This Week

Wow, this week flew by. Wednesday I took a trip to THQ. Stephen and Seth had to pick up their uniforms from trade. We hung out with Mhairi all day. We went to IKEA and bought 11 frames for the old posters in the youth department, andthen attempted to put the posters in the frames. Oh what fun! Then Lindsay came back with us.


Thursday we had an international buffet to raise money for the hero fund. It was a great success. Lots of work and planning went into the event. And we successfully made $430.00 praise the Lord! We also had Raymond Livingston come and he sang and we all sang together and it really went well. Then Felix Padilla came (late ofcoarse) and stayed over. We hung out and played board games and just had a great time talking with eachother. I can't say how much I love having good christian friends to hang out with. We have our serious times and silly times and we can talk about anything. I love them soo much and I thank God for the good times that we can have together.




Friday was the Fet. We went into the city to go to American Eagle and to eat at the Salvation Army HOTSPOT, Sammys. I have to say I have never been so nervous for anything in my ENTIRE LIFE! For many it was just another FET but for me this was the first time performing in a vocal quartet. I was shaking and the rehearsal before it didn't go well so I was on the verge of crying. Thankfully Mhairi came and sorta calmed me down a little bit. I then sat in the bandroom and just prayed for like 20 minutes. That is not like me to not be social before an FET but I was way too nervous! I came to the realization that I care WAY to much about other peoples opinions. I am soo self conscious when it comes to performing in front of a bunch of Salvation Army people and people that I know! Anyway Paul helped me to realize that I shouldn't care about what other people think because it was my personal offering to God. Anyway, no major mistakes happend only on my solo I was extremely shakey. Anyway, Pastor Jim Cymbala once again blessed me with his message. He is a very powerful speaker and definitely gets me thinking about a whole lot of stuff. In particular my family. Anyway after it was over I got to talk to allot of people that I don't see very often, so that was good :) Then I was off to Sunset park, Brooklyn to stay at the Padilla's house. We had lots of fun!

Pictures

I know it's a little late but here are some pictures from the Young Adult Retreat!

FET

Hello everyone,
Just a little reminder that there is an FET on Friday! 7:25pm (I always thought that was such a silly time). Anyway Pastor Jim Cymbala from the Brooklyn Tabernacle will be speaking, which is definitely something to look forward to. The GNY Youth band will also be performing. There will also be a little group of singers. Gavin Whitehouse, Felix and Katherine Padilla, My sister and I accompanied by Billy Francis and a little pit band. It should be great! I'm soo nervous though. I have NO idea why they asked me of all people to sing with them. AH!!! Anyway, It will be a great night and I hope you all can come!
God Bless

P.S. just thought I would share this picture with you all... This is what Stephen does on the weekends lol :)
Also this Thursday night is an International dinner at the Hempstead corps. Corps soldiers are making different dishes in which we will be serving 50 cents a scoop (All money will go toward the hero fund). There will also be some entertainment, we are having Raymond Livingston and there will be singing, acting, and loads of fun. There will also be a love offering that will be taken up, all money will go toward the Hero Fund. So please if you have nothing to do Thursday night come to the corps and enjoy some food and fellowship!
Almost forgot the GNY Be a Hero Fund-raiser is soon.. Be sure to check it out and please come and support our efforts in building a childrens home in Nigeria.

Love

Lately I've been thinking alot about the word "love" and well it just so happens to be Valentines day too! Yesterday I had divisional Youth Chorus and we were practicing a song for the Easter FET and the Chorus was I love you, I love you, that's what Calvery said, I love you, I love you, I love you written in red. Now reading that and hearing it sung are two very different things. The way the notes fall into place in this song makes the words I love you really think about God loving us. After sining that I decided to look up the word love in both the dictionary and the bible. The dictionary said- A deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person, such as that arising from kinship, recognition of attractive qualities, or a sense of underlying oneness. Then in the bible, the characteristics of love - well ofcoarse 1 Corinthians 13. But next to that in my bible says this. Genuine love is a choice to act a certain way, regardless of how you feel. Love is patient when you're frusterated, kind when others are unkind. Love always seeks good of the other person. Love does not get mad easily or hold grudges. Love is trusting, protective, hopeful and strong. TRUE LOVE IS TO LOVE AS GOD LOVES. I find it interesting how different these two definitions are.
The fact that God loves all of us SOO much that he gave His son to die on the cross for OUR sins stills boggles my mind and forever will!
So next time you say I love you to someone think about what love really means.

Young Adult Retreat

Well, God answers prayers because our whole youth chorus was moved by the spirit this weekend. It was very different for us because we have never lead worship. I think it went well. Friday night Mrs.Hickman spoke about the theme Relevant. I say between the lovely Mrs.Bate and the amazingly spiritual Major Munn. Wow! Saturday morning we lead 30 minutes of praise and worship, although it was early it went really well. Then we went to three different sessions. First I went to Major Munns session on holiness. I heard Major Munn speak about it at the Youth Holiness Advance before but it was refreshing to hear it again. Then I went to Mrs.Hickmans session on being a christian woman in this world. She really nailed it! It was awesome. Then I went to Paul Dymott's session on balancing everything in your life. Work/school, Family/friends, and ofcoarse your time with God. He did this really cool exercise with nails. He had a nail in a block of wood and asked us to balance 14 other nails on top of it. After 10 minutes I started to think it was impossible. Well it wasn't, Paul showed us a certain way that it would work. Obviously the moral was that God was the nail in the block and with Him as your source, you can balance everything. Andthen I had my interview for Star Lake. Mrs. Stoops said that I am already hired, so that was comforting. Then Captain Hickman blessed us all with his wonderful message. God really spoke to us all through his message, it even brought many of us to tears. I was crying through the whole thing. It was very moving and I was extremely blessed. God is Good!

As for today, church was cancelled. The snow and I have a love/hate relationship. I love the way it looks and how it lets us have off school, but I hate when I have to shovel it all. Oh well.

Young Adult Divisional

Habakkuk 3:2 "Lord I have heard of you fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy."

This weekend my corps Youth Chorus is leading worship at Greater New York's Divisional Young Adult Retreat. I'm really excited because I am technically not aloud to attend a young adult retreat beacause I'm only 16. I guess it is God's will that I should be there this weekend. To be honest, if we weren't singing, maybe 2 people out of the whole youth chorus would go. I'm really glad that everyone is going. Please join me in prayer that the Lord will fall afresh on the young adults in our youth chorus and that they will expirience God in a way they have never felt before.

God Bless

Jeremy Camp

Wow...the concert was way better then I expected it to be. I have to say that my expectations weren't very high for this concert. Boy was I wrong..It was absolutely amazing. The concert consisted of Jeremy Camp and band, Building429, and Koo Chung/ Jinny Kim. You may know some of Jeremy's music, he wrote the popular song, "I'll Take You Back," and he also wrote a song for the Chronicles of Narnia. Everything was soo amazing, it was hard to believe that it was in the CMT! All the awesome lights and the music blasting loud, it was my kind of concert! The atmosphere was clearly filled with Gods presence. No one was afraid to worship, it wasn't awkward, it was just amazing. The concert was completely sold out, there was not one seat empty in the entire temple! (I wish it was like that for FET) Building429 was amazing. They ended their part of the concert with the simple tune "I Love You Lord" it was really nice, they had the crowd sing it andthen the lights slowly dimmed as the crowd was singing and they left the stage, no applause or anything. It wasn't their moment to shine it was Gods moment.

Anyway Jeremy Camp told a story about himself. His first wife, Melissa died of cancer. He was initially attracted to her in the way she worshiped the Lord. They then started seeing eachother andthen got engaged, and married. Soon after they were married Melissa got the news that she had cancer and she was going to die. When Jeremy first walked into her hospital room, Melissa was smiling. She knew she was going to die but that didn't stop her from worshipping the Lord. She said to him as long as I have lived a christian life and helped lead people to Christ, my work here is done. Jeremy said that there were days when he was on the hospital floor just crying his eyes out and Melissa would say just trust and worship the Lord. Camp says this, "Even with all the pain surrounding melissa's passing, it blows my mind to think of how many people have been strengthened by her story and how it has lead me to lean on the Lord. To have that hurt find healing and meeting Adrienne (his new wife) confirms that God has a perfect plan for our lives. Adrienne has been so blown away by Melissa's testimony and I've been so moved by how genuinely excited and interested she is in serving the Lord. It helps me to see that our faithfulness also means He'll never leave your side no matter how deep your sense of struggle may get."

After all the cleaning up, Stephen and I went to the back stage. Jeremy was there talking to some fans. I know that my best friend Lindsay loves his music so I decided to get his autograph for her. He willing signed the back of my All Access Pass and after his signiture wrote Acts 20:24, "However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me- the task of testifying to the Gospel of God's grace."

Heres a picture we took with him. me and stephen look awful, but Jeremy looks great! I was amazed how he looks nice after a concert and me and Stephen looked gross! Oh well Hahaa

cartoons

Hahaha, I just couldn't help myself..My favorite one is the "and he started eating but he had never said AMEN!" lol..Hope this makes you day a little brighter!

Myspace

Lately allot of people have gotten into blogging. Lots of people have been saying, "oh don't go on myspace, it is a bad place." Well if it's a bad place, shouldn't that be all the more reason to be there? Shouldn't we be showing others and telling them about our faith? But instead we are just going onto places like blogger. Don't get me wrong blogger is awesome. I have learned allot from reading others thoughts. Anyway lately posts on myspace have said stuff like this.

10 questions GOD wont ask you when you get to Heaven
If you take the time to read it and maybe apply it to your own life...it makes you think. : )

1. God won't ask what kind of car you drove, He'll ask
how many people you drove who didn't have
transportation.

2. God won't ask the square footage of your house,
He'll ask how many people you welcomed into your home.

3. God won't ask about the clothes you had in your
closet, He'll ask how many you helped clothe.

4. God won't ask what your highest salary was, He'll
ask if you gave some to help others.

5. God won't ask what your job title was, He'll ask if
you performed your job to the best of your ability.

6. God won't ask how many friends you had, He'll ask
how many people to whom you were a friend.

7. God won't ask in what neighborhood you lived, He'll
ask how you treated your neighbors.

8. God won't ask about the color of your skin, He'll
ask about the content of your character.

9. God won't ask why it took you so long to seek
Salvation, He'll lovingly take you to your mansion in
heaven, and not to the gates of Hell.

10. God won't have to ask how many people you
forwarded this to, He already knows whether or not you
are ashamed to share this information to whom you
love. Repost this if you believe in God.

May God bless you.

96% of teens won't stand for Christ -- if your the 4%
that will .. pass this on ! <3

Repost this,
''10 questions GOD wont ask you when you get to Heaven"

Many of my Christian friends on myspace, who do have nonchristian friends on there myspace, are willing posting this up for all of their "friends" to see. I think it is awesome and it definitely helps me to know that I'm not alone. Just some thoughts..

Flicker

Hey check out some new pictures on flicker!