“What are we holding on to, Sam?”

Posted on August 19, 2008 by Gracie

“I can’t do this, Sam.”

“I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered.  Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those  were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. They kept going because they were holding on to something.”

“What are we holding on to, Sam?”

“There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.”

~The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Every time I watch the two towers I hold my breath during this scene. It’s so true. In all the stories and fairytales, the good wins and the evil loses. and sometimes it looks like evil is gonna win, and then, by some miracle, Good prevails. Light dispells the darkness. The real question is, What do we have worth fighting for? What’s worth holding on to? In Lord of the Rings, it’s the thought of home. That applies to my life. Heaven is my home. I can get through the trials and the storms and the darkness with the thought of heaven. and of course heaven’s master. There is good in the world, and it IS worth fighting for. In fact, we are called to fight for it. We can hold on to the hope that someday it’ll be all better.

So, If Frodo were to ask me that question…. my answer would be the same as Sam’s “There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.”

Posted in Relationship, Religion | 4 Comments

stupid highschool relationships

Posted on August 18, 2008 by Gracie

I think that one of the stupidest things ever known to mankind, is highschool relationships. I mean, what is the whole point? me me me. Why can’t you have fun without messing up a few hearts in the meantime? and believe me, it’s not just the two hearts directly involved that get hurt. All of the people who are close to you have to watch you get into a mess. But seriously, What’s the point? Highschool relationships have very little communication. They’re hard to get out of. The two people involved are most likely rebelling against some preset expectation, so they most likely don’t care for the other person involved more than as a friend. The people involved aren’t mature enough to make wise decisions. AND they’re not smart enough to listen to people who, a) have been through a bad HS relationship and don’t want to see them hurt or b) have watched many a HS relationship come to nothing or c) norrowly escaped one themselves and seen how it could’ve hindered their lives. Teenagers shouldn’t be given so much freedom over their own lives. Rules are a neccesity, and they need to be enforced. For all you parents of teenagers out there, don’t be afraid to make and enforce rules. Your kid may hate you for right now, but they’ll thank you later. As a teen, I commend anyone who is doing such. Good Job!

btw, If I appear to be getting into one myself…. bombard me with comments that say “don’t be a retard!”

~The frustrated teen

Posted in Girl-ness, Relationship | 3 Comments

mountain dew and cookies! bad idea people!!

Posted on August 12, 2008 by Gracie

Band camp is really bad for me! the finale aka end of band camp… yay…. was today… they gave me food…. not just any food! a tofu burger that was disgusting(never ask hyvee to cater!!!!) a thingie of sun chips…. and some watermelon…. and a cookie…. and mountain deeeeeewwwwwww!!!!!…….. yeah… i really did drag that out while writing….. Come to my house and I will scream in your face for the fun of it…. I told a couple people that I was going to shove malets down throats…. up noses…

Posted in Girl-ness, Random Anecdotes | 3 Comments

Jungle Jump Off 2008! woot!

Posted on August 11, 2008 by Gracie

I know all of you are very anxious to hear about this years youth trip. Just a warning, I learned soooo much, that it will take FOREVER to write it all out. Just a side note, we had a few nights where we were all praying for eachother… It was awesome. To start it off, I’m going to write out what I wrote in my Journal on friday.

8/8/08               Hammock in the chompa @ JJO! woot!

God has been teaching me soooooo much this week….

1. God can take care of His own people. He’s not going to let His followers get hurt.

2. If God isn’t worrying about the storm, than Maybe I shouldn’t be either.

3. I can’t controle anything beyond my own personal life.

4. I should be backing up any decision my friend makes, Even if I think it’s the wrong one.

5. Untill highschool is over doesn’t mean forever.

6. I love and am loved by so many people in my youth group.

7. God may ask me to go overseas before I do anything here.

8. I need to love people who God loves, even if they’re not my fave.

9. I can trust people. Yes, I might get hurt, but my choices should not be made based on what might happen.

10. God is sufficient. He is everything I need.

11. In every decision I make, I have a ton of people behind me. I am not alone.

12. I should always be praying for the un-reached people of the world. I may not ever go myself, but I can always give financial and prayer support.

13. Instead of asking “why” when a storm comes. I should be asking “what can I learn from this”

14. I am beautiful and unique in God.

15. I don’t always have to be the strong one.

16. Hammocks were made in heaven.

17. as was bug spray.

18. living without electricity for a week isn’t THAT hard.

19. bug spray is a great sub for nail polish remover.

20. a week without William(my cable nelson upright Grand piano) is ALMOST bearable.

21. the most beautiful sound in the world is the sound of the people you love praying for eachother.

Okay, so basically that’s a fraction of the stuff I learned at JJO. I had an awesome time getting to know the staff and the missionaries there…. Our youth group really united…. I had a few prayers answered… I had some really good food…. I really got to know some people who, a year ago, I would never have guessed I’d be getting to know. A fire got kindled in my soul for the unreached people around the world. I know how happy I am with Jesus. It gives me pain to hear about people who don’t have the joy of christ in their lives. They don’t even have the bible in their own language. That’s just plane old sad… heartbreaking really. I am in awe of what God did in my life and the lives of the others in the youth group, and I can’t wait to see what will happen in the coming months.

“God wen get so plenny love an aloha fo da peope inside da world, dat he wen send his one an ony boy. so dat everybody dat trus me, no get cut off from God, but get da real kine life dat stay to da max fo eva!” Jon 3:16 in hawaiian Pidgin

In awe of my saviour

~Grace

Posted in Random Anecdotes, Relationship, Religion | 2 Comments

Funny how God works sometimes :D

Posted on July 28, 2008 by Gracie

Okay, so on my bus, there are alot of posers. I usually hang with Sierra, Nate(Wolfgang Amadaeus), and Johhny. I’ve been kinda reluctant to talk about God around people I’m not sure about. Well, Today I finally opened up and talked about God a little bit… like just enough for an insightful person to figure out that God plays a huge role in my life…. And the more I talked about God, the more the people I was talking to talked about God and revealed the role God plays in their lives. It was pretty cool! I just love the way God works sometimes :D

Posted in Relationship, Religion | 2 Comments

A typical day de-tasseling

Posted on July 25, 2008 by Gracie

Most people think that de-tasseling is really hard. To some extent, yes it is… But not nearly as bad as most people crack it up to be. Sure, you do spend hours and hours walking. Sure you get muddy and sweaty. Yes, it’s hot…. But really it’s not that bad. Here’s a typical day on parkview bus.

People start showing up around 5:00 AM…. By 5:15 AM all the over zealous first years are piled into the back of the bus. Around 5:18 AM all the people who know better show up and take all the remaining seats. At 5:29 AM the people who slept through their alarms show up. They have to sit by the shy people who have seats to themselves. Dan starts the bus at 5:32 AM and we head out. In between then and 6:13 AM is a lot of snoring, a few loud crashes and some “would you please just SHUT UP!”‘s… 6:16 AM Dan opens in a word of prayer and Heidi(totally awesome bus assistant that has prolly broken every bone in her body before) reads off squads. 6:19 AM everyone piles off the bus and finds what squad they’re in. 6:29 we start our first round of the day in our rain gear. 7:45 AM we finish the first round and get told to pull faster by our fearless bus assistant. This gets repeated with different admonishments every time. Like such as “you need to pick more tassels!” “My grandma could go faster than you!” “keep up the good work!” “Elizabeth I don’t want to see you doing that ever again!” “watch your suckers(corn that is shorter the the rest) people!” etc. 10:06 AM and people start whining about how long the rows are, how much their feet hurt, how stupid greensnap(corn that has been blown over) is… 10:28 AM Dan gets so sick of it… that we get to have a 15 minute break! yay! 13 minutes later Heidi calls the 2 minute warning and we all get off our water jugs.  10:48 we’re back in the field. Bill(Mr. Monsanto, farmer dude(Resident monsanto representative/inspector)) looks at our rows and says stuff to us in his minnesotan accent.  1:09 PM we are finally done with the whole field. To every ones dismay, we have another field to do. On the bus ride there, we eat lunch, and play innumerable pranks on poor unsuspecting people. After one round of the next field we get to go home. There is much relieved laughter, passing around of cell-phones and “would you please be quiet, I’m on the phone”‘s. Dan sings a made up rap over the intercom about how much fun de-tasseling is, and how if you have a bug on your face he’s gonna smash it. 3:56 PM we finally make it to the parkview parking lot. another ten minutes later and everyone is gone… except for that one kid who always sleeps on the bus over night…. The next day we do it again :) see! De-tasseling isn’t so bad!

Posted in Random Anecdotes | Tagged | 3 Comments

Hello all!

Posted on July 24, 2008 by Gracie

To start off my blog, I want to tell you a little bit about me.

My name is Grace Menter. I live in a red brick house with my four brothers(Joshua, Daniel, John, and Timothy), and my awesome parents(Mom and Dad). The townhouse behind our house, houses my two sisters(Anna and Rebekah) and their roommate(Casandra). I am active in my church(LCF). Among the many things I do for my church, my favorites are Playing the piano for the Youth Group(Z-360), and working in the Nursery. I have been playing Piano for almost eight years….

I love God more than anything in and out of the world. My one purpose in life is to be who God wants me to be. Over the past few weeks God has been showing me things about his plan for my life. In typical human way, I don’t like most of it. I’ve been learning to totally surrender myself to God, and let him change the desires of my heart to match His. When I look back I can see how my desires have changed, and when I look forward I see how much farther they have to go. As my dearest Casandra says, sometimes you have to go through a lot of fire to get to the gold(that’s a summary, not a direct quote). So, as I strive toward total surrender, I will be writing little notes to share what’s been goin’ on in my life.

In Christ~Grace

Posted in Girl-ness | 4 Comments