Long Overdue Update

I'm really almost ashamed to post to my blog right now because I've been so terribly delinquent in keeping up with it. My apologies to those two or three people who might be interested in reading about my life or my thoughts.

I suppose I'll give a rundown of the last seven months because it has been a whirlwind of a year thus far and I'm not expecting it to slow down. Reflecting, even if no one else is interested to hear it or if they already know it, is helpful for me in processing what God is doing in my life. Since I'm home alone tonight (Kyle at preteen DNow as a chaperone and Kelsey at her grandparent's birthday party), I must reflect to you dear people via the web.

At the end of January and beginning of February, I began training a nice lady to take my position at the seminary as I began fulltime studies again here at the seminary. For a few weeks in February, I worked 40 hours a week and took 12 hours of graduate level classes. Kudos to those who sustain that type of schedule long term. I wouldn't be able to do it. The last two weeks of school, I had nearly 100 pages of papers to write! I believe my fingers are permanently damaged from typing so much.

In February, I began substitute teaching in the Everman Independent School District, mostly in the Junior and Senior High Schools. That was an adventure. I was cussed at, forced to break up fights, had students walk out of classrooms, and asked the craziest questions by the students that, sadly, reflected their fallen worldview. But I was also hugged by students at all age levels, able to help with their classwork, and complimented by teachers and administration on how I did as a substitute.

In March, we took a youth mission trip to Arizona to help Mike and Debbie Bishop with their church plant (video from this in the previous post). Five people accepted Christ and many of us grew in Christ from the experience.

After spring classes ended in May, Kyle and I traveled home to Kentucky for our nephew Tyler's graduation from high school. Tyler rode back home with us and spent a week with us. While Tyler was in, we found out that Rylie has heart worms. The vet said that without treatment, Rylie would die a painful death in a few years. It was a difficult decision but Kyle and I opted to get treatment for her in spite of the high cost. Rylie has done well through the two required rounds of treatment and will go in next Monday to hopefully receive a clean bill of health. This was all quite hard to hear and go through so I can't imagine how it will be when Kyle and I have kids!

In June, we had a great week at Falls Creek (youth camp). Following Falls Creek, I finished up online courses for ECAP (alternative teacher certification training). The first 3 weeks of July, I attended ECAP training classes five days a week from 9-4 in West Fort Worth. The following week, I had an I-Term at SWBTS that met from 8-5ish Monday-Friday. My July was booked from head-to-toe in classes!

In the midst of ECAP training, a great young lady from the youth ministry, Kelsey Williams, moved in with us. She'll stay with us at least until she graduates from high school here in Everman in May 2012. While not replacing her parents, fulfilling parental responsibilities are certainly a new venture for Kyle and me. We're praying we will provide a stable, loving, Christian environment in which Kelsey can grow closer to the Lord and flourish.

We also suffered at the loss and suffering of a dear family in our church, the Medinas. We love this family, are saddened by the loss of their baby, and pray for Audrea's small intestine transplant at an unknown date in the future to be successful. We're amazed by the family's faith in God during this time.

A good friend, Stacy Martin, got married on July 31 to Cole Zachary and I was blessed to be a bridesmaid in her wedding. A few days following the wedding, I cut off my hair and sent in another donation to Locks of Love. I'm loving the ease and feel of the new hairdo. Justin Greer, a gentleman at our church with long, curly rocker-esque hair also cut his hair off for donation. Thanks, Justin!

This week Kyle and I took a quick trip to Mexico to look into future missions opportunities for the youth and possibly the church as a whole. We had a wonderful time (pictures are up on Facebook), met fantastic believers, and enjoyed great food in large and small cities (Zaragoza, Tio Pio, Moreles, Monclova, and Sacramento). Dr. Don Fawcett, Bro, Jose, and Bro. Jonathan were a joy and great encouragement to be around. We are hopeful God will allow us to serve in the future with some of the people we met this week.

Future plans: Lock-out this Friday, trip to the lake with the youth after Labor Day Weekend, fulltime classes this Fall, graduation December 10th for me and Kyle (!!!), and hopefully I can begin teaching Biology at Everman High School in December or January.

Oh, yes, and I need to study for my Biology content test so I can be certified to teach. (Prayers for motivation and studiousness are much needed at this point).

It's been a season of changes and surprises. I'm hopeful about God's future work in our family and our church. I pray that I'm a supportive wife, a loving guardian, and a competent, godly teacher. Your prayers for me in that regard are greatly treasured.

Maturation is an inspiration

One of the greatest thrills of working with youth, for me, is getting to see them mature in their walks with Christ. I've been particularly encouraged by my middle school girls who moved up last September from the children's ministry to my Sunday School class. Some of them started off as quite a handful. I butted heads with them a few times and even reduced a couple to tears...but I genuinely love these girls. I'm so happy to see how they are growing and stepping out in obedience to Christ. They did a wonderful job leading in our recent Backyard Bible Club and they'll soon be heading out to Arizona for our church's mission trip. I pray that this mission trip is a challenging time that brings about growth in them for God's glory. I can't wait to see what happens!

I'm a horrible blogger

My recounting this entire lesson below has two purposes. First, it helps to further explain why I'm a horrible blogger and second, I hope it is a quick encouragement to you from a Jr. High SS lesson to spend daily time with God.

Yesterday in Sunday School, the Junior High class addressed the question of why we should spend time with God. I modified the curriculum a bit but here's a quick run-through of the lesson. We began the lesson by discussing the statement, "If something is important to us, we will make time for it." All the students agreed with this statement and we talked about examples of eating, spending time with friends, brushing our teeth, showering, etc. We discussed how God is the most important thing in life and thus, we should make time for Him.

To address the question of "Why spend time with God," we talked about how God wants to be our friend (John 15:13-16) and then moved into how a friendship with God is different than any other sort of friendship. He's always truthful, never lets us down, always does what is right, and unconditionally loves us. The main difference between our friendship with God and our friendship with anyone else is that He's the omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, holy God and so, unlike any other friend we might have, He deserves our worship and our obedience. Verse 14 (I believe it was...I don't have a Bible in front of me right now) talks about how if we are His friend, we'll follow His commands. We looked at Psalm 23 and discussed how God is not only our friend but our shepherd and so He guides us, provides for us, and protects us.

We wrapped up by talking about how, if God is the most important thing in life, we must be intentional to spend time with Him. The students said it was hard to find time for God because they are so busy, at which point, we alluded back to the opening statement of "If something is important to us, we will make time for it." We discussed ways to help us purposefully spend time with Him, not just give Him the spare moments we might have throughout the day. Those ways included things like

• having a specified time to set aside and read God's Word and pray
• following some type of Bible reading plan
• having accountability from friends and maybe even following the same reading plan so the passages read can be discussed
• writing notes on the mirror as a reminder to spend time with Him
• making associations between things we do everyday (like brush our teeth or shower) and spending time with God so we are sure to be reminded of it

If we spend time with God, who is our friend and desires to guide us, we will grow to mirror more of His character and less of the world's. The entire month's series involves studying this topic in its various aspects. It's a great way to start off the new year with the right focus and perspective.

So, I summarized all of this to state the obvious at this point: blogging is not a priority in my life and so I haven't made time for it. I am sorry to those handful of readers we have out there. I'll try to post brief updates for those friends and family who do not live in the area.

The way we spend our time reflects, in large part, what is most important in our lives. What is your time reflecting?

Oh, and a quick update on a previous blog. I might have to go back to "hovering" because these girls are not exhibiting the maturity they so boldly claimed to have. Awww....the joys of youth work. :)

Youth listen so much more than you think!

We have a couple of particularly lively youth in our youth ministry at our church. They just moved up from the children's ministry so they're quite young and interrupt others, get off track easily, and just talk nonstop. But they ask wonderful questions during Sunday School and have great insights (for example, does God want us to have a president or does He want us to have some other form of government?)! They are pretty blunt, which I appreciate because at I least know where they stand. During church lately, I've been sitting near them because they have a bit of a reputation for goofing off during church or getting up and walking around the church building. I sat by them last Sunday night to keep them from distracting others.

After the service during the youth fellowship, I went over to check out what they were up to (you just never know). One of the young ladies asked why I was always hovering over them. I explained that it was in response to their previous behavior of talking during church, leaving during church, passing notes, etc. They said they weren't children any more and could act good but I hadn't given the opportunity to be more mature. Good point. So, we had a quick test. I asked each of the girls separately if they could recount to me what the sermon was about. Both girls did a surprisingly good job so we've come to an agreement. They can sit several pews away from me during the service BUT they must speak with me after the service about what they remember from the sermon. They might goof off a bit, they might even get up to leave sometimes, but I think they are listening and growing. They'll mature with time and by giving them this room, which can grow into more room later on, I think we'll build good trust.

By giving the girls room to grow, I am also leaving open the opportunity for them to fail. Hopefully, we'll take it in reasonable steps so that they grow steadily but aren't in a position to fall too far. I do not want to set them up for failure by placing in their hands more than they can handle at once. But I also don't want to "hover over them," as one of the girls put it, never demonstrating any trust in their ability to grow in Christ.

Lesson: Youth listen far better than we think.

Yay for a great weekend!!!

September has turned into super duper busy time for me and especially Kyle. Poor fella. Last Monday-Wednesday, he was in Birmingham, AL for a youth conference (drove the 10+ hours by himself there and back). Wednesday night he taught youth. Thursday, he had classes and then that night we had soccer practice. Friday he spent much of the day with one of our youth who will be heading off for basic training soon. Then we went to Camp Eagle for the retreat and didn't return until Sunday night.

Yesterday, he worked on homework, laundry, drove one youth to work and took another to Sonic, and then had class that night. The rest of the week is looking just as busy since he has class today, FedEx tonight, youth on Wednesday night, classes and soccer on Thursday, and Friday we have our senior retreat. The seniors will spend the night Friday night and then we'll head out early Saturday morning to go towards Tyler, TX for the retreat. Sunday night, Kyle is preaching. Oh yeah...and Rylie is being spayed this Thursday. Craziness! Hopefully things will slow down a bit, particularly on the weekends, after this week.

Our College and Career Retreat was fantabulous. The ladies I went with were wonderful, as expected, and John and Kyle had a great time as well. At 6:30pm Friday night our group hopped into the van to head to the Hill Country (beautiful!!!). We arrived at Camp Eagle at 12:30 am after a few bathroom stops and one missed road. Kyle did a great job driving to and from the camp, my little trooper. Stacy kept asking where he was taking us because it seemed like we were in the middle of nowhere, literally. No one had cell phone service and we drove down a dirt road for 8 miles to get to this place. Fun times. It was great to be so disconnected and have a chance to breath. Kyle challenged us through some Bible studies on the life of Noah to be obedient in the little and big things. We shouldn't be afraid obediently pursue great things for God. Here are some pictures from our trip. I hope you enjoy them! I've added some captions that should tell a bit of what we did. Those things not captured on film to show here are: kayaking, blobbing, swimming, hiking, zip lining (at least, not on my camera), and just tons of beautiful scenery.

View from the building we stayed in at Camp Eagle

Stacy, John, and Katie with Cedar the dog (amazing retriever that would dive down in the lake, deep into the lake, to retrieve rocks we'd thrown in). John really loved him as shown in the picture. Cedar really loved John because he fed him Honey Buns. Poor thing probably has diabetes now.

Quiet time next to the river

Pierre David Deer from the wild game farm across the river

Kellie blazing up the rock cliff we were climbing (I just love her expression in this picture)

We all made it to the top alive (sans John who hung out at the bottom with Cedar).

Now begins our Sherpa trek and then rappelling!

John and Kyle went mountain biking (wonderful trails) while Stacy, Katie, and I went kayaking and Kellie studied for an exam she had today (hope you did well, Kellie!).

Quick Update from a Horrible Blogger

My lack of time and lack of home Internet connection (Kyle and I figure we have access at work so it's best to not have access to the addictive thing in the house at this time) causes me to be a pitiful blogger. Sorry family and friends. Here's quick update:

Monday: I'm facilitating Ph.D. orientation over at the Riley Center..should be a good time.

Tuesday: Kyle has FedEx on Tuesday nights so that's my night to veg out alone. Lately I've been finishing up the curtains I'm making for the dining room.

Wednesday: we're doing something different to welcome in the new seventh graders coming up to youth...can't remember for the life of me what it is.

Thursday: Paintball (also to welcome in the new youth...kind of like hazing, only in Christian love)! I'm excited but also a little apprehensive about this. Maybe I can play the feeble, delicate little flower part and then surprise them with my wicked bad sniper skills. It usually works when Kyle tries to wrestle me.

Friday: Classes start back up for me (Thursday for Kyle). I'll work a few hours, go to class, work a few more hours and then go to San Antonio with a group of ladies from work for a Beth Moore conference. Should be a fun time. Kyle is having the youth lock-in this night. They'll be playing messy games, having a devotional, going to Group Dynamix to do team-building high ropes stuff, and then playing dodge ball in a nearby gymnasium. I'm sorry I'll be missing out.

Saturday: Kyle will probably be sleeping much of the day and I'll return that night.

We have two retreats in September, one with the upcoming seniors and one with the college and career group. Should be a great time. Kyle is pumped about football season (he's been talking about it starting for over a month). I'm more excited that the average temperature for the month will be below 101 degrees (no lie...that's what our electricity bill said for July).

Rylie is doing well. She's walking well on her leash and still as sweet as ever. She has, though, dug a tremendous pit in the backyard. When I say tremendous I mean several feet long and foot deep that could easily cause someone to break an ankle if they unknowingly stepped into it. That will be one of our projects next spring...grow grass where the weeds were so she can't dig as much!

Oh yeah...and we were phelpsaholics when he was swimming. We're loving the Olympics. Go Team USA!

Evermazing Race, DNow 08

Just a random montage of Evermazing Race videos from March. I didn't get to take as many good photos as I would have liked. Sorry!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Charlie Brown Christmas

The youth performed the Charlie Brown Christmas and did a spectacular job. Following the photos of that are a few of the church's wonderful Christmas musical.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

There was frost on my windshield this morning. The temperature was close to 80 degrees yesterday but was around 30 this morning. This isn't the post I said I could write on Texas weather...just a quick observation. I need someone to go outside in the morning and then come tell me what I should wear for the day. I'm always wearing something that's too warm or too cold. Oh well. Anyway, our Christmas tree is up and the interior of our house is semi-decorated. This Friday, hopefully the guys will be able to help Kyle decorate the outside of the house (Kyle looks forward to putting up Christmas lights). The girls in the youth are probably coming over to the parsonage on the 15th to make Christmas cards and have dinner together. Kyle's teaching a series on Sunday nights about the true meaning of Christmas. We talked last night about how Christ's birth fulfilled numerous prophecies and how God aligned the culture at the time to be just the way he wanted it for the arrival of Jesus (Hellenization of the culture, better road systems, Pax Romana, etc.). Pretty amazing stuff.

One of the youth found a box in the youth house a week ago with a game inside called Double Dance Mania. Kyle and I took it home to install batteries and see if it would work so the youth could play it. Though the outside of the box portrays the game as such, it is nothing like Dance Dance Revolution. DDR is fun and the songs sound like the actual songs they claim to be. Double Dance Mania is Atari's ugly cousin. The songs sound like the monophonic ring tones from my old Nokia cellphone. It was funny to see Kyle trying to play it, though. I have pictures that I should post later.

And this Saturday is the next round of the high school football state tournament. Kyle and I plan on going to the game. They've made it to the Elite Eight and will be playing in Texas Stadium (exciting, huh!).

Family and Youth Service

Mom and Dad made it in safely on Friday. We are waiting to do anything major until after Bub comes out tomorrow (we don't want to exclude him). Saturday we went to the Amon Carter Museum. I'm not big on art museums but when they're free, they aren't so bad. I just don't have the artistic eye, I guess. Modern art in particular looks like paintings a five year old could do so I never see the point in them. Dad tried to give his interpretation of them, which was pretty funny. I do appreciate beautiful things though. One painting was so life-like that I told Mom to get really close to it so we could look at some of the details in it...and then the security guard came and told us to back away. It's really easy to get Mom in trouble and oh so much fun. Wednesday, I'll think we'll head over to Dallas to explore. I work today and tomorrow so that cuts down on some of the stuff we can do. I told Mom and Dad they could take my car but they seem really leery to drive around DFW by themselves.

It was a Youth Service last night at church. The youth led the music and performed a skit and all of that went well. They act like goobers during drama practice but then usually pull it together for the performance. Gotta love youth. :) Kyle preached from Isaiah chapter 1 and did a wonderful job in my completely unbiased opinion. His allergies were bothering him so he sounded a little stopped up and during the sermon, a wasp landed on Dad's head which Ed quickly swatted off. Even with those distractions, he preached God's word clearly and with conviction so I pray it impacts the hearts of all who were there to give God true service, not merely heartless religious rituals.

So.....I'm cooking Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. I have the Oven Ready turkey that Melba recommended (you don't have to thaw the turkey...how amazing!). I think we'll do stuffing, corn, green beans, broccoli casserole, mashed potatoes, a veggie tray, rolls, blackberry cobbler (my fave), brownies (another fave), and a few other things. I don't know how to cook sweet potatoes (probably because I don't like them) and most of us like pumpkin pie but prefer other things over it so we won't be having it for dessert. None of us are big cranberry sauce consumers so we'll skip that too. I'll need to go buy a card table soon because we only have a little four person table. If my friend Laura joins us, we'll have 6 people. A good number for my first Thanksgiving, not too overwhelming. If there are any cooking disasters, we'll just head out to eat and no one will ever speak of it again.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Weekend Update

Just a quick update of what's been going on. Friday, Everman won in overtime (fantabulous game) and they are now district champs. Saturday, twenty-seven youth came to Connect. I taught the girls how to play Mafia (instead of viewing it as teaching them how to kill and be deceptive, I like to think that I have taught them the finer points of discernment). Kyle played Madden and Guitar Hero with the boys. I think the Bible study on prayer went well and I'm hoping the youth will be motivated to take part in the 6 week (I think it's six week) study that's coming up. Oh yeah, and I got a whopping 1.5 hours of sleep on Saturday night and still don't feel like I've caught up. I haven't been able to nap (gotta love naps) because I have a research paper on Open Theism due this week. I've learned so much researching for and beginning to write this paper but I'm afraid it's going to stink. That's alright...I have a well cushioned grade in the class right now.

Mom, Dad, and Bub (aka David) are coming in in less than a week. I've missed them and I'm excited about them coming in. I also get to be their tour guide, which is always kinda fun for me. There are so many things we can do while they're here. Bub wants to go to Dallas to see the site of the JFK assassination. I'm thinking about taking Dad to the Ripley's Museum and the House of Wax and Mom to the Farmer's Market. They have to go to the Stockyards if they're coming in to Fort Worth. We'll have to wander around Downtown and maybe go to some of the free museums in the area. Too much to see but there's always next year if there are things we miss.

High School Football in Texas

For those of you who aren't native Texans or haven't spent extended time in Texas, high school football is king. If you drive around on a Friday night, you cannot go far without seeing the glare of a high school stadium (hence the show Friday Night Lights). The high school most of our youth go to is no exception. The Bulldogs of Everman High have been spectacular this year, having an undefeated season thus far. Tonight they face their biggest challenge from the also undefeated Stephenville High. Both, I've been told, are ranked in the top ten in the state in the 4A division. It should be an exciting game. Check out this website for more info: Everman Football

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Random Excursus
You know, Texas is a funny place. Besides the weather...I could write several blogs on the weather so I'll wait on that one...they have the craziest homecoming tradition. At homecoming, the girls wear mums. This sounds nice, a pretty flower pinned to a girl. But no, this isn't the case at all. It's this gigantic thing made of bows and whatever else they can glue to it and it can cost a few hundred dollars and is sometimes so heavy that they can't pin it to their clothes but they must strap it around their necks. Those of you from Kentucky will agree that they look like something you would pin on a prize winning horse (I'm not implying that the girls in Texas look like horses, just that the mums they wear look like things that would be pinned on horses). I forgot to take my camera during homecoming so I don't have pictures. I've seen light up ones, ones with multiple stuffed animals attached, and ones that took up a person's entire torso region. They're insane. Here's a website that talks a little about them and shows some pictures. The ones pictured are not the LARGE ones, mind you. And I really like the title of the url: Homecoming Mum: the Riot on your Chest
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We have an overnight event for the youth this weekend. We'll be going to play putt-putt then the girls will go to Delretha's house and the boys to the parsonage (I hope they don't massacre my home). There we'll have a Bible study on prayer. Kyle is starting a prayer emphasis with the youth, trying to give them a good foundation. Pray that the youth, and the leaders, will have a passion to seek God out in prayer. We're hoping this weekend helps to foster that.