God is listening!

In recent months I read a book by John Dickson called "Promoting the Gospel". It's a great book. I picked it up again just now because I remember a story the author told about his childhood. He knew a lovely elderly lady who used to babysit him and his brothers since they were young. John's father had died when he was nine; every day since then, Elsie had prayed for John, his mother and his two brothers, asking the Lord to bring them into his kingdom.

John Dickson is a christian now. And so is his brother Jamie. Isn't that amazing? The prayer and encouragement of one woman brought two people into God's kingdom! Maybe more.

I know another story like this one. Told to me in a sermon by Josh Apieczonek, who spoke at LiT camp. He said that at his church they have these cards on the pews where church members and new people can write their details and prayer points. Josh knew a girl who wrote a prayer point on one of these cards every week. And every week she asked for the same thing - prayer for her father, who was not a christian. So Josh prayed for the girl's father every single week.

Some time later, in an open prayer at church, this girl prayed aloud and thanked God that her father had become a Christian.

I am just stunned by these amazing acts. Devotion to prayer and faith in God. And I am even more stunned by God's overwhelming care and power. He listens. And, His will be done, our prayers will be answered.

We all have non-christian friends. I know you'd love them to come to Christ. But I'm sure you can think of at least one person who you are convinced could never become a Christian. Don't doubt! Have faith in God. Commit to prayer for this person, and if it be God's will, that person could join the kingdom.

For, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). That means everyone. So it also means that anyone can come to Christ. If you are with Christ, then there is every chance your non-christian friend can be too.

So pray! Pray every day if you can. And have faith like in God. 'Jesus replied, "...you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'move from here to there', and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."' - Matthew 17:20-21

I ♥ My Friends

So a lot has happened since my last blog. Let me explain.

Riding the train to LiT in the summer heat.

Eating Minties.

Getting pumped for Jesus with 200 other teenagers.

Texting.

Trying to sleep in a bunk bed when it's 30 degrees outside.

Watching Ed and John smash a gingerbread house with their head.

Praying.

Reading Matthew 5-7.

Wishing I could go swimming.

Playing Battleship with Patrick. 

Eating camp chicken schnitzel and dearly missing Jackie's schnitzel.

Listening to talks on the Beautitudes.

Loving God.

Loving my friends.

Hating camp organization.

Starting on Wuthering Heights.

Singing with Becky and Mark.

Writing "If I tell you I love you, can I keep you?" on Katherine's back with a Sharpie.

Hanging out til late, late late....

Talking til even later with Kristen, and feeling so much better.

Trying to commit to prayer. 

Getting everyone to sign my shirt.

Eating meatball sandwiches.

Leaving on the bus.

 Getting home.

Taking a long, hot shower.

Watching The Big Bang Theory with Katherine, Beth and Justin.

Sleeping in the living room with the girls and wanting to throttle my cat.

Waking up and making French Toast.

Getting my ear pierced with Katherine and squeezing Beth's hand.

Taking panadol for the pain >.<

Ana coming over.

Lazer tagging in the city.

Wandering in Newtown.

Driving to Katherine's for a 'secret mission' and giving her Wagon Wheels and Big Bang. 

Watching Slumdog Millionare - Ana had not seen it before!

Going to church.

Waking Ana the next morning to say goodbye.

Heading to Sydney Uni for Latin class.

Learning how to read Roman gravestones.

Writing a couple pages of my new idea during lunch. 

Snapping pictures at lunch and thinking the uni buildings look like Hogwarts.

Catching the packed 423 to Katherine's and walking down the road in the blazing sun.

Snapping a million photos down near Cook's River.

Spraying Katherine with the bubbler.

Walking back, hot, wet and itchy.

Eating stir fry.

Watching Zoolander and IT Crowd.

Planning on leaving at 9pm, but staying til 11.

Falling asleep from Katherine stroking my hair.

Getting home and crashing.

Seeing Toy Story 1 and 2 in 3D!

Going to Newcastle.

Sitting out in the heat for hours.

Planning an epic trip n the evening to the beach.

Being sorely disappointed when a cold change came and it rained.

Not going to the beach and watching the tennis and Up instead.

Playing Settlers of Catan.

Sleeping in.

Going to Drew's to watch Van Helsing and Jaws.

Playing Playstation 3.

Walking home.

Sitting down to write this blog while watching the tennis.

And that brings us to the present moment. Sorry if that bored you, but I needed to write this stuff down. I've had a pretty good holiday so far - two weeks left of it. Mum's cooking bacon. I'm seeing Kristen tomorrow. Good times still to come!

2010!

It's a cool number. It's gonna be a cool year. I'm looking forward to Twenty-Ten. Yes that's how you say it, not Two-thousand-and-ten. That's just silly. It's not like we called 1910 One-thousand-nine-hundred-and-ten. So it's Twenty-ten, ok? Okay. : )

All righty, here's my list of cool things that should be happening to me in Twenty-ten unless God changes my plans. And he has every right to do so. But anyway, the countdown:

1. LiT! It's a Christian camp. The full name being Leaders in Training. I've been twice already and thanks be to God I got invited back again! It's gonna be pretty swell. Here's a pic to show the awesomeness that is LiT. *excitement*

2. I GOT INTO TAFE!!! Huzzah. Doing a digital media course for 6 months. Should be epic. If all goes well in the course it will set me up for the next three years of my life, which makes it all the more epic.

3. Alice and Wonderland. I turn 17 about the time the film comes out, so I'm taking a bunch of my favorite people to see it at IMAX. Woo hoo!

4. I have plans to get more ear-piercings with Katherine. Only our parents are being a little less than enthusiastic about it at the moment. But we'll bring 'em round, won't we hun? Hehehe. The hope is to get them done in the incredibly new future, possibly even before 2010 so that Katherine has enough time to take them out for when she starts school again. We have some convincing to do....

5. I finished NIDA. It all went wonderfully. We couldn't have had a better performance, and all my besties came to support me :) What joy. So yeah, NIDA's over, so that's a bit sad, but now I have the middle of my Sundays back so I get to hang around after church and enjoy people's company. We're going to NBC now which is ... new. But I think I like it. I've only been twice so far. Anyway, with getting back my Sundays comes rejoining the youth group band, and they want me back! I wasn't sure they would, but they do. So I get to play distortion again. Yay!

6. Trip to the USA! 'Nuff said, basically. It's gonna be fun.

Anyway there's more, like KYCK and SOC (praying that they'll be much more fun than this year), and other cool movies like Scott Pilgrim and Iron Man 2, and friends turning 18 and other ages less important (although there's probably a 21st in there somewhere that I'm forgetting about...), and more coolio stuff, but my mom just brought me this brilliant sandwich so I'm signing out to eat it. Ta ta for now.