Unsafe!

The theme of Winter Peak this year was Unsafe. My dear friend Casey McCollum was the speaker and he did a great job bring this message to the teens. It was a theme that I was very personally excited about and something that I have always been passionate about.

The basic idea was that God does not call us to be safe or comfortable. In fact, it's the opposite. Casey talked about that every bible should come with a warning label that says "Can be dangerous if followed". He used Purell hand sanitizer as a great object lesson and visual by squirting it in a bible and saying that too often we sanitize the Word to make it safe or more comfortable to follow. Instead of  "love your enemies" we may sanitize it to "don't hate your enemies"; instead of  "flee from immorality" we sanitize it to be more like "stay away from the really bad stuff". If we truly follow the bible we WILL experience loss. We may not be persecuted or lose our lives for our faith like some of the characters we looked at over the weekend, BUT, we may lose our reputation or our friends. God's calling is one that is drastically different from the world.

Another topic that seemed to really resonate with the teens and adults was that we need to be Kingdom-Followers not just Church-Goers. (Hopefully I will be quoting Casey Pate correctly here) Church -Goers worry about the world changing the church. Kingdom-Followers go out to change the world. We need to stop staying in our safe, comfortable buildings and be out in our communities and our world loving people for Christ.

I was convicted of a few things - first that too often I am not the kind of light that I should be in my office. The second is that I know God has given me a passion and love for things unsafe (unsafe things of faith and unsafe things like rock climbing). I frequently get ideas that I really believe are from the Spirit of how to share the word etc but I'm not always great at following through. I want to be consistent. I want to actually do the things that I feel God pricking my heart to do. I have a few things that I am currently praying about that wrestling with. Hopefully I will be able to share them soon!

It was a great weekend overall. Tonight in the youth group class we will be talking about the ideas we came up with of what the University Church of Christ youth group needs to do and deciding on some things that the group can actually DO instead of just talk about. Pray that our teens and all of the teens and adults who went to Winter Peak will not forget what they heard but will continue to grow in courage and faith as they live a life that is Unsafe for Christ.

Addie's first retreat, fussiness, books and other news

Addie went on her first youth group retreat this past weekend. She did pretty well - I was surprised. Everyone loved her (duh) and she was never lacking in attention. It was kinda funny that when I asked some of the kids if they wanted to hold her they were reluctant and really nervous.

The theme was Glory and we talked about living in God's glory, living for God's glory and reflecting God's glory. It was a little different that the retreats Josh usually plans. God worked powerfully during the weekend. Going on retreats with Josh also always make me think about my own youth group retreats growing up. I love those memories and pray that these kids will be blessed through retreat times like I was.

Once we got home however, Addie has turned into a little bit of a devil child. She started the few days before we left being very fussy. It pretty much stopped over the weekend and now it's worse than ever. I took her to the doctor because I honestly didn't know what else to do. Her cry sounded like a hurt cry, she was not sleeping longer than an hour at time and she wasn't eating as well. The doctor (not our regular one) made Josh and I feel pretty dumb and just said it is normal fussiness. I know all babies get fussy but these seemed different for Addie. Anyway, I guess it is the regular stuff that can set in about 6-8 weeks. Ironically I got a book that I ordered in the mail yesterday - Your Fussy Baby and Healthy Sleep Habits;Happy Child both by Dr. Marc Weissbluth. I started reading the Fussy Baby book today and the first page says this "If you have already delivered your baby and are exhausted, worried or both turn immediately to chapter 7 for a quick background summary and plan of action". I love that. How realistic of Dr. Weissbluth. I don't have time to sit and read two whole books - I don't even have time to take a shower some days. Anyway, I read chapter 7 and while I have realized I am not a fan of parenting books (they stress me out), I love this book already. It is concise, gives options and is not a "my way or the highway" book. It also is encouraging to us as parents, advocates for fathers being involved etc. I'll let you know more as I try to go back and read the rest of the book at some point. I haven't started on the Healthy Sleep Habits yet but it to has a Crash Course chapter.

Addie and I leave Thursday morning to fly to Portland, Oregon for a few days to see her Grammy and Grampy. They are actually staying near Newport Oregon on the coast so once we get to Portland we have about a two hour drive. I'm nervous about how Addie will do but I'm also excited for the trip. I get to go shopping for my upcoming birthday, see the coast (never been to the Northwestern coast), maybe see whales, eat yummy food and spend time with family. So, as long as we don't get kicked off the plane for a crying baby things will be fine. Josh is sad that we are leaving (I'm sad to be leaving him). But, I am a little jealous that he will get 5 nights of uninterrupted sleep.

I am sure I will have lots of pictures and stories when we get back. Pray for patience for me, calmness and peace for Addison and a safe trip.

Josh's Blog

My husband has finally started a blog. He has toyed with this idea off and on for awhile and decided to actually go for it. He wanted to have a mix of a "preacher blog" with devo thoughts, spiritual insights etc and a blog just to update on his life, share etc.

If you are interested the address is http://theblogofjoshjones.blogspot.com/

I will update with some pictures of showers hopefully soon.

As of today Ms. Addison still hasn't decided to come out but I'm still hopefully it will be soon. I'm getting increasingly uncomfortable and having more contractions even though they are still little.

I'll keep everyone updated!

Mission Trip Update

A lot has happened since I updated everyone about Josh's trip. They stayed in Grand Junction for 2 days before heading out again. In Montrose, CO they prayed with police officers after 2 fellow officers were wounded and one was killed during a domestic violence situation. From there they went to Moab and were able to help several families who had car trouble on the way. After staying the night in Moab (where God provided a camp group with the exact number of spaces left at a discount for the night) they met a man named Warren who needed a ride to Fruita, CO. They gave him a ride, helped him fill a prescription and set him up with a place to stay.

That night the group ended up in Vermal, CO where they stayed at a local church. The next morning they went to another local community church to see if they knew of any service needs. The pastor immediately mentioned an elderly disabled woman who had lots of yard work that needed to be done. Josh and the group mowed her yard as well as her neighbor's yard. They also replaced part of the roof on her car port that was badly rotted. The woman was not home while they were doing this but they ended up meeting her later when a few of the girls went to a near by nursing home to visit with residents there. It turns out that the woman who owned the house was there visiting a few old friends for the day. The church that suggested this project to them was very welcoming and not only made the group lunch but the pastor stayed and worked with them and then insisted they stay at the building that night.

Today the are headed back east to eventually be home tomorrow night. I know the group (kids and adults) has learned several great lessons about trusting God, opening your eyes to the needs of others, and the support of the Christian community. They have been blessed with lots of free meals and places to stay wherever they have ended up. I will most likely do another post next week about how everything ended up etc.

God is so powerful!

This morning Josh, 2 other adults, the intern Nicole and a group of the high schoolers left to go on an "As We Go" mission trip. If you went to ACU this is based off of Seek and Follow. They will just drive places, picking directions or destinations as they stop periodically. The purpose is just to see what God has in store for them and who they can find to help. They threw a dart at a map and decided to head for Northwestern Colorado. On the way they helped an older couple moving from Vermont to Califortnia. They got to Grand Junction this afternoon and had been struggling to find something to do. Josh called me about an hour ago and said that they may just find camp sites and turn in for the night because they were getting frustrated. They decided to stop at one more big community church whose Saturday service just let out. A few of the group went in to talk to someone and see if there was something they could help with. They talked to the Children's Minister who started crying because they had agreed to serve at a homeless shelter the next day and not one person had signed up to help! The church also needed a big multi purpose room painted and help working at a camp in the moutains! The group will stay at the church tonight, serve breakfast and lunch at the homeless shelter and then paint their room tomorrow. They may even stay in Grand Junction until Monday or Tuesday to help out. It hasn't even been 24 hours yet and they are already seeing how God's plans are so, so much bigger than ours.

I will keep you all updated through out the week but wanted to go ahead and share this story. Please pray for Josh and his group as they continue on this adventure this week.

Summer pics

These are a bunch of pictures from the summer so far. The first hiking pictures are in Rocky Mountain Park where Josh and I went last week. Then there are pictures of Rockies game on the 4th with the youth group.








The pictures of my brother, sister-in-law and I are from the Sunday before Kadesh.



These last two pictures are this morning at 27 weeks!

Kadesh

The theme this year was Revolution. It was a new theme and admittedly hard to deal with for those of us who have been campers, counselors or group leaders. The biggest change was that the rhythm and the schedule of the week was entirely different. Typically the climax of the week is on Thursday night with some kind of big "experience". This week there was no Thursday night experience. Instead all day Wednesday was similar to a retreat and very busy. The week as a whole is always exhausting - physically, mentally and spiritually but it is also a lot of fun. I was worried about going and being pregnant since I am more easily tired than usual. For the most part I did ok and there were times that I was able to get away and rest.

Changes and frustrations aside, I enjoyed and got a lot out of this theme. It focused mainly on the church and how the church needs to change so Christians need to change. We talked about how we have gotten away from the original intention for the church - so often we say we go to church or just attend church rather than thinking that we ARE the church and should belong to the church. We also had a lot of discussions about how we should act as representatives of Christ in order to bring about the Revolution that our world so badly needs - things like be caring and Christ-like to those around us, really worship honestly, and to live a truly revolutionary life that scripture calls us to.

It was good for the teens and they were challenged more than in past years to actually go back home and make some changes rather than just learning what they should do. As a University Church of Christ youth group we came up with some great ideas that the kids are trying to implement now that we are home. Some of those are things like asking the people who live around the church if they need any help with physical things (mowing yards, painting etc) when we go around every few months to ask if we can pray for them. Another idea was to make more of an effort to make our church a "safe place" where people can come and be real and know that they will be loved and accepted where they are at - hopefully this will spill over from the youth group to the church as a whole. For our group, a lot of this theme was stuff that Josh has worked with them on before, this week of Kadesh just took it one step deeper. For a lot of other youth groups I think this idea was entirely new.

Either way, I'm excited to see how God will work in the weeks, months, years to come from this experience.

The first picture below is the University group outside of Highland on Sunday morning. The second is the group of college freshman that Josh and I lead during the week.

Abilene

I was in Abilene all last week for Kadesh at ACU. The theme this year was Revolution and it deserves its own post within the next few days.

As much as I enjoyed Kadesh, just being in Abilene has nice. It is so familiar and comfortable that it makes me happy. I was able to eat Chicken Express and Taco Bueno - neither of which we have in Colorado. One of my favorite things was Cajun Cones! These are truly the best sno-cones on the entire planet and I ate way too many of them. There are a lot of flavors that I like but one of my favorites is the Blue Hawaiian. It is actually a sno-cream, is bright blue and tastes deliciously like coconut.

Sunday we went to church at Highland (where I went while at ACU). It was one of Mike Cope's last sermons there as the preacher. I tend to have a huge smile on my face whenever he says "pour through me the gift of preaching" as he prays before each sermon. After church I went to lunch with the Shilcutt family and my brother and sister-in-law at El Fenix. I miss Abilene Mexican food.

After lunch I went with Jackie Beth to her parent's house and we hung out at the pool. I guess I am no longer a true Texan because I got a sunburn even after using sunscreen. Admittedly, I did not use a super high SPF, but still.... Anyway, it was not very comfortable for a few days and then turned into a tan. The worst part was my ankles. My feet got pretty swollen because of the heat and even bruised turning an ugly purple color on the tops and sides. It doesn't neccesarily hurt it is just uncomfortable. I called the doctor's office on Tuesday and a nurse said just to keep them elevated while I sleep. That helped a lot but they were pretty big again each evening. I know the heat made this worse so hopefully it will at least be a little better now that I am back in Colorado.

I have several pictures of the trip that just haven't made it onto the computer yet but I will add them in the next few days.

NCYM

Today I am going to Colorado Springs for NCYM - National Conference on Youth Ministery. Josh has been there since yesterday when the conference started. I can't take off work the whole week to go but there are some classes that sound interesting and that I can use for work training hours.

The conference has some great classes and keynote speakers -Mike Cope is speaking tonight. But I think that it is even more important for all the men and women attending the conference to be able to spend time with others who know what they experience every day in their jobs as youth ministers. I know Josh really looks forward to this time that he spends with friends and fellow youth ministers. They get to talk about frustrations, joys, funny situations and so many other things. They are all able to offer advice, pray together and just have fun and relax. One of the other things that Josh has said he likes about NCYM is that he is not the one in charge, he isn't teaching and he doesn't have to do anything. He is able to worship and learn for him, not because it is part of the job. I love that he is getting to expereince that this week. Until we were married, I had no idea how stressful just a "regular" Sunday at church can be for a minister. It is hard to be able to get into the worship without worrying about things that need to be done.

Take some time today and pray for any youth ministers you know who have impacted you in some way. They do a hard job and deserve all the support and prayers they can get.

White Elephant Gifts

Tomorrow is the youth group Christmas party. This is the one event each year that Josh leaves entirely up to the parents to plan. The past few years we have done a gift exchange that is a "real gift" with a $5 limit - that usually means a lot of $5 gift cards.

This year we are doing a White Elephant gift exchange. I love these! They are hilarious and its so fun to come up with stupid gift ideas. So, I thought I would make a life of funny white elephant gifts. Please feel free to add your own!

1. A box of lint (someone did this a few years ago)
2. A potty training book
3. A giant box of styfoam peanuts with something little hidden in it (Josh did this)
4. A pink yard flamingo
5. A roll of toliet paper
6. A doggie dental kit (dog toothbrush and meat flavored toothpast)
7. A giant rubber band ball
8. zit cream
9. A self tape/cd (like the stop smoking one Chandler used on Friends)
10. Huge pair of granny panties

I would love to hear things you have given, gotten or thought of!

The Bible According to Weezer

I love Heart Songs by Weezer. No, it isn't really about the bible or God or anything like that but Josh did teach a class based on it.
The song (lyrics below) is about a lot of the different songs that have influenced Rivers Cuomo. It starts out with songs that are older - probably ones he heard other people listen to, then songs he liked, then his own music. The class last Sunday was about Mary's song in the gospels. She talked about things she has heard about, as well as things that she has experienced.
I like that the Weezer song sounds so passionate. It is saying that he can continually come back to these songs. That is how we should be with the bible and stories of God working in people's lives. We should continually come back to those things when times are tough, when we need a reminder. The rich history of faith, people who lived out their faith etc are a part of us just like all of these songs played a part in Weezer's music.

I take no credit for this analogy - Josh came up with it all and it was a great lesson. I'm sure that I messed it up or at least did not do it justice. Really, I just love the song.

*************************************************************************************

Gordon Lightfoot sang a song
About a boat that sank in the lake
At the break of the morning
A Cat named Stevens found a faith
He could believe in
And Joan Baez,I never listened
to too much jazz but hippie songs
Could be heard in our pad
Eddie Rabbitt sang about how much
He loved a rainy night
Abba, Devo, Benatar
Were there the day John Lennon died
Mr. Springsteen said he had a hungry heart
Grover Washington was happy on the day
He topped the charts
These are the songs

Chorus:
These are my heart songs
They never feel wrong
And when I wake
For goodness sake
These are the songs
I keep singin'

Quiet Riot got me started with the bangin' on my head
Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Slayer
Taught me how to shred
I gotta admit though, sometimes
I would listen to the radio
Debbie Gibson, tell me that you think we're all alone
Michael Jacksons in the mirror
I've gotta have faith if I wanna see clear
Never gonna give you up,Wish me love or wishing well
It takes two to make a thing go right
If the Fresh Prince starts a fight
Don't you worry for too long
'Cause you know
These are the songs

These are my heart songs
They never feel wrong
And when I wake
For goodness sake
These are the songs
I keep singing

Back in 1991 I wasn't havin' any fun
'Till my roommate said "Come on and put a brand new record on"
Had a baby on it, he was naked on it
Then I heard the chords that broke the chains I had upon me
Got together with my bros in some rehearsal studios
Then we played our first rock show
And watched the fan base start to grow
Signed the deal that gave the dough to make a record of our own
The song come on the radio
Now people go
This is the song

These are my heart songs
They never feel wrong
And when I wake
For goodness sake
These are the songs
I keep singing

Friday Night's Activities

This past Friday was awesome! To give you a little bit of the back story, Mitch is a boy in our youth group. His birthday is 2 days after mine. Last week at church he handed out invitations to a party to all of the high schoolers. Josh asked why he didn't get one and Mitch either ignored him or made some smarty pants comment about how he wasn't invited. So, all week last week Josh had been teasing Mitch and making comments about not getting invited to the party.

Josh called me one day while I was at work and told me his brilliant plan. He decided that we should go toilet paper Mitch's house during the party. He told this idea to several of the other youth group parents who also agreed it was brilliant, there were even a few parents who really, really wanted to come but couldn't.

So, Friday night Josh, myself, Dennis, Pam, Don and Gale went to dinner and then put "Operation Crash the Party" into action. As we walked up to the house we noticed that Mitch's parents Lori and Jerry were sitting in front of the big living room window. This meant we had to be super quiet and sneaky. We were able to get the house and trees pretty good for about 30 minutes before Lori looked up and saw a roll of toilet paper go flying by. During that 30 minutes the neighbors came home, looked and us, waved, and went inside. Also during that time a boy left the party. He walked out the front door while Josh was standing there with a roll in his hand. Josh asked if he was going back in and he said he was going home. So Josh replied "cool" and kept working. It must have been pretty funny to see 6 adults papering a house. Just a side note - one of those adults is a police officer!

After we were done/almost got caught we drove back to one of the other couples houses to play cards. While we were there, their son, who was at the party came home. He asked if we had done it - we all played innocent and asked "done what?". By the time Josh and I left Justin was convinced it wasn't us.

Sunday morning at church we again convinced the kids that it wasn't Josh that did it. Oh, we left a note on the porch that said "Dear Mitch, you really should have invited us to your party. Sincerely, ?????" All the kids were trying to figure out what the 5 ?s symbolized and who else could have done it. We finally revealed ourselves and everyone had a good laugh - except for Justin who was shocked his parents lied to him when he asked if they were involved.

It was a great night. Pictures below.

Retreat

We had a great time in Estes Park on the youth group retreat. The theme was Desperate and while it was great, I think the concept was a hard for the kids to grasp. We talked about how God was desperate for us and a relationship once Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden but that with Jesus' sacrifice his despair was removed. He has done his part so now we respond by being desperate to be in relationship with him. One of the examples that Josh used through out the weekend was having an asthma attack. When someone (he used the example of me) is having an asthma attack they are desperate for air, nothing else matters but being able to take a deep breath. One of the things he had a few of the kids do is to do 10 jumping jacks and then try to breath through a straw with their noses plugged. It's pretty similar to asthma - try it sometime just for the experience. That's a super short recap.

Besides all of the lessons we had a ton of fun playing various games and activities. The weekend was a blessing for everyone involved. I know that God was working through the lessons and small groups. Another interesting thing was that by Saturday morning I had completely lost my voice and was feeling pretty sick. I mean, I could (still can) barely whisper. I hated not being able to sing during the worship times but my lack of voice definitely added humor to the weekend. Enjoy some of the pictures....


Hanging out


some of the girls after dinner


One of the small group times


Evan with the Expectation Goblins - they will get you if you don't follow the rules/expectations.


The whole group

UYG Retreat

Each year one of the highlights is the UYG (University Youth Group) retreat. Since it is a small-medium sized group Josh plans the retreat as High School and Middle School together. It is a great time of fellowship, learning, play, prayer, and lots of laughing. Josh always works really hard on these retreats.

This weekend is the 2008 retreat and the theme is Desperate. I'm excited to see if, and how the kids will latch on to the idea of Desperate - that God is desperate for us, that we should be desperate for Him etc.

One of the fun traditions that we do is the clothespin game. I introduced Josh to this game after we played it during a team planning day at work a few years ago. Everyone writes their name on 3 clothespins. Then throughout the whole weekend everyone tries to clip clothespins on other people without them knowing it. If they catch you, you have to take the pin back. It's funny when people are wearing hoodies or baggy shirts and pants because in a matter of minutes their backs can be covered with pins. At the end of the weekend we use the pins to guide a time of encouragement.

Here are some pictures from last years retreat....




I'm so excited to see what fun adventures this year holds. I will be praying that God will speak to our hearts, open our eyes and stir our souls. May Satan and all of his distractions and temptations be kept far away this weekend. Lord, teach us what it is to be truly desperate for you.

Shaving Cream Fight

Last Friday for the youth group fun night we had a giant shaving cream fight. This was mostly my idea. Josh couldn't think of anything and I thought we should take advantage of the last semi-warm weather. When I suggested the shaving cream fight, Josh's first question was "what is the point?" I had to explain that there really is no point other than to get good and messy.

We all had a great time except that most people forgot to bring a change of clothes or a towel. So we turned the sprinklers on to semi rinse off then used the baptistery towels and Josh and I took the towels home to wash them. Now, 4 days later my hair still feels a little weird. Enjoy some of the pictures from the nights festivities!!

The whole group


Caren and I



Josh and I

Summer is OVER

Josh and Justin exhausted....



After an All-Nighter on Friday night the youth group summer is officially over!! Ideally that would mean that Josh would be able to slow down and rest a little bit. It would be even better if it would mean that he will be home more often now. We almost need to reintroduce ourselves in September every year!

Seriously though, Josh worked incredibly hard this summer and I can already see ways that God has blessed those efforts. The kids grew in faith and relationships, people were shown Christ, memories were made and they all had a ton of fun.

But... I am so excited to be able to get back into a normal routine.


Cornerstone - Middle School Camp at OC


Mexico Mission Trip


Rafting IN Glenwood Springs, CO


Rockies Game

Mexico Mission Trip

Josh is in Monterry Mexico right now with 3 other adults and 12 kids. I don't get to talk to him but he has been able to email a few updates. This is an update he sent yesterday and a few pictures.....

Hey Family & Friends!

Well, we made it through our first day of work. We are finishing up the 2nd floor of the church building, as they are adding classrooms for their congregation. We are getting it all braced and supported in order to pour the concrete roof on Wednesday morning. It should be a week FULL of work!

I've attached a few pictures so that you will know your kids are okay.

The first one is of Clay...after we ate dinner last night, we went walking through a park area where a street performer was putting on a show, and OF COURSE Clay was called out to join him and help with the show. It was quite a show!


Alyssa using her pink DIVA hammer.


Then there's us eating an amazing lunch provided by the sweet ladies of the congregation we're working with.


Looks like they are working hard..


And after our first day of work, everyone is all still smiles! Except for Mitch...I'm not sure what's wrong with him.



Oh, and by the way, we are working with the Youth Group from Faith Village Church of Christ in Wichita Falls, TX, which is where Leah Stephens grew up...in fact, her brother is with us!

So there you go...we're all doing great. We'll send another message later!

Josh, Kevin, Dennis, Connie, Clay, Tony, Ryan, Alyssa, Justin, Mitch, Caren, Adam, Evan, Tara, Lindsey, and Nathan: I am praying for you guys this week!! May God give you endurance, strength, rest, energy, patience and joy. May you shine like stars in the heavens!!

2 whole weeks!!

Josh got home tonight from taking the middle school kids to camp. The most exciting part about that is he is here for an entire two weeks - that is a rare occurrence during the summer. I think I have been planning so much for us to do that he may wish he was gone again.

It's also an adjustment to live with someone else in the house again. I am super tired but can't sleep...I think I got used to sleeping in the middle of the bed.

I think the highlight of his week at Cornerstone was playing an intense, competitive game of Four Square using a tennis ball. This was also a game between youth ministers, not kids. Apparently a video will be posted on Youtube of the intense last few minutes of the game. Weird.

Church Songs

We had a youth group devo Sunday night where the kids that went to Kadesh could share some of their experiences - there is one of these after each camp or trip for the summer. One of the things that we talked about was how some of the songs we sing don't really have a great message or we don't really listen to them. One of the songs mentioned was "Get Right Church and Let's Go Home". One of the youth deacons, Dennis, loves (or used to love) that song. He would really get into it and sing it all the time. While at Kadesh he decided that he couldn't sing that song anymore because the words don't have a great message at all - it's saying that we have to "get right" to go to heaven and that we might miss the train if we aren't careful. We then talked about words to songs that we sing and don't really mean like All to Jesus I Surrender (I know I don't surrender everything freely).

So, I started thinking about songs that I don't really like. Now, get ready, this will be controversial I'm sure....I don't like "It Is Well With My Soul". Now, this has nothing to do with the lyrics of the song - I enjoy the words and think that they are powerful. The thing I don't like is the music. We are singing about the peace God gives us that can overcome anything but we sing this horribly slow and depressing sounding tune. Another thing I don't like is when we sing that song but then people say things that completely contradict what they just sang. I probably pay more attention to this since I don't like that song, but I seem to notice that it is sung and then we talk about how to deal with trials or how bad we feel about things that are going on. I'll be the first to admit that things are not always well with my soul. I have a hard time saying that they are when I can be upset, hurt, angry and confused about things. I know that God is truly bigger than anything I will ever face, but the fact remains that I am human and no where near perfect - things are not always well.

I am sure that I will be singing that song for the rest of my life in church services. I may learn to love it and I may not. I will strive to be at peace with things that happen. But really, if we are singing about the peace that passes all understanding let's not sound so down about it - be happy, sing that song with enthusiam and joy!

It has begun

Josh left at 5am on Saturday to drive to Abilene for Kadesh with 27 other people. He will get home late on Saturday night while I am in Seattle. We will probably talk on the phone this week but it won't be much. For me, this kind of marks the beginning of the summer even though it is already late June. As much as I love summer, it also means that I have to deal with Josh's crazy schedule and being home alone.

I was thinking that I would almost rather him be gong 3 1/2 weeks in a row instead of home for a week, gone for a week, home for a week etc. It's funny how much just one week alone can change my routine- then Josh gets back and it changes again. It is a lot of adjust to. So many things happen when we are apart that we need a whole day just to sit and catch up sometimes.

I guess this is how our summers will be for a long, long time. I am glad that I have learned to enjoy and use the time by myself but I do wish that he was home. Josh traveling so much makes me nervous. Sometimes he has other drivers, sometimes its just him and a bunch of crazy teenagers. I find myself praying constantly through out the day for his health and safety.

So, if you know a youth minister's wife - give her a hug and have her over for dinner one night when she is alone for the week. It's a tough job but a huge blessing to be married to a man who gets paid (not a lot, but still paid) to go to camps and act crazy all summer.