"I Surrender All To You,"

I have been attending Calvary Chapel of the High Desert for about eight or nine months now. My friend Samm and I were invited tonight to go see Phil Wickham play at the church. I, who had never been to a christian concert was very eager to attend as was Samm. When we got there, the Youth Pastor Casey welcomed all of us to the church and opened the stage to Phil Wickham. He played awe inspiring songs of praise to God. There's nothing better than looking around you and seeing hundreds of hands stretched towards the cathedral ceilings of the church, reaching out to God and praising him.

Tonight I had the opportuniy to sit and listen to a thirteen year old boy named Justin. He shared his faith and story about how he came to Jesus Christ and about how he had been saved by the working of God in his young life. He was not shy at all, and he had the utmost confidence to sit and share his life story. Apparently, he had been taken away from his parents at the age of just eight years old for reasons I have no need to discuss. He was brought into a great family with people he said truly cared about him. He said that his foster parents brought him to church one Sunday and was introduced to Christianity there. He said, "There was something different about this family. I felt I was broken inside and when I lived with my real parents, I used to fill that break in my heart by doing bad things. This family I could tell had so much love in them, and they were happy and satisfied. I wanted what made them happy, and that I found out was Jesus Christ."

It made me want to cry to see this boy come from such a life of evil and suffering, and to see how God made life better for him by blessing him with people who really did care about him. He was God's child, and this new family was going to treat him like he was their child.

After the interview, Justin pulled some jokes out on Casey and the congregation to break the serious mood and Phil Wickham continued his show by singing, Everlasting God and Surrender.

It was an amazing night spent with close friends and my church family:]]

Ahh, well Steve is flying out to Indiana tomorrow to start work again. I hope he will be here for my sister's birthday. It's hard enough for her just to even deal with the fact that he is gone, but on her birthday? Gosh! I'm praying that God will bring him home in time. I also am praying that he give my mother strength while he is away. She does so much for us, and it hurts me to see the pain in her face whenever she looks at pictures of him or has to hang up with him so he can get back to work. On top of all this, she is trying to run me to and from school, track practice, the mall and other such places and homeschooling Kailee. She cleans the house daily and in all honestly, I wish I could be like her. I don't know how she does it, but it inspires me to want to do more to help her. I just don't know how, and I know probably to her, it doesn't seem that way. I will try my best though:]]

Getting back into the school schedule I'm sure will be lovely tomorrow. I can't wait to graduate, and I know to some people, graduating is like a death wish because you have to get a job, maintain your relationship, if you move out pay rent and take care of bills, take care of your car, and other such responsibilities. I can't wait for life. I'm fully depending on God to get me through these next two and a half years of highschool. Wish me luck! God bless!

Yours Truly,

-Craisin