Yeah the culture where I live is very mission-minded so we have a lot of youth going into YWAM or families going into the mission field in general. It’s a huge blessing to have such a heritage, because I know a lot of the rest of the US doesn’t have that kind of community.

I get what you’re saying about the youth group! I…[Read more]

I work at Chick-fil-A, as a shift leader, so I’m in the front doing a variety of things from taking orders and serving food to bagging orders and helping to run the shift and solve issues that pop up!

Ok, so you’re still at least a few hours from Lakeside. It seems to be a pretty popular base, at least among people I know. I…[Read more]

Yep, food service is my only job right now! And I’m still living with my family! I had thought briefly about moving out, but then realized this might be one of the last years that my whole family is together under one roof, since my youngest brother will be graduating high school and the likelihood of some of us kids moving…[Read more]

That’s so cool! Do you think you’ll do missions full time, or was it more of just a good experience that taught you a lot? Do you know what you want to do now that you’re home?

I don’t think I’ll do missions full time (I mean if God asks me to then who am I to say no? But I haven’t sensed Him asking me that to this point…[Read more]

Lol it doesn’t even feel like I dropped off the face of the earth because I’ve haunted the background now and then, but I really did just kinda disappear! I don’t remember when the last was that I talked to you so hopefully I’m not telling you something you already knew… but if I do, oh well.

I think I had posted a year and…[Read more]

I was mending a skirt one warm May afternoon when the sound of a wagon approaching drew my attention. Mama peered out the window, flour still coating her hands, and looked…[Read more]

As we drew nearer to the land we would settle, the boys found a new favorite pastime: chasing prairie dogs. They would find several holes near each other, and wait quietly in the grass. One of them, often Albert, would poke a…[Read more]

Ok I literally haven’t posted on here in two years, lol. I don’t even know how active y’all are on KP anymore… I’ve kind of popped in and out and read some posts here and there. But I was working on this story again tonight and thought I should add a couple scenes I’ve done more recently. I don’t even know how…[Read more]

I’m late to the party here, but I’d suggest maybe looking up blogs by people who travel and write about their experiences in other countries. You’d probably be able to get a peek into the culture of Africa through the eyes of an outsider that way. As Koshka mentioned, African culture can be vastly different depending on which part of…[Read more]

Pardon the late answer, I haven’t been on here in a while!

I don’t really have a good answer; I use the free version of Wordpress, which does still have some ads, I think, but I honestly haven’t noticed them, and if they pop up, they’re usually at the bottom of the page.

I have a friend who is in an art school right now and it’s been really interesting talking to her, because all of her art pieces have literally been inspired by dreams or other ideas God has given to her, and they all have some sort of revelation or message in them, and she’s been able to have a lot of good conversations with…[Read more]

“You’re really sweet, like a strawberry. Like the juice of a strawberry.” (overheard from one coworker to another)

“You want to know what I really want to do? I want to hide in that empty tomb on the stage at church and pop out at the end of the service to surprise everybody.” (my 30-year-old cousin)

“I wish I could lick my gloves.”…[Read more]

I love that idea! My brothers and I are a little older now and our schedules look different, so we’re not always home every night, but on the nights when we do have the whole family around the table, I value those conversations. I think we would really benefit from being more intentional in talking about our days and what’s going on in…[Read more]

The 2-minute dinner talks? What are those? That sounds interesting already…

If your outside social group is healthy and available, you’re less likely to get attached to the online social group. It’s as simple as that. I believe many phone addictions are a response to that need.

That is truth right there… the lack of healthy community can very easily lead to any type of addiction. I was reading a book abo…[Read more]

Good to see you popping back in here again!

I just took the survey! This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. If anyone is open to discussion, I’d be curious to hear your thoughts!

For those of you who do have phones, what boundaries have you set/have your parents established around it? Or perhaps, what boundaries do you…[Read more]

I’d be careful about pulling out specific verses without carefully examining the context of the rest of the passage… but if you want to look at specific verses then I’d suggest looking at other verses that also talk about being saved.

“…From the beginning God chose you to…[Read more]

Busy, busy, busy! People are always busy!… I say we need a whole WEEK where we just have to sit down! I say that people need a time to think! Pray! Relive their day! Always busy, busy, busy!

Yeah I’ve been learning how to intentionally slow down… a lot of it just has to do with how I spend my free time and eliminating u…[Read more]

Hello! We have not talked in a while! how are things?!

Things are going really well! (Aside from being a little busy!)

Okay! I understand! So you are saying not to dwell on it? I wish I could take that advice… :[

Yeah, I mean once you’ve repented and been forgiven, the Bible says that as far as the east is from the west, so far h…[Read more]

I think He had siblings. Joseph did take Mary as his wife (Matthew 1:24-25), so it’s natural to assume they had children together. Matthew 12:46-47 talks about Jesus’ mother and brothers wanting to talk to Him. Matthew 13:55 also indicates that He has at least three brothers and several…[Read more]

Wasn’t someone going to try emailing some people who might be in charge/know how to reach whoever’s running KP? Do we know if that got through at all?

Yeah I’m having the same issue.

“Have you ever wondered what would happen if I vacuumed your hair?” -my brother

“I have sunshine in my soul today.” -a coworker

“We should see that the more we set ourselves to control another person, the less intimate we can be with them, for intimacy is found in vulnerability and surrender, not in…[Read more]

I’m gonna be the parent whose kids can’t date until they graduate high school. At that point they’re 18 and free to roam the world anyway, but I think there’s something special about being able to focus the teenage years on building relationships with God, friends, and family, and being able to grow as a person and begin…[Read more]

If I remember correctly, John Adams fell down George’s chimney and landed in a boiling pot of oatmeal.

Oh my word, I was laughing out loud when I read this! And this:

but one of them had started a rebellion which had to be put down, and he was sentenced to have his hair dyed with glitter and wash all the palace dishes “except the kni…

[Read more]

Lol I started the rant though… one of my biggest pet peeves is watching middle schoolers attempt to date. It just bothers me so much, and like you said, the chances of it actually working out are slim. Even the chances of a high school relationship working out aren’t that high, either.

Yeah for real. My group of middle school girls ironically happens to be mostly homeschooled, but one of the other leaders has a group that is mostly public schoolers, and you can clearly see the difference. Quite often, I’ll come away from our small group time encouraged by the fact that my girls were sharing testimonies of things…[Read more]

I definitely think you can either leave out any romance, or if you do mention the subject of boys and girls liking each other, do it in a way that is appropriate for the readers based on Biblical standards. I remember reading books when I was ten/eleven that gave me the idea that boy-girl relationships were normal at my age and that’s…[Read more]

Cul-de-sac Kids,

Oh my goodness! I forgot those books existed! I used to read those, too!

Oooh I like this question!

The first chapter book series I can remember reading is Little House on the Prairie. I was in like first grade and I loved those books! I had a bonnet and made forts that I pretended were the covered wagon.

The Boxcar Children were also some of my favorites. I read nearly all of them, but I quit when I…[Read more]

Is anyone on here techy enough to…[Read more]

Most of the research I do for my writing has to do with history… quite often I’ll be writing and then suddenly I’m like hmmmm how did this little detail fit into their lives?

This past week I was researching Christmas traditions in the 1800s, what kinds of gifts people gave one another, and trying to dive into how it would differ…[Read more]

This reminded me of a time a visitor to our church told my dad that the number of kids he had intimidated her. She was completely serious and never came back. There were only four of us at the time too. XD

Lol that lady would never survive where I live… I think the majority of families I know in church and outside of church have at…[Read more]

Nothing immediately comes to mind for the first idea you mentioned, but for the second one, maybe a point of conflict could be something that both brothers are trying to achieve and it turns into a competition… you could go as deep into this as you want, whether it’s just petty sibling arguments or if it goes farther into one of them…[Read more]

I’ve written a handful of contemporary (not finished them though lol), and I’m by no means an expert in this field, but I’d say it really comes down to adding conflict, even if it’s as simple as a strained relationship with a family member. I don’t know your characters, and I’ve also never read The Penderwicks so it’s hard to know h…[Read more]

I’m loving this story! It has a warm and cozy feel but also real challenges high schoolers face.

Easton brought his sand bike to a halt a few feet from the campfire the rest were beginning to set up. He removed his helmet, shaking out his hair.

OK I was majorly confused here at first- I didn’t know who “the rest” was referring to until…[Read more]

Hahaha I forgot about Fire Face! That was hilarious!

Wow I forgot about this RP lol

Oops why do I do that? Lol. See above.

I feel like I’m usually pretty good at getting down the idea of where I want my story to go, but then when it comes to actually writing out the scenes (and especially the in-between scenes that are necessary but not easy to write) I struggle a lot with inspiration. For example, I know I want that brother-sister relationship to work…[Read more]

Way to go for standing up for what you believe even if it has put you in a pickle! I was homeschooled up until my senior year, so the only religion teacher I had was my mom lol. But in the one year that I was in public school I had some disagreements with one teacher- fortunately he was very open-minded and we were able to have healthy…[Read more]

Ok here are some of my initial thoughts- I haven’t thought about this all fully, but this is what comes to mind after reading what everyone else has said thus far.

I agree with what @savannah_grace2009 said about stating what you believe rather than immediately coming against someone else. Often if someone feels attacked, they put up…[Read more]

I really enjoy politics and government. This interest started around 2020 with the election, and has only grown since then.

Lol same! I didn’t pay much attention to politics until 2020 but especially after the election I’ve kept up with it a whole lot more!

My previous fantasy WIP was basically a war between two groups. My current…

[Read more]

I’m not super artistic, but I do enjoy photography, which is a form of art, so sometimes I like to mess around with photo editing to create potential covers (but the editing softwares I have don’t have great font options, so I don’t usually put any writing on them).

I also like hiking/mountains, so you won’t be as likely to find my…[Read more]

“those d*** Christians” Did she say dumb? Or something else Idk about… but besides that, I think that would take patience, not snapping back at them.

No- I didn’t type the whole word because most people consider it a cuss word- she said “damn”. I don’t consider it as bad as the f-word but I definitely still don’t use it.

1. What are your thoughts on Catholic reconciliation?

I don’t think we have to go to a priest to have our sins forgiven. Jesus is our great High Priest, and He is the One through whom our debt has been paid and sins forgiven, so all we have to do is ask Him for forgiveness and we can receive it. Now if it is a sin against a…[Read more]

You know you’re a writer when you come back from camp thinking about all the people you met and what parts of them are going in a book. I can finally picture one of my character’s hair now!

Haha I definitely have put real people into my stories before…. Mostly strangers who had interesting quirks or personalities or something abou…[Read more]

This sounds interesting! I’m excited to hear more!

now you gotta put a chili pepper in a random scene somewhere as a joke.

Also I agree with @keilah-h, that would be really funny!

Worst. Idea. Ever! My brothers won’t stop jabbering about all the new stupid slang! XD

Yeahhh I considered telling my brothers and then decided against it lol. There is so much new “brain rot”, as my brother would say, that sometimes I feel out of touch with my own generation. I can’t tell you how many times I pretend I know w…[Read more]