Whew!

I am done with classes for the first week of the semester (actually i have one more this afternoon, so i'm almost done). Things seem like they will be pretty good, all the classes seem fairly interesting. i am NOT excited about my GSCI (gened science -- physics, chem, bio) though, i am already having a hard time keeping my eyes open. I am in a music history class from the late romantic to 20th century which i think i'm going to like a lot. My senior seminar is going to be a lot of work, but hopefully i won't get too overwhelmed.

Team Spotswood had a meeting on monday night to catch up and hang out for a little while. we talked abuot this semester and what we're excited about, and things like that. Leslie mentioned that she saw Scott Dovel (who was the young man in the car accident while we were at camp and is now a freshman at JMU) at one of the dining halls on campus the other day and got to speak with him. He is in a wheel chair and bandages, but was lively and energetic and encouraging to talk to. What an answer to prayer! I know he still has a lot of grief to go through, so let's continue to have him in our prayers. As far as SHS Young Life goes we are planning on having a Kick Out Cook Off (also known as a Kick Off Cook Out) next Wednesday to start off the semester. We are also planning on having Campaigners this year. Campaigners is more along the lines of a Bible Study for highschoolers who want to go deeper than just a 7-10 minute club talk. We are all really excited for this year at Spotswood, the Lord has been doing some incredible things in the lives of highschoolers there, and we are all prepared to continue the fight at Spotswood. We are also preparing ourselves for the imminent possibility that Satan is going to attack. Where God is moving Satan attacks. We know the Devil is scared and threatened by what is happening at Spotswood, so just pray for us (there are 8 of us on my team) and for the kids at the school.

I am looking forward to a weekend up here in harrisonburg, nothing big planned, but plenty going on. I am also planning on going home on sunday evening for a family dinner in honor of my cousins Meg and Bryan Smith which will be fun.

I will leave you with something i actually LEARNED today :-D
As you know the Celsius temperature scale is based on water: 0 degrees is ice and 100 degrees is boiling. Did you know that 0 degrees on the Fahrenheit scale was based on the temperature on an average day in Iceland (where Fahrenheit was from), and 100 was the human body (i guess he was fairly accurate)?

JMU!

Well, as it turns out, I did NOT have to work this weekend (yay!), so i drove up to harrisonburg yesterday afternoon (after cherishing the air conditioning at my house for a few extra minutes). I was about 20 minutes from school when Amy (one of my housemates) called and said she had broken down in Richmond. I drove the west of the way to the house and unloaded my stuff and then turned back around and made the two hour drive to richmond to pick her up. We loaded all of her stuff into my car and then went to Shortpump for a little shopping and dinner at California Pizza Kitchen (yum). We made it back to harrisonburg aroun 11 last night.

It's really fun being back here with all the girls, including the two new additions to the Soup Bowl, Kat and Jodi. Today we went to church and then have been helping move stuff into rooms and get things organized and clean before the semester starts. I am excited for the year to start and everything to get rolling!

Alright well i'm off to do some more helping!

Hello World

Well I am making my entrance into the wonderful world of blogging, following the footsteps of my big sister. I'll be making my way back to Harrisonburg soon to start my final semester of college (crazy, huh?). As it turns out I have to work this weekend up at the farm, so i'll move all my stuff into the Soupbowl on Thursday and then come home for the weekend.

This summer has been very long and pretty dull. THe beginning was wonderful and so fun out in Colorado at Trail West and i spend a lot of time thinking about those times. But, after returning to Lynchburg i was pretty bored and ready to quit work after about two weeks.

I went as a leader to Sharptop Cove with the high schoolers from Harrisonburg. It was a very hard but amazing week. We had around 40 kids from Spotswood on the trip and five of my teammates were there. During the week there was a car accident back in Harrisonburg involving two kids from Spotswood. Scott Dovel, his parents, and his girlfriend Brielle Nelson were in the car on the way to the beach for vacation when they were in an accident with a dumptruck. Scott's parents were both killed instantly, Brielle was on life support in the ICU, and Scott was in surgery when we first got the news from one of our campers parents. It was pretty hard having to break the news to these highschoolers who were supossed to be there at camp for the best week of their lives. They all handled it very well and were able to agree that Scott and Brielle would want them to have a good time and be able to go on with the rest of their week. Brielle was taken off of life support the next day and passed away shortly after. She was a cheerleader with a few of the campers with us, and very close friends with most of the girls. Scott is on the lacrosse team with most of the boys on the trip with us, and Scott Sunderlin (my teammate) is one of the coaches on the team. So, to say the least, all of the people at camp were very affected by this tragedy. It was really hard to be in a leadership position in a situation where i wanted to ask the same questions that the kids were. It is really hard to understand "why", and to have faith when something that seems so pointless and so devastating happens. But the Lord prevails and He knows and He is. 40 highschoolers from Spotswood (along with over 100 others from the Harrisonburg area) heard the gospel and were surrounded with love and care and prayer.

Since then i have simply been at home in Lynchburg working at the barn and hanging out with whoever is in town.

One thing that i am VERY excited about is my trip to California to visit Katie, Jon, Nate, and Lucy. I bought my plane tickets a few days ago and i'm heading west on the 6th. I'll get to spend all of friday, saturday, and sunday there. I havn't been out there in a while so it will be fun.

Well i suppose this is long enough for an introductory post.

Lucy