New beginnings

There is something I love so much about starting a new journal.  Not only because I like buying new things, but because I anticipate the time when I can go back and read through what God has been doing in my life for the past couple months.

This last journal I had for a whole YEAR.  I think that's a record in my journaling life.  I mean, this journal was big- really big. It didn't fit in my purse, and when I took notes in church I'm pretty sure people would do a double take, or I just assumed if people looked in my direction they were staring at my journal, but either way I was self conscious about it in public.

It actually took me a couple days to go through my journal when I was done.  I'm one of those people who goes back and writes a table of context at the beginning so if I ever need to see notes I took on a certain subject or book I can find it easily.  Come to think of it, I may be the only person I know who does that.  Anyway, the reason why I write in journals is so I can look back and see what God is doing in my life, so I like to keep it organized :)

If you've been reading my blog for a while you'll probably remember when Dan and I wrestled through our decision to continue serving in Jr High  or take a break as our classes at Trinity picked up.  I also read through the quotes that I wrote down from Shauna Niequist's books Cold tangerines & Bittersweet as I got completely lost in those last summer.  Her writing is SO real and raw and I loved every second of it.  If I ever have a quiet moment at home I still sneak those books off my shelf and read a couple stories.  There is something about her writing that connects with me and I love that :)

Because of her love for Michigan and the fact that we got a new camera last year, Dan and I took a trip over Labor Day last year to South Haven and I loved reading about our trip in my journal and the time that we spent with the Lord at their cute coffee shops.

I also really enjoyed looking over the notes I took from all the books I read.  Some of my favorites from this past year were: 

Humility

Just Do Something

When People are Big and God is Small

Think

Forgotten God

Each of these books met me right where I needed to be- whether it was my struggles with people pleasing or Dan and I wrestling with big life decisions, I was so thankful that in between all the reading we have for our classes I was able to get away and read some "less academic" books :)

I also came across journal entries from our Trip to Florida and loved how every single journal entry started off with "Lord I am just so thankful ..." God has been really good to us.

And lastly, a huge chunk of my journal was devoted to all the notes I took at the Gospel Coalition.  We were so so thankful that we could go, and I learned a ton from all of the speakers and breakout sessions.  Those are definitely sections of my journal that I will be looking back on in the future!

So thanks for taking a trip down memory lane with me :)  It honestly warms my heart to look back and read about how God has blessed us this past "journal year" and what He has taught us.  I know there are going to be journals in my life that are more painful to look back on- ones where my prayers are dry and I seem to just be asking God "Why is this happening" or "Why is this not working out," but for now I will continue to praise God through the blessings that He has given us- and use these journals to remember His goodness and mercy.

Bittersweet Ending

So I've been thinking about posting this for a while now.  Obviously this is a blog, not my personal journal. So, I don't feel the need to disclose all of my personal information over the Internet, and to be honest with you- you probably don't want to read about it either.  But, since we had a specific label for "Jr High" in this blog and have talked about it a good amount of times because it has been a pretty big part of our life these past couple years, I figured I should mention and expand a little bit about how this year we won't be involved in the Jr. High ministry.

It's actually pretty hard for me to type that.  We have made some amazing friends, learned a ton about leadership, conflict management, encouragement, had some crazy sleepovers,  and had opportunities to build into some great kids and leaders.  This is just the start of a long list of ways God used this ministry in our lives.

This past year was an eye opener for us.  I think it was the first realization that our church isn't perfect.  No church is perfect, and we "knew"that coming in, but didn't really know it until this past year.  It's a great and horrible realization all rolled up into one emotional mess.  I had this hidden expectation that in the church there should be a bunch of Jesus' walking around and what we really have is a bunch of people trying to be Jesus but failing miserably, or thinking they're Jesus when they're not (myself included).  Now looking back I'm glad I realized it when we did.  I'd rather it happen now then when we're actually in ministry.  I love the lyrics "beautiful the mess we are" because that is what we all are (myself VERY included in that).  It's beautiful because it brings us back to the Gospel and how much we need our Savior's grace.  I think that's why I've been so passionate about counseling, because it helps people deal with their mess and brings them back to the cross.

Anyway, I'm totally getting off topic from Jr High.  Long story short about the last paragraph: God has taught us a lot about ministry in general.  Back to Jr High.  A while back when I first started this blog I wrote about how I felt I was living my life by simply responding to people.  How anytime there was a need, anytime someone needed coffee, anytime they needed someone to lead that group, I was there.  I was responding to people and not to God.  For the first time in my life these past two weeks I decided to listen to God and not people.  Sure there are times when God wants us to listen to those people, but this time I was pretty sure God wanted me to listen to Him.  He wanted me to listen to how much He is instilling a passion for counseling in me and how He is allowing me the privilege of taking classes to learn more about Him in preparation for ministry in the future.  He was reminding me how I am always so over committed with ministry and people that I run myself dry simply because I can't say "no."  He was showing me what He has been trying to teach me for the past year- slow down.

This was a much harder decision for Dan.  The kids LOVE Dan; and he is SO great with the kids.  On the other hand, the kids liked me, and I managed to have awkward conversations with them.  Huge difference.  While he is a great leader and such a great asset to the ministry, after a lot of processing as well he really felt that he needed to get involved in a ministry that was less time consuming.  (He's taking 7 hours this semester, plus working full time- and 4 of those hours is a Greek class- which is slowly overtaking his life.)  I think for the first time since we've been married he's got more on his plate than me! Our goal and passion is to do ministry for the rest of our lives.  We don't know what that is going to look like, but we feel called to that.  And, right now we have a great opportunity to be prepared for the future ministry that is going to be entrusted to us.  After taking a hard look at his schedule and praying a TON about the situation, he realized he wouldn't have the time he wanted or the time it would take to really build into the kids and the ministry this year.

This Sunday was very different.  Normally we are going to the 9:00 a.m. church service to get home to get in a quick nap before Jr High, and it was really hard knowing a lot of our close friends were at the church hanging out with the kids, kicking off the ministry year and we weren't there.  It was such a big part of our life that it's hard to let it go. I'm sure it will take a couple weeks and it won't be easy, but we're excited to see how God is going to use this time in a different way.  We may not have as many funny blog posts about the crazy things the Jr highers do, but I'm sure we'll find some other form of entertainment for you :)

Summmmerrr

It is finally here!! One of the things I love most about our little place in Arlington Heights is being able to sit out on our balcony and read. Even though it's not very private (you can tell by how close the apartments are across from us lol) it's still wonderful and will be one of my favorite memories of our first place
Another fun aspect of our summer is going to be looking for a new car! At Trinity I got promoted to the Coordinator of events and guest services and while I enjoy being an admissions counselor, I love event planning and am pretty pumped to start my new position :) Unfortunately, I have to turn in our new 2009 Honda Accord. I can assure you the car we purchase will not be as nice. BUT, if anyone has any advice for finding good cheap cars pllllease let us know! We are on the hunt and have a good solid month of searching before I need a replacement!
Also, this past weekend we had our last Junior High of the year :( Although it is nice to have a break and like I said earlier, Sunday afternoons free. It is really sad because Ed and Val won't be with us next year. They have become such great friends to us and we have grown so much in ministry with them and we are really bummed to see them go. But, so many churches are interested in Ed right now so I'm excited to see where God takes them! Since Ed and Val went to Trinity and have helped in recruiting some students, Val and I got to go to a Cubs game last week!! Here is a picture of us from the game:

And, we had a great end of the year party at Twin Lakes park this past weekend! It is crazy that our little 6th graders are a whole year older!! Here are some pictures from that:
So excited for the warm weather :) Looking forward to doing absolutely nothing this weekend but relax and be outside!

Seminary

It is seriously SUCH a blessing to be able to take classes at Trinity. Dan and I just finished our counseling class for the summer (well... we still have two papers and a final to take.. but the class portion is over!) and after sitting in class from 8:30am to 2:15pm and attempting to get in some time to work so we didn't run through our PTO, is it weird that I was actually SAD that class was over?! We probably had to read through close to 2,000 pages and although it was a lot, I loved every bit of it. God has me (and Dan) at a place where He is showing us what it looks like to love people well, and how the church is called to love and care for the body well. Christians have just as many issues as the next person, and grasping the gospel is not an easy concept to take a hold of. We have a spiritual formation project due Wednesday... I'm sure I'll have more to say on this :)

Also, probably the fact that we only had 10 people in our class helped. I was thinking as I was walking on campus Friday how neat it is to be at Trinity where it draws people from all over the world who are living out the call God has on their lives. One guy is here only for a year to finish his degree from Brazil. Another works at a church in downtown Chicago and is running an ULTRA marathon.. 56 miles.. in South Africa with World Vision. Actually.. he's running it right as I'm typing this! Another guy was a pastor in Indiana.. another a french pastry chef in Rockford. I feel so privelaged to be at a place where we are all at this unique place in this short life where God is preparing to send us out. And, we had our last jr high last night for the year :( Aloha night always comes with mixed emotions... relieved to have Sunday afternoons back, but sad to not see the leaders and kids every week! I will post pictures later this week! On a lighter note.. I had to post this video... there is another one, too if you want to watch it... I just love the ending. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM&feature=related

Why we love jr high kids

I feel like we could write an endless list of the reasons why we love jr highers. Don't get me wrong, I never want to go back to those awkward years, but the kids that we hang out with in the jr high ministry at church are pure gems.... there's really no other way to describe them.

Take for instance the other day when during Ed's talk we look over and there is a kid eating the edges of his paper. Not only that, he is licking the part where the jr high logo is - smearing the ink over the rest of the paper. Really?! The worst part is, Grant, his leader, said he is not the only one in his group that does this. That is seriously not ok.

Next, I was reminded in church on Sat night of how much I love this kid named Daniel. First, let me describe his wardrobe. Green turtle neck, with a blue jersey over top. Not too bad for a kid in 6th grade. Then, he is wearing mesh sport pants that are close to 5 inches above his ankle (definitely not a question if it is supposed to at capri length- either way it would not be ok), with tall black socks covering up what would be skin showing from the end of his pants to his shoes. Then, he had black shorts over top of his mesh pants. (is that really necessary?) Then, there is worship. When he sings, he raises his arms straight above his head (not out in front of him- straight up), and lets his hands droop down. If Dan and I can get a picture of him at some point we will post it.

Another kid- Brandon. There is this one song (Oh Happy Day) where we do this hand movement. Almost everyone does it, but Dan one day was standing next to Brandon and noticed he wasn't doing the hand motion, so Dan leaned over and asked him why he wasn't participating. Brandon responded "Are you kidding me? I have a reputation to uphold!" Seriously- in 6th grade?

Another great story of Brandon. Dan was giving this devo at our Superbowl party and started asking people to raise their hands if they play soccer, the piano, guitar, etc. for an illustration. Well, one of our 6th grade girls brought their younger brother who is about 5 years old and he was raising his hand for everything. Everyone knew he was probably exaggerating, but he's 5, so we cut him some slack. Brandon though, would have none of this. As soon as the 5 year old raised his hand saying he played the piano and that he was pretty good at it, Brandon starts yelling "He's lying, he's lying!!" Let's just say it was really hard to bring everyone back after an outburst like that in front of 30 kids. We'll keep you updated with other entertaining jr high stories.

Jay High

Thanks to my co worker Marla again, I have another entertaining video. Apparently, Dan already saw this when we were at Miami ... so it seems this isn't new and probably a lot of you have seen it before, but this was my first time and I couldn't stop laughing.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDzcYerwE4s

On another note, Dan and I help out with the Jr High ministry at our church, Harvest Bible Chapel and we LOVE it! We have made such great friends and have been so blessed by the kids. It's definitely not easy- the kids are at VERY different places when it comes to their faith which presents a whole set of new challenges that we have never encountered before in being involved in a ministry.

It's kinda funny how we got involved, because when Dan and I first started attending Harvest, we thought for sure we would get involved with the college ministry since we were so involved with Crusade at Miami. But when we were getting baptized, the lady who we shared our testimony with thought we would be great with jr high kids. We probably awkwardly said "sure".. with no real intention of following up or contacting them. (I had images of my awkward jr high years and vowed never to return to them again...) But, apparently God wanted to use us with jr high students because ten minutes later we were exchanging contact info with Ed, the jr high pastor, and I am so thankful it turned out that way! You will probably hear a lot about our time spent with this ministry because it is a big part of our lives! The kids are hilarious and fun to be with... and they love Dan to death. I mean, I'm sure some of them like me.. but the 6th grade boys loooove Dan lol

And, I know for a fact that Dan would NEVER want these pictures posted on our blog ... but I wanted to take a moment to brag about my incredibly handsome and godly husband :) Dan has had the awesome privelage to talk to the kids and Bob, another leader in the ministry, got some great pictures of him during his last talk on 1 Peter 2:9 and how awesome it is that God chooses to use us (totally sinful and inadequate) as ambassadors on this earth- to represent Him and share with others the amazing sacrifice Jesus made for us. I may be biased.... but he did a great job :) :)