Books Missing...

Hey everyone, a bit of bad news from me. Yesterday I found out that about half of my book collection was stolen while I was in the US. You all know me and should know that my books are my most prized possessions, and now everything except my Tolkien books (which is about half of my book collection) and the few books that I had with me in the States are missing. This includes my Artemis Fowls, my Lawheads, my Redwalls, the Dragons in our Midst series, a couple books by Anne McCaffrey, The Case for Christianity, a collection of Sherlock Holmes, The Thrawn Trilogy and Hand of Thrawn Duology, and several other series. I feel kind of like I would love to do something nasty to the thief (please pray that I stop feeling like this). There is a possibility that we can get the books back, since there is only one place to unload English books in Cambodia, but we're not sure yet if we'll be able to. My only consolation is that maybe the thief will pick up The Case for Christianity or one of my devotionals and that God would work on his heart. Maybe this could end up working for the better, although I confess that I most definitely am not feeling optomistic about this...
Anyway, if you guys would pray that I handle this well--and that, if it is God's will, we could get the books back--I would really appreciate it. Thanks so much!

Home...

Well, after a wonderful two weeks in CA, I am back in Cambodia watching Stargate and wondering just *how* to unpack all those boxes... My room is a mess, I'm exhausted, and I am also very excited to be back. And I'm afraid that I have no other update to make...

~Katherine

<-- La Jolla Cove in California

A Tribute to My First Camera

So as some of you know, and some of you do not, my first camera that I recieved most unexpectedly for my 14th birthday broke a week ago. I was heartbroken. My first camera! I have recently gotten a new one (and thus gotten into quite a bit of debt) but I will never forget my first camera. This post is a tribute to my camera. Here are several pictures that I took with my first camera. All pictures are copyright to me, Manwathiel, please do not save them, copy them, reproduce them, or any such thing.

With all that said... I give you a tribute to my first camera:

California, Here I Come

I'm on my way to beautiful San Diego tomorrow! I really can't wait--especially since I'll be meeting up with four of my awesome TPS friends (yay!) as well as seeing quite a few friends who live in SD who I haven't seen in....well...two years, I guess.

So to my fellow MEA-ers--I can't wait to meet you all!!!! I'm getting so excited =D.

To my friends who I haven't seen in two years--I'm looking forward to seeing you all and seeing what's changed in your lives since I saw you last!

Sorry for the short post and the lack of regular posts... I'll try to get up a more detailed (I can hear your moans) post about D.C. later...

TTFN!

~Manwathiel

An Update!

So after a very long time with not enough internet time to give an update, I am updating.

I am going to try to cram this down into a little itty bitty update, so here you are:

So about a month ago we toured Washington DC. We almost met Duncan Hunter, toured the Capitol Building, visited all the monuments, and had a complete blast. Twas very awesome.

After DC, we went to my aunt and uncle's house in Illinois. I'm afraid to say that I spent most of the time reading... But that's not exactly shocking if you know me. I had a very fun time in Illinois, we visited Amish country, went to a museum and saw a mummy, and went to my cousin's soccer game.

After Illinois we wound our way through the Ozark Mountains, eventually stopping at a nice little campground where we stayed in a cabin, ate hotdogs, swum in the beautiful river, and made s'mores (yum....). Our second day there, we went out on a two hour canoe trip, which was very fun. Of course, the canoe did tip over, which wasn't so fun, but it was all part of the experience, right?

Now that I've come to this part I want to make a little point here... Two points actually. One: God always answers prayers, although not always in the way that you think he will. Two: God is a God of humor.

You're probably wondering what this has to do with a canoe trip, but here you go...

When the canoe tipped over, I lost my $152 perscription sunglasses. Yes, I do hate those sunglasses, but I kind of needed them. So I started to pray that I would find my sunglasses. While dad was emptying the canoe of water, I walked up and down the riverbed looking for my sunglasses, praying that I would find them. After a few minutes of looking I spotted something shaped roughly like a pair of sunglasses. I ducked down in the water and picked them up. Well, I had prayed that I would find sunglasses, and God said yes and sent me sunglasses. But you know what is hilarious? They weren't my sunglasses! It was very, very funny. But hey, my prayer was answered!

And now we are back in Arkansas, safe and sound... And that is my update. Wow. I didn't give you a minute by minute analysis of our trip... Amazing.

I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. They kept going because they were holding on to something.

What are we holding on to, Sam?

There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.