me. I really have a lot of work that needs done in my life and I can't do any of it on my own. I need to get myself out of this hole that I've dug. For some reason that I'm unsure of, I seem to be afraid to discipline myself to do things. Well that needs to change...and it will. I'm determined to put aside my awful habit of procrastination and force myself into a routine this summer that will be life changing! It will require a strength that I don't have on my own, but I can do it with Christ by my side.

I'm heading to camp on Saturday. It's sad, but exciting. I won't be able to talk to people much. Though I will be able to send and check my email! Most of my stuff is packed...I just need to finish cleaning my room. Which reminds me, after going through all of my clothes and packing them I realized how much I miss Frenchy's! lol We made three trips there within the week I was in Nova Scotia! So yeah, that was sad. Anyhow, I'm off to bed...oh, and I should say, my dad is great! I haven't gotten to see him much, he's gone to work during the week so he's only home on weekends. God bless.

Philippians 4:13 - I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Not home for long

When I last posted I was about to head up to Malagash Bible Camp with Luke. It was a beautiful drive up there! The man who drove us up did a great job of pointing out all of the interesting touristy stuff. He was a lot of fun! Actually, on the way up we stopped at this cave by the side of the road so I could see it, and when we walked over to it there was a woman, squatting down on the rocks peeing! I can't even imagine how embarrased she must have been! We just turned away from her (well the kids with us didn't...they just ran right by her lol) and she got out of there pretty quickly! lol It was quite hilarious. I was really excited when we got to Malagash and I got to see the ocean, even though it was rainy. It's a beautiful place. I can see why it's so highly spoken of. It was a fun weekend. I worked in the kitchen with some great people and got to meet some of the kids too. Meghan, one of Luke's friends, was working in the kitchen with me and she showed me how to look for sea glass. I found some great pieces: some white ones, a little brown one, a few good sized green ones, and a big blue piece (it's my favourite.) It was sad to leave there.
On Monday we went downtown Halifax and toured around. I met his sister Leah and saw all the boats, including Theodore Tugboat!!! On Tuesday the sun finally came out and we went to Peggy's Cove and on Wednesday we went to Crystal Crescent beaches. The ocean was absolutely beautful and the rocks all along the shoreline were amazing to see. The people out there are so much friendlier than Ontarionians (what is the proper word?? I think I made this one up). I don't know why we can't be nicer. Anyhow, time flew by and I caught my flight home early Thursday morning. I love flying! It's so much fun!

After waiting at the airport for a half hour, my mom picked me up and we went to the Vaughan Mills Center. It's an absolutely huge mall! I was with my mom and my sister and we were there for probably 7 hours. Talk about an extremely long day. :S It was nice when we finally got home, except that I had a bunch of arranging to do so I could go to Peterborough for the weekend.
The frisbee tournament turned out quite well. It was a smaller group than usual, but it was a lot easier to do things because of it. Once again Ross did a great job getting everything organized and everyone who helped as well. Things seemed to go very smoothly and everyone enjoyed themselves. The weekend was really busy, some good and some crazy, but it was great to get to see some people again. Sarah, Nicole, and I got to spend two nights in res together. We hung out with Matty, Drew, Todd, and DanDan on Friday night which was super fun! I love those guys. :) Saba and I enjoyed blasting our music. The looks you get from people when blaring Mmmbop by Hanson are priceless! On Saturday night Kevin showed up and a group of us went to Timmy's.
After the church service at Auburn today my youth group and I stayed for the luncheon they had then headed back home. It was such a busy weekend and I'm so drained. Actually I'm probably going to go to bed now because I didn't get much sleep this weekend. Chuckleton and I stayed up til 2 or 3 talking both nights, then the girls and I stayed up in our room even later than that.

I'm off to camp probably sometime this week. I'm not 100% when. It'll be nice to just be there and not have to worry about needing to be somewhere else for a little while. It's no fun living out of a suitcase. I've probably only been home for about 7 days since school finished. I'll enjoy spending a few more days at home before I head up to Bancroft.
It'll be an interesting summer. I'm still not sure who exactly I'll be working with. I would value your prayers though. There are some people that are a bit difficult to work with, and I'm praying for the patience and understanding that I'll need to be able to work well with them. I'm also kind of nervous about working with the Teens for daycamps because I've never done it before and I know it'll be more difficult because of the topics that will come up and their understanding of things. God obviously has me here for a reason, I just pray that I'll be able to help have an impact on the lives of those campers. It's going to be difficult for me health-wise too. I'm hoping that by the end of the summer I'll be decently healthy again, but it'll take a bunch of work.

May is now gone, and June is here. It's only been one month since school has been out and so much has happened already. We'll just have to wait and see how the month of June pans out. God bless all of you...I love you all, and am continuously praying for you.

Philippians 4:8 - Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.