Summers of Wonder--Intro

It's hard to believe that today is July 18th already. The summer is well over halfway over!

  As you may or may not know, I am sending the summer at K-Kountry, one of the six Kanakuk Kamps. This is actually my third summer working at the kountryside, and my fifth summer in K-Land. The first two summers were spent at KAA.
  Now that you have access to lots of general information to the world I live in, and love, I must tell you that I cannot wait to tell you all about the summer, and my soon to be made announcement of something exciting I have jumped into. I am not going
 to have time to now, but soon I will update you with words and pictures of this summer of wonder. Until I can, please look at the K-Kountry website, where every post before July 16th, contains photos I took personally. My job the first six weeks of the summer was photographer(aka best job ever), and for the remaining four weeks, cook.
  

Some of my favorite kamp people, most of whom have gone home now.

Pray for these things over the next three weeks!
    1. ENERGY! I need lots of it!
    2. Patience. I am now living with 14 other girls and we all work in the hottest part of kamp, the kitchen.
        Pray that we are constantly encouraging and are constantly loving each other as Christ would.
    3. School and Job planning in KC. I will be living there in four weeks!
    4. Pray for our kampers! They are the best around! Pray for soft, receptive hearts to what the Lord is
        doing in each of their lives.

reality. here. now.

Today is May 15, 2011.
I decided to move to KC on approximately, January 15, 2011.
I move my belongings to KC on May 18, 2011.
I move to kamp, for three months, on May 22, 2011.

1. Time has flown very rapidly since January. I feel like just yesterday it was January 1, and I was sitting in the Powers' home, only dreaming of moving to KC. Since then, I have made so many new friends here in Springfield, making it so much harder to move. I started a job in February, thinking it was going to be "just a job." It has been so much more.
      
2. I have not started packing yet. If you know me, you know I am a procrastinator. I have not moved cities since 2008...I don't think procrastinating is a good idea this time. Oh well!

3. The last month and a half have been such! a battle. My sinful and imperfect self is good at being convinced that living in Springfield is just easier, and would make sense. My Lord has a plan though, and assures me of it, even though I cannot see it. He has been SO faithful to show himself to me in the midst of my worrying, about not having things all ready to move, or about little things happening here. There is none better than He.

4. I am so bad at change! I don't do goodbye's well, and almost always am a little hesitant to step into a new "world." I said my first goodbye to Sharlotte Paradise, a little one I have been babysitting for four months, on Wednesday. That was the first check into the reality of this all. There are many more to happen soon, so pray that I am confident in them. I have many dear, dear friends in Springfield.

5. Whoa. It has been nine whole months, and it is time for kamp again! This is kind of hard to believe, but I am very excited. I have not seen some of my best friends in so long, and I know that their "side" hugs are going to feel phenomenal. I cannot wait to see familiar kid's faces, and I especially cannot wait to have a camera in my hand, capturing life for six weeks. I am so blessed to be a part of something so glorious!

...I planned for this to be very short. I just needed to release some emotion. Here it is.

Have a beautiful day!
       charli

another year older.

I am very bad at this blog thing, but as long as I have it, I promise to keep it updated.

  I am officially 22 years old. I celebrated my birthday on Monday, the 7th, and had a marvelous day. My day started off with thoughts of discouragement because of the fact that I had no birthday plans. Those thoughts quickly changed when my dear friend Ryan texted and ended up coming over. We spent the majority of the day drinking hot green tea, playing words with friends on his iPod, and just being in eachother's company. He is one of my favorites because of this fact. Ryan and I do not have to do anything that costs money, or anything super cool when we hang out. It is usually just a time of relaxation and good conversation. My birthday was also filled with plenty of cupcakes. Both of my roommates who were home on my birthday gifted me cupcakes. Ashley made lots of mini-cupcakes and lit them for me to blow out. Jessie bought me my first The Cup cupcake. It was very worthy of praise...of the food type. My brother and sister-in-law ended up coming to Springfield that night and taking me to dinner at Cheddar's and to Orange Leaf! Love them! My day ended with my sweet small group girls. I am blessed to lead them in studying the Word of God. The Holy Spirit really made his presence known to me that evening, I was very thankful. My birthday ended up being very encouraging and lovely.

   I got a new job! I am now an employee of Wal-Mart! I have been very blessed in how fast this job came along. After applying last week, I just called to check on my application on Monday, and had my first official work day yesterday. I work in the dry grocery department, and am loving it so far(day 2 today). I am the only girl in my department, but am very welcomed....by most of them. My job is to put food where it goes, find out where it is if it is not there, and make sure it looks good. There are many other things I do, but those easily summarize it. Today, I kicked over a bottle of vodka, and it busted. Oops.

  The Lord has truly been blessing me. In the wide scheme of things, I am not the rich or gifted in by worldly definition, but I do not need to be. The Lord is taking care of my finances, working in my friends who are truly open to His plan, and is opening my eyes and heart to his desires. The latter has been a process. I feel as if I am the bad person, wanting something greater than ourselves, and not stopping to mingle with those that are stuck in the routines of this world. My eyes have been open to see sin that most people my age do not care to kill, and my heart has been breaking for the people that are merely forgotten in the busyness of the people who "have everything together" in this busy world. i want to live like Paul did, counting everything as loss compared to knowing Christ, and I want to run after the one who is lost, leaving the ninety-nine who know and have. I want people to come alongside me in community, fighting for my sanctification, and me fighting for theirs. I want Christ to be glorified in my first and foremost.

  Another way the Lord has blessed me this week is in seeing the grass today! If you don't know anything about why, I live in Missouri, and about 24 total inches of snow have been dumped on us in the last two weeks. I must say, it was fun while it was fresh and pretty, but I am tired of it now.

Here are a few pictures of the last 1.5 weeks...

Megan, Jocelyn, Jen(my third roommate) and I played in the snow on the first day of the blizzard last week. It was super cold, but we made the most of it.

Ryan and I built this 1,000-piece puzzle on day two of the blizzard.

This is Ashley's wonderful cupcake creation.

My first The Cup cupcake! Peanut Butter...yum.

I got this sweet picture of my niece, Marlo, the other day. She is two and I will be living with her in August!

the beginning.

 I have no clue what I am doing. You should probably exit this tab if you are looking for eloquent writing, funny quotes, witty comments & remarks, correct punctuation & grammar, or anything amazing.

 I am simply beginning this blog for my beloved friend and sister in Christ, Xuan Huynh. She wants to know my life, since we are not able to live in the same city anymore. Thanks Xuan for having such a deep concern for me, and my growth/changes/life. You, friend, bless me.
 
 If you are not Xuan, obviously my page is public, so I hope I can somehow be a blessing to you as you see my life played out. Prepare to not be amazed, but know that I don't live a life to impress people with what I have or do...I just want to be the light of Christ for those that are still in the darkness, and encourage those who walk with me in sharing the Light.

 It is now 2:40am, and I must sleep, but welcome to my life. :)