Car Update

Yippee!! My parents arrived late this afternoon and my Dad is going to be taking in my sick little car to be fixed! I am so excited!

My coolant should stop leaking, my oil is going to be changed so the engine should feel better, my tires will be rotated, and last but not least the brakes should be done squeaking/whistling! I am happy to get my car on the working side of life again so that I can travel. First trip is to Snyder for my Grandma's Birthday. I plan to leave on Tuesday after work. Her birthday is on April 2nd. She is going to be 91 years old.

Please pray that the bill won't be too expensive! Thanks and have a blessed week everyone!

Recipes For My New Ice Cream Maker :)

I have been looking and wanting an ice cream maker for like 3 years and last Sunday I decided to buy one last minute. I haven't tried it yet but I am planning to soon. I can't wait.

I was wondering if yall would share any recipes that you have with me. I hope everyone has had a blessed week. I miss yall!

The Blizzard Has Come to Camp

We were being told that a blizzard was to hit starting midnight on Thursday/Friday. Yesterday was so cold. It was a possibility we could get up to 12 inches of snow/snow drifts. The snow hit along with sleet. Amazingly the roads weren't bad here at camp and there wasn't much snow. Wreckless was thankful for his igloo dog house yesterday with wood chips in it. He never came to the back door wet or appearing cold.

This morning when I woke up and let the dogs out the snow drifts hit the back yard. :) Poor Daisy-Rose couldn't see over the snow unless she raised up. Both pups weren't too sure about all this snow (this is the most they have ever seen in their short lived lives). All the sudden after Wreckless got his feet in it he started hopping around. He seemed to love the snow. Here are a few pictures.

Prayers for Ceta Canyon

We are going through a lot of changes at work and we are needing prayers. With summer quickly approaching we have had another person resign. Please pray for us as we are adjusting to a lot of change and working through being short handed. Pray for the right people to fill the year round jobs that are currently open as well as provide the summer help needed. Thank you so much!

Mandy's Going Away Party

On the 24th we gave Mandy in our office a going away party. It was her last day and she is heading to Ft. Worth to go back to teaching. Here are a few pictures from our gathering. She doesn't have a job lined up yet so please keep her in your prayers when you think about it.

Mandy

Me, Mandy, and Britney

Mandy and Genia (Mandy's replacement)

Britney, Mandy, Butler, Bronc, Mark Andrews, and Mark Pittman

Amy, Audrey, Nikki, and Mike

Stansell Visit to Ceta Canyon

My sister Alanna came down while my niece Rachel was on spring break. Chris unfortunately had to work so wasn't able to come. We had so much fun while they were here. Rachel came down with the plan of catching 20 fish but she only caught 3. The weather has made the pond really cold and all the fish are hiding out at the bottom of the pond. Luke caught his first fish this trip. He was so happy and excited about it. He was singing and dancing afterwards and I caught it on video (check out the video on my sister's blog). It was so funny and cute. Alanna caught 2 fish and she was the 1st one to catch a fish. Kate spent most of the fishing time in the car. We let her out at first but she wanted to sit on the edge of the deck and kick the water. It was so scary. We were terrified that she was going to fall into the pond.

Alanna, the kids, and I went hiking to the waterfall. Alanna and me passed Kate down so that we could go down to the lower part of the falls, we made it but it took a bit of time. The kids loved it but Luke wasn't happy about getting dirty (he takes after my dad). The kids went all the way up to the falls and got so wet. They thought it was so neat that they could touch the water at the base of the waterfall.

We also took out some time to walk on the bridge and play basketball. My oldest niece Rachel should be making baskets in no time. She just needs a couple more inches. She was so close a couple of times.

They headed to Snyder on Friday afternoon after eating lunch with us at camp. It has been so quite since they left. I sure do miss them. I had a lot of fun while they were here.

You can go to my sister's blog by clicking on "The Stansell Family" on my blog list.

Beauty for Ashes

I am in a transition time with studies and it is so interesting that the Lord has been showing me different verses on beauty as well as hearing songs that relate to being beautiful in the Lord. This is my prayer and desire for my friends and family who have walked through very difficult times and this is a promise of the Lord too. Here are a couple of verses I have ran into:

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified." ~ Isaiah 61:1-3

"So will the king greatly desire your beauty: for he is your Lord; and worship you him." ~ Psalm 45:11

"He has made everything beautiful in his time:..." ~ Ecclesiastes 3:1

Verse 3 in Isaiah has always seemed so overwhelming nearly like the promise was meant for someone else. I never could wrap my mind around how the Lord would take all the broken pieces (ashes) of my life and actually bring beauty. I have been meditating on this promise for some time now and the Lord showed me in Psalm how much He desired my beauty. I realized that He wants to bring that beauty from the ash heap of life so that ultimately He can be glorified! I tend to get in the way but it doesn't take away His desires for me. This Sunday at church in Sunday School we were looking at Ecclesiastes 3. As most of you know it is a list of "there is a time for...." and I came across verse 11 when it says that there is a time for beauty. I never have noticed that before and it really opened my eyes to the fact that it truly is in a process of time that the Lord brings about things. Beauty doesn't come automatically though we are a microwave society that wants it done now. Some things just take time and needs to be slowly cooked in a crock pot and when all you have to work with are ashes, beauty is bound to take a while.

I am not sure if any of you quilt but I did a quilt a few years back for my Grandma. She had given me a lot of quilting scraps that she had left over from when she sewed clothes and made quilts herself. There were all these pre-cut squares, odd shapes of material, etc... I didn't have any idea what to do with them. One day I decided to make a quilt for her with all these leftovers and tap into the bigger pieces when needed. I decided to start out with a design and eventually it would end up all mixed up the farther out I got and wouldn't be a technical design. This was the first time I had ever done anything like this so I wasn't sure what would happen or what it would look like. After I finished it up and I prepared to give it to Grandma for Christmas I was so excited. I ended up really liking it and couldn't hardly wait to give it to her. One of my friends told me she was so amazed at how I made something beautiful out of nothing.

This is the only way that I can relate what the Lord desires to do in us by bringing beauty from the ashes of our lives. All He had to work with in my life was a bunch of scraps and I hope that He makes something beautiful out of nothing in my life. I hope that makes a bit of sense to you!

Any Good Ideas Anyone

I am not sure how many people actually follow my blog but I am coming to anyone who finds the time to read this in hopes that you may be able to give some ideas for getting the word out about the retreat I have shared with yall about.

The people we are desiring to reach out to tend to be very secretive about the problems they face and we really want to get the word out to those who need to come. If you have any ideas please share. Also as this retreat becomes a bit more defined and planned out let people know. Share with people as the opportunity arises. If you have someone cross your path that is struggling, has struggled, has overcome in the areas we are reaching out to please let them know about this retreat we are working on with the goal of the retreat being in the fall. Word of mouth goes a long way. You never know where it will end up or who will hear.

I have been praying for many days, and hours about this and decided that the Lord may have the answer out there in the minds of one of yall. Thanks for your help!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

Only in Texas can it be in the 90's one week and snowing the next! :)

Breaking Free - Week 10: The Display of His Splendor

It is so hard to believe that I have completed the Beth Moore study I have been working on since the end of November called "Breaking Free". A wonderful and dear woman from my church suggested it to me at a counseling session I had with her and I am so thankful that she encouraged me to do it. I have been so encouraged, challenged, and it has changed my life so much.

As I started working through this week's studies I had just begun talking with Sheila about the retreat for girls/women with strongholds and I was battling within my heart about whether this was a good idea or not. I was struggling with fears, questions, thoughts, concerns, and even with the strongholds I face because they are the ones we are desiring to reach out to. My struggles were all within my mind but they were struggles all the same.

When I came to Day 3 in this study the Lord provided me with an overwhelming sense of peace, confirmation, and encouragement. Here are some things that the Lord showed me:

In this day of study Beth Moore was looking at Israel’s time of bondage in Egypt and it got to the point where they were preparing to leave Egypt but before they left they got the riches of Egypt to go with them. They were very poor yet the Lord provided for them riches that were given to them by Egypt. She quoted Mrs. Charles E. Cowman from Streams in the Desert:

“The Gospel is so arranged and the gift of God so great that you may take the very enemies that fight you and the forces that are arrayed against you and make them steps up to the very gates of heaven and into the presence of God… God wants of every one of His children, to be more than conqueror…You know when one army is more than conqueror it is likely to drive the other from the field, to get all the ammunition, the food and supplies, and to take possession of the whole…There are spoils to be taken!
Beloved, have you got them? When you went into that terrible valley of suffering did you come out of it with spoils? When that injury struck you and you thought everything was gone, did you so trust in God that you came out richer than you went in? To be more than conqueror is to take the spoils from the enemy and appropriate them to yourself. What he had arranged for your overthrow, take and appropriate for yourself.”

The questions for us was when we got out of our Egypt did we come out with riches? “Did you give the enemy an offensive blow by allowing God to bring you out of your captivity twice the person you were when you went in?”

Later we see the Israelites using the riches they received to give back to the Lord in the building of the tabernacle. The next couple of questions really hit me hard after I thought on them:

"How can a person reinvest the plunder she/he brings out of captivity?
Have you already had an opportunity to offer your plunder (riches) to God as a reinvestment and see Him bring greater returns?"

“…you become a display of His splendor every time you take the plunder of Egypt and offer it back to God for His magnificent glory.”

When I finished this particular day I realized that the retreat that Sheila and I are going to be working on to reach out to girls/women with eating disorders, cutting, and have been hurt sexually is a way that the Lord could allow both Sheila and I to offer the riches that the Lord provided for us when we left our Egypts. I have been very nervous and scared since Sheila has said yes that she wanted to work on this with me I will be honest. It just seems so big and impossible to get this retreat together. I realize it has only been a week since the idea was discussed and there is 6 months at minimum before the retreat and I know that with God anything is impossible but the worries and fears have still been present. After this study I saw confirmation that this is His will for us, for me specifically and I really need to walk by faith.

I hope that all of you will take out the time to do this study! I has been really good and can reach out to anyone at any stage in life. You may find out about strongholds you didn't realize you had because I did. Beth Moore has a wonderful gift of laying out studies in a way that has you dealing with whatever you are dealing with as you go. The initial reason I started this study wasn't even a stronghold I was dealing with when I finished it actually it was worked through by the end of week 5 but there were other things that the Lord showed and revealed to me along the way and thankfully has given me direction and encouragement to use my experiences to reach out and bring glory to His name. My prayer is that I will bring His name honor and glory. I desire to be a vessel used for His glory.

May the Lord bless and keep you always.

A Healing Captive

A Healing Captive

O, God, Who frees the captive

Do not liberate this carnal slave for freedom's sake

For I will surely wing my flight to another thorny land.

Break, instead, each evil bond

And rub my swollen wrists,

Then take me prisoner to Your will

Enslaved in Your safekeeping.

O, God, Who ushers light into the darkness,

Do not release me to the light

To only see myself.

Cast the light of my liberation upon Your face

And be Thou my vision.

Do not hand me over

To the quest of greater knowledge.

Make Your Word a lamp unto my feet

And a light unto my path

And lead me to Your dwelling.

O, God, Who lifts the grieving head,

Blow away the ashes

But let Your gentle hand upon my brow

Be my only crown of beauty

Comfort me so deeply,

My Healer,

That I seek no other comfort.

O, God Who love the human soul

Too much to let it go,

So thoroughly impose Yourself

Into the heaps and depths of my life

That nothing remains undisturbed.

Plow this life, Lord,

Until everything You overturn

Becomes a fertile soil,

Then plant me, O God

In the vast plain of Your love.

Grow me, strengthen me,

And do not lift Your pressing hand

Until it can boastfully unveil

A display of Your splendor.

~ Beth Moore - Breaking Free Study

Changes at Work

Yesterday my boss Michael showed a letter to me from Holly. As of Tuesday Holly resigned from working at camp for personal reasons and it was effective immediately.

Please be praying for camp. We are going through a lot of adjustments as a whole and change isn't always an easy process. With Holly leaving it leaves us short a head cook for summer and last year it was physically tiring working the hours we did with 3 of us who could run a kitchen. It is now down to 2 of us. Please pray that the position will be posted soon on our website and that the Lord would bring the man/woman that He desires to come and serve in His name. Pray for godly wisdom for Michael and Mike as they search to hire the right person for the job.

Thank you for all of your prayers!

Breaking Free - Week 9: The Steadfast Mind

This week of study was refreshing, encouraging, and a wonderful reminder for me on battling with strongholds. The focus was in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5:

"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;) Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;"

When I was coming out of 2 very difficult strongholds this was a section of Scripture that I kept before me when I was battling with truth. I found my struggles were from within my mind and that is how I was being attacked the hardest.

As I worked through this week's lessons Beth Moore reminded me how the Lord helped me to overcome and it was by the truth of His precious Word. I was believing so many lies that I had stored up in my mind that as I replaced those lies with truth the Lord gave me the strength to walk in His truth. Please do not take me wrong, I still struggle but over the last 4 years it has been limited to my mind. When I am struggling I start filtering my thoughts with the Word of God and so far I have found the strength to walk out my struggles faithfully with Christ.

It is interesting how the Lord had me in this chapter this week following the Mother/Daughter Retreat and waiting to see if Sheila was willing to help me organize the Retreat I shared with yall about a couple of posts ago. Sheila has thankfully agreed to help me throughout this whole process of getting this Retreat planned out and even after. One of my fears/concerns is that I will fall back into my strongholds at some point in this process. She is just going to be an accountability partner before, during and after the camp to help me walk through it successfully and be there for me if I happen to falter along the way. My prayer is that I will rely on God's Word and keep my focus through this process because I know that the Lord is strong and mighty and can help me to walk through this faithfully.

After this weeks lessons I felt refreshed and reminded that His Word breaths truth. Over the next 6+ months I am going to be making up some 3x5 note cards of verses that I have relied on to keep truth in my mind and keep them with me so that if struggles come I will have my note cards there in hand so that I can meditate on Him and His Word instead of on the lies that I tend to think and that Satan desires me to believe. Please keep this concern in your prayers for me as you think about it. I truly want to be a vessel that walks faithful even when it is very difficult.

Busy Week at Camp

Wow has this week been busy, tiring, and fun! We had a work group here from Iowa. This is their 2nd year here. They are from Wartburg College and came down for their winter break (what we would call spring break). They got done with a long list of things we needed to get done and when the week was over it felt like something was really accomplished!

My goal for their visit was to learn everyones name and I did it. There were 3 of them that turned in applications for the summer so I am excited to see a couple of them in a couple of months. Here is a picture of Jeff, Bronc, Holly, and me with the group.

On the first day of work with them Bronc found a porcupine in a tree and this was exciting for the group as well as for me. It is the first one I have seen in a year. So I was sure to pull out my trusty camera. This poor animal was terrified of us as everyone gathered around to take pictures and look at him. Most likely we were in his little bubble! :)

A Vision for Ceta Canyon

Not too long ago I shared with you about our Mother/Daughter Retreat and the vision for a new camp that the Lord has been placing on my heart. The speaker from the Mother/Daughter Retreat Sheila Ritchie and I have been emailing today and I think we are going to take the challenge and prayerfully seek the Lord as we develop a Retreat directed towards strongholds that we face. The initial thought a year ago was to minister to girls who struggle with eating disorders. This year during the Mother/Daughter Retreat the Lord expanded my thought pattern to reach out to girls who have been hurt sexually and who struggle with cutting also.

I will be honest I am not sure what will happen or the plan. We are in the brainstorming process currently and have just started talking by email today. For the first Retreat we may just focus on girls with eating disorders as a pilot retreat and see how it works, what happens, etc... I have never planned or helped plan anything like this so I am pretty clueless and thankfully Sheila has and has been part of retreats. We desire for this Retreat to give these girls a place of refuge to meet with God and refresh themselves as well as love and encourage them in the healing process.

Please pray for us as we trust the Lord to provide the wisdom and direction to plan this Retreat. Pray for me specifically to have great faith and trust the Lord to direct the way. All I want is to bring Him glory as I serve Him. The goal is for the retreat to be in the fall due to the busy summer months. This is a retreat I want to be an active part of without having to be in the kitchen. Please pray for that time to open up for us. Our slow time starts around mid September and lasts till about April.

If you have any thoughts or suggestions for me please leave a comment, email me, facebook me, etc... and share with me. Any and all help is appreciated! If you know girls (any age) who could possibly benefit from this retreat (for now girls with eating disorders till we figure out what the Lord will have for this first retreat) please pass on the information to them and you may give them my email address to contact me if they would like to contact me. My email address is: dena@cetacanyon.org

I will post more updates as this retreat takes form and is more defined. Please pray that this retreat will reach out to those who need it. This is a struggle that is very secretive and our concern is how to promote it and reach those we are targeting.

Thank you for your prayers with this retreat!

Happy Birthday D'Anna

I just wanted to wish my cousin D'Anna a Happy Birthday! I hope you have a wonderful and blessed day with many memories to hold on to. I love you!

Car Update

My car is still going! I went to Canyon 2 times yesterday and the low coolant light hasn't come on yet! It is still losing coolant because it was low yesterday before I left for Church. I do believe that the car will make it till my income tax check comes praise the Lord! Please continue praying about this problem though that it won't get worse before the check arrives. Thank you!

Mother/Daughter Retreat

This weekend we had a Mother/Daughter Retreat and they were such a fun group to be around. I was actually off this weekend and was able to enjoy just being able to serve the Lord with my time and it was so much fun!

Mark and Nikki Andrews are my neighbors and his responsibility at camp is to develop and plan retreats so even though he is a guy he was still at this retreat with the Mothers and Daughters. Nikki called the first evening and told me that the speaker Sheila Ritchie would be speaking on captivity and that she was using Beth Moore's book "Praying God's Word" to plan what she would talk on. I was so encouraged by Sheila and what she had to share.

During this weekend I had a revived idea of a camp that I would actively like to help create for Ceta that I think could be great if we can get the details planned out. I talked with Sheila about the idea and if she would be willing to help me since she has had experience sharing with groups and planning for retreats and she can also relate to the issue that I would like to reach out to. She said she was willing if that is what the Lord asked of her. I still need to talk to Mark and see what could be done so I will share more about what my vision is later as it looks like it could take place. Please pray though that the Lord will work out the details in a way that I would be able to be out of the kitchen and able to be involved with the camp and campers.

This weekend was so refreshing and wonderful for me. The Lord just opened my eyes to the impossible and that with Him the impossible is possible!

Tiring Week at Camp

I have fallen short at blogging this week and I am so sorry! This week has been the most physically demanding week I have had at camp yet. We have gone from painting Ceta Lodge to cutting down trees!

We had a company come in and trim trees and cut down some trees. Holly and I followed behind them cleaning up and piling up what was left behind. There were still a couple of trees that needed to come down on the Ceta Glen side so Jeff, Mark, and Bronc worked to cut those down. Jeff did show us how to use a chainsaw and I actually cut down some very tiny trees that were just beginning to grow that were in our way. Nothing major at all for me to cut down but I still have both legs, both arms, and all fingers and toes! :)

The only issue I ran into is that my allergies were on an all time high and I was having to take medicine and use my prescription eye drops for my eyes. I was making it pretty good till Thursday. There is a tree at the Glen that I am really allergic to but seeing there are so many I am not sure which one caused the problems but my arms were swelled up, turned red, and I had whelps all over them. Thursday was a benedryl night. Thankfully by morning everything was back to normal and thankfully it was cool and I was able to wear long sleeves all day. Holly and I both have scratches all up and down our arms. Through it all though it was so nice to be outside and working verses stuck inside admiring the beautiful days.

Here is tree #1 that Mark and Jeff cut down (they just did the part that is on the left).

Here is tree #2 that Jeff and Bronc worked on to cut down (they ran into some problems and had to get the tractor to finish up).

Here is tree #3 (this one was big and after it fell we found out there was a bee hive in it).

Here is some pictures of the piles that Jeff made (with the tractor) out of our small piles that Holly and me did. :)