Hey gurl.

So I lied, my birthday is on wednesday.
We'll be eating at Nick's on saturday night,
and Shelby is making me a cheesecake.

Last Saturday night we went to Bella's.
Or you could say we took a big trip to "Walmart".
Anyways, we watched the Proposal,
but Nathan, Hannah, Zach Apple, and I decided to leave like an hour earlier then everyone else. Somehow we got really lost in Tyler Texas and got back half an hour later then everyone else. Whoops..

Yesterday I had a really long talk with Shelby about life. I love that girl so much and she has helped me through alot these days. She is such an interesting person.
We both decided that we're scared to run at night because wild boars might chase us. Let me tell you, they are alive and well and WILL chase you around the base. I thought this was all a joke but it really isn't.

The weather is freezing again. Fanfreakingtastic.

We start a new topic today. But I don't know what it is.

Pretty much it's really hot.

This weather is possessed. More then El Paso.

The past two days have been pretty uneventful.
Yesterday was all base work day and I cleaned out gutters for five hours.
It wasn't that bad, just climbing on roofs and getting mud thrown on your face.
Half of my DTS had to actually get in the water and go "Cat tailing" where they get out all the bushes and plants growing in the lakes.
20 people+ freezing weather + Machetes = scary.

I got really homesick yesterday and a little today. I think it's just starting
to hit me that I'll be here for a long time.

We watched Kung Fu Panda and Reign of Fire last night.
Reign of fire was awful because I kept falling asleep and Nathan would tap me
and i would wake up to Dragons blowing fire on people. It wasn't so fun.

Today has been pretty relaxing honestly. I hate saturdays though because they have
brunch at ten, and by lunch time I'm already really hungry. It sucks.
Tonight we're going to this chic Bella's house I think.. Should be nice to get off the base.

I'm pretty excited about my birthday on Sunday.

Now I'm just sitting at the Sub, no one is here, and I'm in
awe of Chris's espresso making skills.
I wonder if I smell like coffee and popcorn everyday because of this. Thank
goodness for Marc Jacob's Daisy coming in!

Meet some of my school.

http://www.ywamtyler.org/index.php/videocast012.html

=D

New white dress.

We talked about sex, lust, and purity yesterday.
During the morning class, I'll be honest, I was not okay.
For some reason I was really upset and uncomfortable during class.
I felt complete conviction but complete condemnation at the same time.
I couldn't go to lunch because I just needed to pray,
so I did.

I got convicted of just modesty issues and leading other guys into
lustful situations. Sometimes I didn't know that I would but sometimes
I really did know.
I guess people had always told me not to make guys "stumble" or whatever
but for some reason it all the sudden made sense to me.
After repenting over that and a few other things, I felt alot better.

Kyle and I made some brownies.. they were really tasty.

Then last night we had a ministry time about this week and praying for
purity and praying for struggles.
I didn't necessarily feel that I had to repent anymore, but again, I felt
condemned and not worthy for the future.
So I prayed with Leah. Man, Jesus knows what He is doing when He puts you
with small group leaders. She was able to pray for me, listen to me, and counsel me.
I gained this confidence, I guess you could call it, that God will help take care of me. That I don't have to be and will not be the person I was. I realized I can be a woman after God if that is my desire and nothing has to hold me back from that.

I got to put on my new white dress and go dancing with Jesus.

Foundation lesson number three.. Purity.

Marriage is what brings us together...today.

We've been talking about relationships and marriage.
I've always just wanted to be married because in my mind it would have no problems.
Then my mind switched a couple months ago, and I didn't really want to get married soon because
alot of problems do happen.
Nonetheless, I love marriage again.

For one, I just like this verse:
Ezekial 16:
Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign LORD, and you became mine.
" 'I bathed you with water and washed the blood from you and put ointments on you.
I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put leather sandals on you. I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments.
I adorned you with jewelry: I put bracelets on your arms and a necklace around your neck, and I put a ring on your nose, earrings on your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. So you were adorned with gold and silver; your clothes were of fine linen and costly fabric and embroidered cloth. Your food was fine flour, honey and olive oil. You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen. And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign LORD.

Hooray for nose rings and looking pretty.

I learned to not put up false expectations. I guess that's one thing I always thought of.. I always expected marriage to be perfect and I guess lately I expected it to be full of problems. Then we talked about the differences between guys and girls and all that stuff. It was just interesting.

Oh.. Some interesting facts.

1/30 couples who worship together and go to church together divorce.

1/300 couples who pray together daily get divorced.

1/3900 couples who go to church together, pray together daily, are real Christians, and do premarital counseling, divorce.

Obviously we need God in our relationships.

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We had prayer time in the chapel yesterday as well. God gave me this verse in Isaiah 42.

"Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him
and he will bring justice to the nations.

² He will not shout or cry out,
or raise his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;

⁴ he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.
In his law the islands will put their hope."

This is what God the LORD says—
he who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it,
who gives breath to its people,
and life to those who walk on it:
"I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness;
I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles,

to open eyes that are blind,
to free captives from prison
and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

That spoke pretty loud and clear with me about my calling.

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I love my small group. We're all completely different people but it's fantastic. Leah, Allie, and Katy are the funniest people i've ever met.

And for other news, there were birds in our chimney and on our posts in the girls lobby that kept dive bombing at girls as they would walk into the bathroom. Not gonna lie, it was pretty fantastic.

The past few days.

Sorry I haven't written. I really just haven't had the time.

My weekend was really good. I went shopping and bought a pair of jeans, two shirts, a dress, and a scarf for 23 dollars. Fabulous. The mall is one story and I can run across it in like 5 minutes but that's okay. It was the most exciting thing ever to get out off the base.
We watched aladdin on saturday night. hooray.

On Sunday night we had some very special visitors from China. I'm not allowed to say names, but it was so phenomenal I cried. We had to sing in a choir for them, and that was pretty fantastic.

Lets see..
This week we're talking about relationships. I'm pretty excited especially because Elaine Allegretto is speaking. It's going to be good.
Last night was creative offering, which is a night that we offer any talent or gifting we have to God. So i played my piano song and no one had heard me yet. I was really nervous and messed up alot but everyone loved it. My school is so talented with singing its ridiculous.
I'm really tired all the time. I have slept through breakfast about four times now and I'm running out of breakfast food... whoops. And last night I dreamed about zombies and it freaked me out really bad.

Oh well. I'll post more about what ministry stuff happens this week later.

I miss everyone at home so much.

Just some pictures.

Meet Nathan, the guy who has changed my view about the rest of the guys in the world.
Meet Leah, the girl who has brought me through this past week.
Meet Hannah and Shelby, the best girls ever.