Prayer: Where two or three are gathered...

This morning at 7 a.m. my family -including my Daddy (!)- and many other individuals that have a connection with Waterloo Christian Academy, gathered around the flag pole. We assembled to pray for our nation, the school, and its teachers.

I praise the Lord that we live in the United States where it is completely legal to take a public stand, read the Bible, and pray out in the open. This morning already many people at public schools around the country have taken a step out of their comfort zone and talked to God around the flag pole.

Prayer is much needed right now in these days of moral corruptness, blindness, and evil. We should rise to the occasion and be prayer warriors; praising God profusely for the showers of blessing He has given us, and beseeching Him faithfully for the salvation of lost souls. But we cannot say, "well I did my share... it's time for someone else to step up!" we must be willing to follow God's leading and put our prayer into action. Now, I'm not saying I have this down, I'm writing this to be a reminder for myself... Ask God to assist us to have the boldness to complete the purpose of our existence: to glorify Him.

"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him." -John Piper

Lord,

Make it "our desire to join God the Father in magnifying the supremacy of his glory through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. By grace through faith we aim to ...

• treasure all that God is
• love all whom he loves
• pray for all his purposes
• meditate on all his Word
• be sustained by all his grace."*

Please give each of us the strength and will to make You, and Your love for people known here in our daily lives. Help us to find ways to stay/be wholly satisfied in You. On any day, working on any task, whether that is playing volleyball, working at a thrift store, being a stay at home mom, or being the pilot of a huge fighter plane in the air force... Lord, make yourself glorified through our lives.

In Jesus' Name,

Amen.

*Excerpt from mission and vision of Bethlehem Baptist Church. Visit their website at hopingod.org

We're playin' Voll-ey-ballllll, we're playin' voll-ey-ball!

I've really enjoyed this year's volleyball season with the Waterloo Christian Regents. Our coach is trying to emphasize not only to play your best volleyball game, but to be bright light and have a great attitude even when we loose. I want to see when I get to heaven, what impact we're making on the spectators and the players, by encouraging one another and picking each other up, and smiling-no matter what.

It seems to be a ministry opportunity for us when we play games. At home games we give the visiting team our girls locker room, and a fruit basket. I hope the teams we play will see something different about our team on and off the court.

I love playing with you girls! Thanks for making this season a great one. We won a game for the first time in about 2 years it was a lot of fun, but winning and losing doesn't matter as much as the impact we're allowed to have on others' lives even if it small, through volleyball.

Summer? Where?

Hey everyone,

I can't believe it's basically time to start back into school! I'm going into my sophomore year. (that sounds sophisticated!) ;0) I'm looking forward to not having algebra as a subject, biology, and I'm kinda looking forward to American Literature.

I was so busy this summer vacation (1 1/2 weeks), IRBC (for 4 weeks!), detasseling (1 week). So, I've just had a few days of the summer relaxing days. It's nice to be home.

Volleyball started 2 days ago and our coach is working more on conditioning it seems more than the actual playing part. I'm pretty sore, it's been great exercise! I like the team aspect of volleyball. You're with your team almost every weekday for 2-3 months; training for games.

I have facebook now so I haven't been updating the blog this summer but I'll try to keep it up somewhat... :) Look me up on facebook!