Fellowship

I am so thankful for people--more specifically for true fellowship. Tonight was one of those nights at youth group where everything went crazy beforehand, and just when I thought I had stabilized, the kids showed up and everything went beyond crazy. It wasn't the greatest night. I lost my patience. I lacked love. I found myself unable to see the kids the way God sees them. If I had come home to an empty apartment, I know just what would have happened: I would have put on my mix CD with songs for hurting and healing, turned off the lights and curled up on the couch with my face pressed against it and cried--probably until I fell asleep clinging to the back of the couch.

My melancholy plans for the evening were thwarted by my friend Jessica's simple request at the end of youth group, "Can I come over afterward and pray?" Ah, what an idea! Of course, my tear-stained evening would have included prayers, but they would have been the borderline accusatory prayers that come when I'm exhausted and at the end of my rope, uncertain what to do and feeling all alone. Instead, Jessica came over and we debriefed for a couple hours, and then just prayed (along with my roommate Nikki, who had come home by then). There was something so beautiful about our fellowship tonight. Sharing frustrations, heartache, disallusionment, hopes, goals, insights, and then in the end coming humbly before God confessing our inadequacies and entrusting to him the hearts of the students we serve. Now I have peace. I don't feel great, or enlightened, just at peace.

And I am so thankful for the godly women whose friendships have enriched my life and whose hearts have both inspired and challenged me. God has been so good to bless me with wonderful friends.

B-I-G NEWS!!!

Hi everyone!

So...pretty big news. It's looking promising that I will finally get to be an auntie! Trisha & Mark are in the process of trying to adopt their two-year-old nephew, Gavin. Yesterday Gavin's mother signed the papers releasing parental rights. His father has indicated that he is willing to do the same, although he is currently out of the country. Anyway, this is very exciting news for Mark and Trisha who are eagerly rearranging their lives and schedules to become parents! It's also exciting news for me, as I have been hoping for someone to spoil for quite some time now!

The other exciting news is...my little sister is getting married! Bethany is now officially engaged to be married to Chris Storlie (Sorry, Chris for posting your name on MySpace.). They haven't yet settled on a date for the wedding, but I'm guessing it will be in the first few months of 2007. This is exciting two-fold as well! (1) We are all extremely happy for the young couple, they are both so awesome! (2) I get to help coordinate the wedding details, which will hopefully relieve stress from Bethy as well as be fun for me! (For some reason, I like all that planning stuff.)

Well...nothing really is going on in MY life, so to speak. But I'm pretty stoked for my siblings, whose lives seem to be growing in enrichment by leaps and bounds!

Ping Pong Faithfulness

Each Wednesday I meet with Eric to talk about youth group stuff. Today we were talking about what sorts of activities we could include at our all-nighter that would be boy-friendly. Eric mentioned how he thought it would be really cool to get a ping pong table for the church. "Yeah," I agreed, "but I don't think we have room in our budget for that." I was at my desk, so I decided to check craigslist real quick, and guess what!? There was a ping pong table that had been listed last night! It was just the table top, but it was going for $10 and we figured we could set it on top of a table at church and buy a net and some paddles for it. I called and the woman said it was still there, so we tromped off to pick up my parents' van so we could haul the tabletop. On the way I was thinking how cool it was that just when we were thinking of buying one, someone had listed one so cheap. Sometimes I laugh when I think people "overspiritualize" things. But I'm afraid that sometimes I "underspiritualize" and neglect to give God credit for being faithful in bringing about small blessings in the details of our lives.

Lest I somehow doubt God's role in providing the ping pong table, when we got there I told them how excited I was to get a table for our youth group and they decided to give it to us for free! As we're pulling out of the driveway, they flagged us back down and handed us a net and two paddles that they had found under a pile of stuff in the garage! Then, we get back to the church, and just happened to stumble across more paddles! LOL. It was crazy the way that in a period of an hour and a half, God gave us a free ping pong table, complete with net and paddles! He is so faithful to bless us--even in the silly little details of our lives--and I'm determined to give him the credit for his provision.

Valuable

Not terribly profound. But the other day I was reading in Luke 12, where Jesus points out that the ravens don't sow or reap, but God provides for them. Then he says the most beautiful thing: "How much more valuable you are than birds!" Even with my selfishness and my pride, even seeing my past mistakes as well as the ones I've yet to make, despite the ugliness of my heart...the God who designed me, loved me and died for me calls me into relationship with him. Wow. And being precious to the Creator & King of all--that makes me highly valuable.

And so are you. Okay, so you probably already knew all this, but on a week when I felt especially undesirable it made me glow a little to know that I, plain ol' Kristi, am valuable to God.

Gluelympics 2006

Today we had our Gluelympics event! We had a couple new students which is exciting. And a whole bunch of our incoming 6th graders came and had a blast. It was seriously a lot of fun. We had crazy competitions in track and field events, team competition events and water events. Perhaps my favorite of the day was the "Turkeyput" (like shotput only with a raw 11.5 lb turkey!). Sorry...I wish I had more pictures to show, but I was too busy most of the time to turn on the camera.

Join me in thanking the Lord for gorgeous 77 degree weather, for an injury free afternoon and for the kids having fun together! I need to get to bed now, I'm teaching Sunday School tomorrow. But I just wanted to post up these pics from today. The flags were so cool! And the winning team receive a beautiful golden cup (sorry, no pics of it--but it was awesome!).

The Ministry Roller-Coaster

We're in the midst of preparing for our school-year kickoff for Glue (our youth group). We took the last three weeks off of youth group, and due to camping trips, etc., I hadn't seen some of the kids for a while. But yesterday and today I saw a lot of them, and it was a great example of the roller coaster that is youth ministry.

Yesterday the rollercoaster plummetted downward. At 11:00 AM I caught some kids smoking behind the church. At 12:00 PM one of my students shared with me about a drinking binge last week that ended with a trip to the hospital due to possible alcohol poisoning. But it was at 1:00 PM that the cops, fire truck and paramedics showed up. One of the students had been involved in a domestic dispute (thank God for divine protection--no one needed to go to the hospital). Yesterday left me on my face before God begging him to protect these students and to preserve them and draw them into close fellowship with himself.

Today the rollercoaster soared skyward. I took three of the core students with leadership abilities out to lunch to talk about ideas for the upcoming year. Among other things, they told me they wanted to (1) memorize more verses and hold one another accountable to applying them to their lives, (2) be involved in consistent service projects, and (3) perhaps go on a mission trip. Then one of them said that before they went on a mission trip, she thought that they should "practice" by hosting a student-led 5-day Bible club in a local neighborhood where the students would plan the games and teach the lessons. I was so encouraged! They also agreed to take on some responsibilities at the weekly meetings, which will help them grow and gain a greater sense of ownership of the youth group. My heart can't stop grinning (if hearts can grin). Today left me raising my hands to the Lord and thanking him for working in the lives of these young people, and for giving me the privilege of serving them.

Jr. High Girls Camp 2006!!!

It's all over. We spent months and months planning and praying and preparing, and in one [relatively] short week, it was over!

It was a hard week--especially the first few days. There was actually a lot of controversy over the Hot Topics (our evening chapels were dedicated to addressing things like Friends & Gossip, Depression & Suicide, Media, Relationships, Beauty & Body Image). People wondered if the girls were too young or the topics too deep, if the presenters were experienced enough, if the counselors were old enough to handle tough questions, if the camp was sufficiently equipped to provide assistance to any girls who needed serious help. By the end of the first couple days, I was so nervous I had a giant knot in my stomach. But Amber and I felt that the Lord was leading us to address the tough issues directly, so we pushed on.

And I am so glad that we did! At the Friday campfire girl after girl shared about how they had been challenged and encouraged by the Hot Topics. It was such a blessing! I'm so glad we followed God's leading instead of giving up when things got difficult.

Anyway, I'm home now. I'm going through camp-withdrawl. My apartment seems so empty and lonely this week. But Amber & Andrew have been kind enough to frequently include me in their family activities. So I'm okay. :-) Plus I have Jesus, so I'm really okay.

Thank you, Lord for an awesome week. You worked things together that we could never have done. Help the girls to continue to grow and seek you throughout the year. Amen.