If you ever want to check out one incredible blog check this one out
http://www.kellehampton.com/
Her photography and words are amazing and are helpful in seeing ordinary things as beautiful and amazing. You won't be disappointed by her work!
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
July 5th
So I miss Ginnie at work a lot! It’s just not the same without her. Barbara is with me this week. She sure gets the job done she is literally an energizer bunny when it comes to getting things accomplished in claims, it’s insane! She sure puts my work to shame haha. Today at work while I was boxing up some books I couldn’t help but open up this one called “ So long insecurity”. I couldn’t put it down, every page had impressive and intriguing thoughts. I wrote down a few things from it that I loved. There wasn’t much time because I had to continue on with work but I jotted down what I could. The main topic was insecurities hence the title. Insecurities are something we all struggle with every day. I know I struggle with this constantly. I have thoughts like “ I am not as talented as this person” or “ I am not as smart…. _____ fill in the blank”. It can be anything. It is so easy to compare to other people, but today I stopped and asked the question why? Why do I compare myself to another human who is just as imperfect as I am. Why can’t I just find complete satisfaction in the Lord? He is all I need. This is something I will continue to pray for. I pray that God gives us eyes to see each other clearly and to give us hearts that overflow with compassion rather than comparison. When we allow God’s truth to eclipse every false positive and let our eyes spring open to the treasure we have, there in his glorious reflection we will also see the treasure we are and the beauty of the Lord our God will be upon. This book also touched on the topic of control. ( quote from book ) “ Although humans can’t attain total power, knowing that fact hasn’t kept us from trying. The most we can successfully achieve is excessive control… people who are chronically insecure often have an overwhelming tendency to become control freaks. Upon serious consideration that inclination makes perfect sense. We feel most secure when our environment is in control, and since no one is able to control it to our satisfaction, we decide we have to do it ourselves. If someone would do it and do it right, we wouldn’t have to take over, so it’s not really our fault, we reason. It is our responsibility. An insecure person’s greatest need for control is directed toward those who have the most potential to either threaten her security or strengthen it.
God offers anything and everything we need. We can all find peace and rest in that. He loves us more than anyone is capable of, and he looks upon us with favor. He sees us as beautiful masterpieces that he created.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Sunday July 3rd
I LOVE THE COLOR OF THIS. Seafoam green and yellow? now that is something i've never seen until South Carolina =)
We decided to go out to Huntington state park together as a room. It was beautiful and scorching hot just how we like it. The beach there was different from ours at the hotel we stay at. It stayed super shallow and there was a sand bar that went out pretty far. After we had soaked up enough sun we grabbed some ice cream. I got to play some soccer on the beach before we took off for the Group 1 Crew and Kutless concert for freeeee! The only song I was familiar with was Walking on the stars by Group 1 Crew which was the song that was playing right as we were walking up to the band so I was glad to catch the second half of the song. Kutless turned out to be really really good! I think it would be pretty hard to mess up a concert with a bunch of friends with the ocean near. I loved it!
Friday July 1st
WOW this summer is flying by way too quickly for my liking. Today was filled with work. After our shift was over Kari, Joel, and I headed over to the other project and hung out with them. We walked to the pier in hopes of seeing sharks. A lot of people fish off the pier at night and catch baby sharks. We walked to the very end where there was a band playing and tons of people. We stood looking over the edge of the railing and saw a shark swimming below. It was so cool! If I had to guesstimate it was probably 6 or 7 feet.
Thursday June 30th
Wow I cannot believe it is already the last day of June. It has been a great month. It is really awesome to see so much growth take place not only in my own life, but in others around me as well. It is so awesome to see evidence of God working all around. It is a priceless gift. Today work was funny once again thanks to Ginnie. She gave me a Christian C.D to listen to because we were talking about the bands she likes. Her favorite is Mercy Me. I’m interested to listen to this C.D she gave me because whenever someone gives you a mix you never quite know what your going to get and of course everyone thinks their own music is good so they will tell you it is. She saw me eating dry noodles today for a snack and asked what in the world I was thinking desiring to eat them. She was so shocked that she was curious and wanted a try. I gave it to her and warned that she might break her teeth haha! She did it anyways and when she was done she goes yeah your pretty weird and you will break your teeth and probably have to see a dentist here. She asked how in any way shape or form that could ever satisfy ones hunger. I was just dying of laughter because she thinks I am the biggest oddball. Today the printer was being all messed up and printing off the wrong box numbers so I tricked her a little more by saying that the wrong one printed again after she fixed it and she just looked so defeated. I cracked a huge smile and she just shook her head, smiled, and looked relieved. The entire day I thought I was smelling ketchup or something that had to do with condiments. I was like okay Ginnie you know my sense of smell is usually on, there is something hiding here in claims that stinks or someone is eating a hot dog or something. She agreed after my persistant comments that she did smell something. I searched all over then she told me to just give up. Ginnie said maybe it was her that smelled because she had just been in food claims so I went over and smelled her but we decided she just smelled like her Snuggle dryer sheets. Well about four hours later I pick up some items and discover that it was warschester sauce that we had been stinking up the place. It spilled all over and was seeping into other items, welcome to a typical day in claims! MESS!!! I don’t know why but she totally brings out the silly youthful side of me, and I enjoy every minute of it ( hope she does too ;) ) We have fun but get the job done! Ginnie has such a tender heart and is so kind to everybody at work which is really an encouragement. She dislikes the job but still has a positive attitude most of the time. My favorite thing that she says is “ Oh Sugar”. It is her replacement phrase for saying something vulgar. Before she took off at the end of her shift she went to grab her soda and I sneakily taped a bag of some dry noodles on there. She laughed and goes oh yeah your real funny " Jenni " awwww i love tricking her. It makes my day.
The fruit here is so nummmmmmyyyy and affordable. Strawberries were only a dollar today so I got some. I love mixing vanilla yogurt, raisin bran, and strawberries together for breakfast. If you havn’t tried it before it is a must!!!! Today was the staffs last day at project so we did a farewell song for them. The original plan was to light little candles and place them in our cups and then spell out THANK YOU in the sand but the wind was too strong against our little shining candles and blew them out. We used our cell phones instead as lights. Thank you technology! We sang Lean On Me to them.
Wednesday June 29th
Today instead of beach evangelism we got to write a letter to someone of our choice. I really enjoyed this because writing is so much easier for me to relay what I want to say. I sat on the beach with the ocean in my peripheral view while I wrote with Tenth Avenue North playing in my ears. I think letters are so powerful and you get to keep them forever. Afterwards a bunch of us went to play sand volleyball it was so much fun especially because no one was taking it too seriously. It was a great opportunity to just kick back and relax.
Tuesday June 28th
Today my story of the day in claims consists of three dead fish in a ziplock bag. Like I said there is never a dull moment in this department because people do and drop off the craziest things. I swear things that seem like common sense aren’t all that common apparently to others. I was emptying a bin filled with things from the pets department. I was packaging them in a box to be shipped off. So I start by placing a pink pet carrier in the box then blindly put my hand in the bin and pull out the easiest item to get out. I take a look at it and see these three fish pushed to the corner of the ziplock bag. I look closer thinking and hoping it was just some fake bait that got returned but NOPE, The stench threw away any ounce of hop I had. Literally it smelled like rotting animal. I nearly started gagging and I brought them over to Barbara and said, “ now what in the world do I do with these?” She told me to bring them up to customer service in the front because they are supposed to throw them away right when they get there. So I make my way up to the front of the store with the baggie of dead fish held as far away from me as I could, and took the path less traveled in the store in hopes that the customers wouldn’t see me doing this. I get up the front counter and give them the fish and they admit that they should have been thrown away. They take a look at the return ticket and it had been an entire week that they had been there. GROSSSSSS!!! I have a weak stomach when it comes to smells and dead things. I return to the claims area to continue on with my box and it still stunk so I saturated the air with fabreeze. I should write a thank you letter to whoever invented that! I found out that Ginnie may be going back to her original department sooner than usual because they hired a new claims person and Barbara is going to be training him. Should be interesting. I asked Barbara if she was excited to spend an entire three weeks with me? ( half joking ) She didn’t reply and she kinda looked down and smiled while shaking her head. I go , “ come on now Barbara you can’t stay bitter about me throwing away your strawberries forever!” She still didn’t reply so I continued to tell her that strawberries were on sale for 90 cents now. I tried to get her to crack a smile but I failed. Oh well =) . This week we have some people visiting that are going to India soon for a mission trip. They are here to spend time with us and share some details about what they will be doing while they are there. There are so many unreached people in this world who have never even heard the name of Jesus. This hit me really hard because in America most people grow up hearing about Jesus whether it is through people, songs, or bracelets that say WWJD? It is so essential that we spread the word to people who have never heard it. Tuesdays are the days we have our devoted room time. My room leader Amanda had a sermon for us to listen to. The sermon touched on the subject of pride. Pride is competitive and is taking pleasure of being more than the next person. Pride keeps us from experiencing any real or lasting sense of pleasure. Boasting is to recommend yourself. If someone is puffed up by air but not filled up by something solid and substantial then being inflated and deflated is all the same. . . Meaning that if you are puffed up by something that isn’t true then in reality it is just the same as if you had nothing ( being deflated ). Another key thing I took from this sermon is that peoples thoughts shouldn't be of utmost importance to us because God is all that matters. Even our own thoughts aren't correct. We feed ourselves lies all the time whether its about ourselves or others. I had just never looked at it like that because I used to always rely on my thoughts being ultimate. How VERY wrong I was. God is ultimate truth and so we should look to his word for wisdom and advice.
Sunday June 26th
We have found a new favorite spot called Fire and Ice. It is a new local coffee shop that just opened and they have graciously given us a 30% discount card. They have nummy coffee and Wi Fi which is where I always do my blog postings. Summer Training Project has such a unique feel to it. It isn’t rare to find people having “ 1 on 1’s” everywhere you go. People are so intentional here and there are always people getting together to study the bible. It is so nice! Today I layed out for a long time but it got so hot that I needed to cool off in the ocean so I went swimming for a while with some friends. Right as I came back to my towel where I left my I pod and phone I noticed the water washed up on to the lower half of my towel. Luckily it didn’t reach my electronics but if I had waited even a minute longer to my stuff it could have been gone. I got so lucky!!! That ocean is unpredictable. As we were getting ready for bed there was a spider on the ceiling of our bathroom of course being the girls that we are we all evacuated as quickly as possible. Jesamine was showering so she was stuck. We argued about who was going to be the brave soul to squash it. Laura worked up the courage and smacked it with a flip flop. We couldn’t find where it fell so we searched and found it in Jesamines clothes…. Icky!! I have videos of this great moment. It brought us endless laughter =) Thank you Spidy!
Friday June 24th
Today we got to enjoy sleeping in because work didn’t start until 2. As Kari and I were making our way down to bask in the sun Joel and Chris invited us to join them thrifting. I can never say no to thrift shopping. It was fun to see all the random things that people have gotten rid of and have considered to be useless or junk. Kari found a few cute shirts that only she could pull off! Suzi found these super unique and awesome capri’s that didn’t fit quite right but it was still worth it to buy them. I didn’t buy anything but it was still enjoyable to look around. Before work I took a quick dip in the ocean as a substitute for a shower lol probably not the most hygienic thing but its summer =) !! On Fridays and Saturdays I work by myself because Ginnie has those days off so it gets lonely sometimes yet in a way it is peaceful because we rarely get alone time here so it is my time to debrief. I am telling you people bring the oddest ends into claims with the most laughable reasons for their returns. One person returned sunscreen because it “ smells bad” and someone returned shampoo because it simply “ didn’t work”. On average we get about 5 gazebos in a day because tourists conveniently buy and use them for a few days and return it full of sand. Wal-Mart literally takes back anything and everything. They take back things that weren’t even purchased at the store because they want to please the customers. To top it all off I came across some clothing in a bag with a defective tag that described that they had human feces on them. CRAZY I KNOW RIGHT?! I guess some kid took a crap in the middle of the womens clothing and pulled down the closest shirts to wipe. YUCK! At the end of the shift I got to be a greeter with my roommate Jesamine. Someone asked for a buggie and I was lost? I just rolled forward a cart hoping that would fulfill their needs. Jesamine filled me in that buggie meant cart. I guess I’m not quite totally familiar with the lingo they use here. One of my favorite parts of the day is the time our room gets to spend together right before bed. We giggle until tears fill our eyes and our tummies hurt. We are silly and its amusing, well at least we think so!
Thursday June 23rd
Today was our first pay day at Wal-Mart! It felt good to see the results of all the hard work and long hours we put in. I’ve found myself actually looking forward to work at times because I enjoy being with Ginnie so much. She is my dose of laughter for the day. I always poke fun at her and the more we get to know each other the more she feels comfortable thinking of a witty comment to spit right back at me. Our social tonight was Sadie Hawkins group dates. The boys had to think up a creative synchronized swimming routine to woo us over, then we got to choose which guys room we wanted to ask out. All the boys did a fantastic job and kept our attention! The group that won us over was the room with Chris, Joel, Tyler, Paul, and Wesley. We had a date planned out and we knew they would be totally game for it. Broadway at the beach was our date destination. It is a place with a bunch of cool shops, arcades, rides, and museums. We went in the evening so it was pretty because the entire place sparkled with lights. Our room planned to give our dates a list of embarrassing tasks to complete with us. The first task was for me and Joel to salsa dance in the middle of everyone walking, and to make it even more awkward there was no music! It was so fun though, it was great to see people’s reactions to our wierdness. The second task was for Laura and Paul to go into a store pretending to be a couple by holding hands and ask a store clerk about an item in the store. The catch was that Laura had to eat a piece of chocolate and leave a huge chunk on her front teeth while doing this. The clerks face was priceless, he didn’t quite know what to think. Laura was persistent on finding out about this huge Justin Beiber cut out. He had to cover up his mouth to hide his chuckling. To end the conversation Laura said oh shoot well they are too expensive for us to purchase Paul but I am so thankful you bought me that chocolate and she smiled REALLY big at Paul with her chocolate covered mouth. The next task consisted of Amanda and Tyler going into a giant candy store and speaking with an accent. We figured the best one to do would be our Midwest accent since we are do it without even trying. Amanda put extra emphasis on it when she asked for a BAAAAAGGG multiple times. The people were confused but that’s okay, it was still great! The last task was for Wesley, Kari, and Chris to sing the star spangled banner in a huge group of people. We stood there watching as they belted out the famous tune and everyone stared. We actually got one guy to stop and join in the singing. Mission accomplished! The atmosphere of this place was incredible. There were bubbles floating aroud everywhere that were coming from bubble machines. As we walked across a bridge there were tons of fish ( Carp ) below us in a pond. We stopped to observe them for a while. They were in a cluster underneath a nearby light. We got food from a machine and fed them, they went crazy! Among the fish were four adult ducks swimming around and six ducklings. We were worried the fish were going to gulp down the baby ducks. The ducklings wandered fearlessly, but we figured they couldn’t be in too much danger since their parents led them to the cluster of Carp. We went on our way and saw a ton of different rides. We were all in agreement that the flying swings would be the most fun. It was a blast and we could overlook the entire place. We concluded the night with Cold Stone ice cream. I got cake batter with cookie dough ( pretty much the best creation by cold stone =) ). It started to sprinkle as we walked back to the car so we took shelter in a nearby arcade. Wes challenged Laura to a game of DDR, and Laura won!!! When we got back to our hotel we were pleasantly welcomed by the sound of cheerful voices singing worship songs. It was the perfect end to a fantastic day.
Wednesday June 22nd
This morning on my run I saw a few jellyfish washed up ( pretty sure they were dead ) it was still cool to see though. They looked like the jellyfish off of the spongebob show. I saw some black birds camping out right by the shore line searching for little clams to snatch up and eat. I have this tremendous fascination with seashells! I know people normally search for the big complete ones, but I like the teenie tiny ones with detail. I love thinking about how it once was whole and complete with a living creature that called it home. I read the bible with Amanda this morning and we read through the first few chapters of John. After that my new friend Caitie walked up with her steamy breakfast! I am so thankful I met her. We have a lot in common and are having struggles with similar things especially when it comes to boys. I feel like we have unlimited conversation. I feel like God has brought us together to help each other by supporting, relating, learning, and listening. Coming to STP this summer was a big step for us. It was such a comfort to talk with her I feel like she feels and thinks like I do and so it was nice to have someone that can relate. After our talk we decided to soak up some rays and lay on the beach. She has an waterproof camera so we decided to take advantage of that! haha there were so many people that looked at her like she was a lunatic for bringing a camera in the water, little did they know it was waterproof.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Sunday June 19th
Today was probably my favorite day so far at project. It was very busy but everything we did was enjoyable. First we had life training which was a talk about technology but zooming in on facebook. Basically that facebook like many other things in and of itself isn’t bad it is the way we misuse it that makes it a bad thing. We have to be careful about why we are posting the things we do and if we compare ourselves to others. Facebook can be very effective if used in moderation. After life training we had church which was good. He talked about how we are made new when we accept Jesus into our hearts and what that looks like for us. After church, Kari, Katie, Jess, and I decided that we should have a girl date. We were all extremely hungry, so we drove around scoping out the perfect restaurant. We spotted Garden City Buffet and decided to stop there because one of Katie’s customers at Piggly Wiggly had told her how good it is. There was so much food! The buffet overflowed with Chinese food, sushi, fruit, dessert, and even brunch items. It was nice to feast on something other than our usual PB&J sandwiches, haha. This was actually the first time that Linds and I had met Jess and it was cool how fast we bonded. During lunch we heard about a free Tenth Avenue North concert that was happening this very night so we were all in agreement that we MUST MUST GO! I was estatic because this is one of my favorite Christian bands. We ate until we couldn’t fill our tummies any more and headed back to our hotel. On the drive back coincidentally we found the street sign 10th Ave. N! How convenient!!
This afternoon I went to the flea market with Kari and Emily. We got there at 3:14 and most of the vendors were either packed up or in the process of packing up because it closes at 4. Most importantly we stocked up on some food from the stand with discounted Special K crackers and granola bars. We discovered a cute little stand with a sign that read “Twirly Shells.” The lady who owns it is a local who finds shells and sea glass and then twists wire around them in cute swirls that have pearl beads. They are beautiful necklace pendants. We spent a good amount of time holding each unique creation up to our necks and looking in the mirror to decide which we should buy. Kari and I each bought one and the lady even told me that she would custom make me one since I liked a specific type. The vendor and her husband talked to us about their church history and it was sad because they had had a few pastors who had hurt them and their churches. One pastor had preached that their denomination was wrong and had split the church and taken most of the congregation away to create his own church. Another preacher professed that there is nothing wrong with divorce. They have been looking for a new church, so we invited them to our church and they seemed really excited to come next Sunday. On our way back from the flea market we saw this weird looking duck/goose thing so we had to stop and take pictures of course!
It rained here today which is pretty uncommon but the rain here is much different because it comes in very short spurts and passes within a short amount of time. I was worried for a little bit that the concert might be cancelled due to the rain but I still hoped. A big group of about 20 of us met in the parking lot to take off for the Tenth Avenue North concert in North Myrtle Beach. This is a beautiful part of the state. It was quite the adventure figuring out rides because so many people from Project wanted to go. After much squeezing together we crammed into the cars and headed north on 17 ready for a good time. Kari and I rode in Joel’s van with him, Tailor, Katie, Kiki, and Emily. It was an interesting ride. Emily ate most of her apple and then told Tailor to throw it out the window for her. He came up with the “brilliant” idea of throwing it into another STP car caravanning beside us ( SILLY BOYS… the ideas they come up with ). When we were at a red light, Tailor threw the apple into Zach and Greg’s car. It landed in Zach’s lap and the look on his face was priceless haha he was so puzzled as to what this thing was that had just darted at him. As soon as he realized what hit him he wanted to retaliate but luckily, the light turned green and we sped off.
So Kari and I had heard from a guy at the flea market that the concert was by North 8th Ave at the Boardwalk…we told this to Zach and the other guys who were driving. For some reason they decided to go to Broadway at the Beach instead and then couldn’t figure out why they couldn’t find the concert. We persistently insisted it was on 8th ave. We finally all piled back into the cars. As we were pulling out, Greg decided to get his revenge with the apple…he chucked it as hard as he could back into our van and it ended up darting Kari right in the eye. I felt so bad, it was a combination of holding in laughter but feeling empathy for her pain. Gee what is with that room, First it is Barrak throwing a Frisbee at my nose, then Greg throwing a pine cone at Kari on our Bigger and Better adventure, now an apple core? Anyways after this episode we booked it to make it to the concert on time.
On the way, Tailor got a text from someone saying that the concert had been cancelled because of the rain we had had earlier that day. We were all really bummed and didn’t want to believe it so we thought he was bluffing. I wasn’t ready to be disappointed quite yet until we got there and there was no concert so we went on our way with high hopes. We pulled up to the boardwalk and saw a big open area with a stage, we got so excited! Joel and Tailor let us girls out of the van and went to park it. Isn’t that sweet? J Needless to say the concert was simply amazing. We got there just in time and surprisingly we found a path straight to the front of the crowd close to the stage. It was a great view and the music sounded better than it does recorded. I stood there in amazement in this moment I was in. Everything was beautiful…. The ocean to the left of us, the sun setting, a giant ferris wheel behind us, a bunch of shops to the right of us, and in front a band that has incredible talent with a strong love for God, but even more powerful than all of it were the people surrounding me all coming together for one common thing : our desire for Christ. During this concert my mind was glued to the feeling of total and constant amazement of God’s beautiful creations. Without him I would be nothing, and so many times I overlook that. Everything I am and do comes from him, and it is nothing of my own doing. He created this wonderful day!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)