Nothing real exciting...

Today I really don't know what to write about, but I feel bad because I missed yesterday, so I'm just gonna type and we'll see where it goes :o)

We're getting a new coffee table and entertainment center on Sat. That's exciting--for mom especially, she's wanted one since we moved into this house when I was in second grade...I have a very patient mother :o)

Work has been pretty great the past several days b/c like Jenna said--I heart this weather :o)

We had another Smallville party in Stringerville on Tuesday night and it ended on a very stressfull note...and we don't have the next disk yet...I don't know how people do it when they have to wait an entire week...or until the next season starts. This whole TV on DVD thing they've started has got me watching TV--something I haven't done in a long time...I'm not sure if that's good or bad. But I do enjoy the parties, though, mostly for the company...

T and I picked up Kyle from work on Tues. and I must say that one of my favorite things in the world is to ride in the car with T and Kyle; we always have a lot of fun. Being that it takes forever to get to their house from the Chicken Store it leaves ample time for both productive conversations and jam time for fun. :o)

Well, I s'pose that's enough for you to read right now...I guess I found some stuff to say :o)

Hope you have a great day :o)

Awww, aren't we cute :o)

Hey, just trying to see if I'm coordinated enough to post pictures on this thing...

Back to School...

So, Springbreak is officially over today and it was back to work. But, actually I had a pretty good day at work and got to play some game with my awesome kids. This is a shout out to Ciara Adams and Hunter McDaniel...two of the coolest kindergardners I know...I'm glad to see all my kids again. And I love playing Connect Four and Guess Who and Uno during board game time :o) Then, after work Calyn brought over her really awesome new car...how exciting is that!?! All my friends and their cool new vehicles!!! I'm so happy for you guys :o) And then, Tamara came over to Kenley's and we worked on her support letter for Ukraine!!! I am so excited for those of you who are gonna come to Ukraine this summer!!! I know that God is going to bless your socks off :o)

Happy Easter!

Well, Lent is officially over and my friends have been w/o soda for 47 days and I, trying to be a good friend, brought DVCs to church. I stuck them in the freezer (as I do at home frequently) well, apparently the freezer at church is not as kind as my freezer at home and the DVCs exploded all over my unsuspecting friends. Calyn, having quick reflexes managed to save her pink dress, Jenshka, not quite so lucky ended up with DVC all over herself w/o even a drop left to sip. Sorry Jenshka :o( Vin and I went to my truck and got a new one for her. :o) Congrats to all my friends who made it all 47 days of Lent :o) Way to Go! You guys are AWESOME!!!

Easter is a great holiday. I mean, first of all, my God rose from the DEAD!!! HELLO, THAT'S HUGE!!! And that's the reason I am going to Heaven one day! How cool is that!?! Another great thing about Easter is that it often falls on Spring Break. That's always a nice thing. Even though I didn't do much exciting this Spring Break, I was relativly productive and that's a good thing :o) Also, Easter is a great Holiday b/c way back in 1983 (wow, I'm old) I was born on Easter Sunday. I interupted my Aunt Debbie's Easter dinner as she loves to remind me every year. (Sorry 'bout that, Aunt Debbie :o)

Well, I hope you all have had a FABULOUS Easter!

Happy Day

Happy Friday, everybody :o)

Happy Birthday, Jenshka!!!

Happy new car, James :o)

Happy Wakulla Springs, Vin!!!

Happy Sarah's home, Wirgau's :o)

Happy Easter Weekend, Friends!!!

Full Submersion : Conferences in Ukraine

Yesterday I wrote about dreaming big. Today I recieved this letter from a friend of mine who lives in Ukraine. I'm glad that he wasn't afraid to dream big. This will let you know a little about the big things God is doing through his ministry.


Dear Friends,

This is a quote from a text message that I received from a youth pastor after our conference in Kiev. Let me continue his message – “This was the greatest conference in my life. It was arranged particularly for me”.

God has incredibly blessed our conference in Kiev last Saturday.

What a blessing it was to see almost 1,000 teenagers worshipping together in one Spirit despite the dozens of denominations they came from!

What a joy it was to watch their faces during our main drama as they were glued to the stage laughing and crying as the story progressed!

What a miracle it was when all the teenagers broke into small groups right there and conducted manuscript Bible study with Lena guiding them from the stage! We had 150 small groups in the auditorium!!

What an honor it was to present God’s Word to this generation in the straight way without “making it sound better”. And this is how we want this generation to be remembered – the Bible in hands, the Words in the hearts.

Our goal was not to challenge the teenagers to make another “n” decision. Some of them did make the decisions to study the Bible in the groups, read the whole Bible in a year or memorize a verse a day. Our goal was to mark their hearts with one truth – that there is the envelope with the personal letter from their Father. It will always be there for them and they will find a lot in it if they open it.

God was glorified with all the compliments we received for the conference. It was the best event we’ve ever done and to Him be all the glory. We can only dream what He will do in the churches through the teenagers who visited our conference. Our staff is very encouraged as well. This conference truly impacted us. Even though it was really cold in the auditorium the excitement of the conference warmed us all the time.

Tomorrow morning we are leaving in three vans for Donetsk to conduct our second conference there. It’s thrilling moment in the history of our ministry to do an event of such scale outside Kiev. There are many unknowns and yet there is a lot of peace because it’s not about us – it’s all about Him, for Him and from Him. Pray for us as we will minister to over 500 teenagers in the Eastern Ukraine this coming weekend.

Special blessings:

Awesome theme
Great team
Kevin Carroll -š a member of our Board of directors who came to be with us. I don’t know what we would do without his help 24 hours a day
Supporters who donated us over $3,000 for the conference.
A ministry that is renting out their vans to us at a lower cost
Dozens of people whom God is bringing from nowhere to help us do the conferences.
Youth pastors from Lviv (Western Ukraine) who came to check us out. We are planning on doing this conference in the fall in Lviv.


Special prayer request:

Pray that the students in Donetsk would be touched by God’s Word
Pray for the safety of 28 people on the road tomorrow and Saturday night
Pray for finances. We still need to raise almost $2,000. We added one more day in Donetsk to make sure we have enough time for set up.

In His Grace,

Oleg Vasilevsky

“Full Submersion” (Hebrews 4:12)

"You Said" by Shane and Shane

"You said
Ask and you will recieve
Whatever you need
You said
Pray and I'll hear from Heaven
And I'll heal your land
I'll heal your land

You said
Your glory will fill the earth
Like water the sea
You said Lift up your eyes
The harvest is here
The Kingdom is near

You said
Ask and I'll give the nations to you
O Lord, that's the cry of my heart
Distant shores and the islands
Will see Your light
As it rises on us

O Lord, that's the cry of my heart
Distant shores and the islands
Will see Your light
As it rises on us"

Dream Big!

So often I think that I forget just how big our God is. Well, really I guess there is no way I could even comprehend how big He is, at least not before Heaven. Kuder-boy was taking the other night about God not being able to show himself to Moses b/c He is just that awesome. Erwin McManus said something that I heard the other day about how maybe our prayers aren't big enough and I got to thinking about it. I don't dream big because I don't believe my God is big enough to fulfill those dreams. I mean I BELIEVE it, but not really if I'm not acting on it, right? does that make since? So, sice my God was big enough to speak the world into existance, He was big enough to make man from dust, part the Red Sea, walk on water, raise from the dead..you know, I'm thinking He's big enough to do great things and if I really believe He's big enough and I am willing to be used, He is big enough to do great things through a very inadiquate me. I'm glad my God is that big. And I'm glad He has given me the courage and the faith to dream big.

Final Episode

The final episode of Boy Meets World was on tonight. Gosh, I love that show. There is no other show that I laugh out loud at even when I'm by myself. I love the characters; they are so funny. I have seasons one and two on dvd, I need to check to see when season three is coming out. Yes, I am obsessed and I'm well aware, but, if you haven't watched it since TGIF, you really shoud watch it again. I really thing I like it more every time I watch it :o)

Green Men

Maybe Calyn's right. Maybe there really are little green men inside me that take care of me. Mom and I were going to Wal-Mart tonight and she asked if I had eaten anything. I told her that I wasn't really hungry, but then when I got to thinking about it, I realized that I had not eaten anything all day. I was so busy cleaning I hadn't even noticed. And now, I am finally blogging but it is like 4ish in the morning. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME!!! :o) Well, thanx to the little green men, I was able to get some work done on my room and I have been able to make an update in my blog :o) OH--and I got to talk with MELISSA on im!!! yea for technology. But, had I gone to sleep when normal people did I wouldn't have had that opportunity. Ok, well, I s'pose I should sleep some...so, as Corie Lynne Miller--nope--Smith would say, "good night, sweet dreams, I love you."

I'm back :o)

Wow. sorry this is so long in coming. If you have talked to me at all this week you are well aware that I have been CLEANING, and I'm still not done. Growl. what a fun way to spend my spring break. But, alas, when it is all over, I'll be happy that its clean. Hopefully then I will be able to return to blogging as usual :o)

Small World

It really is a small world. This weekend at the SLC David Nasser was talking about having adopted a little boy from Guatemala, and the Hall's and some other families were talking about the kids they had adopted from Ukraine. (both places I have been on mission trips) Then, the other night at the Kyiv Youth orchestra and Choir thing we saw a girl who had visited Radooga last summer and recognized Calyn. There was also a man there who Deb Broker, our friend from Birmingham, had talked about the whole time she was at camp, and she ended up staying with him and his family instead of going to a host home. Then, my mom introduced me to this lady whose son was one of my mom's best friends in college whom she hadn't seen since her wedding. Crazy. Its really cool how even though we live on a planet with so many other people that God allows us opportunities to realize just how connected we all are. Since spending this past summer in Ukraine I have realized more and more how much more there is than Tallahassee or Florida or even the United States. Its really cool to have made friends from all over the US and in other countries that I have kept in touch with all year and many of whom I think I will keep in contact with. I'm glad our world is so big and diverse and yet small enough to connect with other people and cultures...God is just good like that :o)

Another Funny Story

Calyn and I went to see the Kyiv youth orchestra and choir when they were here on Monday night (which, by the way, was AMAZING!!!! They were so good. I was thinking Indian children's choir type thing--NO! It was one of the best choral/orchestral performances I've been to, and ask Kenley, I've been to quite a few :o) Anyway, Veronica had told me that one of her friends was in the choir and that her name was Pepsi. She said that her real name was Ira, but everyone called her Pepsi (in Ukraine names like Ira are really common and it is likely that there were 2 or 3, if not more Ira's in the choir/orchestra) So, Calyn was asking Ukrainian's (in english) if they knew Pepsi. Some did, but weren't sure where she was so we kept looking, when we walked by the kitchen Calyn asked this guy if he knew a girl named Pepsi and in his strong Ukrainian accent he said "no, no Pepsi, I drink coffee." It was pretty funny, at least to me and Vin :o)

I love Calyn and Veronica

I talked to Calyn and Veronica last night...gosh, they're great. And they always make me laugh.

Apparently a Walmart employee was hitting on Veronica while they were there and then in his Alabama southern accent he asked if she was from up north...hmmm.... :o) Then when she told him she was from Ukraine, he obviously had no idea if that was a city or country or what...hehehe...people crack me up...

Rec ROCs

Hey, I was busy doing MediaShout stuff last night, someone let me know how the first night of Rec ROCs went!!! I can't wait till next week so I can play, too. :o)

Conference, Veronica, and Sunday Night

Ok, where to start...it's been a busy weekend...

My grandma and I left Friday night to go to Pensacola to the Student Life Conference...and, as usual, it was super awesome! David Nasser, Shane and Shane, AT2AP...need I say more???

But, the best part of the weekend was I GOT TO SEE VERONICA!!!!!!!!!!! And we got to hang out and talk and it was really great. She brought me some stuff from the Orange Revolution and that was really cool because Calyn and I had been wanting to get some stuff, but it was all pretty expensive on e-bay. Calyn is leaving tomorrow to go visit her in Birmingham, and I confess I am a little jealous; but I'm happy for her and I know that they will have a really great time.

David Nasser talked about justification, adoption and sanctification. which sounds like a lot of big (or "medium sized"--Alec, that was for you) words. but, it was David Nasser, so he did a really good job of breaking it down and telling you what he ment. One of my favorite David Nasser quotes talks about how God gave us His righous right when we deserved His wrathful left. That is so true. I didn't deserve to recieve salvation--I don't even deserve to be alive, but God has blessed me with SOOOOO much more than I deserve, b/c He's God and that's what He does. I just hope that I will use all He has blessed me with to bless others.

On the way home from the conference we stopped and ate dinner in Chiply which is near where I go to school (and I am sad to say that the Taco Bell is not there anymore :o( but, we went to Wendy's and there was a really long line (b/c there are a lot of us :o) so, after standing in line for about 5 min. I got a brilliant idea...I turned to Kyle and said "HEY--you wanna take me through the drive thru??? So, we did (it was Kyle's first drive thru experiance) and we beat everybody, it was beautiful! Grandma and I ate with Kyle, Lindzey, Aaron and Paul and it was great (you guys rock and my grandma thinks you're really cool people, too).

When we got home Calyn met us at the church and she was super excited about my Orange Revolution stuff, too. I love that I can always count on Calyn to get excited with me :o)

Yesterday was Sunday and Sunday's are usually pretty awesome. I was sad that Diane was not at church, though, b/c I wanted to go to lunch with her. But, Alec and I went with the Stringer's to On the Boarder and had fun racing on the kids menu's. Then Alec, the artist, made a really cool picture on his and I quit, b/c I am NOT that creative. After lunch T and I went to Starbucks....I love coffee...and I love the T loves coffee, too :o) Then she and I had some good talks and I love it when my friends and I share from our hearts. You guys are great...thanks for listning and talking and hugging and praying...I don't know what I'd do w/o you. Youth was great. I love testimony night b/c I love to hear what God is doing in your lives. I also really like the At the Foot of the Cross song that SFTB has been doing. The words are really cool. Then we had Smallville night at the Stringer's which is always fun, but since this is so long already, if you want to know about Smallville night visit Calyn's blog (there is a link to it on my 'Blogs I Read' section.) and read the 'Your Mom' post.

Ok, sorry this was so long...but, that was my weekend. Hope you all have a great week!

Love and hugs,

Lori :o)

Help

Hey-- I could use some help from a computer literate person...why do the links work for everyone's blog but Calyn's? I mean, come on, I can't even access my favorite person ever's blog from mine...if you want to see Calyn's it is www.karosheeyoshek.blogspot.com and I am working on getting it on my "blogs I read" thingy...
Thanx,
Lori :o)

Nothing much to say...

I feel stupid...I'm posting b/c I haven't in a couple days, but, I'm a boring person, and I don't really have much to say...
...I went out with my dad last night and it actually went pretty well. We went to the movies and were 2 of 6 people in the theater. I love that.
...Oh, I have gotten a couple e-mails from Melissa in Korea, for those of you who haven't, she likes it so far :o) But, I know that the first week or so everything is new and exciting...after that is when you start to miss people and american food and your bed and stuff like that, so keep her in your prayers :o)
...Today in before school we had Doughnuts with Dad, so I was at work at 6:30 (yuck) but, I enjoyed it because I got to talk to some of the parents who usually drop their kids off and run, but today they stayed and ate and hung out for a little while.
...maybe tomorrow I'll have something more interesting or significant to write about...

:o) HAVE A SUPER DAY :o)