I don't know where else to put this picture. :)

It was good ice cream. Can't blame me for liking ice cream can you?

Here are some good jokes made by my siblings. :)

These are my brother's:


This is my sister's:

Summer and the new school year.

 

Summer has been very blessed. The pic above is mostly drawn by EdenJoy. :) I just finished it up. 

This is not exactly how I feel about school, but it's close. I trust that God will bless the school year too like He has all the years before. I wish summer were a little longer though.

I was trying to find cool things to juggle!

I found myself reading a list of the top worst things to juggle:
Running chainsaws
Running flamethrowers (why not?)
Nuclear waste
Used dog poop bags
Cans of hot oil
Red hot irons
Grenades
Snakes
Knives
Babies
Cars
Asteroids
Passe, passe beanbags

Okay, thanks a lot, internet, I'll consider that.

We couldn't even get down our own street to get to our Bible study!

 Our car got so stuck, we had to leave it in the street and walk home again. Our neighbor has a drone and he took these pics.

Just kidding! It's just a toy car. :)

How to enjoy Lord of the Flies

      With extra precaution from my sisters previous experience with this book, (that is, the way she wanted to personally take a pair of scissors and cut each page into invisible particles of dust, then burn the pile in the fire,) I made several decisions that helped me actually enjoy the book. If you are one of my fellow 9th graders, I'm sorry if this is too late...

#1 Do not start at the beginning. Read the ends of chapter 9 and 11 before getting attached to the characters. (I know this is normally a no-no in reading, but unless you want to feel like locking yourself in your room for three day while losing your voice by screaming into a pillow the whole time, this is my recommendation for before you get to know the characters and actually like them.)

#2 If it helps, (or if it is possible for you, which it wasn't for me, but this is just a suggestion,) think of the boys as men in their 20s or 30s. I don't know; Golding is good at explaining that they are only boys, but I started off like this. This probably won't work. What do you guys think?

#3 Depending on your spirit when it comes to book-emotions, and now that you know what happens to the two nice characters, it comes to a decision.

1. If you are stronger spirited, if you know what I mean, you can cautiously start attaching yourself to the characters towards the middle of the book when the turmoil starts.

2. If you are more tender spirited like me, (again if you know what I mean) you can choose to stay unattached to any characters so that you can take in the main ideas without taking scissors to the book. (There are really good thoughts/ discussion starters in this book.)

3. You may also choose to take in the full intent that Golding had and fully attach to the characters and get depressed when your done. If you have time and the availability to sacrifice your attitude for the rest of the day, go ahead. :) (Wait, was sacrifice the right word to use?) >:)

I ended up getting half attached to the characters, so I was pretty upset, but I managed to control myself.

#4 Take some time to think about it before responding to it towards others. There is a good amount of truth in this book, yet it is probably over exaggerated in the way that children are doing these things.

     I did enjoy reading this book, and I had an amazing talk with my family about it. I hope my younger sister and brother will be able to find this helpful when it is her turn. This is another classic example of a story that has excluded God from everything. What would it be like if God was included somehow?

Go Operation Christmas Child!!!!!!!

     Okay, I strongly support this program! If you want to support OCC, but do not want to do any of the box filling, give your money to me because I love to do this. It is my favorite part of Christmas and I will pack these boxes for you! :) No really! Quite serious about this!

     If you decide to pack your own box, which is more likely than letting me pack it and send it for you, I suppose, I promise that you will find joy in sending a little kid somewhere on this globe a present that will make him very happy. It also teaches kids the gospel! That's the best part.

My Summer so far...

     I have had a very busy Summer so far. God has been present in my life like usual. He has put the right people in my life to encourage me and keep me joyful so far. At the beginning, I was a counselor for Wings Like Eagles camp, a vaulting camp open for disabled or displaced children. God taught me about leadership, patience, humility, and being a good friend. God showed me His love for all His children, the campers and the counselors.
     Some of my friends invited me to their personal finance Bible study, where I learned about how to handle money and think ahead financially.
     God blessed our Lemonade stand supporting the Virunga Valley Academy in Rwanda, and the money is going to the kitchen they are trying to serve more kids with. This school educates Africans and Americans and teaches them about Jesus.
     God never ceases to watch over me; I know from experience!

     These verse have recently encouraged me.

Romans 8:28 

²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who^[a] have been called according to his purpose.

Ephesians 2:10

¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Psalm 40:5

⁵ Many, Lord my God,
    are the wonders you have done,
    the things you planned for us.
None can compare with you;
    were I to speak and tell of your deeds,
    they would be too many to declare.

      God bless you!

I need to write this down.....

        Okay, I was telling Mom this, and I found it hard to remember the schedule of my (can you guess?) boy's group! I knew I would remember better if I wrote it down, so here it is...-

I will wait for everyone to come (hopefully on time), I will start on time beginning the study with a prayer.

I will do my ice breaker as stated bellow.

Me, or one of my core group members will lead the group in a devotion.

There will be a time of sharing what the Lord has been putting on our hearts ( if everyone is willing).

I will have an activity to do that will help us be a team of strong, responsible boys. Let me expand here before I continue.

        Just to reign in my thoughts, I will try to type this onto the screen and organize them. This part, the activity part, that is, will be very different every time, like most of the other things. For the first day, I will have everyone tell me what there favorite verse in the Bible is (or one of them) and kind-of put them together into some kind of subtitle or motto for the group: The Iron Sharpens Iron Group           subtitle            . It will be based on the verses that are most inspiring to us. Doing this will give me an idea of what these boys are spiritually hungry for, information that I will store in my notebook. Other activities will build teamwork, trust, brotherly love, etc. Okay, back to my list.

There will be a time of Bible reading, which will be helpful for me because I have a hard time doing that o a regular basis.

I will have a challenge for the boys: to live for the glory of God like Jesus, and be different that the culture. A challenge to keep each other accountable in a Godly way and to care for one another.

I will ask everyone if they have a prayer request or a praise and then pray for each of them individually. To know each kid better that day will help me pray more specifically the following months. I want them to feel wanted and loved as a brother by at least me, and loved as a son to God.

After all that, we will eat and play until the parents come to pick them up and drive them home.

Sounds like a pretty good plan, huh? :) I can't wait for it to happen. Momma told me that each time I think about this (which is a lot) to pray about about it. Yeah, that's a good idea, I guess. That was what I was thinking at the time. But I did. Every time I thought bout it, I asked God to let it work out His own way. I actually prayed about it for quite a bit once, and when I went back to my email.......THERE WAS SOMEONE WHO REPLIED TO MY INVITATION!!! And, they said they could come. Yay! I love it when that happens. ;) Oh, let me tell you who is coming. There will be one...,two...,three..., four definitely and maybe five or six more boys coming, and then there will be me, which makes at most SEVEN people. Oh, I am so excited! Please pray for me whenever you think of me, and ask God that this group will go well.

"As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." Proverbs 27:17-

nothin' much

           So this morning I was talking with my dad when I really thought through the complete plan of my study. It was more than I remembered, but I knew this was the right choice. My plan is to start off with an ice breaker to get all these boys from different places to know each other. Something like, hmm..., a guessing game! I will have some sticky notes of with the names of famous people written on them. I will stick a note on he forehead of each person and they have to guess what the name on their sticky note is. For example, Abraham Lincoln. Hmm, let me think of some more: Cinderella, Moses, Pinocchio, King Arthur, Shamu the Whale, Peyton Manning, Charlie Brown, President Obama, Olaf, Saint Nicholas..... That's good! That will be one of my ice breakers!