Kamloops and a t-shirt

Well, this s a quick little update of my week in Kamloops. It started off pretty good. We got here on Friday, had saturday off to be free and have fun. On sunday we shared a little of our CLBI experiences etc. at church and then also had a pretty free day. (oh yeah, the pastor lent us his car for the week, so we've had wheels). Monday was my birthday! Woot woot! I am 20 for real now. Weird, but yet not really. This week was also pretty cool because we got to work at a mission/soup kitchen place. Kamloops decided to have us come too late, so instead of a VBS we are helping in the kitchen of a mission downtown, making lunch every day. it is very fun, and a nice change from VBS and camp like the rest of the summer will be. We head down to MIssion tomorrow hopefully, Jen is very excited to be heading home. Next week should be good. VBS safari style, and I get to be "african" for the week. I will let you all know how that works out.

I have also been reading a book lately called "authentic beauty". My team bought it for my birthday last summer because I wanted it from a bookstore at a camp we were at. It is really good, and talks a lot about being set apart for God, and about how so many things get in the way of that. We long so much to be loved and accepted and noticed by the opposite sex, and we get caught up in the TV and movies and books and what the world has to say about all of it. I have a shirt that says "I can see clearly now the boyfriend's gone", and I only bought it cuz it was $5 and a really cute color. But as I was wearing it today, God showed me that it is true. "The boyfriend" is whatever we are blocking God with. Whatever we are finding our love and acceptance in, whatever we fill our time and thought with. Whatever we do instead of seeking God. I guess God wants me to see clearly and say goodbye to "the boyfriend".

Oh the children

So, I think that I have figured out kidlettes. They are great. If you make anything into a game or a "secret mission" they love it. Reide and I had to teach each class of kids something to do for the parents in the program tonight. We decided that it would be their "secret mission" that none of the other classes would know about. It worked out really well. These kids are so bright. they learned songs and words and actions and everything. And they are so darn cute! How could you not just love them? I am sad that tomorrow is the end of this amazing week, but I couldn't have asked for a better week to start off the summer.

Thanks for coming out

I have recently been informed that I have passed the "thanks for coming out" stage of life. This has got to be one of the most exciting things I have been told in the recent past. I mean, I'm not gonna lie, I was in that stage for a long while, and as much fun as it is...
I accept this award with a great sense of accomplishment. I would first like to thank my parents, they were a great support through this time. Thank you also to my friends who stuck by my side through all of the most amazing and embarrassing times of my teen-age years. ( not to worry, I am sure there are many more of those times to come). Thanks to the people who encouraged "growth" and "stretching" over the past years. And thanks mostly to God, who proudly looks down upon me each and every day and laughs a good, hearty, belly laugh at the wonder he made, known to the world as Patti Daniels. (me).

Prince George

Ok, so here I am in Prince George. The drive was long-ish, but I wouldn't know... I happened to sleep for the overwhelming majority of the trip. I'd say I may have even gotten a good 8 hours, maybe more. That may or may not be due to the fact that I got an amazing 3 hours of sleep prior to leaving Camrose, and that may or may not have anything to do with the fact that I was in Edmonton until about 1am on friday night/saturday morning. It is good though, life is ok. My host lady is really nice, and I am staying with Jen. All I can say is that you know it is going to be a beautiful day when you get out of the shower at 8am, and the guy on the radio is saying, "it is 18 degrees and we are going for a high of 30 today". That has been typical thus far this week. Jen and I have also been, how do you say, well, we have gotten a sudden urge to go running. So, we have actually gone running both nights that we have been here so far. Who knows, maybe we'll even do it all week. (I think our host lady thinks we are a little crazy... I on the other hand, I know we are). VBS started today, it went well, we do have a few things to fix up to make it smoother for tomorrow, but that is to be expected. I officially have 1 week left of being a teenager, so that is weird. Well, I think the heat may be affecting my brain, hence WHY (just for you Alex) I have nothing overly profound or funny to say. I miss you muchly, and if I don't, you know who you are. (just kidding, I do miss you all). Feel free to email me my friends! It'd be grand!~

Jesus loves me

Are you all familiar with the skit of 'Jesus Loves Me'? Well, for those of you who aren't, it has a choir, and the kids are singing, and one kid sucks horribly, and then it goes through again and it has what the kids are thinking while singing. Some kids are thinking about the hot kid beside them, some are thinking about how much the sucky kid sucks, and so on and so forth. The sucky kid is actually thinking about the song, and about Jesus loving them. So the moral is that Jesus hears what we think and to Him, the sucky kid doesn't suck.. so it is like the Holy Spirit is a purification filter. Take that skit, and make it into a real live version in your head. The kids are me, Reide, and Cheryl Chetney. The senerio is Sunday morning worship in front of the congregation here in Prince George. The results are... me praying the the Holy Spirtit is going to be one heck of an amazing filteration system. ( I am sick, and apparently "leading" and my mic didn't work. Reide is slowly learning how to play guitar, and Cheryl is "following" me because she doesn't really know the songs...) So, that is my real life version of the skit 'Jesus Loves Me'. Hope you had a little chuckle of sorts at my pain. Love you too.