Smiles and Beach Breezes

Hello all,
As promised, I will show you some of my pictures from the good old land of cheese (aka--Wisconsin) and tell you about my rather memorable weekend. On Friday the girls from my youth group had a sleepover...it was pretty great! We made our pizzas and nachos and had a dance party.
Anyyyway,  and then today, after church, our youth group went to the beach  and had a blast! We played in the water and generally had a blast. There's something about the beach that draws fun out of everyone. Maybe its the sun and water combined :)
But in my opinion, the best part about those two experiences was being used by God to impact someone's life. At the sleepover there was a girl who was fairly new to the youth group. I heard her mom mention she did Irish dance, and God prompted me to talk to her about, so I talked to her about it during the sleepover. She had been rather stiff and withdrawn, but when I addressed her, she immediately became more comfortable and friendly. I talked to her some more throughout the night, and found her to be sweet and personable. I didn't really think much of it all, but this morning in church her mom pulled me aside  and said I had made her daughter so happy for including her. She (the girl) thought no one would like her and she would be left out. I'm so thankful that she didn't feel left out, and we hung out more at the beach today. I feel so good because God used me to help someone feel His love and feel comfortable, but also because I gained a new friend. I have had many experiences where I felt awkward and left out, so I was so happy that I was able to banish those feelings with that girl.
Do you have any oppurtunities to reach out be friendly to anyone new or friendless? If so, just talk to them, be friendly and draw them in. It might not mean much to you, but means the world to them.

Okay, and here's some promised Wisconsin photos!

This is the back of our cabin..sorry there's a picnic table in front of it..couldn't be helped.

That's the path down to the dock and the lake..Bass Lake to be exact. I swam in the lake alot while we were there...it took a little while to get used to the lakebottom slime though...

Here's our boathouse and one of our canoes...

I'll show you all more pictures of when we went to lake superior and others in a later post. The beach wore me out, so I'm going to go! Remember to seek God, and His Kingdom and righteousness FIRST (Matthew 6:33), and reach out to others whenever you can! Adios!

All my love,
Ari