Camp Inspiration

I'm so glad I get to blog again.  This is the first time in about 2 weeks that I get to tell you how camp was.

I was offered to go to my youth groups camp to be a videographer by my youth minister.  The day before I was becoming very nervous and anxious for the week to come.  As I was beginning to pack my equipment and planning for all the videos I had been asked to do, I kept thinking, "What if no one enjoys my videos?"  The reason I started my freelance business was to help people to have memories to keep forever.

The week began off amazing!!  Monday passed... a bunch of compliments.  Tuesday passed... I was pumped for the rest of the weeks videos.  Then, the day I was dreading the most... the day that all my equipment decided that they didn't want to cooperate with me.  I started to loose faith in my work, I didn't want to show my video that night because it had glitches all over the video.  As we sat down at worship to have our lesson, sing, and watch the video I found myself not singing, fidgeting more than usual, and just not paying attention.  I was so nervous that my video was going to look horrible.  The last thing I wanted to happen was to disappoint, be embarrassed, or to fail the others of what they had been looking forward to that day.  When the video started I sat there rocking back and forth then the video started glitching(spelling?) and I got up and left the room.  As I stood out in the hall, I heard my video keep playing so I walked back in.  When my logo popped up, the kids of 130 or more gave me an applause I didn't think I deserved.  Actually, I don't even think I heard or listened to them clapping because I was so upset about my video not going the way I had planned.  After worship, one of the youth ministers asked me to stand up so every one could applaud me once again for the work I had done so far.  That was when I had realized that I meant something to those kids even when my technology goes against me.

It was finally Friday and I had stayed up til 4:00 that morning to finish the end of the week video.  I got 3 hours of sleep, but I felt good as new (when I had woken up).  I started to burn the DVD when I was at breakfast and it was 15 minutes before our ceremony and it had finished.  The only thing was that it wouldn't play for me and had glitches all over the DVD.  I couldn't let that run, especially the video that mattered the most.  Not only the kids would be there but their parents would be too.  It was 15 minutes before the ceremony and I had to burn another DVD on the way there.  I also had to make a speech and didn't prepare that either because I was so frustrated with my DVD not working with me again.  I knew I had to keep a cool because of how I felt from the first time something went wrong.  So 10 minutes before my speech my 2nd DVD had finished burning and nothing was wrong with it!  Even though it said it burned fine I was still nervous.  As I was saying my speech, my voice kept cracking because I was so nervous about my DVD working correctly.  Finished my speech and my video began to play.  Twenty minutes after and it was over!  Nothing wrong, went as planned, and it was all over!  Lack of sleep paid off and my week had been better than ever!!

I was so inspired and loved by what people had said to me about my videos.  It made me realize that I am changing peoples lives and how they look at their life's memories.  I learned to keep your faith even through the struggles of my business.

Why Should We Grow?

Growing In Christ

(In Picture: My best friend ,Ashley League, and her boyfriend, Trent Deans)

This past week I was feeling doubt with myself... not just about life but about who I am as a whole.  I always tend to compare myself to my friends, celebrities, models, and just the people around me.  I look at their hair, clothes, shoes, look, body features then look at mine and I say "Why can't I just look like them?" It becomes devastating to my esteem and confidence and sometimes it takes a toll on my friendships and relationships I've built up.  To be honest, I don't think there's a lot wrong with my look when I just look at myself and no one else.  My friends love me for how I look and am as a person.  Why do I even care what others think? (good question!)

Before I move on to what I really want you to hear me out on, I want to let you think about how you perceive yourself.  Ask yourself if you compare yourself to everyone else.  If the answer is yes and you always compare yourself to others then I want to give you some information that I believe is very helpful.

Yesterday, my preacher started the sermon with "We have a responsibility"!  At first I was puzzled but slowly became eager to hear what the lesson was going to be about.  He then stated we needed to begin with the ending in mind.  I was quickly confused again.

We began to read a bunch of scriptures from Ephesians and talking about how we always compare ourselves to others and I just kept nodding my head because I couldn't help but agree to everything he was saying.
- Reading a bunch of scriptures never helps me understand what I'm reading or talking about, but when I discuss it or hear it I know exactly what it means.
- Or when I'm just listening to a lecture or a lesson from someone, I don't comprehend much of what their saying because I need to see it in text and hear it to know what's going on.

During this sermon my preacher was teaching us the one thing that stuck with me since is: Don't measure yourself to others, measure yourself to Christ.  To do that is the only way you will grow not only in yourself but in Christ.

My preacher had an outline for us (like he always does--- SOOO helpful!) and he listed expectations on how we can grow in Christ and reasons as to why we should grow.

Expectations:
- Service (Ephesians 4:12)
- Unity (Ephesians 4:13a)(Ephesians 4:3)
- Faith (Ephesians 4:13b)
- Knowledge (Ephesians 4:13c)

Why Grow?
- So you won't be infants.
- So you won't be tossed back and forth.
- So you won't be deceived. (Colossians 2:8)(2 Corinthians 10:5)

The sermon has left us with the question of "How is All of this Possible?" and to this day I am still amazing by what God has given us, proven to us, and dealt with... he is truly and AMAZING God!

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AE Production is a company that has inspired me!  It's my freelance business that keeps me going daily on what I love to do.  My passion!  I encourage others because of my company that I started, it makes me feel alive and free.  I want people to have the passion and love that I have for my freelance work.

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