HAPPY BIRTHDAY REBEKAH!!!

Today is a very dear friend's birthday. We met seven years ago this past Christmas, and she is so special in my life. Today she turns 16 years old. I have loved being her friend and would not change a thing about our friendship. :)

I LOVE YOU REBEKAH!!!

HAPPY SWEET 16th!!!

Worldview Academy: Friday

We all woke up slowly Friday morning. Everyone was dreading leaving camp. For anyone who has not been, let me explain. Worldview is a safe little haven where you can learn and ask questions and no one is ever going to judge you. Everyone around you is a good influence and the staff are always there to help you and are all there by choice. This is what makes camp the best week of your life. Anyways, after getting ready, we had to put our stuff in front of our dorm rooms. Then the pops all met up to head to breakfast. We had to give Christa our room keys at this point, so we had to be sure everything was out of our rooms. Breakfast was very quick and my group was all really talkative. We did five or six random questions, because we wanted to fit as many in as possible before quiet times, since it was our last meal together. After breakfast, we went to devotions, which Tori lead. Then we went to our quiet times. Christa had to go help direct families coming in for the last lecture, so we had to get our group together after quiet times and get over to the chapel as a group. This was not hard, because we had a tendency to find each other even if we weren't trying. We followed some other groups that seemed to know where they were going over to the chapel and met Christa who was very impressed we all actually made it over as a group. We found seats and all of the students had to fill out a survey on how our week at camp was. One of the questions was "If there was one thing you could change about camp, what would it be?" The only thing I could think of at the time was that I wished it was longer. :) After everyone turned those in, we listened to our last lecture. "Whatever!" by Bill Jack. I quite like this lecture. I have heard it several times before, but there are always new things to learn in the lectures from Worldview Academy. During the lecture, Diane had to leave. It was quite sad because none of us were able to say good-bye. :'( When the lecture was over, we were released to go meet our small group leaders for one last small group time. The pops all assembled to receive our certificates and say good-bye to everyone. We did a prayer circle and then got pictures with everyone and finished getting our groups to sign our shirts/notebooks. Then the "Tally!" was yelled, and we all responded with the typical "Ho!!" and gathered around for our instructions. We all went into the room behind the sanctuary, where all the parents were having a parent's meeting, and sat quietly waiting. Grace and I were trying to figure out how to do the Worldview dance backwards. :) Finally the doors opened and we all ran in cheering. They showed us our camp video (which I posted in an earlier post) and we all laughed through the whole thing. Then camp was over. :( Mom came with me to go meet Christa and Dad went to go meet Caleb's small group leader, Kevin. I said good-bye again to everyone, in and out of my small group, and we got some Worldview stuff. I got a hoodie, which I am quite fond of. We also got two of the tracts that we used this year. Then we headed over to the dorms to get our suitcases. Unfortunately, it started down pouring rain right when we went to take our stuff to the van. Dad came with umbrellas and we safely toted all of our stuff to the car. We jumped in the van and left the lot. This was the end of Worldview Academy 2013.

The drive home was full of stories and explanations for all sorts of things. Then we stopped at Chick-fil-a for lunch, which made me very happy. Now it was time for the worst part of camp. Getting home and trying to readjust. Overall, this was indeed, the best week of my life. :)

Worldview Academy: Thursday (Part 2)

When we walked into the lecture room for briefing, they had us sit by color team. We were told the rules of the relay and then went out in order of the way we stood on the field. The first thing we had to do was prepare a cheer for our color teams. Ours was "Green will, green will rock you." All of the other teams did a lot better than our group did on the cheer. I liked yellow's the best though. It was really creative. :) Once everyone finished their cheers, the actual relay began. The first thing was passing an empty can of spam back and forth diagonally with chopsticks down the line. We did not have enough chopsticks, so when we finished we had to run them to the end of the line. It was really loud with everyone cheering for their teams. After getting the spam to the end of the line, we had to have two pairs of guys and two pairs of girls run with their elbows linked in baggy clothes around a cone and back. This felt like it took the longest amount of time. Then we had to go in sets of two in hoola hoops "across the river", which was really just between cones. The guys in our group all took initiative and took the hoola hoops, but girls could not go with guys because of the five minute rule, so all the guys were across and then had to run a hoola hoop over to a girl. There were three hoola hoops going at once. After that we had to link arms with everyone, not respecting the five minute rule (meaning girls and boys could touch), from the beginning of the relay to the end zig-zagging between the cones. This was incredibly unpleasant!! The really tall guys were in front and dragging the rest of us behind them. I was near the back, and we had a lovely whiplash effect. During the course of this, I managed to twist my ankle pretty badly. We finished first, but it was hard to tell whether blue or green finished first. I was so out of breath and in so much pain that I did not realize that we won. Everyone lined up for water after all of the teams finished the relay. I filled up my water bottle and went to talk to Sarah G. who could not do the relay because she had an injury. Next was the leader vs. student ultimate frisbee game. It is the biggest event of the day. I could not play because of my ankle, so I was hanging back in the shade for quite a while. I was starting to go crazy not being able to figure out what was going on during the game, so I went and stood on one foot near the front and high fived the groups as they traded out on the field. The goal of the game is for the students to beat the staff and faculty. This has only happened once in all of Worldview Academy history. We got no where near winning the game. I think it was 9-1 in favor of the staff. :( During the game, Elisabeth, one of the leaders, asked if I was okay and I told her about my ankle. She went and told Christa, who got Hannah, the 'nurse' during the week. One advantage was that I got to sit right up front and watch the game. After the game ended, the entire camp (minus me and Hannah) got in a circle to dab up and pray. I watched the group in a gigantic circle and was amazed!! There were a lot of kids there. They filled the width of a football field when standing in a circle. I had an ice pack on my ankle, so I could not walk back to the dorms, so I rode back in the van with some of the leaders. Sarah G. rode back with us as well. If you really want to see a different side of the staff, ride in a van with them for five minutes. That is all it takes. Mr. Collins (will explain the name later), turned his iPod on and started playing a Justin Bieber song. Sarah and I could hardly control ourselves we were laughing so hard. All of the staff in the van were singing along and dancing. :) Hannah helped me up to my room, since I had to walk up stairs to the third floor. I layed down on my bed with my ankle up for the little bit of time we had to take showers and what not. I got really bored inspecting the ceiling, so I got up and got my keyboard and goofed off for a little bit until Christa came up to let us know it was time to go to lectures. We walked over to the lecture room and prepared ourselves for our next lecture. "The Mask of God: The life of faith in vocation" by Mike Schutt. It was a good lecture and I really enjoyed it, even though the amount of doodles may not make it look that way. :) Mike became my friend when he started making up words. My favorite was "splendorific." After that, we got dinner and then worship. The next lecture we had was my all time favorite. "Cultivating our Relationship with Christ" by Paul Jordan. I absolutely loved this lecture, because he gave us direct applications that are easy and practical. When that lecture came to a close, we had a quick break, then our exam. They went over the basic rules and then handed out the exams. If we finished our exam early, we could write a story consisting of these three things; a flag, minions, and our small group leader. I went through the exam slowly, trying to think out the answers. Of course, being the wonderful homeschooler I am, put the wrong grade on the test. :) It was time for the results of the Spamley Cup!!! Everyone got back in their color team groups and the leaders did a skit for showing who won. GREEN WON!!!!!!! We were very excited, obviously. :) Then we had a guy from a college come and talk to us for a little bit. When he was done talking, we went to 'campfire' which was just a time for us to share stories. Christa and John led worship then stories were shared. When campfire was over, we went to small groups. My group was all really huggy and touchy with each other since we knew it was our last time as a group. Diane was going to have to leave early the next day, so it was our last meeting as our whole small group. :'( We rated our days, did worship, and then Christa started something with us that I thought was really cool. It is called a 10,000 reasons journal. You write down everything you are thankful for and your goal is to get to ten thousand things. Then we prayed as a group. We were sent up to our rooms to start packing, since we wouldn't have much time in the morning. Leah and I were both up pretty late, just sitting in bed. I was thinking about the week and lost track of time and Leah was not feeling well. I ended up having to go find Christa for Leah. This was an adventure all of its own. Christa wasn't in her room, along with any of the other leaders. I told Leah to go lay back down and I would go look around a little and see if I could find anybody. I looked out the window and saw that there were some leaders outside, but at the angle I was at, I could only see guys. I went back up to the room and told Leah, and we decided that I would just go out and ask if any of them knew where the rest of the leaders were. When I got down into the lobby, Griffin was there and went to go find Christa for us. Christa and Mia came up to the room to take care of Leah, and we were both soon asleep after that. This was all at about one in the morning. :) Overall, it was a very bittersweet day. :)

Worldview Academy: Thursday (Part 1)

Once again, I have to split this into two sections because of the length. :)

Energy was high Thursday morning when everyone got up. It was game day!!! Unfortunately, games were not until after small group time, which was after lunch. My group got up early again to do worship. There is just something special about singing with eight girls and a guitar outside early in the morning. We went into breakfast energized and ready for the day to start. After breakfast, we had devotions and quiet times. Next we had a lecture. My group gathered together and tried to find seven seats together. This is quite a trick!! Finally we found an area we could sit in near the front. Some of our group was sitting with friends, so we didn't have to find so many seats. "Worldview in a Lifeboat" by Mike Schutt was about a political case and whether what these people were really wrong or if they could use self-preservation. It was my least favorite lecture of the week, by far. The amount of doodles in my notebook are extensive. :) I was very excited for break that time. After our five minutes, we sat back down for another lecture. The only good thing about the previous lecture is that Christa got to sit with us instead of having to go do staff stuff. The next lecture was much better, in my opinion. It was called "A Christian View of Leisure" by Mike Schutt. I highly enjoyed this lecture. The lesson from this one was "Rest is not working." Honestly, that is their definition. :) After that we had our transition into lunch. My groups sat together again, as usual. Lunch felt pretty long, probably because we knew color team challenges were coming up so soon. Once we finished lunch, Christa let us go get ready  for games. I was already good, so I just hung out around the dorms, watching the guys be weird. Then we had small group time. We painted our nails, faces, and colored our arms with Sharpies. :) While we were doing all of this delightful stuff, Christa had us all share our testimonies. It was really encouraging to hear everyone else's stories. That was when we heard some amazing news. The night before, Bekah dedicated her life to Christ. Our entire small group was ecstatic!!! Christa told us she was jumping around in the back when she saw Bekah look up. We all gave Bekah a giant hug, trying not to mess up our nail polish. :) Then it was time to gather up for briefing for game day!!!

Check back later to find out more!!

Worldview Academy: Wednesday (Part 2)

If you did not see part 1, here is the link to that. :) http://simba-lionsden.blogspot.com/2013/06/worldview-academy-wednesday-part-1.html

After waking up from my lovely nap, I took a quick shower and got ready to go to our evangelism training. I figured it would be really similar to last year, but I was wrong. The tract was entirely different! I like this one much better than last years though. We watched a video explaining how to use the tract and then were given some basic rules to follow. Wave one, which I was a part of, was dismissed outside to get grouped into our evangelising groups. Evangelising groups consist of three people, either two girls and one boy or vice versa. Two small groups join together to make the groups. Mine was with Griffin's small group. (That is his last name, for anyone who was wondering.) Sarah D. and I were together with a boy named Caleb. It was his third year at WVA and was really quiet and kind of hard to talk to. We loaded up onto our buses and began our journey to a nearby farmer's market. All of our group was really hungry because we did not get to eat before we left. We were supposed to practice on the bus on the way to evangelising, but my group was praying all the way there and talking with other groups. You know you're a homeschooler when, you have no idea how to not slide off a school bus seat when it turns. :) Sarah could not stop laughing every time we turned because I would slide right off of the seat. Christa came back and made sure our group didn't have any questions or concerns before going out. Sarah G., Grace, and I were the only three in our group who had ever gone out evangelising before, so most of our group was a little nervous. I was terrified last year, but I was pretty calm this year, knowing basically what to expect. The tracts were scripts we could follow if we went blank, and staff were going to be out there with us if we ever needed help. This is incredibly comforting. When we got there, we had to walk a little ways to get to the farmer's market, but it was not bad, and there were staff at all the corners, telling us where to go. It was a pretty small area, so that was good, because you could see the staff on the borders of our limits. Caleb started the first conversation because he was the one holding the tract. :) On the bus they told us to make sure we took turns with who started conversations and to make sure we let everyone talk. This was not an issue in my group. Caleb approached an older gentleman, who really did not want to talk to us. He kept redirecting the questions and saying he really didn't care what we believed. His daughter (we think) walked up and he put her in front of us saying she was catholic and she would know the answers to our questions. Of course, we knew the answers to the questions we were asking, so that was not our concern, but we tried to talk to her anyways. She didn't really want to talk to us either and it just became really awkward, so that conversation ended pretty quickly. Next we talked to two younger guys, probably in their late twenties. One of them seemed truly interested in what we were talking about and was willing to answer our questions and listen, but the other one did not care. We talked to them for a little while, pretty much just reading the script, then moved on. We only had forty-five minutes, so we wanted to be able to talk to more than just a handful of people in that time. The next guy we talked to the longest. He had already been approached by another group, but Caleb took initiative and asked what he thought about what the other group said. Basically he said that we should not listen to what they teach us and learn things for ourselves, which we told him we already did. He also told us that if we believed in a loving God that would accept us into heaven without us being out there and talking to other people, there was not point. Overall, after the twenty minute conversation, he showed about six different worldviews. Sarah D. and I both walked away from him crying. Naturally, since Caleb was male, he was not seeing what was going on between me and Sarah, and he handed me the tract and told me to start the next one. Slapping him felt very appealing because he was the only one of the three of us that was not fighting back tears. I found another person that looked curious about what we were all doing, so we talked to him for about five minutes, leaving him with one of the 'checks' from our tracts. The 'checks' had information about what we were saying and a phone number they could call with any questions. After we talked to him, a leader told us to go ahead and walk back to the buses. When we got there we dabbed up with another evangelising group (or two) and prayed for the people we talked to. Then we were off, heading back to campus. The bus was very noisy on the way back and it was hard to hear anyone talking to you, including yourself. Bekah yelled "HEY!!" really loudly and then everyone got quiet enough we could talk to each other. My small group all burst out laughing, knowing that it was not a leader who said that, but a student. :) When we got back to campus, the second wave was waiting to load onto the buses. We had about fifteen minutes to eat dinner, then we could go to small group time to decompress from evangelising before our debrief. Dinner flew by, and the pops met outside the lecture room in a circle of comfy chairs. Christa let us all go around the circle and tell our stories from evangelising. Sarah and I went last, just because of the way we were sitting in the circle, and were surprisingly both able not to cry while we explained. When the second wave got back, we all found our evangelising groups and sat down in the lecture room. It was time for debrief. All of our group was needing a little bit of encouragement, so we were ready to hear the different stories. The way debrief works, is the leaders (in this case, Griffin and Christa) gave general guidelines, like "Who talked to an atheist?" or "Who got yelled at?". If this applied to your group, they would pick someone and your group would stand up and tell the story that applied. When asked if anyone talked to a Buddhist, Caleb raised his hand. Sarah and I gave each other quizzical looks, then we realized that the guy we talked to with six different worldviews main view was Buddhism. Christa was running the mic from group to group, so when she came over, we got an interesting look like 'Why didn't you tell me about this during small group time?'. Sarah and I knew we had some explaining to do. We did tell her, just not in the same words. :) The last one the called was "Who prayed with someone to accept Christ?". SIX small groups went up to the front. Several got to share stories. Overall, seven people accepted Christ, because one small group leader prayed with someone too. After that, they explained the gospel to us as students, then told all of us to close our eyes and bow our heads. Everyone who wanted to accept Christ was asked to look up. Three students accepted Christ that night. TEN people accepted Christ in a matter of about two hours. PRAISE BE TO GOD!!!!! We had worship after this, which everyone really wanted to do anyway, so it was good timing. :) Then we went straight into another lecture. "The Media's False Authority" by Paul Jordan. Then we got a short break, but were not supposed to leave our seats, so we stretched out a little then went into the next lecture. "The End of the Wizard's Ways" by Bill Jack. We sang one of my favorite songs. "Twelve men went to spy on Caanan" :) There are motions and it is really enjoyable!!! One thing that is really interesting about this lecture, is that Bill Jack talks about the meaning of the word 'oz'. It means 'strength'. The main point of the lecture was that God is our Oz. I thought that was really interesting! We went to t-time after this, at which Christa had made us another bag of popcorn, this time unburned. :) We sent Christa to bed pretty quickly after we rated our days, because she was really not feeling well. The whole group was really tired, so we headed to bed early. The end of another amazing day at Worldview Academy. :)

Worldview Academy: Wednesday (Part 1)

Wednesday is split into two parts, because there is way too much that happened to put it into one post. My fingers would probably fall off. :) Anyway, you have been warned!

Wednesday morning started off a little differently, at least for my group. Tuesday night we decided our group was going to get up half an hour early and do worship together before we got going. All of us were prepared to get up at 7:00. Unfortunately, I woke up at 4:30 with a horrible stomach ache. One of the things I hate the most is waking people up in the middle of the night or really early in the morning, so I did not go get me leader at 4:30. I layed in bed until about 6:00, then my stomach hurt so much I couldn't stand it anymore and went to find my leader. The only problem was I didn't know where her room was. All I knew is which floor she was on. Of course this would be a different floor than I was on, so I went downstairs to try to find her. Thankfully, another leader was already up and texted Christa for me. They gave me some medicine and sent me back to bed. After my group did worship, Christa came up to check on me and see if I was feeling up to going to breakfast with the group. I told her yes, so I had to get dressed really quickly. I honestly do not remember if I did my hair or not, so I probably looked quite strange walking into breakfast. :) After what felt like a long time, we went to devotions and then to quiet times. When quiet times were over we went into our first lecture of the day. My group sat in the second row in the middle. The lecture was called "The Biblical Basis for True Authority" and it was given by Bill Jack. It felt like a longer lecture, but it was probably just because I was so tired and I had heard it before. When that lecture was over, we got a little break. I really don't remember what we did, but I was really out of it most of the day. When we came back into sessions, we met a "new" friend. In reality, it was Bill Jack with a toupe and glasses. :) I wish I had a picture, because thinking back it is quite funny. This was what they called our "Worldview Practicum." Bill Jack took on the worldview of a homosexual pastor and claimed the Bible never said anything against homosexuallity that condemned it. Our job as students was to try to prove him wrong. Of course, because the goal was to see if we could apply everything they taught us before going out into the real world, Bill did not budge in his worldview. After a while, we got Bill Jack back and he debriefed us on what just happened. After that was lunch!!! My small group got to eat lunch with Bill Jack, which was really exciting for all of us. :) Christa had us think of questions ahead of time, so that there wouldn't be any awkward silences. We had a good time teasing with him and asking lots of questions. Since evangelising was that afternoon, we did not have small group after lunch .We got about an hour and a half of free time. Christa had some things she had to do before we went evangelising, so our group had to arrange ourselves and figure out where everyone was going to be. Leah and I both decided that it was a good time to take a nap. :)

This concludes part 1 of Wednesday. Check back later for part 2. :)

Worldview Academy: Tuesday

Everyone woke up Tuesday morning to the bright sunshine shining into their windows, ready for a new day to begin. I was quite excited because I got my one-on-one meal with Christa that night. :) We went to breakfast, where Marah sat with us. Marah was the videographer this week and since she didn't have a small group, she sat with us that morning. After breakfast we all headed out to our quiet times. I did not do a repeat of Monday. (I climbed into a tree and then fell out in the middle of quiet times.) :) The grass was quite suitable for me. Once we finished our quiet times, we headed inside to meet up with our group. We sat in the back because there was not any room for everybody in the front. The lecture was on "How to Study the Wiseman's Book" by Paul Jordan. As the lecture went on, my group realized there was no one in the row in front of us, so our feet started to become propped up on the chairs. We slowly turned the chairs around so we did not continue to get our feet stuck and by the end of the lecture, the row did not look anything at all like a straight line. :) Diane was sitting to my left and her chair was kind of at a funny angle, so she had to sit sideways, which meant she was leaning on me most of the lecture. Her head was on my shoulder and my head was on her head, so when we nodded, it made us laugh hysterically. Unfortunately, we could not tell anyone what was going on because we were in the middle of a lecture. :) We did not think to take a picture of this, but it is quite humorous just to think about. Half-way through the lecture, we got a short break, and then continued on with the same lecture. It was really good and enlightening, but it did feel very long. After that we headed to lunch. Once again, we had multiple small groups sitting together, which kind of just became our thing to do during lunch. After lunch was small group time. We started out by making friendship bracelets, or using the thread to braid into our hair. Christa talked to us about various things while we did this. Marah came up at the end of the time and asked to videotape our small group's part in the video. We were all popcorn, since our name was the Pops, and Marah thought this was hilarious! It took four or five takes to get us to all pop up at the same time, but we were all laughing so hard, it really didn't matter to us. Once we finished that, Christa gave us our time and place to meet after free time and we were off. I decided against ultimate frisbee and went to just have some goof off time. I grabbed my portable keyboard and took it outside with some sheet music. I still had not finished my friendship bracelet and realized I had to finish that before I could get my sheet music out. :) While I was working on that, Alicia came up and started playing around on my keyboard, which was humoring me greatly. Christa came and talked to me for a while and talked me into going inside where a game of mafia was going on. I sat and watched the end of that game then joined in on the next game. I honestly do not remember the theme of the round I played, but it was quite confusing. I was the mafia, which is always enjoyable! Caleb knew it too, but they accused both of us, so he was the one who ended up getting executed because my defense against him was that he just accused me because I am his sister. :) It worked quite nicely. I ended up the last of the mafia and got killed quite a while later. Convincing somebody that something is not true, when I know that it is indeed true, is very difficult for me. This showed tremendously. I sat out the next game and talked with a leader that was sitting there watching. Her name was Elisabeth. We played frisbee Monday together, so I kind of knew her already. After free time, my small group met up and headed into our next lecture. It was called "Big J, Little J: The Roots of Order" given by Mike Schutt. It was about God's view of justice and man's view of justice. I heard a similar lecture last year, so I was not too intrigued by this one. Then we had dinner. I got to sit with Christa and have some one-on-one time with her, which I had been looking forward to all day. :) We talked about tons of different things and I found out a bunch of neat stuff about her. After dinner, we headed to a point break to earn more color team points. Then we had a lecture called "The Body" by Mike Tiland. It was about how we have proof from the body of Christ rising from the dead and how to argue for that and what the arguments are against it. I found this lecture quite interesting, but eventually got a little fidgety. Then we had worship and a quick break. The next lecture was a really good one. It was called "Counterfeit Reality" by Bill Jack. It was about how movies change things in our culture and we talked a little bit about what worldviews are displayed in different movies. I thoroughly enjoyed it!!! Then it was time for t-time. The girls went into the round room for some worship time. The acoustics in that room are amazing!!! The groups split up to have a short time for just the small group's t-time. My groups stayed in the round room and rated our days by popcorn flavors, which required quite a bit of creativity on our parts. This created us laughing hysterically through the whole thing. :) Then we headed off to bed. Overall, it was a magnificent day!

Some more pictures!!!

So I found more pictures from camp!! YEA!!

Me and Sarah. Isn't this picture priceless!!!

This is the best picture of us on the chairs. 

My small group on Monday after our practicum. :)

Worldview Academy: Monday

(I know I used everyone's initials yesterday, but that is just too confusing, so I will use everyone's names this time.)

Monday morning Christa woke us all up promptly at 7:30. I was already up, but it was our warning to be downstairs in the lobby in twenty minutes. Our favorite meeting place was down at the baby grand piano in the lobby of our dorms. We were supposed to have quiet times first, but the directors decided that the girls were going to do breakfast while the guys did quiet times then vice versa. So my small group headed to breakfast. Christa decided we were going to eat breakfast as a small group, so we found a table that would seat our group of eight and claimed our seats. They had my favorite food in the whole wide world. BACON!!! For some reason, the bacon at this cafeteria is better than anywhere else. :) We started a tradition for our group that morning. It is called the random question game. Someone at the table asks a random question (anything varying from 'If you had two extra ears, where would you put them?' to 'If you could spend a millions dollars selfishly, what would you do with it?') and we would go around the table and answer. We found a magic coffee pot that morning. When it came out of the pot it just looked like water, but when it hit the cup, it was coffee! This took my group a very long time to figure out, but eventually we watched it sideways and found out that the coffee was coming in behind the water where you cannot see it. :)  I think almost everyone in my small group ended up getting coffee that morning just so we could understand the silly pot. The game made breakfast go by very quickly, so we had to do our intro to quiet times at the table while everyone finished breakfast. After Christa told us where to meet, we were dismissed to do quiet times. When quiet times were over, we met at the ping-pong tables to count up our group before heading to camp pictures. It took the guys quite a while to organize themselves, so we all stood around waiting. The girl leaders were making us do motions to children's songs while we waited, but it was a little squished where I was standing, so I just sang along and laughed at how ridiculous the leaders all looked. :) Eventually, the girls got to go up to get posed for the picture. We probably took just as long as the guys. I kind of feel bad for them because they were quite squished up there waiting for us to get ready. After figuring it out, we got the picture and found our small group leaders, so we could head into our first lecture. It was titled "Simple Tools for Brain Surgery" and was given by Bill Jack. We had a quick break after that to goof around. My group did jumping jacks and ran around just so we could get some energy out. Then we went into a lecture called "Reliability of Scripture" given by Paul Jordan. We had another small break after that lecture to stretch our legs and get a drink and just be kids for a little bit. The breaks are only five to ten minutes, but much cherished. My group played the foot game, along with some other girls. Then we had a lecture on "Servant Leadership" given by Mike Schutt. This was one of my favorite lectures last year, and I quite enjoyed it again this year, especially hearing things worded just a little different. After that was our favorite break of all. Lunch!! My small group from last year wanted to sit together, so we did. My small group this year wanted to sit together too though, so we all squashed ourselves into one table. :) Lunch break is quite long, so we goofed around for the break. Then we had to meet Christa for our leadership practicum. Last year the practicum felt impossible, but this year it was pretty easy. I wish I could explain it with words, but it is really difficult. The goals were for us to show the five pillars of leadership, which we were told in the lecture before. They are meekness, integrity, attitude, vision, and empowerment. After we finished the practicum, we sat down at talked about it. Once we finished as a group, we split into smaller groups to talk about which pillars we needed to work on most and pray together. I was paired with Diane. We got to know each other pretty well during our little conversation. After that we went to free time. I went to go play ultimate frisbee. We started in one field and ended up moving to another after we found out there were two different games going on. I played until about half an hour before we needed to head back so I could get a shower. After free time, we had another lecture. It was on "The Marks of a Pseudo-Christian Cult" by Mike Tiland. Then we had dinner, which was pretty short. When we got back into the lecture hall, we were introduced to the Spamley Cup. The coveted prize of Worldview Academy. Whichever color team collected the most points over the course of the week won. We were also given the chance to earn some points. Then we had our lecture on "How to Know the Truth" by Mike Schutt. Then we got to have worship and another small break. Next was our lecture on "Creation vs. Evolution" by Bill Jack. Then we had transition into t-time, my favorite part of the day. Leah had not been feeling well most of the day, so she went to bed early while the rest of us met outside Christa's dorm for some worship time and popcorn. :) Unfortunately, Christa burned the popcorn, so we called it smokey barbecue popcorn without the barbecue. Out of this mistake came many things. One of them was our name and response. That night, our group was officially name "The Pops". Christa would yell "Where are my pops!?!" and we would respond as loud as we could, "Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, burn!!!" Ultimately we were teasing Christa for burning the popcorn, but it was enjoyable and she took it well. :) While we were waiting for the rest of the group to get there, Bekah, Diane and I were fighting over a hackey-sack and throwing it around the little area Christa told us to stay in. We also found out Bekah does not like her feet being touched, so naturally we had to try to touch Bekah's feet. Everyone else got there and did not understand what in the world was going on, but it was enjoyable to see their faces. After t-time we all headed to bed. Leah was asleep, so I had to be very quiet getting into bed. I just slept in my clothes from the day and went to sleep myself. It was a wonderful day full of wonderful memories and I was ready to start another.

Worldview Video

Worldview Academy: Sunday

(I am going to address everyone by initials for everyone else's sake.) Sunday was really crazy! I had to leave from church and go home to let the puppy out before loading up the car to head to camp. After the hour and a half drive the sight of staffers jumping around in bright red shirts came into view. Excitement radiated through camp as we drove up and the staff unloaded the car. We went into the dorm lobby to check-in. I got my room key and headed up to my room. I ran into some of my friends on the way up the stairs and they helped me settle in to my room. On the way to my room I also met some of my friends from my small group last year. After checking in, I was given a fork. Yes, a fork. The goal of the game was to collect as many as you could as a small group. This required asking everyone who's small group they were in and if they were not in yours, take their fork. I got K's (a friend from last year) once, but I ended up giving it back so didn't each get half. :) I met A, S, and M from my small group last year while we were all walking around waiting for round-up. I did not meet anyone from my small group while playing the fork game. I did manage to get one other fork, but that was it. When we headed over to round-up I met one of my friend's friends from theater. At registration everyone is given a colored wrist band. They are either red, blue, green, or yellow. This determines what color team you are on. When we got to round-up they taught us the "Tally! Ho!!" call out. This is to how they get everyone's attention. The leader yells "Tally!!" and all of the students respond with "HO!!" as loud as we can yell. After responding, all of the students have to be silent and be paying attention to whoever is talking. Once everyone learned this, we split into our color teams and did some silly little challenges to earn points. We had to take as many of the desired objects to the center as possible and whichever team had the most of this object got the points. We did things like sunglasses, notebooks, Bibles, etc. I was on green team. I think we won one of these challenges, but I am not sure. After doing this several times, we split up to groups of boys and girls to be put in our small groups.  So I was in C's small group. She was really bubbly and happy. The rest of my small group consisted of S.G, S.D, G, B, D, and L. S.G is our leader's younger sister. S.D and G go to church together. We had small group time and played two truths and a lie. It is a game where you have to say two things true about yourself and then one thing that is not. I don't remember what I said, or what most of the other people said. I do remember that L almost got trampled by horses and B played with wolves. After that we went to orientation. They introduced us to everyone important then we headed to dinner. My small group ate together since it was our first meal as a group. After dinner we had our first lecture, "Intro to Worldview." Then we had hall meeting, which means the guys went and were told the rules in words a guy would understand and the girls were told the rules in a way a girl would understand. The girls learned fun facts about each of the leaders and then we talked a little bit and then sang a song. Then we went to t-time. T-time is the time we get to spend as a small group and just be silly. This time is very important because we are really serious most of the day, and then we get some time that we don't have to worry about being mature or following particular rules. :) There still are rules, but they are not as strict. My leader plays guitar, so she played and the group sang several songs. It was a lot of fun!! Sitting on the sidewalk outside the dorms and singing at the top of our lungs to worship songs is a great way to bond, especially for my group. After t-time we were sent to bed. Overall, it was a marvelous day.

A Summary of Worldview Academy

One of my friends posted this and I thought she worded it perfectly, so I wanted to share.
It's been such a "joyful" time! I absolutely love and cherish the friends I made! I adore the memories that go from burning popcorn, to laughing hysterically, to writing stories or reading stories having to do with minions, to hanging upside down on chairs, to praying constantly with dear friends, to singing the doxology in the echoey circle room, to reading God's word in the grass with the sun beating down, to talking with people like you've known them forever, to playing Frisbee, to writing with green sharpie all over myself, to drinking Mt dew like every day, to spilling coffee, to singing to whales and stars, to embracing sweet new friends! I miss everyone and everything about Worldview Academy! I can't wait to return next year! :D

Worldview Academy

This week was Worldview Academy. I thought I would post pictures first and then the more detailed information later on when my brain starts working again. :) So here are some pictures, probably more to come later on.

Sarah and I just being silly.

From left to right- Leah, Bekah, me and Sarah goofing off before
color team challenge. 

From left to right- Christa (our leader), me, Sarah, and Grace
jumping on furniture before devotions. :)

Sarah and I all decked out for color team challenges.

More of us playing on the chairs. 

From left to right- my small group getting color team pictures.
Leah, Sarah, Grace, Bekah, me, Sarah G. and Diane, 

Sarah and I before we got our game faces on. 

Waiting for lectures to start. (From left to right- Bekah,
Diane, Grace, and me)

My amazing, wonderful small group.
(Christa, Sarah G. Leah, me, Grace, Bekah, Diane, and Sarah)

Playing before lectures.

Sarah being Sarah.

Grace on her chair.

My evangelising group.
(Sarah, me, and Caleb)

What we really do before devotions. :)

My awesome roommate Leah. :)

Sarah goofing off.

Alicia making silly faces at me. 

Diane being cute, as always. 

Bekah and Grace. 

No explanation needed.

:)

Blue team in my small group. 

Green team in my small group. 

Red and yellow team in my small group.

Creepiest photo bomb ever. 

Bekah laughing hysterically, Grace photo bombing, Alicia making
silly faces, and me actually smiling for the camera.

Leah and I ready for battle!

Last day pictures.
(Sarah, Leah, Grace, Bekah, Christa, Sarah G. and me)

The best small group leader in the universe!! I love you Christa!!!

Wedding

Today was one of my friend's weddings. Technically it was one of my friend's older sister's wedding, but I am friends with both of them, so it counts. I have only met the groom once before today, and didn't really talk to him today, but I have known the bride for many, many years. The morning started out really calm and then we all had to get ready for the wedding. The mother of the bride asked us to pick up the cake at Milano's, so we had to do that at 11:45 because the bakery closed at noon. Unfortunately the wedding did not start until 3:00. :) After we dropped the cake off at the church, we went to Noodles and Co. for lunch, which was really nummy. Then we went back to the church to help prepare any food that needed to be done before hand that the caterer was not bringing. We said hello to some friends and waited for the wedding to start. It was lutheran, so it was a little different than what I am used to, but not drastically. One very interesting thing about the wedding is that there were two deaf people there, so there was an interpreter for the entire wedding. I pretty much just watch him, especially through the songs. Mom and I were helping in the kitchen so we had to leave a little early. I stayed until after the vows and exchange of rings then went to help with the caterers. They were taking pictures for a long time after the wedding ceremony before the reception, so we waited quite a while before we could eat dinner. Since I was helping, I was not able to eat until after everyone else, which was okay with me because it was really, really hot in there and that spoiled my appetite. Mom and I had a conversation with the interpreter and the two deaf people there. The interpreter was amazed at how well I signed, even though I am not very good at all. It was really hard to follow what he said and I had to slow way down to talk and sign at the same time. One of my friends that was there just graduated college for being a sign language interpreter and I talked to her for a little bit while we helped serve cake. The wedding speeches were a little, well, unusual. The maid-of-honor (my good friend) sang hers to the tune of "Piano Man" by Billy Joel and changed all of the words. It was quite funny. :) Then the best man said his in the form of Dr. Seuss. Needless to say, it was quite an interesting night. The bride and her father danced to "Butterfly Kisses" by Bob Carlisle and the mother and groom danced to "What a Wonderful World" at least at first. Then it switch to the hokey pokey. :) It was really unexpected and made everyone in the room start laughing. After all of this fun, I am not very tired and am looking forward to my bed.

Prom and Prejudice

The title makes you wonder, doesn't it?

I am doing a summer reading program at the library where after you read for so long or so many pages (depending on which you choose. I chose the amount of time.) you get a prize. I only know the first two prizes because that is all I have gotten. I just started it today, so that makes it quite difficult. After you read two hours, you get a piece of candy and after four hours you get a free book. This is where prom and prejudice come in. :) The book I chose off of their little cart was a book titled 'Prom and Prejudice'. It is basically 'Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austen in the setting of a current day private high school. It is very amusing and hard to put down if you know the original story, and probably even if you didn't. The characters have the same names, so it is not hard to figure out who is who from the original. I really do not like British literature, so reading 'Pride and Prejudice' was very boring to me, but this is quite intriguing. It puts it in words that high schoolers today can understand and makes the story relatable.

It really was not as strange as you suspected, I am sure, but at the same time, you are all probably used to...well...odd titles by now. :)

Fun with Kiddos

Yesterday some of our kiddo friends came over for the day to play while their parents went to a meeting. It was so much fun to play with them. Their ages are 6, 5, 3 1/2, and almost 2. They all loved jumping on the trampoline and making me jump them and make them fly. :) The youngest did not like this very much after a while, so he had to sit in a lap so that he would not bounce as high. The girls (6 and 5) both loved getting their nails painted and watching a princess movie and reading princess books, of which we read for an hour. (Only homeschooled children!) I was sad to see them go, but we saw them later that night at a friends graduation party. Today at church, the littlest ran up to be and gave me a giant hug. This is his way of saying "I love you so much. Thank you for existing!" He is a cutie and a half, along with all of his siblings.

By the way, be warned. Worldview Academy is coming up soon and I will post my journal entries from that as soon as I can after I get back. They will not be very short, that I can promise.

Enjoy the beautiful weather!!!

Last Week of School

This week is my last week of school before summer break, which is not really a break. :) Bella's mom is done with school, so I stop watching her this week, and that ends my child development class. Unfortunately I will still have to do some school over the summer. Math, my worst enemy. I also have a class I have to take before I can start CollegePlus in the fall. It is a memory class that is supposed to be pretty easy, and it looks quite fun, to me at least. It teaches you how to memorize things quickly and effectively. I like memorizing stuff, so it should be fun! My summer camp is in two weeks and I am over the top with excitement. (This includes almost being packed, and having pretty much everything ready to go....now) The next two weeks are going to be the longest weeks of my life. :)