Running on a cold and little sleep, but trusting in a huge God.
Who is able to do much more that we can ask or expect.
For what is seen is temporary. Press on.

And here is a picture that makes me smile.
Thank you, Hannah for posting this on your blog. :)


Go look at Hannah's blog it is so much more interesting that mine.
86 Days to her wedding!!!
How exciting is that?!?

Do anyone you push the preview button when you go to post a comment?

I understand if you are working on a post that has different colors and sizes, but a comment?!? Why?

Our Father who art in Heaven,
hallowed be Thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy Will be done,
On Earth,
As it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.

Pater noster, qui es in caelis
sanctificetur nomen tuum;
Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua
sicut in caelo et in terra
Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie.
Et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris.
Et ne nos inducas in tentationem;
sed libera nos a malo.
Amen.

I've had questions, without answers
I've known sorrow, I have known pain
but there's one thing, that I'll cling to
You are faithful, Jesus You're true

when hope is lost, I'll call You Saviour
when pain surrounds, I'll call You healer
when silence falls, You'll be the song within my heart

in the lone hour of my sorrow
through the darkest night of my soul
You surround me and sustain me
my defender, forevermore

when hope is lost, I'll call You Saviour
when pain surrounds, I'll call You healer
when silence falls, You'll be the song within my heart

and I will praise You, I will praise You
when the tears fall, still I will sing to You
and I will praise You, Jesus praise You
through the suffering still I will sing

when hope is lost, I'll call You Saviour
when pain surrounds, I'll call You healer
when silence falls, You'll be the song within my heart

oh yes, You are good to me
You've always been good to me
so trustworthy

when hope is lost, I'll call You Saviour
when pain surrounds, I'll call You healer
when silence falls, You'll be the song within my heart

and I will praise You, and I will praise You
when the tears fall, still I will sing to You (I will sing to You)
I will praise You, Jesus praise You through the suffering still I will sing

how faithful and true
sustain me through and through
You are hope and truth
You must bring a little water
You must bring a little water

in the lone hour of my sorrow
who springs never fail
be faithful and truelike...like a spring
it never fails
you're my spring never fails

Newsboys

O Father, You are sovereign
In all the worlds You made;
Your mighty Word was spoken,
And light and life obeyed.
Your voice commands the seasons
And bounds the ocean’s shore,
Sets stars within their courses
And stills the tempests’ roar.

O Father, You are sovereign
In all affairs of man;
No powers of death or darkness
Can thwart Your perfect plan.
All chance and change transcending,
Supreme in time and space,
You hold your trusting children
Secure in Your embrace.

O Father, You are sovereign
The Lord of human pain,
Transmuting earthly sorrows
To gold of heavenly gain,
All evil overruling,
As none but Conqueror could,
Your love pursues its purpose
—Our souls’ eternal good.

O Father, You are sovereign!
We see You dimly now,
But soon before Your triumph
Earth’s every knee shall bow.
With this glad hope before us
Our faith springs forth anew:
Our Sovereign Lord and Savior,
We trust and worship You!

Mission Conference 2006 - AWESOME beyond AWESOME!!!!

Our speaker this year is incredible. He is so funny and challenging. And Larry Trotter was excellent last night. So was Mary Doss (I think that is her last name). She was so sweet. I can't wait to hear Bill and Bev Smith on Sunday. They seem like really neat people. We took on a new missionary family this year, I can't spell their last name, but he is a bush pilot and she is a mechanic. How sweet is that. And they are with Wycliff Bible Translators. How exciting we now have 17 missionaries in other countries and 6 in the US. I love our church and my fellow MAT team members. Wonderful start to a conference guys. Although I would love to have a fellowship hall... part of the fun is working to set of tables and take down chairs. :)

As Mrs. Shelton said to me last night, and I said to my mother, "I feel sorry for all the people that miss out on our missions conferences. They are so good."

Thanks to everyone that stayed to help take down chairs and set up chairs and all the girls for helping serve the food. Great job gals. You all are great runners and servers and drink refillers. Love you all.
I love the missions conference!!

and of course ... GO TAR HEELS!!!!!

Ps. Ritas opened yesterday. I just passed it and saw the sign! SPRING IS HERE!

I can do it, I can do it nine times!

Tyler Hansbrough was named ACC Rookie Of The Week for the ninth time.

UNC plays Virginia tonight at 9.
UNC plays Duke Saturday at 9.

Go Tar Heels!

You know you are a homeschooler when ...

(I can make fun of this because I was homeschool my entire life)
I want your comments!!! I know there are lots of good ones. Here are just a few to start you off.

* You and all of your sibling's names can be found in the genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1.
* You have many siblings. Your mom sometimes gets your names confused. You've given up that anyone outside the family will ever remember your name.
* You go to the library and come out with more that your weight in books. And the librarian knows your name.
* You go shopping and the cashier and many others say, "Too sick to go to school today, huh?"
* Your brothers all wear their jeans high enough so that you can see several inches of their socks
* You and your sisters have matching outfits
* You drive a large van
* Your mother still wears the same pair of glasses from twenty years ago.
* She also wears jean dresses, skirts, and jackets with sneakers. :) And if not in jean, a jumper of some sort is a must.
* You sleep in late, watch a tv, surf the internet, and still finish school early.
* You think that reading history is best accomplished while lying on the floor (sometimes you sleep through it, sometimes your mother does too).
* You correct your own math lessons. wOOt saxon!
* You will actually talk to grown ups at a family gathering and are actually patient with kids half your age.
* Every time the phone rings it is an automatic 10 minute break, so the teacher can answer the phone.
* You can take off a day, if you do extra work in your free time the day before.
* You go to school in your pajamas.
* Your dining room and living room now have a computer, copy machine and many book shelves and there are educational posters and maps all over the walls
* Most of April and May are spend doing school outside. Not that you can really call it school. But your mother says that whatever you are doing outside counts as school.
* Baking cookies counts as math and science. And sometimes english if it has been a long week

Anyhow, I have to get to class. Think up some more. :)

School keeps me humble.
I work so hard, but I can never reach perfection. It is a great reminder that I need to depend on God. At least that is now what I get out of this. It used to really annoy me that I tried so hard and failed to be perfect, but now I am quite thankful that I never am perfect. It really is a great reminder to trust God. I've never have a perfect 4.0 and probably never will and I have never had a perfect 100 on any real exam (quizes don't count, they are easy, if you study right).

I continued in this trend today with a 99 on my history exam.
Bhah, so close.

Phillipians 3:12-14

12 I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection! But I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be. 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven.

I think it is really neat how my friends are all over the globe making a difference for God. It is neat to see how God works in our lives. It is encouraging to read stories from Ukraine, Nepal, Africa, and China. By the way, Australia and South America are still open for exploration. Just in case YOU were thinking about going somewhere.

The missions conference starts this weekend, on friday, 6pm at the church.

The harvest is plenty, but the workers are few.

A few of my favorite verses.

2 Cor 4:7 - 18

"7 But this precious treasure--this light and power that now shine within us--is held in perishable containers, that is, in our weak bodies. So everyone can see that our glorious power is from God and is not our own.
8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed and broken. We are perplexed, but we don't give up and quit.
9 We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going.

10 Through suffering, these bodies of ours constantly share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. 11 Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be obvious in our dying bodies. 12So we live in the face of death, but it has resulted in eternal life for you. 13 But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, "I believed in God, and so I speak." 14 We know that the same God who raised our Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself along with you. 15 All of these things are for your benefit. And as God's grace brings more and more people to Christ, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.

16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.
17 For our present troubles are quite small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us an immeasurably great glory that will last forever!
18 So we don't look at the troubles we can see right now; rather, we look forward to what we have not yet seen. For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever."

Psalms 103
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And forget none of His benefits;

I walked into my history exam this morning after stuffing my head for countless hours with Elizabethan Poor Laws, Roman Inquisitions, The Spanish Armada, English Civil War, The Tutor-Stuart dynasty, exploration of China, Japan, and India and more. I didn't study that hard for Reformation stuff because I thought there was no way my teacher would ask me to explain the Reformation. So I sit down and look at my exam and I turn to the back of the exam, past all the multiple choice questions, and matchings. I turn eagerly to the back to see what kind of essay I will have to write. Glory be. I looked and the first choice was "Explain the Reformation in the church. What lead to it? And how did the Catholic Church deal with it?"

BLASTED ALL! I was so happy. I broke into a huge grin and quickly filled in all 30 multiple choice questions, matched 10 different things and started my essay. I just started writing and kept writing and writing. I sit in the front row so I see all these people come up and turn in their exams. I start page two, more people finish and leave. I start page three and four, even more people leave. I look up as I start page five on the Reformation and there is no one left in the class. Heh. So I quickly finished the essay and turned it in. I guess no one really enjoys the Reformation as much as I do. I could have written a lot more, but I thought my professor would appreciate that I cut it short at five pages. He'll have fun grading that.

I kept thinking of what one of the guys in my thermo class told me yesterday. We all got to UMES yesterday and we had done our homework, I mean why wouldn't we? The four of us always do our homework. Anyhow, we get there and the three students from UMES ask us if we did our homework. And of course we say yes and looked puzzled as they tell us that they haven't and we shouldn't. We are all like, what the crap. The homework for thermo is our easiest homework load of any of our physics or engineering classes yet. Anyhow, they go on to complain about how they never turn homework in on time and we shouldn't do it either. We all looked at each other and after they left, one of the guys goes, "We are going to mess them up so much. He is going to have to grade this class on two different grading scales if he wants them to pass." Haha. 'Tis true tis true. It was funny because we were all thinking it, but none of us wanted to say it.

Anyhow, no one will probably find that funny, but me. But anyhow. Enjoy the slightly warmer weather then yesterday. As Linnea told me last night, "It can only get warmer!!!" WOOHOO.

This has made me quite sad. My Dad and Mom used to work with the dearest couple ever. They have been retired for quite a few years now. Well, I found out today that "Uncle" Emmett died Monday. I can't imagine how much pain "Aunt" Barbara is in. I would appreciate it and I know she would if you would keep here in your prayers.
My parents always told me stories about how much fun these two people were. I regret that I didn't know them as well as my parents did, but still the 19 years that I knew them was enough to assure me that they were extremely special people. I would love to be a little bit of what they were to each other and to the many around them. They were so encouraging and real. You don't meet that many people anymore that are real. You know that when they say something they really mean it. Aunt Barbara and Uncle Emmett enjoyed giving to and encouraging others. She always had cookies made for us when we came over. They always treated my siblings and I like their grandkids. They came to graduate parties and birthdays and Christmas. I will remember them for all time for taking us strawberry picking every year. Aunt Barbara would always take pictures of all of us. All our curls out of order with strawberry juice all over our faces. Every year we would try to find a bigger strawberry then Uncle Emmett. I really can't believe he is gone. I am really in shock right now. I thought they would be here forever. And in a second you find out one of them is gone.
They were also the first people to babysit me because my parents didn't trust anyone else with their new daughter. I wanted to post pictures from that night because they are so cute, but we don't have a scanner. I will try to work on that this weekend.
If you could keep her in your prayers I would so greatly appreciate it. I am in shock. Everytime some I know dies I start thinking about how short life is. They were both so full of life. I didn't expect either of them to die so soon. I hope I can be like them when I get older. I respected them both immensely.
However, he is in a much better place now.
But it still makes me sad.
I rarely feel like sitting down and just crying, but all day I have felt like just curling up and sobbing. It has been extremely hard to study for this blasted history exam.

*edit* My dear Mother and her wonderful way with words posted about this on her blog. I don't do this wonderful couple justice... go read her blog and maybe you will get a glimpse of how amazing these two were.

"One thing I've always wondered about Les Miserables: I suppose it is excusable to include one lady with a beard in a book, but Victor Hugo writes about two. I just think that's weird. Maybe he had a bad experience with a lady with a beard when he was younger. "

-Sarah

(from a comment on Mrs. Shelton's blog)

Stephanie and I went and played soccer at Crowns last night. First I want to say that Crowns is huge and the grassy stuff is seriously awesome. I spent most of the night marveling at it. Now I want to say how much I love Soccer. It is the world's greatest sport!!! I have missed it so much. Even though I am sore this morning, I still enjoyed playing last night. And I really am not as sore as I thought I would be.
Indoor soccer is different enough from outdoor that I am still slightly confused. How in the world are you supposed to work with the walls?!? I am still trying to figure this out. I can defend against the walls, but my offense totally stunk. And my there really isn't a center half anymore. It is like a roaming center defender. My position is gone. :(
After soccer we went to TCBY and I got my favorite soft served chocolate in a waffle cone!! Good stuff. Which reminds me, RITAS opens up soon. According to their website, "most of our stores open for the season in mid-march. All stores are required to be open two days before the first day of spring each year. It is on the first day of spring that Rita's rewards our customers with a free regular Italian Ice all day at every location in the chain."
HOORAY. On that happy note, I am going to go study for a history exam.

Happy Birthday, Rachel.

Yes,

your protection comes from the Lord.
Psalm 89:18

notice the invisible

even the invisible merits your gratitude.

Romans 7:1-6

1 Now, dear brothers and sisters--you who are familiar with the law--don't you know that the law applies only to a person who is still living? 2 Let me illustrate. When a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her. 3 So while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery if she married another man. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and does not commit adultery when she remarries.

4 So this is the point: The law no longer holds you in its power, because you died to its power when you died with Christ on the cross. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, you can produce good fruit, that is, good deeds for God. 5 When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced sinful deeds, resulting in death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, for we died with Christ, and we are no longer captive to its power. Now we can really serve God, not in the old way by obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way, by the Spirit.

The roads are certainly a mess today. People don't know how to drive around here in snow or rain. But especially snow!!!