Whoa.

I really have too much to say to write a blog over, to be completely honest. I should just write a novel instead filled with the things that have happened in my life since the last time I blogged (notice that was BEFORE camp). But, I will spare you all, and not share everything that has happened in my life, but only highlights for now and I'm sure things will be revealed and expounded on as my blogging life continues.
Basically, this summer was the best summer of my life thus far. I met 18 amazing people (as well as many others that I worked with at various points in the summer) that were chasing after Jesus, and whenever I say chasing, I mean that in the most fundamental way. It was literally a race daily to get as close to His face as possible for CK7, and it was one of the most blessed experiences of my life. We weren't a team, we were most definitely a family. I talked to fellow staffers about things I hadn't talked to anyone else about and heard stories from them that no one else knew. It was the most intense example of community I have been involved in. What a blessed thing community really is. I got to daily pour the life God has given me into camp. I poured it into the children I was ministering to, the leaders I was serving, the family I was walking life with, and the videos I was producing. Daily it was a pouring out of Him. Daily. Hourly. Minute by minute. Every single second. I got to see kids "get it" every single day through some type of intentional relationship a team member or myself was building. It really was like a perfect little world.
Things I learned (definitely not inclusive of everything, just the jumbled thoughts I have at the moment):
1.) I am blessed beyond measure to have what I have at WKU. I am surrounded by a group of people just like CK7 who are searching after the Lord, daily. Not everyone has that, and I wasn't aware of that until I met my staff this summer. I am so, so blessed to have my WKU community.
2.)The Lord's provision is perfect--if we give Him control of providing for us. I have never experienced such provision as His overflow of energy, patience, and grace every single morning after getting anywhere from 0-4 hours of sleep. I have never had to FULLY depend on the Lord as I did in those moments. Definitely some of my sweetest moments with Him.
3.) That the Lord can work in someones life in a MOMENT. Yes, I said a moment. I didn't fully believe that before camp, I have learned, because I had never witnessed it. But I witnessed it twice on a very personal level this summer with people that gave their life over to Him. It was an INSTANT life change. What a powerful God we serve.
That isn't anywhere close to everything I learned this summer, but that will do for now.
I am back at WKU now, in the middle of the busiest time of my short life thus far. Being surrounded by my friends and the ministry we have through CRU is a reminder of who God is in my life and the plans He has for His people. I am so thankful to be here...knowing this is exactly where God needs me. I am interning at Hillvue Heights church for the youth ministry and God is using that job to wreck me in so many areas of my heart...one of the best construction sites around :) it has been/is such a blessed learning experience for me. I get to still be with my wonderful girls that I had the privilege of meeting last year and new ones have been added this year. They are such a blessing and I even get to lead a Bible study with some of them..watching us grow together is such a special blessing from God.
Basically, I'm just keeping my head above water, because that's really all God wants from me. He hasn't given me this life to waste it, He has given me it to fill it up with HIM. Even though I'm still a work in progress, I can feel Him working in me. As painful as it is, it is the best pain anyone could ever experience. Life is exactly how it is supposed to be...and I'm at peace with my Father.

CAMP!

In exactly 48 hours I will be leaving Nashville to travel to Mississippi to start training week for camp this summer! My dream since my freshman year in high school when I started going to camp in the summers was to become one of the "cool" camp counselors who loved the Lord and had an awesome watch tan line :) and now it's actually coming true?! EXCITING STUFF!
I do believe that this summer will be the best/hardest/exhausting/liberating summer of my life thus far!! I know that this summer I am going to grow exponentially with my Lord because I am going to have to rely on Him for everything...every conversation starter, every late night boost of energy, every moment of patience...everything. But more than anything, I'm excited to get to pour into the kid's lives!! I can't wait to tell them all about our awesome Lord and Savior and help them in their walk with Him. It's going to be a summer I will never forget.
If anyone would like to pray for me this summer, I would greatly appreciate prayers for energy, strength, patience and discernment. Pray that I would continue seeking the Lord and staying focused on Him in order to portray Him the way He should be portrayed to all of the children.
Also, many people have asked me for my address for this summer and I will actually have 5 different addresses due to all of the traveling so I thought blogging the addresses would be easiest. If anyone would like to send me a letter, I hear that staffers LOVE getting snail mail, so I'm sure I'll be the same way :)Love y'all!
Here are the addresses and be sure to put CentriKid staff attn Paige Embry:


June 10-18
60 West Fullbright Ave.
Walnut Ridge, AR 72476

June 19-July2
900 N Grand Ave
Suite 6J
Sherman, TX 75090

July 3-9
PO Box 886
Talladega, AL 35161

July 10-Aug 6
9621 Frostown Rd
Middletown, MD 21769

Big Sister's Big Day

In 25 hours my big sister, Kaitlin, will be walking down the aisle, saying her vows, getting kissed by her prince charming, dancing the night away, and then flying to Hawaii as Mrs. Harrison.
Kaitlin and Marcus have dated for 6 and a half years and let me just say that I absolutely love Marcus. Him and Kaitlin were made for each other and I'm so happy they found each other so early in life and have gotten to make so many great memories together before married life (and having lots of babies :) hehe).
But, as much as I love Marcus and as prepared as I should be, I would be lying if I said I wouldn't miss her being home with me, at least a little bit. If you know anything about mine and Kaitlin's relationship, you know that we have hardly ever fought. We have always gotten along really well...She always wanted to lead me, and I ALWAYS wanted to follow her. It has been a pretty sweet set-up. She has always been like a mother to me...I have went to her for almost every situation I needed advice for. She has been the best older sister anyone could ask for. We would sit up late every night and solve life's problems... and I'm going to miss that.
BUT, my selfishness for my sister ;) is far out shadowed by how happy I am for her and Marcus!! They have such a bright future ahead of them as a couple and I can't wait to play a part in it. I have been praying for them daily since they got engaged...that they would keep God their central focus and remember that He is the only reason they even get to experience the blessing of marriage. I have prayed that their love would be just as it's illustrated in the Bible: for Marcus to love her as Christ loves us--sacrificially and all-encompassing, and Kaitlin would love him with the kind of love Christ's followers have for Him--sacrificially and all-encompassing. They are going to make such a great team!

RAIN

"The seas have lifted up, O Lord,
the seas have lifted up their voice;
the seas have lifted up their pounding waves.
Mightier than the thunder of the great waters,
mightier than the breakers of the sea-
the Lord on high is mighty." Psalm 93:3-4
Today is day #2 of flood2010 and I'm in utter amazement. First of all, I didn't even know it was possible for this much rain to fall over a 48 hour period, secondly, I never imagined there would be this much damage. This is unbelievable. But oh, the application that this flood has produced has been remarkable for my life (and many others, I'm sure).
You know the expression "when it rains, it pours"..yeah, I know you do, we use it all of the time because it is so true. Most of the time, in our lives, when one thing goes wrong..EVERYTHING goes wrong. I've had these moments in my life and I know that everyone else has had them too. And in those instances, most of the time I try to look ahead to the next big event in my life to detour my thoughts from how crappy my life seems to be in that moment. But, that's not what I should do..at all.
During my devo today, I read about "abiding in Him" and it talked about the fact that God only shines His light on TODAY. He doesn't shine His light on my life 10 days in the future, He only gives me knowledge for today. So, even if the moment does feel like absolute torture, the way to cope with it isn't to run from it and focus on future events, because God hasn't even promised me those events yet. Instead, I need to draw closer to Him, let Him love me, hug me, hold me. That's the only way to get through those tough days when the rain never seems to stop falling all around us. Because God promises that, "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."-1 Corinthians 10:13. God isn't going to give us more than we can handle with His help, so why do we let it get us so down?
Just like the verse in Psalms from the beginning of this post says: God is mightier than pounding waves and raging seas...He's got it under control!!

Just a thought.

I had the privilege of teaching/leading discussion in my Sunday school class this morning. Yes, we still have Sunday school, which I know is kind of "out of style", but honestly, it's the time on Sundays that I learn the most, mainly because it's geared directly to things happening to ME at my point in life. Anyway, we were talking about serving the Lord in our churches and the importance of that ministry. It went well, but it was pretty short (which I have noticed is very common when it's the 1st time you lead a bible study, class, etc.) so we started talking about other things. Eventually, I said something that I felt like God plopped right into my head, which is usually how it works. I said, "It's an awesome step in your spiritual maturity when you realize that people are no longer looking at the things that you aren't doing, but rather the things that you are doing."
Where did that come from?! God, that's where. At this point of my Christian walk, I have realized this statement. It's so true that as we mature as Christ's followers, we have to come to the realization that not committing the "big sins" is just not enough. Not committing adultery or not killing someone just isn't enough...even some non-believers abstain from those things for different reasons! We have to realize that our true witness for our Father are the things that we DO! It's no longer about the don'ts, but it's about the do's! Are we loving people like Christ loves us? Are we building real relationships with them, like Christ does for us? Are we being servants to them, just like Christ is for us? Are we more worried about other people's lives, rather than our own? THOSE are the things that will truly set us apart from other people and will make people wonder what we have dwelling inside of us, that they don't have.
So many times, growing up, we hear all of the things NOT to do...but the things that we are supposed to do sometimes get lost in the shuffle. God doesn't rank sin in our lives, so He tells us not to murder (Exodus 20:13) and He also tells us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44). Isn't he just as displeased when we don't do something He tells us to do, as He is when we do something that He tells us not to do?

I Must Pray.

I borrowed "the furious longing of God" by Brennan Manning from my friend Hannah, and let me just say that after reading only 24 pages, I already have many quotes from this book that I will remember for my entire life. The one that really stuck out to me wasn't all that profound or something revolutionary, but just something that I had never actually put together as a tangible thought. Manning said, "In a significant interior development, you will move from I should pray to I must pray."

WHOA. Or at least that was my reaction after reading that sentence! How true is it that for many of us we pray because we should, because we know God wants to hear from us, because we know it pleases Him, or because we want to be a good Christian and talk to our Dad. How many times in my life have I approached praying as something that I must do to get through the day. To be completely honest, there are days when I wake up at 9:06 for a New Testament test at 9:35 and barely have enough time to shoot God a quick prayer to thank Him for the day, tell Him I love Him, and of course ask for a little help on the test. (obviously, that scenario happened this week :/). And I made it through that day. I made it through without ever coming before God without any other distractions and I made it through just fine. But how much better could it have been if I had surrendered that day to God because I knew that was a must.

But there have been times, within the past few months even, where prayer was the ONLY thing that was going to get me through. It was an absolute necessity to hit my knees and cry out to God because He was the only person or thing that was going to provide me with comfort. Those times, as bad as they feel physically, are the most precious times I ever get to spend with my creator. Whenever no one else will even come near helping me as hard as they may try; not my friends, not my family, but only Him..only He could brush off my knees and send me on my way to do His work.

But, isn't that how I should approach each day? Not just getting up and praying because it starts my day off great (which it does), but actually realizing that He is the only reason I'm going to experience that particular day, He is the only thing that is going to get me through that day, and He is my only "MUST" that day. Why do I wait for bad times in my life to approach Him as a must..isn't He my only source of happiness too?

Ridiculously Evil vs. Deceptively Good

Yesterday morning I had the privilege of attending Cross Point Church. The pastor of this church is Pete Wilson, who used to be the pastor of Morgantown Community Church. Pete, Brandi, and their boys have always had a special place in my heart because I look up to them as individuals and as a family so much! So, getting to see Pete and Brandi was a true blessing...not to mention getting to attend church with my future roommate :)
Anyway, the people that I got to spend yesterday with weren't the most important things of the day. The most important thing was the message that I got to hear. Pete talked about how we as human beings have the tendency to make "good things" turn into "ultimate things". He said that there is a possibility of this happening in almost every area of our life: our jobs, our relationships, our families, school, sports, success, etc. He talked about how you can ruin a perfectly good thing if you try to turn it into your ultimate thing, which only God should be. This is something that I have to keep myself in check with ALL OF THE TIME. I have to remember that nothing on this Earth will satisfy my needs..nothing. Only God can fully satisfy me, and without Him, I am nothing.
The next point Pete made is what felt like a punch in the stomach. He talked about the fact that as Christians, the majority of us don't struggle with the things that are "ridiculously evil" such as murdering someone or stealing someones car. But instead we struggle with chasing after things that are "deceptively good". This statement pretty much sums up a lot of my struggles with my relationship with my Father. Fortunately, God has granted me the ability to not have desires to participate in the obvious things that are displeasing to Him. But, the things I struggle with the most, are chasing after things and situations that are theoretically good. These things are not good, though, if I put them in the place of where God needs to be in my life. These things for me include friends, family, fellowship, and even religious activity. All of those are seemingly good things and even things God calls me to have and participate in, right? Yes, they are, unless they are separating me from God...which happens too much.
Subconsciously I already knew that this described me, but hearing it Sunday made it that much more real. Chasing what is deceptively good is not enough. I have to chase what IS good, all the time.