SYATP

SYATP was amazing!

It was funny because it started out with a red bull car infront of our school. One of the students who was at SYATP, Amy, she walked up to the car to see if he was giving out free samples and he came over to us and started handing out free red bulls! It was awesome! lol

Once a decent amount of people came, Cheryl and I began. We started out with telling everyone a brief outline of our testimonies. Once we did that, we got into the core part of SYATP. We talked a lot about our dad and everything that has happened with him over the past few weeks. I shared with them that even when we've got all of this chaos going on in our lives, we have to be still and know that God is God (Psalm 46:10) and that he is in control of our lives. We weren't speaking, God was through us! And it was amazing!

Here are some pictures from SYATP thanks to my friend, Alicia, for taking the pictures. And thanks to Jordan for helping me get them on here. lol


The flag at my school! Hurray! lol GO SYATP!

Cheryl and I initiating SYATP. We shared with telling them bits and pieces of our testimony.

We had a decent amount of people. Some people walked up and saw what we were doing and then left. Others showed up later. We had 16 students (including Cheryl and I), 2 youth ministers, and 3 faculty members.

I was probably smiling here and talking about how Jesus saved me! lol

Cheryl was talking about how Jesus changed her life in this picture.

Cheryl began the praying part and then I closed after a whole bunch of people prayed.

You can tell in this picture that everyone is listening closely to Cheryl and I.

This is the one side of everyone praying.

Here are some more people praying.

This is the other half of the circle of people praying.

More praying... in this one you can see my principal in the back! lol

The gym teacher, Mrs. Yomen(not sure how to spell it, but it's like "Yo man!"), she prayed and it was awesome having her there! At the end, she got teary eyed and started to cry. It was so sweet. One of my teachers told me that she was a Christian so I approached her and told her about SYATP and she came! She's so sweet!

Cheryl and I after the whole event!

Mountain of God

"Mountain Of God"
Thought that I was all alone
Broken and afraid
But You were there with me
Yes, You were there with me

And I didn't even know
That I had lost my way
But You were there with me
Yes, You were there with me

'Til You opened up my eyes
I never knew
That I couldn't ever make it
Without You

Even though the journey's long
And I know the road is hard
Well, the One who's gone before me
He will help me carry on
After all that I've been through
Now I realize the truth
That I must go through the valley
To stand upon the mountain of God

As I travel on the road
That You have lead me down
You are here with me
Yes, You are here with me
I have need for nothing more
Oh, now that I have found
That You are here with me
Yes, You are here with me

I confess from time to time
I lose my way
But You are always there
To bring me back again

Sometimes I think of where it is
I've come from
And the things I've left behind
But of all I've had, what I possessed
Nothing can quite compare
With what's in front of me
With what's in front of me

Psalm 23:4 "Even when I walk through the dark valley of death, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me."

Lately I've been so wrapped up in problems. I can't even describe to you the degree of how discouraged and upset I've been the last few weeks. Everywhere I turn I find a problem with my dad, my mom, my little sister, school, college, church, jobs, money, friends, SYATP, health, and various other things that I don't even want to mention. I feel like Psalm 25:17, "My problems go from bad to worse. Oh save me from them all!" I know that when the time is right, God will rescue me from it all.

Something that I learned about a year ago was that we don't stand around consumed in our problems. You don't stand in the valley of death, you walk out of it. When I'm upset and discouraged, I can't just stand there expecting things to get better! I have to tackle them and make sure that I hurry up and get my butt out of that stupid valley. I can pray to God for guidance and help, or read the Bible, worship God through songs, etc.

One thing that the song, Mountain of God, has helped me to realize is that "I must go through the valley to stand upon the Mountain of God." I can't just be like, "Umm... nope. Sorry God! I give up following you. I think I'm going to just sit here in this valley, give into Satan, and... you know... not believe that you can help me out while I'm going through all of these hard times. " That's not how it works! It says in the Bible in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that God will never give us more than we can handle! So, Good news! God will always deliver us from our problems and make you stronger than you were before.

So when we're going through the valleys in our lives, and we're having a hard time making it over, we can remember that we can make it through because God has given us the strength to make it through. Some valleys are longer than others, but we can make it through.

Honesty

Psalm 6 (The Message)
A David Psalm
1-2 Please, God, no more yelling, no more trips to the woodshed.
Treat me nice for a change;
I'm so starved for affection.

2-3 Can't you see I'm black-and-blue,
beat up badly in bones and soul?
God, how long will it take
for you to let up?

4-5 Break in, God, and break up this fight;
if you love me at all, get me out of here.
I'm no good to you dead, am I?
I can't sing in your choir if I'm buried in some tomb!

6-7 I'm tired of all this—so tired. My bed
has been floating forty days and nights
On the flood of my tears.
My mattress is soaked, soggy with tears.
The sockets of my eyes are black holes;
nearly blind, I squint and grope.

8-9 Get out of here, you Devil's crew:
at last God has heard my sobs.
My requests have all been granted,
my prayers are answered.

10 Cowards, my enemies disappear.
Disgraced, they turn tail and run.

I was reading this earlier today in school. I was thinking about how honest David was being with God. He was being extremely straightforward. David was bluntly telling God to be nice to him for a change. I didn't think that anyone could ever say that to God.

After looking more in depth of what Psalms is like, I'm realizing how David and other writers were so honest to God. One psalm they'd be writing praises to God and the next psalm they'd be yelling at God to realize them and help them.

I think the one thing that I've been guilty of lately is that I haven't been as extremely honest to God about my feelings. I've been praising God for all of this excitement in serving Him when I'm really feeling discouraged. I'm not feeling the comfort right now that I wish I had from God. I can be honest with God and let him know that.

The thing is, God wants us to be honest. He doesn't want us to smile and tell Him everything is going great when we really don't feel like it. Tell God how you're really feeling instead of covering it up....