Officially an Adult

I am now officially an adult. Most of you are probably thinking "It's about time you figured it out!", but I must tell you how. No, it's not because I'm married. Not because I have a real job. Not because I have a house or even a dog. No, I'm not having a baby. :) (just in case you were wondering) It's not even because I am 24 and past the "official adult age" of 18. No, the thing that has marked me as an adult is: I bought a dishwasher. And, I'm excited about it? I even used credit card reward money for a dishwasher?? Come on now. Only an ADULT would do that :) So, I am officially an adult. As a teenager with extra cash, I would have gone on a major shopping spree. College student, I would have gone on a road trip with my roommies. But, alas, now that I'm an adult...I buy dishwashers :)

Perseverance Instead of Deliverance

I read a quote once that said, "When in a difficult time, we often ask for deliverance. Sometimes God will give us deliverance, but most of the time He will give us perseverance." This week has been very hard and I realize now God was offering perseverance, but I wanted deliverance. Last night, I was extremely encouraged by 2 Corinthians 4:7-12 and 16-18

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you."

vs.16 "Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eye not on what is SEEN, but on what is UNSEEN. For what is seen is TEMPORARY, but what is unseen is ETERNAL."

Lord, give me the strength to see things from an eternal perspective. I pray I would not be so concerned with this world, because it IS temporary, but that I would fix my eyes on You and furthering your kingdom. I pray for perseverance during this time. Thank you for giving me such a loving and caring husband and family who are my earthly support. I pray that I would not lean on them too heavily though and my ultimate support would be you and you alone. I surrender all, Abba Father.

Getting Restless

I'm counting down the days until I go back to work. Call me crazy, but I'm getting so restless! People energize me and when I don't see people on a regular basis, I'm not too energized! Here's a few things that have been keeping me busy amidst my restlessness:

Randomly deciding to paint my bathroom red. This is the start of a redecorating/updating project :) The 60's light needs to go :)

Our two year anniversary! We are actually celebrating this weekend (so hard to celebrate on a weekday!), but we had a cotton theme party (traditional two year gift), ate a wonderful meal, and went for a convertible ride on the actual day. We're leaving tonight for Minnesota for a weekend getaway to see an outdoor play and go camping!! I'm so excited!! :) Funny that Minnesota is now a vacation spot for us :) Hope you are all doing fantastic! Have an incredible weekend!

My Husband, The Pastor

Yesterday was an incredibly special day. Just an ordinary day to most, but for me, it was nothing but ordinary. Through joyful tears, I listened to my husband preach. Although I know it was God who was talking through him and it is ultimately God who will work in people's lives, I was so proud to see my husband encouraging and challenging our congregation. And, I was so touched as I saw my husband praying fervently that God would use his sermon for His glory. I, myself, was deeply convicted by his sermon and thank the Lord for showing me what true forgiveness looks like. It was such a memorable day :)

Vacation to Branson

The reason for my lack of blogging lately was because of a vacation with my family to Branson! Last weekend, my mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, husband, and I went to Branson for my parents' 30th anniversary celebration! We had our own cabin which was absolutely gorgeous and went to Silver Dollar City, the Titanic museum, White Water park, and the Branson Belle Showboat. It was a GREAT vacation!

Silver Dollar City

Inside Marvel Cave....one of our highlights

Happy 30th Anniversary!

Phone Line Cut

Today I was in a scary movie. Haha, except, I wasn't exactly scared and the situation was an accident. But, still! I was leisurely looking at Better Homes and Gardens website today, trying to get ideas for my bathroom painting project when all of a sudden......no internet. "Hmm" I thought. Unplugging my internet cord, restarting my computer, and fiddling with the options on my computer didn't help. After a few minutes, I decided to call Aaron to see what he would say. I picked up the phone to......no dial tone? Nothing. Internet and phoneless, I tried to figure out what was wrong. 2 hours later, Aaron came home from his lunch break. We called our phone provider and they had no idea to what it could be.

4 hours later......
A funny lady from our phone provider called us while we were enjoying an afternoon at the lake. Through her laughter, she explained to us that our neighbors had cut our phone line! Honestly, a picture perfect scary movie scenario. They added a walk-out basement and forgot to check for those things....oops is a little understatement! Obviously, they got it fixed temporarily! Bottom Line: before doing anything to your house, check to make sure it won't affect your neighbors :)

This is Why I Do What I Do

Challenge 2008 was incredible and it brought me to tears as I saw our students passionate about God. Last week, we got to experience just a few rewards from youth ministry....that usually doesn't happen, but last week I realized that "This is Why I Do What I Do" as I saw commitments being made, unity within our youth group, and just students changed for the better. For those of you wondering, we did make it home safely on Saturday night!! Praise the Lord!!!

Our sad looking trailer/life saver

The Car Accident

Right now, we're stuck in the middle of Nebraska! The rest of Challenge was AMAZING....so many heart changes and lots of commitments to Christ. I was so touched to see our students loving God and making serious commitments to stay true to Him. Yesterday, we started on our long 16 hour drive home. God was protecting us to say the least. Let me tell you the story of our car accident.

We started out from Salt Lake City at 7:00am and we were planning on getting to a town in Nebraska in time for fireworks. I drove alot of the way (even in the huge mountains in a 15 passenger van with a trailer on the back!), but around 12:00, we decided to switch drivers. Our other leader started driving when all of a sudden one of our tires blew! He was able to come to a stop and get our car off to the side of the road. It was a little scary, but we put the spare on and drove to the nearest auto store to get a new tire. What we forgot was that it was the Fourth of July! And, the entire state of Wyoming closes for the holidays! We finally got to a town, only to find out that the nearest place that was opened was a Walmart 100 miles away. So, we headed there, got the tire fixed and continued on our way.

I drove again, through Wyoming into Nebraska and then was getting tired, so I asked Aaron to drive. This is important because if it would have been me driving either time, I would have NOT been able to handle the car as well as our two guy leaders did! Aaron had been driving no longer than 30 minutes when all of a sudden another one of our tires blew, this time MUCH worse than before. The car spun out of control, to the right and then to the left until Aaron was able to get it to the huge grassy median and our van starting spinning around. Our van would have no doubt rolled if we didn't have our trailer on the back. We jacknived the trailer and came to an abrupt stop. That trailer not only saved our lives, but saved us from any injuries.

The girls screamed and cried until people stopped and helped us out. As a youth leader, it was so scary to think of all the people we were responsible for and so scary to think of the "what if's". God was majorly protecting us and I remember one of our girls praying before we left for guardian angels to surround our van. They definitely were watching over us. We watched fireworks from the road as we tried to fix the van and finally decided to get a tow. We found a church that would give us a ride to a hotel and we arrived here around midnight last night. We're now waiting for some parents to come and get us.

Blessing in Disguise? We have one student who is confused about Christianity and on Thursday night said that she doesn't know where she would go if she died. We have prayed and prayed and prayed for this girl that she would finally get it. After the car accident, she was the most terrified and I believe that God is going to use it in her life. She still has not made a commitment, but I believe that she will! If you think about it, pray for her! She is sooooo close to trusting in God! Pray that as we talk to her again today, that she would believe and be saved! Thank you soooo much for praying...we covet your prayers!

Car Wash and The Temple

Wow, this has been an incredible week so far. I cannot even put into words how amazing it has been to see our students praise the Lord, become passionate about sharing their faith, and serve one another. Sunday night's speaker, Francis Chan really opened our eyes up to who God is. He referenced Revelation 4....I would encourage you to read it!

Monday was a really fun day because we signed up to do a service project in the afternoon. Two cool God moments happened:

First, we got our assignment--washing people's cars for free!! And, we looked at our assignment and noticed that we were paired up with Oakdale and Orange City EFree churches...we not only know the other youth pastors but many of our students are good friends with people from those churches! Instead of being with complete strangers, it was so good to be with people we knew!

Secondly, the place we were supposed to go to wash cars was closed and NO one was around. We decided to go to Lowe's and just randomly ask if we could hold a free car wash there. Without hesitation, they let us wash. Two hours into it, the leader of the service projects came and told us that they had asked around to every other business in Salt Lake City and NO one would let them hold a free car wash. Instead of being rejected again, they hadn't bothered to ask Lowe's...praise the Lord that He led us right to Lowe's so we could minister to people by washing their cars!

Today, we were able to talk about truth. We visited the Mormon temple and went on a tour of the tabernacle, grounds, etc. We trained the students beforehand, and it was so exciting to see our students questioning the Mormons and asking them deep questions. Tonight during supper we'll be debriefing and talking more about the Bible and how we can know that it is absolute truth. Also tonight, I'm so ecstatic to hear one of my favorite speakers, Becky Tirabassi. She really impacted my prayer life after a two day chapel series at Northwestern. She has a heart for God and is passionate about spending time daily in His word and living out your faith. So, that's what we've been up to so far!!! :)

The Mormon Temple