Wow, I  haven't been on here in forever.   And, I still don't really have anything I need  to write about...sooo. I guess I'll put on a 2 minute speech I wrote for the Communicators for Christ conference back in August.

  “Live every day like it’s your last. Because one day, it will be.”

A man named Ray Comfort spoke these simple, yet thought provoking words. Let’s take a minute to examine them. If today was your last day on earth, what would you do?

Maybe some would spend time with family. Others may visit friends for one last time. But think. Once you’re dead, will any of this matter? Will these things carry any weight in eternity? No. As a Christian, only one thing will matter in eternity: how many people did you tell about Christ. How often you went to church, how many times you gave to charity, how generous you were with your tithes, these good works which seem to shine so brightly now, will pale into nothingness in light of eternity. So, we should spend our time wisely, investing it in what will last forever: the salvation of people’s souls. Every day, 150,000 people die. Every 24 hours, 150,000 lives are ended and eternity begun for them.

1 Thessalonians 5:2 rightly states, “The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.”

We never know when we are going to die, or when Jesus is coming back. For many, who haven’t accepted Him, it will be too late. We must warn them while we still have time.

 If today was your last day on earth, would you look back over the course of your life and feel regret? Would you wish you could go back and take missed opportunities? Would you feel ashamed because you didn’t share the gospel with your co-workers?

Look around you. Everyone that you see will one day, die. That includes your family members, co-workers, the man at the bus station. Everyone. We’re part of the ultimate statistic: 10 out of 10 people die. Everyone has a last day. It will come whether we’re ready for it or not. So, keeping eternity fixed in our minds, we must, “Live every day like it’s our last because one day, it will be.”

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Wow, I can't believe it's been over a month since I last wrote! Man, I need to catch up. :-)

Hmm. Let's see. Short synopsis (that word will get stuck in your head if you're not careful :) of this summer. We worked at camp for four weeks. This past week my sister and I went to a Communicators for Christ conference. It's a four day conference, two days of debate, two days of speech. You may remember me mentioning the last conference this past November. It was a blast! One of CFC's main goals is to get kids comfortable with speaking in front of others to be able to better share the gospel. So, along with all the different workshops and classes are activities that encourage you (and make you) to come out of your comfort zone. It's so much fun! In addition to learning a lot about public speaking, you get to meet a lot of great people.

For more information about Communicators for Christ, click HERE.

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This summer, Kelcee and I are working as councilors at a Christian camp called Camp Good News. On the first day of our training, I fell in love with it and couldn’t wait to go back for more. The camp’s a great place for kids to be, with devotions every day, and fun songs with solid Christian truths woven into them.

 This past week was our second week working there, and God taught me a lot over the past four days. (Since Friday was the 4^th we had one less day of camp.)

 On Thursday, I woke up very early with a sore throat and a severely stiff neck. My first thought was, “Oh no, and today I have the early morning shift.” I was assigned along with another councilor, to the 7:00 shift in a small building called Oak, which is basically big playroom. (The kids who are dropped off arrive at 7:00 and have a playtime in there until 8:30.) As I was lying in bed and thinking about this, I cried out to God and told Him, “God, I can’t do this today by myself. I can’t do it in my own strength. You’re going to have to be my strength today. Please be with me.” The alarm went off at 5:30, so I got up and we left at 6:30.

 When we arrived at the camp I went down to Oak Hall and found the first drop off just being let in. I felt a little lightheaded while playing battleship with the camper, and struggled through the game. An hour and a half and 5 kids later, Justin and Mary Anne came to take the kids outside, so I was relieved of my duty. I gathered my backpack and Bible and trudged up the sidewalk to Cypress, the main building. I walked in feeling discouraged and sick. As I made my way to put my stuff down, I spotted some of the other councilors sitting at a table eating breakfast. I walked into to the kitchen to get my food and saw Randy one of the councilors, standing with a plate in his hand. He looked up and asked, “One biscuit or two?” I didn’t know what he was talking about so I answered absently, “How about one.” I grabbed a plate and a biscuit and waited for Randy to finish dipping his gravy. He looked over at the plate I held, laughed and said, “No, this is yours, it’s for you!” He handed me the plate he had just fixed and smiled. I was very surprised and thanked him and sat down to eat.

Even though that was just something small, it really encouraged me and seemed like God’s way of saying that He would take care of me that day.

 After councilor devotions, flag raising and devotions with the kids my group the 5-8 year old girls along with the 9-12 year old girls had our field activity time. This was really the part I was dreading the most. I didn’t think that 45 minutes running around in a hot field would sit well with my queasy stomach. But, God showed me again His incredible grace. We made our way to the activity field, however, God had a surprise for me. The activity leader, Joel, called to us from the tires, so we made our way over to where he was. We found out that we were going to play a different kind of game, one that was only for the kids. The councilors always participate in the activities, but this time we were just the judges. I didn’t have to do all that running while feeling sick after all! And we were in the shade. God blessed me yet again and made it clear that He was watching out for me.

 The rest of the day went pretty normal, and at the end of the day I was exhausted, physically and mentally. Keeping track of kids is definitely mentally taxing. (But very worth it. :) I looked at the chore list and saw that I (along with another girl) was assigned to mop all of Cypress and the kitchen. Once the building had been swept, I retrieved the mop and bucket and set to work. There was no sign of the other councilor, and I discovered it was because she was assigned to watch the kids outside that day. So my spirits sunk a little lower. My neck was still very stiff, my throat felt constricted. I felt overwhelmed with the job ahead of me. I began thinking about how long it would take and thought how nice it would be if I had one more person working with me. I thought it was kind of a selfish prayer, so I didn’t pray it. Just then Stephanie, another councilor, came up behind me, didn’t say anything, but grabbed a mop and began mopping. I stared at her in awe, that God had given me my desire, selfish though it was, and helped me when I was sick. We were about halfway done when my brother walked in and told me that they were here to pick us up. I went outside to the car and asked my mom if I could finish mopping. She said that would be fine so I trudged back inside and continued to do my job. After a few minutes, I saw two hands suddenly reach from beside me and pull playfully on the handle. I looked up and saw Randy once again. He took the mop from me and said, “I’ll finish up here, you go on home.” He smiled and began mopping. I was very surprised and so grateful to Randy for relieving me of the rest of this chore. He didn’t know I was sick, or how bad I was feeling, and how he had known that it was time for me to go home I don’t know, but God used Randy to bless me that day.

 I told my mom later that night that that day had been the "best day.” Sure, it hadn’t been the most fun, I hadn’t felt the best, but the Lord taught me a lesson that day. He showed me that He’ll always provide for our needs, and meet us wherever we are. That day when I couldn’t carry on in my own strength, he met me where I was and blessed me. I had been working at camp in my own strength up until that day, and God showed me that, when we let Him take over, He’ll pour His blessings out on us. If that’s the only reason why I got sick, it would be well worth it.

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I found this clip on the Way of the Master Radio website. It is so cool. The clip illustrates grace really well. Take a look,

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Wow, it's been a whole month since I posted last! BTW, we now have 6 tortoise eggs in the incubator. They should hatch next month.

Ok, the reason I'm posting is because I found a excerpt from the book Spurgeon Gold on The Way of the Master Radio website and I was convicted. Here it is:

Let us save men by all the means under Heaven; let us prevent men going down to hell. We are not half as earnest as we ought to be. Do you not remember the young man, who, when he was dying, said to his brother, "My brother, how could you have been so indifferent to my soul as you have been?" He answered, "I have not been indifferent to your soul, for I have frequently spoken to you about it." "Oh, yes!" he said, "you spoke; but somehow, I think, if you had remembered that I was going down to Hell, you would have been more earnest with me; you would have wept over me, and, as my brother, you would not have allowed me to be lost." Let no one say this of you.

- Charles Spurgeon

Step out in faith today, and seek and save the lost while you still have time. We don't know the day, or the hour when Jesus is coming back. We want to be about His work until then. If you have family or friends that aren't saved, please reach out to them today. They may not have tomorrow.

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Ok, here are the pictures! Mindy still hasn't layed a third egg, so we're wondering if that might be it. She's still holding her tail in a funny way, and wagging it like a dog when she walks, so we're not sure what's up with that. Here's the first egg when we found it this morning.

We moved Mindy and Mork to another bin so they wouldn't disturb the egg. Tortoise eggs must be very still and cannot be turned. You can see the second egg in the hay at the bottom of this picture.

We (carefully) marked the top of the eggs with a pencil, and removed them. Then we put them in a temporary incubator that we rigged up. Since we didn't count on having eggs so soon, we didn't have an incubator yet.

The larger egg is the first one. The metal prong and cord you see is a thermometer so we can keep the eggs at the right temperature.

Here's Mindy pacing in their pen.

Here's our makeshift incubator. The white bowl holds water and the container on the right has the tortoise eggs in it.

Well, that's it. if she has any more, I'll post another picture!

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Our house is all a-buzz today with excitement. Our Russian Tortoise pair (Mork and Mindy) have eggs! I got up this morning  and was doing math, when I went into the schoolroom to get a piece of scratch paper. I casually glanced into the tortoise pen and saw an off white ovel underneath the heat lamp. I realized it was an egg! I told my mom who relayed it to my dad and sister who was also doing math. They all came in and looked at the egg. Everybody started exclaiming, "Wow!", "I can't believe it!", "Man, that's so cool!" , "Look at that!" It was really neat. We've only had Mork and Mindy for 2 weeks and were not expecting eggs so soon. It was just a few minutes later that we discovered a second egg. Mindy is now trying to lay a third. I'll get pictures up soon! 

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Last week my dad, Kelcee and I got back from the (OK, here’s the whole spill) NCFCA (National Christian Forensics and Communications Association) Regional tournament in Marietta, Georgia. (By the way, “forensics” is Speech and Debate.) It was a blast! Regionals are longer than regular qualifiers, so it lasted 5 days. We got so much helpful insight at this tournament and learned a lot from just watching other speeches when we weren’t speaking, and talking to the other competitors who had been doing it longer than us. During my spare time I enjoyed doing the following activities: Playing Egyptian Rat Slap (a very fun card game) playing or listening to other people play guitar, watching duos, (a duo is and Interpretive speech where two people “act” out a piece of literature) timing Team Policy Debates (the topic this year is Illegal Immigration), watching friends in their debate rounds, meeting and making new friends, talking to other competitors, playing more Egyptian Rap Slap (which seemed to be the unofficial card game of the tournament. J) We learned so much at this tournament, and I can’t wait for next year! If you want to find out more about NCFCA go to www.ncfca.org NCFCA is an organization for Christian Homeschool students, you learn so much from it, and it’s a lot of fun!  

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Today I read in the book of Joel. This verse really struck me:

 Be ashamed, you farmers, wail, you vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley; because the harvest of the field has perished. Joel 1:11

 I’m not completely clear on what Joel is saying here, but wouldn’t it be amazing if this verse could be related to the context of Luke 4:35?

 Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!

 Joel 1:11 can be applied to the above verse, so let’s take an evangelistic look at it.

 Be ashamed, you farmers, wail, you vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley; because the harvest of the field has perished.

 We are called “laborers,” in God’s harvest, or farmers. We are to wail because the harvest has perished! Lift up your eyes…the fields are white for harvest! One day it will be too late. One day the harvest, or the people who don’t know Christ, will have no second chance. They will have perished.

 Imagine that you have a garden. You’re growing squash. You watch as it turns from the yellow flower, into the little pale vegetable and finally into a big, yellow squash. Imagine that you have a field full of ripe squash. You look out your window and see all the yellow squashes under the prickly green leaves and you say, “Yep, my squash is ready to be harvested.” But you don’t do a thing about it. Day after day you look out your window and see those vegetables. One morning you see deer wandering around in your patch. You see the squash getting riper day after day. But still, you don’t do a thing about it. Soon it’s too late. You’ve waited too long; your squash is no good. Your whole field is ruined. That seems crazy, right?

 It’s the same with this world. It’s a field full of ripe fruit. You can see it everywhere, on TV, in magazines, and on the street. People who want to trust in something, but they don’t know what. So they go after the wrong things. You can go to the mall and see it plainly. Look at the empty expression in people’s eyes. They fill their lives with entertainment, friends, material things, health care. (hey, no matter how well you take care of your body you’re going to die sometime, right?) All this will pass away. One day everything they hold dear will be ripped from their hands by death. Then it will be too late. So what do we do? We look out our kitchen windows day after day. We see the ripe fruit and say, “Yep, Lord, those people need you. They’re ready for harvest.” But we don’t do a thing. One day it will be too late. One day we will have waited too long, the harvest will have perished. Time is running out. So let’s go be laborers in God’s harvest today. Let’s obey his call to go and reach out to this dying world.

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I thought I'd post some pictures of what we did last Saturday and Tuesday. On Saturday we.....

Raked leaves! Thousands, millions, billions of them! This is Mama, Kam and I doing our three-man-rake-it-into-the-recycling-bin-and-bag-it method. We find this to be very sucessful.

Here's Daddy demonstrating his personal favorite. The one-man-bagging method. A neighbor recomended this creative way to bag leaves, Daddy's done it ever since.

We raked 88 bags of leaves from the front yard. I guess that's what happens when you skip a year of raking.

On Tuesday, we planted two pear trees. This is tree #1 going into the hole.

Kelcee instructs Kason in watering trees. Kam, Lucky and I look on.

Kason kept us entertained by playing his flutaphone and running back and forth from, well, everywhere.

Kelcee displays tree #2.

Kelcee waters this time...

Me and Lucky. Both trees were planted, I think, by the time this picture was taken. We were just about to go inside for dinner.

Well, those are our yard pictures! We were going to work in the yard again today but we got rained out. Oh, well, maybe next week!

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