No sleep, lots of sleep, numbness, alarms, lock-in, Lost, and so much random-ness!

This is going to be a really random post...so get ready!

This weekend was such a great and not great weekend at the same time! Thursday night my mom and neighbor made Landon's birthday cake! It turned out great! We had to update the Mission's prayer boards for the 24 hours of prayer on Friday. So I spend Thursday night making cake and working on the prayer boards. We finally got done with everything around 11pm.

On Friday around lunch time, my mom and I loaded up the cars and took our house(kidding, but we took half of our house) to church for Landon's 12th birthday party. We set up for that and by the time we were done, the party was starting. It started at 4 and there were like 14 boys there. They played on a blow up obstacle course and played dodge ball. The party lasted until 6 but I left at 5 to go home and rest. I was hurting a lot so I took a long bath and shower. I headed back to church at 7 for my prayer time. There were a lot of people in the prayer room when I got there!
After my prayer time, some friends and I went to On Cue and Starbucks. We drove around and got to church at 10 when the lock-in started! There was a devo at 11 then a couple hours of games. These games required a lot of energy. They made everyone play but thankfully a few of my friends volunteered to sit out and watch with me.

There was a special devo from 2-3am for anyone who really wanted to grow deeper in prayer. We walked into the room and the lights were out except for 3 tables with candles. They actually had to bring in more chairs because so many people came.

Kevin explained what we were going to be doing and we read a few scriptures about how God can work so much through silence. Just by sitting in silence before God, He will remind us that He is God no matter what we're going through. He is so gentle and will hold us. I know so many people felt that during the prayer time.

"The LORD said, Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by. Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave." 1 Kings 19:11-13

"Be still, and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10

The next thing we did was sing each verse of I Am Mine No More 5 times and to focus on a different word each time.

"I am mine no more, I am mine no more, I've been bought with blood, I am mine no more. (repeat 5 times)

Jesus is my Lord, Jesus is my Lord, and He rules my Life, Jesus is my Lord. (repeat 5 times)

I am mine no more, I am mine no more, I've been bought with blood, I am mine no more." (repeat 5 times)

After we sang the song, we had 15 minutes of silence.

Then we sang a few more songs and had another 15 minutes of silence. During this time of silence, we were supposed to go to to each table whenever we wanted. On one table we wrote a prayer request for us personally. On the next table we wrote prayer requests for someone else. The last table had a big candle lit and small candles not lit. We were supposed to get a small candle and pray for something around the world, then light our candle.

This time was one of the best things we have ever done. After being in there for an hour and after the last prayer we were dismissed. But no one left. There was so much emotion in there. I can't even explain it. No one talked during the 30 minutes of silence. And it wasn't awkward or anything. Time flew. No one had to say anything. We could just tell on the faces of one another what was going on.

After the prayer time there was more games. I definitely did not play those games! They allowed my friends and I to go into the college lounge and watch a movie and rest. It was great!

Around 5 or so I think we had a last devo and got to clean the building! haha everyone was SO cranky and in a bad mood. I was fine because that's how I always feel! Welcome to my life everyone! We had a great breakfast cooked by some parents then we went home at 7.

I slept for a few hours when I got home and was obviously feeling bad. I sucked it up though and cleaned my room all day.

Saturday night we were watching the Olympics and all of the sudden, my left arm started feeling really weird. It started tingling and as time went on it started going numb and so cold. I didn't say anything until it was really numb and hard to move. My parents tried to get my arm and hand warm and rubbed it to see if that would help. It didn't so I took a bath. That helped a little but it still felt weird. So I went to bed and tried to forget about it. Yesterday morning it felt better. It's just really weird...It was very scary we're praying that doesn't happen again.

Well my heart monitor is just so fun to have!! Not. During the special prayer time at the lock-in, the monitor alarms decided to go off! Great. So I had to leave the room which disrupted everyone and I went to fix it. Thankfully it didn't happen again. Then yesterday morning and last night during church it decided to go off again which I meant I got to leave church twice in one day! How annoying.

Remember that Lost party we had at our house? Here are some pictures! We had Aaron and Carrie Ackerman, Micah and Tara Hobbs , and Andy and Summer Lashley minus Summer. She doesn't like us. Just kidding, she is just a little behind on Lost. We forgave her already. It was so much fun! It happened to be on Landon's birthday so we had cake!

The cake was awesome!!

Here is Landon attacking his cake? haha

Our "Lost" table. Please notice the plane crash and palm trees and tropical looking stuff. There was even a guy getting sucked into the plane's propeller with blood coming out...you can thank Landon for that one.


Landon's 5th grade class got to go to the Capitol one day and dress up for Colonial day! Here is his awesome costume that Sada Knowles made!

This is the phone and monitor thing that hooks up to all the wires for my heart monitor. The wires are all over my stomach and chest and of course I'm allergic to them! I have a nasty rash all over. Woohoo!

Today I have slept a lot. I'm so exhausted. But my birthday is on Friday and I will be 17! I'm excited!

24 Hours of Prayer and hard week

This has been a very hard week. I have been in so much pain. I got to go to church last night which was good.

My brother's birthday party is tomorrow at church in the gym. He's having a dodgeball party and I think there is an inflatable obstacle course too.

It is going to be a crazy day tomorrow! His party is from 4-6 tomorrow afternoon. I have a youth group lock-in at the same place as his party that I have to be at starting at 7:30!

Jesus talks so much about prayer. I believe that prayer is one of the most important things we do. It is so powerful and we know God is listening. It's so encouraging when you pray with your friends or other people. Every night I do a prayer call with 6 other people in my youth group and it is so cool to hear who God is in their life by the prayers they pray. God is different for every person because God uses us in different ways. On Wednesday, we all meet in person and talk about our week and what God is doing and what we're struggling with. It is such a great thing to be doing.

Prayer is also a very hard spiritual discipline. We don't just pray because God says so. It shouldn't be forced. Obviously we are never going to get that perfect. But prayer is so important in our Relationship with God.

"For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them" Matthew 18:20

Tomorrow our church is doing 24 hours of prayer. This has become a tradition. From 7 pm Friday to 7pm Saturday, there will be someone in constant prayer. There is a prayer room at church that has boards of things to pray for. There are boards about missionaries, schools, ministries, our country, a globe to pray for the world, people who are sick, and a board with everyone's name that goes to church there. Once the prayer time is over, everyone in the church will have been prayed for at least once. The room is dimly lit and has some quiet music on. Everyone has signed up for at least a 30 minute praying time. Of course you can come up and pray whenever you want.

The youth group has our lock-in during this time. We are covering the 10 pm to 7 am time slots. It is such a neat thing to be able to go into the prayer room whenever and see so many people in prayer. Almost everyone loses track of time and stays in the prayer room for an hour or longer. Also, a lot of the youth group decides to go several times through the night to pray. It's awesome to hear and see so many people who leave the games and go to the prayer room because they just want to pray.

During the lock-in we have so much fun! We play games and everything and we worship throughout the night.

I'm on the prayer leadership team in the youth group and we are supposed to cover from 7pm to 10pm tomorrow before the lock-in actually starts. So I will be at church from like lunch time to set up the party until saturday morning! I'm really excited! I'm praying that I can stay the whole time and hoping I can handle the pain.

"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective" James 5:16

"The LORD is near to all who call on him,

to all who call on him in truth."Psalm 145:18

"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express" Romans 8:26

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God" Philippians 4:6

I survived the lock-in!!

Well I'm alive after the lock-in at church! It was SO much fun. There were about 40 of us so it was a smaller group than the normal lock-ins. Yes, people thought I was absolutely crazy for staying the whole time. I just told them that my body insists on being nocturnal anyway so I might as well be having fun all night and not be at home. That was the first time I've spent the night somewhere else besides my house or the hospital in a long long time. Here's what we did all night.
10:30pm- getting icees at On Cue aka the new hangout spot for Edmond..

11pm-lock-in starts

11:30pm-12:30am- capture the flag in the dark in the whole building plus outside

12:30-1:30am- discussion about leadership team and breaking into small groups to plan

1:30-2am- devotional

2am- tye-dye leadership team tee shirts

3-8am- "sleep time" apparently everyone did go to sleep except me and my friend. We asked the youth ministers if we could sleep in the kitchen because we were hungry and we brought popcorn and hot chocolate and they said yes! So we were up way too late. I think I slept maybe an hour.

8:30am- clean the building

9:30-10am- breakfast and free time

10-11am- the Surprise. We had been waiting all night for the surprise. We all had to close our eyes and we were put in specific places. When were opened our eyes we were in the gym getting ready to have a work out session. Someone had the brilliant idea for us to have a team building experience by working out right after the lock-in. Great idea! NOT.

I did most of the exercises which is impressive since some days I can't even get off the couch. I am definitely paying for staying up all night and actually doing a whole work out. I'm hurting a lot and I know tomorrow will be worse. Oh well! It was so much fun!!