If you could ask me one question tonight...

What do you think of when you think of happiness? -Mags


Skyping with Mags, HOHing in front of the trading post, watching River Village kids perform hip-hop at closing campfire, Nick Houghton running around his front yard in just a diaper with a huge grin on his face, FBC girls jumping up to sing and dance to a song together, hugging friends after being apart for a long time, letters from Margaret and Grace, holding baby Lincoln, coloring with Molls, Brunner's side pony-tail swinging as she plays with her kids, sitting on Sar's bed talking at the end of the day.

If you could go back and tell yourself things you know now, what would you say? -Taylor aka Brown Bear


Go to bed earlier on weeknights and stay up later on the weekend. Write, write anything, just write. You can always be kind. Joy is a choice. Don't stress about friends that aren't that great, good friends will come soon. Pray without ceasing. Life is easier when you do the things you love and stop trying to prove something. People always want to be invited, people always appreciate a word of appreciation and encouragement, and everyone is fighting a great battle.

If you could relive a single moment of your life-- would you want to, and what would it be? -Annie


Absolutely.  And I get that the point of this is to choose one moment... but I like lists. Sorry. Here are four moments.

My Junior year of HS, singing in the back row of the floor section at Willow Creek during a student ministry conference. I was completely and totally aware and filled by God's presence.

My first year and first day as a CILT counselor during check-in when the girls I had been a counselor for the previous two summers came running into Choctaw cabin and we screamed and hugged and couldn't stop smiling because we were so excited about the next two weeks.

Driving back from Campaigners the Fall of my first year in Indy when Allison Stamer, one of my Senior girls, called me to tell me that she really wanted to hang out that week and she wanted me to know that she was so excited to get to know me-- it is my first significant memory of feeling like Carmel Young Life was exactly where I needed to be.

Sitting on the lake dock with Arielle and a large group of our mentor girls from church during a sleep-out at camp. It was one of the nights when the stars are shining so bright and the water lapped up against the dock as we talked and prayed and wrote together.


If your life were a book, I wanna know what the chapter that's happening right now would be called. -Coll Kell


I wish my mom still made me breakfast in the morning and told me when to go to bed at night.

Who inspires you? -Emily Westcott


My mom inspires me when I see her welcome people. Grace inspires me with the way she knows herself at the age of 13. Taylor inspires me when I hear her talk about praying for Frontier. Colleen inspires me when I get to witness how loved she makes the people around her feel. Mrs. Huckstep inspires me by the way she loves to teach her students. Sarah inspires me to loyally and unselfishly love HS girls because Christ first loved me. Shauna and Kelle inspire me to write. Natalie inspires me to be myself no matter what.