so- i haven't been on xanga in FOREVER, thanks to myspace and school.
but i just figured if anyone was curious about chinquapin- well, here goes: school's been better than i thought, socially at least, academically its been a little bit under my goal but im working on it... a lot. Since the first quarter my grades have been going up but i just wish they would have been up in the first place :( As far as friends go, i've met a lot of awesome people, and not really anyone i've had a lot of problems, a few ups and downs with this one kid, to say the least, but it turned out okay so far... i guess. but what i've realized more than anything else is- i need to pray! a lot! and a lot more than i do, and about a lot more stuff than i do, and a lot more genuinely than i do. But again, I'm working on it. I guess the hardest part about Chinquapin is the adjustment, which there has been a LOT of adjustment and it's just really hard. The weird thing is- the thing that got me through the first quarter- is volleyball. which is reallly weird for me, because for my whole life, i've hated volleyball, i guess because i never really gave it a chance, but now i love it, and it helped me meet a lot of new people in my grade, and in the grade below me, it's awesome to see how God uses the smallest things like volleyball to get through to people, and i didn't really see it until now- but if i hadn't tried out for volleyball, then i wouldn't know a lot of the people i know now, or at least not as well.
so anyways, i guess that's it! i don't know if this has made any sense, i guess it's just venting, but anyways, i love you guys and hope to talk to you soon! :D

i made the volleyball team!!!!
i have a game on tuesday!
wish me luck!

*sigh*
well i start at chinquapin a week from monday.
im really nervous.
this will be my first day of school ever!!!
my dad's starting a new small group at our house on wednesdays. and we might not have a ride to youth group- if we don't i would be completely crushed- its one of the only times i can see my friends. especially since i can't go to bca this year. but i think i can get a ride somehow, maybe thomas. hmmm. anyways, to get school off of my mind i'll write about my summer, starting with youth group:
 God really touched our hearts this summer with missions, our youth group felt like we should really start giving more so much so that one wednesday night my youth pastor showed us four different areas of poverty, such as: Peru, Chile, Africa,and New York. each of which have devestating stories, it would have cost  a few dollars each student per month, for 3 years.  my youth group was so touched we decided to support all four, which would end up to about 12 dollars per month for 3 years, there are over 30 commited students. i was glad we didn't have to pick - my heart would break to see a place in such need - at such a little cost to us- to just pass it up.

we heard of these places in need from the "life" conference in florida- i haven't really written about the "life" conference  our youth group went to. so here goes:
florida was the highlight of my summer, it was absolutely amazing!

i can't believe how much God has touched out youth group this summer- students that would  never have spoken of Christ to anyone before "life" shared what they learned the week of the conference in  front of the whole church on sunday morning a few weeks ago.
one night in florida our youth group was pouring out all the feelings that were once kept inside- every single person- even the guys - were in tears. that night when we went back to the hotel, people kept asking "are you guys ok?" or "what happened?" and it was really cool to be able to say they were tears of joy, and how much God had touched our lives, it was also really cool that they listened and some of them teared up themselves. i know it was a brief summary, but its mainly because  the feelings we felt that week in florida are too intense for words.

 people that i never thought would talk- talked, people that i never thought would be friends- were friends, people that i never thought would pray- prayed- people that i never thought would- volunteered to read the bible aloud. everything about the students that week- everything, was selfless. our youth group alone raised over 700 dollars for missions.  everything about it was amazing. i hope i never forget what God did for our youth group this summer.