This week has been very interesting. I haven't had a week quite like this one in such a long time - probably not since early teenage years. It's been filled with business, emotional ups & downs, hugs, worries & fears, stress, regret, and then some tears, etc.

What a positive way to start off this blog, eh? Sorry about that. On an extremely positive note: The Garcia's are back! Abuid, Binny, and Bernice had moved back home to us :D. I couldn't be happier. Although, I do wish Abe would have been able to stay in PR for the outreaches and drama's he started and planned. These three kids have such amazing potential and already they have shown me their talents and passions for ministry and outreach. It's phenomenal to have them back with us.

I finished reading my book a couple of days ago, so now I'm onto a new book. I want to be an author some day. Have I ever stated that on this blog? Probably. So, I tend to investigate around the genre I hope to some day monopolize... hehe. Teen novels! Not joking either, I'm actually going to write ridiculously good novels for teenagers, and they will be incredible and inspiring. So, I'm reading this teen novel (Christian, at that) and it's completely disappointing me. You can so clearly tell that the author is VERY MUCH separated from anything teenager at all. Teenagers in the novel talk and act like 40 year old. Annoying! To say the least. DO NOT READ the following book: Diary of a Teenage Girl Series, Kim #1: Just Ask. Yes okay, I bought for two main reasons - number one: the main character's name is Kim! Okay! Then number two: in the novel the characters go through the death of one of thier friends. Having some experience in the area of loosing someone, I thought I would see how a Christian author portrays that time for a teenager. Last night I finally got to the fourth-ish chapter where the girl has just died. I want to stop reading just because of the author's terrible job in portraying how suburban teenagers really talk and act BUT now I'm actually somewhat interested in the characters and how they handle this death. So, I think I will continue reading at least until I can't stand it anymore. Maybe it will turn out to be better than I thought.

The book I finished reading a couple of days ago was the third book in the Princess Diaries series. OKAY STOP LAUGHING! I'm "researching" because I'm going to write teen novels one day! Yeah, right, okay... anyways... The Princess Diaries series is GREAT. Mia is fourteen years old and is very mature in her writing, but not in her thought process. Her thought process is exactly what a 14 year old girl would think. THAT is an excellent author. Meg Cabot. I recommended. I'm going to find out if the fourth book is available yet. Cheerio.

I just looked online and there is freaking NINE of those Princess book! Haha. Yipee. This is the next one I'm getting - http://www.amazon.com/Princess-Diaries-IV-Waiting/dp/0061543640/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220663336&sr=1-1

Anyways, off to work again...

If we're being honest, love is something that many people truly never experience. I'm am an extremely fortunatle to have honestly experienced this in my past, in my present, and will even on greater levels in my future. And, since we're being honest I'd like to write today about how grateful I am to have found the man of my dreams. I thank God every day for you Clark.

 

I could do it all alone. I could definitley be in ministry alone - I've done it all my life and done it very well (especially last summer I would say with excellence). However, once you've experienced it with a partner you were meant to work with - when they are missing it just isn't the same. Once you've experienced how things should be it's much harder to go back to how things used to be even if you thought you were perfectly fine before.

 

Luckily, Clark returns on Tuesday. It's not that it's horribleness without him and I'm dying and not having a good time or something drastic like that... it's just that I am missing my partner. My soulmate. Most obviously I'm going to dislike doing even ordinary things without him. His company eases me and his mere presence makes all of the difference in the world. How extraordinary to feel this way towards another. I would have never thought it possible.

 

Just felt like being very honest. Sometimes it happens!

 

 

We were strangers,
starting out on a journey
Never dreaming
what we'd have to go through
Now here we are,
and I'm suddenly standing,
at the beginning with you

No one told me
I was going to find you,
Unexpected, what you did to my heart
When I lost hope
you were there to remind me
this is the start

(Chorus)

And life is a road
and I wanna to keep going
love is a river
I wanna keep flowing
life is a road
now and forever
wonderful journey

I'll be there when the world stops turning
I'll be there when the storm is through
in the end I wanna be standing
at the beginning with you

I knew there was somebody somewhere
Let me love in the dark
Now I know my dream will live on
I've been waiting so long
Nothings gonna tear us apart

We were strangers on a crazy adventure
Never dreamin' how our dreams would come true
Now here we stand unafraid of the future
At the beginning with you

Knew there was somebody somewhere
Help me along in the dark

Now I know my dreams will live on
I've been waiting too long
Nothings gonna tear us apart.

"Oh Happy Day, happy DAY. You washed my sins away."

Today is Wednesday - meaning I've been up since 5:45am doing things that aren't very vigorous but somehow equally tiring. However, it was a good day up until about 3:30pm when I realized... AHH I MISS CLARK!! Now, I've been missing him all along (he is at camp this week) of course, but today it jumped to levels that I never wished to know. No worries, I will perservere. I'm dying to find my camera because I know it has a killer picture of us on it, and my camera has disappeared after the Lynn Outreach! RETURN! RETURN TO ME!

This week my goals are as such: Finish my sermon to be preached this Sunday night, finish my lesson for SALT on Thursday night, finish the order of service for Friday night. I'd also like to clean my room, but I think that will have to wait until next week when I go on a bit of vacation.

This week I'm preparing a sermon having to do with HOPE and I somehow find myself a bit lacking. Possibly, that is the exact reason why God laid this on my heart... I am certainly hopeful for... MONDAY MORNING! No, honestly, I do love preaching on some levels and the majority of my feelings towards preaching stem from nervousness and insecurities about my message. I'm making it another goal of mine to forget about all of that for this Sunday night. Autumn Granger (smartest woman I've ever known) said something very interesting to me today... she said let my nerves remind me of just a tiny portion of what Jesus had to go through for me. After all, that is the reason why I'm preaching anyhow. HE is the reason! I'm preaching to tell others about the hope that I have and the hope that is to be found in JESUS CHRIST. I know that there is a way out of every situation and his name is Jesus. I know that there is a God who watches over me more closely than I'll ever know. I know that there is someone who gives hope and can so very easily not love us but choose to love us anyways. I love this. I love God and what He's done in my life... what do I not have to preach about? "Shout it from the roof tops, give it all I got"... Toby Mac. Haha. I was going to use a verse, but I don't want to give away my message already!

Life lately has been extraordinary. I've seen some incredible things happen this summer. I'm very watchful for the fall (again, something to be nervous about), but considering letting that nerve go as well. I think... yes, I just did. Anyways, this summer I've spent very closely and ALMOST exclusively with teenagers - and I've found it my absolute privillage. I could only hope to continue my ministry in this area all the days of my life. I've seen my kids excell and I've seen them when they lack. I've seen them hope and dream and get closer to God... and I've seen them cry and seen thier eyes filled with disappiont. I know beyond a shawdow of doubt that I am called to this generation and then next couple of generations to come and I KNOW that I am going to see them start things that my generation only dreamed of seeing. LETS START THIS REVOLUTION.

Break.