does the world ever seem like a nightmare?
some suffer and the other ones don't care.
what does it matter if it's going on elsewhere?--like it doesn't happen if it's not happening here...
there's a girl with only a mother
and her dad just won't seem to bother
no love so she finds a lover
now she has a child who doesn't have a father...

i hope the Prince of peace is coming soon

yeah i hope the Prince of peace is coming soon

we'll learn to make a plowshare from a gun

'cause we won't need them when the Kingdom comes

when the communists turn into the terrorists...
but the axis came before the soviets
and before that came the confederates--
we'll always have a war to fight, you can count on this.

with every cure there comes another sickness.
the earth dies with every bit of progress.
we've gone deaf to the cries of the oppressed.
what we need is Jesus to redeem us.

i hope the Prince of peace is coming soon.

yeah, i hope the Prince of peace is coming soon.

we'll learn to make a plowshare from a gun

'cause we won't need them when the Kingdom comes.

now the world doesn't work cause we've broken it
and we need dope & prozac just to cope with it
now the beast speaks his piece to the congress--
plans to propagate proposition 666...
hitler's still alive in the knives of abortionists
and the news twists the truth like contortionists
and they wonder what happened to humanity--
we say peace but we're headed for calamity.

i hope the Prince of peace is coming soon.

yeah, i hope the Prince of peace is coming soon.

we'll learn to make a plowshare from a gun

'cause we won't need them when the Kingdom comes.

we long for the day when we will see the heavens and the earth as they should be.

(--matt morginsky & the o.c. supertones

"prince of peace")

what's up?

and here we're back to the original problem with blogging... i feel like i never have anything to say. tell any of the kids in youth group that i just said that and they will tell you i must be lying. i certainly have the power of ramble in youth group.

so at sunday school this morning we were reading through acts 1:1-14 and the question (i know that i don't ask good questions, but it got a sweet response anyway) was simply to say, "okay, so what do we learn about God in this passage? (God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Father, God & His Kingdom, whichever--what do we learn about the LORD in this passage?) and this kid lucas goes,
"God can really like stuff up good. I mean, Jesus is talking to His disciples, He ascends into heaven, and just then a couple angels show up to ask the disciples why they're looking at the sky? He can really line stuff up!" and it's so true. and it was so cool! because it's not the first thing that jumped out at me, but it's so true!!! i learn so much from those guys.
and then tonight at youth group we're talkng about whatever we're talking about and kate goes, "did you guys do that on purpose?" and we're like what are you talking about? and she's all, "that's exactly what we were talking about this morning in reaffirmation! (confirmation, whatever you want to call it)" and it was one of those things where it's like "nope, it wasn't us... it's just one of those things that God knows how to line up..." i love it when that happens. i especially love it when God does that to me with Scripture. i couldn't even tell you how many times i've been reading something, just reading or whatnot, and God really speaks to me through some passage, and then the next day pastor john preaches on the same text or i listen to some sermon and they're preaching on it. those are the moments when it's just like, "god, you ARE listening to me! you ARE speaking to me!" and it's in moments like those that you just know that God is delighted in any movement that you make in His direction. we serve a beautiful Creator.

anyway. i still don't know where God is leading us, but that's all part of the great adventure i suppose!

p.s. i love my mom. =)

chomp chomp.

my newsletter could eat your newsletter.

it's true

zephaniah 3:17

the LORD your God is with you,

He is mighty to save.

He will take great delight in you,

He will quiet you with His love,

He will rejoice over you with singing.

whole world in His hands (tim hughes)

when all around is fading,

and nothing seems to last

when each day is filled with sorrow

still I know with all my heart:

He’s got the whole world in His hands

He’s got the whole world in His hands

I’ll fear no evil,

for You are with me,

strong to deliver,

mighty to save.

He’s got the whole world in His hands

when I walk through fire,

i will not be burned

when the waves come crashing round me

still I know with all my heart:

He’s got the whole world in His hands
He’s got the whole world in His hands
I’ll fear no evil,
for You are with me,
strong to deliver,
mighty to save.
He’s got the whole world in His hands

Tim Hughes Copyright © 2004 Thankyou Music

and........................!

a couple pictures with isaac, the ladies man... ;)

saddle up your horses!!

well.............. this is going to be a strange hodge-podge of things, i suppose. i thought i could move the pictures a little easier than i apparently can. but that's okay. but i guess we'll start out with everyone having to crank their head to the side to see the cute picture of sandra and isaac and josh!





i thought i'd put a few pictures from my birthday up here. it was really fun! the original plan was to go bowling alley hopping and use some of the denny's free bowling coupons that i got that one time at denny's, but we ended up just going to 2 bowling alleys, which was fine by me. i had one game that was alright, but for the most part i sucked it up. but MAN, do i love bowling!
and then after about four games with dereck & doug & (a bit later) jenny & matt, we headed over to this one place--texas tubb's taco palace--for some tacos. and it was so nice! because heidi came, and sandra and josh and isaac and kelli and ben and nate all the way from platteville! and i had some bean flautas or something, and they were stinking GOOD. oh. my. goodness.
this post makes no sense; i apologize. i wish i could make these pictures line up nicer. and then we went back to the second bowling alley we'd been at (some of us did) and bowled a couple more games. yeah. bowling. i have nothing to say.

so... anyway... last week we had kind of a random lockin with a few of the youth........ and as the result of a random dance assignment (each pair had 20 minutes to choreograph a dance to a song of their choosing), the world was introduced to the WONDER of dance which is holden. he and donna came out first with a true marvel of a dance to a song written by steven curtis chapman called "the great adventure" (thumbs up to internet research.) i'm going to put the lyrics to the song at the end of the post, because, as cheesy as it may have been at first (NOT that the dance was cheesy, it was in all ways beautiful ha ha), there is so much truth in the lyrics. anyway, this DANCE. man, it may have been years since i've laughed so hard. my description could never do it justice. if i knew how to put video up on this blog, i would do it. and amidst the THREE encore presentations that holden gave us of this dance, all the ladies became backup dancers (see dana and anne there), and prepared to perform it for the entire vacation bible school! let me tell you, it made my day. maybe even made my week.

The Great Adventure by steven curtis chapman:

Started out this morning in the usual way

Chasing thoughts inside my head of all I had to do today

Another time around the circle try to make it better than the last

I opened up the Bible and I read about me

Said I'd been a prisoner and God's grace had set me free

And somewhere between the pages it hit me like a lightning bolt

I saw a big frontier in front of me and I heard somebody say "let's go"!

CHORUS

Saddle up your horses we've got a trail to blaze

Through the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace

Let's follow our leader into the glorious unknown

This is a life like no other - this is The Great Adventure

Come on get ready for the ride of your life

Gonna leave long faced religion in a cloud of dust behind

And discover all the new horizons just waiting to be explored

This is what we were created for