Spanish Songs, Nicknames, Cheesecakes, Everything is Awesome.

Yesterday was my birthday, I am officially an adult. 

It was amazing. In the span of a few hours I went from being immature and oblivious, to being a knowledgable, independant and responsible adult.

Here's some advice from someone older and wiser than you, all you seventeen year olds out there: Turn eighteen.

Okay, honestly though, I feel the same. Just like I always have every time I turned a new age.

I didn't have a great epiphany this week, so I'll just talk about some other things which may or may not interest you at all.

Number 1 is my genius plan at work! Anyone who has been to McDonalds in Canada in the past year will have seen their self-order kiosks.

To the average person, it doesn't matter which kiosk is which, but as a Guest Experience Leader at McDonalds, it is really frustrating for me when I can't think of ways to make myself remember which one is out of printing paper, which one is frozen, etc.

They each have numbers, but I have all but given up on my ability to remember numbers.

So two days ago, I came up with a creative solution!

I christened them Beth, Theodore, Eliza, and Charles.

It's worked like a charm. My mission now is to get everyone at my store calling them by those names, which will not only make communication easier, but it will also be really funny.

Imagine.

"Who even took that order?"

"I don't know, OH! It was Theodore."

"Ohhh....Theodore!"

Seriously Ted. Get your act together.

"Beth needs printing paper!"

"Eliza is being stubborn again..."

"Why are you so mean to me? Charles is never mean to me. Charles is my friend."

"So one of your jobs as a Guest Experience Leader will be to ask guests to use the kiosks. These are our kiosks, Beth, Theodore, Eliza, and Charles. Eliza is the oldest. She's mean."

Hehehe. Yeah, it probably wouldn't ever go that far. But it's really fun having names for them.

The other thing I've been up to is choreographing to a Spanish song!

My sister Tirzah is going to Guatemala for a missions trip, and she's fundraising, so we're putting on a dinner for her at our church.

We know a bunch of Spanish worship songs since my other sister lived in Guatemala for ten months, so my younger sister and I picked one and choreographed to it to perform at her dinner.

The song is called La Cruz by Lead, if you want to look it up on Youtube.

Other than that....what have I been up to?

Well I got a cheesecake. That was a first.

#GELperks #regulars #niceoldguyatMcDonalds

Thus ends the update on my life.

I would just like to thank my mom, and my dad, and my sister, and my other sister, and my other sister, and my other sister, and my other sister, and my brother, and my other sister....

Haha, yeah. Such a mature eighteen year old. ;)

I will conclude with thanking everyone for the birthday wishes though! I worked yesterday, and we didn't get to have our family celebration, but the day was still really special.

And my sterotypical, but still really true, ending statement, Jesus is awesome!!!

Everything is awesome! (especially Jesus) Everything is cool when you're part of a team! (God's team) Everything is awesome, (especially Jesus) when you're living a dream! (The Kingdom dream)

Improvised Lyrics by Keturah Thomson

End Note:

I'm planning on going to Mississippi next summer! I still need help raising money, with a goal of $3,015! If you can donate at all to help me out, please email me at dancingfor1king@gmail.com

In Which God Spoke Through a Teabag (among other things)

Wow! What to write about! I may be feeling like SO much has happened because we just finished our very first performance of Christmas tour, but it seems like it's been ages since I last wrote.

This week has really been full of small things. We've had a lot of stuff going on, classes and rehearsals as usual, as well as two dress rehearsals, American Thanksgiving, youth group, and the performance this morning. But the things that really stand out to me from this week were lots of little moments in which I was able to see God's hand. (and His sense of humor)

The earliest one that comes to mind is one day when I made myself a cup of tea. We have this box called "Bible Verse Tea," and it's an assortment of different herbal teas, so each bag is a surprise, and every tag has a bible verse.

So I opened it up in the morning, and picked a bag out. 

Now...I like to pay a lot of attention to small coincidences, because most often, I find, they really aren't coincidences at all. So before I even looked at the verse, I was sure that God would lead my hand to which bag He wanted, and that verse would be for me.

The verse was Ephesians 6:10,

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

Just on Sunday, God had used that whole passage, starting in verse 10, to relieve some stress about a certain situation I was dealing with. I hadn't even realized it, but I had been thinking about that situation subconsciously, all morning.

That was cool. God knew what was on my mind even when I didn't even realize it, but then I poured the water over the teabag and smelled mint. I laughed. Just before my sister Naomi went back overseas, she and I had peppermint tea with honey several days in a row, and called it "No stress tea." It's the kind you have when you want to get rid of stress.

Another moment which was kind of awesome, was on...I want to say Thursday? I woke up that morning very discouraged. Feeling very unworthy, unlovable, and unable to go into the presence of God. 

I prayed that God would speak to me, and tell me what He wanted me to know. I was hoping He would give me some encouragement, but I was open to the possiblity that He might not. Maybe He would convict me, or show me something about myself that was hindering me from coming to Him.

I opened my bible, and read Psalm 100:4,

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

I felt like He was just like, "Come here. Just be thankful, and come."

And the last moment I'll share with you actually happened last night, or technically this morning.

For some odd reason I've been waking up at 3:11am for the past four or five nights. Last night we got home from youth group at 9:30, and I had to get up at 5 this morning.

I wasn't complaining or anything, but I was praying, just kind of expressing my desire to not wake up at 3:11 again, since I had to get up early.

Sure enough, I woke up in the pitch dark, so I checked my iPod clock. 2:11. Haha.

Well, at least if I move down one more hour, it'll be 1:11! :D

#1:11Ministries #iusehashtagscausetheyrecool

#nojudging

Christmas Tour Projects, and God Behind the Scenes

Once again, I'm writing on the road home. I think there is something about long drives that inspires me, and when I get inspired, that tends to come out on my blog.

So here I am again, I'm going home. SO excited. I'm even more pumped because my family doesn't know! They will by the time I post this, but right now, they are clueless. We'll only be home overnight, we have classes tomorrow, but it's still awesome.

Anyway, I'll just give you a quick update on what we've been up to this week, and then share a thought that's been on my mind.

A few days ago, we started the very ambitious task of taping our bedroom. 

Just to give you an idea, picture a bedroom, now cut it in half horizontally. The bottom half of the room, most of the way around, is all wood. The upper half is lined with wood, and has wood strips all over, leaving the painted wall exposed in rectangles all over the wall and ceiling, in between the wood strips. Does that make sense? I hope so.

Anyway, now picture the painted parts being bubblegum pink. That's not even that bad, until you realize that there's another part of the wall which is deep red, and the carpet that was promptly ripped out before we even moved in, (Thank you, Rachel and Carolyn!) was a thick orange and red shag carpet. Brilliant. Just brilliant.

Anyway, so the project to naturally follow the ripping out of the carpet, is the repainting of the walls and ceiling.

However, like I said, that task was a little bit ambitious. My neck hurt a lot after doing the ceiling. But we did it! It may have been ambitious, but we are ambitious people. What can I say? We're dancers.

We've also made Christmas Wish Lists, had dance parties, and discovered the genius kitchen skills of my sister Anna. (which could be a post all it's own, but I'll leave that for another time)

So now that you have read all about what we've been doing, I just wanted to share a thought that I had the other day with you. I was emailing someone recently, and I said, "God doesn't need an audience to be awesome."

Those words have kind of stuck with me since that moment, they keep coming back, and making me think.

We love to have an audience for when we do good or impressive things. God made us that way, and it's not a bad thing. In fact, I think it shows a part of who He is as well, because we were made in His image. He does like to be seen, to be known, and known for what He does. He likes to be remembered, and given credit.

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. (Exodus 20:2)

Oh, give thanks to the Lord ! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples! (Psalms 105:1)

So again, this is not a bad thing. I have been to performances which I have been extremely blessed by. Performance is a good thing.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

But for all the work that God does which is seen, He does a LOT that goes unseen, unnoticed, unappreciated.

He sets an amazing example for us, being similarly wired in that we love to be recognized, that not everything we do needs an audience.

But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly. (Matthew 6:3, 4)

The cool thing is that even when we follow His example and do things "in secret," He still sees. We still have an audience, and one that will never misunderstand our intentions, or criticize us for lack of skill.

Once again, He is amazing, and I just want to take a moment to recognize Him for the amount of work that neither you or I will ever even know about. 

Thank you, Jesus. :)