will play for applications

just a fun way to sum up the last week or two...
a week ago i was staying up late and waking up early...all for the women's retreat...in light of things, i didn't have many repsonsibilities, but still had tons on my plate! before i knew it 130 women (including my mom) were on camp and the tears and hormones were escalated by "prizes for best urinal use"...so funny!
i got to help out with the praise and worship stuff which was by far the highlight of my weekend and unlike any experience i've ever had. i loved it. now that i've gotten my "rock star ego" out of the way, i'm hoping God will continue to present me with more opportunities like it
monday and outdoor ed came too quickly...along with a kid who fell through the ice (i've never run so fast in my entire existence)...no worries, he was okay. my adrenaline however, has never been so high! monday also brought an adventure into ft wayne to see becky who would be moving to connecticuit on wed. food, dessert, laughter, and cards...and i didn't get to bed til 3am. my alarm went off at 6am to begin the roadtrip adventure! valpo and cuc.
not gonna lie-valpo was a long day. but seeing kids genuinely excited about working at camp ignited that for me. and i got to see jen!
cuc=seeing lots of people i love and miss already...combined with an evening of sub T's and glow in the dark putt putt (thanks ben and kiki) and simply great opportunities to get to talk witk kiki!
thursday brought some less intense recruiting-and by then i was sick if the intro to the nloma promo video (i will call upon the Lord). we were throwing yo yos at people as the walked by and playing the 12 string which had a sign in it's case "will play for applications"...not certain we got any by that method...but i did get about 10 small children to stop and sing with me. it was the highlight of my trip. they were so precious and before i knew it, they were on their way...
add on some more hugs and a trip for chicago style pizza...a drive by of the navy pier and we were home to lutherhaven where we stopped to look at the stars and thank God for a safe journey.
now begins the process of praying over all the applications and seeing what happens next. both in their lives and in mine!

lansing-correctional facility?

today our chapel visit journeys took us out of the state for the first time...lansing, michigan.
our savior lutheran church was formerly located on w holmes road, which is where our directions led us.
the first time we drove past and celine said "i think that's it" but we kept going because there was no sign. after turning around several times, we decided to stop and see if it wasn't it, but the sign was just gone. we went in only to find a security guard and an x-ray belt/metal detector...is this "our savior?"...the obvious response was "no, they moved..." all the guard was able to tell us was that it was further down the road. we made our way in the right direction while calling for directions-only to find out that the 7000 addressed didn't necessarily exist between the 6000 addresses and 8000 addresses. after turning around at least 3 times again, we called to get a response of "oh! the numbers don't go in order!" ha. we scooted into our savior lutheran with mere minutes to spare. the little kid who i got to volunteer to eat an "abundance of cookies" wasn't hungry. haha. the bew building that the church and school are in is awe-inspiring and beautiful. it has wood carvings in the foyer and sanctuary that were hand crafted by congregation members alongside a mass series of breath-taking stain glass windows that tell 30+ different stories from the old/new testament. i only wish we could have had more time to take them in.
lastly, we saw the 1st graders preparing to lead chapel the next week. it was simply beautiful. the ride home entailed a stop at biggby coffee and a stop to buy 15 brooms at dollar general (if you've never checked out a mass quantity of brooms, you should try it!).

lutherhaven lady

last night i was at the monday night service at church. the good news is that my phone was practically dead. i had talked to a couple people on my way into town then called my dad and another friend while leaving. as i was walking out the door, my phone shut off, so i turned around to walk in, find an outlet, plug my phone in, and at least return the call to apologize for my phone dying. as i was walking down the hall i passed a girl who showed me a cup of peppers "look, it's a lot of peppers..." haha. i agreed. it was. then i hear, "hey, it's that lady from lutherhaven!" i just turned around and said "hi girls..." and after a slight pause "where do you know me from?" they told me i came to their school, so i aske which one...but as i asked, i realized we had only been to ONE ft wayne school for a chapel visit thus far. what are the odds, right? they said emmaus and i smiled, ended the conversation with them and carried on. but i kept thinking about it. the visit to emmaus, while great and grand, was crazy. it was actually an assembly and i spent the whole time setting up the sound/video stuff. i didn't interact with the kids hardly at all...celine did. i was just in the background setting things up. but they remembered. mmmm never underestimate the imprint you have on a kid's mind...
oh, and the best part...i wore a lakeview shirt to church last night. figures, right?

box of abundance

the past two days have been back to back chapel visits-both with 2hr delays-so much fun to experience the excitement of "delayed school" agian!
wednesday was an assembly at emmaus in ft wayne. while "waiting our turn" celine and i could hear the kids singing the tedaum le damus (sp?) and saying the morning prayer-so neat that some places haven't lost sight of the good ole lutheran traditions.
with those kids we had an assembly and took them through a "day of camp" where there was one kid gladly acted out polar bear, kissing the moose, capture the flag and other great things! we sang "so much" with the kids, and i think every one of the teachers was "thanking us" as we left since their kids were all still singing the songs! they got so excited about the actions-it was so fun

thursday was kendallville indiana-st. john church and school-where some of the camp kids actually go (guess who raised their hand when we asked if anybody had been to camp before...ha!). the chapel was set up so we were like rockstars...although we didn't use them, there were big speakers and drum sets, bass guitars and tambourines all around. celine each and i had our own mics and we had our guitars stands...i know it wasn't much, but i felt like a rock star. i'm fairly certain that the kids laughed at every single picture in the camp promo video, even if it wasn't a funny picture, and these kids were genuinely excited about camp!
our skit/message based off of john 10:10 (our summer theme verse) allowed me to pull 3 kids up and give them crayons, water, and cookies. just one of each the first time, several more the second time, and then an ABUNDANCE the 3rd time. more than they'd know what to do with...jut like God's love is abounding in our lives. all around, it was just a good time. i love the chapel visits and i'm so excited to do more and see more kids!
...rainbows next to sunshines on snowy days and whistle stop pizza helps too : )

may you find yourself abundantly blessed by God's love today

kokomo

january 7th 2008
marks the first of the many chapel visits to be made by celine and me in preparation for the summer!
i had some ideas of what to expect but in the end was amazed by it all
we loaded stuff in the van and i even did a "double check" to make sure we had everything important...we had everything EXCEPT my purse (including my cell phone that doesn't get reception at camp)
beginning with a prayer, we were on our way.
our journey took us all the way to kokomo, in.
we were to lead the chapel service for one of the lutheran elementary schools there.
i loved seeing all the little po-dunct places on the way, including one indiana town renowned for it's circus-ing training and shows...crazy!
the school and the kids were precious and the pastor was wonderfully welcoming.
when introducing us, the pastor said we were from camp lakeview, and i just laughed!
there were lots of little voices who struggled to read some of the bigger words on the hand out and tugged big time on my heart
i got an ABUNDANCE of crayons in a skit (loved hearing the kids laugh)
then there were the songs...so much (x13), Lord i lift Your name on high, and 2 songs id never sang/played before.
i even loved the times when i stopped playing guitar completely and just stood there wondering what was going on and what part of the song we were in. i even loved that...
the kids doing actions (even when they couldn't remember the words) was precious.
we showed my dvd of summer camp (proud moment, even if it still needs more work) and it was so fun to hear the kids laugh and gasp at pictures. they also had great questions about camp!
another part i loved was simply being in kokomo. we tried to take the "scenic route" to downtown kokomo and find somewhere authentic to eat lunch-ned's pub. celine and i loved it-dark dreary light, shuffleboard, beer wallpaper...duh. and great burgers! i loved getting to see a new place and experience something new...reminded me of how much i loved to travel.
we decided to take pictures and document the chapel season-since we were unprepared, celine took a picture of the kokomo water tower with her cell phone...as we left lunch all i could say was "doesn't FEEL like kokomo!" too bad we really can't do chapel visits in the carribbean!

the only downfall to it all is that i didn't have my phone and all my new dawn friends were leaving for asia the next day. when i went to town (unplanned) this evening, i had a plethora of messages that broke my heart "i thought i'd catch you...i'll keep trying" and similiar repeats of those messages...i also had messages on my computer only edifying that i'd missed another chance to talk...just reminds me i need to have more faith in the prayers im sending up for all of them.

anticipation

girls at new year's

new year's

tim getting his desk as a present from brianne, laura, and i

above: my dad playing rock band with the kids below: my cousin jessica with the elves

i was looking so forward to this break...my first break from life, not from classes. it wasn't 4 weeks long, but a mere week. it was perfect. i knew i needed it and i was looking forward to it in incredible ways. i got to:

-spend 6hrs and 40min driving to indy (yay ice storms)

-drive back to decatur less than 24hrs later

-spend christmas eve at my uncles' house and see my cousin jessica dress up as santa

-wake up christmas morning to mimosas and spend the day watching "white christmas" 3 times with an 85yr old woman who is probably living her last christmas but will have no recollection of it because of her alzheimers.

-a random short term reunion with matt and sarah-time i now realize that we wouldn't have had for just the 3 of us if we hadn't squeezed it in. we played games with cathy and watched white christmas (again!?) and saw a spectacular light show. we even used the ready-made mixer! neither sarah nor i cried-which matt was quick to point out. it was good to be reunited and pray together.

-have a much more low key christmas than years past-the presents are less and despite the tears and accidental words, it was worth it.

-spend christmas at my dad's house with no presents at all...just a day filled of wii and rock band and good food-it was non-stop fun.

-dad's side of the family christmas-seeing my family, although they are each struggling through different things, yet got to be sarcasticaly blunt with each of them (and then try to tame my tongue for later!)

-spend a night catching up with sarah before we were both consumed by reunions and more family business

-kidnap brianne from the airport : )...we tried to take her to coldstone, but apparently, it's not open at 10am.

-random reunion at taco bell...yay for spilling an entire cup of water in sarah's purse...and i was only trying to pray!...but ended up causing a major scene at taco bell-one of the other customers told me i was having WAY too much fun. woops.

-lakeview reunion...complete with the mustard yellow dress, wrapping tim's posessions (and his entire desk), many many hugs, broken couches, great white elephant gifts, the couch game, more than an entire octave of "i will call upon the Lord," falling asleep in a love nest watching elf, GREAT photo documentation of everything, and goodbyes that were too hard to think about or say

-a return to lutherhaven which entailed preparation for the greatest new year's i could have asked for, my first official visitor (my twin!), and a youth group that came in on charter buses and had giant inflatible balls to walk around inside of, 4-square courts, and the ability to remember my name and randomly greet me in passing : )

-the best new year's ever...stuffed shells, funfetti cake, franc and corban, euchre, apples to apples, stupid shows on tv, a full love couch, welch's grape juice in plastic champagne flutes, and more love from friends than the tan cabin had ever seen.

-the hardest goodbye i think i'll ever make. 3 of the best friends i could ask for. they are in the top 5 of my lifetime. and they are all gone now. the anticipation almost killed me, and now the goodbye has done the same. as they left, i was gently reminded amidst my tears (i'll be honest-i cried) that each of them has a calling from God in their lives that they cannont fulfill if i don't let them go. i know God's got a firm grip on them and on our friendships and that they won't go anywhere that my prayers cannot follow.

so until i get to see them again, the anticipation will start to grow all over again.