well. this is the first time i'll have updated this after being home. which actually kinda sad because i've been home for about a month and 2 weeks! wow. that sounds so crazy! so i guess now i have to catch you up. well, when i got home, i went from 0 to 60 in about 4 days and haven't stopped since. but not that that's a bad thing. i love being busy. i think i would drive myself crazy if i wasn't. but here are some things that have happened in the past month and a half:

1. i have been VERY much enjoying my full license, thanks to my birthday being while i was gone.

2. i was able to play 4 more basketball games with my amazing thundercats team (cornerstone presbyterian church team) 2 of which were tournament games....we lost the semi final to our biggest rivals, which was a huge disappointment, especially since we could've won. but i greatly enjoyed playing those games and have SO much loved being apart of this team for the past 3 years. i will miss it.

3. my soccer season started with my church league. and with it, i suddenly became inspired to actually RUN. no no no, not outside of practice, are you kiddding me? but no. i ran a lot in practice and even more than i had too! crazy right?

4. i have been back in my youth group and church and that has been awesome. i love these groups so much and am so thankful for the encouragement and fellowship from them! i have been learning so much but two lessons have kinda stuck out above all the rest. first, we talked in sunday school one time about how Jesus needed to be our IV, and how we needed to figure out what was dripping into our souls and what we needed to "turn down". at the end of this lesson, my teacher challenged us to make a conscious effort that week to come to God in prayer or worship or something 8 times that day...or whenever we drank water. of course, i didn't count and im sure i didn't do it all every day but even the little extra time i took to come to God more often was awesome. i really felt closer to God that week. i've been trying to do it more than just that week, but have kinda been struggling with it. but anyway, the second lesson i have really learned from was one my youth leader gave last wednesday. she talked about spreading the Church to the world, first from Jerusalem, then Judea, then Samaria, then to the U.M.P. Earth. yes that's exactly how she said it. but in clarification , it means the Utter Most Parts of the earth. but she used the example of how starbucks started as one little building in..boston? maybe? i can't remember. but yeah, it started there and now there are THOUSANDS of starbucks all across the world. and it didn't take very long for it to spread! now if only we could spread the Church like that! how AWESOME would that be? she also showed us this video of a african group that some people went to and devoted years to learning their language and when they could finally talk fluently to them, they spent several months sharing the gospel story. when they got to the part that Jesus took all our sins and provided a way to God for us, those people were SO excited, that they celebrated for hours! just jumping up and down and shouting and praising God. that really got me. when was the last time i was so excited about my salvation that i celebrated and thanked God for hours? probably never. but why not? most of the time i don't even give it a second thought to be honest. so from that lesson, what i really got was i wanna spread Jesus like Starbucks and be so excited about the redemption story that i could celebrate for hours. and you know the only way that that's going to happen? is through our Lord working in me. and i pray that He does.

5. along with being home and being with all my amazing friends comes the inevitable stress in relationships, stupid high school drama, and just confusion and difficulties that life brings. these have seemed to hit me a little harder than ever before but i have been SO thankful for awesome friends that have been there through it all for me and kept me in their prayers. a special shout out to tori. thanks friend. :) anyway, the other day, i was driving home from an especially hard day at work and a verse came into my head...

" Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." -Phillipians 4:6-7

i wanna just close with this. no matter what we are going through, no matter where we are, and no matter who we have to talk to, GOD will be there. HE knows EXACTLY what we're going through, HE is with us everywhere we are, and HE is more than willing for us to come to Him and talk. my wonderful friend hannah put it like this, " He longs for that fellowship with you and the heartfelt longing of talking to your heavenly Father". So be encouraged. and go to Him with your troubles. and after that, go and BE the Church.

until next time,

rachael