Peace

Peace.

A word that conjures up images of secluded spaces with just the sounds of creation whispering in your ear.

Peace.

A place that is so often hard to find and disconcerting once you get there.

Peace.

A feeling like no other where it seems as if nothing and nobody can frustrate or stress you out.

Peace.

A feeling that overtakes your body when you are right where the Lord wants you to be, right when he wants you to be there.

Peace.

Lord may I never stray far from this place of absolute stillness and trust. This place of faith and hope. This place given to me by you.

Weekend in Wisconsin

This weekend, for the first time ever in my 7 summers of YouthWorks, I had a couple good friends come to visit me. Danita and Lauren made the 5 hour trek from Minneapolis to Green Bay for a weekend of fun, fellowship, and Packer watching.

Being the huge Packer fan that she is, Danita had us visiting the stadium and taking in a practice.

We also found some time to head up to Door County to an amazing beach for some time to rest and relax in the sun.

I was blessed by their sacrifice to come and visit me! You ladies are great! Thanks for providing some refreshment and chance to play tourist in the midst of the summer.

Mackinac Island

My Sault Ste Marie staff and I (plus one of Heather's friends-Jason) got the chance to visit Mackinac Island this weekend. What an amazing and gorgeous place it is! The Lord truly blessed that time by making the 7 hours we were there feel like an entire weekend. There are no motor vehicles allowed on the island and everyone gets around on foot, by bicycle, and by horse drawn carriage. After unbaording the ferry and taking a walk around town we rented some bikes and set off on a trek to circle the island.

The island is about 8 miles around and we took a leisurely ride, stopping at various points for some hiking and playing in the water.

The weather was gorgeous, the water was warm and all of us were wishing that we had worn our swimsuits so we could have taken advantage of it. After turning our rental bikes back in we went and grabbed some grub at a local burger joint. The place was pretty dead since it was about 3 in the afternoon and we made friends with the guys behind the counter who then gave us lots of extra food. We had a great time eating and fellowshipping together. It is amazing how carefree life seems when you aren't on a strict schedule.

The rest of our day was spent exploring all the tourist shops that line main street and a couple of the side streets. I included a couple pictures of some of our finds...




Yes, that's right...a toilet. We found this sitting by a tree outside somone's house. It was pretty funny.

We also found this great Fun House mirror at a store called "Cattywampus." This is Jacob checking himself out in it.

This is just an example of some of the crazy hats we found at some of the souvenier stores.



All in all, it was a great and relaxing day. We all felt refreshed and rejuvenated by the time away. Thanks Lord for that and for the beauty of your creation and your people.

Us on the ferry ride back to the mainland.

(Joe, Jacob, Heather, me, Kirby)

The sunset the Lord provided for the ride.

"And now to Him who is able to do IMMEASURABLY MORE than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen."

Ephesians 3:20-21

(you can see more pictures on my other blog. To get there go to my profile and click on Pictures By Me)

My Week in the Soo

I was finally able to come and hang out with my staff in Sault Ste Marie, MI. It was a great week with great youth and adults as well as great times with my staff. Some highlights of the week were...

Arriving to this welcome sign in the place where my airmattress was to be placed...right in between Kirby and Heather...my favorite spot. Notice the 4 different types of Diet Coke lined up at the top. They are the best...and I may have gotten them all addicted to Diet Coke...oops!

Making homemade salsa and cookies with Heather...they were delish...notice my pizza shaped hat...I definitely wore it to Club one night.

Joe and Jacob sharing a licorice string...you never know what an evening staff meeting will bring.

One of my favorite youth from the week (although I had many "favorites" this week) Carmen and I sporting our killer tatoos, which were purchsed from the vending machine at the shower site.

Carmen is a sweet, spunky, no-nonsense girl from Little Rock, AR. She was great!

A close up of our tats (as we like to refer to them). My arm is the sea turtle and hers is the butterfly. Pretty tight if I do say so myself!

Thank you Lord for an amazing week with so many amazing youth and adults who loved on us and were a blast to hang out with. Thank you for the refreshment that it provided to me in the middle of the summer. Father please continue to grant us energy and enthusiasm to get through these last 3 weeks of the summer. May we be intentional to soak in the blessing that so many of these youth and adults are to us.

Oh the things you do at YouthWorks...

When you sign up to work at YouthWorks you sign up for more than just the bulleted items on your job description...you sign up for all the jobs in the fine fine print...electrician, chef, conflict manager, nurse, and...plumber! Which is exactly what Heather (my SD in Sault Ste Marie) and I turned into yesterday.

We had been having drainage problems in our kitchen. Yesterday got especially bad when we came into the kitchen to find the floor covered with water. After some investigation, and some help from the janitor, we pulled the huge metal cover off the floor. Underneath was a large grease trap and one of the grossed things I have ever seen. In order to find the drainage problem we had to empty out this massive disgusting grease trap. The first layer of muck was approximately a 2 inch deep coagulated mass of grease (yummy) that looked like it had been sitting there since 1970...we then proceeded (with gloved hands) to scoop out the rest of the scum filled water. It looked like (sorry to gross you out) very horrible diarrhea. Thankfully it didn't start to smell too horrible until we got to the bottom. Then we had to concentrate on breathing out of our mouths in order not to puke.

I included a couple pictures to document the nastiness for your veiwing pleasure!

Praise the Lord for adventures like this that turn into great stories and memories!

P.S. we finally got the problem figured out (partially...at least enough to slow down the flooding in the kitchen) just a few minutes before our first group returned from the showers.

Oh the things you do at YouthWorks...

Fun Times in Branson

Who knew Branson, MO could be a place I was excited to go. This past week I got to spend a little "vacation" with my fellow Mid- States AD's and RD down in the great state of Missouri. Some of our community contacts in St Louis allowed us to use their condo, free of charge, for a couple nights. What a blessing! It had an amazing view and beds that felt like you were sleeping on clouds! (This was the view from our balcony-Table Rock Lake)

We got to just hang out and relax in the midst of the craziness of the summer. We had good food (much of it made compliments of Zach's amazing wife, Ellen), shared some laughs, spent time processing the summer and praying together, and spent a day on a boat on Table Rock Lake.

Some of the highlights of the boat were: Diet Coke breaks, watching Jason and Zach compete for the best football grab while jumping off the boat, basking in the sun on the boat deck and in the water, cruisin through some of God's amazing creation.

We also got to play putt-putt. Heidi took home the trophy, much to the chagrin of the fellas! Apparently, Heid beats them at a lot of things down in the Birmingham office.

All in all an amazing time of rest, relaxation, rejuvenation and most importantly, fellowship with one another.

Thank you Lord for that amazing opportunity and for using it to refresh me.

Immeasurably More

IMMEASURABLY MORE

2 little words with such big meaning. 2 little words that seem so selfish to ask for and yet ridiculous not to ask for

IMMEASURABLY MORE

What the Lord does and longs for us everyday. The Gospels are full of these words. A man who wants his sins healed walks away on new legs. A man on a road to Damascus trapped in hatred that he can't even see receives a transformed life and a prominent place in the Bible.

immeasurably more

2 words that, without thinking about, you can pass right over in Ephesians 3, not realizing the power that is contained within them. Words that speak of things you can't even fathom or believe to be true. Words that speak of blessing far beyond what we deserve as people who are fallen and depraved. Words that speak volumes about the intense, never ending, gracious love that the Lord has for his children.

Jesus, may I never stop believing that you can do immeasurably more than all I can ask or imagine. This summer may you open my eyes (and the eyes of my staff) to these 2 small words. May we watch for you to do immeasurably more and when you do, may we give you all the praise and glory. "To Him be glory, in the church and in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen." Ephesians 3:21

July 4th-YouthWorks Style!

The 4th of July has come and gone. My Green Bay staff had a different kind of week this week. Instead of participants coming Sunday and leaving Friday they had participants come Sunday, leave Wednesday morning, and then another set come Wednesday night who will be leaving Saturday morning. Because of this interesting schedule we didn’t know if we would be able to catch any of the fireworks (since the nights when participants come is spent doing dinner, orientations, Club, and then church group time). Fortunately the parking lot of our housing site has a nice view of most of them so after we got through all the things that needed to happen that night we all gathered in the parking lot to watch the fireworks exploding over the trees. We were able to see most of them from that vantage point and it was an added bonus that we didn’t have to fight traffic to get home. The weather was perfect out and it was a nice treat to the end of a long day.

One of my staff said that watching the fireworks made her homesick. It made me pause a moment. After 7 years of doing this I have become very accustomed to either not seeing any fireworks, or to watching them with a group of about 70 people that I have just met. I forget that in "normal" life people are gathered with friends and family, usually for a whole day celebration, to celebrate the freedom that we have. My 4th of July friends and family have come to be my staff (my summer family) and the participants (new friends that we have met). How lucky I am each summer to welcome 16-24 new people into my "family" and each week during the summer 50-70 new people into my group of "friends." In a year or 2 I won't be doing this anymore (or maybe it will be 3-4 more...who knows!) and I will only be able to look back at all of the July 4ths that I spent all across the country...Rapid City, SD...Pine Ridge and Rosebud Indian Reservations, SD...Bayou la Batre, AL...Chattanooga, TN...Green Bay, WI...with fond memories. During the pause I thanked the Lord for His abundant blessings in the people and places I have encountered on the many July 4ths spent away from home.

(My roommates, who are the prayer partners to my Green Bay staff, sent some fun goodies to them in honor of the 4th so I included some pictures of us sporting the glow necklaces, the light up flag, and the Uncle Sam hat. Thanks ladies!)

(Picture 1(top row) Catherine (urban staff in Green Bay), me, and Aaron (program staff in Green Bay) and (bottome row) Arsenia (utility staff) and Karen (urban staff in Green Bay). The SD was nowhere to be found when we took the picture...sorry Noel! Picture 2 is me, Catherine, and Karen. Picture 3 is me sporting my American pride. We are all waering matching shirts because we had a new set of youth and adults come in that evening...it helps them to know who the staff are when we all match!)

Parker

Parker...just the name of my sweet nephew brings a smile to my face and joy to my heart. I got the amazing opportunity to have a short respite in the midst of a YouthWorks summer. One of those days was spent with this sweet little boy. A boy, who I am told, calls me almost daily from his toy cell phone and who immediately says my name when asked "Guess who is coming over?" or "Guess who is meeting us at grandma's house."

We took him to the park to play one evening so I just had to share this adorable shot of him at the top of the slide.

Looking at this picture I see the face of a little man...which is crazy because it feels like 6 months ago that we were visiting this month early baby in the hospital!

Thank you Lord for the gift of children and for the love and joy that they can bring!