Singing

I'm going to tell you about something that has been in my life, on my mind, and somewhat unknown(well, at least to some of you). Now, this issue might seem so very small, but to me it has been a small battle waged between my sinful desires to quit and God's calling me to serve. I knew God wanted me to serve in my church. I was already involved in the youth group and knew that there weren't very many other ministries that I could be a part of. Then one Sunday, while I was reading through the bulletin, it hit me. God wanted me to sing. I wrestled with this realization for some time before actually going and talking to the music pastor. The day I went and sang for him, I felt a certain peace, and I knew that I had done the right thing in my obedience to God. So, I started singing in church every other Sunday. I have never done anything like this in my life. I've sang in choirs, and I've sang all over the state of Washington, but never with a mic directly in front of me, on a stage with only one other person. Needless to say it took me a while to get comfortable on stage. I spent a lot of time in Prayer, and as time passed I started feeling more comfortable. After I got back from Europe our music pastor, Jared, asked me to lead sing a song. I did it. I survived, but I was so very nervous. I've done it a few times now, and each time I'm surprised that I make it through the song since I can't really feel anything but my heart beating out of my chest. I've messed up. I've really messed up. And this morning when I was getting ready to sing again I had a lot of questions running through my head about my motives for singing. Why can't I just sing, instead of constantly worrying about making mistakes? Why does God want me singing on stage if I can't seem to do it without feeling like a failure.
Failure? Seriously? How can I fail these people? Does making a mistake on stage really add up to failing? It did in my mind until this morning. A sermon I listened to once said that serving is about obeying God, and we can't consider what people will think of us, we must only consider our obligation to obey. I can't stand on stage worried about what these people will go home saying when I totally mess up a song. I can't because I know that by being on that stage and singing, with pure intentions, to my Lord and Savior because HE asked me to is me fulfilling my obligation to obey.
So I will continue to sing. I will enjoy being able to serve the people of my church and my God in this way. I might not be the best, and I will probably make more mistakes, but I can look at those mistakes in a new light. God has given me this opportunity to show that I am a human who makes mistakes, but one that is willing to obey Him regardless.

Psalm 30:4

"Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name."

Psalm 68:4

"Sing to God, sing praises to his name"

Psalm 145:1-3

"I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable."

Psalm 150

"Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!"

I'm Thankful For..............

It's that time of year where we all tend to vocalize everything that we are thankful for. Thanksgiving will soon be upon us, and as I thought of that, I too thought of everything I was thankful for. Now, the list is extensive and even though I wont post everything I've decided to follow, a little belatedly, in Hilary and Tim's footsteps. What a great year I've had, and I am so thankful for everything....even the things I forget to post.

I'm Thankful For.........

God's provision

Friendships

Getting reacquainted with old friends

Making new friends

Belgium Chocolate

Sunsets

Hilary

Warm Showers

Horse Back Riding

Jane

Jane's art in my apartment

The Dowling Family

Classic Literature

Hilary's ceaseless friendship

Coffee

A good conversation over a cup of coffee

The Fries Family

Tyffany's ability to listen to all I have to say(and there is a lot)

Pride and Prejudice

Reduced Fat Wheat Thins

Music

My Piano

that Hilary was brave enough to go on the slingshot

Tre's joke titled "A tall, blond Polish man"

Campfires and Roasting Marshmallows

Haribo Marshmallows

My sister Molly

her laugh and her sarcastic humor

my time in Venezuela with Molly

The Boothman Family

that I always feel welcome at 3805 Webster

The generosity of others

Spring Rain

In-flight movies

My family

Hunting

Time with Dad

Godly Grandparents

Reading my Bible in Starbucks

Pastor John's Preaching

My youth group kids

An extended family that trusts and obeys God

My Bible

The night sky

Early mornings

The book of Romans

Kittens

Hannah

Hannah's ability to work hard, really hard

"My" KidsSnow

God's Mercy

A comfortable bed

My Car

An incredible roommate

Becky's example of discipline

Sunrises

Chilly Mornings

New running shoes

Skype

Poland

Slovakia

early morning walks with friends

Paul and Betty Weresch

The Hospitality of our Church Family in Europe

Walking through the fields above Pech

Laura and Tony

that I get to see Laura be an incredible mom

A great small group

Forgiveness

The Pichura family and their example of trust

Nap Time

VeheirJheiryn

Summer

Safe Travel

Family Poker nights

Kurt

that Kurt ONLY links fingers

A Heavenly Father

My Mother and her constant love

Jane's ability to take nothing and create something incredible

Singing in Bad Godesberg and making money

Encouragement

Emails

Burt's Beeswax

Neighbors that subsidize our heating bill

Peaches straight from the tree

Fresh Fruit

Fall

Thunder Storms

Rain

Brian

his sensitivity and eagerness to please

Long walk's with Annie in the Rain

Scarves
Bright Colors

My incredible cousins

My time at WSU
Living with Hilary

Cheese Toast Tuesday

Talks that go until 3 in the morning

Socks that don't have holes

My brother Tim

Tim's ability to work long, hard hours with a good attitude.

My brother's godly wife

Justification

Musli with fresh Fruit

Godly Women

Mrs. C

The wisdom of others

Wise advice

The Family Reunion
singing "A whole new world" with Peter

Digital Cameras

Hilary's Facial Expressions

Trials

Friends that I wont see again until Heaven

God's sovereignty

Hilary and Me

These are pictures of Hilary and me from the past few years.
Isn't it incredible that God put my best friend right in my family?

Hunting Video

I am having so much fun with these videos. This is one of photos from our weeks of hunting. Enjoy!

Japanese Exchange Student...again

Annie and I had the most incredible summer. We got to know one another even better then we ever thought possible. I loved being able to be in Europe with her, and I'm so thankful for the time God gave us together.

An Adventure.....a little unexpected.

I've decided to tell this story. One that God brought my way for two reasons(probably more, but I haven't learnt them yet) 1.)To help me get over my fear of asking for help(I truly think this is a pride issue) 2.)To spend some time really praying.

I'll call this adventure

THE DAMSEL IN DISTRESS

Everything was fine and dandy in the world of Carrie, until this morning at 7am. I am currently house sitting for a family from church while they are on vacation in Mexico. They have three dogs, and two cats, and they live in a house in town. My morning routine is that I get out of bed, let the dogs out, brush my teeth, let the dogs in, feed them, and then get on with my day. This house is a two story house and there is a balcony that runs all along the second story. We feed the dogs on the balcony. I let the dogs onto the balcony, and followed them out. I shut the door behind me because I didn't want them to get back into the house. I fed them, and played with them for a minute before turning to go back in. Well, a pulled at the sliding glass door, and it was locked. I chuckled a little knowing that the door couldn't be locked because I had just walked out the door, so I tried again, but this time harder......no, it was really locked. My mind sort of stopped. WHAT??? How is this possible? I just came out that door, how could it be locked?
This is when I decided that calm was the best. I tried every sliding glass door along the balcony(there are 5)....no luck.....I went to the kitchen window.....also no luck. This is the moment I started to cry. OK, what do I do? This is seriously funny....I'm trapped on a balcony. Well, I start to think of my options, and none of them are good. 1. Stay on the balcony(where is this going to get me.) 2. Jump off the balcony. The trouble with option two is that once I'm off the balcony what do I do? I don't have shoes on, and I'm in my basketball shorts and a sweatshirt. My hair is a mess, and I'm sure that crying helped my appearance a lot. My phone is in the house, along with my key's and everything else. So, I keep trying to get the door's and window open....again no luck. I tried everything. I searched the balcony for anything that might help me at all. Well, at some point I decided that I really needed to pray. So I prayed for a while. A long while.

I decided that waving down a passing car for help would be a good idea. I stood at the street end of the deck for a long time, waving at every passing car. Now, this wasn't pageant waving, this was fierce, "I need help", waving. No one would stop. I started to really get worried. I'd been trapped on this balcony for some time now. I sat down, and started to really cry(added to this was my extreme fear of heights). All of a sudden I heard a car coming, so I jumped up. It happened to be their neighbor, so when she got out of her car, I started yelling, "Excuse me, can you help me?" She finally heard me and walked over to the fence. I told her my situation, and asked her if she could call my dad. She was very kind, and got a hold of my dad straight away. So, my dad came to rescue this damsel in distress.....serious distress. He helped me jump off the balcony, and took me to work with him(in my bare feet, basketball shorts, sweatshirt, with disheveled hair). So now that the first problem was solved.....we had to figure out how to get back into the house.
I tried calling the family and seeing if they had a spare key hidden somewhere, but they didn't return my call. So then we tried calling the locksmith, but they told us that they couldn't help us at all, even if the family called from Mexico. They said that their insurance only allowed them to open the door if the property owner was present. Great....now we are really stuck.

*Note* I'm afraid of being in strange houses alone, so prior to this incident I had personally made sure that every window and door was securely shut and locked around the entire house.**

My brother Tim came and got me at the restaurants, and we headed back over to the house together to see what we could do. I broke into the garage somehow and we found some old metal coat hanger. Now, I mentioned before that there are 5 sliding glass doors around this house, so we tried each one again. One of the doors wasn't locked, but had a metal pole in the sliding path. So we started using the coat hangers to try to remove the metal pole. Two HOURS later Tim somehow used the hanger to lift up the pole and we walked into the house. It was incredible. I don't think these people have much to worry about. It was nearly impossible to break into their house. Praise God! It ended up being a pretty good day when we finally got back into the house. I got locked out of the house around 7 am, and got back in around 3.......now that really is an adventure.