Passion 2012

This year was our first year to attend a Passion conference. We talked about going last year and it just didn't work out, but I'm SO glad that God made a way for us to go this year! We traveled with 5 high school seniors from our youth group and some young adults involved at our church as well.

We were so pumped about the amazing line up of speakers and worship leaders. I mean really, does it get any better than Louie Giglio, John Piper, Francis Chan, Beth Moore, Lecrae, Chris Tomlin, Christy Nockels, David Crowder, etc?!? I had great expectations of what it would be like, but it definitely blew them all out of the water.

The excitement and energy was through the roof on that first night. There is nothing that can prepare you for what worship with 44,000 other young people will be like. It was incredible!

 Here we are ready for a word from Beth Moore. And boy, did she bring it!

 

Another very powerful session was when these five read aloud the book of Ephesians. It was scripture word for word and they would pause periodically for us to soak in what the Lord was speaking to us through it. There is no doubt that His Word is alive and active and sharper than any two edged sword. 

The focus this year was Freedom and we were educated on how there are 27 million slaves in the world today. More slaves today than any other time in history. Our challenge was to Do Something Now and the goal was to raise 1 million dollars. God completely did more than we could have asked or imagined and when it was all said and done there was over 3 million dollars donated to help end modern day slavery! How great is our God?!?! You can watch a feature that CNN did about Passion here.

I have no doubt that God is doing something HUGE with this generation of young believers. I believe with all my heart that they are making a difference and they can change the world!

I was so thankful to have been there with this amazing man that God has given me. We were challenged, encouraged, prayed for and spoken to in amazing and personal ways, as only God can do. We know that He is up to something big and we can't wait to see how He's going to work! More on that to come!

 

What are you waiting for? DO SOMETHING NOW!

20 Things About 2011

I did this recap last year, and thought it would be fun to do again!

1. What did you do in 2011 that you had never done before?
I watched my husband be ordained as a pastor. I found pinterest (love!). I went to a NHRA drag race (so random, but it was fun!)

2. Did you keep your New Year's Resolutions and will you make more for next year?
I don't really get into making resolutions.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Some dear friends of ours adopted a precious baby girl this year.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Yes. My Nanny (dad's mom) passed away in September. It was unexpected and there are times that I think about her and still can't believe she's gone. I'm so thankful to know that I will see her again one day! This is my brother, sister and I with our Poppa.

5. What places have you visited?

Savannah, Statesboro, Panama City Beach, Blowing Rock, and Gatlinburg

   
6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
Same thing as last year...and the five years before that...a sweet, precious baby to call my own and make me a mommy. But more than that, a true joy that comes only from the Lord and who He is, and has nothing to do with my circumstances.

7. What date from 2011 will remain etched in your memory and why?
April 2, 2011 - my sister's wedding day! August 31, 2011 - my last day at my old job. What a glorious day that was!

8. What was your biggest achievement this year?
God answering our prayers and providing a way for Chad to work full time and allowing me to be able to stay at home - hopefully preparing me to be a stay-at-home-mom. Only He knows....

9. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing major. I came back from youth camp with a cold that turned into an ear infection that lasted for about a month. Not fun at all.

10. What was the best thing you bought?
Our new closet organization system. It still makes me happy to walk in there and see it. =)

 

11. Where did most of your money go?

Bills. Blah.

12. What song will always remind you of 2011?
With Everything by Hillsong United. - we saw them live in concert two times this year and there is nothing that can describe what an amazing worship experience it was. Singing this song with thousands of other people will be something I will always remember.

13. What do you wish you would have done more of?
Same as last year...spent more in depth time in the Word and with my Jesus; prayed more; reached out more to others instead of being so self-absorbed; blogged more, ate healthier and did some form of exercise ;-)

14. What do you wish you would have done less of?
Been less connected to social media outlets and just "been still" a little more.

15. What was your favorite TV program?
Oh, so many...Up All Night, Once Upon a Time, M0dern Family, all of the Real H0usewives, The Batchel0r, The 0ffice, Ch0pped and I'm sure some others that I'm forgetting about right now.

16. What was the best book you read this year?
Again, I would like to do better about reading more books in the coming year. I did read Heaven Is For Real and I thought it was sweet.

17. What was your favorite film of the year?
Definitely The Help. I loved that movie!

18. What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?
This year I turned 31. I had lunch with sweet friends and then a lovely dinner with my husband. It was simple, but sweet!

19. What national/world event stirred you the most?
The Royal Wedding! I remember sitting at my desk at work and trying to watch bits and pieces of the ceremony. I was able to see the kiss on the balcony live. =)

20. Who was the best new person you met?
This year I met several more precious friends that I have made through blogging. If you had told me a couple of years ago that I would make such sweet friends on the Internet and then meet them in real life, I would never have believed you!

Heather and I met for the first time in Gatlinburg and then met up again when she visited where I live! Love this girl and I'm so thankful for her!

And, I met more sweet blogging friends at an ornament exchange. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2011 has been quite a year! Honestly, I cannot wait for it to be over. This year has been a year full of trials and hardships, and at times I've had a hard time seeing the Lord's hand in it all. There have also been some joyous moments and answers to prayers that I'm so thankful for. I know that He loves me and is in control of each and every thing, but that doesn't mean that life isn't still hard.

Once again, I pray with all of my heart that 2012 will hold answers to many prayers and that God would do exceedingly, abundantly, beyond BEYOND all that I could ever imagine.  He alone is able!

Weekend of celebration

As you can see from my last two posts, we have a lot of celebrating to do this time each year. Thank you for all of your sweet birthday and anniversary wishes. We have had a very fun weekend!

For Chad's birthday, we celebrated at home with one of his favorite dinners (spaghetti pie) and homemade apple cobbler with vanilla ice cream. Yum! Then Friday evening we went out to a new favorite restaurant for an incredible dinner.

Me and my handsome date. I'm a lucky girl ;-)

Chad surprised me with a gorgeous watch. I love it! We both had the same idea with the traditional 11 year gift being steel. That turned into stainless steel watches for both of us and a new wedding band for Chad. I have wanted to get him one for a while but he was pretty attached to the old one. I wasn't sure how this was going to go over but he loves the new one and it fits perfectly! Yay!

We ended the weekend with our youth Christmas party, which was an ugly sweater party. Chad and I hit up the thrift stores to look for a winner. I found several options...

 But in the end I went with #3 and uglied it up a little more with some gold glitter puff paint.

 I also threw on a few red ribbons, a jingle bell necklace (of course) and there ya go! The funniest part about Chad's was his green turtleneck had a little snowman embroidered on it. So ugly! We didn't win, but we sure gave it our best shot. =)

I hope y'all had a great weekend too! I'll see you back on Wednesday for the Christmas Card Carousel. I can't wait!!

Ordained

Sunday was an incredibly special day for our family! You may remember my post recently about the ways that God has worked in our lives and the ministry that He has called us to. Well, this past weekend was the day that Chad was ordained as a pastor at our church!

After a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, it was just the icing on the cake to share this time with our family, friends and church family. I am beyond thankful for the wonderful, godly husband that God has blessed me with.

Our pastor explained that it wasn't man that was ordaining, but God, and that we were just recognizing what God had already done. He encouraged us, challenged us, and reminded us that what God has called us to He will equip us for. 

We read through 1Timothy 3:1-7

And, then were surrounded by pastors, elders and others who serve alongside us in the student ministry who prayed over us.

 Both of our immediate families were there. Unfortunately, our siblings left before we were able to get pics of everyone. We were so glad that they were all there with us.

It was a very special day indeed! Please pray along with us for God to continue the work He's doing in the lives of each student, and that He would pour His wisdom on Chad as he works to serve each one of them. It is a huge task, but God is able and He is faithful. We are honored to be a small part of what He's doing!

Saturday Serving

Saturday morning was our second annual food distribution at a local, inner city, community. We have been doing some outreach in this community for a little while now and this has become a very special place to us.

Our student ministry rallied together to collect food items and, through God's provision, we were able to fill 150 bags of food for all of the apartments there. We gathered together to go over details and to pray before we set out.

 And, we're off!

We knocked on each and every door, told them that we were there in the name of Jesus,  that He loved them very much, and so did we! Chad and I had the opportunity with our group to sit down with one sweet family. They invited us into their home, served us coffee and juice, and shared with us a little about their lives. They are from Bhutan and came to the US a couple of years ago. We shared the gospel with them as best we could with the language barrier and just prayed that the Holy Spirit was making it clear to their hearts. We know that His word will not return void!

 Just a few of the sweet faces I've grown to love. There are many, many more!

God is good! No other way to say it! I pray you have a very blessed Thanksgiving with those you love!

Life Planner {vlog}

So I'm a little late to the game but I thought it might be fun to do a little vlog to show off my Erin Condren Life Planner that I recently received. This planner took the blog world by storm and, since there was a deal that was just too good to pass up, I jumped in to see what it was all about. I love my planner and thought I would tell y'all about it!

I feel so cheesy, but here goes....

Hope y'all are having a great week so far!

Full Time

Several years ago while on a mission trip in the Amazon of Brazil Chad felt the call to youth ministry. At the time, we had no idea what that would look like but we continued to pray and seek how the Lord would use us. It was around that time that we began to serve as volunteers in our church's youth ministry. I worked the check-in table and Chad led a small group and we began to get our feet wet in youth ministry.

Then some transition took place with leadership within the youth ministry and Chad was approached and asked if he would like to become an intern leader and serve in that capacity. We were really excited to see that God was opening a little door and fulfilling Chad's desire and calling. Again, we didn't know where this would take us, but we were open and willing to see what God had in mind. 

The internship turned into a part time job offer and that is what he's been doing for the last ten months or so. While we knew we were where God wanted us to be for this season, we also knew that we could not continue to make ends meet on a part time salary forever.

We sought the Lord and asked Him to provide for our needs and place us exactly where He wanted us to be. The past month and a half have been a roller coaster of circumstances and emotions, but we can now clearly see the Lord's hand in it all.

A month ago we were prepared to step down from this season of ministry for Chad to take accept a different full time job that he was offered. BUT GOD had other plans. I could go on and on about all of the ways that He has worked, but here we are today surrendered to full time ministry with Chad as the FULL TIME student pastor at our church!

We are truly blown away by how the Lord has orchestrated all of this and we are so excited about the future of this youth ministry and what God is going to do in and through the lives of our students! Of course we would covet your prayers as ministry/life will look different for us now. If you had asked me five years ago if this is where we'd be, I would have never guessed it. But God knew and He's faithful! We are just along for the journey, and what a wild ride it is!

Catch Up

I had an unexpected day off from work today so I had a few moments to sit down and try to catch up!  We spent last week in Panama City with 130 students and leaders from our church at BigStuf camp. After the longest bus ride I've ever experienced, we arrived at BigStuf ready for what God had in store for us.

The theme this year was Konnekt and it was a very powerful message about how God has placed a longing in all of our hearts for connection. Even though we know that relationships may hurt us and cause us pain, something deep inside of us desires them.

God did major work in the hearts of our students (and leaders) and brought healing where it was needed. There is nothing more moving that seeing young people surrender their lives to Christ and go from death to life!

We returned home and had an amazing weekend as well! We had a very special house guest for a few days. We were pretty stoked =)

Jenna drove up on Friday to spend the weekend with us, and for us ladies to attend LPL with Beth Moore. We were able to join Ashley and Melissa for the best Mexican dinner (complete with guacamole from heaven) on Friday night before the conference started.

We had the best time! Jenna and Melissa (and Ashley too, but her blog is private) have written recaps on their blogs, so be sure to go check them out!

I knew that I would be blessed by whatever word the Lord had given to Beth, but boy was it clear immediately why He had me there. The word was HOLD FAST. There were many points that stuck out to me, and hopefully I can write more about them later, but this was a big one to me: "GET-UP, Resume, GO"(Deut. 10:11) God has a promised land for us. He brought us out, that He might bring us in.

Like Jenna said, it really is amazing how so many people can be in different situations and come from all walks of life, and God speaks something so personal to each one of us through the same message. Is His word alive and active, or what?!?

He is so good and I'm so thankful for the things that He's revealed to me lately and for the many blessings that He has poured out on my life. Including these people that He has allowed for me to meet and form such meaningful relationships with. I stand in awe of Him!

Senior ~ Sami

This week I had the chance to spend the afternoon with one of our sweet seniors who is getting ready to graduate and leave us =(  Sami is not just unbelievably gorgeous, she's sweet as pie also.

She will be heading off to college to study early childhood education. There is no doubt that she is great with children and will be one amazing teacher! We had a great time strolling around and capturing some shots that show her stunning beauty, inside and out!

 Seriously, look at those beautiful blue eyes. She reminds me of a young Tiffani Amber Thiessen - anyone else see that?

Congratulations, Sami! We pray that God will bless you abundantly as you begin this next chapter of your life!

Graduations Galore

As we are learning the ropes of youth ministry, we are realizing that May is a very busy month for a youth leader! We have quite a few precious seniors who are graduating this year so each weekend in May is busy with graduations and parties galore. We are honored to be a part of these exciting times in their lives!

Yesterday we were blessed to experience our first home-school graduation ceremony. Can I just tell you what a wreck I was?! From the moment the first note of Pomp & Circumstance played until they switched their tassels I was a basket case. And, I only knew one of the students personally! The slide show tore me up - seeing their pictures from childhood and then a sweet message from their parents at the end - the last student's slide show had the cutest pictures of her growing up and then the message at the end from her parents said "worth the wait, love mom and dad"....oh brother, I was seriously fighting the snubs! The neatest thing about a home-school graduation is that since there isn't really a "principal" the parents are the ones to hand out the diplomas and they each said a little something to their children. It was the sweetest thing!!

E was with us and she kept looking at me like I had lost my mind and was wondering if I was okay. Haha! I just couldn't help but think about being at her graduation in 13 years and how I know the time will fly by.

I was also dreaming of the day that we would watch our own child walk across the stage to graduate and know that they were indeed worth the wait.

Sweet Senior

One thing about working with the youth is that you fall in love with these students, and then they just grow all up and graduate and leave you. =( Chad and I were talking recently about some of the seniors that we are going to miss so much this year. And, next year the group that will be going....oh my word, don't even get me started on how hard that will be!

On Friday, I had the opportunity to spend some time with Hannah, taking some pics for her senior year.  As you will see, she is breathtakingly beautiful on the outside, and she has and inner beauty that just radiates from her. Hannah is one amazing girl with an incredible heart for the Lord. You don't have to be around her more than 5 minutes to just fall in love with her.

I was so excited to play around with my camera and try to capture the essence of Hannah. I love how they turned out. I mean really, the girl couldn't take a bad picture if she tried!

Doesn't she totally look like Scarlett Johansson?!?

And, I saved my favorite for last. I L-O-V-E these so much!

Hannah, you are such a joy to all who know you.  I cannot wait to see how the Lord fulfills His calling on your life. I have no doubt that you will obey Him and follow Him wherever He leads. You are loved!!

24/7

We've recently discovered the neatest place in our city. It's called 24/7 and here is a little excerpt from their website:

This 24-7 -an urban burning bush- is a local expression of the global 24-7prayer movement. The vision is Jesus. Dangerously, obsessively, undeniably Jesus. And we exist to help people encounter His heart, bare His likeness, & carry out His Life's work. Called to be a refuge for the spiritually hungry & resource for the city churches, we use creative & culturally relevant means to instigate prayer, mission, and justice.
Cross-denominational. Cross-cultural. Intergenerational... This is how we roll. 

Chad and I, along with several students from our youth group, spent some time ministering downtown on Friday. We ended the day at 24/7 to spend some time in prayer for all of the people that we had encountered, and our youth ministry. 

It was such a neat time together and I wanted to share a few pics of this amazing space. Caroline, I just know that you would LOVE this place!

This place was made for you.

 Read. Reflect. Draw. Study. Graffiti. Journal. Intercede. Work. Paint. Worship.