Let's Talk About Sex, Baby

(Before you freak out this was the title of the message last night at church).

1 Corinthians 6:9-11

"Don't you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God?  Don't fool yourselves.  Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people-none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God.  Some of you were once like that.  But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."

Okay so this verse I have had memorized ever since June 2, 2009.  I always dread even thinking about it.  So when I walk into church last night and learn that this is passage we are talking about my heart automatically sank.  I didn't want to.  I hate it.  I hate thinking about it, and remember what it is saying.  It makes me cry if I think about it too much.  Do you understand yet how much I hate it?  I know it is there for a reason though, and I should take this passage to heart along with the rest of the Bible.  The point is I learned a lot last night about this passage, and was able to view it in a different way without taking it out of context.  Let me explain.

This passage can talk about identity.  What is your identity?  When I was asked this last night I just automatically thought "Emily."  That should sum it up, right?  No.  I know the correct answer.  I know that my identity is found is Jesus Christ.  I am a follower of Christ, and I strive to serve Him in all that I do.  I know this, and I know that this is true for me...most of the time.  We have to realize that if our identity is found in anything else than Christ, it is hopeless. HOPELESS.  We can always fail in any other identity we have.  If my identity was a teacher.  I can fail at being a teacher, and yet I cannot fail with Christ.  So let's go through the text.

1 Corinthians 6:9a- Identity determines our future.  

Those who do wrong that are mentioned in this verse are simply those that have never been set free by Christ.

1 Corinthians 6:9b-10- Identity drives our present.

"Identity precedes activity."  This is where my view changed.  I always seemed to only read one part of this passage and what it was saying.  I never remembered to read all of the other "wrongs" here.  After doing that I was overwhelmed, and humbled at the same time because I have does some of those things while still loving God.  I still believe I was a Christian while doing those things.  We all sin. ALL.  Another list, Ephesians 5:3-6.  Identity drives how we act.  

1 Corinthians 6:11- Our identity distinguishes our past.

Who is your identity?  It all comes together at the end, and then the last passage which make it even more wonderful if that is even possible.  Romans 6:20-23- "When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right.  And what was the result?  You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom.  But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God.  Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord."  Okay so I have heard this many times in my life, but sometimes it is needed to really remember what God is saying to you here.  It is different for all, but after reading this verse all I want to do is jump on a table and praise God.  I mean seriously!  Anyways so I shall leave you all with the song that makes this message more real to me, and what I really got out of it.

Everything- Tim Hughes

God in my living
There in my breathing
God in my waking
God in my sleeping

God in my resting
There in my working
God in my thinking
God in my speaking

Be my everything
Be my everything
Be my everything
Be my everything

God in my hoping
There in my dreaming
God in my watching
God in my waiting

God in my laughing
There in my weeping
God in my hurting
God in my healing

Christ in me
Christ in me
Christ in me the hope of glory
You are everything

Christ in me
Christ in me
Christ in me the hope of glory
Be my everything

Super Counselor

I feel like I must apologize every time I blog because I wait so long to do it.  Okay so I believe I left off at Saturday night while we were watching My Fair Lady.
Saturday Night- For what I saw of My Fair Lady it was quite fabulous to say the least.  We got a text from "MLJ" (Mission Lab Josh) telling us that there was a field trip to the movies that night if we wanted to go.  I honestly didn't really want to go because I was very tired, but I ended up going anyways.  It was me, Jessica (roommate), Becca, Hannah, and then the mission lab boys (Cody, MLJ, Blake, and Lenny).  We went to go see the new X-Men movie which I totally did not want to go see because I just didn't care about it, or so I thought.  The movie was seriously phenomenal. I love Kevin Bacon as a bad guy too much for words.  It was so good as soon as I got home I bought the score (thanks Bethany)!  Afterwards MLJ wanted pancakes, but nothing was opened that had pancakes so we went to waffle house!  It was kind of scary, but good.  I sat at a table with Cody, Jess, and Lenny.  Lenny is from New York so his accent is kind of funny, and plus he didn't know what "Roll Tide" meant so we had to explain it to him!  That was a funny conversation because he was so confused.  Lenny is by far one of the nicest guys ever though!  Finally we got home around 2:30, and fell asleep pretty fast.
Sunday-  I woke up sick.  Awesome.  Waffle House messed me up, and I was NOT happy. I had to miss church which was very upsetting because I absolutely love the church down here we go to.  Everybody got back around 12ish, and we went to the living room in the dorm to watch the bama softball game which made me want the throw up again.  I HATE FLORIDA.  Anyways after that horrible of a game we all took a nap.  When we woke up it was time for dinner with all of the mission lab so we could meet our group for the week.  After we met them we had our staff meeting which is always funny!  I love everyone on staff here and the director is the nicest person on the face of the earth.  Krista is awesome, and I seriously can only find one fault in her.  She is a Florida fan.  After that I think we all just camp back to the dorm and watched tv before bed.
Monday- Oh the joys of starting a brand new week at camp.  Today I had a new camper named Shannon in my group.  She is autistic so I automatically love her so much.  I wish I could just take her home with me, because she is so sweet!  Me and her shall be best friends I know it. My group seriously still has a problem of staying in lines, being quiet, being positive, and not being disrespectful.  One girl named Danielle is my biggest challenge.  It takes everything in my not to smack the crap out of her when she rolls her eyes at me...now I know what my parents felt like with me back in the day.  Monday was an overall good day though.  We started talking about Moses this week, and I have finally started to figure out these kids and what they like.  Monday night I did not do a thing.  None of us did.
Tuesday- Yet again another good day at camp except my mission lab need to pick up their game a little.  I have the youth minister, and an older man in my group so you would think I wouldn't have to deal with behavior issues with them, right?  They are really nice, but when I am trying to get the group to be quiet it doesn't help when they are talking to the kids still.  I wanted to duct tape their mouths shut!  UGH!  Tuesday night some of the people went to Target I believe, and I skipped out on that trip and caught up on my SYTYCD.  LOVE IT.
Wednesday- Danielle had another bad day.  I had a talk with the group about being positive and how I didn't want to hear another negative comment out of anybody's mouth. The rest of the days the kids just said "Ms. Emily is cranky today."  I was, and I didn't care what they said as long as when I told them to do something they didn't talk back or grunt/moan like it was the worst thing EVER.  I did figure out music they finally like though.  We do the Cupid Shuffle, Cha Cha Slide, and dance offs for music time. They kept asking for Lecrae which I didn't have and Michael Jackson which I did.  They wanted Thriller and to turn off most of the lights so they could dance in the dark all scary like. They LOVED it, and I have to admit I did too.  I didn't go out tonight either.
Thursday- Another breaking point at camp.  Everything seemed to be fine.  We worked on our cheer for Friday, and it's awesome.  It was storming during our swim time so we didn't get to swim, and Shannon was a little upset to be off schedule.  I had to calm her down which was easy enough, but she doesn't do well with really loud noises and a lot of different things are happening around her.  She does for a little bit, and then she starts screaming.  This started happening when we were in the gym so me and her just played together.  Later on that afternoon though I overheard people talking about her and how weird she is, etc.  They even started laughing and making fun of her right in front of me. I was almost to the point of tears I was so very angry.  I made Shannon and Ms. Bri leave the room, and it took everything in me not to just yell at these children as loud as I could.  I quickly composed myself and had a very unwanted conversation with them.  I explained to them the struggles Shannon has, and how she is just as intelligent as the rest of them.  We talked about how she doesn't deserve the treatment they are giving her, etc.  After about a 15 minute conversation everything seems to be better for the moment anyways, and I pray it stays that way.  Today we also got a new staffer.  His name is Joel, and he is Krista's brother-in-law.  He is 19, and country.  Josh, Krista's husband who also is a youth minister and works with the camp too, is definitely not so I didn't expect Joel to be like this.  Joel wore a camouflage hat with a confederate flag on it and it said "Git R Done."  He is really nice though, but you know...country.  Yes I know I'm from Alabama.
Friday-  I love Fridays.  Thursday night I went to Walmart and got some face paint and stuff for the celebration today.  We had a pretty good day minus the fact I had to send Danielle to the office because of her attitude and talking back, etc.  Not fun.  Right before celebration we were getting ready and some of my girls went to the bathroom to check their face paint.  They came back saying Ms. Becca was in there crying so I went in there and talked to her.  She was just frustrated and had her own breaking point because she was having to do stuff all by herself and her co-counselor wouldn't step in and help.  There have been problems with this every since the beginning of camp.  After a long time with her we went out to celebration.  Everybody's cheers were very good and the Lifters won which are the group above us.  The red group won the spirit stick, and I won super counselor of the week.  Woo-hoo!  Bethany left for Scotland today, and I was very nervous about her flights, and imagining the worst but I did wake up to a text message from her saying she landed safely.  She knows me too well. Anyways it is now Saturday and I don't feel like doing anything at the moment, but I do have to laundry.  Gross. Tonight we are going to the church service at 6, and then out with mission lab again to hopefully see Pirates 4.  Anyways TTFN.

My wonderful Seth who is autistic.  Just proof that even children with autism are the same as others.

My precious Shannon

Team Blue!

Camp NOLA Kidz-Week 1

Whew!  I'm so sorry it has taken forever to blog, but let's just say I've been too exhausted to do much of anything after camp everyday.  I am totally loving the camp staff life though.  I think I was totally meant to do this, because I truly cannot get enough of it.
Monday-  Okay day 1 of camp.  Stressful.  Nervous. Excited, and did I mention nervous?  The first day was the easiest of all the days actually though.  I didn't really have to punish anybody, and my group was pretty much awesome.  The mission lab people we had were AMAZING.  We had a girl who was 15 and named Haylee Grace, and then an adult woman that was a chaperon.  Her name was Allison, and she was a teacher so I automatically liked her.  Both of them were amazing all week!  I was truly blessed to have them because they made everything much easier.  At the end of the day I was completely worn out though because I had to be there at 7:15-around 4:30 this week.  Like I said though, totally worth it.  A little boy named Seth is in my group and he is autistic, and FABULOUS.  He is the sweetest boy, and his laugh is truly contagious.  That night we went out to eat for one of my fellow staffers, and he got a free steak from this place!  It was awesome!  As soon as we got back though I crashed!
Tuesday- Okay here is where I finally I had to start disciplining...not fun, but necessary.  I had a few new kids today, and they like to talk. A LOT.  I got a kid who has the worst attitude ever because he wants to be in a group with the Lifters even though he is supposed to be in my group.  Oh well though I just let him sulk in the corner if he wanted to.  After camp today I went back home, and went to bed pretty soon.
Wednesday- Today I got some more kids and we had to instate the rule that if we have to say your name more than 3 times that is an automatic 10 minutes off swim time(which is their favorite).  This helped some, but of course there are also just a few that still like to test you.
Thursday- The day of my breaking point.  Today my co-couselor had a doctor's appointment in the afternoon and had to leave for 2 hours and part of the time she was gone we had rec time.  I had 2 kids already having to sit out 10 minutes from rec because of some disturbance they caused earlier.  15 minutes of rec consisted of free play which I have found to be a bad idea.  I turned around and see Haylee Grace having to hold two kids back from each other.  Picture this:  a super tall girl, and the littlest boy in the class yelling at each other.  Why you ask?  Because Danielle thought Mark had thrown his necklace at her which wasn't true because he was twirling it around his finger and it threw off.  So Danielle steps on his foot as hard as she could and he starts hitting her.  I sat both of them out, and said I would talk to them later.  I turn around and another one my kids runs up to me saying Maya, another girl in my group, is crying.  So I go over to Maya and she's crying because no one will play with her so I talk to her and then another girl came over to play with her.  I then turn around to go over to Mark and Danielle and another councilor from another group came up to me telling me to go talk to Skylar who had been set out because she threw a ball at another kid as hard as she could because he called her a name, and she is a big girl.  Then after I finished talking to her I hear Danielle and Mark yelling at each other and Mark is in tears. UGH!  Can I not get a break here?!  By that time it was time to go so everyone lines us and we start walking back to the Price building.  On the way back two of my kids started kicking each other in the shins. REALLY?!  So we get back and I have to have a conversation will them and pretty much 3 people out of the class ended up with deducted swim time for the next day.  Finally the day was over and I was ready to collapse.
Friday- Ah, Friday. YAY!  The beginning of the day started off rough.  One girl got sat out all of swim time because she just would not listen so just sat in the corner and cried, but I just didn't have any sympathy for her AT ALL.  Toward the end of the day things were getting better minus the fact that my kids don't know how to walk in a line so I have to bring a rope on Monday so they can be like preschoolers and have to hold it on the way to places.  On a good note we totally had the best cheer even though we were ripped off and didn't win because we won the SPIRIT STICK instead!  Woop-woop!  We get to decorate any way we want and get to keep it for a week.  That night we went and at at Joey K's...OMG AMAZING, and then Sucre! Ah!  I feel like as soon as I got home I passed out even though I have been reading Choosing to See by Mary-Beth Chapman.  SADDEST BOOK EVER...even though I did know what was coming.  I'm a little over halfway through and I feel like I never read it without crying.  It is so good though!
Saturday- I slept super late thankfully, and then we went down to Magazine street to shop.  It was really fun, but very tiring.  My feet hurt, and I'm sunburnt, but I got pretty things!  Now we are watching My Fair Lady, which is fabulous.  Oh also throughout the week I have found out my house in Tuscaloosa has fleas!  REALLY?!  I need a break.  I cannot deal with camp and stupid fleas from my roommates dogs when I'm not even there.  I am so thankful for my mom though who has been communicating with my roommate in Tuscaloosa figuring stuff out for me since she knows I'm already stressed I truly am blessed for a mom like her.

CHECK OUT SOME PICTURES!

Co-Cousilor Ms. Bri along with Mark and Tristan.

Rayvn...one of my talkers, but good kid.

Airelle, Jaylen, and TJ in the back corner sulking.

Mark

Jaylen, Maxxi, and Johnathon. Some of my best kids.

Team Blue at it's best.

What the kids did all week.  Abraham=hero of the week.

Just a funny picture of me and my roommate.  This pretty much sums up our relationship.  She thinks I'm crazy, but she loves me.  Roll Tide.

Last Days of Training=Drama at the Preschool

Thursday- Well we had to be at training at 8 again today and we had to practice the skit that we had to perform for the parents that night at parent orientation.  I was Safety Girl!  Woo-hoo!  After that we played some tag games that we could teach our kids, and then we started working on the tshirts and packets again.  After a little bit it was time for lunch, and then back to work on the packets and get ready.  We learned some more songs also during this time, and started shooting the video that was supposed to be played at parent orientation, but the editing program didn’t work so we couldn’t edit the video after we shot it.  Around 4:25 everything was set up and ready to go for parent orientation at 6:30, but parents were arriving at 6:00 to go ahead and pick up their tshirts and packets.  We were told to go get ready cause we had to wear our staff shirts and jeans.  We got back around 4:45 and had subway before then got ready for orientation.  Everything went super smoothly, and a lot of the parents said it went much better than years previous so that’s so exciting!! After that we all went to go get ice cream at only the best place ever for ice cream, Creole Creamery!  It was AWESOME.  

Friday- LAST DAY OF TRAINING!  It started at 8.  We had to to put all of the chairs up from the orientation and then we had our devotion.  After that we started the wonderful CPR training.  I am now officially certified, as well at First Aid certified.  That is pretty much all we did, but it took all day.  We did work on stuff we needed for week one with our groups for a little bit.  After training we had staff night!  We went to a place called Juan’s Flying Burrito and it totally had the best guacamole ever!  After that we went to Sucre which is the most delicious dessert ever! They have a bunch of different things to get, but it was really really good! After that everybody was super super tired and then we all got to sleep in Saturday! Yay!   Oh I forgot about the stuff that happened Friday!  On our way to Sucre we saw like a police chase that was like super scary close to us.  Now for the scariest part of the day we went into lockdown right before lunch.  We found out that there was a guy running from a shooter that jumped the fence and got onto campus and ran into the preschool!  He was covered in blood, and the preschool had get all of the children back away from the windows.  It was very terrifying, but everything was okay because the actually shooter didn’t actually come onto campus.  That is all hear-say though so remember that.  That was terrifying to not know exactly what is going on and just hearing a shooter was on campus which wasn’t really true.  Anyways that was enough excitement to last me all summer!  

Team Blue

Okay so let’s start with Tuesday.  Tuesday we spent most of our time with a behavior aide person telling us about different ways to discipline, the types of parenting you will see, how to keep children on tasks, autism, and ADHD.  Pretty much all of this was just like a review for some of my classes.  I felt so smart listening to Ms. Kathy talk.  Her specialty is preschool so I automatically loved her and the way she taught.  After that which took most of the day, we found out what age groups and who our co-councilors are.  I am officially going to be working with “Group 5”, or “Team Blue”, or 5th graders.  I am kind of nervous since the only kids I work with these days are early childhood which basically means birth-8 years old.  I normally stay to the younger side though unless I am teaching DNOW which then normally means junior high and then even that is just girls.  I don’t think I am not going to be able to handle it or anything crazy like that, and I know that God has a reason for everything.  Bri is my co-councilor and I think we are going to have a lot of fun together, and with the kids.  We got done around 5:00, and then at 6:00 me, Jessica U., Becca, and Hannah went to eat at Camellia Grill which was PHENOMENAL!!   We then went down to the quarter and had the wonderful Cafe de Monde.  It is definitely a place you must visit when coming to NOLA.  After some time just walking around we came back to campus and went to bed.  

Now to today. (Wednesday) Today we got to training and went straight to curriculum stuff after devotion.  Bri and I planned out the first two weeks for the study.  The them for the camp is “Heros.”  The first 5 weeks are Old Testament heros, and then the last 5 weeks are talking about how God/Jesus is our main hero.  Bri and I have some pretty awesome ideas of what to do with “Team Blue” and I will most definitely be posting pictures of a lot of stuff once we get started.  After that Dr. T and Dr. Stringer talked to us about kids and salvation, but we didn’t get far before the next speaker got there to talk about problem-solving with kids.  Her name was Leslie, and she was very nice.  After that we got a list of our kids, and had to call all of the parents to remind them about parent orientation tomorrow night.  I have one boy and he is autistic and his mom was telling me all about how much he loves coming to camp every year and has already been talking about it since Christmas.  I am thrilled and can’t wait to meet all of my kids.  After that it was around 6 and at 6:30 we ordered pizza and started putting together the kids teachers, and parent packets.  We were there until 9:00!!! I got back to my dorm around 9:30, and now I am doing this.  I am finally watching tv since I’ve been here and I watched House Hunters, and now How I Met Your Mother, and some Good Luck Charlie.  Oh, btw, I HATE that Scotty won.  He makes me so mad, and angry, and I hate the way he sings, SO MUCH!  Okay back to NOLA, tomorrow we have to be there at 8 instead of 9, and I am super tired so I am going to bed very soon!  Tomorrow is supposed to be the most stressful day of all summer so this should be fun...prayers are welcome!

First Day

So I am officially in New Orleans!!  I was here for the weekend with the family and we went down to the french quarter and walked around!  It was really fun.  Today was the first day of camp though and we had orientation.  Dr. T is amazing and I will be talking about her a lot for the rest of the summer.  She is the director of the preK camp.  She is in love with orphans, and is an UA graduate!  Roll Tide, y'all.  Her roommate/bff is Dr. Stringer who is the camp coordinator which means she is all of our bosses.  Krista is the nicest person in the WORLD.  She is the director of the camp I am working with is the kids.    I love it!  All we did today is learn awesome games, and songs, and toured the campus!  There is a LifeWay in the student center! OMG!  Becca, Jessica (my roommate), and Hannah all live in the dorm as well.  Hannah is from Montgomery and knows everybody from BTW apparently.  I didn't ask about Bethany or anything...yet.  Hannah, Jessica, and I are all state missionaries and are all from Alabama.  Roll Tide.  I will attempt to blog a whole lot more once more things start happening, but for now life is awesome, and I was always meant to be a camp staffer.

OMG I forgot!!  There is a freaking two-story Target here.  AMAZING.

NOLA

Okay let's forget I ever posted anything before this.  IT'S ALMOST NEW ORLEANS TIME!!!!!!  I am in love with camps, and cannot wait to be there being a part of one.  I am in the midst of getting fully prepared to make my way to Louisiana. Today I went shopping all day looking for space bags!  It was truly a very difficult task, but Target is the place!! Who doesn't love Target?!  I really cannot get over that the time is almost here for me to go to NOLA for the entire summer.  That's such a long time doing something that I love doing.  3 days till I am in NOLA for the summer.  Let the countdown begin, y'all!