Dare2Share 2012

We had an AMAZING time at Dare2Share this year! The theme this year was Game Day!

They have 3 main speakers - Greg Stier, Zane Black, and Propaganda!

Propaganda 

Zane & Propaganda

It was an incredible time for everyone there! We went to a very big church about 1 hour away from our church and it was great!

 The Church that the conference was at

There was about 3,000 teens there! How amazing is God?! He can bring so many of us together to learn and grow closer to Him!

Dare2Share teaches and trains teens on how to share their faith with their peers, family, and friends! Their were so many testimonies and tons of teens accepted Jesus Christ for the first time this weekend! WOW!

Greg Stier with a young man who was sharing his testimony through Compassion (a sponsor ministry)

Dare2Share helps sponsor kids through Compassion. It's a program that takes kids from countries all over the world and provides them with their basic needs. School, food, water, medical care, and shelter. But they can't do it alone and it's not free! For only $38 a month, you can sponsor a child through Compassion. So many teens were moved by this and decided to start sponsoring a child for the first time!

We had so much fun this weekend learning what these 3 guys had to teach us, and how we can be more open with our faith to everyone we know!

Caitlyn, Erin, Beka, and I on our way to the conference Friday night! :)

All 4 of us were on our iPods for a while, and so I needed to get a picture :)

At the conference...

On Friday we headed down there at about 4:30, stopped to eat dinner, and then arrived at the church to get wristbands, and find our seats.

They also had dramas that would show real life situations. One of them was about 2 friends and one girl was a Christian and the other girl was not. It was super intense and it showed the importance of making sure every one of your friends and family members get to heaven. It was one of our high lights from the trip.

A couple of the actors (not the girls) :)

They also had a few of the actors come out on stage, before each session started and would get us really excited!

Everyone got a "playbook" to follow along with and take some notes. All 3 guys are pretty funny and they tell some awesome stories! Propaganda has a little girl and he told some cute stories about her and what she's learning. Zane didn't become a Christian until he was 18 years old, and he was a surfer so he had some pretty cool stories. Finally, Greg is the oldest guy and he's a preacher/youth pastor kind of guy. So he would tell stories from camp or from his youth group. So fun!

Beka's playbook :)

Brenton Brown was also the worship leader this year for D2S! He's a pretty awesome guy, and he's got a pretty awesome accent. He was there and played with "The Worship Republic" as his band. 

He taught us some new songs, and we also sang a song we already knew! Some of best parts of the worship was seeing everyone come together and praise our great God, and also...

We got to go on stage!

Beka and I and a few other girls from our youth group went up to show actions to a song! It was amazing! We got to stand up there and simply show some actions to 3,000 teenagers so we could all make our praises just a bit more fun! He actually stopped in the middle of the song, to call us up there! I loved it!!

Dare2Share will always be my favorite! :)

~Michlyn

At the Conference

We're here!

And it's incredible!

We left a little late yesterday, took a few U-turns, but finally found the church.

Once everyone was in and had their wristband, and was at their seat - we were able to explore a little bit.

The church. Is. Huge. I'm not kidding. So we walked around a bit, and finally went into the sanctuary right before the first session started.

The worship, the speakers, the dramas, and the students are amazing.

Dare2Share is an unforgettable experience that I hope tons and tons of teens will continue to experience!

We're loving' it, and we're pumped to start another new, and fun day (screaming will be included) at this great conference.

Hope you're all enjoying your weekend just as much as I am!
~Michlyn

Dare2Share

So tomorrow is the Dare2Share youth conference that our youth group is going to! We started going to it last year, so this will be our second year going!

We're all super excited! We can't wait! There are about 40 kids going, and that's huge for our church!

This conference is all about teaching teens on how to share their faith with their friends.

It's hard, scary, and sometimes you're pretty unsure of how to even start a conversation like that.

Dare2Share will teach you everything and even make you stronger and bolder to tell your friends about the love of Jesus Christ.

It's AMAZING.

There is awesome worship and songs, great speakers (funny too), and fun activities. :)

We're heading down there at 4:30 pm and we won't get back until about 11:00 pm. Then we're going to have a lock-in at our church, and head down there again in the morning - For the whole day!

If you're interested, or would like to look at where they will be holding the next few conferences this year or even next year...

Check out their website HERE!

Here's the promo video for this year's theme: Game Day!

To God be the Glory!
~Michlyn

Wordless Wednesday

Anniversary {18 Years}

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO MY AMAZING PARENTS!

They've been married for 18 years today! 

They dated for 6 years and were engaged for 1 year...

So that's a total of being together for 25 years!

WOW!

February 19th, 1994

Still in love, after 18 beautiful years of marriage!

Love you both!

~Michlyn

It's Fixed!

Those who frequently read my posts, know that I have an iPod.

I talk about it a lot. :)

Well last year for Christmas (2010) my parents got my sister Erin and I iPod Touches for Christmas. We were so excited! 

Fast forward many months later and guess what? 

Clumsy me dropped my iPod on the cement 1...2...3... times! Surprise you?

Didn't think so.

Anyway all I wanted was to get it fixed, but I didn't want to pay over $100 dollars just to fix the screen.

It still worked fine, it just had some major cracks.

So for Christmas this year (2011) I asked for a new one. Spendy? YES! 

But that's all I really wanted.

So on Christmas Day my "wish" came true and I was the owner of a new {non-broken} iPod!

My parents are the best and Merry Christmas to me!

~Michlyn

Scenery Pics

God's creation is truly beautiful!

~Michlyn

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Valentine's Day!

~Michlyn

Valentine's Dinner

Last night was our church's annual Valentine's Dinner! It was so much fun! Everyone came to set up, and practice their entertainment.

The church looked so pretty and everyone looked great.

There was food, childcare, and entertainment for everyone!

The money we raised from the tickets and tips from serving, all go toward our youth ministry. For future trips and costs that we will need throughout the year.

Over all, it was great fun-filled night!

Hope everyone else is enjoying their Valentine's Day celebrations!
~Michlyn

Annoyances

I follow The Farmer's Wife Tells All and she also did this post a couple of days ago. I thought it was a pretty cool post and I wanted to post my list. Enjoy and feel free to do this on your blog too, if you want!

1.When girls wear shirts on purpose to see their sports bra - I understand that is might be "in", but I just hate it. They will take a perfectly fine T-shirt, cut the sleeves off, and rip it all the way down. It would be ok if they wore a tank-top underneath, but they don't! Just their sports bra... Ugh it bothers me so much.

2.Screamo music - I understand if it's upbeat and fun to listen to. I like songs like that too...But if you're listening to and you can't even understand (or hear) the words that the people are singing, then how is that fun to listen to? You can barely hear the music, and then you don't even know what the song is saying. I'm not against loud music, just the songs where the singers literally scream the words.

3. Magazine subscriptions. Those little pieces of paper that are in between the pages of a magazine you're reading. They are always in the way, and does anyone seriously use them? They always end up falling out of the magazine when you pick up, or I just rip them out. Does anyone ever subscribe to magazines this way anyway, or do they just go online? I just don't like them.

4. Judgmental people. I'm not saying that I'm perfect, and love everything about everybody on the earth. I'm saying that I hate it when people will give you a bad face, stare at you, or say a rude comment. As most of you know, I have an adopted sister and the comments and stares we get are downright hurtful. I personally love having her out in public, and showing her off. I like to have people see that we're different. My mom also got a rude comment about "having too many kids". That is impossible! Whether God calls you to have a big or small family, it's never too much or too little. It's just right and just the way He wants your family to be.

5. Pointless Pictures. The ones where you stand in front of your bathroom mirror, and take a picture with your giant camera. (which you can also see in the picture) Then there are the ones that have really dumb poses. Such as: duck lips, peace sign, stick your butt out, or wear kiss your boyfriend pictures. Yuck. I really think that people should express themselves, and show who they are but do they have to take pointless pictures?

Those are a few things that I can think of right now

~Michlyn

An Average Morning

This is pretty much an average morning for me.

What can I say? I'm pretty clumsy.

~Michlyn

The Ending of Another Series

Through the Eyes of a Teenager

It has come to an end. I did "Through the Eyes of a Teenager" series on my blog for about 6 weeks.

It was a lot of fun finding topics to post about. I'm really glad that I took the time and effort to look into a few of these things.

At first you don't realize how interesting or popular the topics are.

Looking at these topics really made me think and see how other teenagers look at them.

I will be starting a new series, and as soon as I figure out what it is I'll post about it.

If you would like to see my posts I put all the links below

Through the Eyes of a Teenager: Relationships

Through the Eyes of a Teenager: Peer Pressure

Through the Eyes of a Teenager: Style

Through the Eyes of a Teenager: Orphans

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the series!

~Michlyn

A Relaxing/Wedding/Super Bowl Weekend

Last weekend was so much fun! As most of you know, and especially for you football fans it was Super Bowl weekend! :)

Let me start from the beginning...

Friday

We had school on Friday, and a 5 day week wore. me. out. I was happy for the long week to be over (we usually only have 4 day weeks at our school) and to be able to relax. I didn't touch my homework, and was probably on the computer, TV, or my iPod for the rest of the night. I was also happy that I could stay up late, and not have to wake up early the next morning.

Saturday

Beka's cousin, Sarah got married on Saturday! I came because I was going to be watching some little girls, but they ended up not needing me. So it was a blast hanging out with Beka the rest of the night. The ceremony was beautiful, and you could tell that the groom was very nervous. At the end of the ceremony, Sarah danced down the aisle and gave a little shout when she was at the end! The reception was next, and that was probably the most fun. We ate, had a lot of kitty cocktails, and danced a ton!! SO MUCH FUN! Congrats to Blake and Sarah!

Beka and I right before we left

Our place mats at the wedding

Blake and Sarah's first dance as husband and wife! :)

Sarah and Beka

Sunday

Since we didn't get to bed until about 2:30 am after the wedding, Beka and I were extremely tired in the morning. From all the dancing, food, and fun we did not want to get up the next morning for church. We did eventually get up, got ready on time (amazing!), and helped out in the church nursery where we were needed. After the second service, Erin, Beka, and I stayed with a few other youth and adults to help for our Valentine's Dinner. We started making raviolles for the main dish, and others started making desserts. We did that for about 4 hours, and then came back for the Super Bowl Party. IT WAS A BLAST! Watched some of the game, ate some more food, played games, laughed a lot, and danced. The New York Giants took home the victory this year!

Beka and I

Playing basketball in the dark

 Some of it, turned into a dance party! 

Hope everyone else had a good weekend!
~Michlyn

Through the Eyes of a Teenager: Necessity

Through the Eyes of a Teenager: Necessity 

I'm going to be honest, and tell you right now that I have a list of a few things that I wish I could have. Things that I could definitely live without, and some that I might just want one more of. But they're probably things that I don't need. 

Have you ever gone shopping and just wanted everything in the store? Or you had dinner with your family and one night you couldn't have seconds? Or you went to the neighborhood pool party at your neighbors and wished your house was as big as theirs? 

We all have wishes. Things we want and hope for. But in reality...they're not needed and unnecessary. We get so caught up in wanting things we don't have, that we forget to be thankful for the things that we do have. We forget that other people around the world are lucky to even get to eat or sleep under a roof one day.

It breaks my heart into a million pieces, every time I see this picture.

There are children, teenagers, adults, and families out there who have nothing. They might just have each other, beg for food, and live on the streets. And as I've been thinking about these few things that I've wanted lately - Those starving children have also come into my head.

I thought to myself  "Oh how much they would LOVE to just have one meal, or toy of their own, or one clean outfit to wear."

When, in my house:
I have an abundant amount of clothes
I have clean water that I can get anytime I want.
I have a safe house to live in.
I have parents who love and care for me.
...and the list goes on...

So as I think and put my list to the side. I'm remembering that I wouldn't want to be starving, or thirsty, or have no clothes. I wouldn't want to be homeless or have no family.

I remember those kids. Their precious lives. And our amazing God.

Through Him, I'm thankful for all that I have and all that He's given me!
~Michlyn

Thoughtful Thursday

Thought I'd share the last pictures I have from Snow Daze 2012!

~Michlyn