Lady Kyleian's Blog

Moving...

2008-02-20T15:19:00.001+03:00

I've decided to move. I spent the past few days setting up the blog over on Wordpress, moving some posts and stuff and getting things ready over there...

So now...
my blog can be found at www.drumofadifferentbeat.wordpress.com

I won't shut this one down, I'll just not use it any more.

So, I can say farewell to the annoyances of Blogger... (not that wordpress is without them, but there aren't as many as on blogger).

See ya
Ky

Wordpress.

2008-02-18T07:52:00.002+03:00

As you see in the poll over there ---> , I'm thinking of switching to Wordpress.

Why?
- I like the layouts, how organized it is, the fact that you can have more pages, that things show up changed right away instead of waiting forever like Blogger does...

Why not?
- As Autumn said, comments are slow.... this would be ANOTHER move of my blog address, making it even harder for people to find me who've lost my blog, and I'd want to move all of my blog, old posts, etc, included. Don't know if that's possible.

Autumn: I just logged out and posted a comment on the Wordpress blog and it didn't seem too slow. Maybe it's just that I'm still getting started, and maybe it's cuz I'm using a different layout than most people.

Anyway, that's the up and the down of it all, tell me what you think.
www.drumofadifferentbeat.wordpress.com

Ky

Love.

2008-02-14T07:10:00.003+03:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

Karl started a topic on love this morning on our H20 Yahoo Group.... thought I'd re-post something I posted on love, and kind of sum up what Karl and others have said on the Yahoo Group.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast,it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

In this verse, the original Greek definition of word love, meant a selfless consideration of the well being of. This therefore means that if we love someone, we desire for them to grow as a person, that we care for them for reasons that are not selfish and that the love is real and from the
heart, not just an outward display.

The Bible gives a lot of references to how Christian should love one another. For example, in Mark 12:31 Jesus says in his talk of the greatest commandments:
"love your neighbour as yourself"
He also says to "love the lord your God with all your heart"

Also, Jesus Himself said that God is love. There's no definition needed outside of that; everything that love is was and is reflected in God and ultimately in the love shown in the cross. "Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends..."

The world's definition of love: To be made much of. To know you are
"loved" by how many friends you have, how much people put you up.

Real love: Real love is not making much of someone, love is doing
whatever you have to do in order to enthrall someone with what will
make them happy forever!

That's what God does. He makes us happy forever by letting us see His
glory and we are most satisfied in Him when He is most glorified in us.

I know this has been kind of all over the place with random thoughts about love, but just remember that Valentine's Day isn't just about mushy cards, chocolate, and roses. It's more than that.
And the way Valentine's Day started was more than that, too. February 14th was a pagan holiday for Juno, goddess of marriage to the Romans and was a pretty big deal...then the emperor (Claudius II) ordered that all marriages and engagements of men in the army be broken off because the men were unwilling to go fight otherwise. Christianity was also still outlawed at the time. Valentine was a Christian who secretly married the couples and provided shelter, as well as telling them about Christ. Valentine was caught and tried, and refused to worship the emperor. He supposedly fell in love with the jailer's blind daughter, to whom he sent a letter and who regained her sight on the day of his execution (true by several accounts but still a legendary part of the story, there's no way to really know but it's not
completely relevant). He was martyred on the feast day (Lupercalia), which is February 14th. Thus, Valentine's Day. It all links together. So it isn't so silly after all - it's about sacrifice, marriage, martyrdom, and God's love.

And finally, my application of 1 Corinthians 13:
Love.
Learning how to love can be so tough sometimes... love is patient... love is not envious.... it does not insist on its own way.
Today started out beautifully.
Then I messed up big time in Chemistry.
Forgot to do my proofs in Geometry.
Didn't get my chores done.
Then I was impatient with Nate.
I had a disagreement with mommy.
I wanted to do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it.
And then there was a bit of jealousy for something I won't specify.

Love.
What is it?
Not this.

May God go with you today and every day and let you know His love more deeply so you can love others more deeply and glorify Him even more!
- Ky

Loving a person just the way they are, it's no small thing
It takes some times to see things through
Sometimes things change sometimes we're waiting
We need grace either way.

Oh love wash over a multitude of things
Love wash over a multitude of things
Love wash over a multitude of things
Make us whole.

There is a love that never fails
There is a healing that always prevails
There is a hope that whispers a vow
A promise to stay while we're working it out
So come with your love and wash over us
- Loving A Person/When It Was over - Sara Groves

(BTW, there's another post down there in case you haven't read it yet... on Excellence. And 2 down is the campout).

Excelsior!

2008-02-13T14:18:00.002+03:00

“Excelsior!” is probably one of my favorite Latin phrases. It means “even higher” and is something I mutter to myself daily. Every day I have to remind myself I can do better, that my all is not 95% on a chemistry test, it’s 100% on a chemistry test. That although an A is still a good grade, I’ve done better, and I can do it again.

Thomas Edison said “Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.”
In order to achieve excellence, I can’t just get the idea and sit back doing nothing. Rome was not built in a day, neither will I be the best oboist in a week, or even five years – and most definitely not if I don’t work at it.
Okay, I bet we all already know all that. You can’t expect your math to do itself, you have to do it yourself.

Before you think I’m about to go of into doing hard things again (though I kind of will), I just want to tell you why I’m writing this and challenging you to excellence. I read it in my Perspectives notebook a few days ago. Part of the reading started off with stating that many are searching for the meaning of history. Then George Eldon Ladd, the writer of this article, said that the philosophy of progress is no longer accepted because people know society cannot attain a perfect society. Current events have made the concept of progress intolerable and unrealistic.
Sounds like the world is saying “who cares about your homework, progress is pointless because we’ll never get to a perfect society.”

Is this the worldview we as Christians want to have? NO!
Take a look at Philippians 4:8:

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
- Philippians 4:8

Is slacking in your duties because “you don’t feel like” giving your all acceptable? Is this lovely? Commendable? Worthy of praise? Honorable? Excellent?
What about giving 100% some of the time… say… in chemistry or geometry but not in logic? Is that acceptable?
No way!
We must give 100% 100% of the time, not 95% 80% of the time! Not even 99% 99% of the time! I’m not one to tell you guys this, I struggle with it every day.

As Christians, we need to think about – and do – what’s honorable, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise. This calls for change in our lives, change in Christian culture in general. Compare a lot of Christian fiction to fiction written by atheistic/secular authors. Which one is more exciting and more appealing to the reader?
Sadly, it tends to be fiction written by secular authors.
Compare Christian films to films that come out of Hollywood? Which one has better effects and better actors?
Again, it tends to be the films from Hollywood. (Praise God, though, although there’s a lot of bad stuff coming out of Hollywood, recently there have been more films coming out that have a Christian perspective – like Facing the Giants, The Nativity Story, The Ultimate Gift, and Amazing Grace).
Okay, people. Something’s wrong here. If the world is producing better stuff than Christians are, Christians are going to start swerving and laying aside some morals to watch or read things that aren’t completely wholesome. We do not want to compromise our faith for the sake of books or movies. Take a look at what’s coming out of Hollywood these days! Half the films I hear of coming out or see reviews for when I go to www.kidsinmind.com to look up a movie are R-rated and filled with violence, adultery, and bad language. Even the majority of ones that don’t support Christian morals. They’re about self, about what you can do to make yourself “happy” but that’s a whole nother post in itself.
So what do we do? Like the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival is trying to do, we need to encourage Christians to write excellent books and make better films.
This isn’t going to happen by sitting around watching the evil flow out of Hollywood. Let’s DO SOMETHING! Let’s strive for excellence in our schoolwork now, and develop habits that lead us to excellence in whatever we do. We can encourage Christian authors and filmmakers to do their jobs better, to create good rather than poorly imitate the world.

Whatever is true.
Whatever is honorable.
Whatever is just.
Whatever is pure.
Whatever is lovely.
Whatever is commendable.
If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise:
Think about these things.

There's a promise, too: "And the God of peace will be with you."

- Ky

Campout.

2008-02-10T13:00:00.001+03:00

Internet's back up.

Thursday dance was pretty awful, none of us did very well and basically everyone else didn’t practice. *sigh* Next week should be better. At sewing we had mostly hand sewing, so we finished the Silver Chair and then talked for a little while.

Oasis was fun. The Orange team (GO US!) did really well on the team challenge, the message was really good, and afterwards was fun – we got to help clean up some, and Philip taught me a new pattern on the 4X4.

Friday after Church we all changed and got loaded up and drove out for the Jr. High Campout! We set up tents first, then loaded up into different cars to go duning or sand skimming. I went sand skimming… for those of you who don’t know what it is, you’re towed behind a car on a byriani plate. It’s really fun, kinda like sledding on a flat surface. Then we got back to the camp and got ready for dinner. While they were cooking the meat, Sarah and I walked around with Ben and James (giving Ben a "cake" and being superheros - he was Donatello, James was Wonder Wonder, Sarah was Pinky, and I was Green-Green), played Frisbee with James, ate, and went out into a bigger area to play capture the flag. I was on offense and actually did something this time. :P Erich and I snuck over to the opposing side because they weren’t guarding one side at all, then I managed to get into the safe zone by the flag. Eventually Stefan got over and made a run for it with the flag and we won. Yay. Go purple Up-Down Potatoes.

After a short devotional on boldness and some time singing, they played Mafia. Sarah and I didn’t want to play and stood around playing Cat’s Cradle and being annoying. We went to bed and after a lengthy conversation about dreams we fell asleep.

At 5:54 in the morning we woke up, and at 6:15 we tried to collapse one of the other girls’ tents, but it didn’t work because the ends just stuck in the sand instead of falling. None of us could get back to sleep because we were so cold, and Alicia, Sarah, and I watched the sunset then walked down and played with Ben for a while before breakfast.

Then people wanted to play Mafia more, but no adults wanted to narrate, so Sarah and I did. It was fun.
People went sand skimming and duning more, but we played Frisbee and Capture the Flag, then we packed up, ate lunch, and drove out. Daddy let me drive part of the way, and I went over 50KPH. (rather impressive if I can say so myself, last year I wouldn’t go over 40).
We stopped for ice cream on the way back, and then finally left for home.

When we were packing up we found a praying mantis:
(you get to see how much I bite my fingernails here... :P)

Now I’m sore from sleeping without a pillow (and our tent was on a slant so our heads were below our shoulders) on sand, sunburnt, tired… and I want to practice oboe but people are napping. Grr.

Sarah and I have been talking a lot about Csehy, and I’m not as nervous anymore. I’m starting to get really really excited, and although I know there will be a few awkward moments and things sometimes that just can’t be avoided.

We got our Surge applications in Thursday… so India, here we come!

- Ky

Shehan: I was putting him out of his misery! That’s not killing him!

“Me and Kyleigh are the only ones who have picked songs so far.”
“And me.”
“And me.”
“And me.”
“Okay, me and Kyleigh, and me and me and me.”

Hey y'all...

2008-02-05T13:20:00.000+03:00

Well, Thursday night began a wind/sand storm and a bit of a really really cold weekend.
Some cables somewhere in the ocean snapped... so we've been without Internet and now we've managed to set up dial-up.

Anyway...
Life is looking up. :)
Perspectives has been great, so has Oasis, dance, etc... oboe and school have been pretty good, and guitar and piano great.
What else is there to say? :P

Thursday after dance I stayed at the C's and we watched The Silver Chair and then we picked up the Bc's and went to Oasis.
Friday we went to Ibn Btutta mall after Church and then I got dropped off at volleyball (nobody else wanted to play in the cold and windy weather).
Saturday I practiced piano and didn't really do much.
Sunday we went to a monologue on the life of Abraham Lincoln, and we had Well Group.
Monday I had oboe (which is going great, minus the dynamics...) and then I went over to the H's. Sarah and I watched VeggieTales and read some funny things, then we went to Perspectives.

I would write more, but I only have 4 minutes of internet time left on dial-up, so I'll write more later.
- Ky

"Dad, you're putting way too much hot sauce on!"
"It's not that hot."
"Yeah, it was in the fridge."

"I don't know, three or four cookies each."
"Could I have a mole of them?"
:P

PURE

2008-01-29T17:53:00.000+03:00

This is something I wrote off of my notes from our latest series at Oasis. It was only 2 weeks long, but I wish it had been longer. :)
If you don't have the time to read it all at once and really think about it, please break it up into the two parts I've separated by the -----
Sorry about how spaced out it is, Blogger was being annoying.

Purity: God’s Standard For Our Life

“ Therefore, preparing your minds for action, andbeing sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, butas he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, "You shall be holy, for I am holy." …Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth fora sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, throughthe living and abiding word of God; for
"All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
but the word of the Lord remains forever."”

(1 Peter 1:13-16; 22-25a)

Quick definition:
Standard: a set of beliefs that shape your life.

As Christians, we want to live according to God’s standards for our lives. But in order to do so, we must know what God’s standards for us are. Verse sixteen of 1 Peter 1 says “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” God has called us to be holy because He is holy. To be holy is the same as being without sin, without anything cheapening your life. We were created to be without sin, but we fell and cannot reach God’s standard on our own.

Many then think that God has set up do’s and don’t’s for us so we can attempt to reconcile our fall. Do’s and don’t’s just make us push at the boundaries. Instead of looking at what we can’t do, look at God. Turn your back and the hindrances of the world and embrace God for who He is.

But be prepared! Holiness and purity are not of this world.

The people who love purity are God’s children and warriors for the purity they love. We protect family and friends because we love them. If we love our purity, we will protect it. And what must we protect it against? We must protect our purity against the things that are attempting to darken our purity. These things scream at us to be impure like them. Say NO! and look at God.

Do you love your purity? Are you fighting to protect it?

-----

“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” (Proverbs 4:23).

So what do we do to protect our purity? The answer is right there in Proverbs 4:23: “Keep your heart with all vigilance.” Some translations say “guard your heart,” which is probably a simpler term than keep your heart. Guarding your heart is like protecting your life, for “from your heart flowers the wellspring of life.” And it’s like a spring of clear water, because if you defile it a little, you defile it all because the sin gets circulated.

To guard your heart with all vigilance, you must ask God what you should and shouldn’t let in, then make sure that only what should go in goes in. Ask yourself two questions:

1. Will this propel me toward holiness or will it slow me down?

2. Does this fit in with my desire to be holy?

As an example of thinking things through, I’m going to use dating.

Quick definition:

Dating: (according to Wikipedia) the act of going out on dates whereby one person socializes with a potential lover using a process that involves scheduled, usually exclusive, meetings of two people with mutual interest in one another.

So what exactly is wrong with dating?

Dating is shaped by culture, media, movies, and untrustworthy influences. People think it will make them happy, so they pursue false relationships. For themselves? False relationships? *warning light*

The two dating have the inability to commit to the situation. They think love is an expression. But love is a commitment. 1 Corinthians 13 love is REAL love – patient, kind, bears all things, is not self-seeking.

Because it’s not real love, the casual expression used when people say “I love you,” while dating is a lie, thus making you a liar.

< The person begins to steal love and affection from you that you should be giving to God.

If you truly love purity, you won’t put yourself in a place where you break it by lying and falsely committing.

The world makes dating seem like a way to “fill” a “need.” If there really is a need, fill it with GOD, not man. Man will leave you more empty than before.

There are two main kinds of relationships in the Bible:

Parents and Children

Husband and wife.

Until we’re ready to be married, we should not even consider dating.

When you are ready to be married, make sure you guard your heart even better.

Keep God first and don’t let those feelings in until it’s time.

Until you can commit to 1 Corinthians 13 love, what the world calls love is just lust. Think about it. Is lusting protecting your purity? NO!

So what do we do instead of dating?

Make the choice of who and when with God and purity as the standard. Put God first.

The world likes to attack us with things like “How are you going to find him?” and “How will you manage talking to him?” (that one’s simple… speak his language and know he exists…).

Answer the world with your faith and trust in God. He’ll take care of everything in His own good time. Don’t expect to pray and then find the guy and be married before you’re 22. It might happen, but often God makes us wait so He may be glorified even more in our lives.

Closing thoughts:
Don’t let the media distract you. BE ON GUARD
If you’ve truly given your heart to God, He has to let you give it to someone else.
Ask questions about all parts of your life, evaluate your desires. Would you do this if Jesus were right by your side?
Opening your heart is like stepping out into an open street. If you don’t go carefully, you’ll be hit hard and ruin your life.
Your heart is precious, but it is capable of evil (Mark 7:21) Keep it from being vulnerable and easily reached.

Be asking yourself:

What does this want in my heart?
What will it do to me?
Is this something I should brush away in my pursuit of God?

What does a pure relationship look like? (whether with opposite genders or the same gender)
What does practically applying purity look like?

over'n'out
Ky

"Eew, Sarah, I just ate some of your hair."
"What'd it taste like?"
"Garlic bread."

"So I heard you had a bit of 'Girl Talk' at your Well Group last night."
"Well it wasn't necessarily Girl Talk."
"Then you had some guy talk?"
"Haha, Philip."
"They're opposites..."

Trust.

2008-01-22T08:29:00.000+03:00

Trust...
It's what God's been teaching me about this week, seeing as I've been worrying a lot.
Life's been a little overcrowded balancing school, music, social life, and taking Christine places the past two weeks. Then to add to all that, Monday night started the Perspectives course at Church. It's going to be a great course, but it's intense and long.
We've been working out some summer stuff, Cait and I will [Lord willing!] be going to India over spring break on Surge Serve. And I'll [again Lord willing!] be going to the first session at Csehy All that adds a little stress, trying to get new passports for India and improving as much as I can on oboe before Csehy.

Well, although all this has been fairly small worrying... God's been teaching me a lot about trusting Him...

Although I'm still nervous about camp and being possibly the only oboist, being a newbie there never having played in an orchestra, not knowing how to read music to sing, worried I might not even make it into the orchestra and get stuck in the handbell choir... etc etc etc... God will work everything out and I'll still have a good time.

Although India's a big place and not the safest country and we need new passports, Visas, funds to go... God will provide safety, money, and the time we need.

Although sometimes I want to have control of my future, God's the one who has it all worked out, and I just need to "Trust and obey, cuz there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey."

I've started the Perspectives course at Church.
Wow. One week into it and it's already rocking my world. It's intense and it's tough, there's a lot of reading and a lot of stuff to get my head around, but I really like it.

Update: Our passports are being renewed, and they should be done in time for the Surge deadline. :)

Anyway... my week has been normal, dance started up again, sewing's going well, school is eeehhhh... the talk at Oasis was REALLY good, this week I plan to write something off of my notes, basically re-constructing the message. And I can't wait for Monday, Sarah and I have decided that between Perspectives and Oboe while I'm at their house we're going to discuss it within our own personal lives. :)

- Ky

"Okay, so you have magma and the sun. Which one is joy and which one is happiness?"
"The magma is joy because it's inside of you..."
"Okay, what else do we know about magma?"
"It explodes."

E: It has something to do with David.
P: Bathsheba!
Esther: PHILIP!!!

P: Hey, mom, what's the name of that guy... the donkey... you know, stubborn fool?

Mrs. H: Nabal?

E: Isn't that a body part?

P: Wait, how'd we get on this subject?

2008-01-16T20:08:00.000+03:00

I've been feeling rather cooped up lately. Wednesday there was no rain like there was on Tuesday, so I couldn't go out running in it again (though that was amazingly fun!), but the roads were still flooded in some places so we couldn't really go anywhere.

I've discovered what's bound to be my favorite band, at least musically. Some of their lyrics are pretty, most don't make too much sense and are not secular secular, but not Christian. The band is made up of a cello, guitar, bass, drums, and a keyboard (with vocals, of course).

They're called Broken Iris.

A few of their songs actually sound a bit depressing lyric-wise, but they're absolutely gorgeous. My favorites by them would have to be New Hope, Colorful Mind, and The Scar. Actually one of my most recent favorite quotes is from The Scar: "Never fight unless you're willing to die."
I will warn you, though, much to my surprise, one of their songs (The Eyes of Tomorrow) has a swear word in it.

Wednesday daddy came home from Japan... and guess what he brought back for me?
A 4X4 Rubik's Cube!
Goodness that thing is torture. It's fun, though, just really tricky. I've not gotten past the first layer yet. >.< style="font-style: italic;">The Prydain Chronicles, which arrived with Christine as a VERY late birthday present. Taran Wanderer kind of set off my wandering again, though not really wandering, more of just my cloaked absurdity... I mean, I'm the only person I know who completely loves their music, Rubik's cubes, Lord of the Rings, cloaks, writing, dance, and can be completely drawn back and silent one moment and rather talkative the next.

Thursday morning after school I went with Nate and Candace to the H's for music lessons. I did geometry during their lessons, then Esther and I talked for a little while and she brought out Philip's new cubes (He got a 4X4 the other day, too! And a 2X2). I solved the 2X2, then Philip and I were discussing the 4X4 and he gave me some verbal help. Then mommy dropped me off at the C's for sewing, and afterwards we talked and watched part of the Silver Chair until we went to Oasis... which was just a movie/game night because the bus was canceled because of rain. The movie was Faith Like Potatoes, and I'm still deciding if I want to watch the rest of it or not. Sarah and I watched the first half hour, but then didn't like where it was going and didn't really think it was all that wholesome so we played cards, but a little later kind of started watching again and it looked a little better.

Friday at Church Philip helped me some more with the cube and Sarah, Hannah, Esther and I were playing with the 3X3. In the afternoon I just sat around and cubed (not really getting anywhere), and then we went to volleyball... which was okay on my part, we won our games but not really any thanks to me. Afterwards we talked, played Kent, and Sarah, Philip and I played around with the cube for a while.

Saturday afternoon Nate had his first baseball game of the season. He did a wonderful job pitching, but his team didn't win. :( Then we went to Global Village for a while. Global Village is basically a bunch of pavilions with things from all over the world in it. It's really neat just to walk around in, and being outside was really cool. We took a few pictures and videos there, I'll hopefully have them up soon. I got fuzzy toe socks and a Zebra mask.
---
"What's going on tomorrow?"
"People will be breathing, eating, walking... some will die."

"When you put the mask on, you act like a zebra."

"Madam, I have beautiful material to make ball gown!" (a Pakistani guy in the Pakistan pavilion at Global Village... selling Pakistani material... not at all our idea of "ball gown" :P)
---
Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee
---
Illiteracy for those who don't see
The gates that untie avid arrogance
Your ground felt so firm I short handed myself
Never again will I give in

Right into hate right into lies
Right back where we've been before
A privilege no more now that we've lost

The Scar buried within mankind
The will that defines all of right from wrong
Now fight unless you're willing to die
None but the obvious state this

Struck with a punishment that would last for an age
Finally it's all black and white
Much more simple to answer

Heroes will rise
Enemies fall
Right back where they've been before
A privelege regained
A gift that you own

Pay no more mind
To the agony from the burn
Let yourself climb
To a height never reached before
Open to find
A path to the pure inside
Now is the time
- The Scar - Broken Iris

A rather dreamy all over the place post.

2008-01-15T16:02:00.000+03:00

I've been feeling rather like the title up there ^ .

I'll try to compress my thoughts and put them in order enough to make a legible post.

I finally got pictures from Christmas uploaded... here are a few from my Well Group Christmas party.I love the angles on this one... then look at the person in the middle... haha, H!

We were going to take some nice pictures to send to our friend in the states... but...
We did get a few nice ones, but on those ones the lighting on my camera was bad so they didn't turn out too well.

Shall we dance?

Stormy skies... and the Burj Dubai rising above everything else.

It's been raining. And today it's not just been raining, it's been pouring. In some places it's so flooded people are basically unable to go out. Here in the compound there are places the water is ankle deep. I'm so happy that my cloak is waterproof... otherwise mom would have never let me tramp around out there for an hour. It's not quite as exciting and doesn't have nearly as much scope for the imagination as running all over gramma's field does, but 'twas fun nonetheless.

Well Group was canceled because roads were closed because of security because President Bush was in Al Ain coming to Dubai... so instead we went to Festival City and got ice cream at Marble Slab (they had peppermint... yum!) and then went shopping for a little while (ugh for most of it, but there was one store I liked, I got a really nice shirt there for not too much).
Monday we didn't go out at ALL because basically ALL the roads were closed.

Today I've had about 50 story ideas running through my head, jumbling everything up. I know they can all come together in some way, they all have strange cloaked wanderers like myself in them...

2008-01-13T16:00:00.000+03:00

This week has been rather jumbled.
Sunday I woke up with a small flu and slept all day.
Monday I took a nap.
Tuesday I was feeling strong enough to do all of school and went biking.
Wednesday Christine came - she's spending 2 weeks here with us while her school has basically an month of one subject - she's came to do a paper on the Burj Dubai.
Thursday we went out to the desert with the H's. The site was a mess, so we cleaned it up, then I went up on a dune to wait for the H's. Sarah, Esther and I watched the guys play Frisbee for a little while, then went "exploring," striking heroic poses every now and then just for the fun of it. After lunch we climbed back up the dune and made a few plans for possible pranks at the Jr. High campout.
At Oasis Pastor John talked on purity and holiness. It was a really good talk, and I can't wait for his practical application of it all next week.
Friday after Church Mr. K took us out to lunch at Little Caesars and then we came home and I made a cake for Hannah's birthday. After Volleyball we secretly (sneakily) decorated it and then brought it out to sing happy birthday to Hannah.
Saturday (bounces at the memory of Saturday) we went to Mall of the Emirates for a little while. I had Oboe-wan with me because we'd scheduled an oboe lesson for 4:00... so after going in a massage chair and through the black hole in Magic Planet (the black hole is a bridge through a tunnel that there's a screen with moving stars on it... you get REALLy dizzy and feel like you're going to fall off... 'tis fun!) mom picked me up and we drove over there.
And... I loved my lesson! The teacher (mr. Peter) is a great oboist himself, and he's very patient and encouraging... and what I'm really happy about is that I've not been butchering my tone or anything of the sort!

Well, I know this has been short... but today I spent a lot of time practicing music and so I've barely gotten anything apart from school and music done!

- Ky

Desert Challenge 2007 - Renovate - Notes

2008-01-07T12:38:00.000+03:00

Well, I finally got around to typing them up. Was gonna do it yesterday but got hit with some sort of flu. Not fun.
Still feeling a little tired and sick, but well enough to practice music and do chores and school rather than sleeping all day.

Desert Challenge 2007 – Renovate – Notes.

Main Sessions:

Opening Session:
Speaker: John Welkner
Passage: Matthew 7:15-29

Renovate: the process of improving a structure.
Follow Jesus’ teaching and your house will be on a rock and you will be wise. Don’t follow his teaching and you become a fool.
When storms in life come, fools will fall apart.

So what’s His teaching?
Examine the fruit of your life. What does it say about you?
v. 21-23 – What if that’s me?
His teaching is the will of the father.
Am I His? Or am I not?
(Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37-39)
Love what He loves, hate what He hates, can’t serve two masters.
We want a heart that takes God’s side, admits imperfection, hates sin, and fights the world.
If God hasn’t changed you, He hasn’t saved you.
God is the ONLY renovator of your life. He doesn’t make mistakes or do only half the job. He completes and changes us.
If there’s no renovation, we must repent and believe.
God has to possess your heart before he can change it.
Does He have your heart?
- The world has nothing for me. Only knowing Jesus is my life. –

Main Session One
Speaker: Carlos Devitis
Passage: Ephesians 3:13-21

- You don’t renovate something perfect.
- Peter’s letters are prayers for the Churches.
- Context – gospel is for ALL people everywhere. Groups then were very finite and defined. The Church wasn’t.
- Renovation isn’t something you do alone. We’re renovated together (as iron sharpens iron)
- We claim to love others SO MUCH, but we fight, let others down, etc…

Renovation begins with God’s love and heart for you.
2 Reasons God’s love in Renovation is Good:
1. Because Renovation begins with God, it means we can trust him with EVERYTHING. Proverbs 3:5-6
If we are in control, we let ourselves down. Trust Him with ALL your heart, every single area. When life is critical – every moment – lay down what you want and let someone bigger take control.

2. Because God loves us so deeply, we have incredible purpose, value, and worth. John 3:16 tells us WE MATTER!
If being a part of a sports team matters, being a part of God’s team REALLY MATTERS.

Concluding thoughts: Jesus saved us TO LIFE, not from death. When our identity is wrapped in Christ, we live so much higher than we could on our own. Sure, we may have more pain, but our joy is GREATER!

Main Session Two
Speaker: Carlos Devitis
Passage: Ephesians 3:16-17
Review: Renovation starts with God’s heart for you.
But it’s also your heart for God.

What does someone whose heart is wholly God’s look like? Matthew 14:23-36.
Somebody who sees what God is doing and wants to do it, too.
Peter’s the disciple who really follows God, because he wants to do what Jesus is doing. When he sinks while walking on water, the word Jesus uses for doubt is “why’d you look at me AND the waves?”

- Renovation is obedience.
Jesus is worshiped when we are renovated.
Obedience: what God commands/asks us. What we ask God.

What is God doing around you? The disciples weren’t doing anything, Jesus was.
Renovation continues when you have a heart for God.

Main Session Three
Speaker: Carlos Devitis
Passage: Ephesians 3:20-21, Matthew 5:13-16
- Your Heart for Others -

You have the opportunity to renovate your world.
Get rid of junk before renovation.
We pile brokenness and sin into our backpacks. It circulates over time and causes us to be bitter.
We must get rid of it! What are you carrying around that doesn’t need to be there?
He’s a renovator forever and ever.
If you follow Christ, you need to think you’re always the right person, in the right place, at the right time.
Salt and light = good deeds.
Deeds = anything connected to what you do and how you live.
To renovate – take what we do and put it out front Get creative and take it out.

How you live – explanation and demonstration.

Clearly understand we’re not here to judge

Stop poorly imitating the world and create good.

Closing Session
Speaker: Neil
Passage: Ephesians 4:1
God has a plan for you, even though you’re a mess. Don’t just sit and wait for it. For God to carry out that plan, He needs our hearts.

Even if you’ve stopped believing in yourself, God always believes in you. He’s 100% for you. He’s got a broken world to fix, and through him we can do all things.
What am I doing in my life for the world around me?
Compassion isn’t a project – it’s an act of love until it becomes a lifestyle.

- preach the gospel on all occasions and only sometimes use words.-
John 20:21
You can change the world through Christ.
What are you going to do about it?

Mega Tracks

The Body of Christ
Speaker: Pastor Kyle
Passage: Ephesians 2:19-20

Who we are in Christ.

Who were we BEFORE we came to Christ? Strangers and foreigners. V. 19
Stranger: a person with whom one has had no personal acquaintance.
Foreigner: a person who comes from a foreign country, who doesn’t owe his allegiance to the country.
We’ve all been strangers and foreigners in the household of God.
Therefore… the rest of the passage speaks of how Jesus’ blood makes us citizens of the household of God.
Citizen: a person entitled to the protection of the country and owing loyalty to that country.
Different backgrounds, different jobs, one body of Christ held together by His cornerstone.

Our role in the Body of Christ.

Build on the foundation Christ has laid. Don’t start a new foundation.

The importance of belonging to the body of Christ. Become a dwelling place for God, corporately and individually. 1 Cor. 6:19 (Mr. Kyle had us all write our names on cups and build a pyramid with them) Alone we’re just a single cup. Together we can start to build something.

We are chosen to belong to one another and to Jesus.
If we can join together, we can do much more.
EVERY CUP HAS A PURPOSE IN THE STACK.
Join forces and the problem looks smaller.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t get along with them, the citizens of the household of God build on the same foundation.
Joseph was always a servant, even in prison. Understand our role in Christ, understand belonging to Christ. WORK! Things WILL happen!

Value and Worth
Speaker: Amy Kellogg
Passage: Ephesians 2:8-10.
- Where do people get their value? (mirror, friends, stuff, achievements, talents, money, popularity).

Our problem is that so many people and commercials tell us that having something, doing something, or relationships make us truly happy. But really those things are temporary and will let you down.

-What’s God’s job in this passage? (He saved us, created us anew, planned things, and gave us things).
- What’s our job in this passage? (believing, not taking credit, doing the things he’s planned for us).
Who comes first? God or you? Sometimes we think we come first, but God made us and we are His masterpiece.
God knew all about us before we were born.
He made us with great care and value. The creator makes a creation valuable, not how it looks.
God gives us a name and makes us just how He wants us. He puts specific things in us so we are UNIQUE.
He wants us to live to the full ability He’s created us to do.
Sometimes we feel like anything BUT a masterpiece. But God’s chipping away at a block of wood to make a full masterpiece.
Michelangelo’s David was once a block of rock.
Pray about what God has put in you.
Then pray about how to testify and live your life.

Surge Tracks:
1. The Family Room – Family Life
Speaker: Donny
Passage: Romans 12:1-3

Relationships are why Jesus died.
Family relationships are important because family knows you best.
God will change a relationship even if you don’t want it to change.
Honor: treat with kindness and care. Doing nothing to harm one’s customs. Accept and think that rules are important.
Relationships aren’t about us.
- call yourself a Christian, how do you relate to your family?

2. The Living Room – Social Life
Speaker: JW
Passage: 1 John 2:15-17
There’s something taking control of our lives.
It’s a battle we fight every day.
What are you letting control you? The fleeting, or the eternal?
Imagine a battle, two sides preparing for war. You’re standing in the middle, both sides groping for you. One side is the world, ads, friends, food… the other side is God, the author of life.
The world is trying to take you away. Fight against the world.

3. The Library – Influences
Speaker: Chris
Passage: Proverbs 1:7, Philippians 4:8, Luke 6:44, Romans 12:2, Matthew 12:35
What influences you and gives you knowledge?
Are we being changed/transformed by the world or God?
These things affect our mind, heart, soul.
Whether you encourage or put down shows your heart. Heart à mouth.
Are your thoughts Philippians 4:8?
Is what your friends online say or what God says more important?
Do you choose your influences by God’s standard (Philippians 4:8) or Man’s standard?

4. The Exercise Room – Our Health and God
Speaker: Brad
Passage: Mark 12:30
What’s the most important thing? Loving God (Deut 6:5).
Offer our bodies as Holy Temples for God.
Choices we make with our physical bodies affect our spiritual lives (lack of sleep = lack of attention to God’s word)
2 Common mistakes – segmenting lives (setting exercise apart from faith), obsessing about exercise (idolizing it).
1 Timothy 4:8 = right perspective.

5. The Bedroom - Secrets
Passage: Hebrews 4:12-16

Hidden sins aren’t secret to Jesus.
Jesus allows our secrets to hurt so he can bring us relief. Forgiving frees you from anger. Not forgiving says you’re greater than Jesus cuz He’s forgiven you.
Relief from Jesus allows His grace and glory to shine in us and through us.

The road to relief is confession and companionship.

6. The Bathroom – Self Image
Speaker: Mr. and Mrs. P
Passage: Luke 15:1-7, Ephesians 2:9-10, Genesis 1:27, Psalm 139:13-14, Galatians 4:6-7.
What words would you use to describe yourself?
We’re individually crafted by God, a masterpiece.
God’s seeking us – we’re sought and bought by Him.
We’re His children – our daddy is the king.
What difference does this make if it’s true?
Make God’s voice bigger than the world’s, it’s what really matters.
Whose voice will you listen to?
Romans 12:2.

7. The Kitchen – Appetites and Desires.
Speaker: Kyle
Passage: Psalm 37:4
It’s possible to have your heart’s desire – if you delight in the Lord.
He will give you Himself – enough to fulfill your desires.
The world makes you think they can give you your heart’s desire. It’s pleasing to the eye, but leads to destruction.

What you put in is what you crave.
Alcoholics crave alcohol, etc…

One side of you desires violence and sin.
The other desires love and joy.
The side you feed gets bigger (Larry Boy and the Big Fib)
If you crave God’s presence, spend time with Him.

Small group notes:
Just a few things I gathered from things Donny said... You can control your influences - if your influence is 10% from God and 90% from the world, the world is going to have a bigger impact.
Make Jesus your best friend, you'll do what He does and go where He'd go. If you're not comfortable going somewhere with your best friend, and Jesus is your best friend, then you'll go where He wants you to go.
We're witnesses - to speak the truth, not to judge or force people to change.

Pegs: People were walking around "pegging" people - a clothespin with a verse written on one side, along with the words "read it, think about it, pass it on!"
These are a few of the references from pegs:
- Leviticus 19:18
- Romans 14:1
- Philippians 4:13
- Titus 4:12
- 1 Corinthians 6:19
- Matthew 5:3-12

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee

This weekend.

2008-01-05T18:48:00.000+03:00

Tomorrow ends Christmas Break.
I'm okay with that.
This break was a good break, fun, albeit busy... which is why I've not gotten DC notes up yet.

Tuesday and Wednesday we didn't do much (leastways, not that I can remember...).
Thursday we went to Safa Park with a bunch of people. The guys (as usual) wanted to play Touch Football, so we tolerated that for a little while, then left the game to play Ultimate Frisbee. We played baseball for a little while, then ate dinner. Jonny had brought his guitar, so we had a short time of worship before we left.
In the evening we went to the Ba's house for Naomi and Jeremy's wedding shower.

Friday after Church and volleyball we went to First Friday Prayer and Praise. Afterwards Cait and I went to the C's for a game night. We walked up to get shwarmas at a nearby cafeteria, then walked back and ate ice cream and played Settlers of Catan... making up sound effects for all of the cards. Sheep was "Maa maa." Wood was "Chop chop." Wheat was "swish swish." And we couldn't think of a good one for ore.

Saturday we went out to the desert with the C's, the M's, Jeremy, Lisa, Chris, and Nathan. After we drove out to the site, we played volleyball for a while, then ate lunch and sat around talking and watching the guys have a melee with the larps. We packed up camp and drove to a big dish-like thing, basically a flat circle on the bottom with steep slopes on 3 1/2 sides. Mr. M took us all out to a ridge and we went over it... the best part was right as you went over the lip and started to dip. (Yes, I rhyme. Some of the time). Then we drove home and I washed the car and got ready for school tomorrow.

URGENT prayer request: You've probably heard about some of the unrest in Kenya... a Kenyan woman in our Church has 2 brothers in Kenya. One was taken by the government (I think) and tortured. They let him go, but he's in pain and really weak - and the hospitals are too full to take him. The other brother was shot a few days ago and is now in the ICU. Please be praying for both of them, as well as the rest of Kenya.

- Ky
----

Nathan: Aaah, goodness, I keep hitting the ball out of the court.
Philip: Don't you mean more like badness?

Nathan: *sarcastically* You scared the life out of me.
Andrew: So you're a walking corpse?

Lisa: I have a maa maa... will anyone trade me for chop chop or swish swish?

Andrew: Oooh, look, a maa maa and a chop chop. Anyone hungry? Take the maa maa and go chop chop!

... deep breath...

2008-01-01T09:33:00.000+03:00

Wow.
That's really all that's on my mind right now: wow, God is amazing. Wow, He's given me great friends. Wow, I have so much joy...

Desert Challenge was this weekend, and it was definitely challenging, but in different ways than last year. (DC is a 3-day youth conference for youth in our area. The messages are amazing, worship is really powerful, and this year and last year I strengthened so many relationships - with friends and with God).
Anyway. I guess first I'll tell you what all we did, then I can talk about what God did.

The first day after check-in and orientation we had lunch and chill-out. Various times during chill-out we played signs, mau, Kent, Air Hockey, Uno... Sarah, Vashti and I played around on the piano a few times, just because we missed playing our music. Saturday night was the No-Talent Show, which usually has some really good acts with one or two cheesy No-Talent acts. Cait and I did a dance to the song "Glory to Thee" by Michael Card.
During the Main Session that night, we performed our Candle Dance for everyone... but with it came a bit of learning. All morning we'd been getting frustrated because they hadn't told us when we were doing it, then suddenly we were doing it that evening, didn't have the music, candles, anything for it. So people rushed to the C's to get them... when we were going to do it there was problems with the music which was a major embarrassment, but not anyone's fault. Neil said we'd do it tomorrow and they'd fix the music before then, and within the next ten minutes they'd found it and we were doing it.
I have to say, though, failing so many times and getting so frustrated with it then suddenly getting it and getting it better than any of our practices - brought sooo much more joy on our part.

Sunday we had small groups within our Church group, and a bunch of chill-out, sessions, food, etc... we had Afternoon activities, and I played outside games and then went into the Labyrinth (a prayer room) for the last half-hour. We had Surge Tracks in the late afternoon, which were 8 short, 8-minute talks about different areas of our lives (based on My Heart, Christ's Home).
In the evening the Acoustic Lounge (basically a Talent Show) was running, but we played Kent and other games instead upstairs in Chill-out. After the main session Alicia and I talked for a while, then we prayed with Sarah Y and Vania for a few minutes.

Monday went by quickly, we had small groups again, then a closing session and clean up. We played the cup game for a while after lunch while people were waiting to leave or be picked up. Kianna and I had a really good talk about how we were going to apply what we'd learned.

So, then, what did I learn?
I did get a lot out of the messages, but the 4 main things I learned (about) were:

Worship - Worship, in a way, gained a whole new perspective for me. It became just me and God in a room with music. And I also started worshiping not just through song, but prayer, reading my Bible, and just listening with my heart.

Joy - I can't express the joy God filled me with at DC and continues to fill me with now. I felt so blessed and so loved by Him and knowing all that fills me with incredible joy. I also found how great my joy is when I take the time to sit and be with God. I long to spend time with God every day, but as it says in Romans 7,

"So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin."

Service - God reminded me to serve my friends and to respect and honor them, not to go overboard in teasing, etc... to serve everyone in every way and at all times, letting Christ's love shine through me by my actions.

Humility - Well, the Candle Dance not working definitely put all four of us down a little. It reminded me to accept circumstances and bear with them... and to live them out. I think (not that we were proud, I didn't see that in Cait, Elisabeth, or Hannah... and I pray it wasn't in me), that we needed a reminder that things can go wrong and God is in control - and we're under Him and need to "Humble [ourselves] in the sight of the Lord."

So how am I going to apply all this? It comes in the form of six New Year's Resolutions:

1. I resolve to spend more time in God's word and being with God, thus spending less time online and in the world. I want my influence to be 100% God, so it is not overrun with the influence of the world.

2. I resolve to strive to do my best in anything and always push myself as high as I can go, be it in school, music, relationships... etcetera.

3. I resolve to serve others more, and serve others for their benefit, not my own.

4. I resolve to not go overboard in anything, especially teasing and be willing to stop an argument when it begins to go too far, even if it may mean a slight defeat.

5. I resolve to let God into all rooms of my heart, not holding anything back from Him.

6. I resolve to grow closer to my family, loving them more and getting to know them better.

Brett Harris's Resolutions from 2005 I think are very good and would encourage you to read them.

For New Years Eve we went to the H's for a game night. We talked for a while, then played Pictionary, Foosball, Pirateer, and Pit. Then we drove to the C's and walked to the beach, where we waded out on a sand bar and watched the fireworks. Sarah wanted to watch the ball drop, so although we didn't have a sparkly pink ball and weren't in Times Square we did it anyway, with a ball of sand.
Johnny was playing his guitar and singing worship songs quietly with Philip, and I spent a few minutes walking on the edge of the water and praying and thinking.

Well, anyway.
Happy 2008. God bless your year!

Over'n'out
- Ky
----------

"Being a stranger means... well, you're a stranger."

"You guys have all these funky games... [list of other games] and then there's monopoly meets Hexagon... (Settlers of Catan... :P)"

"If you don't like me, tell me! Don't try to kill me with rubber balls covered in duckies!"

“Being in Church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than being in MacDonald’s makes you a cheeseburger! It’s like walking in and saying, ‘hey everybody, I’m a CHEESEBURGER!’”

"Hey, J, wanna come play Pit with us?"
"No..."
"If you don't we'll dig you a pit!"
"SARAH!"
"Ummm..."
"Wait, can it have water in it? Then I could go swimming..."

Dear Mary.... Love, God.

2007-12-25T07:35:00.000+03:00

I wrote this on Christmas Eve after the Christmas Eve service. I didn't fall asleep until almost midnight, not from excitement, but from sheer joy... I've been feeling so much joy lately, and I want it to keep going and going and going all year around. That's my Christmas prayer for this year, joy in me and in the world...

Anyway, this was partly inspired by an episode of Down Gilead Lane and partly by Mr. P's message on Christmas Eve... I used the song "Mary Did You Know?" and Luke 1:26-55.

"My Dear Mary,

Do not be afraid. I have a special message for you, my child. These things may sound strange, but be comforted - I am in control and have good plans for your future.
I know you are "only" a fourteen-year-old girl living in the small town of Nazareth. Yet you will fulfill the words of the prophet Isaiah,
"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
And they shall call his name Immanuel."
Do not fear, Mary, I know you are a virgin and betrothed to be married. The Holy Spirit will come upon you and you shall bear a son. My power will overshadow you, and this is how the child will be born. He shall be called Holy, the Son of God.
I know it does not seem possible, but she who was called barren has conceived. Your relative Elizabeth, even in her old age, is in her sixth month. And her son shall prepare the way for the Son of God.

Mary, did you know, that this will bring you shame? Did you know that you might raise this child on your own? That your husband and family might be shamed and reject you? Did you know you could be stoned? Mary, did you know, this could bring great pain upon you? That your baby boy, has walked where angels trod?
Mary, did you know, that this son of yours, will deliver you? That He will rule the nations? That you will be embarrassed by his teaching? That you will watch him die before your very eyes, and you will bury him?
Did you know, your son will be worshiped? That he will bear the weight of the world on his shoulders? That he will walk with the Lord? That he will walk on water, give sight to the blind? Mary, did you know, your son is the Great I AM?

Behold, My Child, you have found favor with God. I have chosen one unlike the prophets like Moses and Abraham to fulfill prophecies and my perfect plan.
You have faith, Mary.
Will you believe nothing is impossible with God?
Will you remember that I have done great things to you?
Will you magnify the Lord and rejoice in your savior?
Will you remember that I have chosen you for my purposes?
That I love you?

Mary, did you know, this child you bear will break your heart and make it whole?

Have you such faith that you will be my servant, even through this?
Remember, Mary, nothing is impossible with God.

I love you.

- God."

Christmas night we went out into the desert, which was fun, although a little cold, which made it hard for me to run, so Sarah and I talked and sipped hot chocolate.

Wednesday the R's (including Nathan, back from uni for break) came over, and we talked, watched The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob and played Apples to Apples.

Today (Thursday), we went to the beach in the morning. I waded in the water some, played volleyball, and Octopus. It was fun, but rather tiring. The R's (whole family!) came over for dinner in the evening, and we played games and Rachel and I went outside for a while.

Apart from that, I've just been loading songs onto my ipod and reading some.
Saturday is Desert Challenge! Yay!

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee
---

Philip: Who's this from?
Me: It's from orange.
Philip: Should I open it first or throw it in the fire first?

Me: Nobody wants our subs...
Sarah: We must be scaring them away.
Me: Yeah, we're scary. RAWR!
... now whenever we serve at volleyball or someone looks at us strangely, we comment on the fact that "We are scary." :P

Life and Yo-Yo Ma.

2007-12-21T20:00:00.002+03:00

Where have all my commenters gone? :P

Thursday night was the Christmas party/banquet at Oasis. Originally it had been casual, but a lot of us "rebelled" and sent out a message that it was semi-formal like it always is. Leah wanted to do my hair, so I let her play around with it... we had candle dance practice before the banquet, and then we helped set up, moving chairs and tables and couches around, setting candles out all over the place... we played a few games before dinner, then near the end of the group White Elephant they needed helpers over making Subs for dinner, so Sarah and I went. We buttered a few pieces of bread, then when people started coming through, we put them together for them. Then Pastor W. read a poem by John Piper. It was called Paul, Malach, and Tabitha. After that we sang Christmas carols and cleaned up some before going home.

Friday after Church Sarah H. came over, and we watched Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave, then sat on the couch cross-stitching for a while. Volleyball was okay, my serves are getting better, but my wrists are tiring really quickly, so after 4 serves it hurts to much to keep going with that hand. We played Bible tag (like TV tag, but with Bible names, etc...), Pit, and Spoons afterwards, then we came home.

Saturday was rather boring, we basically just sat around cleaning, wrapping presents, doing a few other things that needed to be done.

Sunday I made Molasses Crinkles and got ready for Well Group in the afternoon. Well Group was Formal; I wore one of mommy's old dresses, we were supposed to have one shabby thing, though, to remind us we're sinners and to keep us humble even in getting all dressed up... so I wore mismatched socks. :P We sang Christmas carols, played Four On A Couch, held baby Luke, ate, revealed Secret Santas, and then played mind games. Daddy was late picking me up, then he was sitting around talking with Mr. H, so we played Mad Dash and Pit until we left.

Monday well... originally, Daddy had Christmas off. Buuuut his flight sims got canceled so he's on call for Christmas. So spur of the moment on Sunday night we decided to do Christmas on Christmas Eve. So that's what we did! It was a lot of fun, and then in the evening we went to the F's for dinner, singing carols, and playing games before the Christmas Eve service... which was amazing. If the Church puts it up on their website, I'm definitely downloading it.
To avoid further questioning, I got:
- An I-pod.
- The Mission Soundtrack
- WOW Worship (Yellow)
- A Precious Moments Snowflake Ornament.
- Jennie B. And the Pilot (It's a story on CD...)
- An Itunes Gift Card
- Money from my grandparents
- Pajamas
- BUBBLE GUM!!!
- FRISBEES!!!!

Books:
- Alone, Yet Not Alone
- They Loved To Laugh (one of the best books... EVER).
- The Wedding Dress
- The Shepherd's Cross

Movies: (these are the family's)
- Bride And Prejudice
- The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (GO RABBI JACOB!)
- The Best of Victor Borge
- Bugsy Malone
And there's one more I don't know the name of... Tim and someone... they're comedians.

This weekend I "discovered" Yo-Yo Ma. I'd heard about him before (Philip is Chinese-American and plays the cello... just like Yo-Yo Ma. And Yo-Yo Ma sounds JUST like Mr. H, Philip's dad). Anyway, he's an amazing cellist... and makes me want to play cello even more.
He's not just a good cellist, though... it's kinda hard to explain, feeling it myself sometimes, but it's almost as if he becomes a part of the music, and really FEELS it, not just plays it. I think that's what makes him so different from the rest of the really good musicians.
At the end of this summer I was trying to decide on a new instrument to pick up, and basically my conversation with my mom went like this: "Hey mom, Can I play oboe?" "Ky, no." "Can I play harp?" "Too expensive." "How 'bout cello?" "Cello's too big." At that point I was about to start wailing. :P Then we found out the Hans have an oboe... so I got to do oboe... though I still want to do cello.

I have an amazing experience I want to share with you... Okay, so I've held babies before. This time was different... no idea why. I held Luke W. after Church today. He's one of the most adorable babies I've ever seen. To hold his tiny little body in my arms, watch him yawn... to marvel at the awesomeness of the gift of life. I just looked down at him and didn't want to let go. It also reminded me of the frailty of life... it's so small, so easily broken. But it's so beautiful and wonderful at the same time.

Pastor W.: I gave him a mohawk this morning so he'd look cool, but everyone says he still looks cute.

Kenneth: *with mayonnaise and ketchup with a hotdog* Oh, wait, I'm supposed to eat this.

Jonny: May I have the ketchup?
Me: Eew.
Jonny: *putting ketchup on his hot dog*
Me: Eeeeew... that's disgusting.
Jonny: Mmm, more ketchup.
Me: Yuck.
Jonny: You don't like ketchup, do you?
Me: Nope.

Cait: I can't figure this out, I typed it out right...
Me: Cait, that's a three, not an E.
Cait: What? I thought it was a backwards E.

More soon... I shoulda gotten this post out sooner, but it's getting REALLY long and I hate really long posts.

Love,
Ky

God, Hold on Just a Minute.

2007-12-18T16:11:00.000+03:00

Daphne is a new believer that goes to our youth group. Her parents really don't like her being a Christian, but thankfully they let her go to Oasis and Well Group, and sometimes Church. This past week she was at Church and came and sat with us. The thing I want to say, though, is that her simple faith challenged me so much... to me my faith is real, but I often am uneager and think of reading my Bible and praying just as another task to fulfill every day. As I watched Daphne, though, I felt so ashamed... I've seen God do amazing things in my life, for many years, but the only way I thank Him is by spending time for my devotions in the morning doing the Rubix's Cube?
I think Denis nailed it at My Story Night, when he said, "God has done so much for us, but we tell him, 'hold on God, five more minutes, let me finish this level of my video game.' Half an hour later, 'oops, God, I forgot to do my math homework. I'll get to you soon, though...' Imagine if God said, 'hold on a minute, Ky, before I can give you courage to go talk to Karin, I have to settle some business with the angels.'"
God has given us so much... so why don't we give Him our all in return? He lets us live, gives us life - one word from Him and we'd be dead.
So give Him your life... fully.
Give Him the glory... all of it.
Don't let the world take any, it doesn't deserve it. When we see God for who He really is, we'll see the world as what it is - a place full of death and decay... not worth a single minute except to save it.

Come they told me

A new born King to see,
Our finest gifts we bring
To lay before the King
So to honor Him
When we come.

Little Baby
I am a poor boy too,
I have no gift to bring
That's fit to give our King
Shall I play for you!
On my drum.

Mary nodded
The ox and lamb kept time
I played my drum for Him
I played my best for Him
Then He smiled at me
Me and my drum.
- The Little Drummer Boy (minus the "pa rum pum pum pum"s).

We have more than "pa rum pum pum pum"s to give Jesus... we have our lives, our hearts, souls, mind, strength...
I want all of me to be wholly His.
All of me.

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee.

A whole week...

2007-12-12T15:50:00.000+03:00

Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday were not very exciting, just the usual school and WellGroup, Monday night I worked on my sewing project some, but then the machine started acting up.

Wednesday can be summed up in this quote: "I have had a wonderful [day]. This wasn't it." Started out fine, geometry went well, so did Chemistry... then we went to a Charity Bazzar and were there for a while and got back and I still had music, my chores, reading, and doing all the things that I wanted to do... so I got kinda stressed out and was in a rush and basically everything went wrong for a while, until I got to music practice, which always makes everything better (as long as my oboe reeds cooperate). Surprisingly I still got a lot done - made a few Christmas gifts, and managed to get everything done except reading.
Things I learned: attempting screamo while singing "White Christmas" gives you a headache. It also makes Cait start laughing uncontrollably... or maybe that was my over-rated screeching... Why did I learn this?
Because Cait and I recorded this...
Don't worry, we're usually not QUITE that weird...

Thursday we didn't have dance, so we practiced the Candle Dance at the C's house, then ate lunch and had sewing. After sewing Elisabeth had a Wind Band concert that we went to before going to Oasis. We finished our Jesus of Nazareth series, so as soon as we're done with that in WellGroup, I hope to get my notes up from it. We had a Human Foosball Tournament, dividing up by suburb, and our suburb won. Afterwards we helped with take down, and a little hook on an umbrella (which was supposed to be for hooking parts of the umbrella together), hooked my toe... so it was bleeding for a while and a bit painful, but we wrapped it in paper towel and tape.

Friday I was going to do live Nativity at Church, but things didn't quite work out. Cait and Mommy did it, though. Volleyball was okay on my part... most of my serves were good (YES!), and I got a few good hits in, but most of them didn't go so well. After volleyball was the Annual Christmas Carol, which, like last year, was wonderful. The orchestra played the same version of Joy to the World (which I absolutely LOVE... it starts out with just the cello, then flutes join in, then saxophones, and then violins, finally the whole thing... absolutely gorgeous).

Saturday we were just at home, the R's came over for a little, while and then I think I was reading.

Sunday the Y's were here from Bahrain, and we were planning on going out to the desert, and we did, but never got very far because the other 4-wheel drive was a 4-wheeled 2-wheel drive (meaning the 4-wheel drive didn't work, so it wasn't strong enough to drive in sand). On the way home we got ice cream at the gas station and ran into Dragon Mart to get my Secret Santa gift for next week. Sarah came with me to Well Group, which went VERY well, I learned a lot... and I plan on scanning pages from my book rather than typing up notes, because it will work better.

Monday I solved the second layer of the Rubix's Cube, and almost got the third, but it screwed up. We went to Safa Park to Christmas carol, but before everyone got there, we were climbing around on a big netted-like thing and playing soccer and frisbee. Then we sang... 'twas fun.

Today (Tuesday) was a wee bit stressful, I was trying to finish school AND the Rubix's Cube at the same time... and I'm a rather task-oriented person, thus wanting to finish both before doing anything else...

Math book: Kimberly wants to make an angel food cake. Each cake uses 1 1/2 dozen eggs. If Kimberly has 6 dozen eggs, how many cakes can she make?
Nate: None. She doesn't have any flour. But if she DID... she still wouldn't be able to, because she doesn't have any sugar.

Elisabeth: It was cracked, and it continues to be cracked.

Everyone: Hi, Mr. and Mrs. P!
Denis: Yo, what up, dude?

Denis: I've figured out I can play [volleyball] with my hands in my pockets.

'Nother post soon.

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee.

Always, Forever and Ever

2007-12-11T20:54:00.000+03:00

I know I usually don't post stories over here... but this one I had to.

Always, Forever and Ever - Lady Kyleian, December 2007

I sighed and leaned back in my chair to listen more closely to the Christmassy cello piece my brother was practicing. “Joy to the world, the Lord is come!” The notes seemed to sing, and the words of the familiar carol rang in my mind. Tilting my head slightly to the left, I gazed at the colorful lights of the Christmas tree through half-closed eyes, liking the star effect it gave them. Like it was every year, the Christmas tree was a tall evergreen, decorated with lights, tinsel, and ornaments from my childhood. One of our three cats, Crackle, lay curled up on the fleece blanket underneath the tree, her paw opening and closing around a small parcel, the only one under the tree. It messily wrapped, and the tag on it was written in a child’s hand. “For Rebecca,” it read. Immediately I had known who it was from, that handwriting could only be my little sister Bethany’s.

The cello stopped singing, and then he started playing another Christmas carol, this one low and somber. I picked up a pillow from the couch and threw it at him, begging him to change the music. Annoyed, he threw his music books down on the floor and began putting his cello away.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” I said.

“It wasn’t really helping anyway. It’s still there… not even music will help this time.”
“Do… do ya think she’s going to make it?” I asked, wondering if his hopes were anything contrary to mine.
“Bethy’s tough, Rebecca. If anyone can make it, she can.”
I pictured four-year-old Bethany in the hospital, sick with pneumonia and a million other things all at once, IVs sticking out of her arm, covered in blankets… mom and dad sitting by her side holding her hand.
Snow started to fall outside, one of the first times this winter. The first was a time I wanted to forget, that day Bethy had come inside from playing out in the snow coughing and sneezing. Instead of being rosy from the chilly winter air, her cheeks were pale. I caught her in my arms when she coughed so hard she almost toppled head first onto the rug.
The rest of it had been a blur, mom getting her bundled up in blankets and with a hot water bottle, sitting her by the heater while she called the doctor… and then everyone but Jacob and I had gotten in the car and driven to the hospital.
Three hours had passed, and there was still no word. We tried to keep busy, making hot chocolate, watching the sun go down… playing music, anything to take our minds off of Bethy. My mind whirred with silent prayers for my tow-headed little sister and her smiling, bouncy, cheerful ways.
I stared at Crackle and the little gift she held in her paw, wondering what was inside… and if Bethany would be there to see me open it on Christmas morning. Turning my attention to the window, I walked over to the couch and seated myself in a position where I could watch the snowflakes tumble to the ground, creating a winter wonderland.
The hours ticked by. Five. Snow an inch deep now covered all greenery outside. Six. The snow was finally letting up, allowing for a small break in the clouds to see the moon. Seven. Jacob and I played chess, engrossing our minds in something that needed our full attention. Eight. Jacob began to draw, his swift, light lines forming the soft features of Bethany’s child-like face. At exactly nine O’clock PM, the telephone rang. Jacob set down the pencil he was using to sketch with, jumping up to get the call.

“H-hi, this is Jacob,” he said, all run together so it almost sounded like “HithisisJacob.”
“The doctor…” There was silence for a few seconds, then the voice went on. “well…” Jacob set the phone so I could hear as well, and I listened from where I lay under the tree next to Crackle.
“Mom, just say it!” Jacob begged impatiently. When mom still didn’t reply, he went on, repeating what he had told me earlier “If anyone can make it, Bethy can.”
“The doctor thinks she won’t, Jacob. She’s too small to handle everything coming at her. They’re doing everything they can. You and Rebecca can go to bed if you like, we won’t be home for a while.”
“Thanks for calling, mom.”
Jacob hung up, walking back to his drawing with shuffling feet. I closed my eyes tightly, trying to keep the tears from coming. This was supposed to be the Christmas season. There was supposed to be joy. And now, seven days before Christmas, there was none in my heart, only a deep longing for Bethy to get better.

I must have fallen asleep under the Christmas tree, for I woke up under it, Crackle lying on my stomach and purring contentedly.
“Morning, girl,” I said groggily. Jacob sat at the table staring at the Christmas tree, his eyes half closed. I got up and walked over to him.
“Any more news?”
“Nothing going either way. Sounds like she’s just hanging in there.”
“Get some sleep, Jacob.”
“Can’t. I tried, all night long.”
All day long, my mind screamed to know. It screamed to find out if Bethy would get better, if Christmas this year would seem like Christmas. It screamed for lack of something better to do, out of both boredom and agony.
Then came the call. I answered it this time, and when I set the phone back down on the charger, I slumped to the ground. Jacob lowered his head and walked away, then a few minutes later began to play his cello again. Sometimes I thought it was his only source of emotion, playing his music, it was all he ever did when he was happy, angry, or sad. And he always played music to match his mood.
The tears fell freely, soaking my shirt, puddling on the floor around me. Bethy was gone, I would never see her beautiful baby-tooth filled smile again, never hold her hand when we crossed the street, never pick her up and carry her around the house like an airplane.

Preparations for the funeral began immediately, and they sped by without me realizing much had happened – it was as if I walked in a daze, moving through everything but not really knowing what I was doing. Barely anyone spoke in the house, we were all occupied with different things – Jacob with his cello, me with anything I could do around the house, mom calling people and places, dad going through some of Bethy’s old things…

Christmas Eve dawned to glistening snow on the treetops and a few snowflakes falling as the sun shone in between them. I rolled over in bed, not wanting to wake up. Today was Bethy’s funeral, a cold wintry day I didn’t want to face. Mom pounded on my door to get me up to get ready, and finally I stepped out onto the cold floor and hurried across to the rug, where I got dressed.
I was out of it most of the funeral, I don’t think I remember a single word of what was said, a single thing that was done… only that my precious Bethy was gone.
Late that evening, I sat on the couch staring at the Christmas tree lights as I had only six days before, when Bethy was still alive, when there was still hope. It was then my attention was again drawn to the small package beneath the tree. The messy letters stared at me, telling me to open them. I reached for it, pulling off the over-sized bow Bethany had taped on it, then peeling off the strips of tape. The contents of the wrapping spilled out onto my hand, and I looked at it all over and over again.
First came two quarters, some of the first money of her own Bethany ever had. They shined as if they were new because Bethany had rubbed them clean as if they were a silver tea pot. Next came her little pewter ballerina figurine, showing her hope to be a ballerina in the future. Many nights she had shared with me how someday she would leap across the stage and everyone would watch her and clap for her. Tears welled up in my eyes, and I looked in further to see the last little thing. It was only a wadded up piece of paper, but she had written inside it, words I never would have expected Bethany to write. I had seen her scribbling something with Jacob’s help when she sat by the heater, but I never knew its contents until now.

“To my favorite sister, Bec,” it read. “right now I feel really sick. Jake is helping me write this because I want to tell you something. I love you so much, and I don’t want to leave you. But I know –“ there was a scribble here because ‘know’ had been written ‘knom’ – “I will see you soon, with Jesus. Don’t forget me, Bec. When I sit in Jesus’ lap, I’ll tell him all about you, about how wonnerful (J says it’s wonderful, but I say wonnerful) you are. Bec, I haven’t left you, not all the way. I’m stored up in your heart, that’s what J says, cuz I’m in his, too. And I can’t never leave your heart, and you can’t never leave mine. I’m in there forever.

Don’t miss me for long, Bec.

- Bethy.”

By now the tears were rolling down my cheeks and I was sobbing uncontrollably. But one thing I knew: this Christmas season would be joyful. Bethy was right, she was stored up in my heart, and I shouldn’t miss her for long, because she was in a better place than I.
Jacob had come into the room while I was reading the letter, and sat down on the couch beside me.
“She was smart, wasn’t she?”
“Is, you mean,” I replied. “Not was.” I pointed at my heart. “She’s in here for always, forever and ever. Don’t miss her for long, Jacob.”
He nodded, then scooted closer to me. I leaned my head on his shoulder, repeating the words in my head. In here for always, forever and ever. Don’t miss her for long… don’t miss her for long…
Christmas, albeit sad, would have a different meaning this year, thanks to Bethy’s beautiful words and the healing touch of One from Above.
And it was a Merry Christmas, and little Bethy was in my heart, always, forever and ever.

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee

Picture Post!

2007-12-03T20:54:00.000+03:00

All the snowflakes I cut this year. It was nothing compared to how many we cut last year.
My favorite ornament of mine (well, apart from my Willow Tree Angel one). Gramma got it in Switzerland.

All of our stockings! Mine's the one smack in the middle. L-R - Daddy's, Mommy's, Cait's, Mine, Nate's, Candace's (just finished this year), and Eeyore's.

Decorating the tree.

All prettily decorated...

The snowflake room...

Pictures from Paintball!!!!

Waiting... watching... suspense...

A creepy looking Kenneth peaks around the side of the net...

Becky and I walk out to our base for the first round. At this point I was starting to get really scared... and we were talking about how we'd cower in a corner for a while... or just team up with Karl and Mike, which we did.

Steph and Mitch hiding behind one of the cars.
Me between rounds.

Dun dun. Dun dun. Can't you just feel your heart beating? :)

Ready... steady... *pffft* *splat* OW!

The whole group...

Go blue team!

Taking aim... I'm the one with the black hat on, higher than everyone else.

This is what happens when you get hit from 5 feet away. Ouch... I think the absolute closest I got hit was POSSIBLY 10 feet when Mitch shot my head.

Mr. St, who was taking all of the pictures, got a few really "pretty" ones of Nate, this one included.

CHAAAAAAAAARGE! Man, that airhorn blows and immediately it's a mad dash to get to a spot before the opponent takes aim... adrenaline pumping... heart beating... I love paintball...

This week was okay. Not the best, but not really bad. I've been struggling in different areas... would rather not say where, though. God's helpin' me through, though. Mr. Paul Tripp was here for a conference, and the parents had one on us (ie - us teens) during Oasis, and then he spoke on Friday morning at Church, then Friday night and Saturday morning. Friday night was about change... and it was really, really good. Saturday morning I helped with childcare, though all I did was pick out certain colored beads for the 8-11 year olds. :P I would have rather been with the 2-4 year olds, but that's okay.
We went out in the desert with the H's, Ch's, F's, Hannah and Rachel, and of course, us. :P Once everyone was there and we'd gotten camp all set up, we went up on a dune and for a while were tossing around a Frisbee (sadly we didn't have enough people to play Ultimate, but tossing it around was still fun), then someone brought the larps up and I was fighting Philip and Ben. Thankfully this time Philip and I didn't BOTH take the defensive (trust me, that's slow-moving), but that meant he beat me more than ever... though I did beat him some. Anyway, nobody got hurt except for a few broken blood vessels on my finger, and then I went and talked with Hannah, Sarah, and Alicia.
After dinner we played Cops and Robbers (with an objective...) for a while, then we got tired of that and made s'mores before going back up to play mind games like Click Click Bang Bang (which I figured out, btw), Shopping Mall, and in the Land of Nod.
Then we all had to go... that's the problem with going out on a Saturday, it's the end of the weekend here, so go-to-schoolers have to be back in time to get enough sleep.

Candace: Philip's hair is like Oreo's it hangs down over his eyes...
(Philip's hair is REALLY long... and needs to be cut... though not as much as someone else's... *cough*Nate*cough*)

Anyway... I'm dirty, stinky, and sandy... and need a shower and need to prepare my schedule for school this week.

'Night y'all.
Ky

Fun... and pain...

2007-11-30T19:22:00.000+03:00

Thursday: I hurried through school in the morning, then we left for Irish dance, where we worked on a Caeli dance almost the whole time. It was really fun, but really tiring at the same time. And we're so bad at Caelis the first few times we're laughing so hard we can't dance... heheh. We went to the C's for lunch and a little bit of sewing (also to shower and/or clean up!), then loaded my guitar and anything we'd need for Oasis in the C's van and went to DAA (Dubai American Academy) for Seussical the Musical it was a good/cute musical, some quoteables and enjoyable to watch. Sarah and Philip H. were playing in the orchestra for it. THEN we all moved stuff in the cars around so the cello and violin wouldn't have to go to Oasis but my guitar would and all these things until finally we were loaded in the H's car and went to Oasis.
No real comments on warming up, apart from Mitch broke another guitar string, Eli forgot his guitar strap, my volume was being touchy... better than last week, though, and it was a lot quieter than usual (huzzah! Thank you Mitch for turning down your guitar!). I'm learning that when I'm playing with Submerge I need to bring extra pens, straps, picks... anything others could use.
Since Lisa/Mrs. W is going to have Baby Luke any day now, we have a guest speaker doing a series called Jesus of Nazereth, based on parts from John Stott's Basic Christianity. Notes up soon.

Friday: I read for a while after Church, there's a new book series in the library (yay, finally, something other than romance or kiddie books, this is a teen fantasy series!)... it's called The Door Within... parts already have been kinda cheesy, but it's not too bad. Volleyball went pretty well today. My thumb has been hurting for some unidentifiable reason (now I'm wearing one of Cait's wrist braces, the one that has support for the thumb), so that was a pain (haha) to play with, but I got quite a few good serves and some good hits. Afterwards all the Submergeites up for December had to leave for practice, but those of us left (Elisabeth, Kenneth, Isaac, Hannah, Cait, Steph, Daniel and I) walked down to the beach and talked there about school, paintball, and anything else that came to mind. We wanted to go to the Haunted House (abandoned house people have vandalized... it's fun to play in, albeit creepy), but we didn't know when we were leaving so we were talking in the courtyard of the C.'s neighborhood for a while before we left.

Saturday: In the morning I caught up on a lot of things, then got the swords out for going to the desert... but it got canceled cuz not enough people were available to come. Instead, we Christmas decorated and went out to eat with the H's. We went to a Chinese restaurant and had Hot Pot - they bring in all sorts of food and you cook/boil it yourself in a big pot in the middle of the table. We kids ate in a separate room, and Philip and Sarah helped us know what to do (The H's are Chinese-American). It was very yummy, and very fun... although I got rather frustrated trying to figure out "Click Click Bang Bang" (still not there yet, almost, though!).

Sunday: PAINTBALLLLLLL!!!!!!!! I had to do some school in the morning, but then we left for the Sharjah Golf and Shooting Club. It took a while to get organized and into gear, then we had an overview of rules and got out onto the field. Becky and I teamed up with Mike and Karl for the first game, hiding behind a car and shooting from there. All three got out so I was left alone, and Mr. S. was yelling at me to move around and shoot more, so for the last few minutes I moved out to another place to hide behind. Second game was getting one person across to the other base (first was elimination - get everyone on the other team out). I hid behind a pile of tires, and Becky was behind a big spool-like thing. Mr. T was shooting at us, shot Becky in the knee, then suddenly came out and surrendered. The third came was capture the flag, and again, I stayed on defense and didn't get hit. The fourth game Becky and I were hiding behind the big spool again and this other guy on the other team was on the other side and stuck his gun around and made me surrender. Becky ran off and shot him from a ways away.
At this point I STILL hadn't gotten hit and was really wondering what it felt like... the final game was a Ramble, though, basically a free for all. I didn't get hit for the first 5 minutes, then suddenly I got hit on my thigh followed by my thumb. I went back to base, then came back out and joined Karl behind a thing and shot from there for a while. Someone was in a bunker and was a really good shot and got my arm and almost simultaneously, someone else got my back... then Mitch shot my head, and I went to the base to get cleaned up, then went back out and shot Mitch and Steph.
It was fun, albeit a little painful, not as bad as I thought though. I have a headache now, and 2 bruises, the other hits didn't really develop anything... and none of my bruises are the really cool ring kind (pity, I wanted one).

I read an article on blogging by Agent Tim this week. It was called "A Young Man Among Sharks" and you can find it here. I also read Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. I didn't really get how the ending worked, it kinda confused me and made me not like it.
And I finished The Door Within. Apart from having 2-3 (or a few more) rather cheesy parts, it was a good book... kind of an allegory, and a really neat allegory at that - basically the people in The Realm are the souls of the people on earth... kinda... so when a person on earth believes in the Realm, their person in the Realm is basically saved. Interesting idea, I didn't explain it very well, though.

I recorded some of my oboe playing... it would have been better to record it up here, but the microphone wasn't working, so I went to the downstairs computer to do it, thus getting an AWFUL echo. So it's a really bad recording, and I know I talk REALLY quietly on camera or on recordings, so you might want to turn it up a little at first. Ignore the fuzziness and the echo, try to focus on the louder sound... You can listen to it here. I apologize for the fact that you have to download it, i don't know where else to upload it. Oh, and on the last one, forgive the squeakyness and octave switches... if you play a reed instrument you probably know how hard it is to get those high notes...

Other notes: I updated my Writing/Photography/Graphics/Art Blog
My shins are basically better from shin splints! I'll just have to be careful where I dance from now on.

Quotes of the week:
Shehan: Ooow, my knee!!!
Pastor W.: Hey, I got some old rusty scissors that are blunt in the house, we could amputate it for you!

Sarah: Stephen can look at the car door handle and say what kind of car that is.
Me: I can't even tell anything past the maker by looking at the whole car...
Hannah: *points at car going by* I know! That's a Toyota Land Cruiser make 55334959!

Mrs. H: So you put it in the pot and cook it, then you can take a bite and see if you like it.
Philip: Hey mom, can we cook it, take a bite, and put it back?

Cait: What... is that?
Philip: It's the cross section of the vertebrae of a cow.
Cait: eew. And what's that?
Philip: The eyeball of a gullible.

You are Loved,
Kyleian

sigh

2007-11-28T13:43:00.000+03:00

This week has been trying.
That's the main thing I have to say. I am sooo looking forward to the end of the school week tomorrow and then a fun weekend (especially because we're going painballing and out to the desert - wawhoo! It's been 8 months since we were last out in the desert, and I can't wait to be back... plus we'll be bringing our swords... hurrah!).

We watched Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope again this week, followed by Fly Away Home. *sigh* They only made my longing to fly even worse.
Apart from that, my week has been filled with studying, frustration, stress, and cheering on people who have fallen behind in NaNoWriMo.
Today I decided to catch up on a lot of things, so I'm blogging, reading, writing... Oboe today was a blast, I'm starting to love that thing more than ever, and I've been figuring out my favorite Les Miserables instrumental on Oboe-Wan Kenobi (hehe).

And, we get my notes from Oasis... we had a guest speaker, and he tied a lot of things in with Facebook (thankfully he explained them a lot for non-Facebook users like myself. I'll try to do my best to explain things for y'all).

God's Facebook - Ben Jones
On Facebook, there are these little battle things between Pirates and Ninjas, Jedi and Sith, things like that. Within the battles, you have rankings. Life is a battle, in which Jesus must rank number one. Not five. Not even two. NUMBER ONE!

(Jonah's Prayer - Jonah 2)
Ninevah clung to worthless idols and needed change. Jonah was sent to tell them to repent, but he didn't care about the world. (Do we?) We've been told too. Too often, we cling to idols - like Facebook - as well.
We are supposed to be compassionate to the world. How can we do this when we have idols? By getting rid of the idols, and putting God first! If we don't, God will be like someone on Facebook who really wants to be your friend - and keeps sending you request after request... God will persist! He wants you for a friend!

(Revelation 3:20)
What's our aim in life? To collect the most friends? Is that a worthy aim? Or is our aim to see the faces of those friends in heaven? People on Facebook sometimes have over 200 friends. But many don't have the friend that counts.
Jesus is the one friend that really counts.

(Romans 12:1-21)
Don't feel like you have to be like your friends.
Yes, it may be hard. But we can as HIM and HE will help us, HE will be the friend we will be like. Don't be a sheep to the shepherd of worldly things. Be Jesus' sheep.
Do you see God's face? Are you a friend in HIS Facebook? (God's Facebook- The Bible).

Has Jesus sent you a friendship request?
Have you accepted it?

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee.

Thanksgiving

2007-11-21T17:49:00.000+03:00

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving, everyone!

Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, nad among the rest their greatest king, Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed upon our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.
~Edward Winslow, Mourt's Relation: D.B. Heath, ed. Applewood Books. Cambridge, 1986.

This year for Thanksgiving we didn't celebrate - give thanks - on the actual date "set" for Thanksgiving because of where we live and school and things. We didn't get the day off of school, so all we had to do was Literature and History. I did Chemistry and French as well, but took Geometry, Logic, and Arabic off. So on Thursday we did some school and had dance, sewing, and Oasis, the usual Thursday stuff.
Dance went pretty well, we finished the first step of the primary reel. It's fun.
Oasis... was pretty good. Things with Submerge went wacko... Mitch broke 2 guitar strings, we were having trouble getting my guitar into the sound system (to the point in which I was getting really annoyed and even a bit scared, Mitch, Donny, and Mr. Glen were all trying to figure it out... eventually Mr. Glen pushed a few buttons and it worked. Playing was okay, everyone had their messups, and probably more than usual... I'll get my notes up some time soon.

They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwelling against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty. For as some were thus employed in affairs, abroad, others were exercised in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion. All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (bud afterward decreased by degrees). And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides, they had about a peck a meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports.

~William Bradford, Of Plimoth Plantation; S.E. Morison, ed. Knopf. N.Y., 1952.

Friday after Church we came home and after lunch we watched Legally Blonde 2 with Caylen... (it was edited, not that I'd recommend it anyway, it's rather pointless, I only watched it becasue I didn't have anything else to do and she's so blonde it's a good comedy.) Volleyball was alright, nothing amazing to report or anything. Afterwards we played Sardines and talked. In the evening, I made pie crust (what I'd made last week was all used already, one for a pie from International Night, the other for a deep-dish apple pie that we're eating tomorrow).

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God... ...No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
- Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Speech

Saturday we spent the morning baking and cutting and peeling and getting ready... I peeled 11 pounds of potatoes, cut up tons of vegetables, made more pies, helped set the table, made name cards, helped start the mashed potatoes and the yams (which are nasty, they're not the normal sweet potatoes I love)... soon everyone came, and we talked for a while and read about Thanksgiving before we ate... yummy food... we had turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, bread, rolls, corn, and a lot of food I can't remember. I was stuffed after eating just a little over one plate, even though I'd barely eaten anything all day. :P After dinner Sarah H. and I went upstairs and were talking for a while. After dessert (2 pumpkin pies, a deep dish apple pie - yummy -, cookies, and whipped cream), we went upstairs and I was playing around on Flight Simulator while Philip and Sarah were watching. I said something like, "I'm not too bad at it, 'cept for take off and landings..." Philip said, "Better not tell your passengers that..." Then I managed to crash. Twice. Really three times, only because Philip dared me to fly the helicopter.
Sarah and I were about to play ping-pong when they had to leave.

My I'm Thankfuls for this year:
- I am thankful for life.
- I am thankful for Jesus' amazing love and sacrifice.
- I am thankful for freedom.
- I am thankful for the ability to think - and to think and speak freely.
- I am thankful for a wonderful family who loves me.
- I am thankful for caring friends and aquaintances all over the world.
- I am thankful for my dad's job that provides for our family.
- I am thankful for electricity and electronics.
- I am thankful for the talents I have and am developing... even though they can be frustrating at times.
- I am thankful for smiles, laughter, and joy.
- I am thankful for rain, sand, fog, water, air, stone, wood...
- I am thankful for my parent's choice to homeschool me and my siblings.
- I am thankful for love.

Now we have a right to cut out paper snowflakes and listen to Christmas music. Hurrah!
And... I think we get to go paintballing on Saturday, the youth group is going and I think we get to go... double yay!
I read the Hunchback of Notre Dame this week. Not recommended. I hated it. It could have had a good ending, but no (possible spoiler), Hugo had to kill everyone off. Again. Talk about depressing. This week I'm reading Till We Have Faces.
I'm ready to hit the sack, I've been running around the house all day, my thumbs are sore from cutting and peeling, and eating a lot made me tired. *yawn*

'Night, all!
Kyleigh

Showt to Jehovah, al the earth.

Serv ye Jehovah with gladness;

before him come with singing-merth.

Know, that Jehovah he God is.

Its he that made us, not wee;

his folk, and sheep of his feeding,

O with confession enter yee

his gates, his courtyards with praising:

confess to him, bless ye his name.

Because Jehovah he good is:
his mercy ever is the same;

and his faith. unto al ages
- Psalm 100 - Puritan Style

Victory, Sweet Victory!

2007-11-21T16:06:00.000+03:00

I finished my Nanowrimo!

Er, that is, I arrived at 50,000 words at exactly 5:01 this very lovely Wednesday afternoon... however I don't know how lovely it is since I haven't been outside.

Anyway.

I have a lot to do tonight, so I'd better over'n'out already.
Tomorrow is Oasis, Sewing, and Dance.
It's also Thanksgiving, but we're not celebrating until Saturday for multiple reasons.

Ky

Chivalry.

2007-11-20T14:07:00.000+03:00

This is going to be a little bit like my Viking post...

Often when someone thinks of chivalry, knights in shining armor immediately come to mind – up until a week or so ago, the same was true for me. However, chivalry need not be tied to a certain time. It only defines how you treat people – anywhere at any time. The people in the medieval age came up with the Chivalric code because they struggled with how to act when. They wanted to show the worth of others and have respect for authority. Thus came chivalry.
What made up the Code of Chivalry? There were twelve virtues of a godly knight.
First, there was integritas, trustworthiness. The word of a knight would be his bond; his yes would be yes and his no, no. Whatever he said he would do – whether he said “I promise,” or just, “I will.”
Second came fidelitas, or, loyalty. The Medievals were rooted in covenantal relationships that did not change. This is partly what made the villages so strong and together – they wanted to build strong relationships that would last.
Succurrere means helpful. But it does not just mean helping others when they come to you for help. Succurrere means that you will go out and seek out ways to serve. Seek out maidens in distress, someone needing help with homework or carrying their groceries home.
Benevolus. Going out of your way to make others feel welcome. I fail at benevolus at least once a week. (I fail at all of these all the time…) For me it is so easy to come up with an excuse that I should not make someone feel welcome. However, I know how much I like – no, how much I love to feel welcome.
Urbanus – courtesy to everyone. Not just to your friends, not just courtesy to a few people here and there apart from your circle of daily life. People respect someone who is courteous much more than they respect someone who is rude. I know, I respect people a lot more when they don’t burp in front of me or when they keep their trousers up.
Sixth, benignus is being kind and showing forth goodness. Really, it is celebrating others, being happy for them being in your life. It’s not kind because you have to abide by the Chivalric code. I’d say Chivalry is actually more of a heart thing – your heart has to be in the right place to accomplish these twelve virtues. I’m not going to offer someone my seat out of a grudging “here, you can have my seat, it’s the right thing to do when someone doesn’t have a chair.” No, it should be out of love. “Here, you can sit in my seat because I love you and I want the best for you.”
Referrere, obedience. Referrere does not just refer to obedience in doing what someone tells you to do… eventually… it means obedience right now. Right when someone tells you to do something. Not finish up what you’re doing online then go set the table for dinner. No, it’s go set the table, then finish up online. This chivalric virtue engages obedience outside of me, myself, and I. This obedience refers to God’s standards of obedience, not man’s.
Hilaris, my favorite, is being cheerful. God is working everything out in any circumstance, so we can be happy about anything whatever the problem might be (even if there isn’t a problem… that’s all the more reason to be happy!). I think that if we nail hilaris down, the rest of them will be easier. How can we be kind when we are angry? How about truly obedient when we are obeying grudgingly? Life doesn’t quite work that way.
Frugalis is being thrifty. In the Medieval age, they knew that God had given them what they had. And they knew they should not squander it. Advancing ahead a little in time, the Native Americans used every part of a buffalo. They knew they had to protect the buffalo so they wouldn’t run out of food eventually. And although they needed the buffalo to live, they used it well, unlike the American settlers who only took meat.
Fortitudis. For me, this is the hardest. Fortitudis means courage. Some people think courage is showing no fear. But you know what? Showing no fear is stupidity. Courage is not having no fear. Courage is going forward even when we fear. The famed Lightning Brigade from Lord Alfred Tennyson’s poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade had courage. “Cannon to right of them/ Cannon to left of them / Cannon behind them/Volley'd and thunder'd / Storm'd at with shot and shell, / While horse and hero fell / They that had fought so well / Came thro' the jaws of Death / Back from the mouth of Hell / All that was left of them /Left of six hundred.” Courage. Going forward when fear is staring you right in the face, saying, “There are cannons all around you, ready to kill you. Turn back, turn back.” Our reply? Onward, Christian Soldiers!
Abulere. Abulere means cleanliness. One way to show respect for others is by being clean and making it so others will not see you and go, “ugh, there’s so-and-so who smells so bad and never washes their hands…” Cleanliness will make others like you more and want to be around you.
Finally, sanctus, reverence. This is not just reverence for the things around us and respect for them. This is reverence for the holiness of God and giving Him the glory He deserves.
So whatever happened to chivalry? It’s a very good thing, I wish it hadn’t disappeared from our culture (however, it hasn’t completely vanished, there are still traces of it… in very few places). Chivalry seems to have vanished because of the works-righteousness it led to. It made it seem like if a knight did all of those things, they would be righteous and not have to do anything else to gain righteousness. It became the right thing, the wrong way. The reason we have crude culture now, the reason people laugh at crude jokes instead of the pure, clean, truly funny things, is because chivalry is gone. It defined how you treated people anywhere, it wanted respect for authority. When that disappeared, we end up with what we have today – a world full of disrespect for others and for elders. A world where the moment of crisis shows the bad that’s inside – not the good. A place where warfare is no longer just among those who are fighting – there is no longer the Peace of God, which meant that the moment someone surrenders (or if they were never fighting, i.e., a woman, child, craftsman…) it was considered murder to kill them.
I see people without sanctus, without fortitudis, without urbanus, benevolus, hilaris, frugalis, abulere, referrere, benignus, succerrere, fidelitas, and integritas every single day. I know it’s not possible to be perfect at all of these (we all sin in one way or another, many times by not following one of these virtues), but I see no one striving to seek out respect for others. Chivalry has all but vanished from the world today.

What can we do about this?
We are “knights” for Jesus.
Should we not try to put into action these twelve virtues of a Christian knight?
Should we not return to the honor and courtesy that abounded in the Medieval age?

And I've come up with some goals to accomplish before November is out...
- Finish reading The Hunchback of Notre Dame (won't have any trouble with that, I started it Sunday and I'm about halfway).
- Write 50,000 words. (almost there!)
- Finish my Anakin, d'Arque (done!), and Orion drawings.
- Find an oboe teacher... it's getting harder and harder to teach myself. *sigh* This will be the hardest to accomplish within November.

- Ky

Nothing too Exciting.

2007-11-17T08:38:00.000+03:00

My week wasn't too exciting.
I had to babysit Nate and Candace 3 times this week, so I got to write a lot, word count is now 40,000 and I decided to take the weekend off of writing.
I read a lot, first Between the Forest and the Hills, which was a good book but not a must-read. But yesterday I read The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson. I had one thought the whole time I was reading it: "Wow. God is amazing..."
I drew some. Finished the d'Arque drawing, got one of Anakin's eyes done. :) I also worked on his neck a bit. Soon as Ani is done I'll post them over on my writing blog.

My Story Night went better than I thought it would. Once I got up there, I wasn't quite so scared anymore, but Sarah H. said it sounded like I was really scared and that I was about to cry... both are true. I basically just shared the story I wrote, To Dance Again, (which can be found here and here) but with more after it, just of how my life changed in Dubai because of the influence of different things or different people.

Thursday Irish dance was canceled, but we went to the C's to work on the candle dance (which is almost done!) and for sewing. We stayed there and they drove us to Oasis.
Friday we had Church, came home, and took some friends out to tea. In the evening we went to a local family's house. They had a girl my age... we got on okay. Not the best, but it wasn't too bad.

I was challenged in my Bible reading this week... I was reading 1 Corinthians 13 on Wednesday, and my day was going really badly due to a couple of different things. I knew that if I were going to be up with Submerge and be speaking the next night at Oasis, things definitely had to change before then, so I got out my Bible, journal, and prayer journal, this is what I came up with:

Love.
Learning how to love can be so tough sometimes... love is patient... love is not envious.... it does not insist on its own way.
Today started out beautifully.
Then I messed up big time in Chemistry.
Forgot to do my proofs in Geometry.
Didn't get my chores done.
Then I was impatient with Nate.
I had a disagreement with mommy.
I wanted to do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it.
And then there was a bit of jealousy for something I won't specify.

Love.
What is it?
Not this.

Things seem to be going better now, though... at least for now.
This week I hope to get a post on chivalry up. I had a lecture on it this week and enjoyed it.

Learning to love,
Ky

Fixing the Heart - Abort73

2007-11-12T15:27:00.000+03:00

This was/is an article from Abort73 that I enjoyed a lot. (Abort73, by the way, is a VERY good pro-life website. I have a link in my side bar, the black image that says, "would it bother us more if they used guns?")

The greatest commandment in all the world is given in these terms:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. -- Matthew 22:37-39 (ESV)

If people loved God and loved other people with all their heart, abortion would not exist. At its most basic level, abortion is a heart problem. Laws can fix behavior (to a point), but they cannot fix the heart. Laws can be effective at preventing murder, but they can do nothing to prevent hate. Laws can help eliminate rape, but there is no law that can eliminate lust. All moral problems are ultimately problems of the heart. This does not mean that laws have no value. Laws have huge value, society could not function without them. What it does mean is that we can't stop at just passing laws. We (as Christians) must pursue the truer, deeper solution. We must address the heart.

If we go all the way back to the outset of human history, we read this:

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. -- Genesis 6: 5, 6

The moral deficiency of the human heart is not a contemporary phenomenon. It took very little time for human beings, perfectly created in the image of God, to descend into an existence which God describes as "only evil [all the time]". How did we get there? 2 Chronicles 12:14 tells us that evil naturally pours forth from the heart that doesn't seek God, and what is human history but a long series of people and cultures who don't seek God? The tragic irony is that, in turning away from God, believing we can better secure happiness on our own terms, we have turned our back on the only source that can legitimately satisfy the human soul. The prophet Jeremiah, speaking on God's behalf, helps establish this point by defining evil this way:

My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. -- Jeremiah 2:13 (ESV)

What is evil? It is turning our back on God, the fountain of living waters, and turning towards broken wells that can't hold any water. It is like a thirsty man who forsakes a pure mountain spring so he can suck on the putrid runoff of a broken spigot. Why would anyone do this? Because the spigot is much easier to get to, and it's runoff still provides a measure of relief (despite the fact that it carries a lethal disease).

C.S. Lewis says that people don't reject God because their desire for pleasure is too strong. They reject God because their desire is too weak. They settle for cheap, easily accessible pleasures because they don't have the resolve to pursue the pleasures which are infinitely better. It is no wonder, then, that eighty-two percent of all abortions in the United States are performed on single women. These are pregnancies conceived to couples who reject God's explicit command that sex be reserved for marriage. The only reason people reject this command is because they erroneously believe their happiness will be better served by making their own rules (rather than by following the prescription of the One who made them). The result? More than one million innocent human beings are violently killed every year in America because men and women sell out for the lesser pleasure of fornication rather than waiting for the greater joys of sexual intimacy in marriage. Why do they do this? Here are some culprits to consider:

It's too hard to have a good marriage.

I can't wait that long.

I'm too undisciplined to curb my appetite for immediate gratification.

I'm incapable of thinking beyond my own self-absorbed desires, and I have no capacity to actually love another person as much as I love myself.

My boyfriend will dump me if I don't.

Consequences be damned, people want to be satisfied right now, on their own terms, or not at all. But here's the question. Are any of them really satisfied? Are you satisfied? Does a long string of shallow sexual encounters, bitter break-ups, emotional scarring, aborted children and sexually transmitted diseases really place someone on the pathway of happiness? Returning to C.S. Lewis we read, "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."¹ Look around you, look at yourself. Does a godless existence of worldly pleasure-seeking honestly yield genuine happiness, or does it merely yield frustration and cynicism?

If people waited until they got married to have sex, more than one million abortions would just go away, even if the law never changed. That's the good news. Abortion could all but be eliminated if people simply obeyed God and preserved sex for marriage. Here's the bad news. Even if we do wait for marriage to have sex, even if we never have an abortion, and even if we spend our whole life actively opposing abortion, the deeper problem of the heart may still be unresolved. There is a way to fix the heart, but it is not through "doing" right things. The solution is much deeper, much simpler and much more staggering.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. -- 1 Corinthians 15:3-5® (ESV)

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. -- Romans 10:9 (ESV)

Yes, there is an educational component to the problem of abortion, yes, there is a legislative component to the problem of abortion, but most fundamentally, there is a spiritual component to the problem of abortion. If we only address the first two, without addressing the third, the results for ourselves, and for the people all around us, will be eternally tragic.

Abort73 has many, many more good articles, but that was my favorite... and I felt like sharing. :)

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yanke

Untitled.

2007-11-10T19:28:00.000+03:00

I have no idea what this post is going to be about, so I decided not to title it.

Thursday was good.
At Irish dance we moved up to the Primary level (yay!), and moved at least a little bit ahead on the Candle Dance. But I also found out I have shin splints. Not fun.
Oasis was a Nooma night, basically meaning we watched a short video instead of Pastor W. talking. We had one more worship song than usual, but playing wasn't too bad, they plugged me into the system so I was a lot clearer, but it made it so I couldn't touch my volume (bad because right before then I had turned it off because it was a song I didn't know too well and needed more practice before I actually played it).
The Nooma was about kickballs. Sounds weird, I know. To sum it up, it was about how we want stuff that will just come back and hit us in the face. God knows that that will happen, and has something much better in store... maybe just right across the street.

Friday we had Church and then I came home and wrote for a while. My shin was killing me, so I iced it while I wrote, then wrapped it when we left for volleyball, which went well, I hit quite a few balls, not necessarily the best hits, but it wasn't bad. After snacks, Alicia, Hannah, Sarah, Daniel, Tom, and a bunch of others and I went outside in the back yard and played Sardines for a while before we left.

Today I went to Walk Thru The Old Testament at DECC. It was challenging, but a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it. If you don't know what it is, basically you walk through the OT by learning different hand motions to remember everything. It's hard to remember everything, especially seeing as you learn it all in one day, but it was really good.

My Nanowrimo is going okay. I'm going to get to 30,000 tonight. After the first 25000, I decided I was far enough ahead just to do 2,000 a day rather than as much as I could.
Drawing is going well, I'm working on two heads right now, one is the Anakin one I've been working on since May (ouch), and the other is a newer one started Thursday of Johnny as d'Arque. So far, though, I only have his head and hair, no facial features or anything. I hope to finish it this week, it's more of a fun project than the Anakin one, which is (obviously) more long-term and harder.

And I'm finally getting around to putting my notes from our Pause conclusion up (I know, it's been a while, 'my bad...)

Pause Week Four
Text: Luke 4:1-13.

Final Questions:
Why is this relevant to me? Or, what has God been teaching me?
We all face temptation. Every moemnt of our life is a battle being fought between us and the world, God and the devil. There is only one way to overcome temptation: Jesus - the way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:6).
He is God, we are not God. We might think (we can be) (are) God, but we're not. Our first thought is always of ourselves. Let it be of God and of others. When God does something, it shouldn't be, "How dare He!," rather, "Your will, not ours, be done, Lord."

What does it do for us to see God the way He really is?
When we see God the way He really is, we see ourselves for who we truly are - selfish, sinful people. We are weak, small, tired... we are failures, we are wrong.
The world is home to death. Where temporary things live and where we'll always be wanting more. People who want more and more will be fearful in the end.
A world full of death is not tempting. See God as he truly is and we will see this... but also God's awesomeness. Nobody can encounter a truck and walk away unchanged. If they do, they're lying or they're crazy. How much bigger is God than a truck? We cannot see God's awesomeness and still want to be of the world.
We need a different focus.

How do we change?
God gives us truth. He shows us who He is in creation and by His word. Look at it and you go there. It's like driving a car, you look at the tree, you hit it. You look away from it, you don't hit it. What's our focus?
God takes care of our sin problem. Our sin shut a door, Christ blew it open.
God transforms us. (2 Corinthians 5:17) He gives us new hearts, so we will love what He loves and hate what He heats. Temptation then melts away and God makes us holy.
Holiness - fruit from a true child of God. What is growing from our lives? What can we do about it?

And that concludes Pause.

This week I won't be posting nearly as much, I don't know what I went through there.

'Night, y'all.
Ky

Your blood speaks a better word
Than all the empty claims I’ve heard upon this earth
Speaks righteousness for me
And stands in my defense
Jesus it’s Your blood

What can wash away our sins?
What can make us whole again?
Nothing but the blood
Nothing but the blood of Jesus
What can wash us pure as snow?
Welcomed as the friends of God
Nothing but Your blood
Nothing but Your blood King Jesus

Your cross testifies in grace
Tells of the Father’s heart to make a way for us
Now boldly we approach
Not by earthly confidence
It’s only Your blood

- Nothing but the Blood ~ Matt Redman

Quick post.

2007-11-08T09:55:00.000+03:00

The Discovery STS-120 landed safely in Flordia!!
Sounds like the mission was completed well and safely...

Last night the musical was amazing. 'Nuff said.
Everyone we know was great, especially Hannah - playing Mrs. Potts - and Johnny - playing Mr. D'Arque.

I'm halfway through Nanowrimo.

I may extend this post later, I just wanted to share all of my joy with you right now before we embark on yet another busy Thursday.

Kilo-Yankee.

Vote!

2007-11-06T19:31:00.000+03:00

Just read this on the Rebelution and I thought I'd pass it on:

Zach Hunter was featured on the Rebelution back in February. To sum up what he's doing, Zach is basically working to end modern slavery. Yes, modern slavery. To quote from The Amazing Change,

"Whether it's bonded slavery with men, women and children toiling on plantations, in rice mills, brick kilns and many other industries; or, the deplorable and prevalent trade in humans to serve as sex slaves, slavery is flourishing in many parts of the world. It is still every bit as ugly as it was 200 years ago and it must end."

Zach is being featured on CNN Heroes in the young wonder category with four other teens. People have been asked to vote for which teen you think should appear on prime time.
You can read the entire article here

Apart from that, not much has been going on. Nanowrimo today was slow, last night I was at 22,044, today I'm only at 23,245. We had eye appointments this morning, I still need my glasses. (I was hoping to get rid of them... I hate having glasses... contacts would be worse, though). They were going to do some sort of drops to look at something more closely, but the room ended up spinning around me and basically the optometrist decided it would probably be best not to do them.
Tomorrow night we're going to see ASD's production of Beauty and the Beast. Johnny is playing the guy in charge of the insane asylum, that's what I'm looking forward to most, he'll be great at that.

If things start slowing down soon I'll have my notes up from the conclusion of Pause.

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee

Nanowrimo... the first three days.

2007-11-04T16:01:00.000+03:00

I've survived the first three days of Nanowrimo... not dead yet.

My word count is somewhere around 13,500.
So far I've done it with no coffee, no late nights... and only one stressful day, that was today, cuz of school, music, practicing dance, and trying to get my HSLDA paper fit to be sent in, filling out the form, yadayadayada...

I've been writing furiously, and trying to allow myself to go take a break.
So I'm going to go play cricket with the neighbors (why can't we stick to hockey? Cricket is so boring), and be back in later to write write write write write and you get the point.

Kablah.

Edit: Make that the first five days.
It feels like it should be Christmas soon, I've been listening to my Christmas harp CDs because they help me write. Well, only a little over a month... and I still need Christmas presents for Candace, mom and dad... at least.

Still no coffee and no late nights. Tonight I'll be drinking tea, though, and doing a one hour word war. Yikes. Could get pretty hard, but I think I'm at a good spot to do a word war.
Last night I went over to the C's instead of writing, Cait had well group but mine was canceled. I decided to give myself a break, after a stressful day I thought it was best.
Today I've been sitting at the computer since 3 PM, when I was completely done with everything I needed to do.
Daddy brought new oboe reeds from Australia. They're absolutely wonderful, the medium soft feels so great, so much softer than my old medium soft (I accidentally pinched it, and then it cracked, I still use it to build stamina with, but don't play that much on it).

Word count at 5:56 PM on November 5: 18,424 words. The goal for tonight is 20,000, and the end of week is 25,000. Yeah, I know it's crazy, getting 25,000 in the first week, but it means I can slow down for the end and not spend the whole of November worrying about nano.

Ky

Another weekend...

2007-11-03T08:37:00.000+03:00

I've basically come to the conclusion that I make two posts a week... one more thoughtful/thought provoking one, if I have one, and then one that's more about my week.

Nothing much exciting happened during the week, I had a lot of schoolwork and not much time for much else.
Wednesday night, though, was when other people went trick-or-treating, and we made an effort to get out of the compound. The C's invited us, the H's, and the F's over for Reformation Night, so we went to that. We were all supposed to dress up as either a Bible character or a famous Christian. I went as Perpetua. Hannah was Jael (props helped us... tent peg and hammer... ouch), Sarah was... I can't remember who, I think it was Jonathan Edward's wife, Candace was Esther, Esther was Lydia, Nate was Gideon, Rachel was a missionary doctor in India... again the name slips my mind, Andrew was Luke Skywalker (Jesus is the force!), and Ruthie was Lady Jane Grey. I forget who Chloe was.
We guessed who everyone was, ate dinner, had a donut eating race (I'm working on a little silent film of that, it got pretty funny), and had a Bible scavenger hunt (we get a Bible reference as a clue and look it up, if it say something about a "chair," we go look for the next clue on all the chairs, etc...).

Thursday was a usual Thursday - get up, do school, eat breakfast, leave for Irish dance, go to sewing. At sewing I finished my koala quilt piece for my Australian animals wall hanging. We had Oasis in the evening, and left almost right after we got back from sewing because Cait and I were both up for Submerge. It went well. Sarah H turned me up so people could actually hear me, and they didn't think I sounded too bad.

Friday we had Church, then came back home and I wrote, then we left for First Friday Prayer and Praise... now it's another relaxing Saturday morning.

Thursday started Nanowrimo. I'm already 10,000 words into it, and at the moment I am feeling a bit stuck, but I have been writing all morning. :)

We watched Time Changer on Tuesday night. It's about a man who writes a book and there's another man who doesn't agree with something he said, so he sends him ahead in time to 2000, where he sees what happens when people leave God out of morals... at first I thought some of it was extreme, but then I was like, "No, it's not. It IS a big deal if someone uses God's name in vain, He's commanded us not to."
I recommend you watch Time Changer if you can get your hands on it.

I know this was a boring post, but my mind is focused on nanowrimo at the moment...

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee

PS - it rained this morning! Hurrah!

The Vikings and Hard Things

2007-10-29T14:33:00.002+03:00

Vikings. If you lived in the 8^th, 9^th, or 10^th century, that name would send a shiver down your spine. Dr. George Grant describes them as “big, blonde men, eighteen to twenty four inches taller than the average Brit, dragging their long boats across land on logs.” Imagine how terrifying that would have been. Borrowing the analogy from Dr. Grant, it would be like hobbits against orcs – peaceful villagers against huge, merciless beasts. Close your eyes for a little while and think of the terror that would give you: a man maybe two feet taller than you, huge and armed, running through your village – and not just one, but as many as fifty!
The Vikings were pagan until somewhere around 995, when one of their kings converted to Christianity. Coming from Scandinavia and parts of France, they were warrior-like men, raiding country villages and taking gold, silver, gems, and anything else they might find of value, perhaps a few slaves if they had room, then burning the village to the ground. Eventually the Vikings became a bit more sophisticated and didn’t burn the villages, and even later on, they settled in the places they raided.

But why did these Norsemen go pillaging, or, as they called it, on a Viking?

First, they lived in a primogeniture society. The firstborn son would receive everything when the father died, and the other sons would get nothing. Sometimes the firstborn would offer his brothers some of his inheritance, but to accept it was to be shamed. This forced the younger sons to go out and make a living for themselves. In a land where farming was hard, how was that possible? One had to leave the country or find a different trade. Thus, many went on a Viking. When they returned, they would most likely be rich enough to settle and perhaps begin to build a family.

Secondly, manhood rituals caused them to be fierce. Their primary god was named Thor, and the men strove to be like him. Thor was a warrior, and so were they. Boys would play rough games, and many were dangerous – like when one boy would hold a bolder and the rest would try to knock him over and crush him! For their coming of age, they would be blindfolded, taken out into the wilderness, then bound and left there. He had two choices: die, or find a way to make it back to the village. The lifestyle of the Vikings emphasized being fierce, strong, and warrior-like, so when put in a situation where one had to be aggressive, they did not know how to respond in another way.

Finally, many were exiled. Because of their wild and almost violent lifestyle, Vikings would often be exiled. When any matter of law came up, they would wait until the meeting of the Althing/Ting and decide the fate of the offender then. The worst punishment was exile. This did not necessarily bring about more raids, rather settling elsewhere – Erik the Red was not some great Viking who decided to go try to plunder some ice-covered land called Greenland. No, he was exiled for killing a family. A good thing about exiles, though, was that it provided more opportunities for younger sons – new places would be discovered, and the sons would have more opportunities for making a living elsewhere.

There is something else the Vikings, though. They did hard things. Quoting Alex and Brett Harris of The Rebelution, “Unlike the Romans, who used galley slaves to row their great warships, the Vikings took full responsibility for this strenuous activity. This tells us two things: 1) the Vikings didn’t feel that rowing was beneath them—they pursued competence in every area pertaining to their success, and 2) they were seriously ripped. No wonder the people of Europe were afraid of these guys—their muscles were moving twenty-ton boats through the water!”
Do hard things according to the Vikings. It almost seems funny how we think about these Viking warriors as people who took pleasure in raiding. Perhaps a few did. It was an easy way to get rich quickly (“A Viking’s Guide to Getting Rich Quick – Raid!”). In a sense, though, it was necessary. No, I’m not saying that if you’re not going to inherit anything you need to go out and take silver and gold from your neighbors. The Vikings could have done it differently. What I’m saying is that the Vikings were not people who were scared of work or doing hard things. They did incredibly hard things by rowing their own ships and pulling these many-ton boats across land on logs. Imagine being a young man during that time – all the things you were expected to do before you came of age!
Our society in has fallen so much. I look at my teenage neighbors and often I see people who don’t care about their future. Sure, they may want a college degree, a good job and maybe a family. But if they want a good future, they need to work hard for it now. They think life during their teenage years is all about partying and forgetting about the time of adulthood ahead. I fear that if I acted like that, I would reach adulthood and start failing. I’d be thinking, “I wish I could go re-live my teen years, I’d have done things differently if I had known this was expected of me!”
How different would the world be if we prepared more for being an adult before it actually happened? Would it be more peaceful? Less suicide? Less abortion?
How can we, as youth change the world?
I seem to have gotten off topic here. I’ve gone from Vikings to hard things to youth. It all fits together. Most of the time, the coming of age for boys was at fourteen. At fourteen, they’d be left in the wilderness to find their way home by using the stars. I couldn’t do that. So much was expected out of them at so young. People make up excuses by saying, “But they lived shorter lives back then. And they didn’t have technology like compasses and GPS’s to find their way back.” We shouldn’t make up excuses like that. Yes, they lived shorter lives. So don’t think about how much more time we have to party, think about how much more time we have to tell our non-Christian friends about Christ. Yes, they didn’t have compasses or GPS’s, but we don’t need compasses, GPS’s, spellcheckers, and calculators if we’d only work hard enough to learn how to do things without them! Instead of saying “I’m not a math person,” work harder at math and become better at it – excel in it. It only takes a little bit of hard work. You’re not going to explode.

People think aliens built the pyramids. Why? Most of the time, I think it’s because they don’t believe it’s possible for humans to do something like that. In this day and age, with so much fancy machinery, we find it hard to comprehend how men could chisel out these blocks and push/pull them to the top of a pyramid. But we shouldn’t underestimate our abilities as humans.
Push your limits. Do hard things. Reach for the highest you can. Live to glorify God. Don’t think there will be more time later. You could die tomorrow. Live today as if you’ll die tonight. Don’t say your life will change when you’re an adult. Many people have said that, and they don’t. More excuses are made, and maybe eventually they forget.
We need to make a difference in our society by changing it. We won’t do that by sitting around all day flipping through TV channels or surfing the internet. We need to get out there and do hard things – whether it’s just reading your Bible every morning, resisting the temptation to get online before your homework is done, not practicing an instrument because it’s “too hard,” or something bigger like going to college or building a rocket.

We can do it with God’s help.
Take a lesson from the Vikings. Do hard things when you’re young, build habits you’ll keep until you’re old. Build up strength in the Lord and be fierce in fighting the devil.
Set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.
Don’t let people think you can’t do something because you’re young.
Show them that you can do hard things for the glory of God!

Over'n'out

Kilo-Yankee

Junior (Dave): They're big, I'm little
They go, I twiddle
Why can't little guys do big things too?
You're big! I'm little.
My head only comes to your middle
But I say little guys can do big things too!

Archibald (King Saul): Yes, but Goliath, he’s...

Junior: He's big! But God's bigger!
And when I think of Him, that's when I figure
With His help, little guys can do big things too!

Archibald: Oh, I see what you're saying!
Alright, I understand, now let's suppose that this is true
You still look rather wimpy, but I know what we can do!
Just step behind the curtain, it will only take a minute
There's a closet in the corner, and you'll like what I've got in it!
You'll find my royal armor there, don't dally, put it on!
Yes, now you'll look much bigger when the battle lines are drawn.
One more thing, I think - that's right, pick up my royal sword
It's a big one, and a beauty - the best you could afford!
Once you've got it all together, I think you will agree
You're bound to do much better if you try to look like me!

Junior: I think I should just be plain old me.

Archibald: Yes, but, have you seen Goliath? He's ... he's ...

Junior: He's big! But God's bigger!
And when I think of Him, that's when I figure
With His help, I know I can do big things!
With His help, little guys can do big thing too!

- Big Things Too ~ Veggietales

YHWH, Pause, and my Weekend.

2007-10-27T08:26:00.000+03:00

I got a lotta stuff to put up. It's been a busy weekend, but I've still managed to keep up with everything.

Thursday we had dance, then sewing, then we were home for a little over an hour and then we were off to youth group... to which almost everyone was late because one of the roundabouts was closed off, so we had loads of traffic.

Friday after Church mom was in the library so we didn't get home until 1:30 or 2. I worked on a puzzle and got my guitar all ready for Submerge practice, then we left for Volleyball. Submerge wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Mitch was a real help, getting me all set up cuz I had no clue what to do, and also helping me with chords I didn't know. It went pretty well, I didn't do as badly as I thought I would, but I only know 1 of the 4 songs we'll be playing on Thursday. Should be okay, though, as long as I know all the chords and have the transitions down, picking up strumming should be fairly easy.

BananaBint sent me an email that I found really interesting, and she said I could re-post it here:

[We watched a video] called "Breathe." Let me just summarize it for
you.
So this guys is in a train station and he's talking. And first he
talks about God's name. Did you know that the word LORD (in English)
is translated to Yahweh (in Hebrew). But in Bible times, the Lord's
name was not pronounced. Why? Because it was made up of the letters
(this sounds so much better if I say it, but I'll do my best with just
typing) yah ha va ha. (Sometimes pronounced Yaveh.) Those were the
consonants in Hebrew. So the Hebrew scholars didn't think they should
or could be pronounced 'cause you can't have a word made up of
consonants.

Now take a moment, look away from the computer, and listen to yourself
breathe.

What do you hear? Yah ha va ha. Whenever ANYONE breathes, they
proclaim God's name. HOW COOL IS THAT?!?!

If someone were to say to you: "*take a breath* There is no God *exhale
while talking*" this is what you would be hearing: Yah ha va ha. As I
said before, it really needs to be said instead of typed, so next time
I see you, remind me.

In both Hebrew and Greek the word for Spirit and the word for Breath
are the same. When we are filled with the Spirit, we are filled with
the breath of God. We can not live without the breath of God.
When a baby first comes into the world, what is the first thing it
does? Breathe. The first thing a baby does is proclaim God's name.
When someone dies, they STOP BREATHING. When we can no longer proclaim
God's name, we die.
So he went on to say that you can breathe in the Spirit, but exhale the
things that are not helping you grow in the LORD (Ya ha va ha) or are
hindering you from getting closer to Him.

Pause Week 4
Text: Luke 4:9-12, Deuteronomy 6:16, Exodus 17.

Wrong is anything contrary to God's nature. One thing in common with mankind: we've all done wrong.

Summary of past talks:
Willingly deciding to accept a lie as the truth is like putting a blindfold on yourself, living in darkness. Light shows the truth of reality.
Too often we choose to live in a place without light, where people are encouraged to go deeper into darkness. Turn on the lights, see The Truth. See Jesus. We're scared of the dark, but our eyes our closed to the light that's really out there.
We live and breathe because God wills it.
We live in a world of death and hopelessness.

Luke 4:-12. What really is going on here?
Lie: God exists to make much of you. He's like a genie. We think of God as a genie too much. Don't ask what He cna do for us, rather what we can do for Him. Don't disguise selfishness with goodness (ie- quoting scripture).

Truth: We exist to make much of God and worship Him. Just because He exists, our lives should be exhausted in worshipping Him.

Deuteronomy 6:16 and Exodus 17 - Massah. Is God the kind of God who does whatever we ask Him to do? What should the Israelites' attitudes have been? They should have been thinking about the awesome acts of God in the past, declaring his awesomeness, being willing to die of thirst joyfully. In seeing God's greatness, we desire Him more and the temptation less.

The Bible is the light we need to change the darkness. It gives us God's character. It's God's rescue plan. Open your eyes to the light.

I have a post about the Vikings to put up, but I think I'll do that this evening or tomorrow, because it's really long.

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee.

Your love reaches out to me
Your grace has made a way to You
Made a way to You
Your word lives inside of me
Your truth is life to all to hear
Life to all who hear

We live for You
Live Your truth

May Your Kingdom come
And Your will be done
As we serve Your heart
Serve Your heart
Let salvation flow
As Your people pray
Lord we long for more
Long for more

In You death is overcome
No power can stand against Your Name
The power of Your Name
In faith we will rise to be
Your hands and feet to all the earth
Life to all the earth
- Kingdom Come ~ Hillsong (one of the two songs I can play for Submerge!)

boB, the zoo-like thing...

2007-10-21T17:16:00.000+03:00

Thursday there wasn't any dance, so I didn't go to sewing. I invited Karin to youth group, but she had a lot of homework... but really, really wants to come. Pray for her in that area...

Pause Week Three
Text: Luke 4: 5-8; Deuteronomy 6:13
Big Idea: At the Moment of tempation, let's learn to pause and remember there's always more at stake.

Temptation Number 2: What's really going on?
Satan surrounds Jesus with a lie. Puts it right there, right now, all around him.
Satan exercised the authority we gave him.
The goal was to get Jesus to want the lie more than the truth. We believe we can become like God, so we fall to temptation.
Satan shows his cards and reveals his heart and desire - he is a glory theif, doing anything he can to steal the glory of God.

Temptation 2: How does Jesus respond?
Fight Temptation with the Truth.
The Truth of who God is. God exposes us to the lies of temptation by revealing himself to us.
The Truth of what he's done. Remember what amazing things God has done in your life. The more we see of who God is, the more we see the decay of the world and the less desireable they become. Get out of the Matrix and into God. (Matrix point - we live in a world that's not real and we don't care, just that it tastes SO good. We live in a world full of death, though). It's like day old popcorn vs jello - we want the popcorn because we can't see how good the jello is. Fight temptation with what we really could have.
The Truth that only God is worthy of our worship. God is jealous for what is His alone, and He knows His glory is best for us. Only in worshipping God will we find true JOY.

John 14:6 is the way out of the Matrix.

We're tempting ourselves to worship ourselves. See the solution and believe.

Friday I got the Oboe, and when we got home I played on it some, but after 15 minutes my lips started loosing control, so I couldn't really play. After Volleyball (my serves are getting way better!), was Rachel's birthday party, which was fun. We played with boB backwards for a while, then had pizza and watched Fly Away Home. Good movie, I like it a lot. I got to hold boB for the whole movie, which was fun. The movie finished and we played the Pass it on Story game (where you write a sentence, then the next person draws a picture and hides your sentence. The next person writes a sentence of the picture and it continues like that... gets pretty funny). Daddy picked us up and we went home and went to bed.
Pictures:
Dan with boB. That snake is so cool.

We got Cait to touch boB. Twice. Yay, Cait.

Elisabeth and boB.

Stephanie held him for a little while...
It was so much fun to watch everyone's faces. I love boB. He's cool. Nate and I are begging daddy for a Ball Python now, and Cait "isn't gonna let that happen."

Saturday we went to the Sharjah Wildlife Center as a family. I couldn't bring my camera in, but I found a picture online of my favoritest animal ever... the sand cat.

The leopard was scary-looking, the cheetahs were gorgeous, the hyenas looked like big dogs... I enjoyed looking at all the snakes and found out what one of my beetles in my collection is... but the scorpions were just scary. There were some other cats, Gordon's Wild Cats or something like that, and they were pretty cute, too. One kept walking along the window ledge in the glass cage... then dropping down on the other side and getting back up again. Obsessive compulsive, we joked.
Here's a picture of one, actually :

Then there were these foxes...
Ruppell's Fox and Blanford's Fox:

In the afternoon I just practiced oboe. As of today, Monday, it's not going too badly. There are a few notes I'm having a good deal of trouble with, but maybe by the time I actually get to them I'll have blowing down better. I was going to record something for y'all, but I chose to do it too near the end of my practice, so my cheeks were tired, lips numb... so I didn't get past the first two notes without stopping.

I went biking this morning, right around 7:10. What I didn't know was that that's the time all the kids go to school. So I was getting all these weird looks from people who don't know we homeschool. By the time they left I'd decided I need a t-shirt that says, "I'm homeschooled. This is PE. Stop staring at me." Or something like that. Guess over here not too many people homeschool. Then Nate and I decided we should get loud speakers and chant Latin declensions just for fun. :)

I'm reading a book about Hitler. Thoughts on that up soon...

Cait and I finished watching Fiddler on the Roof last night. The ending always leaves me quiet. And I've had Sunrise, Sunset and Chavala stuck in my head all morning. I want Sunrise, Sunset played or sang at my wedding...

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee

"...Little bird, little Chavala
Little Bird, Little Chavala
I dont understand whats happening today
Everything is all a blur
Gentle and kind and affectionate
The sweet little bird you were
Chavala, Chavala

Little Bird, Little Chavala
You were always such a pretty little thing
Everybodys favourite child
Gentle and kind and affectionate
The sweet little bird you were
Chavala, Chavala..."

The Blazing Center and Tolerance.

2007-10-17T15:17:00.001+03:00

These are my notes from a John Piper series for youth, “The Blazing Center.” I suggest reading this with a Bible close at hand, there are lots of references to look up!

Session 1
John Piper’s Mission statement: To spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.
What two things was God creating in John Piper during his teenage years?

1. A deep longing to be happy
2. The knowledge that God really loves God’s glory.

The universe was created to declare God’s glory. (Psalm 19:1)
The cross was for Jesus to bear our sins and demonstrate God’s righteousness. God’s glory wasn’t compromised in taking away our sin, He vindicated it by slaying His son.

If we don’t love the glory of God, we’re sinning.
We must seek God in order to be happy.

Session 2

The definition of love we came up with: 1 Corinthians 13; putting the highest good of others before our own. The world’s love is self-centered. One is selfless, the other is selfish.

Jesus is coming to be glorified and marveled at (2 Thessalonians 1:10).
A microscope makes tiny things look big. A telescope helps us see big things more clearly. We ought to magnify God like we are using a telescope.
God alone will satisfy our soul most deeply for the longest period of time. Anything else wouldn’t be eternal satisfaction. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. It is more loving for God to show his glory than to save us from suffering.
John Piper’s definition of the world’s love – To be made much of. People who think that don’t know what love is! Real love is not making much of someone, love is doing whatever you have to do in order to enthrall someone with what will make them happy forever!

How is God’s zeal for his glory not loving? We are most satisfied when God is glorified – I know that for a fact.
We were not made for mirrors. We were made to look at amazing things.
John 17:24 says, “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”
Conclusion: What’s best for us is to see God’s glory.
The pain of our lives can become the moment in which our joy becomes the greatest.

Session 3

What is the central question in this series? Can God’s glory and our joy really be one?
Why is it so important to begin with God’s glory? Until we feel and think God is central in the universe, we will distort everything to man-centeredness.
How does Philippians 1:20-21 (as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with fullcourage now as always Christwill be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain) support the statement, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him?” We want Christ to be honors in our lives. Christ is more satisfied in our death when we are satisfied in him in our dying.
John Piper’s modification of the definition of hedonism: Rather than a life devoted to pleasure, hedonism is a life devoted to pleasure in God. This modification is important because without it we’d be devoted to pleasing ourselves.

Let great things become springboards for God’s glory, and don’t idolize them. Jesus makes things like LotR look ridiculous because of his power.

Session 4

Evil: Forsaking God and doing other things (Jeremiah 2:9-13)
Sin is exchanging God’s glory for something else.
Eight Biblical Arguments for Christian Hedonism:

God commands us to be happy and pursue our joy (Psalm 100:2, Philippians 4:4, Ps. 32:11)
God threatens terrible things if we will not be satisfied (Deut. 28:47-8)
The nature of faith teaches the pursuit of satisfaction in God. (Hebrews 11:6)
The nature of evil teaches the pursuit of satisfaction in God (Jeremiah 2:11-12)
The nature of conversion teaches the pursuit of satisfaction in God (Matthew 13:44)
The nature of self-denial teaches the pursuit of satisfaction in God (John 12:24-25)
The demand to love people in the Bible teaches the pursuit of satisfaction in God. (Acts 20:34-35).
God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him.

Evil embraces frustration.
Not serving God with gladness is a sin.
The way to come to God is not to meet His needs, but ours.
Jesus is the treasure of our life.
Self-denial is denying yourself to have God.

Session 5

If you pursue your joy in God, you will be a loving person.
You cannot be a loving person unless you pursue your joy in God.

2 Corinthians 8:1-4, 8.
Love is the overflow of abundant joy in God that meets the needs of others.
Love originates in the grace of God and involves more than sheer willpower.
Even in affliction and poverty, joy abounded (v.2)
They gave more than they could out of love.

1 Corinthians 13:3 – we need to have the right motive to love.
The Bible commands emotion.

Session 6

More Biblical descriptions of love:
2 Corinthians 9:7-8 – giving is loving if you are cheerful.
The battle is not first at the level of behavior.
The battleground is what makes you glad.
Acts 20:35 – the most controversial word in this verse is “remember.” (it we can’t be motivated by the blessing of giving, Paul would be a bad teacher. It won’t contaminate our motives).
You fight with this promise.
Luke 14:12-14 – be motivated by the expansion of your joy as you draw other people into it.

Get outside your comfort circle – shame often holds us back.
For love’s sake say no to pornography – fight for a superior pleasure.
Do something radical for the poor.
Love will not happen without joy. Serving with joy gives an advantage. The battle is won by fighting for joy.

Session 7

All of us will experience suffering eventually.

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him especially when we maintain joy in Him in suffering.

Love really shines as beautiful when you press on loving others even when it’s really heard and really costly.

The theme of Hebrews is the sustaining power of joy in our suffering.

i. Hebrews 10:32-34 – you have a better possession – his name is Jesus.

ii. Hebrews 11:24-26 – the reproach of Christ is riches… because we are looking to the reward.

iii. Hebrews 12:1-2 – How did Jesus survive the lashes? There was JOY set before him.

iv. Hebrews 13:12-14 – here we have no lasting city.

Make Christ your treasure so you will endure in faith to the end.

“When we are suffering, we are taking up our crosses- where people die with nails through their hands and hang for three days for the birds to eat their eyes.”

Session 8

Giving up your life to save others, living on the cutting edge, is COOL!

The Story of Jack Lucas:

“0N D-DAY PLUS ONE, Lucas and his team were making their way toward the Japanese airstrip on the plain northeast of Mount Suribachi. They had stopped to pound an enemy pillbox and had jumped for cover into one of two parallel trenches that led from it through the soft volcanic ash sand that covers the sulfurous island. To their surprise the Marines discovered "there were a11 these Japs in this other trench. Eleven of them. We opened fire. There wasn’t time to put your weapon to your shoulder. We just fired off hand.

" My rifle jammed. I was looking down at my rifle trying to get the damned thing unjammed, and when I did I saw the grenades. I was the first to see them. I hollored ’grenades,’ and I dove for them.

"I smashed my rifle butt against one and drove it into the volcanic ash, and fell on it, and pulled the other one under me. I was there to fight, and we were there to win. What you have to do you do to win. It was not in me to turn to run.

"That volcanic ash and the good Lord saved me. If I’d been on hard ground that thing would have split me in two. There was just one explosion. One was all I could handle, and I had trouble handling that one. It blew me over on my back, and it punctured my right lung, but it never knocked me out." Lucas also sustained injuries to his thigh, neck, chin, and head.

The rest of the team sprinted down the trench, turned and fired down the other. Lucas lay on his back, his right arm twisted so far underneath him he though it had been blown off. His mouth and throat filled with blood, and he might have drowned if he had lost consciousness. He kept moving his left hand to show that he was alive. "That," he says, "was the only thing I could move." A Marine from another unit came up and Lucas, barely recognizable as an American, was afraid he would be shot, but the solider called for a Corpsman.

While the medic worked on him, a Japanese soldier popped up from a hole in the trench. The Corpsman shot him. A mortar barrage walked up to the edge of the trench and delayed the stretcher-bearers. As they hurried off, one stumbled and dropped his end. Lucas split his head open on a rock. "I looked up at him and smiled to let him know 1 knew that what he was trying to do, and I appreciated it. I could see he was exhausted."
On the evacuation beach a Corpsman covered Lucas with a poncho for shelter from the elements. "I thought, ’Oh, Lord, I’m dead,’" he says. "Of course that morphine took hold, and I passed out." The broken, bloody, shrapnel-riddled soldier the stretcher-bearers hustled away had been 17 for less than a week.
“Maybe," a surgeon said, "he was too young, and too tough to die." That was offshore aboard the hospital ship Samaritan, when it began to look as if Lucas would live. Before the doctors were done, he’d go under the knife 22 times. There are still about 200 pieces of scrap iron in him, some the size of .22-caliber bullets. Lucas sets off airport metal detectors… ”

----
We are living for something 10,000 times more valuable than winning the Second World War. We should be like Jack Lucas, ready to die in the place of others, but for the cause of Christ.
Suffering is not only the price you will have to pay in the pathway of obedience sustained by joy in God, suffering is also designed by God to intensify y our joy in Him and refine us like gold. During suffering, we’re meant to fall into God.

“God is in control, we don’t know all the answers. God knows, and someday we’ll know. Because of their deaths, God will be glorified.” – Mr. Backstrom, after 3 of his sons were killed by a drunk driver.

-----

My notes don't do the series justice. The Blazing Center is a GREAT series, and if you can find it, I highly recommend you watching/listening to it.

A video of us playing Ninja... it's not a very good video of it, sadly.

Daddy brought an oboe reed and oboe books back from Australia today. He had a flight there and found them at a bookstore. Friday we'll get the oboe from the H's. I can't wait. *dances*

Before Eid we watched a video called "Bluestate: Tolerance For All" as a family. It was from the SAICFF (San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival) 2005, and was set in 2010, in a "bluestate," where there was supposed "tolerance for all." However, in order to achieve tolerance, the government decided to be intolerant of Christianity. It was sad watching it, and the whole time a single question was nagging at my mind: How long will it be before the US really becomes like that?" And it scared me.

It's like saying there are no absolutes. In saying that, you're saying an absolute. In tolerance for all, there are somethings that won't be tolerated in order to have "tolerance." The definition of tolerance:

tolerance: the acceptance of the differing views of other people, e.g. in religious or political matters, and fairness toward the people who hold these different views.

Watching that movie made me think, "yeah, right, tolerance..." I pray the US will never fall to such things.

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee

Burami

2007-10-16T19:49:00.000+03:00

Well, I'm back from Burami, was back a few days ago.

Thursday after Irish dance I went to the C's for sewing. I finished putting my platypus quilt piece together, but it still needs its background. I think he's adorable. Then we packed up the car and drove up to Burami, Oman, which is about two hours away from where we are. We had fun in the car, especially after dark when we could finally eat... Ramadan wasn't quite over yet at that point, they hadn't seen the moon. Anyway, we got there and found my parents, then other people and started saying hello and catching up.

Friday morning at breakfast we saw the Y's for the first time, and then the "younger group," Me, Hannah C., Heather, Nadia, and Grace, had nursery duty until 11:45, when the older group (Cait, Sarah, Joy, Lydia, and Elisabeth) would take over and we would get to do the first session of The Blazing Center, a series for youth by John Piper. (notes up later!) After lunch, we had free time, in which we played "ninja," a very fun, insane game, and talked. We had two more sessions before dinner, and then one after, then played games and talked until we had to leave the "youth" villa at 10. The C's, Cait, and I went up to the stage out back of the hotel and danced and talked for a while.

Saturday was basically the same as Friday, not too much was different, but we had to prepare our drama to perform for the adults the next day. We played a lot of mind games, such as "The Land of Nod," "Shopping Mall," and all those other games that make you really really frustrated at times. In the evening we worked on t-shirts, then walked around and talked with the C's again.

Sunday the younger group was on early nursery duty again, and after that we did our drama for the adults (went really well), and then we played games and started the ABC Movie until lunch, then it was packing up and we left. The Y kids came with us, as their parents had a few meetings and things over the next few days, and the P's were staying at our house that night because they had an early flight the next morning. We went to Festival City for dinner, then came back and talked until bed time.

Monday we talked with the Y's in the morning, went swimming, and then to volleyball. In the evening we watched Sense and Sensibility before bed.

Today Samuel taught us how to play squash, we played Kent, and walked around the compound looking like a bunch of idiots. :P
Want proof?

I was taking the pictures.

Playing Bus Stop... Samuel to Grace: "Can I step on your foot?"

Abigail.... I believe she was 8 months, one of the most adorable babies ever. A bit hard to put down for a nap, though.

Joshua. He has HUGE eyes, and he and his brother are both really cute... though Bryan likes playing Star Wars and trying to kill me. :)

Tim and his sister Esther. I had no idea they were siblings until Sarah told me. Tim is my little friend... he's very ticklish, and will escape being tickled by climbing onto my back.

Peace... VERY like most African women in our Church, she's extremely sweet and calls you "Auntie" and gives you kisses. She asked me where the spider in Little Miss Muffet came from. :)

Hopefully I'll have my notes from The Blazing Center up soon, it's back to school tomorrow, though, so who knows how long it'll take me to get on here.

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee

Eid.

2007-10-09T13:08:00.000+03:00

Eid is coming up.
But at least a few of you probably don't know exactly what Eid is... I'd define it as a Muslim holiday, and this one, Eid al Fitr, is celebrating the end of Ramadan, the month in which the Muslims fast from sunrise until sunset. Living in an Arab country, it means we can't eat or drink outside during that time, but it's not too bad.
Last night was the Night of Power, and I meant to post before then, but forgot. The Night of Power is when the Muslims stay up all night praying, instead of doing a certain number every night during Ramadan. They say that their prayers during this time are worth a LOT of other prayers, and it's a powerful night because they believe that this night is when the "angel" came to Muhammed.
We had a discussion about this last year at one of our Desert Challenge seminars. The Devil can masquerade as an angel of light, so that was probably what Muhammed saw. And, Muhammed went home in disbelief, and his wife convinced him it was a message from God.

And with Eid comes our yearly conference. This year is going to be fun, even though it'll be more scheduled for the youth than last year. We don't have to help out with the kids at all, though, and we get to work only part of the mornings in the nursery. We're doing a DVD thing by John Piper, I believe it's called The Blazing Center.

But I'm scared for after Eid. That's when we're supposed to call to make an appointment for another ultrasound... if you don't remember why, it's cuz we thought I had appendicitis back in the end of August. It hasn't really bothered me again, sometimes it'll hurt just a little for a short time, then be gone (the other day I actually got a little scared, my upper thigh was hurting as well, and it was coming and going...), but nothing enough to get me really worried.
I posted an update on the Rebelution forums, and one guy really encouraged me by posting Psalm 27:
Psalm 27
Of David
1 The LORD is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?

2 When evil men advance against me
to devour my flesh,
when my enemies and my foes attack me,
they will stumble and fall.

3 Though an army besiege me,
my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
even then will I be confident.

4 One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.

5 For in the day of trouble
he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle
and set me high upon a rock.

6 Then my head will be exalted
above the enemies who surround me;
at his tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make music to the LORD.

7 Hear my voice when I call, O LORD;
be merciful to me and answer me.

8 My heart says of you, "Seek his face!"
Your face, LORD, I will seek.

9 Do not hide your face from me,
do not turn your servant away in anger;
you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me,
O God my Savior.

10 Though my father and mother forsake me,
the LORD will receive me.

11 Teach me your way, O LORD;
lead me in a straight path
because of my oppressors.

12 Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
for false witnesses rise up against me,
breathing out violence.

13 I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.

14 Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.

On a bit of a lighter note...
Other than Lord of the Rings, during my "vacation," I read a book called Bread Upon the Waters I would not recommend it to people under 13, but it's a really good book, set in Poland during World War II. I read it in one afternoon, it was so good I just couldn't put it down.

Also, Nanowrimo2007 is coming up! And I plan on doing it again. Last year I reached the 50,000 word goal, but this year will probably be harder, however my plot is already more devloped than last year's (last year I found out about Nanowrimo on October 31, and the "National Novel Writing Month" starts on November 1...). I'm excited.

The STS-12o Discovery is set to depart earth on October 23rd. Please be praying for the crew and the technical people, and everyone important involved in getting the STS-120 on its way to the space station and safely back.
In Kazakhstan they're preparing to launch something else from the Cosmodome, they launch tomorrow, actually. Expedition 16 is its name.

I also wanted to re-state some things I'd said about the Rebelution before. Rather, re-state my definition of it. Bananabint and I had a long conversation over email (and I don't think we're done yet...), and I thought I'd paste my new definition here:

"Teens these days are not at all what they used to be.
I quote from Alex's talk - "12 year old Dave was expected to return a ship
to America. We are expected to return our pillows, sheets, and blankets to
our beds. Dave succeeded. How many of you did this morning?"

The majority of youth today give up too easily and think that the teen years
are a time to be crazy and forget about the hard things in life. But what
the teen years really are are a time to prepare for the future, so you're
ready for what's coming. Not to give up."

One last thing... lately Cait has been browsing through old America's Got Talent and Britain's Got Talent videos on YouTube, and as a family we really enjoyed the group Celtic Spring. And guess what? They're a Christian Homeschooling family (I think they may be Irish Catholic, but not sure)! This is the link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZJlsAguqE8o
And I'll try to get the video embeded, not sure if it'll work.

Watching them makes me want to dance... and it makes my light jig (complicated compared to what Nate and Candace are doing), look easier than the partner dance the younger class did last week.

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee

The Change is here...

2007-10-07T10:41:00.000+03:00

I've left a comment on your blog if you have one, my blog name is now officially changed, the link is now www.drumofadifferentbeat.blogspot.com
If you guys have any ideas about a different picture for up top, tell me, I'm not too pleased with the one I made.

My week was good. I came to a rather lengthy conclusion, but here it is anyway:

I am online to encourage and strengthen believers, be encouraged and strengthened myself, and try to be a light to nonbelievers around me there.
I will only go online when my schoolwork, chores, and music practice are complete, dishes don't need to be done, and there isn't something I would like to do later.
When I'm online I'll remember that my teen years are to prepare for my future, and I'll remember that anything I post I should be willing to let mom and dad see.
I will allow myself 2 hours maximum of internet time, and I will use it wisely, with no aimless browsing or websurfing. Internet is "illegal" on Frdays, perhaps email or writing, but no more.
Writing on the computer should not take too much time out of my day, and tehre's always my blue notebook. While I'm writing or doing school, I won't go online, no matter how much self control it takes.
When I wake up, I will do my devotions, perhaps go biking, then at 8 I will start school. After breakfast, dishes must be done. When I have finished school I'll do my chores and practice music, and then the internet is an option.
I will not go online after 10PM, and even on Saturdays I should review test material for school and read a little before I go online.
I am online to glorify God, and if I do not see that happening, things will need to change.

So that's that. Nothing too exciting happened this week, had a long Thursday, with Irish dance in the morning, then we went to the H's to pick up Sarah, to the C's to do sewing while Nate and Candace had music lessons... then we went home, showered, and had a little while before the R's picked us up for NYPE... which was incredible. It was mostly just about how small we are and how big God is... just a video of a man talking and showing pictures from space. I'm pretty sure that this is the DVD, and I hope so, because I really want to get it.

Some of the pictures:
The X-Structure... or a cross in space?
This was taken by the Voyager, and the pale blue dot... is earth. Don't see it? Look here

The night was really hard for me, though, kinda, because recently I've been wanting to go to space... and was having trouble knowing if that was something God wanted me to pursue. And this didn't really help, because it just made me want to go out there even more. Now I know my place is on this earth... and who knows, maybe I'll marry an astronaut.

To keep myself busy, I read The Lord of the Rings again, and this time a whole lot of "articles" were triggered... my favorite here:

A Man of Quality

Re-reading the books I realized how different Faramir in the movie is from book Faramir. I think David Wenham did a wonderful job playing Faramir, but as many places say, I “just can’t get over the way Faramir acted in TTT.”

Reading through it all again, I remembered how my friend will sometimes talk about “my Faramir,” who someday I will meet, and I thought about how so many character qualities that Faramir has are ones I want for my husband someday:

Most of my favorite quotes from LotR are all from Faramir, and they show his character, his quality, as Sam would say.

"Patience!” Said Faramir, but without anger. “Do not speak before your master, whose wit is greater than yours. And I do not need any to teach me of our peril. Even so, I spare a brief time, in order to judge justly in a hard matter. Were I as hasty as you, I might have slain you long ago. For I am commanded to slay all whom I find in this land without the leave of the Lord of Gondor. But I do not slay man or beast needlessly, and not gladly even when it is needed.”

When Faramir is telling Frodo of Boromir’s death, Frodo asks

“Do you mean that he is dead and that you knew it? You have been trying to trap me in words, playing with me? Or are you now trying to snare me with a falsehood?”

“I would not snare even an orc with a falsehood,” said Faramir.

----

“But fear no more! I would not take this thing, if it lay by the highway. Not were Minas Tirith falling in ruin and I alone could save her, so, using the weapon of the Dark Lord for her good and my glory. No, I do not wish for such triumphs, Frodo son of Drogo.”

“Neither did the council,” said Frodo, “Nor do I. I would have nothing to do with such matters.”

“For myself, said Faramir, “I would see the White Tree in flower again in the courts of the kings, and the Silver Crown return, and Minas Tirith in peace: Minas Anor again as of old, full of light, high and fair, beautiful as a queen among other queens: not a mistress of many slaves, nay, not even a kind mistress of willing slaves. War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend: the city of the Men of Númenor; and I would have her loved for her memory, her ancientry, her beauty, and her present wisdom. Not feared, save as men may fear the dignity of a man, old and wise.”

“Now’s a chance to show your quality,” says Sam…

“So it seems,” said Faramir, slowly and very softly, with a strange smile. “So that is the answer to all the riddles! The One Ring that was thought to have perished by the world. And Boromir tried to take it by force? And you escaped? And ran all the way – to me! And here in the wild I have you: two Halflings, and a host of men at my call, and the Ring of Rings. A pretty stroke of fortune! A chance for Faramir, Captain of Gondor, to show his quality! Ha!” He stood up, very tall and stern, his grey eyes glinting….

…But Faramir sat down again in his chair and began to laugh quietly, and then suddenly became grave again. “Alas for Boromir! It was too sore a trial!” He said. “How you have increased my sorrow, you two strange wanderers from a far country, bearing the peril of men! But you are less judges of Men than I am of Halflings. We are truth-speakers, we men of Gondor. We boast seldom, and then perform, or die in the attempt. ‘Not if I found it on the highway would I take it,’ I said. Even if I were such a man as to desire this thing, and even though I knew not clearly what this thing was when I spoke, still I should take these words as a vow, and be held by them. But I am not such a man. Or I am wise enough to know that there are some perils from which a man must flee.”

-----

“… and you are a lady beautiful, I deem, beyond even the words of the Elven-tongue to tell. And I love you. Once I pitied your sorrow, but now, were your sorrowless, without fear or any lack, were you the blissful Queen of Gondor, still would I love you.”

A man who will hold what he believes over what he is commanded to do – listening to the higher power rather than men.
A man who values truth to the point he would not lie even to the foulest of enemies.
A man who knows he must protect those he holds dear, and will do it to death.
A man who can withstand temptation. No one is perfect, but we all have the ability to ward off temptation when it comes.
A man who is humble.
A man who keeps his word even when it may go against what he desires.
A man who does not desire power.
A man who knows when to flee temptations in life.
A man who loves that which is beautiful.

A man of quality.

I think that's all. *nods*

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee

A Vacation.

2007-09-29T08:51:00.000+03:00

Just this morning I decided that this week I'm going to stay off of the internet.
Lately it's become too addicting and I've been losing other time because of all the time I spend online.
Also, my quiet times have gone way out of whack because I get up and my immediate action is to go online.
This needs to change.

The Three things I'm asking prayer for are:
1. That I'd grow in my faith this week, spending more time with God rather than with people I don't really even know.

2. That I'd learn to live away from the internet, and that it'd become just an activity like reading, not an all-afternoon activity.

3. That I'd have self control and strength against temptation, especially that of the internet.

So I won't be around for a week, but I pray it will be a fruitful week. (This week will be from Sunday, September 30th - Sunday, October 7th).

And when I get back, I'll probably change my blog name, this week will give people time to find out.

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee.

The Beginning of the Weekend

2007-09-27T06:52:00.000+03:00

I'm thinking about changing my blog name again... I think I had an okay idea, but not sure what everyone else would think of it: drum of a different beat.
Dancing to the drum of a different beat would get too long, I think.
Why would I change it to that? Because I'm trying to dance to a different drum than the rest of the world.

Thursday: Irish dance on Wednesday was good. I got really worn out, though, but wanted to keep going, it was so much fun. But God reminded me of something. I don't think any of the other girls in the class are Christians, and with a few of them you can really tell. God reminded me to step out of my comfort zone, no matter HOW HARD that would be in the middle of a dance class, and just start by starting a conversation with them sometime. He also reminded me that my neighbor (now 12) wanted to go to youth group. So today before Oasis I'm going to go over there and see if she wants to come.

The roster for Submerge (Youth group/Oasis/H20 praise band) is out for the fall. I'm up on acoustic guitar for the whole month of November... with only one practice. Yikes. At least I have a practice, but I'm still going to be really really nervous at first. I'll survive... hopefully without any complete and utter humiliation...

Today we did Irish dance again, but with the C's, because they have a private class. I think I'd rather do that one, because I learned a LOT more and got a lot more exercise. Plus, Nate and Candace can do it, too.
I got 26 1/2 out of 29 on my first Logic test, and mommy hasn't corrected my chemistry test yet.. I think I did pretty well, though. (later - I did better than last time, but still not great.)
We've been enjoying JellyBellys the H's brought back for us for watching Oreo. I love JellyBellys...

Oasis was okay... Karin wasn't able to come. :( the talk was good, though (I'll have my notes up soon!) and the game was pretty good, in worship the music was waaay too loud, though.

Friday: another start to a busy weekend. Blech. This is basically the first time I've gotten to myself today, apart from reading after Church, but that wasn't what I really wanted to be doing then. *sigh* And tomorrow I at least have to make granola, if not sweep and wash the floors, too. I don't mind making granola... I just HATE doing the floors because it takes up to two hours to do it.

Bananabint is still questioning the Rebelution and why I like it so much, so I decided to post some more links that I forgot to do before... probably my 2 favorite series(es?), one by Brett and one by Alex.

The Myth of Adolescence:
Part One
Part Two
My iPod is my Best Friend
A Shining Salty City on A Stand
"Rebelize" Your Youth Group
Rebellion VS Rebelution
Feats of Our Forefathers

Character:
Challenges of the 21st Century
Building Your Character House
Meet Your Commander n'Chief
The Bible or the Bullet

A final thing I really liked was the audio previews from the conferences. You can listen to them here and here. The second is by Brett, the first from Alex. Personally, I love Brett's impressions... but he's got a good point. And since listening to that, I've stopped saying all the "I'm just not a.... person." "I'm just not a math person" used to turn up every day. When you think about it, it's true, though, if we try hard enough to do the hard thing and really strive to do the math, we may not end up "not being a math person."

Anyway. Not much has been going on around here, yet at the same time it seems that EVERYTHING has been, if you take my meaning.

I read a book called Navajo Weapon recently, about how the Navajos created a code we used during WWII - an unbreakable code.

I decided that since I still have nothing to do I'd go ahead and post my Oasis notes now...

Pause: Week One
Text: Luke 3:21-28 (you can read it here)
Big Idea: At the moment of temptation, let's learn to pause and remember there's always more at stake.

An observation on Temptation:
They are painfully addictive things. Why? We come back and cave in again and again. It's a pattern: tempation, sin, guilt, temptation... It's like this because we are seriously sinful wicked people.
We don't need a system to solve our problems, we need a savior. Someone to come along and clean off the mud, get us out of the loop. With a system we just fail ourselves.

Big Question: Is Jesus our rescuer?

Observations:
1. Jesus was baptized, associating himself with sinful men.
2. Jesus was declared to be the Son of God, by God himself.
3. Luke shows us Jesus' family tree... a picture of God's rescue plan, Jesus is the answer to Adam's problem, where Adam failed, Jesus will SUCCEED and live up to His name to be a Savior.
God doesn't give us what we deserve because he loves us.

That was week one, last week. And I got to read the WHOLE family tree aloud at WellGroup. It was fun, though.

Pause: Week 2
Text: Luke 4:1-4. You can read it here

Big Idea: At the moment of temptation, let's learn to pause and remember there's always more at stake.

Another observation:
Tempation is global. It's not a social or religious problem. It's not just you.

Big question: what can we do about it?
Fight temptations with the TRUTH. Quote scripture as an answer for every temptation - it is THE TRUTH. Turn on the light to deflect the darkness, don't accept it, because behind every temptation there is a lie. The devil destracts us from God. It leaves us empty inside, like the Turkish Delight left Edmund yearning for more - it's an empty illusion. Fill up with Jesus.

The First Temptation: Turn stone into bread.
Why is this a temptation?
We live because the very word of God says so. At the heart of this temptation is the question "Can God be trusted?" The devil makes God seem small. How can we look in the face of our Provider and say we can't trust Him? Your next heartbeat, your next breath, are a gift from God. Don't just know it, believe it. God's best will be poured into our lives if we wait.

How big is the God we serve?

So yeah. That sums up my weekend so far. Tell me what you think of it all.

Rebelution Links

2007-09-26T18:16:00.000+03:00

The promised links:

A Challenge for My Generation (mentioned earlier...)
My First Shower Nearly Killed Me (also mentioned earlier)
Doing Less By Doing More
The Room (by Joshua Harris, the twin's older brother... this article/story is one of my all-time favorites).
Why Teens Do Stupid Things
Bored? Read This!
Stop Wasting Time

Those are just the ones I can pull up easily. From time to time I'll probably link to something on someone else's blog, trusting that you *cough*bananabint*cough* will go there...

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee

Another Post.

2007-09-26T11:28:00.000+03:00

I know I just made a post the other day (was it yesterday? I can't really remember...) and nothing much has happened since then, but spontaneous posts are sometimes the best ones around.

Yesterday I was bored, so I decided to go ALL the way back to the first page of the Rebelution blog (found out there's 70 pages... if you want to go ALL the way back, just ask me for the link to that page, otherwise you'll lose about 30 minutes of time just going back), and start reading all of what the Harris twins had written, because I knew I'd missed a LOT of good articles before I started reading the blog. So I went all the way back and yesterday read the first page.

Early on, Brett had posted an article about what the Rebelution was. You can read the whole article here, and I highly reccomend that you do, but there was one part that really stood out to me, and I thought I'd quote it here... it was a good reminder to me that I needed to get out there and light my candle, not just accept the darkness:

"Should a candle set in a dark room assume that darkness is his fate? Would it be acceptable for the candle to make peace with the darkness? Not when he holds the potential for glorious light!"

I continued on a little ways and saw a favorite post of mine, again by Brett, called "My First Shower Nearly Killed Me."
It got me thinking more than usual, but in a different way than usual (usually I'll end up going off and yelling at myself whenever I struggle with Chemistry or Geometry or Algebra and think "I'm just not a math person.").
This time I thought about what the "showers" in my life were. Going through a list, I realized that there aren't that many every day things I'm scared of or don't like... until I came upon needles. Don't get me wrong - I LOVE sewing. But as soon as I hear "blood test" or "shot" I start freaking out. With a shot it's usually okay. I close my eyes and brace myself for it, and it's over.

Blood tests, however, are different. The first time I got my blood drawn (well, that I remember...), I was somewhere between 5 and 8. I started hyperventilating and not letting them put that needle into my arm... I remember starting to feel sick. Mommy convinced me to let them do it, and when they finished I felt like I was going to faint. The good part was I got juice, crackers, and 2 suckers when I finished.

I know it's not really what Brett's first shower was like, and to this day I still hyperventilate when I get my blood drawn, but I think now it's more of "fear of something unnatural inside of me" rather than aichmophobia (fear of needles).

And yes, I did just look that word up.
And I found another phobia I have: Didaskaleinophobia, fear of going to school.

And sometimes I kind of have this: Dromophobia, fear of crossing streets.... especially in Jordan or New York.

Some of these phobias crack me up... like fear of work or fear of handwriting.

This has got to be my favorite, though: Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia- Fear of long words. Such a contradiction.
Arachibutyrophobia- Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth. <-- that's good, though.

And just a warning, in the near future I'll probably be talking about the Rebelution a lot, so if you don't know what it is, I suggest you go over there...

We've been calling around more about oboe reeds (yes, me on a phone... yikes... I made it through a phone message without any "ums" today... be proud of me!), and can only find them in medium. We may have to order some. Hmph.

Oh, and I finished the main part of writing my book! *dances* I want to make it a bit longer, though, but if I can't think of any way to do that, I won't, I'd rather have a good, short book than a boring, long one.

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee-Lima-Echo-India-Golf-Hotel.

An Update on more than my weekend.

2007-09-24T19:56:00.000+03:00

Today on the Rebelution Alex and Brett posted a really good video... in the video I thought Alex's t-shirt looks rather interesting, so I looked it up. You can look at it here
I want to get it, not that I'd wear it in public here, but it'd be one I'd wear around sometimes.
Speaking of the video, you can watch it here. The end gets pretty funny, and the whole report is pretty neat. Before too long I'm gonna be down on my knees begging them to come to the Middle East. :P I guess we are trying to get them out here for Desert Challenge sometime. 'Cuz that would make DC even more awesome than usual.

Nothing much has been going on around here. I wrote a lot this afternoon, my story is drawing to an end, and I'm starting to get really excited about it being done. Then it's only editing and finding a publisher... yeah, right... like any publisher will ever take my story. At least not a good one like RandomHouse, Puffin, or Houghton Mifflin. People are gonna yell at me, I killed off another character. But hey, it makes the end work!

I think Chemistry may be getting better, I at least really like experiments, whether or not I like the rest of it. Geometry is still rather easy, proofs can be a bit annoying, though. Literature is great, I'm having a bit of trouble with the clincher in my paper, but other than that it's goin' well. Bible and History are fine for now, I have a history test coming up in a few weeks, though, and then it's study for that whole week and get the test overwith before another one comes along that I have to study for again. :P I've got a Logic test on Thursday, should be easy enough.

We've watched some good movies lately, the first being A Vow to Cherish, which is a movie about a family in which the wife gets alzheimers disease, and it basically just goes through all their struggles together. I know I mentioned it earlier but felt like doing so again.

The Nativity Story was also good, we enjoyed that one as a family. I thought they did an especially good job with Joseph and Mary, often I forget Mary was a girl not much older than me and never thought about what it would have been like for her to go through.

Godspell was the last one, and although I thought parts were a bit strange, it was powerful, and Cait and I have been singing Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord a lot.

I helped Candace with violin today. I don't officially play myself, but teach myself from her books, so know enough to help her. I felt like a teacher. :P

Re-posting something I posted on my Xanga (I have one because I have some friends who are on Xanga and don't really care for blogger that much, so I just post the same posts here and there)... Jessica had a question of the week thingamagigg and I replied and liked my answer:

I think a lot of people have a low opinion about themselves. We see ourselves as lower than we probably are because I think we see the good in others and most often we see is the bad in us... I know I've found that with myself. There are some things that I'm better than a few people I know at, but I'm not amazing at anything.

But if I were to define myself... I don't really fit any categories, I love sports, but I would never go so far as to call myself a jock, I'm a bit of a nerd compared to some, but not enough that I'd introduce myself like that... I guess... If I were to define myself, I'd say I'm Ky, I'm me. I'm someone trying to become who God wants me to be, whoever that may be. I want to serve Him in any way I can.

I want to go against low expectations put on teenagers, I want to be able to think well, not just quickly. I want to make a difference somehow.

I'm trying to do hard things and save lives for Jesus, and even if I never save a life, I want to be able to encourage lots of Christians.

Still no news from David about the wedding, I hope it went well!
WellGroup went well, we have a HUGE group this year... I'm one of the oldest this year, but only 3 are shorter than me, and one of those is moving soon. :(
I finished Children of Hurin, the ending was a bit sad and depressing and Turin makes me rather mad most of the time, but Tolkien's style and other elements of his writing make it worth it.

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee.

A busy weekend.

2007-09-23T12:04:00.001+03:00

This weekend was busy... too busy. I had no time to do anything I wanted to do except read a few chapters of the Children of Hurin (great book...). Friday after Church we went out to Abu Dhabi to get some things for our conference over Eid (only a few more weeks! Wha-whoo!!!), and were out there for a while. When we came back we went to Sarah P's birthday party (that was fun, but it went later than I expected and so we got back really late - also dad couldn't pick us up until later cuz he was out visiting).

Saturday the C's came over for Brunch - meaning I couldn't sleep in, whenever we have guests for breakfast I make the fruit salad, which takes a while as we have fresh pineapple in it. Then the R kids came over and after dinner I FINALLY got some stuff done.

Today is our first Well Group, Thursday was the first real Oasis night, I think we're off to a good start this year, we began and ended on time (wow... and the bus was only 5 minutes late... it's usually 20+ minutes late), JW's talk was good, and our book for this year is good so far, too. It's called Pause, and it's on temptation, mostly from Luke, when Jesus is tempted.

We had a vote on whether we should name their baby on the way Luke Ryan Welk*** or Luke Sky Welk*** I didn't put their full last name for security, but it sounds a bit like Skywalker... JW likes Star Wars a bit too much...

So also today, what I'm really happy and sad about is that it's David's wedding... but it's in Salzburg, Austria, so I can't go. :( David was an intern here a year ago, and he c0-led the Orange team - which I was on, best youth group team in the whole world and also helped me a lot with my volleyball.

Yeah... happy wedding day, David!

Oh, and I felt like posting my desktop screenshot.
Click to make it bigger.

*sniffles* Them words are lyrics from a song written to commemorate the Columbia space shuttle explosion February 1, 2003. You can listen to the song here

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee.

Irish dance!

2007-09-19T17:29:00.000+03:00

So today I went to an Irish dance class, fencing was becoming boring and I wasn't getting anywhere.

One Irish dance class and I've already gotten somewhere. :P

The good news was there was another girl there just starting, and since it was a higher up class (the lower ones were all little kids...), it was nice to have another beginner there. I already knew a few steps and stuff from my cousin, so I didn't learn anything new, er, any new steps, I did learn a few technique things, like always making sure your ankles are crossed, making sure I don't turn out, etc... stuff like that.

I think I'm going to keep up with it... I hope so, I had lots of fun today.

Ky

Gardening.

2007-09-18T20:27:00.001+03:00

Today I decided to do some gardening. I forgot to take a picture before I got started, but this is what the backyard looks like, and the front looked a good deal like that before I got started.

Just a mixture of sand, rocks, leaves, and roots.

I spent about 2 hours out there, clearing away the rocks and leaves, then flattening it out and spreading soil on it, then making it look nice.

I think it looks rather pretty, don't you? I still haven't planted flowers, it's a good deal too hot to do that yet. (102F today... I still decided to go outside and do it, putting on sunscreen).

If you've worked around sand, you'll know what it does to you... so this is what my arms looked like when I was done:

And my face:

There's sand between my eyebrows... and I'm sunburnt... and my glasses are off because I got sand on them and my hands were to dirty to get them cleaned.

I was gonna say something else, but now I can't remember.

We watched a movie tonight. "A Vow To Cherish." Very sad... all of us were crying, then we were talking about my grampa, who had Alzheimers before he died.

I started reading The Children of Hurin this afternoon. It's sooo good so far, and Alan Lee's illustrations are absolutely stunning. If only I could draw like that.

Oh, now I remember. Apart from my own schoolwork I've started helping Nate and Candace some every day. I did spelling with them a few days ago, and today I helped them with their science project, one I'd done a long time ago.
And chemistry has become plain out evil. It's just making the world more complicated. Okay, so converting measurements was useful, but all these formulas for heat and energy... if anyone can tell me the point of chemistry. please, please do!

Oops, just remembered, I have a geometry test I need to review for... should go before it gets too late.

Ky

Music, Microwaves, and Ramadan.

2007-09-16T17:46:00.000+03:00

I recorded me playing Pachelbel's Canon on my guitar today... quite a few little mistakes and pauses, and you can hear Eeyore barking once or twice, but I decided to keep it anyway. I added a Bass Boost after recording it, because if I plug into my amplifier I add that and it sounds a lot better.
Originally I was trying to record it with harmonies, but it didn't work because it's in tablature so I don't have specific rhythm.

Here's the Link:
http://www.mediafire.com/?bqd1zuvd5c6

And so this doesn't become a useless little post, I'll add a few things I wanted to add yesterday, but forgot.

Our microwave broke. It's not too bad without it, just more pots and pans to wash later on, and it means no zatar for a few days because all our pita bread is frozen. That's the worst part of it, I love having zatar (zatar is a bunch of herbs, like thyme, with sesame seeds mixed in. You dip pita bread in olive oil, then in the zatar, then eat it. It's really good. I also like putting spreadable cheese on the bread and sprinkling zatar on).

And it's Ramadan here. *sigh* Not too much of a pain, since we live in a walled compound, but even still we can't eat or drink outside from sunrise til sunset. It'll be over soon, though, and with the end of Ramadan comes Eid and our conference in Oman. Hurrah! I can't wait, last year was lots of fun, 'course, people have gone and new people have come, so it'll be different, but still...

Ky

Sarah's Birthday Party

2007-09-15T13:06:00.000+03:00

Yay... hurrah!

My parents usually don't let me do sleepovers, but they did this once for various reasons. But they let me this time, for Sarah H (Jellybelly)'s birthday party. We had a few random things like last year... when we decided that sheep meow. This time we made fossilized Eskimo ruins out of Sculpey clay... heheh... and decided a whole bunch of random facts about Eskimos... like they loved the colors hot pink and orange, kind of worshipped porcupines, and made iridescent cookies.

Before Hannah left for the night we watched Court Jester, a really old "classic" comedy... parts of it were REALLY funny, others were kind of stupid. It was good, though. In the middle of it our older siblings came back from praise band practice (I was supposed to go but decided not to that week because of the birthday party) and tried to scare us.

We went to bed around midnight, and fell asleep pretty quickly... after talking about how I (being in the middle of Sarah and Caroline) would get rolled all over during the night. We decided to get up around 8, and then lay in our sleeping bags for a while, talking and Sarah was trying to tickle me. I'm not very ticklish so it didn't go so well on her end. Then we were going way down in our sleeping bags and hiding from Oreo, the H's dogs. Hannah came back and we ate breakfast, then did some more with Sculpey clay before Caroline left. Then we played Pit (fun game!) until mom picked me up and we left.

It was fun... lots of goofing around being hyper, especially during dinner.

Then I'm really happy for 3 reasons:
1. Daddy and I are going out for coffee later.
2. I'm going to an Irish dance class on Wednesday, to see if I like it... fencing hasn't been as fun anymore, don't really know why.
3. The H's have an oboe nobody uses... and some books. Which means I can teach myself if I can't find a teacher.

Wheee.... I'm happy right now.

Ky

Time, Greek Fire, The Battle of Vienna, Remembrance.

2007-09-12T14:49:00.000+03:00

I thought I'd do a post with lots of stuff in it, some interesting some not, I think it's all interesting... but you may not...

Time.
This school year I've really started to realize how incredible time is and how little time we have. Right now I just looked at the clock and was like "It's 4:03 already? Last time I looked it was 2:15." I guess with school, chores, reading, music, and other stuff, time goes by really quickly. And I have fencing tonight... I'm thinking about staying home, but I'm still trying to decide if fencing's gonna be an activity this year.
In Ecclesiastes it says in one of my favorite passages:
"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; time to seek, and a time tolose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silent, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace."

I guess it might just be the time to not fence, the time to drop the sword.
And pick up the oboe? We found a music school that teaches oboe here. Still not sure if I get to take or not. Submerge at Oasis this year is a "yes" for me, I'm pretty sure. I think in a couple ways God's told me to do it this year, so I hope I'm listening correctly.

Greek Fire:
Mom, Dad, Cait, and I watched Timeline the other night, and I wanted to look farther into what Greek Fire was.

"Greek fire was a burning-liquid weapon used by the Byzantine Greeks, Arabs, Chinese, and Mongols. The Byzantines typically used it in naval battles to great effect as it could continue burning even on water. It was largely responsible for many Byzantine military victories, and partly the reason for the Byzantine Empire surviving as long as it did. The formula was a secret and remains a mystery to this day. As one contemporary victim of Greek fire advised his comrades, "Every time they hurl the fire at us, we go down on our elbows and knees, and beseech Our Lord to save us from this danger."

Many accounts note that the fires it caused could not be put out by pouring water on the flames—on the contrary, the water served to intensify or spread them, suggesting that 'Greek fire' may have been a 'thermite-like' reaction, possibly involving a quicklime or similar compound. Others have posited a flammable liquid that floated on water, possibly a form of naphtha or another low-density liquid hydrocarbon, as petroleum was known to Eastern chemists long before its use became widespread in the 1800s.

The ingredients, process of manufacture, and usage were a very carefully guarded military secret—so secretive that it remains a source of speculation to this day. Speculations include

It is not clear if the operator ignited the mixture with a flame as it emerged from the syringe, or if it ignited spontaneously on contact with water or air. If the latter is the case, it is possible that the active ingredient was calcium phosphide, made by heating lime, bones, and charcoal. On contact with water, calcium phosphide releases phosphine, which ignites spontaneously. The reaction of quicklime with water also creates enough heat to ignite hydrocarbons, especially if an oxidizer such as saltpeter is present. However, Greek fire was also used on land.

These ingredients were apparently heated in a cauldron, and then pumped out through a siphon or large syringe (known as a siphònariòs) mounted on the bow of the ship. Such a ship was herself called a siphònòphòròs. It could also be used in hand grenades, made of earthenware vessels. If a pyrophoric reaction was involved, perhaps these grenades contained chambers for the fluids, which mixed and ignited when the vessel broke on impact with the target."

That was from Wikipedia.

The Battle of Vienna.
Today, September 12, was the end of the Battle of Vienna, during which the Austrians pushed the Ottomans out.

The Battle of Vienna took place on September 11 and September 12, 1683 after Vienna had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire for two months. The battle broke the advance of the Ottoman Empire into Europe, and marked the political hegemony of the Habsburg dynasty.

The large-scale battle was won by Polish-Austrian-German forces led by King of Poland Jan III Sobieski against the Ottoman Empire army commanded by Grand Vizier Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha.

The siege itself began on 14 July 1683, by the Ottoman Empire army of approximately 138,000 men (although a large number of these played no part in the battle, as only 50,000 were experienced soldiers (Turks), and the rest less-motivated supporting troops.^[1]). The decisive battle took place on 12 September, after the united relief army of 70,000 men had arrived, pitted against the Ottoman army.

The battle started before all units were fully deployed. Early in the morning at 4:00, Turkish forces opened hostilities to interfere with the Holy League's troop deployment. A move forward was made by Charles, the Austrian army on the left, and the German forces in the center.

Mustafa Pasha launched a counter-attack, with most of his force, but holding back parts of the elite Janissary and Sipahi for the invasion of the city. The Turkish commanders had intended to take Vienna before Sobieski arrived, but time ran out. Their sappers had prepared another large and final detonation under the Löbelbastei,^[4] to provide access to the city. While the Turks hastily finished their work and sealed the tunnel to make the explosion more effective, the Austrian "moles" detected the cavern in the afternoon. One of them entered and defused the load just in time.

At that time, above the "subterranean battlefield", a large battle was going on, as the Polish infantry had launched a massive assault upon the Turkish right flank. Instead of focusing on the battle with the relief army, the Turks tried to force their way into the city, carrying their crescent flag.

After 12 hours of fighting, Sobieski's Polish force held the high ground on the right. At about five o'clock in the afternoon, after watching the ongoing infantry battle from the hills for the whole day, four cavalry groups, one of them Austrian-German, and the other three Polish, totaling 20,000 men, charged down the hills. The attack was led by the Polish king in front of a spearhead of 3000 heavily armed winged Polish lancer hussars. This charge broke the lines of the Ottomans, who were tired from the long fight on two sides. In the confusion, the cavalry headed straight for the Ottoman camps, while the remaining Vienna garrison sallied out of its defenses and joined in the assault.

The Ottoman army were tired and dispirited following the failure of both the sapping attempt and the brute force assault of the city, and the arrival of the cavalry turned the tide of battle against them, sending them into retreat to the south and east. In less than three hours after the cavalry attack, the Christian forces had won the battle and saved Vienna from capture.

After the battle, Sobieski paraphrased Julius Caesar's famous quote by saying "veni, vidi, Deus vicit" - "I came, I saw, God conquered"

Again, taken from Wiki.

Remembrance.

I know this is a day late, but I didn't get around to posting it until today. Yesterday was the 6-year mark since 9/11. The day before I'd been watching the video Cait and Daddy took when they visited GroundZero in 2003. And I was quiet. I was 8 when the towers fell, and it took me a while to full grasp what had happened. I knew it was something bad, but I was more concerned about ballet and history club being cancelled than the tragedy. A few months ago I read a book about a firefighter who risked his life to save a business man. And I was crying.

Just remember. And think about it.

God bless.

Kilo-Yankee.

Beaches and Cameras

2007-09-10T12:40:00.000+03:00

It kinda seemed like this needed updating. :P
Even though it's only been about four days.

The Oasis (youth group) kick-off was at the beach on Friday. The R's picked us up after Church because mom, dad, Nate, and Candace had a BBQ to go to. Mr. R took us to Mamzar Park, and we went in about the same time as the P's, and walked about a mile to beach 4. Hannah kept asking "Are we there yet?" just to be silly, and she and Dan were convinced we should've taken the kiddie train around the park. Hannah C., Sarah H., Elisabeth, Hannah Pk, and I played volleyball for a little while, then Sarah and I watched Ben, James, and Zachary for a while. We went in the water (tried playing frisbee with Daniel... but without his glasses he can barely see so it didn't go so well), and then dried off and ate dinner (which was yummy - Arabic food, taters, and rice... mmmm....). Mitch started a game of Capture the Flag, and it kinda died down so we played Duck Duck Goose until we gathered up our stuff, prayed and sang for a few minutes, then loaded up into the bus... we started clapping for everyone who came on... don't ask. Pastor W dropped a bunch of us off at the front gate, where Mr. R picked us up. It went waaay late and I was waaay tired when we got back.

Yesterday and today I've really been working on transferring old video stuff from the MiniDVs to DVDs. Pinnacle still gets rather frustrating sometimes, but I've figured out how to work it a bit more.

Also, I've been looking into getting a video camera of my own. I have about $275 saved up already, and I've been looking into what camera I want. Just curious about what all of you have (Camera brand, make, and accessories) and what you like. This is the one I'm looking at right now, with the accessory kit and a lens filter. Any input is helpful.

Anyway, I'm gonna go watch some old footage of Candace sucking her thumb...

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee.

One Year

2007-09-06T16:46:00.000+03:00

Well, almost a month ago we'd been living over here for a year.
So I thought I'd do a one-year-where-we-are post...

When we moved, I never thought I'd...

- Play hockey in 100+ degree weather... and add humidity to that, too.
- Drop ballet and start fencing.
- Want to learn Arabic
- Like playing volleyball
- Meet people from so many different countries.
- Attend a MASSIVE church.
- Deepen my relationship with God as much as I have.

There are tons more, too, but those are the big ones...
The hockey one was just today, I was so surprised when a knock on the door was Al and Aaron wondering if we wanted to play hockey. We went out, though, and it was pretty fun. I was even more surprised, though, when Jack left the game because "it was just a game." I've been praying for him, though. I'd like it if you would pray for him... he's quite strongly for evolution, and swears a lot, etc.

I've also finished my first week of school... I'm still deciding whether or not I like chemistry, it kinda goes up and down. But Logic today was fun (and easy), geometry so far has been a blast (went ahead a bit, took the first test yesterday, only missed two from really stupid mistakes from the guy's wording), Bible and history are great, and my two languages are going okay... we still don't have an Arabic program, so this week was just reviewing the alphabet.

Fencing has been going well... but that leads us to another prayer request. As a family, we're trying to re-do our schedule for this year, and I may have to drop an activity - whether Oasis, WellGroup (which would also mean dropping WaterWorks), WaterWorks, Music, or Fencing... and I really can't decide. Music might be dropped, though, if we can't find a teacher for the instrument I want - Oboe or viola.

Anyway.

The blog may look weird for a little while, I figured out how to put up part of the custom layout, and I think I'll leave it like that cuz I like it. But it may appear a little strangely at first.

Also thought I'd post something I made on the GIMP today...

Click it and it gets bigger. ;)

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee from her fresh new layout.

Don't Go Where I Can't Follow?

2007-09-04T13:34:00.000+03:00

A post I made on the Rebelution Forum... thought I'd re-post it here:

We have a dog.
His name is Eeyore.
Now Eeyore loves to go on walks. But more often than not, he wants to go where he wants to go, not where I want him to go. It makes me wonder – how often do we do this to God? Do we ever say “Sure, God, I’ll go wherever – as long as I want to go there. As long as I can follow. Just please, don’t go where I can't follow.” God created us, He knows what’s best for us, right?
We moved across the ocean a little over a year ago. At first, I really didn't want to go. But now that we're here, I like life better. God knew what He was doing when my dad got a job over here.

Food for thought:

- Why do we believe we can't follow where God is taking us?
- Why do we pull the leash in another direction?
- And what should we do when God wants us to go somewhere we don’t want to go?

Over'n'out

Kilo-yankee

Back to School!

2007-09-02T09:44:00.000+03:00

Well, today was/is the first day back to school.
*sigh* I love 10th grade so far. I think I'll survive everything I was worried about. At least for a little while.

Anyway, I got up at my normal school-week time, 6:30 (I try to get it down to 6, but it doesn't always work), and was out of bed by 6:40. After 20 minutes on the computer, I started my history lecture.

I love Dr. Grant's Orientations. Last year's was funnier, but this one was good, too. And, like last year, he stressed the "culture is religion externalized."

Then I got dressed and did Bible, which for the first semester is reading a book called "The Story of Christianity." I like Bible. Never any tests, quizzes, etc, but I seem to learn the most in it.

I thought it was breakfast time, so I went downstairs, but still had fifteen minutes, so I did literature. I get poetry for the first two weeks again. Yech. At least this year I don't have to do meter and all that tricky hard boring stuff.

After breakfast I started on Chemistry, which won't actually be so bad, I don't think. Today was all about mass and matter and the metric system. So not actually chemistry yet, only an introduction, but that's okay with me.

Geometry was a blast. All it was was 20 questions where basically all I did was come to a simple conclusion. Like "Linda pulled 3 tennis balls out of the basket. All three were yellow. Therefore..." and I had to come up with a conclusion. :P I think I'm going to like geometry, especially if it stays a lot like logic (which, sadly, I don't do logic until Thursday, and it's only once a week).

I just reviewed for French. Used a picture of our old cat as a person to talk to so I could practice asking questions... then I answered them for her. I know, I'm weird.

Critical thinking was easy today, too. I can't believe that book is for 7-12th grade. So far it seems like 4th grade.

Corrected a few old Algebra tests (yeah, I leave Algebra, and suddenly it all clicks and I fixed them easily and [I think] correctly). And now it's 11 o'Clock and I'm done with school.

Tonight we're celebrating my birthday as a family. Mommy and I are going to make Spatzle for dinner. Yum.

Yesterday Cait and some of her friends went to see a movie, and since Hannah's older sister was going, she came, too, and we watched Candace in Magic Planet while my mom visited with some local friends. It was fun, we got to go on rides for free with Candace because she was under 10, so we took turns with her. Then we walked around some, got dinner at Subway, ice cream from MacDonalds, then went into Magrudys for a while. The movie finished and Hannah and everyone else got picked up, then we drove home. Fun day.

Guess I should go do music practice.

Well... it's nice to be back in school.

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee

Superhero Progressive Dinner

2007-08-31T15:41:00.001+03:00

Thursday night was our Oasis Progressive Dinner. This year's theme was to dress up as a superhero, but not a known one, you had to make it up.
So at first we got there, said hi to everyone, all that stuff. Then Pastor W. said to line up to get our appetizers (consisting of chips, M&Ms, Skittles, and crackers), and once everyone had something we all had to stand up and say our real name, superhero name, and our superpower.
Then we loaded up into 3 different bus-vans, we were in the Whale, with Pastor W. driving. Most people were singing, but I was catching up with Hannah, who arrived back here the 29th.
Dinner (taco salad) was at the W's house, and a lot of us decided humidity didn't matter and so ate outside.
Dessert was at the T's house, 37th floor of a 47-story building. Most elevators here are super-slow and get REALLY annoying... not this one - it was so fast, and went so high up my ears popped. It felt like I'd always imagined a rocket... except slower and without the 3g impact. :P
On the way back to the Church, the Whale wouldn't start (about the whale - it's our big, blue bus-van, and it's really old, no air conditioning, smells of the guys, and doesn't always start...), but Pastor W. revved the engine (I think that's what he did, anyway), and it finally started. We sang Veggietales and Disney songs, then were singing "Undignified" really loudly as we pulled back into the Church.
On the way back home with the Rs, we sang rounds with daddy and Rachel... and Dan was sitting there bored half to death.

Laziboy... he sits around while his teddy bops people with his "pillow of death."

Inside the whale. I'm the one on the left.

Dan, Me, Rachel, and Cait. Daniel was the Shade/Shadow, who could disappear into shadow.
I was the Unidentified Superhero, and could shoot hot glue out of my fingers.
Rachel had an endless supply of junk in her pockets,
And Cait was Super Cordelia Time Traveler.

Eating outside at the W.'s.

Elisabeth's "dry ice cream," aka an ice cream sundae without the ice cream.

Utensil Man, coming to the rescue of something, can't remember what it was... since 1975.

And, Pastor W., aka Bathroom Boy... with the ability to smell like a toilet... that's Pastor W. for you...

Me, Rachel, and Cait.

A bunch of people, including the SuperMaids, Cereal Girl and Milk Girl (bringing milk and cereal to hungry people).

Hannah (Pink - spreading the pink!), and Elisabeth.

Other supers..

Supermom - had the ability to cook better than two guys in the youth group who cook really well, ground you if you diss her cooking, and hit you over the head with a cookbook if you diss her cooking.

SuperMary and SuperLamb... from Mary Had a Little Lamb...

Those were just the good ones. There were about 40 youth there... and we didn't get home until midnight, so I'm really tired.

Over'n'out
The Unidentified Superhero.

About meself... the super-long version:

2007-08-29T15:39:00.000+03:00

I tend to be awful at writing about myself, it’s not something I do a lot, and I greatly dislike doing it. One warning before I start: I often get side tracked or start to ramble. So be forewarned. As you’ve already seen, my name is Kyleigh, though most places online I go by Ky or Kyleian. I’m fourteen, and my dad is a pilot with an airline in the Middle-East. So I live out in a tent in the middle of the desert. Well, not really. We do have desert campouts in the winter when it’s cool enough, but normally I live in a house with painfully hard marble floors. I have three siblings, and I’ve always wished for more. I’m the second oldest and the second tallest. For now. We’re a rather short family, I’m 5’ 1 ½” (if even)… All four of us kids are homeschooled, and have been basically our whole lives – my parents were in language school for 2 years, in which my older sister (4) and I (2) went to pre-school, Kindergarten, and first grade at schools in Jordan. I love school, God has blessed with a love for learning none of my other siblings seem to have. This coming school year I will be taking both French and Arabic, geometry, Chemistry, Logic, Medieval-Early Renaissance History and Literature, art, and PE… well, kinda for the art and PE. It’s more of a draw-something-once-a-week and be-sure-to-go-swimming-or-run-around every day. I do have fencing two-three times a week, though, and love playing with swords. Besides swords (and other old-fashioned weapons such as bow-and-arrows), I love dance, music, writing, and books. I don’t dance as much as I did previously, we moved to the Middle-East about a year ago, and none of the dance schools here met our standards (actually now there is one that does, but it’s not technically a school, and I kept up with ballet for so long in the states because of the atmosphere at the school we were at). I do dance around the house still, it’s kind of hard to marché down the stairs without getting hurt. I’m constantly listening to music, and when I’m not I’m making it – I play guitar, piano, and violin (piano and violin just picked up from my siblings), and this school year I’m (Lord willing) taking viola or oboe. I love to sing as well, however I’m not very good and my voice isn’t very high so it’s a bit tricky to sing a lot of songs I like. My favorite genres are classical, Contemporary Christian, country, and soft rock. The artists I listen to most are Third Day, ApologetiX, Jars of Clay, Blesk, Eisley, Sara Groves, Michael Card, Bethany Dillon, Newsboys, Delirious?, and Nichole Nordeman. I love to write, but some days I don’t feel like it or am stuck in one of my stories, so instead I’ll read or draw. I’ll draw anything if I have a good idea, but the outcome isn’t always the best. :) Usually I’ll go on reading streaks, when I’ll read almost non-stop for a few days to two weeks. I read mostly historical fiction and fantasy, but I love sci-fi and biography as well. I loathe romance. Usually. My favorite authors: J.R.R. Tolkien, Brian Jacques, C.S. Lewis, Lois Walfrid Johnson, and Douglas Bond. My favorite books, er, well, the top few other than my Bible, would be (in no particular order) Viking Quest series, Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, The Last Sin Eater, Quo Vadis, The Bronze Ladder, They Loved to Laugh, and The Princess Bride.

We don’t watch many movies in our house, but I seem to go on movie-watching streaks as well, where I just feel like watching movies. My favorites would be Ladyhawke, National Treasure, Les Miserables, Facing the Giants, Princess Bride, and MirrorMask. A few random facts: I love hot glue guns, techno music, duct tape, cookies, masks, song parodies, and grapefruits. Well, this is getting rather long, so cookies to all who are still reading, and goodbye.

I just felt like posting. :)
And this is my new bio for www.apricotpie.com So I thought I'd share it here... so I'm not quite 14 yet, but by the time I'm completely finished writing it and everything, I will be. It's only three days.

Fencing tonight! I'm gonna get killed... unless it's only me and Mr. Seraj. That would be nice, a one-on-one fencing session my first night back.

*shoots a hot glue gun at a beetle walking by* *Kapow*

Ky

Phantom of the Opera... in Techno.

2007-08-25T14:55:00.000+03:00

Something you probably didn't know about me is that I like techno music.

Quite a lot.

Anyway, while I was in Yemen, we got on the topic of music when we were in the car with some friends. And one guy told me about the Phantom of the Opera... in techno.
Sadly, I can't seem to find it anywhere, but I did find this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHmtSCnVLjU
(don't pay any attention to the video, it's just the music)

And I've listened to it about 10 times already today. I love it.

Well, what else... the youth group progressive dinner is coming up on Thursday. You have to make up a super hero, and go as that. I know what I'm doing, but it's a secret.

I have a follow-up doctor's appointment on Tuesday. Pray for that.

School starts next Sunday, but I may start some tomorrow. This year, I have:
- Medieval/Early Rennaissance Literature
- Medieval/Early Rennaissance History
- French
- Arabic
- Logic
- Geometry
- Chemistry
- PE
- Bible
- Art

Cait and I may be doing a debate book with daddy as well, but we're not exactly sure. And of those, only 6 are daily. So I don't have too much every day. I'm actually looking forward to it a lot.
If I like Chemistry and Geometry, my sophmore year will be a blast.

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee

Well, that was an eventful day.

2007-08-23T20:44:00.000+03:00

Okaaay... so, I was gone most of the afternoon and evening.
Why?

Because we thought I had appendicitis. Yeah, I went to the bathroom and ended up on the floor, doubled over in pain. I spent half an hour lying on mom and dad's bed while they figured out what to do, finally we made an appointment with the doctor.

He diagnosed me with appendicitis.

At this point I started getting really scared, thinking I would have to have an operation. Which in my mind means lotsa needles. Which scares me. A lot.

I went to the ER in American Hospital. By now the pain was almost gone except for when I moved around.

I saw a nurse, questions, answers, etc. Got sent to a room. Waited for a while. The pain subsided a little bit more.

Finally, a doctor came, by then it was basically gone. He said, no it's not appendicitis, the only symptom I had was the pain, nothing more. So, we could either leave (by the way, by now it's like, 6 PM) or get some more tests done.

I ended up getting my blood drawn. And I hate needles... well, more like I'll sometimes almost faint if I have to get my blood drawn, shots aren't quite as bad, though. And then she left the thing in so I could be hooked up to a drip/IV if needed. So basically, for like, 3 hours, I have this needle stuck in my wrist and it's really uncomfortable.

Anyways. Then I had 3 ultrasounds. Yuck.

And it turns out I may have a cyst on a couple organs. What that means, we're not exactly sure yet. Just pray - for me, and for wisdom for the doctors. And that maybe, maybe, whatever is there will be gone by my next doctor's appointment.

So yeah... that's mostly what happened today.

Pretty scary.

Ky

Swimming and Conferences.

2007-08-22T19:50:00.000+03:00

-100th post!!!

So... today was boring.
Nobody was around, Luz got back from the states yesterday, so she's really worn out.
I didn't feel like going to see Karin until this evening, and she was out horseback riding.
Figures.

We went swimming tonight, though.
That was probably the highlight of my day, even though now I'm all tuckered out. Swam about 50 laps. Mom was giving me tips, which got me tired out, ya know, different ways of doing things, etc. I still can't do a proper turn, though.
I was mostly kicking and doing breathing stuff, because I still use a noseplug and am trying to break that... I do play water polo and stuff without it, though.
Anyway.

Mom and a bunch of others have been emailing about the conference this October.
They're trying to get speakers for the youth.
I'd much rather it be like last year, where we did our own thing in the afternoon, and helped with the kids and creche in the morning.
There is one thing that's making me look forward to going again, though, even though neither Joy nor Sharon will be there. :(

Anywaaayyy...
Not much has been going on.

Oasis Game Night is tomorrow, with Marble Slab at Ibn Btutta to end it. Yum!

So yeah. That's pretty much what I've been doing lately.

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee.

PS - I videoed my room today...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW7B9pXYAwo

Rambling Post

2007-08-20T05:58:00.000+03:00

I just felt like making a post where I semi-ramble.
Cuz I haven't done that in a while.

So Saturday we went to the thrift store with Rachel and Mrs. R. I didn't find much there, just a pair of pajama bottoms and a really pretty Medieval looking dress. Mrs. R and Nate walked to their apartment while we bought our stuff and drove over there. Nate and Daniel came down, and Rachel, Cait, and I went up. We tried on all of our "new" clothes, then took a bunch of random pictures.
Be warned, some of them are kinda... :p

Cait says: Rawr!!!

Cait's scared of santa....

Uh... heheh...

Anyways.
Then we got back into normal clothes and watched some videos from when the R's were younger - Rachel at 4 doing the Highland Fling, etc... And we watched Timeline, which had a great plot and was good except for a bunch of swearing. Seriously, though, it sounded like they were swearing just for the fun of it or something.

So yesterday nobody was around. Not on email, AP, A-U, not in real life, either. I got some stuff ready to start school again, like got out the logic books and such. I helped mom with dinner. Okay, so I peeled a couple juicy carrots (I know, who calls carrots juicy but me... and maybe Bugs Bunny...), potatoes... and learned how to cut cauliflower and cabbage. I know, it seems strange - I don't know how to run a dishwasher and are awful at remembering how to do laundry as well - those have always been Cait's jobs.

I didn't sleep well last night, I have a nasty cold, probably from air conditioning, mom says.
So I went to bed at 10:30, woke up at 2:03, then didn't really get back to sleep. Got up at 5:54.
I'm not feeling too tired, though, and I'm getting my nice alone time in the morning.

Yeah.

How was that for rambling?
I tend to do it when I'm not trying to, and when I try to, it doesn't turn out well, there's nothing funny or bright in any of it.

Oh well.

Let's see.
Okay.
Pray for people all over as school is starting up.

Over'n'out.
Kilo-Yankee

Faith.

2007-08-18T17:28:00.000+03:00

Shane started a topic over on the Apricot Pie Message Board the other day.
Let me warn you before you read it, just cuz AP is a homeschool forum, not everyone on there is Christian.

So.

Faith.
What does it mean?

Faith...
Involves honesty
Faith...
Looks to God, not main.
Faith...
Brings peace.
Faith...
Prays for God's victory.
(Psalm 3)

Hebrews 11:1,3,6.
"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen..... by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible....And without faith it is impossible to please [God], for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him."

-----
Basically it's to beleive in someone and their abilities. Wether those abilities are to do your laundry and make you dinner every night or the abilities are to save billions of people, take them to heaven and love them all. Personally, I feel that faith is a sign of a lazy mind.

"If I beleive really hard that it will happen, then it will"

If something confuses you and you are faithful towards your lord, then it is much eaiser to have a "god did it, I have faith that he knows what's best so I won't question him" attitide.

Because no christians have actually seen god and lived to tell about it; faith is the only link that god and his followers really have.

"If I beleive really hard that god is real, then he is"
-----

I believe in the existence of God and gravity.

Faith, isn't so much believing that something is true that obviously isn't. It's not like that at all. To me it's unwavering certainty that something is true. An unquestionable conviction. For example, it's an unquestionable conviction in my mind that gravity exist, has a direct effect on my life, and even determines somewhat where I'll be in the future. It forces me to stay on the ground, which has a direct effect on my life. It also determines that I'm likely to be on the ground ten days from now as well. Oh yes, it's confining and controlling, gravity isn't it? I mean after all, who would want something that forces everyone to stick to the ground instead of being free to do their own thing? Perhaps, I should enlighten myself and start trying to defy gravity! Perhaps if I join up with a bunch of other like-minded folks and we stand around and shout "There is no gravity." we can eventually evade this restrictive force. Now, I can't see gravity, taste gravity, don't really have a comprehensible feeling of it though I'd certainly feel it's absence. can't smell it, hear it, or otherwise be sure of it's existence via the normal methods of direct observation. Tell me, what would you say if I said gravity doesn't exist? It's a perfectly logical observation isn't it? Gravity cannot exist because nobody has ever seen it, am I not correct? There may be, after all other interpretations as to way things stick to the ground, perhaps we just think things stick to the ground or maybe there is little particles of a glue like substance that for unknown reasons prefers to be on whatever side is down, which also pulls things down to the floor unless a stronger force pulls it back up. It's obviously a myth, I mean how can I believe in something nobody has ever seen!

Or perhaps, maybe gravity does exist, but that can't be, it after all sets certain rules and limitations on me, so I prefer to deny it's existence rather then face the obvious truth for what it is.

To me, it takes so much more faith, by the definition of believing in something just to make it real, to believe that things like gravity and God do not exist, then it does to accept the truth for what it is. Let's face it, I'm stuck on the ground and no amount of denying it is going to change that.

-----
Faith is all christians base their beliefs on and its half the reason i am very against christianity. In my experiance when i was a christian a would always ask someone at my church or youth group this question only to dig deeper "What do we have to base on God's existance?" And they would always answer with one simple word "Faith" it drove me crazy "Faith in what?" i mean jeez "based on what?" and we'd just go in circles with it. All i came down to was we had blind faith in a guy who no one even knew exisited... and if i said that what i'd get was "You have to have faith" BUT FAITH IN WHAT!!???!!! Faith really is blind all it is, is a cover up an excuse to believe in some dude that probly does not excist and surely doesnt care if he does. I could kill myself tomorrow and he wouldnt care just send me to hell for not believing in him. So Faith is really pointless all we do is waste our time having faith in him and we have no basis. I truly want to know why we should have faith in God without any reason. I want proof not lies.

----
You want proof?

You got proof.

Look all around you. You really think that all this stuff was formed by chance and a big bang? And the Bible has been tested... and it's the most accurate ancient document. Ever.
-----
Sorry but Korn's latest song "Evolution" makes much more sense then the pack of lies the bible's telling us, Not That i believe in Evolution but its not as silly as the bible deffinatly.
-----
For proof, the Bible doesn't put forth creation as it's primary example but instead turns to Prophecy as it's proof. With 100% accuracy I find it at least something to consider. And considering that nearly all religions have a creation story of sorts, I can see why God would choose to do so. However, it's pretty much only blind to those who have forgotten how to see. Silent to those who have forgotten how to listen, therefore, I see little point in trying to intellectually convince anyone who cannot see nor hear it. The reason is quite simple, to understand the scriptures, one has to know the author, otherwise it seems foolishness. I understand why Christianity and the Bible seems very much a myth and foolishness to you.

I think the question you are asking is why do bad things happen to good people. I don't know. I've heard it said that there are no good people. I don't know if I agree with that, for one there is one good person who had bad things happen. Considered good by God's standard, he was accused of crimes he didn't commit, even executed. It's kind of like the question the pharisees asked Jesus, "Who sinned? This man or his parents?" about a crippled man. Jesus didn't agree with them. Perhaps "Why do bad things happen to good people?" is indeed a valid, reasonable question. I only wish I knew how to answer it. Perhaps it is true that there are no good people. But still the question remains. Why do bad things happen? Isn't God sovereign, all powerful, able to do anything? Yes. Then why do bad things happen? My only answer that I know is so that Love can truly exist in it's truest, purest, form. In order for love to exist and be true love there has to be a choice. My guess is, that bad things happen because we have the ability to chose or reject God. But think about it, if God forced you to love him against your will, would that be love? By it's very definition it is not love, but hate to deny someone the choice. The choice to love is the answer I believe. Freedom to choose to love God or to reject him. It's that freedom to choose to hate God that allows for pain. Since God is good, rejecting him, naturally leads to evil. It's the natural result, but the required result for love to exist between God and Man. Furthermore, God doesn't want perfect people, he want's redeemed people. People who have personally, individually made the choice to love him. I believe God loves all but respects the choice of the individual. In other words he purposely forsakes his sovereignty so that you can choose to hate him. Without men being able to choose evil, and therefore reject God, who is good, yes, we would have a perfect world, but it would be a world of pseudo-love. A false relationship.

All this brings about the question. Why hell? Because justice, ultimately requires payment, either by the individual who committed the crime or a perfect sacrifice in place of the individual. But justice doesn't rest. Again it boils down to the goodness of God. A good God, must be a just God. Imagine if you will an unjust God. It would not be a good God. Which is why Jesus coming to earth to be that perfect sacrifice is so important. That's the importance of the cross, again, to lay the choice of Heaven or Hell upon the individual. Making it your own choice on where to spend eternity. In other words, if you don't want to be with God, then you have the choice to reject him, and get your wish, but what that means, and I have to be honest, is that justice still needs to be paid out. It's a requirement of a good God. Choice again is the key here.

Freedom to love. You can choose to love or hate God, but it is your choice.

If you wish for practical proof of true, real, Christianity I suggest looking at the persecuted church for answers. There has got to be something real about it for those people to endure the incredible evils that get thrown against them. Explain the persecuted church please. What makes it so powerful if God doesn't exist? It's a reasonable question that concerns an actual issue going on in the world today. Those people believe in God enough to not deny Him under hardships most of the west can't even imagine a human being putting on another human being.

It all comes down to your choice really.

Shows how off topic we get over there.
But that's not my point.
So what's faith in your definition?

Give it a think.

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee

Strange Things

2007-08-18T08:30:00.000+03:00

It still seems strange being back... the strangest things:

- The heat. Whoo, it's so much hotter here, yesterday walking into the mall I was starting to sweat.
- Wearing seatbelts. Yeah, I spent 12 days in Yemen without a seatbelt. And now I'm almost forgetting to wear them.
- Being able to drink from the tap... I'm not really supposed to, the water here doesn't have many vitamins or whatever, so we're supposed to drink water that comes from the delievery, but I still drink tap water anyways.
- Being back online... stupid Macs wouldn't let me send mail from the server.
- Not wearing a sheyla/scarf when I go out - that's kinda nice.
- Air conditioning.

That's just some of it. There's so much more strange stuff about being back, but some of it I can't quite figure out.

Oh, and if weird things start happening, then don't be worried, I'm trying to work out how to put my custom layout in.

Other things:
I have a nasty cold. Sore throat, stuffy nose, sneezing...
Fencing starts up again tonight! Hurrah!

Ky

Pictures!

2007-08-16T18:27:00.001+03:00

Okay, I dunno how this'll work, but okay.
The link is to my photobucket album. The sub-albums are from Yemen.

I didn't put all the pictures up, there were about 400, both from my camera and the P's - and the family one still has a bunch.

But okay:
Yemen is stuff from my camera - Lotsa pictures!
Yemen 2 is stuff from the P's camera - fewer pictures and better quality.
Best of Yemen is the best stuff...

http://s111.photobucket.com/albums/n122/lalaithnindil/

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee

I'm Back!

2007-08-16T15:54:00.000+03:00

Okay, so ya'll are wanting to know how my trip to Yemen was... well...

August 4:
5 am - Got up, got dressed, left for the airport.
7:30-ish - plane took off.
8:10-ish, Yemen Time - Stepped off of the plane into a beautiful country.
I LOVE it here... it's so poor, but so beautiful. Anyway, today after the P's picked us up, we got our permits to go to Mahwheet, then went to the P's, talked, ate, and played Mau. Then we left for the Old City and spent a while shopping there.
Then we went to a restaurant - they served us bread, then baked fish (literally, a baked fish). And then the kibde... liver. Surprisingly, I really liked it - even after Joy and Grace told us what it was.

August 5:
This morning, the place where we were staying was out of water. :P
The P's came by and we left for Mahwheet, talking, singing, playing games, and counting sheep, cows, and donkeys on the way. I took LOTS of pictures at the villages along the way.
When we got to Mahwheet, we got settled in the hotel, which, BTW, has European toilets and bathrooms in each room - a "Wow" in Yemen. We ordered dinner, then sat in the Majlis for a while. After dinner we played Bus Stop in the Majlis.

August 6:
For breakfast we went to a Yemeni restraunt, and ordered kibde, beans, peas, bread, and tea. YUM! Then we drove up to an overlook and sat/climbed around there for a while before heading back to the hotel and packing up. We went down to a wadi and hiked there for a while, then drove back up to the city. We drove back to Sana'a, unpacked and ate. We watched Bride and Prejudice after dinner... it's hilarious...

August 7:
After breakfast, we drove to the House on the Rock overlook, took a few pictures, shot a BB gun. Then we drove down to House on the Rock and climbed/looked around there for a while.
We drove back to the P's and ate lunch. Joy, Grace, Nate, and I decided to play badmitton. Heh... Nate got it onto the neighbor's awning, and after we FINALLY got it down, we didn't feel like playing. The parents had a meeting, so we watched Merry Christmas Mr. Bean and Babette's Feast.

August 8:
Mom, Dad, and everyone else left this morning back to Dubai. Mrs. P picked me up and took me to their house, then Joy and I talked for a while. We planned our movie, played Mille Bornes, Take Two, and the dictionary game. After lunch, we worked out our schedule, then went to the mall, walked around and got ice cream. This evening we watched Facing the Giants.

August 9:
This morning after quiet time, Joy and I walked to the store, then beaded, talked, and drew. After lunch we played Phase10, then got ready to play frisbee.
End score:
Flying Monkeys (them) - 16
Prickly Platypuses (us) - 15
We made a brilliant comeback though, from the end of the second half when we were at 4-8.
And the Flying Monkeys had some pretty stupid cheers... Like really stupid.

Then in the evening some people came over and we roasted stuff over the fire.

August 10:
After Church we played with the toddlers, then went out for pizza. Megan came over and we filmed a few movie scenes, then played Phase 10 and baseball.

August 12:
Yesterday Anna and Megan came over and we filmed the movie. In the evening we went to a little Indian boy's birthday party.

Today we made lunch, ate breakfast and went to Bayt Bose for the day with some friends and their 4 kids. We hiked, explored, and played with the kids. Then we loaded stuff we'd videod onto the computer. The P's have Macs and they're driving me craaazy....

August 13:
This morning we went to Coffee Trader for elevensies. It was yummy and we had a fun time. IN the afternoon, the V's came over and after lunch Grace gave us the "Manners Test," which got pretty amusing after a while. We played silent football, James had to apologize to Mrs. P for stealing her best china cup the other day... We also played a game like psychiatrist.
I read Nory Ryan's Song in the afternoon when Joy and Grace had orthodontist appointments, then we watched MirrorMask in the evening.

August 14:
This morning we got ready and put sunscreen on, then left for the pool, picking up some people on the way. We were throwing around splat bombs for a while, then raced (I got second, really suprised!). We played Water Polo after that, stopped when we were tied, 9-9. More splat bombs, then showers, tehn we left. On the way back we were talking about music.
IN the evening we went to a Yemeni wedding, well, it was just a blessing for the groom, but it was still a good experience.
We came back and had burgers and baboos for dinner, then checked mail and played around with Photobooth. I guess Macs aren't ALL bad, but they're MOSTLY bad.

August 15:
This morning we burned the DVDs and put pictures onto my jump drive. Then we watched A Cinderella Story. Kinda quoteable, but had a really mushy ending.
After lunch we went and played frisbee. For my part, it was a better game than last time. Then we came back, changed, and left for dinner at a Greek place, then bowled. Fun!

August 16:
Last night and now there's this strange emotion... I dunno what it is. Is it that I'm excited to go home, but sad to leave Yemen? Or is it something else, something... well, I won't say.
Later - I still can't figure it out. We've not taken off yet, but just sitting here looking out the window at Sana'a and the moutnains is making me sad.
I know I'd like to work in the Arab world some day... is God trying to tell me it's Yemen?
It's like in Painting Pictures of Egypt, by Sara Groves:
"I don't wanna leave here, I don't wanna stay, it feels like pinching to me either way..."

Later - I got to wait in the first class lounge before we boarded. It was sweet.
Now I"m listening to "Concert Hall" On the airplane. And it's the processional from Pomp and Circumstance.

Anyway... I'm working on getting a photobucket album together of my trip to Yemen.

Could ya'll pray for me? I dunno what for... but yeah.

Kyleigh

Pinnacle...

2007-08-02T19:13:00.000+03:00

Okay, so today started out well... I loaded our videos from the trip onto the computer and onto Pinnacle studios. I got the first DVD burned, with a disc menu and all... now I can't seem to get it to work, been trying for almost an hour now. And I REALLY want to get this done before we leave for Yemen on Saturday morning. Meaning, I'd have to burn the second DVD tonight, then get the other one burning tomorrow morning before we leave for Church, then when we get home I'd be done.

But no, Pinnacle doesn't want to get the disc menu done the same way again... I don't even know how I did it before...

Seriously, Windows Movie Maker is a LOT easier... much simpler, much easier... 'course, when you get good at it, there's not as much, but Pinnacle just drives me nuuuts...

Anywaaaaaaay.... could ya'll pray for our trip to Yemen? Just for safety and an encouraging time.

Over'n'out,
Kilo-Yankee

SkiDubai

2007-07-30T13:52:00.000+03:00

We went to SkiDubai as a family on Saturday... daddy had the day off.
It was a belated Christmas present from a Church in Florida.

Me in the eskimo ice sculpture thing...

And Nate... I love that face.

Nate and Candace coming down from one of the innertube rides... the luge one was better, in the innertube one they were going for speed and not drop, and we like drop better than speed. It was fun, though. I guess we got kinda spoiled with the great hills at Hemlock and Ford Field.

Candace climbing up the ice wall.

The ice sculpture dragon... the best part of the whole thing... that area - the dragon, tunnels, a mirror maze (kinda), and giant penguins in glass cases. With fitting music playing.

Me with the dragon. The lights changed colors.

After looking at all the pictures daddy took... I figured that I look really weird without my hair showing anywhere...

Family picture in front of the igloo!
Well, minus dad, who took it.

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee
Frozen-oscar-x-ray

Last Night

2007-07-27T19:23:00.000+03:00

Well, I know I usually don't make posts 2 days in a row... buuuut I feel like I should today.

Last night, after Cait and I visited Miss Elaine, daddy drove us to someone's house... a local family, with a girl Cait's age and a bunch of cousins.
Wow.
They were absolutely crazy. But I'm praying that visits will happen again and we can be friends with them and eventually maybe lead them to Christ. It would be AWESOME to have a bunch of secret believers... and even better, it would be great if they could one day come out into the open and still have religious freedom - here, to be a local means to be Muslim.

Anywaaay... I was just thinking... I mean, they're so lively and happy... but do they ever feel caged? I mean, they can't go out of the house without an abaya and sheyla. And so many other things. It just makes me want to pray for them even more.

So that's the prayer for today... just pray that these girls, but all locals, will have a chance to be free and hear the word and not have to be secret believers.

Today was Cait's birthday partaaay... Daniel came as well, cuz Rachel was coming, and so I actually ended up playing Settlers of Catan, Mau, and Dreidel with Daniel and Nate. I did talk with the girls some, and at the table.
Oh, and we played Candyland.
Daniel had never played before, so we decided he had to play.
And we did. :p I know, we're so evil...

Anyways.
Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee

A Day To Remember

2007-07-26T13:35:00.000+03:00

Okay, well, as some of you know, most of the ice cream here is nasty.

Or it's really expensive.

Weeeeell... today at Choithrams mommy saw some Breyer's Vanilla Ice Cream on sale... for 5dhs, equivilent to about a dollar 60-ish. Since I don't eat much ice cream here, I immediately popped over there and looked at it. Next to it... also on sale... was Caramel tracks ice cream for the same price.

So after lunch today we all enjoyed some nice Caramel Tracks ice cream.

Yum.

Now, something I've decided to do is add some sort of prayer thing at the end of every post... so today I thought we could pray for Zimbabwe. We have some neighbors from Zimbabwe, and it sounds like there's a lot of stuff there that needs praying for... not sure exactly what, but things are getting pretty rough there.

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee

Mint and Pickle Making

2007-07-23T07:15:00.000+03:00

Yesterday we went over to Edge of the Woods, cuz Mrs. D had invited us to come over and make mints, the little cream cheese and sugar ones. The best part was that while we were putting the mints into the molds, we were allowed to eat some of the dough stuff. As we were finishing, Cait and Deborah had started chopping up onions and cucumbers for the pickles... so my eyes were really hurting from all the onions. When we finished with the mints, Nate, Candace and I went swimming in the pool, and in a little while a family who was staying there with kids our age came out and were in there with us. On our way home, we called the R's and they came over and Rachel, Cait, and I watched MirrorMask after dinner. Daniel wanted to, but played games with Nate instead and is going to watch it again later, after we get back from Yemen and they get back from Oman.

In the morning yesterday, Luz and I went to the clubhouse and practiced for fencing... we were so out of shape, just part of our warm-up tired us out, but we kept going, and didn't do any fencing, but kept doing the exercises one of the instructors always has us do. Tonight Mr. Seraj said it might work out for us to go have a lesson, but I don't know if we'll make it.

The family at Edge of the Woods lives in Afghanistan... in a mud hut, with no electricity most of the time, they don't have running water, they wash and change their clothes and bathe once a week. It makes you wonder... how do some people get by with so little, while others have so much that we "need"? It makes me think twice before complaining.

And then I was reading the biography of Margaret Wilson and Margaret McLachlan, two covenanters in Scotland during the "killing years." And man, their faith was amazing. Margaret Wilson and her younger two siblings were covenanters while their parents were still in the English Church, and they had such strong faith. If you can find a biography of the two Margarets, I suggest you read it, it's a great story.

Over'n'out
Kilo-Yankee

"In the world you will have trouble; take courage, I have conquered the world." ~ John 16:33

Lady Kyleian's Blog

Moving...

Wordpress.

Love.

Excelsior!

Campout.

Hey y'all...

PURE

Trust.

A rather dreamy all over the place post.

Desert Challenge 2007 - Renovate - Notes

This weekend.

... *deep breath*...

Dear Mary.... Love, God.

Life and Yo-Yo Ma.

God, Hold on Just a Minute.

A whole week...

Always, Forever and Ever

Picture Post!

Fun... and pain...

*sigh*

Thanksgiving

Victory, Sweet Victory!

Chivalry.

Nothing too Exciting.

Fixing the Heart - Abort73

Untitled.

Quick post.

Vote!

Nanowrimo... the first three days.

Another weekend...

The Vikings and Hard Things

YHWH, Pause, and my Weekend.

boB, the zoo-like thing...

The Blazing Center and Tolerance.

Burami

Eid.

The Change is here...

A Vacation.

The Beginning of the Weekend

Rebelution Links

Another Post.

An Update on more than my weekend.

A busy weekend.

Irish dance!

Gardening.

Music, Microwaves, and Ramadan.

Sarah's Birthday Party

Time, Greek Fire, The Battle of Vienna, Remembrance.

Beaches and Cameras

One Year

Don't Go Where I Can't Follow?

Back to School!

Superhero Progressive Dinner

About meself... the super-long version:

Phantom of the Opera... in Techno.

Well, that was an eventful day.

Swimming and Conferences.

Rambling Post

Faith.

Strange Things

Pictures!

I'm Back!

Pinnacle...

SkiDubai

Last Night

A Day To Remember

Mint and Pickle Making

... deep breath...

sigh