Day 2: Wednesday January 5, 2011: Los Toros, Azua, RD.

VAAAAARRROOOOMMMM! 
I was jolted awake by the sound of a motorcycle driving past our house, but this was only the beginning. Dogs barking and roosters crowing almost constantly...then all of a sudden the music came on at a house down the street. 

Thus was the beginning of our first day in Los Toros. 

Albina's house: where the youth called home

We had no idea where the church was(which was where we were ate all our meals), and Chevy & David left without us the first time Jewel came around to get us for breakfast. That's what we get for over sleeping I guess. :)
Breakfast consisted of eggs, tomatoes and onions(which became my favorite part of every meal, because if you didn't like the food-cover it with this stuff and it tasted good!), and banana's that somehow they got to taste sorta like sausage. Not bad for my first meal. 

Mark Blank working on a hole

After breakfast, it was time to work. Our first project of the day was hole digging. We needed to dig holes to put the frame of a house up. Hannah, Steph and I took turns cleaning the dirt out of the wholes Eric and Mark were digging.

Hannah using an old bowl to clean out holes

Then when all the holes were finished we helped carry the poles from the saw mill about 2 blocks away. The Dominican's found this a funny site: three girls carrying two poles in a train formation(it was the easiest way) up a hill. I decided that we are pretty much a walking comedy show. But it's all good because I love to see smiles on their faces!
  Getting all the poles to the job site went rather quickly with 20 people carrying poles and we were kind of ahead of the rest of the work, so a few of us went over to Juancito & Dominga's house to tack the studs in the walls for plastering.  The majority of the houses built in Los Toros are made out of concrete. The plaster will stick to the concrete, but the wooden frame needs tacks to hold the plaster. The tacks were to be in a zig zagy pattern about 3 finger widths apart. 

teamwork. always.

Chevy and Neil working as a team

 Juancito and Dominga live right next to the church and Juancito is a deacon I do believe. They have 4 boys: Jamie-18, Josue-17, Joel-15 and Juan Samuel-14. Our project for their house was to plaster and put flooring in the addition they added to expand the kitchen, put in a bathroom and another bedroom. We finished the majority of this project by lunchtime. Lunch most of the trip was the same- rice, chicken(or beef) and beans. Some days we had salad or other random items mixed in. We had sour orange juice. In the Dominican they have sweet oranges and sour oranges. The sour oranges aren't good for anything else except making juice and the juice tastes more like Lemonade than Orange juice. It was good!

   After lunch, Linda B, Lara, Hannah, Stephanie, and I got to go on a trip to Azua; to the hardware store to buy supplies. We went along with Kevin, Coho, David Reyes and Broulio. We hopped in the back of a pick-up and began an approx 20 minute trip. I loved riding down the road in the back of a pick-up, even more so because it is sort of illegal in the states. :) 
We spent what seemed like forever at the hardware store in Azua, but that's typical.

I used this time to talk to Kevin about the people and culture. The first shocker I had was learning that Los Toros had a population of about 20,000 people! Here I thought it was a small town!! You can't really see the whole town, because there are a lot of trees. The roads in Los Toros were very recently paved, which I will count as a blessing because that means less dust on my feet. The people are very friendly and helpful. They will do anything for you, even if it's illegal. Kevin said he had to explain to one guy that just because your friend asks you to do something, if it's breaking the law, you don't have to do it! The women don't work with the men, which is the biggest reason why we American women are so entertaining. The woman do the housework and stuff associated around the house. Now their housework is still much harder than the housework in America! Kevin also said that we girls might not get to work every day, because the guys aren't used to giving up their job to females. 

This is going to be an adjustment for one very independent female who likes to 'do it herself!"


Also, Kevin informed us that the men hiss at the women here. And the women like it, so we should get used to being hissed and whistled at, because they love Americans! In the Dominican, unlike America, the lighter skin you have the better. So men will wear long sleeves and women walk around with umbrellas to shield the sun. And all the while we're looking forward to getting tans! :)


Just like what usually happens, the girls had to use the bathroom(and you know how it goes: when one has to go, they all have to go). We walked across a courtyard and 2 streets to the Pollo Rey(The Chicken King). The first thing I noticed when I walked in was the A/C!! We found the sign Banos and ran back with Stephanie in the lead. She threw open the door only to find a guy in the bathroom cleaning the mirror! He turned his head and with a cheerful voice said "iHola!" 
From where I was, all I saw was Steph throw open the bathroom door then I heard a male voice and I thought for sure she went into the boys bathroom(which she practically did at the Miami airport). It still made for a good laugh! 


Our ride back to Los Toros took place in the back seat of a white Toyota pick-up, driven by a guy from Los Toros who happened to be in Azua today as well. Kevin thought it would be safer for us to ride here, than on top of the bags of concrete piled high on the back of our truck. We got to try cookies! I was so excited when Kevin asked if we'd like a cookie....but to my disappointment the cookies were just colored bread. Good if you were expecting bread. 
   We arrived in Los Toros just in time to grab a shower and get to supper.  The shower wasn't so bad actually. After all the stories I'd heard about how cold the shower I was expecting to scream, but really it was nice. The bathroom in Albina's house is pretty nice for bathrooms in the area. Work Team Partners worked on it last year(I think that's right). And you can flush toilet paper down the toilet! Our showers worked like this: we would pour a bucket of water on our heads and wash our hair and get all soaped up, then we would quick turn on the shower and rinse it all off. There is a trash can full of water in the bathroom which we used to flush the toilet when the water's off(the water is usually on from 9-6) and for our showers.

For supper we had Dominican Spaghetti. DELICIOUS! 

Introductions and Panda Fruit

The Wednesday night church service was more of an introduction service for us Americans. We got to sit in front of all the people and Jewel lead a quiz game. She lined up six boys and we had to figure out which two sets were brothers and age order. Then she asked them to pick out the families in our group. They did pretty good too. 
Our second activity was an orange peeling competition. Who could peel the fastest and/or prettiest. Mark Blank decided to try his hand at it as well, which made for tons of laughs from everybody watching! 

Rafael, Junior, & Mark showing their oranges (photo credit:Chevy)

The Dominicans peel their sweet oranges alot different than we're used to. The skin is tough and you can't peel it with your fingers, so they use a knife and somehow create this beautiful masterpiece, then they cut them in half and suck all the juice out. 

Rafael peeling a sweet orange

Neil eating an sweet orange DR style

Eric learning how to peel sweet oranges

Table of fruits grown in the DR

Our final activity was a fruit guessing game. There was a table that had all sorts of fruit on it and our job was to see how many we knew.  There were oranges, both sweet and sour, bananas, mangos,  plantains, yuca(which is like our potato), coffee, cashew fruit, papaya, zepolte(which i named the football fruit cause it looks like a football), guava, passion fruit and this weird spiky green fruit. Earlier in the evening Chevy, Hannah, David, Stephanie and I were walking through the town when we saw Coho driving his motorcycle with this weird looking fruit. We heard him say something to a passer-by and we recognized the words "Panda fruita". So we thought the fruit was Panda Fruit! When Jewel held it up, we were all proud that we knew this fruit and quickly exclaimed "Panda Fruit!!" Jewel gave us a weird look and started laughing. When we explained the story to her she quickly told the congregation and they erupted into laughter! We did NOT hear "Panda fruit", what we heard was "Pan de fruita'' which is a fruity bread(pan=bread in espanol)!! Needless to say, we all got a good laugh!


When church was over, Jewel wanted us to meet one of our translators, a sixteen year old girl named Mariela. She had already left church, so we followed Joel(pronounced Ho-el) around until we found her. She lives 2 or 3 houses down from where I'm staying and she invited us in to play games. We decided we had nothing better to do at the moment so we agreed. The TV got moved and the furniture got rearranged for the 20+ youth that squeezed into a living room that was no more that 20x8 feet! I'll admit I was a little nervous about playing when I knew hardly any Spanish and they knew hardly any English, but I will NEVER regret this night! The electric was off, so we played all the games by candlelight. Monopoly JR was my first game, and I won! Then we got a group together and played Uno for a while. I quite enjoyed watching them banter each other in Spanish while playing games, just like we do. It made me realize that really the only difference is the language, we're all still people. 

The biggest game by far this night was Connect Four! Usually I would say that this game is too elementary for my liking, but it's really not! Jamie loved playing this game...and beating everyone! It became the center of attention and we crowded around to see who would win each game. Then Jamie asked me to play! After a little hesitation I decided that I would, and most likely lose too, because I cannot remember the last time I played Connect Four! I sat down, very intimidated by the serious look on his face. One by one the pieces went in and I lost very quickly. But Jamie wanted to play again and this time I won somehow. :) 


All in all it was a very fun night and I'm thankful we took time to play with the Dominican teens. Little did we know that it was only the start....

Day 1:January 4, 2011: From freezing to sweating.

It's 6:30am and I'm watching the sunrise out of the window of AA flight 1851 from DC to Miami. Alas however, I have an isle seat so no pictures of this beautiful sight.
  The morning ran pretty smoothly and we got through airport security without a problem. Thank you Jesus!
   As I sit here, listening to Neil and Mark snore in the seats beside mine, my mind is racing with thoughts about what to expect when I get to the DR. I've heard story upon story told in ways to both encourage my trip as well as scare the crap out of me. I decided I would write my own story, told my own way. And you, my reader, get the opportunity to share the experience with me. Sit back and enjoy!

flying into Miami

Hannah Horst

11:15am.
Plane ride number two. Goodbye USA! Again thank you Jesus that getting through security and customs went well. My story of choice from the Miami airport goes something like this: We were hungry. And well there's not very many food choices after you go through security. Chevy happened to see a sign for Wendy's! So, him and David decided to check it out while Hannah, Stephanie and I watched their stuff. Ten minutes went by and I got a text from Chevy. There was no Wendy's!!! :( It was Coming Soon! Talk about false advertising! I was looking forward to bacon cheeseburgers and fries one last time! The girls settled for beef and cheese sticks and bottled water, totaling $5.22! Ouch.
  I am very blessed to have a window seat this flight, and am sitting with Stephanie and Mark. This is my first time flying over the ocean and I must say that it is extremely pretty! I love the blues, greens and tans reflecting in the sunlight! All I can say is Thank you God for such beautiful creations! Our flight should land in Santo Domingo at 1:45pm DR time, which is an hour ahead of Pa. The weather when we left Miami was 68 and the weather in Santo Domingo is currently 76! I will mention that it was 22 when we left for the airport this morning. Talk about weather shock.

A view out of the plane window over the ocean

   I've enjoyed getting to know some of the people on the trip I didn't know before, like Mark. This guy is crazy, but so much fun. I guess you have to have an extreme sense of humor to have 3 daughters! :) Apparently Stephanie and I have already made our marks in the group as the two crazy ones. Imagine that?! I'm pretty excited to see how we grow as a group on this trip. 
I guess I should introduce you to the group huh? 

There are 18 of us: Kevin and Jen Sheeler(who are sorta the ones in charge so to speak) Curtis and Linda Berry, Johnny and Linda Horst, Kenny and Lara Lehman, Ralph Ebersole(Linda B and Lara's dad), Chet and Chevy Martin, Neil Kuhns, Mark Blank, Eric Carbaugh, David Akers, Stephanie Eshleman, Hannah Horst and myself, Victoria Utermoehlen. Quite a group if I do say so myself.  :)

Landing in the DR!

We landed safely in Santo Domingo and got through customs and all the fun stuff with flying colors. We met David & Jewel Reyes and Rafael & Heather Reyes at the airport. David is the pastor at ________ in Los Toros. Jewel happens to be Hannah's cousin. Rafael is David's brother and Heather is Kenny and Lara's daughter. We piled all 36 suitcases into the back of a truck and boarded the baby blue bus that would take us on our 3 hour ride to Los Toros, Azua, RD.

4:20pm
Currently I am sitting on the bus, parked on the side of the highway with a flat tire. And the adventures begin! We just got out of the city of Santo Domingo. My goodness the people here drive different! I think they drive on the RIGHT side of the road like in the states, but really no one really stays on their side of the road!! There were a couple times the vehicles that passed us going the other way were so close we could stick our hand out of the window and touch them! Wow! And I think that the only thing a vehicle needs to pass inspection is a working horn! They all use them!! It was an experience riding through town that's for sure. I've seen alot of the same cars we have in the states. Lots of Toyota's and Honda's. And lots of street bikes and mopeds. I think I only saw one stop light, but for some reason I don't remember if we stopped at it! All the traffic rules seem to be more along the lines of SUGGESTIONS. :) 
Right now they are jacking up the bus, with the people still in it! I find this kind of funny. Oh wait, we have to get off.  
While we were sitting on the side of the road, we got to watch lots of bikers drive by. They carry anything and everything on the backs of those street bikes! Even car doors....

 

He's packin :)

We stopped at a Buffet about half way to Los Toros. Here we got our first taste of Dominican food. Friend chicken, ham, fried plantains, as well as fish. Now the fish well they cooked it whole, which meant the head was there with eyeballs. That ruined my appetite for fish and we proceeded to dare Mark to eat the head, which he graciously obliged.  
We got to Los Toros around 10pm. So I have no idea what the town looks like! :) Mark, Eric and Neil got dropped off first at a guy named Coho's house. Next the youth- Chevy, David, Hannah, Stephanie and myself were dropped off at David and Rafael's parents house. This began another experience: Language barrier! Mama Reyes, or Albina knew less English then we knew Spanish! And she talks very fast! The first thing she did was make us Dominican coffee, which is basically strong coffee with TONS of sugar! Then we resorted to the point and show method to figure out what she was talking about. Our favorite phrase is "NO COMPRENDO!" We all got hugs when we walked in and whenever we would say 'No comprendo' we would just hug Albina. It was nice to know that she welcomed us and loved us even though we had no idea what the other person was saying! 
    We watched Baseball on TV before bed time. It was kinda weird for me to grasp at first, because it is January! But I could still understand what was going on even though the announcers were speaking Spanish. When the game was over we headed to bed. Hannah, Stephanie and myself were in the pink room. There was a full size bed and a bunk bed. Hannah got the bottom bunk of the bunk bed and Steph and I shared the full size bed. David and Chevy's room was basically two mattresses on the floor. But as far as I know they didn't mind.

Slowly we all fell asleep to the sound of blaring music from the bar down the street.......


    

Dominican Republic Trip 2011

I know, I know...two posts in two days!

But I didn't want to add this to my last one. :)

In just a little over 24 hours, I will be headed south to the airport to board a plane for my VERY FIRST trip OUT OF the UNITED STATES! 

I'm traveling with a group of 14(I think?) people from at least 3 churchs in the area. We are going to a town called Los Toros in the Dominican Republic. And our mission is to put an addition to a Deacon's house as well as start and possibly finish a house for a family in the community.


Your prayers are very much coveted! As I finally started packing, all the nerves and worries of what might go wrong started running though my mind, BUT I know God's in control. And I'll be fine. :) I am very very thankful to be traveling with people I consider family to me and am looking forward to experiencing another culture and meeting tons of new people. 
    My biggest prayer is that while I'm there, the people will see the love of Christ Jesus flowing out of me every moment of every day and that they will want to experience that Love for themselves. 




So Adios and God Bless!
♥Victoria

Hello 2011!

2011 has arrived!

And what do I have to say to this occasion? Nothing much really. 

I brought in the beginning of the year in bed with a head cold. Not such a great start huh?

The Holiday season this year didn't seem as exciting as it usually does. Maybe I'm getting older, but for whatever reason....no matter how hard I tried...I still needed more of the "Christmas spirit" so to speak. We got our tree up a week or so before Christmas, but half the family wasn't there to help decorate. Honestly, it was weird coming home to a decorated tree and not being there to put MY ornaments on the tree. We were so busy. So so busy. Christmas morning was different too, with mom and dad dragging us kids out of bed to open presents, because mom had to work in the afternoon. 

Everything felt so rushed. 

But enough with the things that were different. Different is good. 

The thing I'll remember most about this Christmas was getting to spend time with my daddy. He's been so busy during December that I never see him. And I was even living at home! He would come in around 8 or 9pm and go straight to bed. 

December 23, we borrowed a meat grinder from my granny down the cove. And I heard she used to make Pulla Bread, which is delicious if you've never had it. Dad decided we should prank her, hinting that we'd like some Pulla for our christmas get-together. I designed little signs with the word PULLA on them and hung them around her kitchen. It was so much fun! Not to mention it had been forever since I was at that house. So many memories...

Christmas Day, since mom had to go to work at 2:30, Josiah and I decided to go snowboarding. Why not? The snow was beautiful, in my opinion anyway. It did get a little icy towards the end of the day, but all is well. Josiah and I spent time working through the smaller terrian park. I'm still building the confidence to go off jumps, BUT I did it multiple times without falling. I also ventured over to the blue square slopes...meaning the advanced ones. I'm still a little scared of them, but not to worry, I still have 3 months of boarding left!

The week between Christmas and New Years was packed full. So full, I think I wore my body out. I also played over 6 hours of video games. Which I NEVER play. Wii Just Dance 2 is one of my favorites! I was involved in a dance off and lasted 2.5 hours! I got to ride a 4wheeler and attended my first coffee cupping. That was an experience for one who never drinks black coffee. I came out of it with a much higher appreciation for a good cup of coffee.  I played Battle of the Sexes for the first time...and learned that nails are NOT measured by size, but by pennyweight. Screws are the ones measured by size. :) 

Thursday, December 30: What a day! My friend Steph Burt came up from Columbia Md to join Josiah, Joel, Alexander and myself for some skiing/snowboarding. Was Whitetail ever packed! There were lines EVERYWHERE! I couldn't believe I was joining the masses of people on the slopes, but I did. Being that the lift lines were long, and the snow was slow because of the weather...my lovely friends got me over to the black diamond slopes. What an adventure that was! Honestly however, it wasn't too bad. So long as I reminded myself not to panic at the fact I was going STRAIGHT DOWN the side of a mountain! I also went through Jib Junction:The big terrain park, and did a jump or two! Be proud of me! :)
   Slowly but surely I will conquer all my fears of going to fast and dying on a slope, and I'm thankful for friends that challenge and push me, but stay right there with me the whole time. :)

We left Whitetail around 5 to head to Hannah B's house to chill, and play some Wii. I HAVE NEVER HAD SO MUCH FUN PLAYING VIDEO GAMES IN MY WHOLE ENTIRE LIFE!! We danced for a while, then decided to bring out Super Mario Brothers. Hannah, Steph Burt and myself are NOT good at video games. Josiah...he's a little better. We played that game for like 2 hours. Screaming our heads off the whole time! It was a day/night to remember!


As 2011 begins, I don't know what my thoughts are. On one hand, I'm pretty excited for what God is gonna do, but on the other hand, I'm a little apprehensive of the changes that might take place. 'God help me not to worry' is one of the things I have to pray everyday. I know I'll be ok, and I know God's got my back. Sometimes, I just wish I had control and could work everything out right now, instead of having to wait on God's timing. But that's not how we grow. So as I finish for tonight I pray "God, help me to wait. Help me not to worry, and help me to trust you, even if it's not how I want it to go."


God Bless you in 2011!
♥

Gingerbread houses with a best friend...

Time to add another 'first' to my every growing list of things I've never done before!
That's right people...I have never made a gingerbread house!


*collective gasp from all readers who are thinking "oh that poor deprived child"*


I had the opportunity to chill with my friend Kelsey and make Gingerbread houses! It's so nice to have college friends home one Christmas Break! We used graham crackers instead of actual gingerbread, so I guess they should be called graham cracker houses...

Now that's what I'm talking about!

Anyway, so we got out all the candy and frosting and were getting ready to start, but we couldn't find the graham crackers! Someone ate them for breakfast!!!!! *gasp* :)
This catastrophe meant a trip to Food Lion, in Kelsey's supercharged Grand Prix jamming out to the Straight No Chasers Christmas cd!! <--yeah we did!

We finally had graham crackers, but then it was time to make supper. And Kelsey had to get Ethan from the barn. Oh will this gingerbread house ever get done!? I started putting my frame up and got my roof on.....then....it collapsed! I think the candy was just too heavy for the graham crackers. I then had to redesign my house and start all over again! This time, I added an extra roof support and used M&M's instead of butter mints(at least I think that's what they were). This one turned out much better! 

House number one - before the roof collapsed and destroyed it!

House number two. The completed project!

My gummy bear family is getting their picture taken by the yellow gummy bear photographer.

Roof number two--blue M&Ms!

I attempted a chimney, but it's not too great...

And here you have it. Victoria's first ever gingerbread...graham cracker house! 

*insert applause*

More important than achieving another "first'', was the blessing of being able to spend time with one of my best friends(ok...and Ethan too! haha). I was thinking about how in high school, I was always so concerned about keeping my friends forever. But now, the majority of the people I spent my high school years with, I rarely talk to anymore. Funny...I remember my parents telling me that. :) However, those 4 girls I call my best friends....I've never ever even worried about losing them. I just knew they would always be there, no matter what. No matter where we are in the country, or world, we're still friends. Yeah, we've all had our ups and our downs, we've gone through drama and the whole high school scene, but ultimately, we've grown in Christ together. We've experienced things together and we've always been there to encourage and listen to each other. And who could forget sharing millions of laughs!

  I am so blessed with amazing best friends and I'm looking forward to seeing just where God takes us and what He'll accomplish through us! 

Before I say Adios....last night was topped off with a very special event.......

MY First cup of Egg Nog this Christmas season!!!!!!!! Gotta love this time of year! 

God Bless!

♥

toeside, heelside, toeside, heelside

Anticipation ran through every vein in my body as I walked quickly to the car to put my snowpants on. 
The red paper in my coat pocket held adventures beyond imagination in its fibers.
I buckled my belt, zipped my coat and headed to get my tickets and rentals.
With boots on and bindings ready, I boarded the lift at Velvet to warm up. As I got off the lift adrenaline flowed freely through my body. I buckled my binding and started to slide. 


What's wrong with me?! What's happening to my board!? 
I fell, I crashed, and I got frustrated! 

I had to figure out why this wasn't working.
I got to the top, sat down in the snow and gave myself a peptalk.
Then I took a deep breath and stood up. 
As I went down the trail I repeated: 'Toeside turn, heelside turn, stay off the back leg, toeside turn, heelside turn...'

It worked! I didn't fall! SCORE! To Sidewinder I went. Once I got on Sidewinder, I realized the biggest reason I couldn't for the life of me go down the bunny slope was because I was turning too fast. :) OOHHH how excited that made me! 

I am ready to advance! And advance I shall! To think that I passed my level of boarding from the end of last season in one simple night!? Thank you Jesus! This will be a fun 3 months!


Hello Whitetail Season!

SNOW, SNOW Beautiful SNOW!

Snow, snow, beautiful snow!
You make my face shine like the sun.
Oh how I wish you would stay awhile!
You make my feet dance with excitement
And my eyes light up like Christmas lights on a tree
Oh beautiful snow!

Ok, I just made that up in the last 30 seconds. BUT I did write a song about the snow while I was cleaning at the Van Kampens today! Surprise snows are the greatest. I walked downstairs at 10:15, sleepy eyed and yawning. THEN I noticed it, I looked out the window and saw snow falling. Just a little at first, so I didn't pay much attention, till I heard Nina exclaim "It's snowing!" This time I ran to the window and squealed as I watched the snow fall....and stick to the ground!!! Everyone in the house knew how excited I was, being that I was dancing around singing about it!
Everything looked so pretty covered in the 1 1/2 inchish of snow we got. The roads even looked nice, until cars drove over them! Haha! The beauty in snow is one of my favorite things to capture through the camera lense and I love walking through the peacefulness of falling snow. God you're creation is so wonderful!

Narnia anyone?

View from the creek

...and nothings gonna hold me back!

Do you ever have days where you just want to run to the top of a mountain, jump off and say "Jesus catch me!" Flying is something I always wanted to be able to do! :P


Sunday night I went to Keepers of the Flame International Church for their Thrive service! AMMMAAZZZIIINNG! I was looking forward to it all week! To put it bluntly..last week was a bunch of crap. I was so discouraged and worn down, which....when I think back -duah! The devil loves to wear me down and get me discouraged, because then I don't have a worship mindset. And when I'm not in a worship mindset...I'm not a happy person! I gotta work on fighting that. 


I will overcome, by the blood of the Lamb!


Anyway, so I went to church. I love worship there! I knew I needed to have a clear head to enter into worship, so I just kept praying: God clear my mind. Tonight it's all for you. I will NOT focus on those around me, I will NOT worry about anything in my life. I'm alive to worship you.
I think that's a major key to worship. Entering into your time of worship with all the cares of your life behind you. Then you can jump right into the throne room of God and worship your heart out! :) I've been thinking about that alot this week. How often do we LOOK FORWARD to going to church to worship? Like really? Do you come to church on Sunday ready to worship? Are all the things going wrong in your life left at the cross? I had so much going on in my mind last week, lots of stresses and just the things of life. I didn't really care about anything. I just wanted to go to sleep and wake up when the world was right. Then God reminded me of good 'ol Mr. Job in the Bible. Dude that guy lost EVERYTHING and he didn't stop praising God! Could I do that? Would you do that? 
What is our purpose in life? To bring honor and glory to God in everything we do, right? The one thing we can give back to God is our worship! That's why worship is my passion! God has blessed us with so much, he has blessed me with so much and all I really want to do is give it all back to him. I want to become a sweet fragrance in the throne room of God. I want my life to be a life of worship. 
So when we feel like our lives are falling apart and we're going through our "Job" times. That's when we need to worship most! When we DON'T feel like it. When it's the farthest thing from our minds. We shouldn't be complaining and worrying about how we're gonna make it, we should walk(or crawl) boldly in and saying "God, I don't know what's going on. I don't feel you here with me, BUT I'm not going to stop praising you!"


That's my challenge this week. Keep a mindset of worship, even when I don't feel like it.

♫Take me past the outer courts, into the Holy place

   Past the brazen alter

   Lord, I want to see your face

  Pass me by the crowds of people

  The priests who sing your praise

  I hunger and thirst for your righteousness

  But it's only found one place

 Take me into the holy of holies,

 Take be in by the blood of the Lamb

 Take me into the Holy of holies

 Take the coal, touch my lips, here I am♫

Sometimes you gotta see life through the eyes of a child.

8:30am and all I can hear is non-stop talking by 6 year old Kenton(spell check on that) who was downstairs. Oh boy, I'm so used to a quiet house, but needless to say knowing there was someone to play with waiting downstairs, I rolled out of bed.
We played Blokus....in a round about way. Haha. And of course he won both times. :) 
Kenton kept asking to jump on the indoor trampoline....and after having to finish and PUT AWAY Blokus, we donned our hoodies and headed to the "tramp room."
   

For a whole hour all we did was jump jump jump! But fun it was! Kenton liked to scream and make weird faces. While we were taking a bit of a break from jumping, he said "Uh Oh! My silly face is running off. I have to go change faces." He then proceeded to show me his screaming face, silly face, smiling face, mean face, monster face, laughing face and so on. 

This intrigued me so much.

We do the same thing in 'real life'. We change our faces depending on who we're with, what we're doing, where we're at and so on. How often are we hiding behind a 'smiling face', or a 'i've got it all together' face? The masks need to go. 
We need to start being honest with each other. And forgive the wrongs. Forget the past. Move into the future God has for us!

*This random piece of brain food is brought to you by Victoria Utermoehlen*

Who put matches in the dishwasher?

My apologies for not writing sooner, it's been pretty hectic in my mind recently. And alot has happened since the last time I wrote.


First-it's good to be back in my house of solitude! I was kind of sad that Joel was back for thanksgiving break, because it meant that I wouldn't be at his house! Haha! I know--I can be sooo pathetic sometimes! I was so excited to go back on Saturday, even though it was weird walking in and NOT being able to throw my coat and purse in the guest room, because it was being occupied by Joel's roommate, Tyler, not us girls!  I felt slightly lost. haha.
But not for long, because the dishes needed washed and the kitchen was a wreck. *sigh* yes, i cleaned the kitchen while all the other youth were playing soccer and swinging on the swings. I wasn't dressed to play outside.
Saturday night we went swing dancing! I'm glad I decided to go, much much more fun than the last time I went!! It was sorta beyond words fun. :)


Sunday I went to Pastor Robinson's church in Westminister Md. African church I call it. :) And do they know how to dance! Even makes me jealous.  The speaker was from Zambia Africa, and wow, such a man of God! Church went from 6:30-11:15pm! I don't even know where to begin with the message. It was amazing, but now leaves me with so many questions and wondering where I  really am. UGH! Sometimes I hate my life! The main things I remember are the verse in 1 Peter 1:13- "Therefore prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled set your hope fully on the grace to be given  you when Jesus Christ is revealed. "  The phrase "prepare your minds for action" has been in my head all week. Our minds are a battlefield. We have to fight through all the things of man and the distractions and...well you know what I'm talking about. The challenge to prepare your mind for action has got me thinking...how much am I cultivating my mind with the things of God? So that I'm prepared for action when the battles come? 


The preacher also talked about how there are 3 kinds of relationships:
1-One time meetings.
2- Seasonal meetings.
3. Lifetime.


There are people in our lives God brings in as one time things, like a special speaker etc.
There are people who can be in our lives for a season, then they or we move on.
And there are people who are in our lives for a lifetime. 
  In my sometimes over thinking mind I started going through all the relationships I have and which ones might be which. So dumb I know! 

So that's everything I had in my mind when I went to the Van Kampens this week. And the adventures started. We have a dog this week! Rasko is his name, but I don't know if that's how it's spelled. Anyway, nicest dog ever! Princess the kitty hates him. So funny to watch her go crazy when she sees him! I like taking him out for walks, but sadly was unprepared shoe wise. Sneakers are good for dog walking. :) We really have no problems with him! 
    
Wednesday night, we skipped out on church to have a girls night at Panera with our Irish friend Sarah! So much fun just relaxing! That's one thing I miss....girls nights! So we're having more of them! Next week an ELF date at Kayla's apartment!  
  Thursday evening I began a new adventure. The painting of slate! Sara was working on an art show, painting on pieces of slate from someones roof. I myself do not have any of the artistic ability she has, but I still wanted to paint some slate because it's probably a once in a lifetime experience! I thought about it all day long, while we house cleaned the family room. What should I paint? What did I want to convey through my picture. Perfectionist at work here. I ended up painting a snowman. haha. I also painted a somewhat prophetic picture of fire and water, symbolizing the cleansing and refining that happens in a persons life when they accept Jesus.  Painting is so much fun!
During my painting break, I watched Dan fix the dishwasher! Oh, did it ever bring back memories of chilling with my daddy when he fixed cars and whatever else we broke! 


As this week comes to a close, I'm looking ahead to the month of December and realizing...it's so packed already! Thus begins the snowboarding season, christmas season, winter season, and whatever other season you want to add. I wonder where I'll go, what I'll do, and most importantly what God will teach me.......


God Bless.
♥