An Official Farewell

Two of my closest friends have now "officially" made their way across the mountains with their family to start a church.  Although this is a sad time for me (selfish, I know) I am SO thrilled at what the Lord has in store for their family.

For those of you who aren't familiar, I will explain the Highway 20 project.  Several years ago, our previous Pastor, Pastor Jeremiah (he was led by the Lord to pastor a church down in Texas), realized the burden to reach the lost along Highway 20.  Highway 20 stretches from the southern most end of our island all the way over the mountains into Okanogan.  The goal was to go into each and every town along HWY 20 and to offer Bible studies and share the gospel.  After two years of doing this, the Lord made it very clear which towns needed churches.  There were some that were so cold to the gospel so we "shook the dust off our feet" and moved to the next town that was hungry.  Destination: Twisp!  We have seen so much hunger in that little town and the Lord directed us to put our focus there.  The Waldrons and the Majors were appointed by the Lord and by BBC to be our evangelistic team.

Maggie and Kali have been like sisters to me, especially in the past year or two.  Through various situations we have become really close!!  I praise the Lord for giving me such wonderful friends who I KNOW I can rely on and who I can just share my heart with.  You don't get that every day, that's for sure. :-) I will miss them immensely, but I plan to make plenty of trips over the mountains. :-)

Leadership Training Institute of America

This past week had to be one of the most amazing weeks of my life.  It was certainly life changing! Nine of us SPGs headed to Washington D.C. with Bro. Geist to attend the Leadership Training Institute of America, run by Bro. Pat Briney.  This intense week was busy from the moment we stepped off the plane to the moment we stepped back on. Just to give you an idea of what happened, I will give you a rundown of the schedule.....brace yourself!

Saturday:

We arrived at LTIA all bleary eyed after flying the entire night.  After registering and grabbing a quick bite to eat at Baja Fresh we were able to get some sleep before the evening lectures started.  Lectures began with Orientation and Leadership & War of Ideas.  Then we played a game, Never Have I Ever.   Very fun!  If you have never heard of it, ask and I will tell you about it.  It's a fun icebreaker.

Sunday:

In the morning we attended Cornerstone Baptist Church.  Following the services we had lectures on World Views and how they affect societies.  To finish it off we had a night tour of the monuments.  After hours of walking and hundreds of pictures we concluded that our nation was definitely founded on Christian principles.  How is it, with such obvious scripture, that our nation's leaders can turn a blind eye to Christianity and its principles?

Monday:

Started off with lectures including Evidence for God, Evidence for the Resurrection, and Evidence for Inspiration.  These lectures were all very important for answering the Four Fundamental Questions: 1)Is there more than a physical world? 2) Is there a God? 3)Which God is the real God? 4) How does God reveal Truth.  VERY important questions to be able to answer.  Before we headed off to the Holocaust Museum we heard a lecture on Martyrdom.  The Holocaust Museum was very eye opening.  Even though I had heard a lot about it, it was a very sobering experience to actually see the affects it had.  The evening concluded with a lecture by Chris Maligisi from LI about Social Networking and how we can put it to use.

Tuesday:
BUSY day! We started out the day with lectures on Secular Humanism, Islam, and Creation Vs. Evolution.  After a long, yet interesting, morning in the class room we were off to hear from Tim Goeglin, Vice President of Focus on the Family.  He was a great speaker and I really enjoyed everything he had to say.  Next we went to lobby our Senator.  I was a little unsure of what we would be doing, but come to find out it's very simple!  We basically went to Senator Cantwell's office after setting up an appt. and expressed our views on a new bill that will be passing soon about allowing abortion to take place in military hospitals which has been banned up until now.  Other than the bored expression on the Senator's face (she's a democrat), it was a wonderful experience!  I didn't realize that it was so easy to do things like that.  Next stop, Macedonian Embassy! This was one of my favorite parts.  He was SO hospitable and even shook each of our hands ( all forty something of us).  After he gave his wonderful presentation, with a few flaws in working the power point, hehe, he presented us with a wonderful lunch of pizza and sandwiches on China plates!  ahhh....wonderful American food, with Macedonian style. :-)  The last lecture of the evening was about blogging and how to use it to have an influence.

Wednesday:
Whew!! Are we only on Wednesday?? In the morning we went to the Capital Building to hear Jim Jordan speak to us, but we were ten minutes late (easily done with a group of forty something) so he wasn't there.  However, we got some really good pictures on the Capital Steps!  A slight consolation.  Next we took a looong hot trek to the USS Barry.  Good stuff!  Next, Maureen Wiebe from the AACS (American Association of CHristian School) came to visit us.  She spoke about how the government has started to gain control on education.  Also, she had some really good info about getting involved.  Our last visitor of the day was Seton Motley from Less Government.  He spoke to us about how government is getting involved in the media and gaining control.  Talk about scary!  Lastly, we worked on our team projects.  The assignment was to choose two topics out of ten given from the Heritage Foundation.  Our team chose Family and Religion & Protecting America.  We had to research the topics and put together a presentation. 

Thursday:
Lectures in the morning included Answering the Bible Critics, Defending the Gospel, and Humanism in Education.  Next we visited CWA (Concerned Women for America) and heard Wendy Wright speak.  How inspirational!!  She has definitely defended her world view and suffered for it immensely.  Next stop: the Smithsonian!  The idea was for us to visit the new Human Origin Exhibit.  It's amazing how little evidence they actually give for Evolution.  I and several other people got into a "discussion" with a Theistic Evolutionist and it was a very good experience.  It forced me to recall what I had learned.  We finished off with a wonderful night tour of the capital building with Congressman John Boozman (AR).  There was hardly anyone else there so we didn't have to fight the crowd.  It was really neat to see "inside" government. :-)

Friday:
The morning started off with Team presentations.  Everyone did SUCH a good job!  You could tell that there was a lot of thought put into the topics and overall it was a great experience.  We then had a time for testimonies from the students as well as the staff.  By this time, everyone was supposed to be done with all the graduation requirements.  That left the afternoon open for DC Touring. Yahoo!!!  We were able to choose from several places where we wanted to go.  I chose to go back to the Smithsonian for further exploring.  It could take DAYS to see everything, so I barely scratched the surface in the entire trip.  In the evening we had our graduation ceremony.  It was so good!  And everyone was so relieved to be done with everything.  We headed out that night to go find some ice cream (ended up with frozen yogurt and it was delicious!!).  We spent some time around the fountain talking, laughing, and singing our favorite songs from musicals. haha what a "lovely night".

Saturday:
We got to sleep in!!!  I can only last so long with five hours of sleep each night.  Saturday we packed and departed.  The flight went very smoothly and we were all walking zombies by the time we reached Oak Harbor.  Sunday wasn't any better.  I was (no joke) falling asleep playing the piano at the nursing home on Sunday.  That's a first for me!  I now realize that I can play with my eyes closed. :-) 

LTIA was an experience I will never forget.  What I have told you here barely scratches the surface.  I feel so inspired to go out and make a difference.  I anticipate getting involved in several areas and I am open to the Lord's guidance.  I would recommend for every person to have the experience I had last week. 

Jefferson Memorial (W/Washington Memorial in background)           

Tim Geoglin speaking to us at Focus on the Family

     

My project team: Joyka, Nancy, Cody, Myself, Kali, Michael, Joel, John and Pablo

LTIA Class of 2010 with Macedonian Ambassador Jolevski

Kali and I sang "America the Beautiful" for the Graduation Ceremony

Bible Baptist Church SPGs singing "The Life Of His Son In Me"

Maggie and I

Josh and I in front of the Capital

Getting ready to lobby with Senator Cantwell

These are just a few of the 2,941 pictures taken by our group!

An Insanely Busy Week!

My my my....this past week was incredibly busy.  I was definitely forced to stretch myself in things that I don't normally do. The beginning of the week began with baking of the Graduation cake.  The Christian School at our church had four graduates this year and Kali and I volunteered to make the cake.  It was a simple design (because we don't know anything else...hehe) so things weren't too stressful.  I am pleased with the way it turned out. 

The Graduation ceremony was SPLENDID!  Each of the graduates had great speeches and the charges given by the parents were enough to make you cry.  Pastor Jeremiah was the guest speaker and....WOW.....that's all I can say.  It was SUCH a good message!  And one that could be applied to everyone, not just the graduates.  So yes, it was a wonderful evening.

After graduation began preparation for the wedding.  Chris Spence and Anna Schenck were married this past Saturday......AAAHH!H!!!!!  I can't believe they are married now!  They are so perfect for each other.  Anyway, they asked me to play in the wedding and I felt so honored!  The only thing....I had never played for a wedding before.  I felt COMPLETELY out of my comfort zone.  I felt like I had no idea what I was doing.  I thought to myself "well...after the rehearsal surely I will have things down and feel more confident!"   not so much....I felt even more nervous after the rehearsal which did not go so smoothly.  After much prayer and practice the day of the wedding came.  I was SO nervous!!  But the Lord came through for me and it all went down as smooth as butter.  There were a few little tentative hiccups that the Lord gave me the ability to surpass and I am STILL grateful for that! All in all it was a wonderful day!

So after the wedding Kali, Maggie, Linnea and I went to see Cinderella, the musical, at the Whidbey playhouse.  It was wonderful!!  The actors were very talented and all had great voices.  So I have an ironic story.  When I was 8 yrs old I tried out for Marta in the Sound of Music at the Whidbey Playhouse.  It was SO daunting for me at the age of 8 because I had to sing a solo in front of the theatre full of people. (Now when I was little the theatre seemed huge, but when I went back I realized that it was SO tiny!!  I think that's funny)  but that's not my ironic story.  I tried out for Marta and made it past the first cut.  It was down to me and another girl.  This other girl was VERY talented!  She sang Matchmaker and was all dancing around the stage with her broom. LOL  She seemed to be a natural for acting.  hahaa and there I was standing like a stick in front of the mic singing a Patch the Pirate song.  The second part of the try-out was actual acting.  I didn't make it past that part.  While waiting to see the play I was reading the biographies of the actors.  I read Cinderella's , aka Candace Baker's, biography and it said she was 20 yrs old and started her acting career at the age of 8 playing as Marta in the Sound of Music.  NO way!! After ALL these years?!  Sure enough...it was her!! I still can't believe it.  I had a chance to talk to her afterwards and she was shocked and just laughed that I remembered her!  Aside from that ironic moment, the play was incredible!  I am hooked on the music now and it is constantly going through my head. :-)   We are watching the movie tonight and I can't wait!

Well I think I have written enough to bore anyone. hehe.  This next week holds even more excitement as the SPGs head to Washington DC for LTIA. (more on that later) 

Farewell, Kali and Maggie!

Yesterday a family in the church had a big get-together to celebrate their son's graduation from highschool. Yay!! So at the party we had a farewell cake for Kali and Maggie from the SPGs. I had the privilege of making it, and it was so fun!! I am SO loving the whole cake decorating thing. It's getting easier, and I think I need to move onto something harder than "dots and swirlies". :-) I am hoping to take a class soon and that will broaden my repertoire a little bit. LOL

Maggie and Kali will be missed immensely! They have been a major part of this church for SO many years and a big part of my life recently. I have enjoyed all the fun times of HWY 20 campouts, sleepovers, hot tubbing, playing Sorry Card Revenge, singing around the piano, talking and so much more! Even though they'll be across the mountains, we'll still have ALL of the fun memories. I definitely plan to make many trips to Twisp!

They won't be leaving until the beginning of July, so we still have some time left with them. We'll have to make the most of EVERY day!! Without overtaxing ourselves of course. ;-) I am sure you'll see another post later with more fun pictures and reminiscing as they draw closer to their departure.