My Summer at the Bill Rice Ranch-Part I

What God Has Promised

God hath not promised
Skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways
All our lives through;

God hath not promised
Sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow,
Peace without pain.

But God hath promised
Strength for the day,
Rest for the labour
Light for the way,

Grace for the trials,
Help from above,
Unfailing sympathy,
Undying love.

By Miss Annie Johnson Flint

Wow...it's been a long time...

Sorry for the long pause since the last post. I don't even have much of an excuse, other than that I've been busy trying to finish up school for the semester, which ended well! Thanks for asking! I took Choral Arranging and voice lessons this semester. For my project for Choral Arranging, we had to write an arrangement for a choir (hence the name "Choral arranging"). Well, last summer sometime, I heard a verse from Psalm 31 in a message. I liked the verse, so I wrote down the reference for the future. I went back later and read the whole psalm, and as I read it, I thought that it would make a really good song. Since then, I've been working on setting some of the verses to music, which was mostly done before I started the class. The class helped me actually finish what I had started, and I'm pretty happy with the results! I might even try to get it published someday! Hmmm...

I also had my Sophomore platform this week, which went well, also. I passed! So, that means I get to give the school more money next year!

Last week, we had a game night. We've had gym nights at a local rec. center, but this time, we had the activity at church. Since we don't have a gym, and the weather is nice, we decided to call it a "game night." We played games outside, then had some skits and a salvation message. I'll post some pictures at the end. But it was definitely a blessing for me to be able to take Shawna back and show her how to get saved, and she was gloriously saved that night!

We also had a meeting on Sunday. We ordered KFC and went to Riverside Park for a picnic, then had a meeting to decide who is going to do what next year at church. It was definitely a good time, and I'm excited to see what might happen next year, though sad to see Amy and Titus leave. I'll definitely miss them a lot.

Anyways, here are some pictures!

Game night:







Picnic at the Park:

girl's day out

Ok, so yesterday was a really fun day. Beckah, Jen, and I skipped classes and got off of work for a "girl's day out." I enjoyed it a LOT!

We had certificates for some free services at a salon in Madison. We got our hair cut and styled:

(My first salon haircut in a while)

We got our nails done:

My first EVER maincure! Very enjoyable!
We went out for lunch...here are Beckah and I

Adam gave us the certificates for the salon, so we met him for lunch...here are Jen and Adam

We went to the school play, "H.M.S. Pinafore." It was a cute play, though not completely logical...but it's a musical; what can you expect?!?
Jen, me, and Beckah with some of the sailors:

Ok, we didn't notice this until someone pointed it out...on the front of the "ship" was Dr. Oats! We had to get a picture with him!

Then, we went to the Late Night Skate! It was so much fun!

gym night!

Here are some pictures of our gym night on Saturday.

Titus driving the van to the gym

"Brownie," our special speaker for the night, riding to the gym

Amy and Allie, my seatmates for the ride to the gym

Shawna and Nikki

Sammi and Dominique

Crazy Titus!

Nikki Shawna, Sammi, and Allie

God was good! He brought out 4 guys who had never come to our church, and 2 of them raised their hands, recognizing that they weren't saved. Time will tell what will happen there. Between 3 cell phones going off and the tornado siren going off...twice, all of that in the middle of the message, it was an interesting night, but God was good and brought just the right people together so that it was exactly what God wanted it to be!