Hmmm...

I don't know what to write. I feel like anything I write is going to be taken as coldhearted. This morning I went to church. I thought it would be okay because I haven't cried since we got back. Well, I was wrong. The second song started me crying, and I walked out as quickly as I could. Jason (my adopted brother. long story) followed me out, as did our senior pastor's wife. After I got myself back under control I went back into church and proceeded to cry during the time that they were praying for my family. This time I didn't go out, but instead just sat there with tears running down my face. I proceeded to cry in the next song too. It was really hard, but at the same time good. Hard because of the pain I was feeling, but good because I really needed to cry instead of comforting everyone else. God bless my church family. They are amazing.

Encouraging

The people in my church have been absolutely amazing. We got back on Wednesday afternoon, and we've had meals provided for every night since. It is SO encouraging, and uplifting. At the same time people have been coming alongside us, and... words just can't describe it (but I'll try, 'coz that's just the way I am). Someone will come alongside me, and give me a hug. Without them saying a single word, I know I'm loved and that they are really hurting for us. The good thing is, that I've actually been able to comfort a few people, and tell them that it's ok to cry, and that they don't have to be strong for me. I think it's actually comforted me to be able to comfort others.
I love my church, and I love that they have just come alongside us. May God bless them all, and all of my other friends that don't come to my church.

Please pray

My dearest, darling sister, Kristy has lost her husband, Steve, in a tragic boating accident. He went missing at about 5 o'clock on Sunday afternoon, and his body was found yesterday afternoon by divers.
Please pray for my sister. She is hurting so badly. She has been through so much in her life already, and this is just another blow. The worst part for me is watching her cry. Gut-wrenching sobs that just make my heart break. Please pray for Kristy, but also for Steve's family and my family.

"Father, please hold her up. Undergird her, and show her your presence. Help us know how to comfort her, and when to be silent."

CWCI

This weekend I went to CWCI. CWCI stands for Christian Women Communicating Internationally. It's a conference that they have every year around the same time, and it's really good. I don't get heaps and heaps out of the sessions (a little bit here and there), but I get heaps out of being with a bunch of women all day. Last year and this year we've rented a house for the weekend, and ten ladies from our church come and stay there for the weekend. This year Mum, Kristy, Kristy's MIL, Mrs. Bower, Mrs. Taylor (Wendy), Mrs. Packer, Trudi, Joanna, Elyse and I went. We had a ball! Joanna is English, and very prim and proper. However, she can be a lot of fun! We call her the Crazy English Lady. She's really cool, and fun, and this year we had heaps of fun. It all started with us going out for tea. Elyse and I couldn't finish our food, so we asked if we could take it home. That was fine. Then, Joanna decided to take Elyse's food and hide it. Elyse had no idea what had happened to her food! I hadn't seen anything, but I figured that Joanna was the prime suspect, and I was right. Then Elyse and I stacked our containers on top of each other in front of Elyse (bad move) who was sitting next to Joanna (another bad move). Well, Joanna then decided that it would be fun to take both of the containers! We eventually found them, and headed back to the 'shack' (place that we were renting) threatening Joanna with payback. We got back, and Elyse and I decided that we would hide her handbag and vanity case as payback. Joanna was running around trying to find her handbag (it had her glasses in, and she needed them for the movie we were about to watch). Well, she'd figured out that I had something to do with it, but funnily enough she didn't suspect Elyse. She found her handbag within about ten minutes (we hadn't hidden it very well), but she hadn't missed her vanity case yet. When she did miss it, oh boy, we were in for it! Eventually, Kristy made me go and get it for her (which spoiled the fun) but we had enjoyed laughing at her up until then. Before we went to watch the movie, I had grabbed my phone out of my bag because I didn't trust Joanna, and that was the only thing in my handbag that I couldn't live without for a whole day. After the movie finished and we were getting ready for bed, I found that my suspicions had been confirmed: Joanna had stolen my handbag. However, just as Joanna came back from having her shower, Trudi pulled my handbag out of her suitcase/bag, and asked "Whose is this?" Joanna saw her, and Trudi realized her mistake when Joanna tried to shush her. Unfortunately (for Joanna) I'd already heard and seen Trudi, and so I had a good laugh at Joanna. Joanna then reciprocated by mixing mine and Elyse's clothes up (putting some of my stuff in Elyse's bag, and some of Elyse's in mine), but she also took my thongs (flip-flops) and hid them. I didn't realize until the next morning when I was getting ready to leave, and Joanna had already left for the morning session. Elyse found them in a couple of minutes, but I had to laugh because it was pretty funny. I didn't get Joanna back, but maybe next year???
All in all, it was a lot of fun and craziness.

Review

I posted a review of "Only Uni" by Camy Tang over at my other blog. Please go and have a look, and tell me what you think.

More Camp

I'm very sore, and I'm very tired (hence why I'm writing right now :) ). I woke up this morning sore in places I didn't realize I had muscles! When I leaned over to my side, the sides of me really hurt. Last night when I laughed, I was in mortal agony because my sides hurt so much! My back was really, really sore this afternoon, but in spite of all this, camp was SO TOTALLY AWESOME!!!! I loved camp, and I hope its just as good next year ('coz I'm sure it can't get any better). I think (and so do most of the people that went on camp) that the reason it was so good was because they didn't have our time planned from second to second. They had a few organized games, but there was time to recover, and also time to just go with the flow. There was also plenty of time to muck around in the water (in a good way), and plenty of time to talk. But in spite of all this time, there wasn't much time for mucking up and being idiotic. Which was really good. I can't explain it very well, but I'd have to say that the dynamics on this camp would have had to have been some of the best of any camp that I've been to.
It was a really impacting camp, and I hope that if it's possible, that next year will be even better!

Youth Camp

Youth camp was this weekend. It was absolutely awesome!!! It started Friday night at 8:30pm, and I got to drive down there. It was by the Murray River (Ankara Camp), so it was about 1 and 3/4 hours away. Just a side note: 80 km/h is very slow when you're on a straight stretch of road, and you know you can go faster :). Friday night we had games, and then we went for a short hike across the river (we took the ferry across) to where we could look up at the sky and see all the stars. It was amazing!!! When you're out in the country, you can see so many more stars. After that, we went back to camp and watched a DVD presented by Louie Giglio called "Indescribable". It was a really cool DVD, and it really brought home how awesome our God is. Saturday morning we had a worship/devotion session where the Youth Band (which I'm part of) played 3 songs. The theme of the camp was "Fork in the Road". We had to eat everything with forks, but the message was also about the Forks in the Road in our lives. The senior pastor at our church spoke about a hard decision he'd had to make when he was a lot younger, and it was really interesting! We had an awesome day that day, because we were playing in the river, and they had a pontoon which is a sort of raft floating on empty metal barrels. There was people on there, and everybody was pushing everybody in. I got pushed in a few times, and I also got tackled when I was in the water. I had heaps of fun because there was this really icky sticky gray mud, and I would pick it up and throw it at people. The only problem is when they decide that it would be fun to throw it back at you! I was absolutely exhausted by the late afternoon on Saturday. That night we had heaps of free time, and so we had the choice of playing Singstar or watching the footy (AFL) or playing cards. I tried sleeping in my dorm, but it was too hot, and people kept coming in and out, so I gave up and went into the Rec Hall where the footy was on TV, and I tried sleeping there, but I got poked, and bonked on the head with an empty fizzy drink bottle (Jason!!!), and then I couldn't get comfortable so I went and got a pillow, and then all the die-hard footy fans came in, and started yelling and cheering so I didn't get any sleep. On Sunday, we had another worship session, and this time Ian (an elder) gave the message, and he spoke about the Israelites and the fork in the road decision they had to make about going into Canaan, and how they made the wrong decision. He then contrasted that with the Christian walk now. It was a really good talk, and very challenging. After that, we got told that the Youth Group had hired a Fun Run (an inflatable water obstacle course), and so for the rest of the morning and a good part of the afternoon we got to go on that. I only got to the end about 5 or 6 times, and I fell off about a million times, but it was SO much fun!!! Later Sunday afternoon, we had some team games, and then Sunday evening we had communion and a couple of girls from the youth band and I led everyone in a song. Later on, we watched a DVD also presented by Louie Giglio called "How Great is Our God". That was also a really good DVD!! It was absolutely phenomenal! This morning we had another worship session where Henry our youth pastor talked. Henry talked about faith, and it was a really good message as well. Then we had about 45 minutes of free time where we could go on the Fun Run, or swim or go on the canoes. I was going to go on the Fun Run, but I was too exhausted. Therefore, I swam across the Murray with 3 other girls! I was really tired, but because I had a life jacket on, it wasn't half as hard. After that, we had to pack our clothes and everything else up, and clean our dorms, the Rec Hall, and the Dining Hall. Then we had lunch, and after that we were allowed to go back on the pontoon or in the river. Quite a few people got on the pontoon, and started pushing people off. Then they untied it from the bank, and got it out in the middle of the river and pushed people off out there! It was really funny to watch, and I kind of wanted to join them, but I had already put my contact lenses back in, and I didn't want to take them out again. Then Dad came, and I really didn't want to go because I'd had so much fun!!

More...

Kristy sent this one to me, and I like it! So, for now this is my new signature!!!!!

Nope

I don't think that mylivesignature.com is working for me. The colours just aren't right. If anyone knows how to get a signature for free, please tell me.

Hmmmm...

Different colour

Hmmmm

I like the font for this one.

Oookkaayy!

Maybe we'll just steer far, far away from the signatures! The yellow one didn't look toooo bad, but it's just not the look I'm going for (I think). Please tell me what you think?!

Blech!

um

Nah

Hmmmm....

um

Hmmm..... no, I don't think I like it.

New Stuff

I got a new pair of sneakers today! They're elastic/slip-on ones. They're either the same as a pair that my SIL Melinda got, or exactly the same (I can't remember). My other sneakers were starting to fall apart, and looked really grubby. Also, I wanted a pair I could just slip on, but that were fully enclosed so that I could wear them driving.
Also, Mum got a new pair of boots (finally). Her old ones were had "holey souls soles" The new boots are black, and quite nice. With a couple of THICK pairs of socks, I should be able to borrow them :)

My Week

Sorry that I haven't posted in so long. I just keep putting it off.
Anyway, my week.
The main highlight of my week is.......... I finished History of Civilization!!!!!!
Which means that I only have Chemistry left to finish! I'm really excited. I should be finished before the holidays which will be absolutely awesome! Although, I'm starting to get a little scared. I have a full term before I can start TAFE, so maybe I need to get a job. Although, I'm thinking of seeing if any of the young mums at church need a hand with their kids.
On the other hand, READ, READ, READ! Hmmm... Mum might have a problem with that.

Anyway, back to my week. Monday I didn't do much, but on Tuesday I had music team practice. On Wednesday Dad took me for a 2 hour drive which was really good. I kept forgetting to check the intersection before I went before it, but Dad said that it was the first time that I was doing things without having to think about them.
On Thursday I had sewing, and youth band practice. I'm making a jumper (sweater for the Americans?) in bright blue. It's gonna look awesome. It will have a hood and a pocket in the front.
On Friday I went to Koorong (sorry Kristy, your birthday book was out) and I got two books, and a cd for me. Lisa (my little sis) asked me to get two books for her, and I got a birthday present for a friend. On Friday night I went to Michael M's birthday party which was cool.
Today I vacuumed, and ironed, and this afternoon I had a youth band workshop and we played and sang for about two hours.

We have youth camp this weekend coming (7th-10th), and the youth band is playing for the services. I'm really looking forward to it.