I'm here!

SO- after over 20 hours on a plane, we got to Cape Town yesterday around 5ish pm...which is 10 am your time. Remember that you all are 7 hours behind us (mom, that makes you 6 hours). The flights were fine- lots of good stories from that. I saw an attempted robbery right before our fuel stop in Dakar, Senegal!

Only a few minutes to update- they just rang the lunch bell! BUT this is most definitely the most beautiful place I've ever been! Hopefully I will be able to get on later tonight and add some pictures. Please be praying for my new friend Mzo. He will be partnering with my team at our VBS location, Red Hill.

Love you all!

Leaving on a jet plane

Tomorrow morning at 11:30 am, my plane will take off to head on my long anticipated journey to Cape Town, South Africa. When I started working at Brentwood Baptist, I learned about our church's great partnership with John Thomas and Living Hope. And here I am, 2.5 years later, finally getting to go on my first trip to this great place. Here is a link to our church's mission's website that tell of this partnership...

http://www.brentwoodmissions.com/news_detail.php?news_id=41

There are about 30 people on our team. Some people will be doing construction tasks, others will be doing a retreat for the healthcare workers at Living Hope, and the team I am on will be doing VBS in several of the local townships. I will be in a place called Red Hill with 2 other team members. They have told us that there could be 200-400 children at each location. WOW! 200-400 kids with 3 of us?? Thats not quite the 5:1 ratio I was used to while working M-Fuge! I really have no idea what to expect!

Please pray for our team in these ways:

-Pray for safe travel. We fly from Nashville to New York and then New York to Cape Town (20 hour flight!) with a fuel stop in somewhere in West Africa.
-Pray for our health.
-Pray that I have a peace about teaching the VBS curriculum. I've got teaching students down pat, but its been a while since I've worked with kids! Lets hope its like riding a bike :)
-Pray that our team is united. With lots of different ministry tasks going on, I am praying that there is no division among the team and that we are all willing to help wherever the need is.

Hopefully I will be able to update you all and post some pictures! Thank you for your prayers and support!

"I thank my God everytime I remember you." Phil. 1:3

Summer Time

So I know its been almost two months since I last blogged...sorry about that. But to my defense, it is summer time- and summer time in Student Ministry is BUSY!


We kicked off the summer on a great start with out End of the Year Celebration. We had pizza and blow-up games (the essentials) and a good crowd of students. I got to joust for the first time ever and this is how I felt afterwards:

The next week our Middle Schoolers participated in ReConstruct- a local ministry that equips students for home repair for low-income residents. (http://www.reconstruct.org/) The students did an incredible job that week!



Two weeks after that we took 250 students and leaders down to Doublehead Resort in Town Creek, AL for Summer Camp. It was a great week! Worship was led by Ninth Hour (formerly Joey Everett Band) and our camp pastor was Chad Childress. Both were so great at leading our students to worship. It was an incredible week. Here is a picture of worship on the beach before the baptisms in the lake:

And finally, we just got back from Chicago where we took our High Schoolers on mission. For the past 4 years, our students have been partnering with Armitage Baptist Church in Garfield Park (I've only gone the past 2 summers.) The ministry that they do there is so wonderful and very much needed. I will blog about this later (it has made me consider moving there) but here is a picture to hold you over...

Love to you all!

Oh, My God

I am a repeat-music listener. I will play a new album until I hate it. However, the new Jars of Clay album that came out last year is amazing. I know I say this about a lot of albums but this time I really mean it! It has been playing over and over again in my car since I got it. There is one song in particular that is keeping it in there- "Oh, My God" (track 7). It is such a powerful song both lyrically and musically. I think a lot of times artists try to accomplish this but something falls short. Here are the lyrics...they read just as well as they are sung.

Oh my God, look around this place
Your fingers reach around the bone
you set the break and set the tone
For flights of grace, and future falls
In present pain all fools say, "Oh my God."

Oh my God, why are we so afraid?
We make it worse when we don't bleed
There is no cure for our disease
Turn a phrase and rise again
Or fake your death and only tell your closest friends
Oh My God

Oh my God, can I complain?
You take away my firm belief and graft my soul upon your grief
Weddings, boats, and alibis
All drift away, and a mother cries

Liars and fools, sons and failures, theives will always say
Lost and found, ailing wanderers, healers always say
Whores and angels, men with problems, leavers always say
Broken hearted, separated, orphans always say
War creators, racial haters, preachers always say
Distant fathers, fallen warriors, givers always say
Pilgrim saints, lonely widows, users always say
Fearful mothers, watchful doubters, Saviors always say

Sometimes I can not forgive
and these days mercy cuts so deep
If the world was how it should be, maybe I could get some sleep
While I lay, I'd dream we're better, scales were gone and faces lighter
When we wake we hate our brother, we still move to hurt each other
Sometimes I can close my eyes and all the fear the keeps me silent
Falls below my heavy breathing, what makes me so badly bent?
We all have a chance to murder, we all have the need for wonder
We still want to be reminded that the pain is worth the thunder

Sometimes when I lose my grip, I wonder what to make of heaven
All the times I thought to reach up, all the times I had to give up
Babies underneath their beds, in hospitals that cannot treat them
All the wounds that money causes, all the comforts of cathedrals
All the cries of thirsty children, this is our inheritance
All the rage of watching mothers, this is our greatest offense
Oh my God Oh my God Oh my God

"I think I'll go to Boston"

I went to Boston this past weekend to visit my friend, Brittney. Boston is never a place I've thought about much but I really loved it! I got to see all kinds of neat things all over New England. We went to Cape Cod for a day to sit on the beach. We went to the Polar Caves in New Hampshire. And we saw Plymouth Rock in Rhode Island. Yes, there is an actual rock!

My favorite part of the trip was HARVARD by far! Ever since I saw the movie With Honors when I was a kid I have dreamed of going to this school. And I loved everything about it! The campus was nice but not too nice. It wasn't too big either. The best place on campus was the library- it is huge!! Maybe I only loved it so much because it was such an important part of the movie- which by the way if you've never seen it, go rent it now! Here is a pic of me sitting on the ledge of the library steps.

If you want to see more pics from the trip, here you go!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2496&l=9e61b&id=504364111

I'm going to be an aunt...for the eighth time.

In order by birth:

Dylan

Madalyn

Carley

Billy

Jacob

Nathan

Aiden

And then the new one...whew!

I've always considered myself a morning person. Not necessarily one that wakes up at the crack of dawn but I'm usually in really good moods in the morning and as the day goes on the mood becomes less good (but never becomes bad...yeah, never). But I realized last night as I was stirring in my bed that I think way more clearly and realistically at night. I often lay in bed for hours before I fall asleep because I think too much. Should I move to Africa? Should I go off to seminary or just do it here? Should I even go to seminary at all? Do I really like cats?

I wouldn't say that I am unrealistic in the mornings, just...optimisitic. On sunny mornings when the birds are chirping outside my window (much like this morning) I feel like I can conquer the world...like the Barenaked Ladies. This isn't a bad thing. Since I discovered these tendencies of mine last night, I have grown to like them. I just need to remember that I should only make important decisions late at night. But what happens when I wake up the morning after a decision and think differently because I am thinking with more optimism? What do I go with then? My clearer, more realistic decision from the night before? Or the optimistic, shiney-sun decision?

Oh boy...I make my brain hurt sometimes...

Another character trait that I've realized recently, err...I should say had pointed out to me recently...I am over-analytical. Sometimes I think so much that I forget to talk.