rubies camp 2015.

And with a grateful, over flowing heart, I present to you-

These ladies have taught me so much about myself. About others. And most importantly drew me closer to God- knowing I could not make it on my own.

We had a great week including

• getting rained out while playing softball
• Jug-A-Lug
• Swimming
• Cabin Time / Talking
• Devotions / Sharing
• Life Stories / Sharing Time around the Camp-fire
• watching God work in their hearts 
• all the wonderful food including the Pizza we won for Cleanest Cabin! :)
• "Of course you can't play with us! You don't have a shiny scale to play flash tag!"
• Clifton's blessing- the "Ticklish Reuben" song
• Trevor doing like 130 push-ups (nearly double his record)
• Pastor Jeff sitting on our barrel in "Slingshots"
• the party Thursday night / watching for meteors
• the huge spiders downstairs

And of course, many other things like Mini-Classes and Creek Walks...

Sooo. Here's the picture tour of our week... :)

Pastor Jeff in "Water Balloon Slingshots"

and who DOESN'T like getting mail?

whoever would have thought this stuff
would come in so handy?!

the EPIC fail

And with that we ended a very wonderful week. A week that will never be forgotten. Maybe to a degree, but not totally. Each of us will remember something. If it isn't something I did. We did. Jeff said. Trevor did. We will remember what God did! 
Love each of you beautiful ladies!

Some Teaching? ALL Teaching

So the sun has dipped behind the mountain

and I finally sit down- to write. Daddy has been bugging me about blogging like I use to for quite some time, and although I thoroughly enjoy it... uh hum! Time? Is there any time to sit down and just blog?! It's like some days I'm up before 5 am and still at work at 9 pm. There ain't no way I'm finding time to blog in my week!!!

But after this morning's wonderful sermon and the hike up to Eagle Rock...

They really are such a sweet couple!!! :)

I decided I have time to blog, SO here I am!

Well, when I was in school- like 1st & 2nd grade, I admired my teachers- and rightly so, but now that I'm older- I realize they had flaws like any one of us. And along with admiring them I, too, wanted to teach school. Well, somewhere along the way that teaching desire diminished and I wanted to become a RN. But of course, now here I am, a common farm girl. (And... I love my job, by the way!!) But still, teaching is something that happens in everyday life. We are always teaching each other something at the farm- whether it's good or bad! And I found a note in my Bible this morning that really hit me-

Yeah! It never hit me that hard before. I have made some great friendships at the farm- with complete strangers, what do they see in my life? I especially think of this lovely lady-

Samantha was raised in a home that was anything but Christian. Miraculously, both her and her boyfriend are here- after a horrific accident. She means so much to me and my life. I will never forget the times we hung out together, going to work early , and just working together. The questions we worked through together, the many questions she still has about Mennonites and the answers I will have to give even though they go against my grain! (Because of church differences.) She has an amazing testimony and she isn't scared to share it! Friday she'll be going to Roxbury Treatment Center and will be sharing a short version of it. She'll definitely need prayer!

Back to what I was saying- I work with her every single day of the week. And with her upbringing and all, I'm sure my lifestyle is teaching her alot. It's pretty much up to me (with God's help) to show her what's right and wrong- in everyday life. What is my life teaching her (or anyone looking on)? Is it what I want to see in this falling world when I'm old and a stooped Grandma?

God willing, we'll (Samantha & I) can forever be great friends and will grow old together and have baking days where there's only a little bit of dough left and we share it, and drink chai together, and share silly secrets, and talk about really deep subjects. I hope that never ends!

We don't often think about our neighbors watching us closely, but I've come to realize ours keep a close eye on us and how do they say we live, does our talk and our walk line up? Or do we do some stuff Monday- Saturday that would never happen on a Sunday? (That, of course, is other than work!)

Remember we always teach MORE by how we LIVE.

Before

Max Lucado's comment here was NOT a new thought to me, but it hit me as soon as I read it. Wow! Yeah, that's sooo true! It doesn't matter what you need. Your prayer was answered! even if He said "No." "Not now. Maybe later." or if He answered your very request. It's going to be ok!