Cherokee Coooooove

I am so blessed.
I am SO blessed.

God's adventure for me is unbeatable. My expectations get shot down frequently, and my pride gets squashed, and my selfishness unveiled... but truly that's the beauty of it. The redemption of my sinful nature through Christ, combined with God's creativity and humongo imagination in the personal relationship He loves having with me...it all mushes together to make one big super duper escapade!!!

It's up and down, but I believe God's heart for moody people like me, is to create stability in their lives. I'm still on that journey of surrendering all thoughts of idolatry, of low self esteem, of unbelief, and doom (ha) over to Him. The last thing, I've realized, that I want to be is a rain cloud that gets introspective in a negative way and shuts people out, shuts the truth out, and turns everyone's day sour. Been there, done that...and Satan had a hay day. Anyway! That is a constant battle which God is strengthening me through.

So! My plan for the summer: Cherokee Cove!
Yea-ah!
I think this is now summer #5!

There are a ridiculous amount of stories that I've accumulated over the years at that place. Oh my. haha! Some highlights:

Summer #1(2008): Trauma from a giant wolf spider, getting stuffed into a freezer, and using the boys who crushed on me to clean out the dish sink where all the nasty mushy food collected after dish duty:)

Rebecca, Michael and Eliza chillin on
 the  driveway

Summer #2: Being the Uphill youth Girl Counselor - STRESS! Got my licenses and two weeks later drove to Kentucky with a car load of girls. First time ever on the interstate, second week ever of driving, 4 loud adolescents crowding around me.ahhh haha!! Also the epic Appalachian trail hike where we thought we were making our two day trek over 13 pleasant miles around Watagua Lake. Ended up being 26 miles climbing up and down the ridge-line, and 22 of those miles were completed in one day(and in chacos, bad idea)

Middle of the Hike! Still Smiling!

Summer #3: The dawn of "Pantry Meetings" with Hunter, Hayden and I escaping to the pantry to eat snacks and giggle! Also ripped my pants on the buddy swing in front of an ROTC group doing their Bible Study. haha! Also invasion of the ants in the girls cabin...we camped out in the guest cabin...while my poor pet frog Pumba was left with the ants and the ant killer fumes....R.I.P.

This is when Zak saw the rip...

This is me sprinting while they were
laughing hysterically

Summer #4: I was the office assistant! I got a GIANT spot light flash light from our friend Carlos who came with Carpenters for Christ group. And I mean giant, theres a picture on my Heavens to Betsy page. haha! Also another great moment was when Libby, Sam and I rescued a baby skunk: "mr. Flower" and the health inspector came and I hid him upstairs in my office. :)

Mr. Flower died 2 days later.

So this summer I'll keep you posted about epic stories...and this year I'm Stu's assistant in the Kitchen so! There will be PLENTY to tell, like the exploded boiled egg that literally blasted a three foot radius with its insides when I merely poked it.... ha, this will be fun!:)

The kitchen is the place to be!

Chirs and Hayden

Listening to Stu's instructions

The Buddy Swing is so fun!

and it's never dull

Trust me there are tons more! So maybe come visit Cherokee Cove yourself! And there's my sales plug for the day:)

God has blessed me SO much with providing Cherokee Cove, and the Stephens family for me during this time of transition and decision making.

And thanks to their generosity and little Libby's caring gift, I am now a proud parent of a Beta Fish named LeRoy Squishy the 3rd. Again...so blessed:)

Or(d)inary

This picture is one of my favorites, and I wrote on it "Ruined for the Orinary." Yes, I forgot the D in ordinary. Haha, kind of annoying since it is my favorite juxtaposed piece from my 2D design class freshman year at ETSU. You see, for that particular assignment we were required to create 6 juxtaposed photo pieces. Some of them I used photo shop and overlaid, recolored, resized etc. I also practiced with modge podge and magazine pictures and ended up creating 10 pictures. For some reason this one ended up being my favorite, however I never turned it into the critic. I did keep it and have had it hung in my room for a number of years. 

When I came home from New Zealand of course I crashed that first night. I snuggled all cozy in my many pillows and fuzzy blankets, then drank in the familiar smells, sights and feelings of home. I immediately noticed this picture on the wall though! Lizzy and I were talking and dozing off and I totally changed the subject and was like AH!!!!!!! I know why I kept this photo! This is slightly, strangely, a very prophetic piece! 

You see for me, Lecture phase in New Zealand was full of serious talk times with God, and I got a word from my good friend Katelyn one afternoon, that God wanted to be my fat cat! He wanted to be my comforter and  even from the time I was 13, He wanted me to come to Him. Seems like He wanted so badly for me to realize the immensity of His love, understanding and comfort towards me, His beloved daughter.

BAM! There's the cute fat cat on the bench in front of that lake. That cat's yawning, but it kind of looks like it's laughing, esp to me when it's put beside the laughing women. The laughing women represents the outreach to Morocco. I don't remember the origin of the photo, but it looks very similar to Moroccan women sharing a joyful time together. Out reach was a joyful time for me personally. I felt like God had comforted me and built me up, spoke words of life and identity to my heart, and that outreach was a time where I began to step into those truths. Through loving on Moroccans, connecting with Back packers, worshiping, praying, sharing life with my team, and experiencing many new, different, hilarious, annoying cultural things together, I'd say all of Morocco was full of laughter and closeness with the Lord. 

Since that YWAM experience I'm restless to continue the world traveling. God has confirmed desires and passions in my heart and I'm learning to be patient. I'm learning to wait on the Lord. I'm learning I need to actually wait, try to understand God's time line and be patient. It's gonna be good! One of my new favorite lines from a song is "If I could die of Happy, baby I'd be a goner!" Even though it seems like a loooooong lesson, learning patience, its still full of joy, happy encounters with God and people, and also adventures! So I'd say its safe to say, I'm ruined for the "orinary" life. ha! Peace out cub scout.

A Poem