Divisional Youth Chorus

Well tonight I was at DHQ for a divisional youth chorus rehearsal..Gavin Whitehouse (a relatively new member of the GNY music and creative arts department) is the leader. He is awesome and has an awesome choice in music..Anyway we started looking at songs for the Good Friday easter service. He shared with us a story about his last Good Friday in Australia..there was a soloist for this song and she couldn't finish her solo because she was soo touched by the words singing as was I, as I was singing them tonight.. The name of the song is That's what the blood was for. These are the words

Verse 1
When I think of all the times that I have failed my precious Lord,
Or turned my back and walked the other way.
My heart is filled with sadness, and I'm overcome with shame,
Ridden with the guilt of my mistakes; but when I fall before Him and cryout in regret,

Chorus
He whispers, "my child don't forget, That's what the blood was for,
to pay what you could never afford,
To cleanse you and free you ad see you restored, that's what the blood was for."

verse 2
I may never understand how such a good and holy God
could shower me so freely with His love.
It's so hard to imagine that after all I've done,
My simple plea could ever be enough.
But when I stand before Him, He sees all my faults and yet

Chorus
He whispers "my child, don't forget, that's what the blood was for
to pay what you could never afford,
To cleanse you and free you ad see you restored, that's what the blood was for."

Some verses to think about: Psalm 139: 1-10, 1 Oh Lord you have searched me and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord, 5 You hem me in-behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 7 Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go to the heavens, you are there; If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, and your right hand will hold me fast.

Jeremy Camp

Hey everybody,
Anyone heard of Jeremy Camp? Well he is having a concert at the CMT February 4th. It's a non army event, so they have tickets. I'm not sure how much they cost but they have sold 1,100 allready! I'm suprised, well I might be working, like camera stuff for it! Should be cool! Check out his website...

Eagles Wings

Artist: Hillsongs
Album: By Your Side
Title: Eagles Wings

Here I am waiting abide in me I pray
Here I am longing for You
Hide me in Your love
Bring me to my knees
May I know Jesus more and more
Come live in me
All my life take over
Come breathe in me
And I will rise on eagles wings

If you can, I encourage you to listen to this song today and if not, well just think about the words.
God bless

THQ

Ahh what an eventful day! I have off most of this week for testing. I knew that Stephen and Seth needed uniforms and the staff band had rehearsal so it was a perfect day to go to THQ! Well it is always a pleasure to "chill" with the super cool youth department and the TAM crew. Mhairi decided that since the older ladies always have birthday parties during their coffee break that it was our turn to have a party. So we faked it was Tabitha's Birthday with a cake and everything. We even sang! Anyway after the party was over it was back to work. As I was "working" in the youth department, I was urgently called into the TAM offices. They wanted me to help them (be the river of sin) in their choreo-drama that Carol and Tabitha are going to teach in Argentina. They had Mrs. Bate be the narrator, Chris Stoker (on of the funniest men alive) be Jesus, Ian Evans be the boy who gets stuck in the river of sin, and Mhairi, Seth, Amber and myself be the river of sin. It was soo funny!! I mean it was cool but with all those people improvising what they should be doing, it was a laugh! I also talked with one of my NEW favorite people, Mrs. Hickman. She is really cool. Don't worry if your even reading this you are probably on the list of favorite people, it is really long, no specific order though! lol..Then Mrs. Bate, Stephen, Seth and I made this 'exhilarating" poem with the magnetic words on Mhairi's filing cabinet! As Mrs. Bate said, everyone should memorize this so that the next time I see you, you can recite it to me lol...

I LOVE MY FRIENDS!

I love my friends!

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

lyrics

Tuesday, during the kids cafe the children were singing this song in junior songsters..I think that music is one of the best ways to get God's message across..I have been thinking lately what it WILL be like when I meet Jesus and how I will react...Anyway I love this song...

Artist: Mercy Me
Album: Almost There
Track: I Can Only Imagine

I can only imagine
What it will be like
When I walk
By Your side
I can only imagine
What my eyes will see
When Your face
Is before me
I can only imagine

[Chorus]:
Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel
Will I dance for You Jesus or in awe of You be still
Will I stand in Your presence or to my knees will I fall
Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all
I can only imagine

I can only imagine
When that day comes
And I find myself
Standing in the Son
I can only imagine
When all I will do
Is forever
Forever worship You
I can only imagine

Happy Birthday to me!

Well, my dad just left for South Korea. He comes home the 24th. I miss him already, I hate when people leave. Please keep him in your prayers. He is going to teach at a music school for a week.
Anyway, I got home from the gym with my sister yesterday and I walk in the back door and "Suprise!!" It was a suprise birthday! Wow! I (for once) had NO clue! Stephen, Seth, Meghan, Chris, Vic, Tim, my parents (obviously), Aly and his girlfriend Anna, Simon, Major and Mrs.Ditmer, and a friend from school, oh yeah and the Nivens :) It was fun.. we celebrated it before my dad went away, which was good. My actual Birthday isn't till Monday. This weekend is a three day weekend so Felix, Katherine and Stephanie are coming over from Saturday till Monday! Saturday night at the Ditmers house andthen Sunday night at my house! I love them! Kinda like a little extended birthday party. I can't believe that when my dad gets back from Korea I'm going to get my permit..ahahaha I'm soo excited.. I remember thinking that graduating and driving was soo far away and now it's right around the corner. It's exciting! I used to tell Doug only 8 more years till I graudate, I also made a bet with him that I would never get a detention in high school, so far so good. He still thinks that I will eventually. We'll see :) I'll be sure to take many pictures this weekend and post them!
God Bless and have a blessed day!

Random though: I was sitting in Biology today and the teacher starts a lesson on evolution. All about the big bang and that we evolved from monkeys. Why is it that the school is allowed to teach a "theory" of how the world started and not the way we view it? Howcome we don't sit there and learn that God made the earth and humans? Do people honestly think that everything started with a bang!

New York City/Hempstead

I was in the city tonight for youth band tonight. I seemed to enjoy it more then ever. It was so much fun and I liked all the music we played for once. Anyway, I was waiting outside DHQ with my sister (My dad was getting the car.) As I was standing there an older looking man, smoking something walked by us, looked at the Salvation Army sign and started cursing and saying mean things about the Army. My sister was on the phone so she didn't say anything but neither did I. What is there to say? How on earth do you repsond to such nasty comments? Well I know one way to answer it but its not very Christian like to do, so I didn't do it. What do you do in a situation like that?
Anyway on a lighter note, I was reading the GNY music and creative arts review for the year and found a paragraph on a boy who attends my church. It said this..."Christopher Ward reports on Baquan Lewis an eight year old who lives on Terrace Avenue across the street from the Hempstead corps. He comes from tough home circumstances and is exposed to was more than an eight year old should be. He started attending Sunday School about four years ago and when he became a regular he was allowed to be part of the Kids cafe program. He now is singing in the Singing Company and has joined the music theory class. He recently attended the GNY Music and Creative Arts camp (Star Lake) and returned expressing a desire to play a brass instrument and in September he started to take cornet lessons. Baquan realizes what a privilege it is to be part of this program and more importantly he is learning what it is to be a christian." What a story! I have personally seen an amazing change in Baquan. He used to be the "trouble maker" starting fights, cursing etc. Recently, escpecially after Star Lake and when he started playing an insturment I have seen an amazing change in him. He doesn't fight anymore and when he gets frusterated one of the leaders just tells him to close his eyes and take a deep breath and he calms down. I love this kid so much. He keeps talking about camp and how he can't wait to go back and that he wants to stay all summer. I feel bad for him though. The circumstances his has to live in is not fair. He is exposed to guns, drugs, alcohol on a daily basis, it is normal to him.
One day Mrs.Ditmer and I were driving him to a party and we were going through a wealthy area and he kept saying I'm going to have a house like that one day. Mrs.Ditmer said to him, do you have Jesus in your heart? He said YES, and then she said well there is already a mansion waiting for you in heaven. God is saving a place for all who believe in Him in His mansion. His eyes lit up and he said really!? Baquan Lewis is such a blessing to me. This is jsut one story of the many that are hapening at Hempstead Citadel..Thank you Lord!!!

reunion continued

During the reunion Major Stoops shared this song with us... I was very moved by it.

Casting Crowns
Does Anybody See Her

She is running
A hundred miles an hour in the wrong direction
She is trying
But the canyon’s ever widening
In the depths of her cold heart
So she sets out on another misadventure just to find
She’s another two years older
And she’s three more steps behind

Does anybody hear her? Can anybody see?
Or does anybody even knows she’s going down today
Under the shadow of our steeple
With all the lost and lonely people
Searching for the hope that’s tucked away in you and me
Does anybody hear her? Can anybody see?

She is yearning
For shelter and affection
That she never found at home
She is searching
For a hero to ride in
To ride in and save the day
And in walks her prince charming
And he knows just what to say
Momentary lapse of reason
And she gives herself away

If judgement looms under every steeple
If lofty glances from lofty people
Can’t see past her scarlet letter
And we never even met her

The Reunion

This weekend I went to a camp staff reunion..not everyone could come because we had many international staff and people had to work and stuff. It was great to catch up with everyone though..Today Major Stoops told us the theme for next year. It's called "Collision Course" now at first I was a little suspect because the name sounded a little cheesy..but once he explained it I fell in love with it.. The verse is 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come!" He said..."God is planning a collision to take place at Star Lake. Your life path and the life path of someone else will meet at camp this summer. And that this time is God's time for his work to take place. He has been designing you, his servant "for such a time as this." Then he mentioned that in chemistry if you take sodium and chlorine and combine them, the ultimate collision makes something completely new and different..salt. he said that that is an example what can happen when a follower of Jesus, who is willing to be available for God, and a non believing child collide at camp- something new and different can happen..Then he went on to say that first, this collision should take place in us (staff). Then he quoted David Crowder "When our depravity meets His divinity, it's a beautiful collision." I really feel that lives are going to be changed, not just the campers but the staff as well..I am looking forward to working again this year...Anyway, after our devotions we got a chance to look at the new High Ropes course (thanks to Paul(muppet))... then some of us went down to the lake that was completely frozen over. It looked soo nice!
Just one random thought..I was flipping through channels and I stopped on MTV and there was a commercial for a christian cd..I was soo shocked, normally their ads are all alcohol and other not so good stuff.
God Bless

I'm still here

G’day mate!
As you can see by the many pictures, Thursday was a very eventful day! I went to my Auntie Karen and Uncle Haden’s house, well cottage. You see they live in this place called Kelp (I think) and it is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, just farmland. The man with the dog is a neighbor one of ten…you see in this little town there are only ten other houses. Anyway, to pass some time my Uncle decided it would be nice for my dad and I to go on a walk to a river. It was a little chilly but it was definitely worth it. On the way to the ridiculously long road that led to the river…there was this church. I was really surprised that they had a church in a town that small. They had NO stores and one pub… what an exciting place to live! Finally we reached the river..It looked soo pretty out there…all icy and snowy and the clouds were absolutely amazing! It was one of God’s beautiful creations. It was soo peaceful and quite out their..I’m soo used to the busyness of the city, and traffic….so to spend a day in the country side was really nice…I don’t think I could live their though..TOO quite! After our long walk, I showed them pictures of my house on my laptop and I was trying to convince them to get a computer…My Uncle uses them at work but doesn’t really like them. I don’t understand why…anyway, I can’t believe I have only been on the Internet twice!!!! Oh my, I don’t think you realize how useful and addicting the computer is until you don’t have it. I challenge whoever reads this to try to not use your computer for just one day..I bet you will struggle, especially if you are on blogger.
Saturday I went to a Pantomime..I had no idea what the heck it ment but I guess it was ok for what it was..