An Insatiable Hunger

These past 3-4 weeks have been quite a ride.  We left for the youth mission trip to West Virginia on July 7th.  The trip was amazing.  Lives and hearts were changed... not just for those of us on my team, but in the community we served in as well.  It was a joy and honor to lead this team.  Both the youth and adults did an amazing job of diving in and doing whatever it took.  Looking back, I know things went as smoothly as they did because people were praying.  Many from my congregation committed to praying for us each and every day we were gone.  The Lord moved, of course, and His prompting has been quite clear.  Please continue praying for the team as they are back to "normal life" and trying to be sensitive to God's voice.  Pray for the youth and their new or renewed commitments to Jesus.  Pray for discernment as I try to nurture their faith and guide them in their walks with God.

Allan, Bryan, Kelly, me, Deb, Abby in WV

The whole gang from 3 different churches

Something that was extra special for me was being on the trip with a church in Indiana that I worked with for many years.  I went on Trent's first mission trip with that church... the 3 participants were in middle school.  This year was their senior year, so I got to be on their first and last trip, which was really nice for all of us.

Original Chattanooga team ('07)
Dean, Adam, me, Bonnie, Trent, and Taylor (not pictured)

It was refreshing to my soul to be with Trent's church and reconnect with the kids and adult leaders.  I was very close with many of them even while traveling back and forth to Africa.  God is so good and knows just what we need.

We got home from the mission trip that Friday night and on Monday morning, the 15th, VBS began.  My role was to help out with music, so though we were exhausted from the mission trip my friend Allan and I played, sang, jumped, and danced to VBS songs all week long.  The week went well and the kids had a blast.  I have to admit, even though large groups of young children stress me out, I had a lot of fun being silly and singing loud, obnoxious songs with them.

By the time Saturday rolled around, I was more than ready for some rest.  A wonderful couple from church invited me and Allan and his kids to go out on their boat and see some sights and do some fishing.  So we met them around 9:30am, boarded the boat and cruised up the Delaware river.  We went up beyond the airport and to the Philadelphia Naval Ship yard.  After checking out the huge battleships we cruised back down south to a fishing spot.  We anchored and spent a few hours fishing and enjoying each other's company.  The kids had a blast and fishing became quite the competition.  Our captains didn't get to fish much, but they had a great time baiting our (mine and the kid's) hooks and helping to take fish off.  I was willing to remove fish, but only if the worms weren't close to where I had to touch, naturally.  After that spot was all fished out, we moved even farther south to another hot spot.  We all had a lot of success and ended the day when we ran out of bait at around 4:30.

Getting ready for a day on the high seas ;)

Our hosts/captains Harold and Ruthie 

K caught the first fish of the day

J got plenty too

I did NOT love the catfish

Allan got the biggest catch of the day

After fishing we played volleyball for a couple of hours until we could hardly stay awake any longer.  It was a fun, relaxing day, but I was exhausted after two weeks of crazy scheduling.

This past week was a bit slower.  We had a beach day with the youth in Ocean City, the second of the month.  I love that I get to just spend time with my youth during the summer.  No set-in-stone programming, just focused on relationship building.  I found a little bit of time to rest in between catching up on work, taking care of the house, and going to meetings.  Then this past Saturday night, we went over to Philly and picked up Jodi, a former youth kid of mine from Naperville.  I love calling her "friend" now and seeing how much she's grown over the past 5 years.  She's now a senior in college and has a cool future ahead of her.  She's here until this Saturday.  It's already been a major blessing having her here.  We always pick up where we've left off and it's so refreshing to have someone so familiar around.  

Aside from the craziness of my schedule and lack of sleep, I'm feeling very energized.  The Lord has been speaking to me very clearly both in my personal life and in my ministry.  I have clear direction right now and I'm just so excited to see what God has in mind.  It's such a joy to be a part of something so cool.  As I dive into the Word, God reveals more and more about how to move forward and about the reality/necessity of revival in this place.  As tired as I was last week, I simply couldn't wait to get to worship on Sunday morning.  All week I had this feeling of excited anticipation-- that feeling you get when you're really looking forward to a vacation or a special event or something-- I just wanted to worship God... to sing His praises and bring Him glory... to meet with other believers, share the Word, and encourage one another.  Done and done.  I love the leadership I get to work with and we're all very much on the same page these days which makes things easier.  I love feeling like I can't get enough of God.  I just want to be with Him.

I've been hanging out in 2 Corinthians lately and I want to share this tonight, as it's my prayer... to see and reflect the glory of the Lord.

"But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.  For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image."  2 Corinthians 3:16-18

In Awe of My Savior

I woke up early after having a few crazy dreams that all somehow ran together.  I felt unsettled so I put on Pandora and worshipped as I showered and got ready.  I spent much of my day today just talking to Jesus.  I'm convinced that many who encountered me thought I was insane, but that's never stopped me before.  The enemy works really hard to bring me down, especially when I'm excited about something.  He threw quite a few curveballs at me today, but Jesus had them handled.  He gets all the glory and His plan will be seen through.

I could sit here and list all of my anxieties and fears, but that wouldn't properly reflect my Savior or His work in my life.  Instead, I want to list all of the things about Him that I'm grateful for tonight.

• His strength
• His unnecessary humility
• The fact that He is interested in the smallest detail of my life and doesn't tire of hearing me while I'm stuck on repeat about certain things
• He is trustworthy
• He is enough
• His unconditional love is really, truly unconditional
• He has forgiven me
• He is good and doesn't have the ability to be anything but that
• He has felt every emotion that I have and His understanding is way beyond me
• He's beautifully creative
• His provision 
• He is truth
• His arms of love that don't grow weary of holding me
• His clear leading
• His sovereignty
• He is holy
• He became flesh... He dwelt among us... He knew no sin
• He is alive
• He is above logic and I love it

I'm so in awe of my Savior.  Pain and trials are inevitable, but Jesus makes them bearable.  His goodness is so overwhelming.  I'm so grateful to those who told me about Jesus and then walked with me, guiding me into a daily relationship with Him years ago.  It's not always been perfect, in fact it's often been the farthest thing from perfect because of my human nature, but it's been more than worth it. I pray that you, yes YOU would know Him and intimately... that you would experience the true joy of being in relationship with the Creator.  My prayer is that you (& I) would find rest in His presence tonight and every night.