I'm back.

So I haven't use this mode of information in quite some time and decided that it would be good to get back to blogging, not that I've ever given it much a try. So I'm going to try to do better with it and use it as a online journal and what's up in the Life of Kirsten Barnes.

Today was an exciting day at school, let's face it any time you get to show up to work two hours late and get paid for a full days work has to be exciting. Then you add 1200 high school students to the mix and it's loads of fun. We left the window shades open, the kids seemed grateful, so that we could enjoy the beauty with all of the crazy weather. I'm curious to see what happens with the weather tonight, it would be fun to have another two hour delay. I know that I did two posting this morning for my classes at George Fox and I'll also admit that I like going to school a little bit later in the morning.

Tonight, I'm going with Tasha and Edgar to the movie The King's Speech and I'm looking forward to watching it. I think that the subject of the royal family is good but a monarch conqueoring his fears and public speaking is a very interesting topic to me. I'll let you know tomorrow how the movie went!

Writing.

Have I told you that I like to write in my freetime? For the past week, I've been thinking about writing again. It's been a while since I seriously sat down and worked... like two years. But I think that I'm ready to batten down the hatches after Thanksgiving. I had so many ideas floating around in my head when I stopped writing along with several unfinished stories but I was too busy to enjoy the process. So I stuck them in a box and put them away until I had more freetime.

If you know me, your probably wondering when I have free time, right? Well, I don't necessarily have free time but I chose to write for my own sanity a few years ago and found a tremendous release. There is something amazing that happens when you allow yourself to escape into the world of imagination. In my very "grown up" world, there isn't much time for fun and games, but when I sit down at my computer I'm able to disappear into another world.

I'm not a professional or even polished and I don't pretend to be. I'm just a high school teacher who found an escape in the world of fiction. That's what I would like my writing to provide for others, a moment's escape. I might never be published, but that doesn't matter, I'm writing for the fun of it. Just an ordinary girl who would like to show off an extraordinary God in happily ever after settings.

Kirsten<><

2009 Team Camp

We're leaving on Thursday, July 23rd for team camp. At this point there were 24 invitations sent out and 20 have confirmed attendance. This year we plan on staying in two large tents instead of multiple small tents. This will make it more fun. If possible we will link all of the tents together into a giant dormitory. We will also be asking that athletes bring a reuseable water bottle this year which will help us be a little greener but at the same time save room on our load.

Menu for this year:
Buy your own meal on the way to and from Prineville.

Breakfasts: Ceral, Bagels, Milk, & Juice
Lunch: Build your own sandwich bar
Dinner: Chicken & Potato salad, Spaghetti, Tacos & Pizza,

Snacks: Up to you to bring along your favorite snacks to share.

Garage Sale

Just a few days until we have one of our last opportunities to raise money for the Kauai Challenge. This weekend's garage sale is very important if we are going to finish our funding for our trip to Kauai. We expect everyone to help in some sort of manor with the garage sale. If you can't work a shift, then you are expected to help with the clean up next week.

Details:
The garage sale will take place on Friday and Saturday, July 17 & 18th from 8 am until 3 pm. We need one adult on the premise at all times. Clean up will take place on Monday July 20th.

If you have questions, contact Coach Barnes.

Time. Is it ticking away?

Yikes! I haven't posted since August. How did that happen?

Have you ever noticed that time flies? I mean it seems like we were just in the middle of summer and now, we're suddenly into the fall and the rain has come. But time is still ticking away and we're not able to put a hold on it. Before we know it we'll have Thanksgiving and Christmas underfoot and be well on our way to Spring Break.

Obviously in our society today, time has become more precious than money and while I enjoy spending my money, I can easily make choices about money but when it comes to time, I know that I haven't been the best steward. It's so easy to waste time and not get things done. I'm not saying that you have to be busy all the time, everyone needs time to relax and take it easy but I think that it's also easy in this day and age to let time just slip away. From television, to the internet to cell phones and everything else out there it's easy to just sit and not get anything done. I've found hours slipping away into oblivion and when I look at the clock, I'm baffled because all I'd done was sit in front of the television.

I know that I have a busier life than most people and that time management for me is a key but I can't let my busy life take over my life. In the end, it all comes down to choices that we make. How we live our life. We have to chose what we embrace and where we set our hearts. If we don't, we allow the busy schedule to take over our lives and don't keep control. For me, I've found that I have to take control of my schedule and actually start cutting back. One of the hardest choices that I had to make was what to give up. It wasn't an easy thing to do but if we're going to organize our lives and make good choices, I had to make a decision on what was best for me.

Is your day to full? Do you get to take a moment and enjoy the sunshine or the flowers outdoors? Or are you just running from place to place and wondering when you're ever going to be able to relax? When you get to relax do you find yourself vegging because you're just too tired? If that's where you're at, I invite you to look at your schedule. Make some tough choices and re-define your life. See what out there and enjoy your daily life and be in control, instead of chasing down your schedule. I'm not an expert at it yet but I know that I'm finding more moments of peace and a fresh breath of air. New doors might be waiting out there, doors that lead to greater contentment. But are you able to open the door or are you just running past keeping your head above water and trying to get to the next appointment?

Check out your life. Where is it headed? Are you happy with where you are going? Set aside time and look at your schedule and take it in your own hands. Don't wait to see where time has disappeared.

Tryouts. Team Bonding.

Tryouts: a word that makes me cringe. It equals the worst time of the year for me because I have to make the decision on what girls continue to play the game they love and which girls are not given the opporutnity to participate any longer. The question usually isn't their talent to play the game. The question that really determines if the athletes are good enough to make the team is their attitude, team chemistry, work ethic and their ablility to follow directions. I think that athletes often believe that I like making cuts. Let's set that record straight. I wish I had 4 teams so that I wouldn't have to cut anyone and everyone could make a team. I know that athletes would still be distressed that they didn't make the team they wanted, but they'd be able to still play.

At the end, after speaking with the girls, I go out and try to enjoyed a mega scoop of ice cream at DQ. Then it's time to start dreaming about what my team will be capable of doing. The teams this year are unique. After spending a day bonding at the YWAM High Ropes course, they found out that they're really capable of doing great things. Many girls conquered fears as they worked their way through the course and when they were done their were only a few moments of disagreement throughout the day. They learned to work together and help each other out and I hope that they learned that with the help of their team that they can accomplish unimaginable goals.

What did I learn? Peer pressure can make you do things that you wouldn't normally be willing to try. I came back from lunch and it was time for the girls to scale a tree that 110 feet tall. The guides told me it would be good if I made myself do this part with the girls and so I agreed. I'll admit that half way up the tree, I was thinking that I'd have like to stop. My arms were burning and my head was saying, YIKES. But I kept climbing because the girls were cheering me on from below. When I made it to the top, I looked across the valley and could see the city from a bird's eye view. I tied my goal on the branch with the others who had made it to the top and then climbed back down to the bottom. The last 40 feet was fun to repel to the bottom but when I was done. My arms ached, my knees were scraped and I was tired but I'd made it to the top and that's what it was all about. Making it to the top and accomplishing the goal.

Adios for now.

Team Camp, Friendships and a guy named Nehemiah

So, it's Tuesday and I just got home from Team Camp with 20 girls who will be trying out for the Silverton High School volleyball team. It was a great camp, hosted by Rosie Honl, 2006 & 2007 Oregon Colleyball Coach of the Year. The girls really enjoy it and they play non-stop for four days. By day four however, they are irritable, tired and ready to go home. Upon returning, I have some comments I would like to make.

I learned several things this week as I watched my girls play and live together. The first thing. Teenagers are addicted to cell phones. They seem to have to have them at all times and they don't even use them to really talk but just to text back and forth, sometimes just to the seat in front of them.

I learned that friendships are precious and very fragile. I was amazed at how close some kids have been in the past and surprised to find that they hadn't spoken in over two months. I was more amazed to find that they were angry mainly because of gossip spread through other friends and hearsay that caused severe hurt. My suggestion to anyone is that they really listen to what people have to say and be careful to know over react. The most important thing however is that you talk about it and listen, no matter how mad/upset/frustrated it makes you. The only way to get through it is to find the root.

After being with the girls I was thinking about a story in the Bible that I enjoy. It's found in Nehemiah Chapter 6: 1-16 ish.

Background:
Nehemiah gets a letter from a relative that tells him about the state of his hometown (Jerusalem). It stays in his mind and he can't get it out. He starts praying about the city, calling out to God to take care of it and feels sick about it's status. As cupbearer to the King, he's expected to be joyful in the King's presence but can't even mask the problem when he's with him. The King asks him what is wrong and Nehemiah tells him. Moved by his feelings for his city, the King allows him to make a trip to Jerusalem to repair the walls. Not only does he allow him to leave, he gives him a letter that gives him the funds, supplies and authority to take care of the city. He arrives in the city, checks out the problems in the dark, not telling anyone what he is up to and then returns to take it on. He organizes the men, gets them going and then when they are regularly attacked. He continues to build the wall with one man guarding and one man working at each station. It's an amazing feat. As they are nearing completion. The enemies start attacking Nehemiah's character and that's where the story begins.

The Story:
In chapter 6:1-16 Nehemiah is almost done with his job and he is attacked at all corners. The four attacks are simple yet normal in our daily life. First he is tempted to be distracted and kept out of focus (1-3). They continuously ask him to come do other things. Second (5-7) his motives are questioned as they spread rumors thorough an open letter. Nehemiah's response ... (v8) Nothing what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head. Basically, your crazy, that's not true and he went back to work. Attack number three, they tried to weaken his resolve (9). What does he do? He prays: God make these weak hands strong. And fourthly, they tried to compromise his integrity (10-14). They tell him to run to the temple and hide which would discredit him because only priests and criminals could take sanctuary there. He would have been totally discredited if he would had hidden in the temple but his response ... I'm not running away, I've got a job to do. Then in verse 15 we find the result. Nehemiah completed the wall in 52 days, after praying over it for months and hearing the stories of it since childhood. He finished a job that had been waiting over 140 years to be completed in record time with the help of a king and a bunch of ragmuffins at time.

The Point:
Sometimes we get distracted from the jobs that God has before us. We can't allow that to happen. We must stay the course and do the job that God has for us. Sometimes our motives are questioned by people that we're close with. We can't allow our vision to be clouted by the critics. After all, nothing brings out a critic like a vision so we must counter criticism with the truth. Sometimes we get tired and our resolve is weakened. The truth of the matter is, along the way we'll be tempted to give up. But we can't, God has a purpose for us and we can't allow ourselves to get thrown off the path. We must seek God to give us strength. And finally, sometimes we have our integrity compromised. The enemy lives to trip us up in life. It gives him delight to see us struggle. But we have God on our side and need to set boundaries that will help us be successful. If you know you stuggle with something, tell someone else. Don't go places where you know you'll have to deal with a struggle. If you can keep away from these four little distractions, then you'll be able to build that magnificent wall in record time and the work of God will be done.