Another Wonderful Weekend.

Unexpectedly, we threw together a little "Mini-reunion" of our Peru team. Ruth was in the States for conferences, so Kelly brought her up to Marilyn and Doug's. It was amazing. We went out for Chinese food on Thursday night, then Ian, Kelly, and I walked from the church to Marilyn's house. It was... interesting. After the adults got back, Ian made frape de maracuYA in the blender, Kelly and I were laughing at nothing, Ian was playing guitar, and both of the guys were passing massive amounts of gas. All while the adults were attempting to carry on actual conversation. It felt so familiar. I could not believe I had missed them so much. On Monday morning Doug made breakfast for Mom, Ruth, and me, then Mom and I went to pick up Kelly from Ian's house.
Here's a small sampling of the pictures.






Top Row, L-R: A foiled attempt; Hi, I'm 5;
Second Row: Frape de Maracuya; Ruth, Marilyn, and Mom
Third Row: My big brother and Me; picking up right where we left off
Fourth Row: Family; Ruth and Me
Fifth Row: Kelly & Me

On Friday night we had the rehearsal dinner for Tina's wedding, then the wedding was on Saturday. It was beautiful and went really well, and TINA IS MARRIED! Wow.
Bo and I stayed and Nana and Papa's on Saturday night and went to Nanny and John's church on Sunday. The praise and worship there is amazing. After church we went out to eat with Mike and Tracy and their kids, then came home.

This is the Correlation Between Salvation and Love

It's been a while, but there are priorities. The biggest events in my life as of late:

Labor Day Weekend:
Per tradition, Thursday through Sunday of Labor Day weekend was spent at Piatt Lake. In those four short days, I managed one final last trip to Antler's; Antler's menu and moosehorn breadsticks. Yes.

a kayaking excursion with Kaylie; kayaking with Kaylie... always lots of laughs.
a final footbridge/basketball court night, and lots of time floating in the midst of Piatt with Angela. Beautiful Piatt Lake!

Also, my notes from my first and last Sundays at camp were identical. Encouragement.

Also per tradition, the Walkers came to our house for a cookout on Monday. Lora and Morgan rode home with Mom, Bo, and Me on Sunday, and we saw "The Chainsaw Man of Michigan" and a huge drug bust. Up: Morgan had just stolen Bo's hat... and was quite proud of herself

Down: The Chainsaw Man of MichiganThe rest of the family arrived around 4:30 Monday morning, with Kaylie awakening me to stay up until 7. Mrs. Arp and Zack got to our house around 11:00 Monday morning, and we had our annual cookout. However, this time, it was a cook-IN, since the grill was out of gas.
Top: Mrs. Arp and Me- I LOVE that woman.
Middle: Kaylie, Zack, and Me... Kaylie was slightly ill all weekend.
Bottom: Superman! (All except for Kaylie)

Hillsdale Surprise:
Jared Philip was supposed to come visit me the weekend of September 5-7, but when that fell through, my family (minus Dad) decided to go to my grandparents in Hillsdale for Friday night. I went to Crossroads to hug my friends from camp, none of whom knew I was coming. It was the best 15 minutes of September so far. The next day, Mom and I took my school pictures on the farm, and I hung out with Jocelyn for a while.Up: Me. Farm.
Down: Jocelyn and Me...

Kaylie and Sheeps Weekend:
This past weekend, Kaylie and Christy came to visit... wow. It was so much fun. We went to the football game on Friday, and I got to see Ryan, Jessica, and Ian, and I caught a miracle shirt! Up: Jessica and Me
Down: Ryan and Me... he's as tall as me now!
I had no idea how much I missed them until I saw them again.Up: Me. Kaylie. Christy. Millington vs. Bridgeport
Down: Me. Miracle Shirt. Corban. On Saturday, we had people over for pizza and rainy day conversations.Up: (start in bottom left corner) Christy. Me. Emilyy. Emistotle. Kaylie. The reasons I get through each day.
Down: Kaylie and I, having a deep conversation in the downpour.
We stayed up late Saturday night (or, early Sunday morning) talking and laughing. Sunday brought church, lunch at Applebee's, and sad goodbyes.
Up: Me. Running through the rain
Down: Me, Christy, Kaylie. Goodbye drive. :(
What's coming:
Youth group starts up again on Wednesday. I leave Friday for Piatt Lake, where I'll be until next Wednesday or Thursday. I'll drive Nana and Papa Baker back to Hillsdale, and Mom, Bo, and Emilyy will meet us there on Friday for the Fair. Saturday is Fair day, and we're meeting all of our Hillsdale camp friends there. I may have a visitor Saturday through Monday :). Debate starts on Monday, the 29th!

Hasta la vista (until we meet again)

Wrapping Things Up...

Every year, at the last service of the summer, Billy Walker Junior does a thing called "The Summer Of." This is mine... with a bit of a twist.

The summer of... learning

• ...how to truly love; what Love truly is at in its purist form...
• ...that jealousy can consume.
• ...how to give it all to Him
• ...not to be such a control freak
• ...to stop talking, and start listening
• ...there's a difference between kindness and compassion. Kindness sends a card, compassion goes and cries with the hurting friend.
• ...to stop talking and start Listening.
  

The Summer of... Loving...
This one doesn't break down into bullet points, and it kind of goes along with the learning. I learned a lot about Love this year. I need to Love with the love of the Lord. I need to love those who are hard to love, those who don't love me back. It's easy for me to love people that I enjoy and get along with, but Love isn't easy.

The summer of... Laughter...

• Oh my gosh! It's giving birth!
• Hobble along, Kaylie...
• There's something different here...
• "Everyone has stuff. Our family, we have a lot of stuff."
• Must you move so swiftly?!
• Emily! Get your dooby off of me!
• "You're going to go home and teach..." "OH MY GOODNESS WHAT IS THAT?!!!"
• Kimmee falling off the tube in the lazy river.
• Hey Buddy!
• Unnaturally cubed meat and bi-colored milk
• AHH HA! The Double Poke!
• I ♥ Cliff
  
• Going to the Stoo with the Saff
• Orca!
• It's called a yarmulke!
• Where was your hand eye?!
• force mouse abortion
• legless campers
• Hair with a capital H
• Nobody's Perfect
• Sycamore and the Pillar of Salt
• the nurse giving Kaylie too much ibuprofen
• "Dave. I heard what you did. That is disgusting... and you call yourself a Christian!" *starts to walk away, then turns back* "And I looked up to you..."
• Look at all those children...
• Well, well, well... think you're Mister Funny Man, do you?
  

There are so many more inside jokes, so much more laughter... I could go on for pages and pages.

The Summer of... Memories

• singing and prayer on the footbridge with Kaylie, Christy, and Jessica
• being real friends with Christy now
• "Jared Talks"
• waterpark afternoons
• deeper friendships
• sunsets
• Tuesday nights- decisions, bonfires, etc
• Counselor talks (with my actual counselor and also with Dawn and Kimmee)
• shooting stars and finding the Little Dipper
• "Killing the Lizard"
• Second chances
• secrets shared
• Learning His voice
• laughter nearly to the point of being ill
• Cabin 7
• much confusion (NOT the way Jared uses that word
  
• Kimmee hugs every day
• kayak talks with God
• the Beauty of the Lord
  

This summer was the best one yet, and I'm glad that I don't let it end until after the rally :-)

This pretty much sums it all up...

As I climb into the attic of my memory
I brush the cobwebs, wipe the dust away
I see a picture of a friendship that’s lasted
through the years
And the memory is in my heart to stay
It’s so easy to see why God brought us together
For you gave to me in such a special way
And the part of you, you freely gave, became a
part of me
And you’re the reason I’m who I am today

So, I want to thank you for all you’ve done for me
There were times in our life we almost seemed like
family
But time must go on, and we go our separate ways
Still you’re always in my heart to stay
And I’m thankful that we’ve had the time to
share these special days

Many times it seems I take my friends for granted
Content to know you’re just a call away
But I know deep inside my heart how much you
mean to me
Though seldom I take the time to say
But today will quickly fade into tomorrow
And I refuse to let a day go by again
Without thanking you for all the many
blessings in my life
And the greatest is to know you as my friend

So, I want to thank you for all you’ve done for me
There were times in our life we almost seemed like
family
But time must go on, and we go our separate ways
Still you’re always in my heart to stay
And I’m thankful that we’ve had the time to share
these special days

So, when we come to the end, if our paths never cross
again, you will always be my friend.

One Wonderful Day

Today was pretty much amazing.
It started with last night.
After the service, Kaylie and Hunter and I went to Guthrie's cabin.
Then Brianna came a little bit later.
We had bagel bites and watched Monk and played Apples to Apples.
Then Hunter and Kaylie went home and Brianna and Guthrie and I
sat on the boat and talked until literally 2:30 in the morning.
Then this morning, I got up and went to say goodbye to Hunter,
which was very sad.
Then after she left [45 minutes late],
Kaylie and I drove Brianna back to Bakers' Birches.
In the car, with the music at full blast.
We listened to:
I'm Movin' On
Rock What Ya Got
Crawl
and some other random stuff on my cd from Zack.
Then we got back to my cabin and my mom told us that we forgot Bo.
So we went BACK and got Bo.
On the way back with him, there was this giant truck of wood, and it blocked the road for a while.
So we just put the music on FULL BLAST.
After that, we went to my cabin and played Life: Twists and Turns
and watched Adam's dinner theater DVD.
After THAT we had lunch, then we got on the computer for a bit.
Following the computer, Kaylie and I went kayaking.
Sort of.
Then we did a footbridge photoshoot, then went to the camp and sat at Spirit Park and mocked people's annoying laughs.
THEN we went to dinner, and now I am here.
And I need to go take a shower, because service is in like 20 minutes.
I'm staying at Kaylie's tonight, and we are FOR SURE playing Apples to Apples again.
"I just don't rememmer how mamy"
=]]

Hiawatha!

I've been here for three weeks now. Not gonna lie, it's been a very different summer. It's also been a really good one. Normally Kaylie and I are completely inseparable during the summer. If you find her, you find me. This year, we're still best friends, but we're realizing that we can have other friendships. I've made a lot of new friends this year and deepened some old friendships.

God really convicted me last week that I need to learn to love. I mean, I love my friends and my family; but when it comes to loving those who are different than me, I have a long way to go. During my "Jared talk" [:)] I was told that if I want to learn to love someone, I need to pray for them. It really works, too. (Imagine that!) I've been praying for those who I have trouble loving, and I find my heart changing towards them.

This has been a summer of hearing the voice of God, of learning His will, of obedience. It's been a summer of deeper friendships, long embraces, of tears. It's been a summer of multiple "counselor talks," of finally being in Blythe's cabin, of forced mouse abortions (remind me to tell you that story.) It's been a summer of being built up and torn down, of gaining and losing, of laughing and loving. It's been a summer to remember, and I'm so glad that it's not over yet.

A Quick Tournaround

I'm back from Peru. It was an incredibly amazing experience. I made so many new friends, and my life was changed in so many ways.

The biggest thing I learned while we were there was that love has no language barrier. I was barely able to communicate with most of the ladies from the church we worked with, and most of the kids from the villages, but I could see the love in their eyes.

I also learned that we place way too much value on material possessions. The people of Pucallpa are incredibly poor by the world's standards, but they are so richly blessed with faith, family, and love. They lack nothing, and aren't unhappy with what they have. We always want more, and they are always giving.

Now I'm headed up north until the middle of August. It's an incredibly quick turnaround to go from Peru to camp, and at some point everything will probably overwhelm me. I'm so sad to be gone from Peru, but that is currently being overshadowed by the happiness of going to camp. I'm sure that the end of this summer will be harder than most.

If you want to write to me while I'm at camp, here's the address.
I love getting letters :)
Alyssa Hobson
c/o Hiawatha Youth Camp
Piatt Lake
Eckerman, MI 49728