I'm sure many of you have heard me rambling on about Christian Youth In Action (CYIA). I just thought I'd let you know a little bit about my past experiences at CYIA and then, as this summer unfolds (if it decides to stop raining) I'll let you know more!
Last year in May I attended pre-training, a 2 day training school before the week-long training in June. I went with an open mind about CYIA, but a little bit unsure of what I was going into. On the very first day I walked into the main meeting room and was amazed by the kindness of everyone around me. Particularly a girl named Rachel. I walked in someone who didn't know anyone and Rachel reached out to me with a simple and kind "Hello, I'm Rachel, what's your name?" those 6 words made me feel welcome. That evening we had worship time and it was amazing. I stood in the meeting room and looked around me, amazed to see teenagers who had no fear of stretching their arms out towards God. I had never felt so at home before! I went to 5 different classes in those 2 days, one class for each page of the wordless book. Gold, Dark, Red, Clean, and Green. By the end of day 1 we (all the 1st year students) were told we had to teach the wordless book to a teacher. I was paired up with another 1st year, Ashley, and one staff, Jessi. I stumbled through the story but made it out alive. That day when I said goodbye to new, and old friends I felt like I had something I had never had before, I had more of a purpose. I sat in the car with my cousin, Nate and brother, Caleb. I turned to them and said "Is training as amazing as that was?" they didn't hesitate a second before saying. "No. It's much, much better".
One month later, I again found myself at Aldersgate conference center, but this time we were using the large auditorium for a meeting room. I went to the first check in room and got my nametag, then I went to the second to get my room number and bag. I looked at my room number "H4". Hilltop, 4. After a 5 minute hike up the massive hill to hilltop I threw my bags down on a bed and sat there. After about 10 minutes I had met my counselors, Jessi and Kirsten, along with a couple of the other girls rooming in that room, Dominique, Nicole, Joy, and Kelsi. I searched all the other rooms for my friends, Malea and Krista, the girls I had been writing letters to for the past 4 months but I couldn't find them, so I walked down to the auditorium. Then I found them, after laughing and hugs the 3 of us wandered around the camp for a little and got back to the auditorium just in time for announcements. Meals were to be held in the dining hall, no surprise there, classes for 1st years in the east room, 2nd&3rd years in the west room, 4th&5th years in the fireside room or the chapel. Then it was onto dinner! Lasagna, a traditional meal for the first day of camp, don't ask me why but at every camp they serve lasagna!
We had classes that first night, and worship, where once again teens were not afraid to lift their arms up, it was beautiful!
Sunday Morning: wake up, 6 am... not exactly what I'm used to, but breakfast is at 7 so we've got 1 hour to get 12 girls through one shower, do personal devotions, devotions as a group, (this part normally happened while people were brushing hair, getting dressed and brushing teeth around the 2 tiny sinks we had to share). It was always crazy in the morning, and our room was normally the last group down to the dining hall, I have no clue how the other rooms got ready so fast!
Sunday morning from 11:10-12:10 was the longest hour of everyone's life, team assignments, these are the people you will spend the entire week with....
"Team number 18's team trainer will be.... Nathan!!!" (Nathan ran to the back of the room pounding his chest and I turned to Malea and said, "I pity whoever is on his team")
"And your team members are, Steven, Emma, Marissa, and Jolene." (the last two names, Marissa and Jolene were lost under my trauma of being on this team so I didn't even know them until I got to our study location.)
I knew this was going to be a week to remember...
Monday, May 21, 2012
It's So Easy To Go
Lately the Eddy family has been in my heart and prayers...
They lost 19 year old Joshua at the Rogue River on May 5th, just 3 weeks ago... Joshua was brother and friend to lots of people and was loved by his family and friends dearly, although I never met the young man I was inspired by his blog posts and decided to create my own. I've been thinking about how we can all go so quickly. God can call us home at any given day and though there will be mourning on earth there will be happiness in heaven.
I was watching Josh's memorial service online tonight on http://joshuaeddymemorial.com/ and I couldn't stop the tears from falling as I saw the bittersweet words his sister wrote in the song for him. I was thinking to myself, "Just as easily as Josh went, one of my own brothers could go, Caleb, Ben, Isaac or even little Valor..." then came the sudden thought, losing one of my brothers would be traumatizing, but what about losing my dad? Or someone else who is close to our family like Jeff? Where would I be without these people who have impacted my life so greatly? Would I have the strength God gave 15 year old Mariah? Or would I sulk in my room all day? I could easily list 15 people who, if even ONE of them were to go would make me feel empty. But, now I must ask myself, Are these people around me what I need to feel whole? Or should I feel whole in the Only One who can truly make me whole? I suppose we are all blinded by the world in our belief that we need each other to be something in life when, in reality all we need is Christ, and through Christ we will have what we truly need. Phillipians 4:19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. So why is it that we search out earthly things instead of pursuing Christ in our daily life?
I will not lie, I do not read my Bible every day, unless you count the occasional posting of scripture on social networking sites, Christ is not the center of my life but he SHOULD be. I, like many people "get busy" we are so preoccupied by our simple daily lives that we forget about God, and the fact that He gives us each and every day. He gives us each day so why don't we use them to glorify Him? If you knew Christ was coming to take you home today would you still act the same way? If God was watching you this very second would you take that last brownie? Would you click on that webpage? Well guess what? He is watching you right now, so do you want to have to account for those things someday, since he knows when we lie there is no way to get around the wrong things we've done in God's eyes. We should account for each moment of each day so that someday when we see God face to face He will say "Well done, my good and faithful servant!" We can go any day, any minute, any second, Just as easy as it was for God to take Joshua home He can take you and me, Are you prepared to account for every moment of your life? Are you pleased with what God is seeing? Right now, one of the best things we can do to account for that time is spend it growing closer to God. Taking every thought captive for Christ.
They lost 19 year old Joshua at the Rogue River on May 5th, just 3 weeks ago... Joshua was brother and friend to lots of people and was loved by his family and friends dearly, although I never met the young man I was inspired by his blog posts and decided to create my own. I've been thinking about how we can all go so quickly. God can call us home at any given day and though there will be mourning on earth there will be happiness in heaven.
I was watching Josh's memorial service online tonight on http://joshuaeddymemorial.com/ and I couldn't stop the tears from falling as I saw the bittersweet words his sister wrote in the song for him. I was thinking to myself, "Just as easily as Josh went, one of my own brothers could go, Caleb, Ben, Isaac or even little Valor..." then came the sudden thought, losing one of my brothers would be traumatizing, but what about losing my dad? Or someone else who is close to our family like Jeff? Where would I be without these people who have impacted my life so greatly? Would I have the strength God gave 15 year old Mariah? Or would I sulk in my room all day? I could easily list 15 people who, if even ONE of them were to go would make me feel empty. But, now I must ask myself, Are these people around me what I need to feel whole? Or should I feel whole in the Only One who can truly make me whole? I suppose we are all blinded by the world in our belief that we need each other to be something in life when, in reality all we need is Christ, and through Christ we will have what we truly need. Phillipians 4:19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. So why is it that we search out earthly things instead of pursuing Christ in our daily life?
I will not lie, I do not read my Bible every day, unless you count the occasional posting of scripture on social networking sites, Christ is not the center of my life but he SHOULD be. I, like many people "get busy" we are so preoccupied by our simple daily lives that we forget about God, and the fact that He gives us each and every day. He gives us each day so why don't we use them to glorify Him? If you knew Christ was coming to take you home today would you still act the same way? If God was watching you this very second would you take that last brownie? Would you click on that webpage? Well guess what? He is watching you right now, so do you want to have to account for those things someday, since he knows when we lie there is no way to get around the wrong things we've done in God's eyes. We should account for each moment of each day so that someday when we see God face to face He will say "Well done, my good and faithful servant!" We can go any day, any minute, any second, Just as easy as it was for God to take Joshua home He can take you and me, Are you prepared to account for every moment of your life? Are you pleased with what God is seeing? Right now, one of the best things we can do to account for that time is spend it growing closer to God. Taking every thought captive for Christ.
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