I'm going to CHINA!!

The title says it all, but I suppose I should explain! Yes, I'm going to China (!!!) on a missions trip. I found out about it over a month ago (February 12th if you want to get specific :) applied immediately, paid the $300 deposit fee, and then the wait began. It said I would hear back by March 18th. I was so excited at first, telling everyone, then after a week or so I couldn't bring myself to talk about it. I started to doubt I would ever be accepted, and didn't want to go through the process of people asking about it me having to say "Oh... I didn't get accepted" So basically I pretended I never applied, or that I'd forgotten about it. Not so. It was on my mind every single day. Well, to make a long(er) story shorter, yesterday, the day they said I would hear back by, I received the letter. I was starting to think it would never come, but at 6pm, I checked my JUNK mail, and saw the subject title 'Show Hope China 2009' and thought I would have a panic attack. I opened it, quickly scanned to see the accepted/denied part, and saw

 "I am thrilled to let you know that you have been selected as one of the team members for this summer’s trip."  

WOW. I was shocked, near tears, and frantically tried to call my mom, who didn't answer since she was out eating supper with her sisters. Thankfully my brother David was home also, so I at least had someone to tell. 

As far as details go, the trip is through an organization called Show Hope, started by the singer Steven Curtis Chapman and his family. They started it when they adopted their first Chinese daughter, and are very hands on and dedicated to it. They built an orphanage called Maria's Big House of Hope (named after their daughter that tragically pass away last year) in the town of Luoyang, China, located in the Henan province. That is where the missions team will be, working with those orphans. That is was first drew my attention to this trip. I've ALWAYS wanted to go on a missions trip, always. All of the missions trips I heard about, though, consisted of people going up to random people on the streets. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, it's just not my thing. Babies and children on the other hand..  :) I keep thinking of holding this sweet, precious, little chinese baby, that no one wants to adopt, and the thought breaks my heart, yet makes me long to just get over there. The trip is August 1st-15th. Those are all the details I have as of now, she (Emily Chapman, she's in charge of this all and who I got the acceptance letter from) said she will be sending more details soon. I already have my passport, still need to get a Visa (not even sure what one is!) and of course, get money. I'm a little nervous about that part, the money aspect of the whole thing. The trip costs $3,000, plus the cost of a visa and the flight to and from Newark, NJ (we depart for China from there) I'm reminding myself God is in control. I'm certain that God wanted this for me, I could have easily not gotten accepted (I'm sure a LOT of people applied, it's a popular organization!) yet, for some crazy reason, I did. I made it. That thought blows me away. After over a year of trying to find so many things to do, applying to college, then not going, the whole Kenya thing I was looking into, and now this actually WORKS. It never ceases to amaze me that God knows the desires of our heart, and He actually cares enough to let truly amazing things happen. 

I bet not all youth groups get to do THIS stuff!

My youth group is continuing to grow and expand under our new youth pastor Nick. It's been really fun to see things change and we've also been doing so much more things as a youth group. This past week a fitness class just started for the girls in the youth group. I was so curious and excited to see what it would be like. My friend's mom is a certified personal trainer and offered to teach the class for FREE! So, this past Tuesday, at 4:30, I arrived at the church not knowing what to expect. Once I got there, I was told we were going to be doing yoga, "Yoga??" I thought" "In a church??!" But it turned out to be really neat & fun. The teacher (Pam) read a verse that was going to be the verse for this session. She would repeat it throughout the class. There was also mellow worship music playing in the background. Instead of the weird eastern religion type of yoga, she turned it all towards God. I had a hard time with the complete silence and her soft voice talking us through everything. I had to try so hard to not laugh, I can only handle seriousness and silence for so long. I felt so much better afterwards, so relaxed and peaceful, which is just what I need. We're going to be holding these classes every Tuesday & Thursday. Thursday's class will be more of a cardio workout though. I'm really excited!

Also, our youth group has played 'broomball' three times this winter ( we used to play it once a year, if that ) Broomball is just like hockey, except you just wear your shoes, and instead of a hockey stick and a puck, you have a broom and a ball. We played it last night for youth group. It was very fun but SO COLD! Thankfully a 'warming house' was only feet off the ice, I went in there frequently! Kyle, myself, Alex, and Hailey aka "KKAH" (mentioned in previous posts) somehow got all on the same team, we were quite happy :) We always have so much fun and laugh SO much ( I would say TOO much but is there such a thing as too much laughter?!...probably:) We get along so well and like I've said before, I'm very thankful I have them. Someone took this picture of us with the remains of broken brooms (I didn't say broomball was necessarily safe..) 

Ignite youth conference & a free concert!

This past Sunday and Monday (February 15th and 16th) I went to a winter youth retreat, called Ignite, in Beulah, ND (about 2 hrs away). I hadn't planned on going as there was a limit of the amount of people our youth group could take. I didn't want to take a younger persons' spot. That sunday in church everyone was talking about it and I started to wish I was going. Turns out some people weren't able to go so I got to be the fill in! It was a really nice retreat, just what I needed. About 100 students from all over North Dakota were there. I saw some old friends and made some new ones, and also was able to bond more with my youth group. We got there Sunday night and then went to the church for the opening service. The speaker was a lady I've known for years. She did a very good job and I learned a lot. Worship and altar times are always really good at these types of things. Just something about being surrounded by people your age that are all passionate about their faith. My children's pastor (Shannon) prayed with me and spoke some things that I needed to hear and be encouraged on, so that was really cool.

 The next day we went to 4 different workshops. They were fun and put certain common subjects into a different perspective. Then we had another general service, like the one before. The speaker said she was going to do something she'd never done before in her _ years of ministry. She gave us all blindfolds and told the chaperones and youth leaders to go to every student, help them put the blindfolds on, anoint them with anointing oil, and say 'Fix your eyes on Jesus' at this time a band was leading out in worship and we were just supposed to pray, worship, do whatever we needed to focus on Jesus. The point of the blindfolds was to 'blind' us from everything around us. We wouldn't be able to look at the others around us - it was just us a Jesus. Here are some pictures a youth leader took.

 

 

This might all sound a bit crazy but hey, us Assembly of God people don't do things very conservatively :) and as odd as it may sound, in these kind of services, with spontaneous prophecies, outspoken worship, and whatever other wild thing, is where I'm most comfortable.

We left that afternoon and headed to New Town, where a FREE christian concert was being held. The bands were Stellar Kart, Disciple, and Kutless. I have seen these bands multiple times and have met them all as well so it was cool to see them in concert again. I only had my cellphone with me, no camera, but this is a picture I snapped of the lead singer of Kutless.

 

Fun times of being an aunt.

When family comes to visit, other family is always over, so.. lots of kids are around! They found a new place to play - under the staircase. I wanted to see if I could fit too and I did :) Boy are they lucky to have an aunt that is only 5' 2"

 

 

 

I've been playing the role of Lily's 'dentist' pulling out her loose teeth whenever she gets one. So far I've pulled out 2, or maybe it's 3. After playing under the staircase, she wanted me to work on pulling out yet another loose tooth. After a half an hr of wiggling it around, we figured it wasn't quite loose enough. So we took pictures instead :)

  

 

 

 

The adventures of K.K.A.H.

If you remember the 'KKAHMEL' group from my youth convention post, KKAH is the new (minused) version of that same group. Not that we kicked people out, the other people basically just dropped out of the picture. Plus, kkah got along much better :) KKAH is comprised of K-Kyle (the blonde one) K-Karmen (me, obviously) A-Alex (brown haired guy) and H-Hailey (the other girl) I've known Kyle since I was 13, Alex and I have been friends for about 2 years, and Hailey just moved here this summer. We all get along really well and we've had some fun times. I've very thankful I have them. These pictures are all from a day in January when they came over to my house to make banana's foster and hang out till we went to youth group. We had some fun on 'Photo Booth' on the Mac, if you can't tell.