I think it’s amazing what you did on your tour!

Well, that morning’s sermon had covered the subject of God’s immutability–one of the terms on the quiz at the Indy conference that I had been eager to learn about! I was amazed by the wonderful truth that God never changes, and I thought, “Why can’t four and five-year-olds learn about this too? They need to praise God too, right?”

The lesson went great! At the end of the hour and a half session, the kids had learned how to pronounce the word, what it meant, what the Bible says about it, and that we praise God because of it! I was thrilled, but I didn’t expect what was coming next.

When I got home, my mom asked me how it went. When I told her, she said, “You know what you should do? You should write a curriculum for fours and fives!”

And that’s how it started. I am currently writing a curriculum about God’s attributes….some lessons include “omnipotence,” “sovereignty,” “goodness,” and “omnipresence.” The funny thing is that no one expects a young kid to be able to understand most of those things. And most people don’t expect a 13-year-old to actually study these things and teach them to a younger generation. But God loves it when we praise Him, and I believe that is is one way he is calling me to serve Him.

My goal has been to help young kids learn about God and glorify Him. And so far, God has been helping me to succeed.

Carly D.

P.S. I think I might have sent this in an e-mail too…not sure if it worked!

This particular day at our school was a half day. We got out at 12:00 because progress reports were going out that day. I overheard some friends of mine talking and gathered they were going to walk down to a movie theater about a 10 minute walk away from our school. After calling up my Dad and asking my friends if I could tag along, I was set. They were going to see “Invincible”, which I had been wanting to see for a while (I’m a huge football fan).

There were about 20 of us walking down and we were hungry since school had got out at 12 and they weren’t serving lunch. We stopped at Mcdonald’s on the way there to grab some lunch. As I took a number and sat down to strike up some conversation while waiting for my food, I started to hear talk I hadn’t expected. I thought I had heard it, but I leaned over and heard one of my friends who I had once considered a devout christian cuss. I listened closely to see if I misheard something and realized I hadn’t when I heard it again a few seconds later. That was my first suprise, but not the last.

I’m already questioning some of these people now. It wasn’t just that person, but several others I hadn’t expected to cuss or talk about the innapropriate things, do just that. I kept my mouth shut as we finished our meal and we started walking the rest of the way to the theater. We got there and I watched as one guy with us who was 16, but already could grow a beard easily within a few days, purchased the tickets. But to my suprise, he asked for a bunch of tickets to Beerfest, an R rated movie which I knew we couldn’t see legally. No one was there over 16 years old. But a teenager was working the booth and gave him the tickets. I have long suspected the ticket counter girl knew this kid. Anyways, this kid easily passed for 18. He looked the part, so these 15+ kids got in.

I had forgotten my money, so a good friend of mine by the name of Josh was there and was paying for mine. So everybody else got Beerfest tickets, and we were the only two who were supposed to see Invincible. I watched to see what Josh would do. He payed for two tickets to invincible, but I could see it in his facial expressions that he was thinking of sneaking in to beerfest. I would be lying if I didn’t say that I wrestled with the decision in my own mind. But then I said, “No. I’m not going there. God, I’m going to obey you.” Then I leaned over and told Josh something like this; “We don’t need to see that movie man. Let’s just go see invincible and do the right thing. I’m going to go see invincible. I’m asking you to come with me. But it’s your choice man.” Looking back on it, I think just having someone else with him was all he needed. We both went and enjoyed the movie while all our so called “friends” were talking about beerfest and how funny the movie was.

Monday morning, they all got busted for seeing the movie, while Josh and I were the only two who didn’t get in trouble. Even if Josh would’ve snuck into see Beerfest, I know that I would’ve not gone in there. That’s not to lift myself up in the slightest, but to prove how powerful God’s strength is when he can actually instill character and integrity in me. It was a hard choice at the time. But the long term results payed off both in not having consequences at the school, but having a spiritual victory to remind Satan of next time.

Just wanting to confirm you recieved my story….technology isn’t always reliable!

God bless you as you both write this book!

So first off i wanna say this is the best conferance i’ve went to in al ong time and i’ve been to quite a few. i am so inspiered by the fact that guys only two years older than me are makeing such a profound difference in the lives of ppl their own age (wich goes to show WE’VE even lowered the expactations of ourselves). Your both great speekers btw i don’t think i could get up there and talk like that with out pucking first. But i am so excited about your book thats commig out when it dose you HAVE to tell moi cuz i want to buy it.
Second thing is from today i have been inspiered to start a peer group based around the rebelution. I am so excited about it. I’ll let you guys know how it all goes.

It’s too late to pour a glass I’ve already dumped the pitcher over my head,

Jsmine