Fire & Ice

Okay, so I should have this sappy, sweet post filled with all the things in my life that I'm grateful for. And I really do have so many blessings in my life. I do. But after a whole week with the youth group being on Fall Break and sleeping a total of 12 hours over a span of 3 days, my brain just can't go there. Let me tell you where my brain has been....

This is how we roll.

Or should I say got rolled.

Long story short- Bear and I have officially been welcomed to the youth group. Not that this comes as any surprise. We've personally elevated several others to this same status of yard decor in the past few months so it was really only a matter of time. But this story just isn't about the rolling. No. It's much more.

Bear had some fellas over Monday night. My night with the girls had been Saturday and honestly, I was still feelin' it. So I headed to bed at the early hour of 11:30 only to be awakened an hour later to someone bursting through my bedroom door.
    "Your girls are DEAD!"
It was Bear. And he was fired up.
     "What in the world?!" I said, from a dead sleep.
     "We just got tagged."

I went outside to see what appeared to be a white Thanksgiving. (Hence, the "Ice".)

  
  "Jonah's going to be pumped" was all I could get out.
     "No. You don't understand. They. are. DEAD." Bear was already plotting the sweet revenge in his head. I could see the gears turning.
     "Oh, no! My girls didn't do this. I don't know who it was but it wasn't my girls."

Then, I noticed something.

     "Um, Bear? What happened to our tree?"
     "That's not really anything," he said as his excited intensity seemed to all of a sudden die.
Come to find out, my husband tried to light the strands of toilet paper so that they would burn out of the tree branches and ended up......wait for it........

.....SETTING THE TREE ON FIRE!!!!!!! The flames, I've been told, were about 8' high. (There's the "Fire".)

The night didn't end there. The guys left to get the girls back (Roadkill in baby strollers. Nice.) and the girls came back to our house for Round 2. Several dozens of eggs, a few canisters of whip cream, and a whole jar of taco sauce later, the guys were needing showers pretty badly and the girls were taking pictures in my front yard.

The funny thing about all of this is that I love it. You can call me crazy all you want to but it's so worth it. I love being able to mentor these teens & point them straight back to Jesus when they need Him. I love being able to show them answers they crave right there in God's Word and make it relevant to their lives. I love being that safe place for them to confide in when it's too weird to talk to parents.  I just hope and pray that the Lord's got willing adults who love Him wholeheartedly to be there when Esther Grace & Jonah are at this stage. Because in all honesty, I think I'll be too tired. ;)

Camp Cost 2010

Camp was UNBELIEVEABLE! I don't know why I expected any less. Maybe because I remembered my days as a youth and the drama that accompanies teenage girls but this past week sort of made me want to go back to high school. At least college. That very well could be the sleep deprivation talking.

God did a work in the hearts of the teens there and I pray He continues as they return to the "real world" once school starts. It's so hard to live it out in the valley once you've been to the mountain, you know? But that's life. I'm just so thankful that we're allowed those mountain top experiences here on Earth. I think it prepares us for Heaven. Although, I'm not sure if God allows drums quite like the ones I heard. Wow. I may need subtitles for the rest of my life. Interestingly enough everytime the band kicked up the volume, Esther Grace fell asleep. I asked if they had a CD I could buy to play in her room at night. I don't think they knew I was serious. I'm not sure if it was just sensory overload or if the vibrating furniture lulled her to sleep. The jury's still out on that one. Either way, she dozed throughout morning services just fine.

The week produced several revelations for me and Bear, which I'll probably recount throughout my blogging later, but one quite unexpected was that of a future worship leader.

I'm telling you, he loved every. single. minute. The bad thing is that now he thinks that he's 17 and doesn't understand why he can't take the car out to pick up "his boys". Jonah may need a good detoxing after an entire week spent with teens. The good thing is he saw boys he adores freely worship our Lord and it was sweet. An example was set for him to love God unashamedly and boldly not just by his parents, who now rank on the cool factor but not for long, but by boys he tries so hard to emulate. I'm so glad we took our kids. It was hard. It was exhausting. It was so rewarding.

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?"

Mark 8:34-36

Getting My Feet Wet

Church today was awesome. Have you ever felt like everything was geared just for you? It's a shame that everyone had to be there today just on my account because that's exactly how I felt. Recently there have been a few changes in my life regarding God and my service for Him. I've been at home with the youngsters for as long as I can remember. I've always served in the Preschool department no matter where I've attended. I even taught the little ones when I had a real job! Well, God has decided that I'm done there and has moved me to the youth. At first, I thought He was crazy. But then again, some would say that there's not much difference between the preschoolers and the youth. Anyone who's the mother of a teenager will testify to that. In all actuality, God had some pretty big changes in store for our church's preschool and children's ministries. He knew that I would not be able to handle these changes well if I was fully entrenched in the ministries so He moved me out early for my own protection. Isn't He amazing?! It's just this week that I've seen His guidance come full circle and I'm pretty awed by His love for me.

Today all started during worship. We were singing "Come Thou Fount", which I love but Bear says I just like the hymns because I'm old. Anyways, the phrase "tune my heart to sing thy praise" got to me today. Maybe because our new worship leader has a pink clippy thing that tunes his guitar. I don't know. I do know that my mind instantly started doing that Google thing where it runs in a million different directions that all are connected somehow. Think "6 Degrees of Separation" on steroids. I thought that guitars are usually tuned by either clipping the strings or twisting the knobs on the neck. Pianos are tuned by twisting the strings also. When I played trumpet, I used a stopper plug thingy in the end of it to alter the sound. Either way, usually when an instrument's tuned, there's some kind of twisting, clipping, plugging, pushing, pulling stuff going on. Isn't that just what the Lord does to us? He gets us out of our comfort zone and twists us so He can work. Sometimes it even takes me putting a plug in it long enough for Him to speak. And when I'm tuned to where He wants me, it always results in praise.

This week is also YOUTH CAMP!!!!! Yes, I will be attending with both my babies and TEACHING a breakout session to the middle school and high school girls. Good grief! Can you say "freaked out"?! Did I mention that Bear may or may not be there the whole week? What in the world?!

Well, in preparation for camp we talked about Joshua and the Israelites. In order to enter the Promised Land, they had to cross a river. At flood stage. With a million people or so. Yeah, okay. In Joshua 3:1-4, God tells the people to follow the ark, which represented His Presence among them. "Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before" (Joshua 3:4). Um, okay God. Gotcha. I've been scared to death working with my group of girls. They are the sweetest things and so precious but it's just different and I've never been here before. Sound familiar? Okay, so He's got my back. But it's TOMORROW!!!!! I haven't even packed yet! And I'm taking my kids, Lord. Did You remember that or did You just think they could pack themselves? Then we got to verse 5: "Joshua told the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you". Yep. Just for me. So tonight, I'm consecrating myself. Washing myself clean from all anxiety and doubt and ready for the Lord to do amazing things.

I ask for you to please pray for....

1. Obviously safety traveling and throughout the week as the kids will be playing paintball, white water rafting, etc. (John 17:15)
2. That while teaching, the words coming out of my mouth will be His and not my own. (Isaiah 51:16) Bear's also teaching breakout sessions at the beginning of the week so please pray for Him as well.
3. A long-suffering patience with my children. (Proverbs 14:29)
4. Nap time or some semblance of it somewhere during our day so evening worship isn't a bust. (I mean for my kids but I'll probably need one before the week's over!) (Proverbs 3:24)
5. The kids will be receptive to the Spirit and boldly act in obedience to His convictions. (2 Corinthians 9:13)

I think that covers it. I could list a million things really quickly but this post is already long enough! I'll try to post some pictures from camp if I can. Thank ya'll and remember us! :)

"Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water's edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away...The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground." Joshua 3:15-17