KAA: You Know!

Just two days after Young Life camp, we packed up for another week of camp, this time for our middle schoolers.  Tired but excited we took our 10 hour journey to southern Missouri to Kids Across America.  This Christian sports camp is known for being hype and giving kids the time of their lives while pointing them directly to the Ultimate Source of joy: Jesus Christ.

Not only did our kids have fun in the 90+ degree weather, but many commitments and re-dedications were made in their faith.  On one night in particular, called "The Cross Talk," the kids were shown an amazing skit and depiction of the crucifixion of Christ.  Tears rolled down eyes as they poured out confessions, fears, and desires to be who they know they are being called to be.  Please pray for both our boys and girls in middle school.  School started up just today.  This when the going gets tough as they try to walk out their beliefs in their worlds.  I pray that camp was not just a spiritual high but one that fuels them all year.  We had quite the week and as the chant is frequently shouted on the camp grounds of KAA2: "At the deuce it goes down!" It went down. :)

Young Life: Timberwolf Lake

Last month our high school students attended their very first Young Life Camp: Timberwolf Lake in upper Michigan.  My co-leader CW and I took 7 of our teens to experience what Young Life calls "The greatest week of your life."  For most of our kids that standard rang true.  

From high ropes courses to tubbing, go carts to zip-lining, blobbing to county fairs, blacklight parties... ok let me stop because I cannot begin to list all of the fun things our kids were able to experience.  Needless to say not only was it one of the greatest weeks of their lives, but seeing their joy and excitement made it one to go down in the records for me also.  Though our 7 kids had already been exposed to the gospel, the Word came alive to them in new ways.  Pray for their commitments made at camp as the summer ends and the school year rolls around.  That is where the true discipleship takes place.

Though we only were able to take a handful of 7 kids this year, we're already dreaming up big numbers for summer 2013.  Pray that our high school group continues to grow, especially with the leadership of these 7.  We started a  year and a half ago with 3 kids, and hit over 20 this spring.  Though its not about numbers, the more heads in the doors, the more ears hear the gospel.  I thank you in advance for your prayers for our Young Life crew!

Chitown to Charlotte

Last week we went on our first annual (yes, we're hoping for more to come!), Charlotte spring break trip! One of our staff members at Sunshine, Sean Murphy, used to live and work in Charlotte.  Through many of his connections and friendships we headed down there for a week of fun!  7 of our teen girls and 5 teen guys loaded up two vans with 3 of us leaders.  The 15 hour trip was long and exhausting but as we arrived that night we were welcomed with open arms by our 4 host families.

The week consisted of many activities.  We went to the U.S. Whitewater Center where we conquered our fears on ziplines, high ropes courses, and rock climbing.  We took trip to a ranch to ride on a safari-like vehicle through a zoo that animals walk right up to your wagon.  We fed and touched zebras, buffalo, giraffe, cows, camels, ostriches, and many more.  It was a sight to see city kids react to wild animals!  We went on a scavenger hunt in downtown Charlotte, went to a baseball game, had an Easter Egg hunt, served at a ministry, met with other kids in Charlotte who are involved in the arts, enjoyed many cookouts and dinners, and had many other laughs and adventures along the way!

God is Surely Growing Your Girl

Growth hurts sometimes.  Sometimes He strips things away from us only to show us how powerful He is and how out of control we are.  At times He lets our hearts break, lets us be confused, allows us to feel lost only to have us release our grip on what we want and fall back at His feet.  I'm at his feet now, and the only pull I want to feel is that of His hand guiding down the path of His will.

This past year and a half have been... well, just about any adjective you can imagine.  Crazy, exciting, life-giving, tiring, frustrating, heart-breaking, lonely, nourishing, painful, etc... (See what I mean by any adjective!)  The path that Christ has led me on has been a wild journey.  The highs and lows of ministry, life, and love have not always been fun.  Sometimes, truth be told, it has sucked.  Yet, in the midst of that God has worked in my heart in amazing ways.

This past week, though our North Carolina trip and coming back home, God has truly opened my eyes to all that He has done and is doing in me.  I had a close friend come to me and commend and encourage me for the patience she sees me show with our girls. What!  That's a compliment I don't think I have ever received.  Only by God's grace because before, I have been known as one of the most impatient people alive.  He changes us.  Another friend recently told me, "Be careful in praying for patience, because He will put you in the middle of situations to really make you patient."  Prayers like this have been hard to pray but as I have prayed them, and been put in the middle of those growing situations (even through the extreme drama of my teen girls!), He is changing me.  Slowly but surely.

Surrender and Faith.  As a single woman, coming up on 25 years, I wonder what God has for this next phase of my life.  I have thought before that I had that figured out.  I tried to figure it out.  I fought to figure it out.  Yet I have been chiseled down to the ground by heartache and discontentment over the past year, only to have Christ chip away every last ugly piece of that in me.  I stand here today knowing that nothing, and as a woman waiting for a man to lead, TRULY nothing, I desire or fight for is going to happen unless the Lord puts that into play.  As I have reached this place of healing and peace, even over the past week, I see that God truly has this in control.  Restoration and progress happen when we rest in Him, allow Him to work in His timing, and enjoy what He lays out for us.

Corteasia

"They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We're free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him." (2 Corinthians 3:17, 18 MSG)


As many of you know, we just returned from North Carolina for a spring break trip (another post to come).  One of the 7 girls that we took was Corteasia.  Corteasia had never been any further than Indiana and definitely had never been on a trip taking her out of her comfort zone like this one. 


Throughout the week I could tell that God was chipping away at her heart.  On the last night at our host family's home, I huddled the girls up on the bed and we sat and debriefed the week.  They all went around sharing what their highlights were, what they learned, and how they experienced Christ.  As Corteasia's turn came around, she shared how she was beginning to feel Christ work in her our first day at church.  As we talked, I, along with 3 of our girls, were able to share the gospel with her from beginning to end.  She had been around Sunshine for about a year, long enough to have heard bits and pieces, but this time it clicked.  As I shared about the resurrection and the Holy Spirit filling us, her face lit up.  She accepted Christ that night and we had a great celebration party right then and there as the angels looked down and rejoiced with us!  


Pray for Corteasia.  Her joy is so overflowing right now and the faith of a new believer is so contagious.  Pray she stands strong and even as she is placed back in her world in Chicago, her light will shine bright. 

26.2

I can't believe I'm all registered, but YES! I am signed up for the 2012 Chicago Marathon!  October 7th is the big day.  I will run the furthest distance of my life: 26.2 miles.

This has always been on my "bucket list" (if I don't first kick the bucket from training).  :) I've done the half marathon (13.1 miles) the past two falls and so I figure it is a great time as I'm young, single, and healthy to set my goals high and achieve!  Health has been big on my priority list for the past 3 or 4 months.  From simply eating healthy and working out a ton, I have lost 22 lbs!  I feel great!

I have started training for the big day.  A woman and friend from church is a marathon trainer and I meet up with her every Saturday morning at 6:45 am to go for our long runs on the lake.  We did 9 miles two weeks ago and hit 7 again yesterday.  It feels great to know that by 9 am we have started our day out right!  Then, throughout the week she instructs and challenges me via texts and calls.  Accountability is the best!

Pray for me as I train.  Clearly 26.2 miles is a big toll on the body.  My knees need to step up their game and get ready for this long hull.  I also am going to be doing a fundraiser for Sunshine as I run, more details to come!! Until then, go for a run.  It does the body good!

"New Found Love"

Isn't it so easy to claim the word "content?"  It is so easy to look "put together?"  My pride makes me look "secure".  I'm sure many of you thought that I was all these things: content, put together, secure.

But guess what?  Not so true.  Here I am.  Single.  Broken.

Why? Couldn't I be married or at least well on my way? Yup.  Isn't that just what  I want? Yup.  I have started down the path of dating more than a time or two with this goal in sight.  Dating has taken on different shapes and forms for me.  Those of you who have been direct witnesses to my life are probably laughing at that fact.  Wow have I learned a lot.

As I was in Florida for the past few weeks, God stripped away all my prideful fronts and left my heart out, open, exposed.  All that remained was the core of who I was in Him.  In this single season of life that I have now stepped into, the Lord has placed convictions and questions on my heart that I haven't dealt with in a long time.

One of my biggest dreams is that of being a wife and mother.  I want that, but have realized I wasn't content in being single for now.  You thought I was "put together" well... not so much.  I realized I was actually quite broken.   I'm realized I was even insecure in my singleness.   To spite the numerous friendships that could be taken to the next level right now, I have shut that door.

I tell my girls all the time that until they experience the love of Christ they won't even know how to truly love.  I need to take some of that advice.  Don't get me wrong, my relationship with Christ has been growing and solid these past few years.  I have met some great men of God that I know were in His will for me to build with.  Yet somehow the door always closes.  Our Abba Father has a way of catching our attention when he is JEALOUS.  He wants all of me.  He is the one that wants to be my Lover.  No man's attention can fill that first until he is the Ultimate Source.

Sound like a lot of ramblings about how I'm feeling?  Let me say this... I need to return to the contentment, wholeness, and security that I have in Christ.  I've looked for that in the wrong places.  Praise God that he wouldn't give me the desires of my heart until my desires were first for Him.  I have no doubt that the desires He has put on my heart and love that I have found are true.  Yet, I pray that He won't give me my desire until I am found in Him alone.

 I am at a place now where my Lover has let me find love.  He first loved us.  I will first love Him.  Then that love will fall into place. Content. Put together. Secure.

B. Reith's song: New Found Love, speaks perfectly to how I feel....

I don't want to make this harder than it needs to be. 

I can complicate things pretty easily. 

I just want to be a little smarter 

With the things that I already have 

Without having to add on to them. 

I took you for granted. I wasted so much time, 

Wailed to see the vantage point because I was blinded. 

But you waited so patiently for me to come around. 

I finally found you, oh. 

I've got a new found (love) 

I've got a new found love. 

It's always been around 

I've got a new found (love) 

I've got a new found love. 

It took me until now to find it. 

I was on the verge of breakdown 

For so many years 

Searching for a love 

To drive away these fears, yeah. 

I keep looking at the glass half empty 

But oh it is so full of things 

I've never seemed to notice before, yeah. 

But you waited so patiently 

For me to come around and finally, 

Finally I found it. 

I've got a new found love 

I've got a new found love. 

It's always been around 

I've got a new found love 

I've got a new found love. 

It took me until now to find it. 

Scales cover eyes until 

The light shines through and awakens us to all we've never seen. 

What a surprise that you would find me hear and invite me to your dream. 

Yeah I've got a new found love 

And it fell out the sky like a star from above. 

Up until now I never knew what it was. 

See it came out of nowhere and hit me like a mac truck, bam. 

It was always there I just never understood. 

I was sittin' right in front of somethin' that was so good 

To the one in my affection, call it a revival. 

I held it like this, see now I need it for survival. (Play Micheal) 

(X2) 

I've got a new found 

I've got a new found love. 

It's always been around 

I've got a new found 

I've got a new found love. 

It took me until now... (to find it).

Continuing from my previous post, the second half of my time in Florida was spent in Orlando at the Marriot World Center.  This was for the Young Life All Staff Celebration which consisted of all of the staff for Young Life from all over the world.  There were over 4,000 people who came together (filling the 2nd largest hotel in the US) that all had one vision: Reaching the furthest out kids for Christ.  If you're imagining what 4,000 youth workers look like coming together for week of fun and refreshment... those images are probably dead on.

We were spoiled.  This once-every-four-years event is to show appreciation for Young Life Staff.  They did exactly that.  We had amazing speakers: Tim Keller and Francis Chan, great times of worship, amazing weather for free-time of afternoons by the luxurious pool, and even surprises that blew us out of the water.  No pun intended because that literally was the theme: Sea World.  Yes, they rented out ALL of Sea World for us for one night.  Restaurants, rides, shows, all Young Life staff only.  You should have seen our faces when he told us to get out of our afternoon session and go get on buses! :) Like kids on Christmas! For free day we had our choice or Orlando's parks, so I spent the day at Disney World!! 

I came back from this trip with a tan, refreshed, and excited for all that God is doing in my heart, and grateful for the role Young Life has played in my world.

Systematic Theology Fuller Style

I just got back from two weeks in Florida.  Yes, I escaped the Chicago tundra for and average of 80* and sunny, but the first week of my trip consisted mostly of sitting in an air conditioned conference room listening to professors.  Sound terrible? I thought it would be.

This was year two of my training track for Young Life.  After taking a Fuller class with professor Chap Clark on Adolescence, I was excited to hear that these professors were husband and wife Cathy Barsotti and Rob Johnston.  Both of them are also Fuller professors with urban experience both in Chicago and Cali.  As they stepped into their teaching and training role for the week, not only did they teach with passion and heart, but it was presented in a fresh and challenging way.

Each topic was dissected by looking at the 5 things that have shaped our beliefs and theology thus far:
1. The Bible
2. Culture
3. Tradition
4. Local church/community
5. Personal experience

Upon looking at how these contributed, we were forced to see if the views we had were right or wrong, if they were biblical or not, and forced to examine.  Not that any of my theological positions drastically changed, but this holistic approach to how and why we believe was much different than being force fed theology as I have been accustomed to.

Though this graduate level class was crammed into one week and I felt like I had my mouth up to a fire hose for some of it, it was amazing.  As I continue to dissect what I learned (somewhat forcefully through post-class assignments) I am excited to process all of this even more.