Amazing Things

(youth group at Acquire the Fire)

Wow! So it's been a long time since I've posted anything. Didn't mean to keep it all to myself!

The last month has been super-ooper busy, but I've been getting through (especially with the blessing of girl scout cookies.....).

Acquire the Fire was awesome. (Youth rally in Kansas City) We woke up to snow (after sleeping for 5 hours on the church floor). It was beautiful, but intense to drive through all the slush. I was driving the 15 passenger van with the entire senior high group and a youth mom was following with her mini-van. I slid through a red light on the way to the big arena Saturday morning. 

The small lesson with no casualties was a blessing in disguise because the freeway driving was a lot worse. But God got us up the hill safely (I was praying out loud the entire time!) and we made it to the arena all in one piece. Walkie-talkies are wonderful inventions and I highly recommend them to anyone traveling. They are better than cell phones because you can 

have short instructions or give short instructions without needing to hold it to your ear for a response. Very smart.

The speakers were amazing. The music was 

wonderful. (unhindered is annointed!!) 

and the kids had powerful messages presented to

 them in ways that I think hit home to them.

(2nd pic of the church we stayed at and the beautiful snow we got to drive in)

(3rd pic: cold youth after eating lunch in the van)

More mission fundraising coming up. I am learning SO much this year! I've never done fundraising before (that I can remember) and I've certainly not spearheaded any of it before now. The youth are having a great time filming themselves doing wacky things and interviewing people and other random things. (Attention, I think, they love attention) But eventually I think they'll figure out that it's not about them, but about others.

I'm meeting with a youth once a week now. It's interesting being in the other chair. I've yet to see how well it will all go, but we've met up twice now, and she's really seemed refreshed when we've been done talking. So long as I stay in step with the Spirit and rely upon Him to hold me up, I'm confident that our conversations will honor God. 

This morning, I gave a chapel to a group of young believers at a Christian high school. 

Tyler, Terry, Katelin, Amber, Kenzie, Chelsie, Nicki, Ben, Chris, Ryan, Tika, Carrie, Richard, Emily, Martha, and Rachel. With much laughter and wrong names, I finally got all of them right by the end of the hour. What great kids. I shared some stories with them that I never thought that I'd share, let alone use in a sermonette. Some were old (3rd grade) and some were pretty recent, but I think that the septic tank image is what will really stick in their brains. It is starting to amaze me just what I'm able to say now to youth. I guess that I'm so extreme in my desire to leave them with a lasting impression of what Christ does for us, anything that would do that that makes sense, I say out loud. (maybe the whole plunger idea has permeated my thinking....)

(picture of our youth group's "Plunger Art". We painted with plungers. It rocked!)

I've been teaching about sexual and spiritual purity this month to my youth group and haven't had large crowds for it, but the kids there are getting good input and are making sense of it, so I chalk it up to experience and I'm learning how to teach about it and the guinea pigs there are learning how to listen to me (some are so patient!) while I figure it out, so, all is good there.

Spring break is upon me and my community so there is an air of refreshment stirring, and I'm enjoying it's breeze right now as I write with the freedom of my remaining day off.

:)

Plungers and more

Here are some pictures of the successful plunger fundraiser that my youth group and I made together. I think that the kids had a good time and are enjoying the process of getting ready for this summer's adventure.

All I wanted for Valentine's Day was a bouquet of plungers! Those boys are too sweet.

A plunger picture is worth a thousand words.... Junior high boys are amazing..... Beware if they get a hold of a plunger!   :)

I made a bunch of videos for promoting our plunger sales. They are a riot. There really are a bunch of different ways that you can use a plunger! The congregation for the last two weeks has been assembling there own ideas for plunger uses. It's been so much fun seeing them participate with us and getting involved in having fun with the weird and crazy thing we're doing! 

The fundraiser was a big hit, too. We raised almost half of what we need for the mission trip!

The Lord has been and continues to be faithful to us in the youth group. 

Ups and Downs and Ups

Wow. I have had a full week. I'm leaving in the morning to fly to Seattle, WA to see my grandmother who has been in the hospital since Monday. She has been battling so many things from renal failure to pneumonia to heart attacks to sepsis in the blood to through the roof potassium levels which basically disconnected her ability to communicate, among other things.

I thought that she was going to die tonight. After a lot of prayers from countless people, I got a call late tonight from my mom that the doctors said that 'her death is not imminent'. What a relief. My parents are driving through an Idahoan snowstorm right now as I type trying to get to Washington, and all I could do was pray that they got there in time to say good-bye without the hope that I would arrived tomorrow before her passing. So now, again, I have some hope of her recovery. I desperately want her to get well again. I know that all will be well, whether or not she does, but there's so much more I want to talk with her about, to learn about from her, and just want more special moments with her. (how selfish of me. I treasure the moments and memories I have of the times spent with her. In fact I have been remembering all kinds of wonderful times that we've spent together. I can't remember every word spoken, but the kindness and the love are there. And that is what is important to me. I've always been more emotionally affected so my memories are less detailed, I think.)

I am so thankful for my church and my guitar students for their flexibility and support. and I am so thankful that I no longer work for wal-mart, because I would not be flying to see Nana in the morning if I still was there. God is faithful, all-powerful, Jehovah Jireh, my provider in all things, at all times, and every time.

The plunger project for my youth group's mission trip to Crownpoint, New Mexico! The youth sanded the plunger's handle at the new year's party (without really knowing why...). They did a great job at sanding them, too. The handles were very soft and smooth and fairly easy to wood burn.

          Here is the front and the back of the handle, attached to the plunger head.

I think the kids will have fun assembling these. I did, so if they don't I guess I can have fun assembling the plungers! :)

Missions Trips and the planning......

So I'm taking the youth of my church on a mission trip to Crownpoint, New Mexico! I have 4 adults committed to going with us and have to get the actual youths to sign up yet. I have been writing letters furiously, planning information breakfasts and trying to think of creative fundraisers to help get us there and back again.
I have never actually been on a missions trip before, let alone plan one for a group, but we're going through a mission trip organization, so at least I don't have to plan the actual mission itself. Whew!! I'm super excited about going. We'll be working on the homes of elderly people on a Navajo Reservation there, fixing things and installing running water and bathroom facilities! It sounds like an exciting challenge to me, and I think that the youth are going to be able to learn a lot through the whole process as well as be able to give a lot of themselves to these needful people.
So here is my best effort at being creative. If it works, I'll post a picture of what I manage to do.
Since we're going to be doing plumbing projects, I bought a couple of new plungers (the cheap red kind) and I'm planning on sanding the handle so that it is super smooth, then burning some words into it (like: St. Luke Youth Missions 2008) and then staining it with polyurethane to make it shiny. Then, if it works, I'll have the youth make these and sell them to people in the congregation and elsewhere as a fundraiser for our trip!
The missions organization is sending me a booklet of other ideas so hopefully we don't have to rely upon my crazy schemes.........
:) Here's to the plunger project! Cheers!

This is Marty Guild, my newest child, just kidding! I named it Marty, after all. I just liked the name. She has a beautiful rich and bright sound with deep low tones. Mmmmm. So nice! (the guitar in the background is not mine, I took this picture at the music store...)

One of these days I'll figure out how to post videos and I'll play something with Marty.

Merry Christmas!

My last month at Wal-Mart

I have been working at Wal-Mart for 4 years and 3 months almost to the day. I have worked from 11 pm to 7:30 am the entire time with the exception of the one week that I tried to work there during the day shift - that was such a drastic mistake I have never tried to do it again!

I have been blessed with that job and the and the friends that I have made. The people that I work with are some of the dearest people on the planet. They have beautiful flaws that I appreciate, and I'm so glad that they have endured my own. I will miss them quite a lot. It's hard to believe how much care a group of people can have for each other, and I'm so glad to have known that care from them and to have given back to them with that same commitment. 

After all this time there, I am ending my employment. My last day will be around the 15th of January. I am very sad to leave and I'm also excited to be leaving. I am not sure where else the Lord will be leading me, especially financially..., but I am trusting in Him to supply all of my needs.