Alabama Youth Retreat

This past weekend I went to Alabama Youth Retreat!  I had such a blast; Eliana and Yadi Pimentel, Callie and Courtney Lewis went with me.  I really enjoyed having the girls ride up with me; I think they enjoyed the retreat as much as I did.  It wasn't exactly a "shouting" retreat per say but God was there.  Brother Horne wasn't able to make it so I ended up playing the piano during the altar services and just really enjoyed being able to watch those in the altar seek the Lord.  Brother Michael Jernigan was the guest speaker and I really enjoyed them being there to minister!  I felt like as he ministered that it was a "heart to heart" with the each one that was there.  Saturday evening he stepped back and allowed the Holy Ghost to move as several obeyed the Lord and went to the altar.  I saw SEVERAL just crying while in the altar seeking the Lord.  You don't see this a lot but all of the musicians helping me left the stage to go and pray!  It's such a blessing to see musicians using their talent for the Lord but also to be able to yield themselves and go and pray and seek the Lord.

Sister Bishop taught a class on "Praying Through the Gates" and she did wonderful!  It didn't even feel like she should've been done when she quit.  Eliana said that it felt like it went by so fast and that she thoroughly enjoyed her class!  She has so many stories and words of encouragement to help you and teach you.  There's so much strength and wisdom bottled up in that woman; I love spending time with her!  She reminds me of my Granny Anders because she was so strong in the Lord and there was just so much wisdom that she had to share with others!

The retreat, as always, was filled with laughter!  When you're around the Horne's and the Keel's you better believe you're going to have several laughs.  Saturday evening Sis Horne was in charge of fun time and the first activity was so funny!  I laughed and laughed at the guys as they rolled around.

Here's the video for the first night of fun time.  Of course I don't have any pictures of anything serious going on.  HA HA!

The next day during free time we went and played a game out on the field.  At first I wasn't going to go down there because Liz asked me to come and check on the baby while she napped but I went ahead and headed to the field.  They were playing a game that I think my brother had watched on a video.  It was so fun and funny!!!  I don't think I've laughed as hard as I did.  We even created a video of each one and showed it Saturday night at the retreat and again we all laughed and laughed.  Here are some of the videos.

I'll try and post the rest of the videos later because there are so many.  I'm so glad I was able to go to the retreat!  I always enjoy it!  Every year that I've gone it's been really good...all except the scorpions which I've never seen in my life until I visited Alabama.

***Corn Maze***

The corn maze was awesome!  We had such a good time there with all the young people.  There were 14 of us that went.  Josh and Karen Farthing ended up going and Bro Josh's map skills really helped us to get out of the corn maze quickly.  The lady told us that it's 10 1/2 acres when we walked in and I'm thinking how in the world am I going to get out of here!  Hahaha  There were a lot of other activities there as well for everyone to do so waited til it got dark before we went into the maze.  They had a huge jumpy thingy that everyone got on and jumped....except for me.  I am too clumsy to get on stuff like that when there are other peoples kids on there.  I took a picture of them all jumping together.  I had them line up together and told them I was going to count to 3 and on 3 they were to all jump.  Well apparently most of them can't count to 3. They had me laughing so hard.  Here's a couple of pics that I got.

The young lady sitting on the edge was laughing at them too!  She thought they were a crazy group.  

They also had two slides there side by side and so I told the boys they should all go down it and I would get their pictures.  I got videos too and on one of them it sounds like a girl screaming.  I'm not sure if it's Brandon or Julian but I got a good laugh out of it. 

We had a really good time and at the end of the night before we left we were able to go on a hay ride as well.  It was just our group that was on it so it was special!  I really love fall time and going to the corn maze is one of my favorite things to do!

I'm Back!

I don't know how many will actually read this since it's been since 2012 since I last posted!  I am definitely don't have a good enough mind to actually tell you what's happened since 2012.

Let me just start by telling you what's gone on the past few weeks.  I went to TN ladies retreat this past weekend.  I really enjoyed the ladies retreat.  I'm not big on going to ladies retreats just because of past experiences but I will say this has been the best one yet.  Aunt Cissy (Sis Perkins) was the guest speaker and she did a wonderful job.  I felt like the word was rich and deep!  The theme of the retreat was "Rapture Ready, Perfection Required" the last service on Sunday was probably my favorite!  I just cried through the message!  She gave each lady a sash that said "Bride to Be" and she brought down to a reality that Christ is coming back for a bride who hath made herself ready!  We are going to reach perfection...it won't be perfection in my eyes either but God's eyes!  I thoroughly enjoyed Sis Horne's class  as well!  She talked about how Achan chose to disobey God and take of the accursed things!  Things that weren't necessarily sin destroyed Achan along with his family!  It was a fantastic class!  I also enjoyed our tap group so much; Sis Sheila Cameron was our tap leader and did an awesome job.  On Sunday during our last session one of the ladies in our group whom had testified that she just joined The Church the Sunday before testified again about how she felt completely at home in The Church of God.  She said that she had been in The Church of God of Prophecy as well as Zion Assemblies but she said coming to the ladies retreat she saw young the young girls truly, sincerely worshiping the Lord.  She said she had so seen so many young people coached into speaking in tongues and shouting.  She just cried and cried as she testified to us and just blessed my soul.  God has been so good to His Church!  I'm thankful for the safety I feel in The Church of God.

Here is a picture of the sceneary on the ride home from ladies retreat.  It's so pretty, especially with the fall colors!

Here is a picture of all of us girls!  From Left to right...Kara, Me, Aunt Cissy, and Mom. It was so nice that Kara was able to go!  We roomed together and had a blast!

Dad has appointed me as youth leader here at the church and Sis Ashley Werkheiser is my assistant!  We've already met and God are excited about the work ahead of us.  A lot of our young people here are getting older and getting to the place where they are getting jobs as well thinking about their future and what the Lord would have them do.  I pray that we can just be a blessing to them.  We are going this Friday to the corn maze.  This is something that when I was the youth leader in the past that I tried to do every year because the kids love it.  It's just such a FALL thing to do!  Sis Ashley really is helping to carry the load since my membership is in Moulton, AL and I'm the state ABM leader there in Alabama.  I love the people there and my heart really is there; I'm praying if it's the Lord's will that he allow me to go back there!  I love the work of the ABM department now that I'm studying it and understanding it more!

I'll try to get pictures from the corn maze and post it on here.  I think I've said just about enough now!  That's one thing about blogging I hate doing all the talking.  Hahaha!