Vacation Bible School

Our church recently held a Vacation Bible School which my family and I helped with. This year's VBS theme was Colossal Coaster World with a memory verse from 2 Timothy 1:7 which states; For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. My wonderful mother was in charge of the craft room which she excelled in. Laura Ashley and I were group leaders (I led the third graders). And Andrew was a participator. Each day at the VBS younger kids would watch part of a short video about a boy who trusted God and faced his fear of riding a roller coaster. After the video, I would lead the kids to each station; crafts, snacks/missions, bible study (about Peter the disciple), recreation, and music. Each station would tie into an amusement park or people who faced their fears and trusted God. While VBS took place, upstairs a man was leading an adult VBS (which was more of a bible study)  for the parents of the kids that were attending downstairs. When Vacation Bible School was over two children and two adult made confessions of  their faith. This whole VBS experience made me appreciate school teachers a lot more and realize that they are not paid enough. :) Actually, I had a great time and look forward to helping again next year.

Snake Suprise

July 11 started as a regular day. I ate breakfast and went to do the pets. I had just finished feeding Tuffy. (That's Andrew's pet Dominique chicken, who fell in the dog pen yesterday. It's okay though.) When I went to open my quail pen to  feed them; I noticed a snake curled around the waterer, and there was  only one quail still alive. I had six quail in the pen and the snake had killed all the hen quail in that pen; two were just laying there dead. There was also a dead Buff Orpington pullet dead on the ground. I ran inside and called Dad at work. He said to try to shoot it or wait until he came home and he would kill it. Naturally, not wanting to put my other poultry at risk, I took my bb gun and fired 15 bbs . I was determined that no snake would steal by poultry without paying for it. Five of them hit him in the head and six went unto his back. When I saw blood leaking out of his head, I went inside the house to wait until the undertaker (dad) to come home from work to remove the dead. Dad said that he was at least seven feet long. Dad hung the snake from a tree and we got a anatomy lesson did you know that snakes only have one lung due to the design of their body?

What is a good way to keep snakes away that won't harm poultry?  

My quail inside of the snake.

Youth Trip

Eating at Cheddars 

At the beach

Sorry for not blogging lately, one reason was we went on a church youth trip to Lake Sam Rayburn and New Boston. We rented a cabin at Lake Sam-Rayburn, but arrived 2.5 hours late due to a trailer tire blowout. We checked out the campgrounds, went swimming, and ended the day with a Bible study.


Day 2 started with a devotional, then a rented pontoon boat for a day on the lake and TUBING (it was my first time). That evening we played games, ate hamburgers, went snipe :) hunting, had a Bible study, and made smores.

 the Youth group at U air trampoline park. 

Day 3, we packed up and headed for New Boston. Meanwhile Mom, Dad, and Andrew went to find a clinic because Andrew's hand had swollen up after being bitten by an unknown insect. They met up with us at a gas station; where we found out that we had a tire which was bad and needed to be changed.
After a second new tire, we drove to Air U, which is an indoor trampoline park in Longview. After a fun time bouncing and playing dodgeball on trampolines, we decided to take a quick trip to the Longview Mall for lunch in the food court.  We also played glow in the dark mini golf, then continued on to New Boston.

Once we arrived at Faith Missionary Baptist Church; we unloaded, ate dinner, visited with the youth from the Faith Missionary Baptist, then listened to a lesson from Brother Josh.

The youth group from F.M.B.C and the youth group I'm in.

Both youth groups at Pizza Inn

Day 4, started with a Bible lesson and then some games. These included a game where you had to dip a broom in a bucket of wet oatmeal and empty the oatmeal from the broom into a cup that your team member was holding with their teeth. The team who had all of their cups full first won.  After we finished the games, we went swimming at church member's homes.

That evening we got in the church vans and went to Texarkana to Chuck E Cheese to play games; but ate dinner at Pizza Inn where they had a buffet and private room where we had a bible study. The neat thing about the restaurant was, another youth group was working there to help pay for a youth trip.


After dinner we went back to the church and played underground church which is best described as a version of hide and go seek in the dark.


Day 5, (the last day of the trip) had a bible study and started packing our bags. Then, we played another game of underground church. Before leaving we helped clean up the church and said our goodbyes to the other youth group. On the way home we had another trailer tire blowout. Yes, you counted right, this was the 3rd trailer tire for our trip. We arrived safely back at the church without anymore blow outs and then my family and I got into our car and headed home.

Me tubing at lake Sam-Rayburn. 

Don't get me wrong, I had a great time and got to know our church's new youth minister better, plus had some bonding time with the other youth; but I felt that we didn't really get to help or minister to others.  I am already looking forward to our next trip being a mission trip so we can help others in need.

The Ben Carson Story

For my birthday, I received a book called "Gifted Hands, The Ben Carson Story".  As I read this inspiring biography, I was amazed to find that his mother, Sonya only had a third grade education but encouraged her son, Ben to go on and become a brilliant neurosurgeon. If you want to hear the full review continue reading.

Dr. Carson was born as the second son of Sonya and Robert Solomon Carson. When he was eight years old, his Dad left the house and took all the family's money with him. This was no surprise because he had married Sonya when she was only thirteen years old to "rescue" her from the orphanage. Ben had one brother who was two years older than him named Curtis. When Ben was eight, he and Curtis attended Sunday school. One Sunday they heard about a missionary doctor who escaped some robbers. Ben thought that this sounded very exciting and wanted to become a missionary doctor. During this time, young Ben was doing very bad in school and his mother often took long breaks to "visit relatives". In fact she was  checking  herself into mental hospitals and getting counseling. When she felt better, she would go back to the boys.

To save money, Sonya moved with her sons to Boston, Massachusetts and stayed with relatives until they had enough money to move back to their house in Detroit. Which they were renting out. Ben and Curtis's mother made them stop watching television and start reading books to help improve their grades. It worked!

Ben saw the school spelling bee and the next year he practiced really hard and won it that year. During Ben's eighth grade year his family moved back to their old house in Detroit. Here he was picked on at school and developed a temper. One day he pulled out a knife at a friend, horrified he ran home and realized he need to learn to control his temper better. He asked God to help him and after a week he had learned how to better control his temper. Also, he wanted to  now become a regular Doctor because it payed better.

Ben graduated High school.

(Right to left)Sonya, Ben, and Candy

In 1969 he was excepted unto Yale. Yale was pretty hard for him and he almost flunked chemistry.  He prayed to God to help him with final test so that he would be able to move on in chemistry. God blessed Ben with a dream. In that dream were the exact questions and answers that were in the test the next day.
In his third year at Yale he met Candy Rustin on campus. He invited her to church with him and they got to know each other better. She was studying to be a nurse. Ben had finish up at Yale and went to the University of Michigan School of Medicine. Candy still had two more years at Yale so they wrote to each other every day. Ben did wonderful in medical school and invented a new faster way to find the foramen ovale which amazed all of his teachers. during this time he decided to become a neurosurgeon. Between his second and third year at medical school he and Candy got married and moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan. here he finish up his last years in medical school. during 1978 to 1982 he worked at the John Hopkins hospital. Then he and Candy moved to Australia for one year. Here Dr. Carson trained students at a medical school over there. when they came back to America they brought their new son Ben jr. or BJ for short with them. Dr. Carson went  back to John Hopkins hospital and became their chief neurosurgeon here he did a hemispherectomy (where you remove half of a brain)on a three year old. Dr. Carson did one of his most famous surgeries in 1987 which was when he separated two craniopagus Siamese twins for the first time. before the end of his career he became famous for separating many craniopagus Siamese twins and for all that he has done in the medical career.        
The picture on the left shows Dr. Carson with his family. His mother is sitting in the middle.

I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it because this is a inspiring, Christian biography.







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To learn more here are some helpful websites.
Teen Ink Gifted hands review
National Review Gifted Hands
 Ben Carson .achievement.org
Ben Carson bio.

My birthday

Tuesday, June 25, I turned 13. For my birthday my dad and I went to Purtis Creek State Park to canoe. I chose this  because I wanted to practice before our church youth trip,and I thought that canoeing looked liked fun. When we first arrived, we went to the office and rented a canoe (you get a discount if you have a State Park Pass) and hit the water. It was windy, so we weren't able to canoe over the whole lake, but we stayed near a cove and went fishing. Although we did not catch anything; I got a lot of practice and had a great time with my dad. When we came home I opened my presents and played Canasta. My presents included christian books, stamps ( for my collection), jelly beans, money and clothes. Then my dad and siblings looked through my stamp collection; while mom made dinner. Dinner consisted of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, black eyed peas, and rolls with chocolate pie for dessert. I had a great birthday and I hope that you do too.

Stamps

One of my many hobbies is stamp collecting. What first made me start collecting stamps was when I was going through our garage's loft and found my Dad's old stamp collection, which he let me have. Since then, I have started keeping interesting stamps which I find, and my grandparents, who owned a business sent me their stamps which they received. When my great grandmother passed away I was given her stamp collection which was very fascinating because she went on many trips and brought back stamps from her travels. I have around five hundred stamps in my collection. If you are interested in collecting stamps I would recommend going to a local hobby store such as Hobby Lobby and buy a stamp collecting package. The package comes with stamp sleeves, a stamp collecting book, and stamps.

What are some of your hobbies?

A helpful stamp book which I use.

News

Lately, in the news there has been a lot of sad events going on and I would just like to remind you all to keep praying for the people who were affected.

James 5:14-16 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another,that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

• Moore,Oklahoma tornado; still keep the victims in your prayers as they suffer with the loss of their loved ones and as they rebuild.

 

• Houston, Texas Fire; 4 firefighters died and 5 are hurt badly. Please pray for their friends and family as they grieve. 

• El Reno, Oklahoma flooding and tornado keep these people in your prayers. 

An example that prayer really works is that my family and I prayed for 14 years that we would move from a suburb to land in a rural town. Now we have the home of our dreams and 96 acres!! Also, I had bad hearing problems when I was younger and had to have a reconstructed ear drum. By the grace of God my hear has become average. 

If you have any prayer request I will be glad to pray for it/them.