Worship and church

So the other day in church...I was looking around and my mind wondered from the message (sorry Ben!) on to something else...still church related! It was this concept of worship, and church itself. The thought jumped into my head..."what IS worship?" Is it singing songs sunday morning and thats it? is it all of us bowing our heads when the pastor says its time to pray (if you ever wait just a tad longer and watch people bow their heads when that is said, its actally quite amuzing, as its like robots and out of habit..try it sometime...)? What is church? is it the place where we gather on sundays and that is it?

These are just a few of my thoughts, as it is something I am still processing and learning each and every day. For myself, church IS good (dont get me wrong) but it is not where I worship the best.  For myself, I come to learn a few things about myself...one-I need/crave community of some form.  Now this seems wierd then that church isnt a place where I worship the best, because it totally is a community...but what I think it is, is that its too big...at least the church where I am now....there are some people who I know...but over all its too big.  that is one thing I love abtou school now, is the student size of it.  people are not just friends, but we are like one big family...you get to reall yknow people and so feel more open and honest with them...something I dont feel when I go to church.  Perhaps smaller churches are different, I am not sure, but still.    I just do better in small, more intimate crowds.  This past summer at WBC, we had a few "jamming" sessions outside where people would pull out their guitars and we would just sing praises to God.  Ther was one day where 5-6 of us sat between teh dorms, one sunday and just played and sang..very informal, but God spoke more than to me, then I think he would have had I actually gone to a church buiilding. It was great...that is where I connect really well.
 
another place where I love to worship God, is anywhere on my OWN.  I LOVE going out and just taking my journal, camera and pen and "losing" myself somewher eout in the country or off somewhere.  Just taking pictures, even though i may not be thinking anything or saying anything... I guess its a gift God has given me and I just love using it and capturing his Beauty and glorifiying Him through that.  Plus it does give me a chance to be on my own since I am still an intervert at heart for sure.
 
And i think the same goes with church...smaller populations and more "one on one' situations...a place where one can really get to know each other and lift each other up in prayer.  Church now is great on sunday mornings, but school, chapels and just hanging out in dorm, chatting and sharing life together, is what i love. 
God is all around us no matter wehre we go.
 
So not sure why I wrote about that, but felt like I wanted to, needed to...
Just a few thoughts and I thought it was time to update this once again

Camp Update

Camp has been amazing these last few weeks...sorry I have not updated this sooner but have not wanted to spend a whole lot of time updating this...but do not worry, I will when I am out in the Ukraine for sure (2 weeks to the day till take off!!)
How to sum up the last 3 weeks?? First off, I have one more week to go as June 2 will be my last day at camp. But how to sum it up. Basically here was my thinking...."go into camp, serve my 4 weeks and not get attachtced and leave once the month of may is over" Well, here we are 3 weeks later and so much has happend. Now, Camp has become more then just camp-there are people there who have become like family. The connections, the memories, the struggles and everything in between, will be engraved in my heart forever. Going in, a purpose for going was to fill time between school and the Ukraine, since it was hard to find a job for that amount of time (I acutally handed out 7 applications in town and never heard back from any) so deciede that if nothing job wise came up, off to camp I would go, and so that is what I did, not knowing what God would teach me but I felt liek I should be there.

Being outside, working with the kids, sharing GOd's love not through scripture (in this case) but by playing games with the groups that come, by laughing and telling jokes or allowing kids to laugh at you when you purposely do something silly, has all been a real blessing. The relationships in dorm..I pray they will be life long and I think they will be, was alll a real encouragement and blessing as well
I can honestly say I am "bummed" to leave camp in just over a week and leaving camp was NOT suppose to be this hard..but it is and I am thankful and would not trade it for anything....

As to the Ukraine goes, 2 weeks from now I will be in toronto waiting for my next flight over to Frankfurt Germany then on to Kiev Ukraine..I will be arriving in the Ukraine aroudn 3:00 their time (so subtract 8 hours for time here) Mixed feelings I have, excited, scared nervous, etc but trusting GOd through it all

Continue to pray for me: pray for this last week of camp tha tI have, that it will just be a huge blessing and encourgement
Pray for me as I count down days and prepare for take off
Pray for my family who will stay behind (namely my mom) that God will just calm their hearts while I am gone
Pray for Health and saftey while I am out there and travel to and from
Pray that my heart will be opened and my eyes focused on God
Pray that I will be a light out there
Pray for my own Spiritual life and relationship with God

Thanks so much for your support
I have take Zephaniah 3:17 and sort of made it my "own" for this trip.
It reads..
"The LORD your God is with you,he is mighty to save.He will take great delight in you,he will quiet you with his love,he will rejoice over you with singing."

It just serves as an encouragement for me and I hope it does for you as well!