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| for
everyone out there who gets to see their dad & brother every
day... cherish it. i see my dad and little brother lately once a month.
i never realized how much i take them for
granted...
 my brother would wake up in the morning with "good
morning ateh, love you" and with a kiss on my cheek... my day would end
with the exact same thing, but with goodnight of course. so many times
i would push him away n not pay attention to him... i never realized
how much he means to me...
 my dad every morning
would go into my room, if i was still sleeping, and kiss my forehead
before leaving to go to work. when i was in school he would text me
saying i love you and ask how my day was. he wasn't home very much and
all i did, when he was home, was sit around n do whatever i want,
paying hardly, if any, attention to him...
now
they're up north... alone... with family miles away from them... i wish i could see them everyday... but i can't... i know they're a call away, but it's not the same... i can't see they're faces and feel their warm loving hugs. i'm not there to listen to my little brothers stories of how his day was n how he has a new girlfriend. i can't be there for my
dad while he's working at home n just keep him company...
just writing this is so hard...
they're not here... and i miss them
dearly...
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| SH00T! this year's youth camp was CRAZY fun! shoot i don't know where to begin!
since this is going to be SUPER long i'ma color cordinate my highlights durring camp
-- the sweating game
-- beating russell for the 2nd time on the rolling log
-- inhaling a sunflower seed still covered in salt
-- PAINTBALLS!
-- shooting with the pro paintballer [guy]
-- ice game
-- near death [not really] with a scorpion!
-- kuya lester's bday =D
PRE CAMP [at mariel's house! this would be highlighted but i ran out of colors]
so
i slept over at mariel's house the night before camp. we ate ikea
meatballs, went to the mall ran around, LITERALLY ran around the mall
from pacsun to forever21 to beyond the beach or whatever it's called
now, to old navy! after the mall went to target n bought snacks for
camp : chips, salsa, marchmellows, cookies, instant brownie thing where
u microwave it [crazy] n soup for the sleepover. slept at 4 woke up at
7 when kuya lester picked us up to go to the pakingan residence.
DAY 1
so we get to mark's n head on over to the Mc Donalds that's ride
before the trip up the mountain. we wait for darrell [who is lost and
half way to barstow already] but end up meeting him at the camp site.
so you know how you have to turn
off your AC before going up the mountain to avoid over heating? well we
did that and we didn't want the super hot air [it was 104 i think over
there] to get into the car. so the most sensible thing to do is roll
your windows up. kuya lester, kuya la ron, nette, jordie, and i are
sweating like no other inside the van. we end up playing the sweating
game all the way up the mountain [which means no opening of the windows
or wiping the sweat off of your body AT ALL]. shoot! kuya la ron's arms
had rivers flowing down his muscles, literally! we were all sweating
like crazy with sweat dropplets rolling down our faces, arms, and
necks, the van becoming musty and stuffy. they were starting to get
super delusional!
when we got out of the van we
found out it wasn't that hott anymore! it was like the AC rushed into
the van when we opened the door! frek, so crazy [and nasty may i add]!
so we wait for everyone to get there and start unpacking, registration, eat, session, then swimming!
we head to the pool n swim for a
an hour. there's this rolling log thing in it n we're just going at it.
i won against russell again for the second time [first time being 2
years ago] which was perty cool, CRAZY workout!
after we get into our small groups n do devo's. sarah p, jeremae, and
loris are in my group with mariel as our counselor. man i love this
group! fun times with the buggs!
after, we hung out around the area writing e-mails [encouragement mail] to everyone n just... hung out!
okay so i was eating sunflower
seeds n a bug flew on my face n was on my shirt. i freaked out n
totally inhaled a seed with all the salt n seasoning stuff on it. got
all stuck in my throat [which may i add was the start of me loosing my
voice for the first time ever in my life]!
i hung out with lyzette, josh, daniel and kyle first, russell, jainah,
lynn, loris, and daniel second, then me n daniel last, then went to
sleep.
DAY 2
so we woke up n had devotions then ate cinnimon rolls for breakfast, played ninja [or somthing like that] then had session 2.
after we found out who was in our fun night groups n started planning
our skit. my group was me, amy, nette, k. erick, danny, tami, joyce,
ej, jamison, allen, and vincent [another awesome group may i add].
after planning we ate corndogs n got ready for PAINTBALL!
so it's like 100 somthing
degrees up there and we had to walk SUPER far to get to the painball
course. when we got there we had an orrientation thing, split into
groups, got our gear and headed to the field [whoot whoot go green
team! same as last year!]
this year 2 guys [guy (yes his
name is guy) and jeff], both of which are paintball pro's n have
automatics when DON'T, play with the blue team the first round n the
green team the second round.
so the first round went by
really fast, half our team was out cause of our guns. i was with
russell behind this wood plank thing n i ran out of amo [sux!] second
round i was with jonel behind this sheet of metal n we totally
dominated that round! third round was staff plus guy and jeff vs. the
rest of us [that's like 15 vs. 35]
so we're goin at i'm
following alejo cause i didn't get shot that bad yet n wanted to make
the best out of the last round. alejo ends up a few feet ahead of me in
this ditch covered by a metal thing n i'm behind the metal sheet again.
alejo gets shot n i'm totally by myslef. i'm shoot people n being shot
at by guy [the pro paintball person]. so he's got me pinned behind the
sheet n i'm the last girl out on the field. i was behind that thing for
a while n we're just shooting away. everyone's lookin at me n
cheering which was perty cool. he ends up shooting me 8 times on the
back n on my thigh. this was so my highligh of paintballing, guy said it was his too, haha it was super crazy!
we only had time for 3 rounds
which was pretty fun, n we start walkin back to the cabins to chane n
go swim. when we get to the pool we find out we can't swim because of
the thunder and rain so we walk back to the cabins. we end up just
hangin out n writing emails. then we ate dinner n played this melting
ice game, basically we have to melt a soda bottle [1 litter soday
bottle] that has a ice and a shirt inside. the first team to get the
shirt and put it on wins.
our team got the harder
challenge and had to melt instead of a soda bottle, a big tupperware
bowl that had ice and the shirt in a ziplock. so hard! people were
rubbing their hands, feet, stomachs, armpits all over their ice. no one
thought we would win, but we so won! the team next to us ripped the
shirt which wasn't allowed, but they so would have won.
after the game we had session 3, then practiced some more, then fun night
we played a game called bunny bunny first which was really fun. bunny
bunny, bunny bunny, tokie tokie, tokie tokie, koomcha koomcha koomcha!
hahaha
then fun night starts! the skits were awesome, this years theme happened to be TV haha so not planned!
after we had small groups then hung out!
right after small groups i
totally almost touched a scorpion! i was with jainah and lynn in the
room and they wanted to change. i was sitting on the floor right by the
door and they asked me to close the door. as i was leaning to close the
door i almost put my hand right on top of the scorpion and i totally
scream my head off! to top it off anthor scorpion is trying to crawl
into our cabin! russell ends up comin to the rescue and kills both of
them. CRAZY!
i slept next to sam that night, we knocked out super fast! we were
talking one minute then the next we knocked out. the best sleep i had
that camp!
DAY 3
we woke up n headed to eat breakfast. we had to wait a while
cause they had a different time for breakfast and didn't know we were
going to be there earlier. we had a suprise bday bash for kuya lester [HAPPY BIRTHDAY KUYA LESTER!]
and ate. after we had session 4 and then started loading up the cars to
leave. we took over a thousand pix before leaving [tradition!] and
headed to Mc Donalds again for lunch. me, mariel, nette, kuya la ron,
and kuya lester stayed behind a while to turn in keys and stuff so me,
mariel n kuya lester took about 20 more pix. then we head to mc.d's,
eat, n head home. we stop at mark's house to drop off la ron and then
to my house and here i am now!
camp this year was crazy fun, can't wait for next years!
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| so this is pretty much how i've been and my thoughts for the past 2 weeks
i recently visited my grandpa [Rev. Querubin T. Casiano 1938-2006] for
the first time since his burial. it was my first time reading his
tombstone n it said "Live today as though you will see God tommorow,"
and it got me thinking.
at first i starting recollecting all my memories with him. i was the
first gandchild and niece of the Casiano family to be born in America
so you know what that means, i was spoiled like no other!!! i remember
going to church with him and exploring with no fear cause i knew my
grandpa would find me if i happened to roam too far [for thoughs of you
who haven't been to my church, my church can get pretty scarry!]. i
used to go inside his office and eat the melted lemon drops from the
clear jar on the edge of his brown mahogany desk while looking at his
pictures from Israel. when i was hungry we both would walk over to the
doughnut shop at the corner and he would get me either a dollar's worth
of doughnut holes [12 to be exact] or nachos! we would eat it together
on the steps leading inside the church and just hang out. one of my
fondest memories was driving with him to watch one of my many cousin's
play. as we were driving only going about 30 mph from Market street to
Bixby Knolls, i noticed that the hand break was still on. so i said,
"lolo [meaning grandpa] the hand break is on!" n put it down. i
remember the huge smile on his face and his laugh that always made me
laugh, "Oh i knew that was on... just wanted to see if you were paying
attention ::smiled::"
when i was preparing to go on my first mission trip the the
Philippines, he would always ask me if i needed anything, and asked if
i was prepared to share the Word of God to the katatubo [tribal people]
there in the Philippines, his mission field before he came to America.
we would sit on the couch, hand in hand, at the Brea house he always
encouraged me to be strong and not be scared. "I'll be praying for you"
is how we always ended our conversations.
i remember as he started getting sick our frequent trips back and forth
to the hospital, seeing him lie there, so weak, and yet he would
suprise us and get better. a time i will never forgot was a time when
my lolo was so sick he had a hard time remembering things. me, my mom,
and my dad walked in to visit just like how we always did. "Hi lolo,
how are you?" is how i would always greet him with a hug and a pat on
the hand. he looked at my mom and dad not remembering who they were. my
lola [grandma] told him who they were. then he looked at me. he smiled.
"Sarah, how are you?" these soft faint words filled the quiet room
along with the beeping from the machines in the ICU rooms. he remebered
me.
we knew he was strong and would make it through everything. until the
day God decided to take him home, a day we thought he would suprise us
and we would all go home once again, but God had better plans.
these are just a few fond memories i have with him, i would go on and on but that would take forever.
anyway, as i was saying i recently visited his grave, reading his
tombstone, "Live today as though you will see God tommorow" and it got
me thinking. how am i living my life? am i really striving for what God
wants me to do? am i tricking myself or am i really yearning to grow
in Christ? i then remembered one of my lolo's many sermons, putting on
the full armor of God. although during his sermon he used the plastic
armor from the lighhouse which cause lots of humor when he threw sharp
darts at them. i realized i let my guard down. i haven't been living a
life God would want me to do. then i remembered a verse i learned and
memorized during discipleship: Romans 12:1-2 1)"Therefore, i urge you,
borthers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living
sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of
worship. 2) Do not conform and longer to the patteron of this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The you will be able
to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect
will. i realized i started straying from God, conforming to the world.
conviction has been beating me and breaking me so hard. who am i to
take my salvation lightly? "[my] attitude should be the same as that of
Jesus Christ: who being in very nature God, did not consider equality
with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the
very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found
in appearance as a man, he humbled himslef and became OBEDIENT TO DEATH
- even death on a cross!" [Philippians 2:5-8]. i don't know about you
but that humbles me so much. Jesus knowing no sin, becoming sin and
dying for my sin. i'm thankful i have friends and brothers n sisters
in Christ to help me by keeping me on check and praying for me.
p.w.m.a.
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| guys who love Jesus are
crazy hott!!!
c[:
"charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the
Lord is to be praised..." But a man who fears the Lord is to be dated!!!"
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