I honestly believe that from the bottom of my heart.

This past year...it's been heartbreaks and trials, joy and laughter, doubt and uncertainty, trusting and experiencing God's work in my life.

You know that last post, forever ago, like, almost a year ago? Where I was attempting to get into YouthBuilders? Yeah, well March 17, 2009 I received news that made my heart stop and I had no idea what to do. Yeah, I got a rejection email from YouthBuilders. One of the nicest rejection letters I have ever gotten, but none the less, a rejection letter.

I think I cried all night. Unfortunately I had to go to Senior Parent Night at LMH, hearing everyone talk about their plans for next year, and I have no clue what the heck I'm going to do. My parents gave me a week to sort everything out before they told me I had to make a decision. I tossed around so many choices, missions work, community college, working for a year, 2 year college, and 4 year college. Finally I decided to check out the one school no one thought I would ever go to, probably. My parents and I took a trip down to Liberty University in the beginning of April. I liked it a lot!

My trip down there was over a Thursday and Friday. On Monday I went back to school only to leave again on Tuesday to check out Lock Haven University in PA as another option. I received a bunch of texts that day about a classmate, Micah Berthold, who had been in a terrible car accident and was in really bad shape. Wednesday I went back to a school that was a mess. I made it through my morning classes, but by lunchtime I was a mess. That evening he died, and a prayer vigil for him turned into a celebration of his life. The rest of that week, Easter week, was a mess of tears, prayers, and hugs. LMH was a wreck, and still today, over 6 months later, I still have a hard time with his death.

I chose Liberty for where I wanted to go to college. I'm currently a Communications: Radio Broadcasting major. I know, quite the switch from all my plans. It was a long road just getting here. From praying for scholarships to raising funds to go on a missions trip to Jamaica with Xtreme Impact, a part of Liberty's missions department, to finding out that I was still going to be $4,000 short of being able to attend Liberty to getting the news that I was rewarded $4,000 for Work Study. Like I said, God works everything out!!!

I thought I was going to be missing out on so much by not making it into YouthBuilders. A good friend of mine, who actually was in YouthBuilders about 4 years ago told me that God might not want me in YouthBuilders, because he might need me in other areas of my life, and that I don't know what is around the bend, because I might have to go through something that would be really tough to go through if I am away in Canada for the year.

Little did I know that what she said was going to come true just a few short months later, the beginning of June. I'm not going to go into too many details, but basically my brother made some horrible choices and decided to leave my sister-in-law. He ran away from God and it hurt all of us, bad. It hurt to be so close to the situation at the time, but I know if I would have been far away, I would not have been able to get through this rough time in my life. I am praising God right now that HE DOES WORK THINGS OUT IN THE END, and just with in the past two months, I think the end of September, my brother told us that God changed his heart, and he has returned to his family, and has become a responsible father and good husband again. PRAISE GOD FOR THAT!!!!

Also, on a lighter note, if I had been accepted to YouthBuilders, I wouldn't have been able to go to Creation Festival NE or Purple Door Festival this summer. Actually, I was offered a supervisor's position at Creation this year in Individual Camping. Well, to be exact, an Assistant Supervisor's position. It was amazing, a lot of hard, hard work, long hours, people stuck in mud, directing traffic for 4 hours by myself until I lost my voice, but I got to know a lot of new people and a guy named Vernon Martin (that's important later). And Purple Door was awesome this year, a great last hurrah before leaving for college that next Tuesday.

Speaking of college, I'm having a blast!!! And I'm doing well at it, despite many people's predictions that I wouldn't last in college. I have awesome roommates, Rhiannon and Hayley, and an awesome group of friends (superheros UNITE!!!) haha. I've gotten involved in a local church, Community Fellowship Baptist Church, and Liberty's brand new Rock for Life club. Which happens to be headed by a certain Garrett Martin. My boyfriend of two weeks, but it feels like months. Yeah, remember Vernon Martin back there? Yeah, that's Garrett's dad. GOD DOES WORK THINGS OUT IN THE END!!!!!!!!! He is so awesome. I don't deserve him.

So that's me. It's two weeks till Thanksgiving Break, and I cannot wait to be back in Lancaster County and get some good ol' Lancaster County cookin. None of this southern stuff now!! Plus I get to ride back with Garrett, and hopefully visit his church and he'll come to The Table. Oh yeah, did I mention that he lives in Manheim, 25 minutes from my house? GOD WORKS EVERYTHING OUT IN THE END!!!!

From here, who knows what will happen, but I look back over the past Spring, Summer and Fall, and I see God's hand in everything. From my rejection to my acceptance to Liberty, even to Micah's death, to Shawn and Ashley's struggles, to being an Assistant Supervisor at Creation, to my Jamaica trip, to Purple Door, to how awesome college is, to meeting my boyfriend. GOD DOES MIRACLES and he's still working in my life today.

Well, this went significantly longer than I expected, but hey, how can you summarize a year?? And I missed a bunch in there!!!!! Well, good night, and maybe I'll update again next year, lol.

like when i come home from creation...what a let down! from an awesome week and a half of spending time with God, working hard, relaxing, rocking out to awesome music, and staring at the beautiful surroundings to laying around the house, despairing that you have to go back to work, trying to set up a job interview to get out of your current sucky job, and watching creation videos on youtube and crying about them...man i must have pms or something!!!

no, i've just been really sad that i had to leave...i feel so alive at creation...that's me there, the real deal, not the lazy person who lives in willow street...having to drive my car instead of a totally awesome pimped out golf cart is gonna suck, just like not having bonfires every night. and making my own meals stinks...i prefer going to a dining hall and getting salad bar every day...where i can get all the cherry tomatos i want. i miss the music and my new friends i met up there...staying up till one, two, three o'clock in the morning.

 

i want to go back!!

Layla Autumn Mellinger, born September 9 at 12:11.

I'm sooooo tired.