Book Review: Thanks a Million

I recently finished reading, "Thanks a Million" by Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron ... for the second time! It is such a great book that really motivates you to witness to people! It is very well written in a way that makes you not want to put it down once you get started.

A little bit about the authors: Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron (movie star who used to be on the show "Growing Pains" who later gave his life to the Lord and joined up with Ray Comfort)  started one of my favorite ministries several years ago called Living Waters. They have published several books, tracts, c.d.s, and videos, including the documentary they put together called 180. 180 is on abortion and has saved several babies who would of been aborted had their mothers not watched it and had a change of heart. They started a TV show called The Way of the Master that teaches Christians how to share their faith effectively with anyone you meet. 

Inside this book's pages are countless witnessing stories told in full, from random people met on the street to world famous movie stars. There is also plenty of good humor, Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron both take turns writing different chapters and are both very entertaining. A few stories had me laughing so hard I cried! 

Do you feel scared of the thought of witnessing to complete strangers? Do you have trouble knowing what to say if they get upset with you? This book will give you the answers you need to those problems and more. It has many great witnessing tips that are so very helpful in knowing how to bring up the things of God in any conversation you have with anybody. Most of all it makes you wanna get out there and share Christ with everyone you meet! :)

A couple of my favorite, as well as very thought provoking lines from the book, both by Ray:

"Faith always overcomes fear. The "fear" that comes to your mind is that if you bring up the things of God, the stranger you have approached will think that you are a religious weirdo. But you know that if he dies in his sins, he will go to hell forever. Concern for his eternal salvation will help you ignore the DT's (discouraging thoughts). Simply think of this reality - his worst case scenario is the lake of fire; yours is that a stranger will think that you are weird."

"The most important day of our life will be the day of our death. Think about that. On that day, nothing else will matter except what we have done for God and where we are going. Our house, car, possessions, and money will mean nothing on that day. We will be leaving time and entering into eternity. Meditate on that breathtaking moment. With the exhale of your last breath, you will leave everything you love.... This very night God could say to you, "This night your soul is required of you." Let such sobering thoughts consume you. Let them drive you to use your time and your life for what matters, to reach out to the unsaved and make a big dent into this sinful world for Jesus Christ. "

"Be instant in season and out of season ... do the work of an evangelist." - 2 Timothy 4:2

Redeem the time ... making the most of every opportunity ... " - Ephesians 5:16

Click here to read more about it and then buy it! ;)

counting.my.blessings{1} + Texas church camp notes

So I'm starting these "counting my blessings" posts which I'll probably do once a month or so... just listing things I'm thankful for! The Lord has blessed me with so much!

The litter of 11 Golden Retriever puppies our Kinsley had!

Completing some sewing projects

Hearing Lilliana say new words

Sweet tea in a mason jar on a sunny afternoon

A sweet letter from a friend in the mail

Doing a photo shoot with Paige, will share a few photos soon

Fresh picked wildflowers

Finding bunches of blackberries on our land...

...and Mom making a pie with them! Yum!

Time in God's Word + iced coffee!!

Bike rides with Dylan

Finishing a few wonderful books

Adorable little smiles to brighten my day

Jeremiah 29:11

Encouraging texts from friends

Caden's birthday on the 14th! :)

My rabbit getting better after being sick

Antique milk cans

Baby sister at breakfast wearing a fuzzy sleeper, cowgirl bib, and a morning smile :)

Going to a "Low Country Boil". T'was fun! My little sister, Paige, started her own blog (check it out!) and blogged about it here. :)

God's beautiful design being displayed everywhere, down to even this little bitty moth I found one day. Isn't it neat looking?

Fishing and swimming at Roaring River

Succeeding at a couple new recipes

Loving on my horse. <3 :D AND how good he's doing with his training/riding, I'm so proud of him!

HAY BALES

Taking the little ones to Flat Creek and watching them have so much fun

Finding a bunch of great reads for only 25 cents for every 4 books!

Surviving a week with Mom gone ;)

Finding great trails to ride horses and four wheelers on

Two hour trail ride with the sister 

Talking with a sweet friend on the phone

A recent clothes shopping spree at the thrift store

Meeting two blog friends!! It was so wonderful meeting these *sweet* girls, so glad it worked out! :D

And ya'll need to seriously go check out their blogs because they are wonderful: Heather and Tashia

 Date with Mom<3

Having fun wandering through Hobby Lobby with a friend, love that place!

Being given a big bag of sweet corn/shucking it/eating it :)

Okay, so I really don't have many good pictures from the trip that Dylan and I took down to Texas sadly. But that is definitely a big highlight from this month! We were able to hitch rides with friends and go down there for a church camp. There was several great messages, wonderful singing, youth Bible study, volleyball, rip-skating, and I got to see a friend that recently got married and moved down there as well! It was a very encouraging time, so thankful we were able to go. So, yeah, there's a glorious picture from our MacD's stop on the way home for ya. :P

One of the men who spoke at the camp shared this verse (John 15:9)

"As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love."

He spoke on how much the Father loved His Son, His one and only begotten Son. Can you even imagine how great a love that was? And just as He loved His Son, Jesus loves you. He loves me. And we're to show His great love to others. He then wanted everyone to take out the you and put your name in that place instead. Like this:

"As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved Ashley Trask: continue ye in my love."

 I'm not sure anyone really said the whole verse aloud as he asked us to because halfway through he broke down crying. But I wrote it down in my journal anyway. He was a very sweet old man (the kind you just wanna go up and hug, y'know?) and what all he said meant a lot to me.

Saturday almost everyone was wearing a sticker that said "It's not about me!" and the message that night was on our focus needing to be on the Lord, not ourselves. Striving to be full of the Lord and then we won't have a need to talk or think about ourselves, but instead a need to talk and think about Him, giving Him all the glory and desiring for our lives to show Christ! I want to trade in all that I am: my selfishness, worry, wanting instead of being content = my weaknesses, for all that He is: love, mercy, kindness, hope, joy = His strength to be able to work in and through me for HIS glory. I want to diligently seek Him and His will for me and have Jesus be what people see, not my talent, courage, gifts, money, or sacrifices made. Anything good in me is all because of Him.We have no greater privilege than representing Him!

A story that must be shared

On the 20th dear friends of ours lost one of their family members in a tragic accident. A young boy who had just turned 14. I won't name anyone for their privacy but want to share the story with you. He was a very sweet, cheerful, Godly young man full of energy and always ready to give you one of his big, one-of-a-kind smiles. One of his favorite verses was Ecc. 9:10,"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might..." And that is how he was! If they wanted a job done quickly they called on him, he loved building things, playing violin, was his mothers right hand man and was just starting to really be able to help his dad with his job.

A special memory for us has to do with my little brother, Levi. He has a speech problem, he has gotten better but used to be very hard to understand and that makes him an easy target. As we were visiting churches a couple years ago, at a lot of them the children would make fun of Levi because of that. That made him sad and frustrated. We visited the church that this family goes to for about a year and this boy was a friend to my little brothers and never teased Levi but was always sweet to him. Levi's name for this church was "the church with the nice boy" because of him always being kind to him. :')

On the 19th, Friday night, this family had their family fun night. This time they sat around a campfire in their backyard and had a wonderful time together talking, singing, and sharing Bible verses. The next morning a group of boys including him and his dad went swimming. This boy had an absolutely amazing and fun time jumping off of a 15 foot cliff into the water with his best friend. As they were walking to the truck this boy said completely out of nowhere, "When I die, I hope it's fast!" Everyone heard him. Not 30 minutes later the driver swerved to miss a dog in the road and the boy, who had been sitting up on the side of the back of the truck (a lot of them were riding in the truck bed), fell, his upper body and head going under the back tire. He was dead instantly. The driver saw it all. The driver was only a young man 16-17 years old. He said to the boy's father, "I just killed your son." The father calmly replied as he cradled his son's head in his lap, "No, I gave him to the Lord 2 years ago and this was God's will. It was time for him to go." And in that moment, as the truck was still running a hymn came on the radio called "Enter In", words are below:

Enter In

In a world of pain and sorrow where the best so often fall.

When the prayers all go unanswered,

When the shadows seem to overwhelm,

When the light of hope has dimmed and leaves no hope at all.

That's when heaven pierces through the cloud of darkness,

And the glory of the Father shines from heaven's open door.

And the Son of Man, standing at the right hand of the Father,

With a warm embrace gives welcome, and the angels are rejoicing,

And the Father with a voice like rushing wind, says, 

"All heaven has been waiting, enter in, enter in, enter in."

When the dreams of life are shattered, and the body wastes away.

When all dignity's abandoned,

And the ones who care, with broken hearts,

Plead for mercy, but it seems that Mercy hides His face.

That's when heaven pierces through the cloud of darkness,

And the glory of the Father shines from heaven's open door.

And the Son of Man, standing at the right hand of the Father,

With a warm embrace gives welcome, and the angels are rejoicing,

And the Father with a voice like rushing wind, says, 

"All heaven has been waiting, enter in, enter in, enter in."

It seems like such a short life and I'm sure a lot have questioned why? I know we did. Why *him*?! He was so special, so sweet, so full of life and love for the Lord! He was a favorite of ours out of the whole church. Such a Godly young man. But, the things the Lord did to show so clearly that this was His will are amazing and we can take comfort from that. God is good, all the time. He doesn't make mistakes. Although his life here was short, he left an amazing testimony for the Lord. He has blessed many people, including us, with his life.

We do not know if the people we love will be here an hour from now! Tell the people in your life what they mean to you now, not at their funeral. Do what you have to do today, say what you have to say today, because today is all that we have.

We are all going to die. We might have time or as in the story I just told you it could be instant. Are you ready to meet the Lord? Have you made Him the Lord of your life and are living your life for Him? Seeking after Him daily? Reading His word and growing in Him? The sins of this world may seem fun for a time, but they will pass away and you will be left with an eternity, forever and ever, no end, *forever*, either in Heaven or in Hell. Choose you this day who you will serve! Like I said before, you may not have tomorrow or even an hour from now. Only God knows. Nothing will be able to compare and it will be worth it all to be able to hear the words on judgement day, " Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of thy Lord!"

Please, please keep this precious family and the young driver in your prayers. His funeral was one of the hardest saddest events I've ever been to. Losing a son, brother, and friend has left them heartbroken but they look forward to seeing him in Heaven. Pray that the Lord will continue to be with them, giving them strength and comfort. 

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

-Isaiah 55: 8-9

Brothers and sisters

Recently while reading an article in a magazine this question popped out at me: 

Do my brothers and sisters see me as being like a second mom or as a friend?

It can be hard because I am put in charge of my brothers and sisters a lot, baby-sitting them, etc. But, I'm wanting to work on not being a boss, encouraging and praising them, taking the time to play with them more, and be a big sister they can look up to as a true friend. Let me tell you one thing I've noticed for sure: a little bit of praise makes them so happy! It's amazing what a few encouraging words can do! :)

A recent water balloon fight!!! :))

Paige, posing in her new dress.

At Flat Creek

Go Huskers!! :)

This amazing brother of mine watched our 5 little brothers while us girls went on a trip for a week! More about that coming soon! ;)

My goodness, are they cute or what?!

She's such a sweetie!

Playing basketball.

we.are.goofs.

Swinging!

And I'll end with this adorable baby sister of mine! Almost 5 months old already!!! :)

NCHEA

March 26th-29th Dylan and I went up to Nebraska for the Nebraska Christian Home Educator's Association Kid's Conference. It was a good experience and very stretching for me as I had to teach 2 lessons to our group of children and I am not used to that!! It was a lot of fun though!

Our classroom:

Our team's flag:

Our team! 3 teachers and 15 children!

Playing with the children:

Lining them up to go to large group/drama:

One of the teachers in training came in and told a story:

Dylan was in the teachers in training class:

Watching a game of Frisbee:

My friends Leah and Timo! Y'all were fantastic in the drama, btw! =)

My friend, Julia and I, we got mixed up with doing a silly face and smiling, lol! =)

Meeting with family! Both of my Grandmas, 2 Aunts, and cousins!

Dylan is getting so tall!

 =)

Having fun while traveling back home: