Christmas: Christ is the reason for the season!

Well, here it is again. My favorite time of the year! Christmas :) The music, the lights, the presents, the get togethers, the food, the decorations, the laughter, the cookies, the caroling, the baking, the family time; all of it I just adore. It really is the best time of the year.  The spirit of Christmas is just breathtaking; this is probably the one time of year that everyone really is celebrating together, though some don't really understand what they are celebrating.
To some, Christmas means what I had stated before: food, fun and family. Those aren't bad, not at all! I look forward to each of those each year. But I must say that I get in the habit of stopping there. However, there is so much more to the holiday! It's not about the lights, the get togethers or the gifts but I think each one of those reprsents a part of the true Christmas story.
See, Christmas is exactly what is says: CHRISTmas. It's about Christ! He came as a little baby....wait...what? You know this already? Oh! Right, I forgot you all have a nativity set. Well just look at it for a second. Yes, seriously, just go and look. Do you really know and appreciate what it represents? Go and listen to "How Many Kings" by Downhere. Now go and look at baby Jesus in the manger. Give you a greater appreciation? It should!
Christ came to earth. Stop there for a second. If we were in Heaven would we want to come to earth? I know I wouldn't! I would never want to leave a perfect, holy and glorious place for a dead, sick, dying, hopeless, forlorn and violent world. Especially when I knew that I would be beaten, ridiculed and eventually put to death. I would never had done that! But guess what? Someone did. That's right: Christ did. He came to live so eventually He could die. Why? For you and me :) If we wanted to live in Heaven we would have to be perfect. Obviously we aren't, so we deserve death and eternal separation from God in a place called Hades or Hell. But that's why Christ came. He came to this earth to eventually die and take the punishment that we deserved. If we would only place our trust in him completely we could have something even better to celebrate this Christmas than forgetting our diet for a few days: we could spend eternity in Heaven with Him!
So that is why we celebrate this amazing holiday: Because He came as a little baby to this world :)
Now don't get me wrong, I love the lights, the get togethers and the gifts! But I think if we take a closer look, we could make those even more special. The lights represent the Light of the World that came to this world and the star that led the shepards to the stable where Jesus was born. The get togethers represent all those (the shepards and wise men) who got together to bring gifts and praise our Lord. And the gifts really represent the greatest gift of all: Jesus himself :)
So this Christmas I hope you all are blessed with good weather, great food, fun family times and most of all I hope you all remember the true meaning of Christmas :) Thank God for all the blessings that He has given you., for we are really blessed beyond measure.
Merry Christmas to all, and have a blessed New Year :)

"How many kings step down from their thrones?
How many lords have abandoned their homes?
How many greats have become the least for me?
And how many gods have poured out their hearts
To romance a world that is torn all apart
How many fathers gave up their sons for me?

All for me...
All for you..."

Merry Chirstmas <3

Beautiful in His eyes

All girls, at some point in their life, dream of being beautiful. Our culture now a days focuses so much time, energy and money into products, treatments and clothes that make us "perfect". Stylish clothes, makeup, jewelry, creams, lotions, dyes, waxes, gels, purses, hats, etc flood stores shelves. We have all probably played with a Barbie doll. She is the image of "perfect"! Tall, blond, is good at everything, has tons of friends and even has a cute boyfriend. Many girls go through life trying to be pleasers. They want to make friends to feel important so they go through life striving to always please someone so that they feel like they are wanted. All girls do this! I think God put a desire to be loved in all of us. The problem? Girls often look to things other than God Himself to fulfill this desire. Instead of Christ we choose clothes. Instead of Jesus we choose jewelry. (Here comes the big one!) Instead of God we choose guys.  Yep, we all have done it.
Did you realize though, that there is a guy that loves you unconditionally? That knows you more intimately than you even know yourself? That wants to spend time with you daily? Why? Because He's the one that made you!
Think of it this way: God didn't send Jesus to die on the cross because He needs us. He's God! He can do what He wants! He's the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Almighty, All Powerful, Lord of lords and King of kings! He doesn't need us, but He sent His only son, Christ, to die for us because He wants us. Have you thought of it that way? Christ died so that we could live eternally with Him, so that we could bring glory to God and that we could bring the saving knowledge of God to the world. Yes, He could have done these things without us, but instead He chose us. We are wanted by the maker of the world, the only one that can love us unconditionally, the only one that will love us perfectly and will always stay with us when we fail Him.
Girls, we may not be loved by people on this earth. Maybe you come from a broken home, a father who is never or was never there. A mother who never learned to love others. Brothers or sister that don't know how to have a relationship with you or that are always looking down on you. Maybe you don't have many friends or are not popular. Maybe you get teased because you don't look pretty enough in their eyes or maybe because you can't fit into the right pair of jeans. Maybe you don't have any guys that look to you like you are important enough to talk to. Well you know what? We have the perfect man reaching out to us. Even when we fail, when we aren't perfect enough, when we miss the mark. Christ loves us more than we could ever know. He longs for a relationship with us, He wants us to feel His unconditional love. He is perfect! A perfect man thinks we are beautiful no matter if we fit into a size two or twenty-two! He not only reaches for us, but He died for us. I think all girls dream of a man who would lay down his life for her. To show his love for her in some way or another. Well look no further, girls! He is right here with His peirced side and crushed hands and feet knocking at our door and opening up His arms to us. You are loved. You are adored. You are wanted. You are beautiful. And The Lord of heaven and earth has told you so! He loves you. You are loved. Don't ever think you are not! No matter what the world says, thinks or does, never forget that the One who will love you unconditionally, who will always be ready to take us back into His arms when we come back from some other relationship trying to be fulfilled when we can only really be fulfilled by the One who gave us the desires in the first place. He is the only one that can truly satisfy us and He is at your door waiting for you to open it and fall into His ever loving arms.
In His eyes we are beautiful and He wants to have a personal relationship with each and every one of us. <3
So how are some ways that we can remember that God think we are beautiful? Well, songs are a great way! Make sure you always listen to songs that glorify God in their lyrics. Here are some of my favorites that I like to listen to when I need a reminder that God thinks I'm special, beautiful and someone whom He loves:

"Voice of Truth" by Casting Crowns

"You Loved Me Anyway" by Sidewalk Prophets

"Someone’s Work of Art" by Sixteen Cities

"You Loved Me First" by Mikeschair

"Gold" by Britt Nicole

"Life is Beautiful" by The Afters

"Know That You are Loved" by Sidewalk Prophets

"A Beautiful Life" by Mikeschair

"Beloved" by Tenth Avenue North

"Someone Worth Dying For" by Mikeschair

 

Not only are songs a great reminder but make sure that you always go to God Himself! Here are some of my favorite verses too that remind me how much I'm loved:

Phillipians 4:13 “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

Psalm 139:14 “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works; my soul knows it very well.”

Zephaniah 3:17 “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by His love; He will exult over you with loud singing.”

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

1 John 4:19 “We love Him because He first loved us”

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

1 Peter 3:3-4 “Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty that depends on fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should be known for the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.”

Proverbs 31:30  “Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised.”

Romans 5:8 “but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

1 Chronicles 16:34“Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever.”

Psalm 13:5“But I trust in Your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in Your salvation.”

Psalm 86:5“You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to You.”

You are loved. Christ died for you! Never forget that <3

New York Missions Trip 2012

New York. Never in a million years would I have thought that I would have the opportunity to go to Long Island New York for a missions trip.

This past year we have gotten an amazing new pastor at our church. It has been such a joy to have him and his awesome family become the leaders of Grace Baptist Church. Apparently at their last church they had gone and helped this church over in New York with their day camp. Well when they came to Grace they brought that opportunity! Months ago we were planning, getting interviewed and having training classes so that when the last week of July came, we would be prepared. After months of classes, car washes, letters being sent and more fundraisers the time finally came: We were headed to NY! There was 18 teens and 8 adults altogether going on this trip.

All of us teens (minus one) the day we headed out!

Sunday came and we had an awesome time being able to sing for the church's morning service! First the entire Minnesota group sung How Deep The Father's Love For Us and then the teen girls sang an absolutely beautiful and powerful song called Jesus Thank You:

"Your blood as washed away my sin.

Jesus, thank you.

The Father's wrath completely satisfied.

Jesus, thank you.

Once Your enemy, now seated at Your table,

Jesus, thank you!"

That day we just hung out in our rooms and what was called the "Eagles Room" which was a room for the oldest kids of the day camp. That room was equipped with a wii, ping-pong table, nice couches, lots of chairs, pool table, Foosball table, pinball machine and lots of floor space to play serious games of Dutch Blitz!

The next day was when our work really started. The day camp was under way! Let me walk you through a typical day...

9:00 sign in

Parents of the kids would come and sign their kids in. This was a great opportunity to really see the families of some of the kids, and we also made it our goal by the second day to be able to go up to the kids and already have the pen ready for the parents to sign, instead of having the parents having to come to us. That just showed them that we really knew who our kids were and that they weren't just a name on the clipboard, but we knew who they were in person too.

9:15 Welcome, prayer and pledge

This was the time where all the kids were signed in and they were playing where they wanted: four-square, playground or anywhere really on the grounds. After the whistle was blown, the teams would line up and head to the front lawn, where the American flag was proudly centered. The teams would honor the flag with the pledge, bow their head in reverence when the prayer was being said and get ready for the day.

9:30 counselor game time

This was the time where us counselors got the chance to make up a game and to play it with our kids. Most of the time it ended up being free time ;) But there were a few days where we went down to the gym or even played a serious game of TV-tag.

10:00 organized game time

Organized game time was the time where the camp usually had a game prepared for the teams to play. One such day was where we had a serious game of kickball. Let's just say that most of the kids had no idea what was going on, some of the girls didn't want to play, and most of the guys took it very seriously! ;) Then what we did was have the campers vs. the counselors......the poor campers could hardly get to second base! So after quite a few outs we went easy on them a little bit so by the end they had scored a few points. :) Then the counselors were at "bat". And most of the MN counselors are soccer players...I didn't know you could kick a kickball that hard! But by the end we pretty much ran out of time so we just said we tie 67-67! ;)

10:30 free time

Now when we say "free time" we mean the campers can play where they want (within reason!). For our team, the blue team, that always meant a mad dash to the four-square. Ok, to the horror of some of you, I will say that I had never played four-square in my life!  I (honestly!) thought you were just suppose to hit a ball into a square....little did I know that there is SSSOOO much more to it. Do the words Snake Eyes, Watermelon, Chicken Body, Roley-Poley, Fair Game, Ace Calls It, Double-Touch or Spins mean any thing to you? Yah, they didn't to me either ;) It's to hard to explain the game to you over a blog, but just know that four-square is a hard, fun and addicting game! Those kids in NY took the game very seriously and it really showed! They were good! A few times when it got to be a heated argument of whether or not it was out, one of us counselors had to step in and say, "Counselor calls it! Just redo it!" I felt like I had so much power ;)

11:00 1st counselor time

Now, the 1st counselor time was really a time to work on our cheer...Wait, I haven't told you about the cheers yet? Well, Let me explain :) By the end of the week every team was suppose to come up with some type of cheer that they were to do in front of the rest of the groups. Some took a basketball or football cheer and stuck their color in, some (the Eagle girls, who are the oldest girls' group) even took the very famous song Call Me Maybe and completely changed the words and sung that! But most just did an acronym with their team color. And that's also what we did!

B! Cause we are the Best

L! Cause we love the Lord

U! Cause we are United

E! Cause we are Excited

So we shouted that and added some clapping things and there you have it!  We must have done pretty well because we got second! :)

11:30 craft time

I loved craft time! Not only was it a great excuse to go inside to the air-conditioning, but we also got to make lanyards, color, do tie-dye and do puzzles with our campers. My favorite memory from craft time was when all my campers were happy coloring except this one boy. Apparently he didn't want to color, so I sat down next to him and asked what he wanted to do. He didn't know. My brain was going crazy trying to figure out what he could do...then it hit me! I would show him how to play Dots and Boxes! By the end I got that cute smile back on his face and he was having a blast trying to beat me at it. Then another little boy joined in and everyone was happy :)

12:00 lunch

This was that time where all the kids got their lunch and headed to sit somewhere on the grounds. Of course the blue team took over the four-square ;) This is also when the counselors could also take turns and head inside to get our lunch as well. I would like to take a minute to thank all the people who made our lunches! They were absolutely amazing everyday and even some of the kids wanted to trade lunches with me ;)

1:00 song time

After an hour lunch (which ended up being 15 minutes of eating and 45 minutes of four-square...) we headed inside for song time. This was a great time to cool off, sing praises to our Lord and act crazy! Some of the songs I learned over there were just different versions of ones that I already knew. I will definitely be singing these for future AHG meetings, Bible schools and youth groups! It was great to see the kids excited to sing praises to the Lord. Some of the songs were wild and crazy, but some of them were really soft and touching songs. It almost brought tears to my eyes as we sang some of them. All those voices praise God...it really doesn't get any better than that.

1:30 Bible time

Now this is where our job really started. Those teens that had taught at our Vacation Bible School also got to teach here. The lessons those five days walked through the Gospel message from start to finish:

Lesson one: God created everything. It was perfect. God loved His creation.

Lesson two: We wanted to be like God. We obviously can't be and we messed everything up by bringing sin (and thus death) into the world.

Lesson three: In the OT (Old Testament) people brought a perfect male lamb to the temple, laid there hand on it's head (showing that the man's sin was being put on the lamb) and then bringing the lamb to a special place of death, the alter (because the lamb now had the man's sin, it had to die because death is the penalty for sin).

Lesson four: God was going to bring a savior into the world to save us from our sins. Jesus! He came as a boy, was perfect, was wholly God and also fully man.

Lesson five: Jesus was/is our lamb. He was a male, He was perfect, He was brought to a special place of death (the cross) and He died in our place. The third day He rose again and is at the right hand of God even as we speak :) If we trust Him, and Him alone as our savior, if we believe He was who He said He was, that He died in our place and rose again, and that we can't get to Heaven on our own, but only by Jesus Christ, we can be saved!!!

2:00 2nd counselor time

This was an awesome time! We got our groups together and talked about the lesson we had just heard. Many awesome questions came out (about what B.C. means, if God can control the weather, etc.) and we also asked the kids questions too about the lesson to make sure they were really understanding what we were teaching. We also got to share our testimonies, which was an absolute blast to share with these kids what God has done in our lives. And then to top it all off we talked about how they could get saved as well! If they had any questions, we said that they could come find us and talk. Well, in was in this time that I had the amazing opportunity to talk to two girls, walk them through the Gospel, show them how they could be saved and then asked if they wanted to. And thus two girls were added to the family of God!!! :D Altogether eight kids got saved that week and many, many more seeds were planted.

Well, that was the end of the day camp. The parents came, we had a leader meeting, cleaned up and went back up to our rooms. It was an awesome time of getting to know the kids (there likes, dislikes, individual personalities, and where they were spiritually), there families and also the others counselors a little better too.

Our evening were also a time to look forward to! Going into NYC, heading to a wonderful beach, walking to an awesome Italian ice place, eating tons of food, walking around a cute little town (and having fun in the stores too!), and many more things were times that we made many awesome memories as well! Since pictures are suppose to speak a thousand words, I'll let them do the talking! ;)

Confused? Yah, so were we...;)

My first experience with Italian Ice. I am officially hooked!
It was amazingly fresh, delicious and filling!

Had a great opportunity to go to an amazing, and authentic, Italian restaurant.
This was the first course: this beautiful tomato salad

Tried calamari for the first time! Can't say I'm hooked....but it was good!
(if you got past the fact that you were eating squid.......)

The beach was beautiful! The clouds were breath-taking and the water was gorgeous too!

I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but once you got
into the water you really felt the power the current and waves had.

Times Square!!!

Apparently this is the official building of ABC news....I don't really
watch the news much, but it was cool to see the building! ;)

Trees in NYC?! I had to take a picture! lol ;)

There was such beautiful architecture on so many of the buildings
in down town NYC.

Grand Central Station! :)

There was an Apple store in Grand Central Station!!! Yah, my thoughts exactly!
But I thought this picture was a cool mix of old and new :)

The famous clock :)

We also had a great time riding on the subway!

This was probably my favorite thing that we got to do: go up on a
forty-two story building! The views were breath-taking! <3

Looking down onto Times Square :)

Beautiful <3

There were tons of cute and quaint things in these little stores.
We had tons of fun going through them :)

I don't know why, but I thought this was really funny! ;)

No day was complete without a stop at at least one Starbucks!

Eight days, eight new members of the family of God and tons of memories later, our trip was over. It was such an amazing opportunity and trip. I shall never forget the smiles on the kids faces, the times we had the chance to share the Gospel and the many friendships we made.

I would tell you about our traveling experiences...but let's just keep it at this: after two delays and two cancelations we finally got home, with these awesome memories still fresh in our mind :)

Bethany: An amazing sister-in-Christ

It is an awesome feeling to know that you have a sister-in-Christ who lives over a thousand miles away!

Bethany has been my pen-pal for over three years. Paired up in American Heritage Girls by their amazing pen-pal program, we already had some things in common. But after a few letters, we realized that we were more alike then we had hoped! Both of us were homeschooled, played basketball, loved theatre, had other sibling (she has a brother Daniel too!) and much more. But most importantly we are both Christians. No matter what else, we always had that in common.

This year we had an amazing opportunity to meet in person for the first time. I can't even begin to explain the feeling of seeing her in person for the first time. I don't think i have ever smiled that hard in a long, long time!

We hugged for a whole minute ;-)

That day we had a ton of fun taking her out to eat, going to a pool place (where we had a great adventure with a giant duck...but that is another story for another time :-) ) and showing her our Owatonna home.

The next day (Tuesday) I had a ton of friends over so she could meet some of the crazy people I talk about in my letters. We swam, did archery and laughed A LOT! She also showed us some dances that she does at home. I had a ton of fun learning but let's just say that I can't dance to save my life  ;-) But it also made me want to learn...so who knows, there may some dance classes in my future! There were also many games of Signs, Ninja and Lier involved that day.

That day we also made some treats for the next day. Coffee cookies and Puppy Chow were the two things that we made, but we hid the Puppy Chow so we could eat it all later.  

Coffee cookies <3

Wednesday was really fun because we had a family reunion! So Bethany got to meet tons of my family. It was a great day of just hanging out. Our family loves to hang out, talk and swim...and that's what we did! There were some serious games of pool volleyball (which I have gotten pretty good at!) and there was also a serious dispute of what real salsa should be. Apparently chopped tomatoes, onions and cilantro is not salsa, at least it's not according to Bethany. But she lives in New Mexico so I guess she would know ;-)

Our beautiful chalked hair :-)

Also, since in was the Fourth of July, we shot off a few fireworks in the cul-de-sac and then we went to watch the big fireworks. We also took chalk and colored our hair...why?....why not!!!

Probably the best day of that week was Thursday. Bethany had never been to (nor heard of!) the Mall of America, so we had the great opportunity to take her! The first five minutes of her being in there were really funny, cause she was gasping at everything, pointing and taking pictures ;-)

We then went out to eat at my favorite restaurant: The Rainforest cafe. Bethany's favorite animal is a green tree frog, so you can imagine her excitement when she found all the stuff at the Rainforest with frogs on it!

What do you get when you give two girls three hours in the Mall of America??? Tons of pictures, laughs and memories ;-) We went to the bead store, where Bethany was having a blast digging through tons of beads while I was taking pictures. The Lego store was also fun, because we got to see the new LOTR legos! The Disney store was also great, because we got pictures of Pascal (my favorite character in Tangled) and also pictures of the Avengers. Whenever you get the chance you need to go to the Peep store. Not only is the store fun to go into because it's a store centered around sweets, but it also is so colorful and they have a ton of cute stuff in there. And of course we were drawn into a great basketball store, so we got pictures of tons on shoes ;-) Whenever you go to the Mall of America you have to go to at least one Claire's! I know we have one close, but it is such a fun store you just have to go in!!! And yes, we did buy stuff from there :-) There were so many other stores we went into I'll spare you a play-by-play but just know that we had a blast!

The next day was the last day Bethany would be in MN for her flight was that night. So we decided to give her a tour of humble little Owatonna and show her all the best spots. So we went to the best place to eat, Jimmy Johns, and the best place to get dessert, the Blast. After the tour of the best places to stuff your face, I took her to Grace/Owatonna Christian School, where we shot a few hoops, took a tour and where I reminisced about the play ;-) A quick stop at the lake completed our tour.

Thus completed our amazing week. Bethany, it was awesome having you. I will cherish these memories we have made for many, many years to come. And may we ever grow closer together as friends and as sisters-in-Christ. <3

Another AHG year here and gone

Well, another American Heritage Girls year was here and passed. And what a year it was! We had many new girls and of course many of the old faces :-)
I can't even begin to tell you what a difference AHG has made in my life. One of the main things it has helped me with is learn to lead! I've always been a natural born leader, but AHG has helped me take that God-given gift and turn it from being bossy into being a servant leader. Also it has helped me build my confidence. Starting as a 3rd grader and being pushed into a leadership position, AHG has helped me grow in my confidence of myself and my abilities. And lastly it has help me grow spiritually; especially this year. Spa Night was a Mother/Daughter night that I helped plan, and we taught the girls not only how to do their nails pretty and how to do facials, but also how to look at yourself as God sees you: A beautiful young woman of God. And we also talked about how true beauty is that of your inner self, and not the outward apperance (1 Peter 3:4). So that was one this that helped me grow spiritually, beause I was planning all that out I really had to evaluate myself and ask myself, "Do I believe what I'm teaching?" and if so "Does that appear in my life?". Another thing that helped me grow was getting my Spiritual Award. This included doing Bible studies, having an adult mentor and attending classes that helped you grow spiritualy.
So tonight was our end of the year ceremony. And what a ceremony it was! I don't know, but it might have been my favorite so far. :-) This year in AHG I was in charge of all the Flag Ceremonies for the year. And I had the great privilage of leading it for the End of The Year Ceremony too.

Flag ceremony!

Another fun part was that we got awarded our spiritual awards tonight too. So it was amazing to share this experience with Marta. She has been with me side-by-side through this whole AHG experience and it has been a joy to share it with her <3

You also gotta love hanging out afterwards! Cupcakes...getting these awesome cups....seeing tons of people....and I also got this awesome little swords letter opener that has Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword" engraved on it. What a good reminder!



Cupcakes!!!

Very sinister.......

Me and Grams :-)

Awesome cups from the Tverbergs!



The oldest AHG girls and their wonderful moms ;-)

What a great year it has been. From the father/daughter movie night, to doing tons of community service, to Bug Day Camp last summer, to mother/daughter spa night, to making a commercial for one of our badges, to even cleaning up after meetings: It has been a great year! And, God-willing, next year will be just as great as this year, and more girls will join this wonderful organization that is dedicated to building women of integrity that will soon grow to be beautiful young ladies that are dedicated to serving the Lord whole-heartedly <3