Amazing...

This was the most amazing weekend ever. I'm still trying to process everything we did. I'll have a bigger post later about it, but I just wanted to say that I'm back and that everything worked out...nothing turned out as planned but God put us where He wanted us! Pictures soon too!

YAY for no diseases in Louisiana!!!

See Ya
Shelly

YAY!!! Look at this guys! This is just more evidence to me that this trip is blessed!!! Thank you for your prayers!

If you wanted to know, Slidell (the town we're going to) is on the top end of lake Ponchatrain (sp?) and New Orleans is on the bottom end of the lake.

NOW I'm excited :)



See Ya!
Shelly

PRAY!

we are needing some prayer...for our trip starting thursday...we may run into a problem, and her name is Rita. She's a hurricane developing in the Florida Keys right now and she is projected to hit the gulf coast that was traumatized by Katrina.


Girls must not like New Orleans ;)


Thanks everyone
Shelly

Theres a lot to tell you about...where to begin...I have been sitting here for 5 minutes and I still dont know where to start so I'm just gonna start typing and see how it goes.

So I'm leaving...soon...1 week from tonight. I'm not gonna lie-I'm scared to go...but the people around me are so excited to go, that it makes me less scared and more excited. I'm more ready now because I got my Hepatitis A shot today. It didnt hurt as bad as I thought it might. I guess I just had to prepare myself for the worst so it wouldnt hurt as bad. I have a bandaid...kuz I'm a bleeder. Shana and Betsy didnt bleed...but I did. Oh well :)

I'm gonna go home this weekend and go to church, see if people give me $...is that bad :) lol my pastor at home-Norv is putting it in the bulletin so I figured I should be there to explain what I was doing.

Finish later :)
Shelly

Held...

Natalie Grant rocks...it seems like whenever I really need encouragement, God has put a song in my head that totally relates to whatever I'm thinking about...which today happens to be the big trip to Louisiana in 12 days...

I've heard on the radio a remix type thing of this song and sound bytes from the president and other important news people talking about the Hurricane...and right now...This Is Me...

This is what it means to be held
How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive
This is what it is to be loved and to know
That the promise was that when everything fell
We’d be held

If hope if born of suffering
If this is only the beginning
Can we not wait, for one hour
Watching for our savior


Right now, when I think of what I would be feeling at this point if I lived in any of the affected areas is, all of my stuff! my pictures, memories...and how encouraging this song must be to many people there, i mean when you think about This is what it is, to be loved and to know that the promise was when everything fell, we'd be held...and we have to trust that even if things happen, God's gonna be there, along with a lot of other people who want to help :) like me :) but you know what i mean...

yes i know, its 3:45am on a Saturday night, but I'm at the LRH front desk...and I'm getting off work in 15 minutes...but I was feeling a little nervous about Louisiana and all of a sudden i realized the chorus going thru my head was this song...

THIS IS WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HELD

Goodnight :)
Shelly

Scared...

Okay, well I have some news for you all! I've decided to stop posting all the time just to post and now I'm only gonna post if I have something relevant to say :) THIS IS RELEVANT!!!

I'm going to Slidell, Louisiana in 14 days...scary huh...I'm so excited, but so completely scared at the same time. I called my parents and they're totally okay with it--which is awesome, but I think part of me wanted them to say no so I wouldnt have to go...but I want to go...but I'm scared...Its gonna be amazing.

We're spending 3 days working on cleaning up after the hurricane. We're going with Campus Crusade for Christ and I just have this great feeling about the whole deal. Brad and Jen and I are def. going, possibly Matt, Kyle, Hillary, Betsy, Emily Nathan, Nick, Holly, Katie W, Jordan, John, and a ton of other people who i've forgotten! Its really exciting! Really scary too...have I mentioned that?

I dont know what I'm doing going down there, but...I want to see it. I want to see the power of God, the destruction. It sounds bad, but I want to see how strong He is. I know, its gonna be hard, its gonna be a very emotional weekend, but I've felt called to go down there and help since the hurricane hit, but until now I wasnt sure how I would even go about doing that. Now I know. I want to see people, I want to hear their stories, I want to play with the kids...and its going to rock.

Scared/Excited (or is it Excited/Scared?),
Shelly

Control...

So God has been teaching me a few things about control over the past couple days, and I seem to be just taking it in...right now...at 1am.

I talked to one of my best friends that I graduated High School with, named Emily, last night. Just to give you a little background, she left home and went to school in Mobile, Alabama. SO with that said, obviously she was affected by Hurricane Katrina. I guess it hadnt occured to me until last night that I hadnt heard from her since the Hurricane, but I decided to call her.

I did, she's fine-back in good ol Danvers, IL. I was so relieved to hear that, but she was telling me about a couple of her friends that actually live in the area whos homes were in 3 feet of water...IN ALABAMA! I'm talkin they're a GOOD hour from the coast and they had three feet of water in their living room. It just about makes me sick to watch any news or read any news online just because it scares me when I lose control.

I cant imagine being her right now. Shes 'stranded' at home, and doesnt plan on going back to school until next semester (if at all) . I keep thinking to myself, what if that was me and I didnt have any of my stuff from school, I had to come back home and just be there, not knowing what was happening with my friends and not knowing if everyone was alright, just leaving.

The other things-well, just dont seem as important as that...so I'm not even going to worry about it. :)

on another note, I <3 Derek Webb, and I've been listening to his CD all day, and theres this song...its called Beloved...and the chorus, which I just think is beautiful says:

Beloved listen to me
Dont believe all that you see
and dont you ever let anyone tell you
That theres anything that you need
but me

I've been singing it to myself all day long, mostly the lines that say and dont you ever let anyone tell you that theres anything that you need...

I just love it. I love friends too, great friends, that are there for you when you need them the most, and who know that you need them...and that are just awesome :)

I'm not really tired anymore, but I dont really have anything else relevant to say so,

See Ya
Shelly

OH YEAH!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYKER SCOTT EWING!!!
I LOVE YOU MY LITTLE BUDDY!!

(Ryker's 3 Today!!)

Thanks...

yeah so this one word title for my posts is kinda fun, I might make a habit of it. I just wanted to say before I went to bed how much I appreciated everybody today. It was hard hearing some of the things I heard today and I'm glad I have such awesome people around me that will tell me that I shouldnt worry about stuff other people say. Thanks JK for that comment, I <3ed the scripture...

Welp, time for bed

Shelly