NIPTO, Day 143

“Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.” Martin Luther

This is a great quote. :) And I thought I would share it with you.

I just got done skyping with Anna. It was fantastic. She's funny. I like her.

Hannah was just talking to me... and I just heard "a hobo pig that turns into a man! Nightmares for yoou!!" ... uhm... wow.

Lets see. Today I made ice-cream pie. (And ate it later, it was good) Annnnd while I was making ice cream pie, I discovered that the plastic that was the cover on one of my pie crusts was cracked. So we took it back to Tarje and got a new one. The girl who did the exchanges was nice and was like, "Oh. Yeah. That's not good. Do you want to return it or exchange it?" So that was good.

So I made 2 ice cream pies. They were described in yesterday's post. Erm.... then I practiced piano a bit? I don't really remember what I did in the afternoon. OH! I finished my book that I was reading. And then I cleaned my room up a little bit. My beds are being bunked this weekend! I'm so excited to have a little bit of extra space in my room :)

Then I had my piano lesson. I got some good advice. Then I rushed home and grabbed the pies and a sandwich and then went to the Encounter62 game night. It was fun! They were playing "the lying game" when I got there. (BS... aka Bologna Sandwich) Guess who won? Our fearless youth leader, Brandon. Dur. =P Then we played Spoons. Annnd I got like, 3 in a row. And then I got out =P

Then we played POKER. (Don't you love the games we play at youth group game night?) I ended up winning poker too. We decided that the round we were playing next was going to be our last round. And so all of us went all in. And I just happened to have a pair of queens. And that won it. And I got everything. See?

I look super tan in this picture. I'm not that tan. But yes. I'm collecting my "pot" here :)

So that was fun. Then I came home and watched So You Think You Can Dance for about an hour. Then I skyped with Anna for over an hour. It was a good time.

Now it's time to do NIPTO and get ready for bed and then SLEEP. So. NIPTO TIME!

Acts 2:1-13

1When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.

Basically: PARTAY! Or something like that ;)


2Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

oooooo. Mysterious.



3They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

Uhm... SCARY.


4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

SWEET. Yet kinda strange. But they were all filled with the Holy Spirit... and that was something that was new at the time. And they all started speaking in different languages... as the Spirit enabled them. So it was all up to God and the Holy Spirit. Interesting.

5Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.

Soooo there were a bunch of Jewish people staying in Jerusalem. From every nation under heaven. That's a lot. It was a long time ago when things were more "localized," but still... that's a lot of people!
All of these people (who loved God and feared him) heard what was going on and a bunch of people formed a crowd because they were so confused. Everyone heard everyone else speaking in their language. The person listening could understand everyone. Crazy.


7Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs-we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" 12Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"

They should be "utterly amazed"! A bunch of people were speaking a ton of different languages! The cool thing is that they weren't just talking. They were declaring the wonders of God in each person's native language. How cool is that?! But they were confused. And they asked questions...


13Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine."

But some people just made fun of them and thought that they were drunk. NICE. Declaring the wonders of God while drunk? It's possible that they were drunk... on the Holy Spirit! =P


Okay. I'm going to go get ready for bed and then sleep. Although I do have some exciting news! For NIPTO we're starting to read Walking With God by John Eldredge. He's the Wild at Heart guy.
It should be fantastic! I might actually blog about this book ;) We'll see.
Alrighty. G'night blog reading people! You're awesome for putting up with me!
Much love,

VBS- Day 4 - Jesus was an elephant?

Hello readers! Last night was the last night of VBS. I was about to drop dead when I got home. Hence, I did not post. Lets see... My mom and I picked up Paige on the way there. When we got there I did a couple thing like looking over my schedule and looking over the reflection time.

Then we sang and stuff. I danced a TON! I love those songs. There will be a video at the end from the closing ceremony. It's special ;)
Captain K came out and did his thang. The story for the day was On The Road to Emmaus.
Brandon had been talking to Erin and me the other night about how hard it was to come up with simple ways to tell these stories. Soooo he found a YouTube video telling the story of The Road to Emmaus. And it's so special, I'm going to let you watch it! (This also explains the title of this post :)

"He's kickin it somewhere else" (or whatever the quote is) made me laugh. I'm sitting in the pew with my K-1 group, and I'm laughing. Stifling my laughter is more like it :)

After the opening stuff we went to our discovery "mission!" They tried to do the baking soda-vinegar thing, but the bag kept leaking. So we went outside and Alex set off smoke bombs and fireworks. The smoke bombs were pretty colors :)

The purple one was my favorite :) So pretty!

Then we went to our game.

 For the game, the kiddos had to go pick up a ball and bring it back to us. Each ball had a word taped on it. There was a paper that had the "key phrase" on it (one of the bible "boosters" (verses) or one of the praise phrases). Whoever matched both of the phrases on the papers with their balls won! The girls won that one though.

Goin' out to find the right words!

After our game we went inside to do music. Always a favorite time :)

Singing&dancing

Then we went to our snack. YUM. (During snack, Erin was inside getting her snack and we were both dancing to A-M-A-Z-I-N-G and... one of the other songs that I don't remember the name of! But it was fun :) I think the kids think we're crazy!)

Snackin'

After snack we went to crafts where the kids used up the rest of the craft supplies since we were the last class of the last day of the week. So that was kinda fun.

Getting their instructions from Ms. Sandy

After crafts we headed outside to see the rockets launch! For every Praise Phrase that the kids learned they launched a rocket. So that was fun :)

Captain K giving us the instructions/Praise Phrases

After we launched the rockets we headed back inside for more singing and dancing... and for the handing out of necklaces, candy, and glow in the dark stars!
It got kind of crazy. See?

This is probably one of my favorite pictures. So funny!

Singing and dancing some more!

And then it was over. Kids left and I ran after some of them to give them their papers and whatnot... But it wasn't over until I got a picture of Captain K looking epic. Ready?

Epicness. RIGHT THERE.

Yup. That was VBS. In a nutshell. A really big nutshell. It was a good time! We would just be finishing up our reflection time if it were still going on tonight!

AH! I almost forgot! I almost forgot the epicness that is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!! AH! But. I didn't. So: here it is!


I think I'm going to go hang out with my parents. Seeing as they're the ones who are here... my sisters have deserted me! or something like that ;)

VBS day 3-Sparklers!

Hello. I am, once again, exhausted. And it's not even 10:30.

VBS felt crazy and kind of short for me tonight. I got there a little bit late. But everything was okay. We went to our Games Mission first. We used the game that was supposed to go with the previous night when we did the story of the Women at the Well. They took styrofoam cups that had holes in the bottom (on purpose) and filled them with water and had to run to the other bucket to fill it before all the water ran out. According to Erin, our group was the one that got the wettest. Figures =P

See the watter dripping? All over them.

I think I get the meaning of the phrase "hearding cats made of jell-o" now. K-1 kids are crazy. And aren't very good at staying in a single-file line.

Thankfully they don't have to during music time! (A-M-A-Z-I-N-G is the song we're singing. Go look it up on YouTube)
L-R Katie, Marcy, Lillianne, Aubrey, Bella, Daniel, Alex P (blue), Alex B (red), Me.

(Cue going to bed and finishing in the morning!)
We went to snack after that. Then craft. I don't usually take pictures during those "missions" because I'm helping or occupying the kids.
After crafts we went to our Discovery time where they lit a BUNCH of sparklers. It was sweet. I have a video of it. So here it is :)

You can hear us talking about Magnesium from yesterday! haha

I also took a couple pictures. Here's one of them :)

This is Daniel. The only boy in our group who isn't an Alex! (Granted there are only 3 boys...)

Then, because we were done, we decided to roll down the hill a few times. I did it twice. I was very dizzy! And I got a grass stain on my pants but I think it came out :) It was all worth it!

Getting ready to roll down the hill! (I'm on the far left... ;)
From L-R: Me, Alex S, Alex B, Daniel, Lilliann, Aubrey, and Bella

After our Discovery "mission" we went back to our room to do our reflection time. That is when it's like trying to heard cats made of jello. It's really hard to get everyone to hold hands in a circle, then sit down so we're in a circle, then sit crisscross applesauce (indian style. Just a fun way to say it!). Sounds easy, right? WRONG. They flop once we get to that room. They know we're almost done and they're tired. It's 8:00. It's probably getting close to bed time for a coupel of them. And it can get frustrating. Especially when the Alexes are causing trouble by a) flopping or b) non-stop talking.
But we get there. And actually use all our time! So that's exciting :)

Tonight should be fun. It's the last night. I might have to take a nap/rest time this afternoon so I can be especially HYPE tonight! I want to take a lot of pictures and I want to be CRAZY! The kids think it's funny when I'm crazy. At least I hope they do... =P
There might be a post tonight... it might have to wait till tomorrow morning though!

VBS day two- Magnesium

Hello blog readers! I am exhaustified! Day 2 at VBS is over. And I am tired. Kindergartners and 1st graders can be crazy. But they're also pretty good. They're definitely cute.

I got to start out the evening by sitting in a box. It was pretty fun. I got to listen as everyone came in and as Brandon came in. Then I got to make the box move... to "trick" him into thinking that it was "Johnny" (The boy who got to Captain K's spaceship initially). It was fun. It was bright when he took the box off of me though =P

After the opening stuff we stayed in the sanctuary and did our songs. We sang Blast Off, A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, Jesus Loves Me, and a song that we had different parts. There was an "ooo" group, an "ahh" group, and a group that I don't remember what they said. But we did that until the end. It was pretty fun.

Then we went to snack. Trail-mix with purple kool-aid. We went around and said what our favorite toy was. (Mine was bubbles :) One of the girls said a naked barbie. I had to hide my laughter. We advised her to put clothes on it.

After snack was crafts! They made tambourines. Decorated them more precisely. (Those were transferred to the sanctuary to await our return!)
And then we had our "Discovery" time... aka science. Alex lit magnesium. It was cool. Since it was so cool, I took a video. And here it is!

Cool, huh? We're supposed to be like stars. It kind of looks like stars... We decided that we should be like magnesium. ;)(Hence the title of this post!) It was fun. We went over our Power Phrase for the day (I say: Our God is amazing! You say: Praise God!) aaaa lot in that class.

Then we went outside and played the star game. Basically taking balls (like ball-pit balls) and putting them in a big container in the center of a rectangle without getting tagged by the "Star Defenders."
Here are a couple pictures from that :)

Erin giving instructions

Ashley and Michael defending

Defending some more...

I'm in this pictures. Maroon shorts. Navy blue shirt. Yeah. That's me =P

After games we went upstairs for our reflection time. We told them to sit in a circle and everyone sat in a clump. It was not a circle. So we had to make a circle. See? Isn't it b-e-a-u-tiful?

Our circle. Me in the navy blue. To MY left: Landon, Aubrey, Bella, Lillianna (Lilli), Christy, Alex, Daniel, Alex.

Talking about what we learned today.

It was a fun day over all. I'm tired. Very tired. In fact, I'm going to go to bed now.

More VBS fun tomorrow!

Smiles and Laughter

That's all it took.

Paige and I were sitting outside on the driveway. I was playing guitar and we were both singing.

There's a Serbian family that lives next door. They have 4 daughters. The youngest two are probably 3 and 4...  Ana is 4, and Sophia is 3. I think.
They speak no English. But Paige, Katie and I had SOOO much fun playing with them just now!

It started with Paige playing peek-a-boo from far away with them. They would come to the edge of the driveway (on the opposite side) and then they would run away laughing and screaming.
Then they got closer... and they would strum my guitar a little bit. And then go push Paige.
Then Katie got home from soccer practice and came up and she brought bubbles with her. So we blew bubbles for quite a while. Then we got out the sidewalk chalk and drew for a while.
Then, before we knew it, it was 9 o'clock. And I had to go inside, so I took Ana up to her house. I told her sister to tell her that I had fun playing with her. She just nodded =P

It was so much fun! We couldn't talk to each other, but we could still communicate.
Thought I would tell you about it :)