Don't Just Survive, Live.

SENIOR SURVIVAL. I just got back from a week in the great outdoors--it was truly amazing! there is nothing better than sleeping in the woods especially when it is chilly and you can cozy up in your warm sleeping bag. I loved it! I had the amazing opportunity to be one of the counselors for the senior class at WWVA on their trip. I had prayed that I'd get the right girls in my group and that God would lead the entire time we were there. He definitely answered my prayers. I feel so blessed to have been able to share this experience with them. Our day consisted of cooking, initiative activities, cleaning, walking, & learning out to "survive". 

My group & I sure shared some hilarious moments together. Each girl had their own little quirks that made everything so much more fun. I had the pleasure of falling asleep to the sounds of my groups screams as they scurried away spiders and any other type of bugs until they finally fell asleep themselves. They were notorious for screaming the night away and I would just smile to myself as I was laying in my tent while they were freaking out and laughing/screaming over their misfortunes. That might sound cruel but it was a part of their experience in the woods and I didn't want to rob them of it. haha! I was tempted to get up and "save the day" but they survived the nights and all made it safely back to Walla Walla. My favorite night was when I heard the girl who was most afraid of the spiders stop everybody and say "Let's pray"! Everyone was quite as she said a prayer of protection for them. I admit that I would check my sleeping bag and tent every night before I crawled in myself to make sure there weren't any creatures. I also would be praying as I was smiling listening to them that God would indeed protect them from the spiders and let them fall asleep in peace. Although they only would find daddy long legs, which are harmless, they very well could have had the awful luck of being bitten by a black widow or some other type of seriously dangerous spider. That would have sucked!


Another one of my favorite daily rituals was morning worships. I enjoyed sharing with them and letting God speak as we joined together to really think about what He would want us to become, where He has led, etc. 
I had the pleasure of observing/participating in a number of activities the seniors went through as their "survival" experiences. Eating crickets, avoiding muddy waters & failing miserably, scaling walls, & trust falls. I sure hope they realize how insanely awesome this trip was and that they will remember all the cool things they learned during it.

Each afternoon they had a class with a man who would teach them how to build fires, find their way with compass, the usual woodsy stuff. One afternoon he had us walk through the woods and observe all the things around us. Focus on what we saw, smelled, felt, and heighten our senses to the outside world. It was a beautiful experience and so simple yet we often just brisk through life unaware of the creation around us, even when it is as obvious as it is in the woods. He then explained that surviving was doing the bare minimum in life. Doing what you absolutely had to do in order to make it out of an experience alive. He said how we so often "survive" on a day to day basis instead of truly living. WOW! how true is that? Surviving through high school, surviving a boring job, surviving college, and so on instead of really doing the best you can do and really living your life to the fullest potential. What a challenge! It seems so simple yet how many of us do it?

I pray that God will help me live these 9 months here in Walla Walla and not just survive them. I already feel that He has led me SO much these past few months. My life has been an ever changing adventure & I am so blessed to be where I am today. I know I have said this before but I wouldn't be where I am today if the things I had hoped for in the past had come true and honestly, this is WAY BETTER than the things I had hoped for. As Joseph Campbell said, ‎"We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us"!


All in all this past week was beyond grand & I am so glad that I got to go. I can't wait till I get to go camping again. I praise God for each of the girls that were in my glorious GROUP 3! I am looking forward to doing more things together with them and getting to know them even better. 

the honey bees! 

Rosario, WA

Marine Biology-I have never really taken the time to think about it. I love the ocean & the beautiful creatures found in the ocean but I have never taken the time to reflect on the science of it. None the less I found myself on the WWVA Marine Biology Trip this past weekend. It was an amazing experience. I have been praying for God to open up opportunities for me to get to know the students at the academy better and He definitely provided.

I also go to see some INCREDIBLE beauty and finally was able to visit the city of Seattle. I had some fantastic experiences there and created some wonderful memories.

We started off by visiting the beloved Rosario Beach. I say "beloved" because I have heard so many wonderful things about this place. It holds a special place in a lot of people's hearts and therefore had an extra element to it besides it's unbelievable beauty. 

awe-inspiring. I couldn't take enough pictures. The most magical part of this place was that the beauty didn't stop here, you also had to search for it. In the rocks, tidal pools, & crevices you found life! All these different creatures that you had only seen on the discovery channel or behind glass in the aquarium in their natural habitats. 

I hope nobody took this part of the trip for granted, although it wasn't the most "exciting" it definitely had a charm all of it's own. Seattle was so much fun! I can't wait to visit it again and get to know more about it. We were blessed with a sunny and warm day rather than the rainy norm of Seattle life. The aquarium was great but after seeing the creatures in their own homes I was kind of over it. The real beauty of Seattle I feel was found in Pike's Market. 

It was alive & fresh! There were people all around you and smells from every dimension. The colors were vivid! The flowers were breath taking and everywhere. Honey sticks, ice cream, peach samples, chocolate pasta, & sharks were a few of the things I encountered at the market. I couldn't get enough of it all. I wanted to take pictures of every stand and every person. Unfortunately, that is not possible. I did my best though to capture enough of the market to sustain me till I could visit again. 

The group I went with were so much fun & knew a lot about the city so they had no problem showing me some of the best places. Like the Gum Wall for instance...definitely something a city should be proud of! haha! no, seriously, it was really really cool.

We ended the day welcoming the Sabbath at the edge of Seattle where we were blessed with a gorgeous sunset over the water. Nothing better than a sunset to make you feel that your day was a plethora of beauty!

We had the chance of having church service at Rosario Beach and then going on a steep mountain hike in the afternoon. Seriously, the whole trip wouldn't have been nearly as fun if it wasn't with the group that I went with. They were a blast!

WWVA Marine Biology Class & Mrs. Saturno-awesome group!

Hilarious moments include; reenacting SNL skits with Adam, interacting with begging hippies, having Robyn flip out in the middle of the night because she saw a bug, off-roading with a school bus, buying a peach for a picture, repeatedly getting called "short stuff", otters playing, & peanuts walking in central park.

Praise God for good times, new places, & unfathomable beauty here even on this corrupt earth. I can't imagine how magnificent heaven's beaches are going to be. 

Weakest of Them All.

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the weakest of them all? ME! pick me! okay, so that isn't exactly how the fairy tale goes but none the less I am quite the weakling & as of late, I am not afraid to admit it.

As many of you know, I am tiny. I am under 5 feet tall and less than 100 lbs. So physically, I am weak. I have no endurance when it comes to running & I am planning on working on that. Currently though I have trouble running even 1 mile. I'll admit that for my size I am not too shabby but none the less, I am weak. I am not talking about physical weakness, I am talking about mental & emotional weakness.

You might ask why in the world I'd be so adamant in proclaiming my weakness. It isn't something to be proud of, right? Wrong. Up until today I would have not been so loud about my weaknesses but I have discovered a new light that has taken me to a whole other level of thinking.

Here I am in Walla Walla, WA. Just as American of a town as Asheville, NC or Collegedale, TN.  Although I didn't leave the country or venture off into the jungles this still was a HUGE step in my life. I have an anxiety disorder. I am a mommy & daddy's girl and I am afraid of pretty much all things under the sun. Going across the country to me was as big a step as any. I am weak. I had to leave a university because I could not handle the emotional turmoil I was being dragged through. I had to go home to recharge & renew my mind. I would have never guessed that my next step in life would be so far from home. I remember struggling to walk the halls of a school when I was only 12 because I was afraid to be so far from home and this school was less than a mile from my house. Does that make any sense? No, it doesn't. Which is why I can attest to the fact that I am in fact very very weak. I left home and attended boarding school at the young age of 14. It wasn't easy, I remember some nights that I'd wake up in a crazy panic attack. I'd take my phone and walk to the bathroom where I'd call my parents & beg them to come rescue me from my dismay. I graduated from the same school in 2009 where I boarded 3 of the 4 years. To tell you that I was able to accomplish all of that on my own would be a bold faced lie because I am weak. 


The places God has taken me, the journeys He has allowed me the strength to pursue are beyond my wildest dreams. I am a living testimony that in my weakness, His power is made perfect. 


I am emotional and for awhile I was ashamed of it. I was told by someone dear to me that I was too emotional. I am passionate & I wear my heart on my sleeve. These are all weaknesses. I am so weak. God is SO strong.

It wasn't until this morning as I was reading in my devotional that I realized how blessed I was in my weakness. My fragility enables me to lean on Christ in a way that not everyone else can. I NEED HIM. I can not accomplish much without Him. All that I am, I owe to Him. I empathize with Paul as he writes, "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong". Amen & amen.


You don't know how liberating it is to boast about one's weaknesses. How much joy it brings to my heart to know that through God I am strong but only through Him. I am vulnerable to Him. So envision me on a top of a mountain screaming from the top of my lungs "I AM WEAK! but in Christ, I AM STRONG!". Praise God! a million times over PRAISE PRAISE GOD!