FREE church leadership conference----the NINES

If you are a church leader, sign up for this FREE Leadership Conference on September 9th. You can watch it from your computer & the speakers last on NINE minutes!

Some of the speakers include: Francis Chan, Sam Chand, Eugene Cho, Alan Hirsch, Brad Lomenick, Jaeson Ma, Kem Meyer, Perry Noble, Stacy Spencer, Ed Stetzer, Greg Surratt, Leonard Sweet and Rick Warren---but more are yet to come (over 100 speakers)!

http://thenines.leadnet.org/2010/index.html

Books of the Bible

I can't get this outta my head...we've been singing it EVERY week at church....and it's soooo catchy. I was in the Son Harbor (elementary age) class today & we sang it twice...and I think I've listened to it like 20 times tonight. so I'll share it with you. And we'll all know the Books of the Bible. :)



or, if that link I just posted above doesn't work, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixMvFdeo-F0


Happy Singing, Friends!

H-O-O-K-S game & Easter Festival & more

Today was our church's 8th annual Easter Festival. It was AWESOME. It rained off and on throughout the day, but we still had a blast. Check out PJohn's blog for more info & pictures....

Amanda, Tori, and I went to the Hooks game tonight & had an absolute blast! Those two are crazy-fun. We had second row tickets right on the 3rd baseline. :) It was chilly (even Tori thought so) and I was very much thankful that Amanda had a blanket in her car. We are definitely doing it again soooon (hint hint Amanda...need free tickets again ;) ). Here's a couple pics from tonight...and, unfortunately, I couldn't seem to get a picture with all three of us in it.







On another note, Amanda & I will be running a 5k this coming Saturday. It should be fun...if I make it. LOL.

Beach to Bay is quickly approaching. 5 weeks from today (aah!!!) I got a team together with friends from church (and one from school). It's gonna be a blast. Some of us have started running every morning at 515. I have done that once so far, but I'm going to try to run MWF of this week at 515 and TR I'll go to the gym...But...we'll see how that works. Lord knows how much early mornings & I don't get along. LOL.
Funny story: Last Tuesday, I went and ran with them at 515 & came home to shower & get ready for school. I was so tired that when I got out of the shower & began to put lotion on my legs, I realized that I had only shaved one leg. Genius, I am.

Busy Busy Busy

I have been so busy lately that I have been horrible at keeping up with the blog- sorry. :(

Highlights in my life as of late:

• Haven't been having as many Migraines lately, but I still have had several since my last appointment. I will be going back to the doctor on March 4th.
• I went to the dentist for the first time since 2001. I had 8 surface cavities. But, my dentist (whom I also babysit for), said since it's been that long since I've been to the dentist that that's not too bad. I will be having them filled sometime in the near future.
• I LOVE LOVE LOVE my life group. It's such a fun group & we laugh together, cry together, worship together, and study His Word together. :)
• School is extremely tough on me right now...well, just World Lit and Philosophy. There's so much reading and I'm just not comprehending well...but I'm know God will get me through it.
  
• Physics, Supervised Ministry, and Cross Cultural Ministry classes are going very well.
• I've been taking some dance classes...I've learned the Tango, Waltz, Foxtrot, Rumba, Country Waltz, and Two Step. All in a 1 hour class period. I have two more lessons to take, both that I'm taking tomorrow.

Well, I need to go finish up an outline for a research paper on Voltaire so I can submit it online by midnight.

Been awhile

Guess I should update this.

I have been super busy with school. Papers, tests, projects, more papers...AAAHHH!! Only 4 more class days at DMC and 2 more at SCS and FINALS time. Not looking forward to Finals. They stress me out so so so so much. But, after December 10th, I will be a much happier camper (and just in time for Amanda's birthday dinner that night, yays!).

I signed up for classes next semester. 15 hours (yikes--I've only taken 12 so far & it's killing me...but I want to graduate). I'll be taking Physics, World Literature, Foundations for Cross Cultural Ministry, Introduction to Philosophy, and Supervised Ministry. Wowzas. Please start praying now for me for next semester. I was however, able to get all of my classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays (Tuesday 8-920 & 1-8, and Thursday 8-1220) and one online class (world lit). I'm very excited about that. But, I hope that on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I can stay responsible enough to actually study and do my work (I'll pretty much have to in order to pass all my classes).

I started occasionally working at a Valet Company with one of my friends, and I really enjoy it. It's fun, easy, and has the possibility of making good tips.

Church is going fantastic. I absolutely love everything about it. I really and truely feel that God has called me to be in the ministry. I don't even know what else to say about it...I am so happy and so blessed to be working side by side with such awesome people, helping to further the Kingdom of God. I can't wait until it can be my main everyday focus (instead of school).

I'm house sitting for like a week and a half or so...the person I'm currently housesitting for will be back on Monday and the next person leaves on Monday...So, until next Sunday, I have my own "place." haha.

Well, I've got to be up & ready to go in about 8 1/2 hours, so I'm going to go to bed.
Blessings!

Whirlwind Life

These past few weeks have been insanely hectic to me.

I wrote a paper on Ephesus that was pretty good, or so I thought. I was told I only had five typos in the paper and I needed to work on the bibliography. So I spotted the six errors that I really had & fixed the bib. Then I was handed back the paper and it said to re-write it with more citations. Then, my professor says not to use wikipedia, that it's very unreliable. I had no idea...boo.

Hurricane Ike was headed right for us so we were going to evacuate. Then it wasn't so we weren't. Then they weren't sure so we might. I like knowing a schedule and keeping it.

I've been trying to go to the gym as often as possible. I went Thursday, Friday, Saturday, rested on Sunday, Mondays and Wednesdays I have Water Aerobics followed by swimming, and yesterday, since it was so nice and cool out, I went for a run. It was SO nice out...I started running with the intention of running two miles (I had a pedometer on), and when i got back to my car and looked...3 miles! YAY! It was about a 45 minute run...no iPods, cell phones, just me and the open sidewalk (lol).

I've been feeling very stressed with school and getting things read and getting stuff done at church...I'm not sure why. I've been very last minute lately, and even though I do procrastinate, I do NOT like this.

I had my first caffeinated soda in over a year this weekend. I was craving a rootbeer float, but we didn't have any rootbeer, so I had a Diet Pepsi float. One on Saturday and another on Sunday. I've hardly slept since then...although, last night, I was in bed by 945, and asleep almost immediately.

Well, I've got to run, I've got Astronomy in about 15 minutetts (which is a super fun class, by the way).

What an Amazing God...

When I first became Director of Children's Ministry and was scheduling volunteers by myself, I would be super nervous. On Saturdays, if I didn't have enough volunteers to serve in all the classes by noon, I would start freaking out & stressing big time. But, in the last 9 months, I have learned to just trust God, that He will always provide. Whether He provides by blessing me with more volunteers or if He is providing by having small enough classes that I can combine, I know He always will provide. I still get a little antsy, but I just keep the faith and pray & I know somehow that it will happen.

So, my point in all this is today. Today at 9am, I still needed 3 volunteers. By 945, I needed 5. I was starting to panic. I stopped & I prayed, "God, I know that You always provide, and I am asking you to please provide volunteers for the second service." So after the first service is over, I go in the sanctuary to see if there is anyone in there that I can ask to stay for the second and help. There were only two people in there, and they were doing sound & media. Everyone in the foyer was pretty much gone too. Then, I notice that two of the volunteers who had been at the first service were gone. So, now I'm thinking, I need 7 volunteers. Wow. Is it going to be possible? How many classes am I going to have to close. And then I realized that I wasn't completely 100% believing that God would provide. I said it, I prayed it, but was not sure He would. That kinda woke me up and I realized, you know, He does always provide. Every other time that I've not had enough He provided. Every time someone calls in sick, someone else will fill in. I think God was trying to tell me that He will provide when I fully believe Him. That no matter what the circumstances, He will take care of me, as long as I continue to believe. So I go back into the foyer & in walk the two volunteers who had left. So I only needed 5 more. I asked another person if she could help out somewhere, that I wasn't sure where yet, she said sure. 4 more. One of the teenagers came in and said she would help in the kinder class. 3 more. Then, I noticed a couple was just kinda standing near the bathrooms and they weren't really talking to anyone. They had served last week, so I didn't really want to ask them again, but I said to myself, "God's providing, why not." They said yes. That left one more. Then another lady came in and said that she was in the mood today to help with the babies. Then, another teenager came in and said that he would like to help in Son Harbor. So, that gave me one extra volunteer.

God is so amazing. I'm just in awe of Him right now. I can't even think of any other words right now. Amazing is the only word that can describe Him for me right now. Because He is AMAZING!!!

Thumb

So, I fell off the curb @ church yesterday (funny, I know). I don't even know what happened. One second I was walking, the next I was eating asphalt for breakfast & my hand was throbbing. I looked at my knees today for the first time & they are all bruised up. :(

My thumb is just sprained, thankfully, but it hurts. :( Now Audie can get me back for all the times I teased her about falling outta the car & breaking her elbow.