Oppurtunites

Ever have one of those situations where God gives you a chance to witness to somebody and you don't take it? I have done that a lot in my life. But, today, He has given me the oppurtunity to try and lead someone to Him. A girl from my school who is actually a friend of mine will be coming over every day on Tuesdays and Thurdays while her mom is at school. Please pray for me as I take on this challenge that God has given to me and to give me the courage and knowledge to help her!

Adios Verano!

Well, summer has come to an end, and in my opinion, much to quickly. It was a great summer though. Many memories to keep forever. A lot of changes have gone on too, especially for me. I have grown so much in the Lord. I re-rededicated my life to Christ at Camp, I have created stronger bonds with my friends, and I have become more confident in myself. My church family and youth group have been so encouraging and helpful. I know I am loved by them and that they pray.

This summer has been so much fun! The YG events have been so much fun. Canoe trip-awesome, fireworks outrech-spectacular, Camp Patmos-incredible, Rinky Dinks-sweet, Amazing Race-downright awesome! I got to work in VBS for the first time which was so rewarding. I even went to the Akron Racers game with Becca. Everything has been so fun!

I look forward to the following school year. I will be more independant. I will be able to have more priveleges, along with more responsiblities. Audrey says 8th grade year was the most fun and the time when she made the most friends.

Tomorrow when I go into school, I will be a different person. I hope I will be a good example for my peers and that they see how truely happy I am to be alive and to be a Child of God. I think I am ready to face them...

Praise The Lord

Again, we are having some car trouble. Our '96 Eagle Vision SE has been broken, for lack of a better word. The tire rod is messed up. My parents took it to Christopher Car Care. They said it would cost $600. That's a lot of money. My dad was going to try and fix it himself, which he always diligently does. He is an amature mechanic, not even that. He sometimes works days fixing up our old cars. It seems when one car is fixed, something is wrong with the other. This would take him awhile, even with the help of his brother.

Mom couldn't sleep last night. She was concerned about the car and Dad. But she prayed. This morning at 8:00, Chris called us and told us that he found a new way of repairing the car. He said that it would come down to about $150.

All I can say is God Is Good! Our family is going through a lot of struggles right now, but He can give us peace. I love him so much! This just really gave me the realism of how close and how real He is! He loves me and my family and will always provide. Nothing, no struggle he sets before us is to great for us to handle -- with His help.

True Friends

School is getting a lot closer. I have been looking at people from my school's websites, some of whom are my "friends" and they are just sick. The pictures they take of themselves, the clothes they choose when there isn't a dress code to abide by, the language they use, all of it is down right evil. I realize that if I want to be a strong Christian, I need to totally seperate myself from this. I remember a few months ago, Jesse Isom said this in youth group...

"We need to realize no sin is okay. Any thing that has sin in it, even if it is only infering something wrong, we should learn to hate it."

And he is so true. So many times I think we get to comfortable with sin and think it is just a small lie. But, isn't all sin equal in the eyes of God? Wrong is wrong, there is no inbetween. And Satan can make sin seem so attractive.

Just like I talked about in the Christian Ghetto post, we shouldn't shun out the sinners because
they need you to talk to them about Christ. While in bed last night, I read this in my book, "...if you can't be a stronger influence on your nonChristian friend, then you should rethink your desire to constantly hang out with them."

"Do not be mislead: 'Bad compant corrupts good character'". (1 Cor. 15:33). If the company we keep excercises a bad influence, then it is bad. But this also means that if we are excercising bad influences, then we are bad company. If we surround ourselves with sinful people and ultimatly end up becoming like them, then we are are just like them, influencing sin onto others.

God doesn't always want us to break up our relationships with sinners. He might lead us to continue having a relationship with this person or persons so that we can lead them to His family. But if He is, it might be hard to do. It's like a test: will we make up our minds to be faithful to Him?

I know I need a lot of prayer and encouragement in this area as I go into school and make the decision to seperate myself from these evil things. I'm sure people will get their feelings hurt and they will probably talk bad about me behind my back, "Oh, she is so self-centered...she thinks she is too cool to hang out with us.." and all that other stuff. But the Bible says that my brothers and sisters all around the world are going through the same thing. That I am not the only one, and that can give me peace. God will comfort me. He is my best friend.

Pictures Now Available

See my vacation pictures in the slideshow under the announcements column in my sidebar. More to be coming shortly.

FINALLY!

Well, we broke the record. On the last day of summer, too. It got pretty intense at times, even frustrating. Many mess-ups and many screams of dibelief. But we succeeded. Finally. Some might say we have no life and we are dumb, and that could be true, but the main reason we strive so hard to beat this record is for pleasure and fun. We get laughed at and people try to mess us up. But does that phase us? No way.

Today, August 22, 2005 Emily Marie and Elizabeth Renee finally beat our record of 499 beach ball volleys and created a new recored of 618. Now we just have to wait until next summer...

Hembree Family Vacation 2005

I'm home! And ain't ya'll happy. Don't get me wrong, I had an absolute blast with my family this vacation, but it is good to be home! Alright, so now I guess this is the time when I tell you all about it, so here goes:

We left Saturday morning around 9 I think for Niagara Falls. We drove for approximatly 5 hours up to the hotel in Canada. Let's just say it felt like a lot longer. Unfortunatly, my family of 5 does not own a mini van so it was somewhat cramped in the backseat with two teenagers and a soon-to-be ten year old. Anyhow, we managed. We unpacked and settled in. It was a really nice room. Philip discovered the television had N64 on it and tried to play until he realized it would cost him $6.99 for one hour of game play. When we found out he couldn't play Mario, he got us all to head down to the swimming pool. Wow, that water had a lot of chlorine. The nice part about it was to hottub in it, in which I stayed in the majority of the time. Then we went back to the room, showered, and went out on the town. There is is this awesome place in Niagara Falls called Clifton Hill. It looks like a miniture N.Y.C. and Vegas combined. There were wax museums, fun houses, resturants, and LIGHTS LIGHTS LIGHTS! We found a nice little resturant called Mama Mia's in which we ate. Dad ordered mussles for us to taste. Wow, they were actually not that bad! I'll even attempt to say they were good!! And as many people know, I am not that fond with trying new foods. LOL. After dinner we headed over to the Skylon Tower. This place was taaall! When we got up to the observation deck, we could see all three falls (American Falls, Bridal Falls, and Horseshoe Falls. Until this trip, I thought there was just one big waterfall!!) It was absolutly beautiful.

Sunday we got up at 7:00 and went downstairs for the Continental breakfast. We had to eat fast because our tour bus would be coming at 9:30. This was without a doubt the best day in Canada we had. Well, we ate our toast and muffins and drank our coffee. The bus pulled up right when we got to the lobby. "Hey, I'm Sean!" was probably the first English greeting we heard since arriving in Canada. "Do you have your I.D.?" Uh..I.D.? We were supposed to have somesort of identification telling that we were citizens of the U.S.A. since we would be crossing the border on on our tour. Well, we found somekind of I.D. for all of us and then we headed off to pick up the other tourists, one of which was a nice German family. The only other children on the bus besides "senior citizens". Well, our first stop was the Cave of the Winds, my personnal favorite. We checked in, got our sweet yellow ponchos and oh-so-stylish- sandals for the tour. We went down 17.5 stories in a little elevator. We walked along this deck up to the falls. We were litterally standing right infront of Niagara Falls. There was this one spot called Hurricane Deck where I guess it felt just as if you were in a hurricane. After that we went to lunch at the Sheraton Hotel for the buffet. I felt find of akward in my little sandals and wet hair, but I just thought "I'm never going to see these people again, so who cares!" LOL After that we went to the Maid of the Mist. Wow, that was so amazing. We went into the mist of the HorseshoeFalls and I was just surrounded by millons of gallons of falling water, wind, and noise. At that time, I felt so aware of God's might. He made all of this amazingly powerfully things that I am blessed to see! It was awesome!! Then we continued to rest of the tour and went back to the hotel and then went to dinner at this sweet diner called the Flying Saucer Resturaunt.

Now Monday: We packed our things, loaded up the old Chevy and headed over for one last look at the Floral Clock. It was really beautiful!! All of those flowers...
Well, after we left, we began our long journey to Massachusetts. We had to pass aaaall the way through New York state, and that is a big state! We finally arrived in Cape Cod at around 11:00 PM and went to bed!!!!

Monday we pretty much just relaxed.

Tuesday we went to the beach with killer waves dude. (Yeah, beach lingo) It was really fun to get in the water with Audrey and Philip. I haven't been to the ocean in years and I think I overcame my fear of the ocean and all of it's freaky creatures within 2 1/2 minutes. We then went back to Uncle Fred and Aunt Diane's house (they went away for the night to a hotel for their 35th anniversary)

The rest of the week was just fabulous. Being able to see my relatives whom I only see at Christmas was a really good time. We went seal watching which was so much fun. There was like 30 of them around our little boat. They were so cute! Well, the females any ways. The males were ugly because they had what was called a horse nose. We went to the beach numerous times. Friday night was Lobster Night. My cousin Jane stopped by and had dinner with us too. I actually ate one this time and didn't cry! They were ugly things, which made it all the more fun to crack it open and chow down. It was pretty good, though I am glad that we had butter!! After we ate them, we stayed and talked for hours before that time we Hembree's call "picture time".

We left Saturday moring towards our even longer, 14 hour drive home. An upside to the long ride was that me and Audrey finally learned to lyrics to the Beverly Hillbilly them song! LOL. We got in late last night at 10ish.

Altogether, it was a very nice to see my family. I think this was the most relaxing, fun, best vacation I could remember. I hope we can visit them next year and have just as much fun!

P.S. Pictures to be posted to my album soon!

See Ya In A Week!

Well, I am leaving tomorrow for my family vacation. We will be gone from Saturday to Saturday. We might even stay the night at a hotel and come home Sunday.

I am really excited about this trip! Me and Audrey were packing, and surprisingly we fit all of our things into one bag each! Shoes go in another bag and makeup/shower stuff in another SMALL duffel.

So, this is all that I know is going to happen: We will leave early tomorrow morning and drive to Niagara Falls, NY. We will then check into a hotel and stay there that night. The next day (Sunday) we wil go and see the falls. Then we will go back to the hotel and sleep. Monday we will then travel up to Cape Cod, Mass. to visit my Uncle Fred, Aunt Diane and cousin Jane. We pretty much only see them for my Aunt Mary's Christmas party once a year, so it will be nice to see them!! We will stay with them from Monday-Friday and leave sometime Saturday.

Last time that we were at their house (like 8 years or so ago) they got lobster one time for dinner. Me and Audrey were utterly discusted by the sight of the dead crustations, so we had sloppy Joe's. Philip, who was like a year and a half old LOVED the lobster! We also visited Plymoth Plantation. From what I remember, it was amazing! They build a replica of the Mayflower. Real Pilgrim houses were still standing and we went inside. We also got to see Indians, I think the same tribe that was there whenever the Pilgrims got to America. Wow, do I remember those Indians. All they were wearing were little dear skins. Yuk, those pictures are engrained into my mind! LOL.

This year, Aunt Diane is taking us seal watching. When I saw my Aunt Mary last weekend she told us that when she went up to Massachusetts, the seal watching was the best part! She also said how she went to like a deserted coast gaurd beach with humongous waves. I am scared to go in the ocean. When we went down to Puerto Rico, my mom's family were telling me how there were pointy mussle things that would stab your feet and you would have to get stitches. I never went back into the water. And what makes it worse is that I got sliced by a Zebra mussle at Camp Patmos last year and I know how much those things hurt!! Hopefully, I will be able to overcome my fear of the ocean!

I pray my family and I will have a great, safe, fun vacation together! I will be sure to bring a camera and take lots of pictures. I will post them into my photo album once they are developed! So, see ya in a week!

Amazing Race

No doubt, one of the best youth group events I have ever done. Wow, it was so much fun! First off, when we got to the church, all 17 teens split up into 3 teams. In my group was Michael, myself, Audrey, Emily, and Jimmy. Our leaders were camera-woman Vicki and taxi driver Kristen. I knew already that our team was a good one. We had video cameras and everything.

Our first clue lead us to Firestone Metro Park. There we had the choice of either running a 1.1 mi. hike holding hands, or hitting a baseball into a square. We went with the baseball. Jimmy did that for us and we got out of there pretty quick. Team #2 went on the hike, but soon turned around. Team #1 was right behind us...

The next clue was that we had to go to Canal Park and sing "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" with a passer-byer. We jumped out of that van and got a nice family to sing with us. The man was like "I don't know the words". LOL. Soon we were off to with clue #3.

Next we had to go to the Cuyahoga Valley and find that one statue of the indian with the canoe on it's back. We all had to pose next to it.

After the indian man we headed off to Chapel Hill mall to ride the carosyle. As we were driving there, Vicki called James to see where they were. When we told him that we were already on "Howe Avenue" he didn't believe us. I guess he was persuaded that he saw our silver minivan by Canal Park. Nope, James. We were at the mall. We got on the carosyle and began going 'round and 'round. Halfway through the ride, James and his crew showed up. I think this gave our team some motivation to get a move on!

After that fun ride, we headed off to Sheetz gas station. There we had to fill a strangers car with gas. Jimmy filled a nice ladies white van with 87 gas worth $20, whatever that means... Right when we began fillin' 'er up, there comes James again! Now we are really determined. And our next clue was the Roadblock (oooh!)

Before we could see what the next challenge was, we had to choose one team member. They chose me. We opened up the clue and it read something like this. "Go to the resturant where all the people are 'on their feet' and order a batch of fried mushrooms and eat them". Right when I read that my throat went down to my stomach. I hate mushrooms. Coincidentally, Michael, who was sitting next to me, loves mushrooms! Well, we got to Swensons and ordered our grub just as, guess who? Jamesy shows up. Lindsay was the one eating the mushrooms. When I got those things I was like "these look ok" Boy was I wrong. They were big, hot, slimy, tastless things. It was hard to eat, especially with someone in the next car racing you to shove them down. I choked a couple times and we ended up getting done first. Now it was a race back to the church...

We got there and found the mat. We won! Kristen gave us the "Team number 3, you are the first to arrive!" woo-hoo! After all the teams got back, we went down to the youth room and watched the videos each team took. They were pretty funny. I can't wait the other events coming up this fall!!!!

P.S. Go to my July archives and scroll down to my post for the 9th. LOL

Change Of Plans

So, as my parents sat down and discussed our vacation plans, they added a few more things. First, we are leaving Saturday and going to Niagra Falls, NY. We will stay in a hotel Saturday and Sunday and then Monday we will head up to Cape Cod. We will stay is Massachusetts for a week, and come home Saturday I think. Wow, this seems like fun. But, as I was laying in my bed last night, I was thinking how we haven't gone camping at all this summer. That's a big shocker! But, we will go with the church group, which will be really fun.

So, just wanted to let you know that. I might post later. Oh, and we are dog watching for two days. Fun fun..

8-)

Get Happy

I figured that this blog needed something uplifting. What a happy picture, eh? If this picture makes you feel all good and tingly inside, even a little, maybe even only for a second, then my work is completed. I love to make people feel good and I'm just saying now, to the only people I know who reads this blog (my family and my youth group) I love you all! And even if you are reading this and I don't know you, I still love you! :)

Have a stinkin' awesome day :-*

It's So Hard.

It has been hard these last couple days. The final preperations for Uncle Don's funeral are coming together. Uncle John flew back up from Alabama Monday night I think. I haven't seen my grandma, but my Mom tells me she is heartbroken, as one would suspect. My Aunt Linda seems confused, but knows the obvious. My heart breaks so bad for my family. It was such a sudden death, for me anyways. And now Uncle Jeff is having a surgery. A very risky surgery. How can our family take any more pain? I know I should be optimistic, but it's hard. I just pray he gets through alright.

I have comfort in the letters from family friends, and my parent's strong, patient attitudes. A few nights ago was the first time I saw my Dad cry. It broke my heart. My mom comforted him, even as she wanted to cry.

But I have the most comfort God. "I will never leave you, nor forsake you..." As I have said in many posts, I would be a total wrech without Him. How can anybody stand to live their life without knowing that they always have a refuge, somebody to always turn to and be welcomed. I can't even imagine. I am so blessed to have Him as my Father.

Revelation 21:4
"And God shall wipe away all the tears from their eye; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain for former things have passed away."

The Christian Ghetto

Justin Lookadoo, an amazing Christian youth author and public speaker, talks about this in one of his books entitled "The Hardest 30 Days of Your Life". As I was scimming through the chapters, Chapter 11 caught my eye - CHRISTIAN GHETTO. I flipped to it and read it a few times. Wow, this so true! Here's what Justin says...

"We as Christians have created our own ghetto. We have our own Christian schools, Christian newspapers, Christian TV shows. We have our own language, look, our own way of doing things. We don't even need to leave our Christian community. We have everything we need. We have seperated ourselves from the world so that we don't have to venture out. We are safe in our ghetto. When strangers come around, we stare at the because we know they don't belong."

He gives the Bible passage Matt. 9:9-13. In this passage, Jesus tells tax collector Matthew to get up and follow Him. And then, He goes and eats with more tax collectors. When the Pharisees see this, they are all flipping out over Jesus because He went out of the Christian Ghetto to hang out with people from another "hood".

And Jesus is the perfect role model.

We need to get out of own little "ghetto" and reach out to those sinners. How else are we supposed to witness to them? In a book that I am doing right now "How To Stay Christian In High School" (:-D) this kid named Mark talks to the author about how everybody tells him to not have any nonChristian friends, yet when it comes time for a youth outreach and they tell him invite his nonChristian, it sends a mixed message. "How can I have nonChristian friends if I can't hang out with them?"

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (Matt. 28:19)

Now, I'm not saying that living in a Christian atmosphere is wrong. Definately not. We need that to make our lives to thrive for Christ. But, what I'm saying is that we need to step out of our "comfort zone" I guess we could call it, and go out into the world and bring in those sinners. Be fishers of men, men! (and women!) Go out with your Christian friends, so that you have somebody to correct you if you get too heavily influenced and for support. God will support you. But, most importantly, go out with the entire armor of God (Ephesians 6: 10-18) . God will be with you as you explore the other "hoods". Stand strong for Christ.

Update

Hey!! I haven't posted about my everyday expiriences in awhile. So, I will do that now:

Nothing much has happend in the last couple of days. On Saturday the Kozy's left for Canada. I hope they have a really awesome time! I will miss them, but I'm glad they get to spend time together as a family.

Yesterday was church. I kept thinking that it was August 1 and that there was no more choir. No, it was only July 31, so we sang. There was hardly anyone in the choir loft, let alone in the church. Altogether, there were about 5 sopranos, 4 altos (Mrs. Keys played piano), 2 tenors, and 0 basses. We sang a joyful noise unto the Lord though!! Thankfully, the song we sang was easy.

After church, Brittany came home with us to spend time with Audrey. We went out to lunch at Azteca. Wow, I love that place. I felt so secluded though because we were put in a little room, mostly used for parties, in the back of the resturant next to the kitchen. Without a doubt, the best part of that resturant is the chips and salsa. You get unlimited bowls for your whole meal! You can be like halfways through with your chips and salsa and they will go and get you a nice big refill of warm nachos and spicy salsa. And they are good, too! Homemade...
My favorite part of going out to lunch is not being able to get whatever food you want and free refills, but getting to spend time with my family. We always have weire conversations when we go out to lunch. It was nice to get to know Brittany a little better. She's hilarious.

After lunch, we came back to our house. I played Sequence, Uno, and LIFE with Brittany. She beat me in LIFE by like one million dollars, but only because she bought all of those stocks! LOL I was a doctor, and I lost to an artist! :)

Like an hour and a half before evening service started, we went to Akron General to see my uncle Jeff. He had a stroke, but thankfully he is doing better. Since it was so hot, all 4 girls (Mom, Brittany, Audrey, and I) were all wearing skirts. These teenage girls sitting on sofas when we walked in were just STARING. That is my pet peeve, when somebody stares at me, along with when somebody gives me the silent treatment. I think they thought that we were that religion that didn't allow females to wear pants. It was so annoying because they even turned around to stare at us when we passed them!

When we went up to floor 8, Uncle Jeff was eating his meal infront of the tv in the hallway. I don't know what people are talking about when they say hospital food is nasty. That food looked good! Unlce Jeff had roast beef, carrots, and mashed potatos. Mmm, my mouth was watering just looking at him eat that!

The 3 girls sat on the sofa while my dad, mom, and brother sat at the table and talked with him. He was watching Fantasy Island, or something like that. The one with the two guys, the tall one and Tatto, the little Japenese midgit. Yeah, well since my dad and uncle were talking, we watched that. I couldn't understand it because I guess hospital tvs have a set volume only dogs can hear. And then I began to smell something. At first, I thought it smelled like old macaronni and cheese, and then I realized it smelled like cat food. It was the hospital! The entire Akron General Medical Hospital smelled like catfood. I feel bad that the patients have to smell that all day.

Being in that hospital made me sad. I saw patients being rolled out in the hallway with tubes in their noses, IVs in their arms, oxygen tanks, and a whole bunch of other things stuck into their bodies. I wish nobody had to live like that. It reminded me of my grandpa Jim living in that nursing home. My grandma would visit him 2 or 3 times a day, and whenever we would visit her she would take us to visit him. Everytime I went, I saw this old woman that would be in the hallway, just sitting in a chair with her walker infront of her, yelling at the nurses and anybody who went by. It made me sad every time I saw her because I knew she was doing it out of pain and lonelyness. Whenever I saw her, I would try to give her a smile. I just hope that helped her have a better day.

Well, when it was time to go, we gave my uncle a big hug and kiss for the surgery he would be having the next day (today). We walked down the hallway to the elevators. We realized when we got in that all of the buttons had been pushed. Now there are 9 floors (including the 1st floor, the basement) and we were on the 8th. So, it took us 6x as long to get to the 2nd floor (the floor that leads onto the street). It was funny though because we were jumping as we went down each of the 6 floors.

And then after church we came home. When I got on the computer a few hours later, something was wrong with AIM. Whenever I would sign on, and away message would popup saying "LOL LOOK" and then a link. The link was a virus and whenever you would click on the link, you would install a virus into your computer that did the same thing. It is more of an annoyance than a problem. So, Dad installed Norton AntiVirus while I sang karaoke for Audrey. When I tried to get on this morning, it took me 5 minutes to start up AIM. It is sooo slow! Grr, modern technology is such a pain. But, you gotta love it.