retreat

This is where I was this weekend.

What a beautiful place to spend a weekend! High School group went on a retreat this weekend, and we went to a camp up in the mountains. The weather wasn't that great on the way up there, but as you can see, Saturday was gorgeous! This was free time - most everybody went canoeing or kayaking. It was fun to watch the kids gather out in the middle of the lake on their canoes - they called a "lake party". :)

I love a retreat. 

The opportunity to get away from regular life and retreat somewhere is wonderful. We retreated from all kinds of things. But most importantly we pushed on toward others. We studied the book of Ephesians, and spent time with God.We pondered what He wants us to do with our lives, and we prayed about it. That is an important question when you are in high school, but it's also an important question when you are a ways out of high school. Like me. :)

I am so blessed to be able to retreat, and to retreat with such a great bunch of high schoolers. 

I am grateful.

K

celebration

Yesterday I went to a wedding.

Actually, I got to play in the worship band. It was a great wedding. And not because I was there playing.

The bride and groom were both in youth group when they were in high school, so I was their youth leader. I've gone on several missions trips with them, and known them for several years and I consider them friends.

It was so great to see them stand up in front of friends and family and be wedded to each other.

But I really enjoyed the day. Not just the wedding, but the rest of it too.

The practice - the best man, and the pastor's wife and I were the worship band, so we got together to practice. It was fun getting to worship with them.

The rehearsal - hanging out with the pastor's wife, and the groom's mom, who I consider a great friend. Getting to see them all nervous, and READY to be married already!

The wedding - worshipping with a bunch of church family, and great friends. Being excited for the bride and groom as they start their journey together.

It was such a fun weekend. And such a blessing to be a little part of their story.
Congratulations Taylor and Lauren!
K :)

LIFE2013

Oh wow.

This week has been HUGE.
Every 3 years my church denomination puts on a huge youth conference. It's like summer camp on steroids. And not in the woods.

But is IS pretty stinkin' awesome. I just got back, and this year was no exception.

We were in St. Louis this year, and it was great! There were awesome speakers, a concert by LeCrae, different seminars every day, lots of great time with my youth group kids, and even some great time with other youth group kids.

One thing I really appreciate is that the content that they presented was deep. It was meaty. We sat through sessions twice a day, plus 2 seminars each day, and for everything I went to the content was right on and very full. No fluff here.

There was service - for 3 days, a group of 2000 kids went out into the city of St. Louis and worked. We cleaned out an old cemetery, we painted a ballpark, we carried trash out of several different places, and it was great. I think when kids throw their hearts into serving others, great things happen.

We talked about God's mission, and how God's mission becomes your purpose. When you are called of God, His mission becomes yours. And he calls you to do this in lots of different places. Sometimes He calls people to go overseas, but most of the time He calls you to do His mission right where you are.

We sang to a video about cranking a chainsaw?!?!?!?

We ghosted people. Well, I didn't ghost anyone, but I did get ghosted. :)

We spent time talking about things that are going on in my kids' lives, and how they respond to what God is doing.

We listened to each other talk about what God was telling them, and their response.

There were seminars on lots of different topics: Identity in the post-church generation, spiritual disciplines, missionary panel, Jesus and consumerism, how to choose a college, how to be a Christian artist in a non-Christian world, and so many more.

It was a great week, and I'm grateful to have gotten to go. I'm grateful that there wasn't any major drama. I'm grateful that we all made the 14 hour drive back.
K

countercultural

This weekend I went on a High School retreat up in the mountains.

No, I am not a High Schooler. :)

But I did hang out with High Schoolers all weekend. And that means I didn't get enough sleep. But now it's a week later and I've mostly recovered.

But the most striking thing about this weekend was something our speaker said. He said that we have to "live weak". He was talking about 1 Corinthians, where Paul talks about his "thorn in the flesh" and when he is weak, then he is strong.

Runks (our speaker) was talking about how we always try to live in our own strength, but really we need to be counter-cultural. We need to live weak.

Huh.

I never really thought about how often it means to live as a Jesus Follower means to be counter-cultural. And it struck me that unless you aim to be counter-cultural, you really are not any different than everyone else around you.

Counter-cultural.

Fitting in, being like everyone else, going with the flow - these are all things that go AGAINST us being counter-cultural. We need to go against the flow, not with it. We need to live weak. Because only then can God really work through us to accomplish much greater things than we can by ourselves.

Counter-cultural: my new favorite word.
K

rich

I am rich.

I realized this as I was writing thank you cards yesterday. I wrote a thank you card to each person that came to my birthday party. I really had a great time, and wanted to write thank yous to the people that threw the party, and the people that gave me gifts, so I thought, "What's a few more cards?"

As I was sitting there writing, I realized that I am so very rich.

Not in the conventional sense of the word - in fact in THAT sense I am pretty dang poor. As evidenced my my 11 year old beater-car. And several other things I can name that I occasionally am not happy with around my life. But in the "life" sense: I have a great life, and more specifically, I have great people in my life.

Today I went Glow Golfing. Not by myself, but with the 2 nephews. We glow golfed, and then played at the mall "playground", and then went out to lunch. And can I just say that it is amazing that I even got any food down in the midst of helping the little one with his burger, cleaning up the mess, and making repeated trips to the front for mustard and ketchup. But I realized, as I shuffled them off to the car to go home, that they make my life rich.

Last night I went to a hockey game. Now, really, I could care less about this hockey team. But it is the college here in town, they have a fairly good hockey program, and my parents have season tickets. They said they were going to take the boys, and I asked to go along. It was tons of fun - not so much for the hockey, but for having dinner and spending time with the 2 nephews and my parents. Things like this make my life rich.

Yesterday afternoon I met with a girl from Youth Group. She asked if I would "mentor" her. I said yes, but I have to confess that I feel pretty inadequate to be a good mentor. But I DO care about her a ton, and so we get together and talk about things in our life. Sometimes spiritual stuff, sometimes family stuff, sometimes other stuff. But even though I am only a so-so mentor, her friendship makes my life rich.

And I could go on and on. But I am thankful for the depth and richness that my life has because of who He has put in it. I only hope that I can honor that, and make the most of the life that I've been given.
K

thoughts on what is important

Last week I went on a trip with about 90 people from my church. We had done a VBS here 2 weeks prior, and in order to be a blessing to a new church plant in Kansas City, we took our VBS there and did it for their church kids and the kids in the neighborhood.

What a great week. Our team was fantastic, and flexible, and wonderful to live with for a week. Even in the heat.

Closing Craziness

Our awesome team

Amazing students working with kids that came to VBS

Me, leading one of the sessions

I a grateful for the students that gave a week of their summer and went. They did a fantastic job of doing ANYTHING that needed to be done. Of loving on those kids that came to VBS. Of not complaining about the heat. And did I mention it was HOT? The hottest day was Wednesday, where we topped out at 105 degrees and about 60% humidity. You know how when you are baking, and you open the oven door, and the heat hits you in the face like a frying pan? That's how it felt every time you walked out into the heat.

But the heat aside, it was a great trip. We had a great time with the kids that came, many of them not knowing anything about church or God at all. Our students loved on these kids, and had fun with these kids, and most importantly showed Jesus to these kids. It was awesome.

But in the midst of this amazing journey, we had a reality check from back home. The day we left was the day that a fire started up in the canyon to the west of our city. We heard about the fire, but it was mostly background to the great things happening at our VBS trip. Until Tuesday. Tuesday, June 26, 2012 was the day that the winds shifted to the west, and the fire rolled over the mountains down into the city. At the worst, 35,000 people were evacuated out of their homes, 349 homes were destroyed by fire, and 2 people were killed. Even now, 2 weeks later, the fire is only at 80% containment, and there are still firefighters up in the hills working to keep any hot spots down, and contain the northern fire lines.

While this was happening back here at home, our phones were "blowing up" with texts and pictures from friends, and facebook posts and pictures about the fire. We had messages from out of state friends asking if we were OK. We had facebook pictures of the fire and destruction. We were streaming news to find out what was actually happening. But the worst was that we had several students and adults on the trip that were in the evacuation zone. Their house and family was threatened while they were away and couldn't be near. Eventually, we had to shut off the news, because it was really freaking several of them out, looking at pictures of the fire that was coming dangerously close to their homes.

We had several very personal discussions about how we have to trust God, because there is nothing we can do about this from Kansas City. Ironically, Trust God was the theme of our VBS, and we quite literally lived that out during the week. We went over what the important things are: Your family is safe. Your pets are at a shelter. You are here and safe. Your parents have gotten the few important possessions out of the house. You MUST trust God at this point. But when you are 12 years old, and on one of your first missions trips away from home, that is a difficult thing to do while looking at pictures like those above and knowing your house is in the path of that fire.

This past week, I have come to the conclusion that my friend Diane said it best: It comes down to Faith, Family and Friends. Everything else is just "stuff". In the heart of the fire raging, I asked my parents go to my house and pick up a couple papers for me. My mom asked if I wanted her to take anything else, and my answer was like Diane's: no. It's all just stuff.

If I was here, I probably would have taken a couple things that have sentimental meaning for me, but in the end, all that is still just stuff.

The important things in life are the things that cannot be quantified on an insurance form. Family. Faith. Eternal work for God's kingdom. And relationships with friends.

Am I glad it took this literal trial by fire to cement these things in my heart? No.
Am I thankful that I am a changed person, and have a clear vision of what IS important in life? Absolutely.

And as a final note, I am SUPREMELY grateful to those firefighters that have fought this fire for the past 2 weeks, and continue to do so. There are not enough words to express our gratitude to you.

Thank you.
K

beef and cheese

Last weekend I was at the High School Winter Retreat. It was fantastic! I am SO not a high schooler anymore, but I got so much out of it, I might have a hard time articulating all of it. Shocker...

I want to start off with Chris' talk from Saturday night. Chris Simning was our speaker, and his website is here. You can read his bio if you want, but the short story (from my perspective) is that he woke up one morning when he was in 8th grade, and he couldn't hold his head up. He had a really rare musculo-skeletal disease that not many doctors knew much about. He spent 5 years getting worse, and was in a wheelchair by the time he was a Senior in High School. Eventually, God has given him some freedom,and now he can drive, walk, and do most things by himself.

But if you were to look at him, he looks like he has something like CP. he doesn't, but from a first glance, you wouldn't know that. And there's the rub. He has lived with this situation since he was in 8th grade, and as such his perspective on life is much different than most of ours.

Chris' talk on Saturday night was about what or who you put on your throne, instead of giving Jesus the rightful place there. He started off with a movie clip from Elf, where Will Farrell accuses a department store Santa of being fake - he KNOWS the real Santa, and this guy is not it. Will says he stinks. Will says he smells like beef and cheese. Will says he sits on a throne of lies.

Now this scene is funny, and still makes me laugh today. But Chris talked about how we put fake things on the throne of our life, and that should be Jesus' rightful place. This could be lots of things - activities, athletics, people, even Youth Group. but if Jesus is not on the throne, all these things are taking the rightful place that He should occupy.

God really used this to convict me that I do a good job of being "in Christ" during church, and during devotions, and on retreat, and even at Youth Group. But the rest of the time, I don't really live "in Christ".

I don't know why, but I felt convicted about the radio. About what I listen to in the radio in my car. Most all the time, I listen to the news or to talk radio. But I felt like God was calling me to be connected more closely to Him, and the radio is one way to do this.

So, for the past week, I have listened to Christian radio in the car. This is a pretty big deal, mostly because I don't like Christian radio. But I'm open.

And I will freely admit, it has made me more focused on God. It has helped me to pray more. It has helped me to talk to God more.

Not that news and politics are bad things, but this whole week I have felt the difference - I've felt more closely connected to God. So I am grateful that there is not one thing on the throne of my life that smells like beef and cheese, but that I have gotten closer to having only Jesus on that throne.

Here's to not smelling like beef and cheese.
K

intestines

Well.

I have SO much to say...

There is no way I can describe all the things that happened this weekend, so I think this will come in installments, like a loan or a mortgage. But better. :)

This weekend was High Altitude, which is our High School winter retreat at church.

There were 48 kids and 10 adults who went.

I am not positive, but I think the camp was at about 10,000 feet. So the name fits. My asthma was not happy, but everything else was!

Our speaker was Chris Simning, and I can't say enough about what an awesome speaker and man of God he is. More on this later.

I had about 9 hours of sleep the whole weekend, and might be getting too old to handle that very often...

Intestines were mentioned several times over the course of the weekend.

I refereed lots of games of Dodgeball, and lived to tell about it.

OK, the deal with intestines:
At family time (where just our youth group gets together and talks about the speaker and sessions), the subject came up about how God often works in weird ways. Like sometimes He will work in our lives through something we didn't even realize was happening, or those "coincidences" where someone we meet talks to us about the very thing we are struggling with.

I said that that was like intestines.

Bear with me.

God created intestines. Who would have EVER thought that making a tube-y thing super long, and then coiling it up in our abdominal cavity would be a great way to process waste. And if you stretched intestines out they would be ridiculously long, but all curled up they fit perfectly.

Who would have IMAGINED that as a great idea? But God did. Point: we cannot know what God has planned, or how He is going to work. His ways are not our ways. We can't know how He is going to bring people (or Youth Retreats) into our lives, and change us for the better.

I guess that the example didn't have to be about intestines, but we had talked about intestines on the drive up there (before the blizzard over Berthoud Pass - I didn't talk during that AT ALL.) so it seemed like a fitting analogy.

But really, have you ever thought about intestines? And how amazing they are? And I once knew someone who has Crohn's Disease, and she had some of her intestines removed and replaced with plastic. Wait, not on topic.

But really, God is amazing, and worked in the lives of our kids all weekend.

I'm grateful for this retreat. I'm grateful for our Youth Group kids and their realness. I'm grateful that we made the drive up there. I'm grateful for intestines.

More to come.
K

penance

Last night I had Taco Tuesday at my house.

Taco Tuesday is a night for High School girls from Youth group to hang out, eat dinner, talk, whatever. So last night I had 8 girls over, and it was a blast. Nothing big happened - we just ate and hung out and then watched a movie.

But sometime in there, one of the girls pulled my high school yearbook off the shelf, and started going through it, looking at the hairstyles.

Which was actually entertaining, because I graduated in 1990, so it was '80s hair all over the place. As I was in the kitchen doing stuff with dinner or dishes, I would hear talking, but then all of a sudden there would be a shriek and then dissolving to giggles, then comments like, "What were they thinking?" and "That hair is CRAZY!"

It was fun to listen to them, but I had the distinct feeling that this was my penance for showing old pictures of my parents from the '70s and laughing at them. :)

Here's to hairstyles from 20 years ago...
K

day 26 people

Whoa! It is November 26 already! How did the past month fly by so fast? This whole month I'm linking up with Dawn and being thankful.

Today I want to be thankful for the people that I've been blessed with.

This afternoon I taught a piano lesson, and it struck me how blessed I am to have so many great people in my life.

I have great piano students, wonderful staff that I work with at school, enjoyable students, a great church family, and a few really good friends.

I feel so thankful that so many of these people are such wonderful people, and that I truly enjoy them. I really had fun with my piano students today, and just thought how miserable it would be if you didn't like the people that you spend time with. My friend Jenn called earlier, and we had a great time talking about nothing in particular. But I thought then how awful life would be if you didn't have any friends that you enjoyed talking to and spending time with. Wednesday I took those awesome High Schoolers down to our service project with the Rescue Mission, and I had a GREAT time. Yes, we served, but we all came away saying how much fun we had. What a bummer that would be if you were doomed to spend time with people that you don't like?

I truly am blessed to have so many great people in my life. And I feel like my life is better because they are in it.
K

day 23 serving

Not only is this the month to be thankful, but TOMORROW is Thanksgiving! What a great time to give thanks for the blessings in our lives. My friend Dawn at theGoodlife is hosting 30 Thankful Days, and I'm thanking right along with her.

Today I am more than thankful for the 9 High School kids that went with me to serve at the Rescue Mission's Great Thanksgiving Dinner. These kids are awesome. They got up early, gave up most of a day off school, went downtown, and basically did whatever was asked of them.

2 of them were greeters - they stood at the door and smiled at everyone that came in. They greeted the guests warmly, and made sure they had a place to sit. They shook hands with the guests as they left, looked them in the eye and said "I'm glad you came. Have a great day".

2 of them were up on stage, helping the local TV news lady who was giving things away.They took pictures, helped in giving away the raffle items like sleeping bags, coats and blankets. They did whatever she asked them to do.

4 of them were in the children's area, and just played with the kids. They painted faces, gave piggy back rides, built towers of blocks, and all those kinds of things. Then as a couple kids were leaving, they grabbed up the kids and loved on them a little bit more before they left.

The other sponsor that went was designated as security, and he just walked around and made sure things didn't get out of hand anywhere. But I'm extra thankful for him, because he took a day off his real job to help make this happen. 

One of our Seniors and I cut and plated slices of pie. 2400 slices of pie, as best we can count. At one point, we couldn't plate pie fast enough to keep up with the demand. The Rescue Mission guy working next to me said "Are those people eating any food, or are they just eating pie? I think they just eating pie!" It was crazy.

But what I'm most thankful for is these kids' attitude. They hopped right in, and had a willing attitude to do whatever it took to make it work.

I'm so proud of them. And I'm proud to be a part of them. I'm proud to serve alongside them. I'm thankful that these kids are willing to serve.
K

day 21 bounty

Well.

Isn't it lovely to not wake up to an alarm??? That's not my thankfulness today - I'm just sayin'...

This is the month to be thankful, so I'm linking up with my friend Dawn all month to be thankful together.

Have you ever heard a prayer? Like on a TV show, or at someone's house? You know, the one that goes something like "Lord bless these gifts that we receive out of your bounty..."

Today I'm thankful for the bounty that He has given.

I know that sounds generic, but as I look all around, I see blessings that God has bestowed on me. A couple days ago I was thankful for my shower. That's one of them. Right now I am eating a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup, and I have a meal in the crock pot for tonight. That's another. Yesterday afternoon I was in my garage spray-painting some sticks that I'm going to use for a crafty project. That's 2 right there - the garage itself, and that I have money to even DO crafty projects. I even have a freezer in my garage to hold all of my bounty. And after I'm done eating, I'm going to go downstairs and load the dishwasher so I can lazily have clean dishes. How can I NOT see all the bounty around me?

I have SO MANY things to be thankful for, so today I am thankful for all those things. God had blessed me with a job I love, a warm house, a car that runs well, a garage to keep that car in so I don't have to scrape snow, a family that loves me and gets together on a regular basis, good friends, and so much more.

In two days, I'm taking a group of awesome High Schoolers down to the Rescue Mission's Great Thanksgiving Feast. The Mission is providing a free Thanksgiving meal to anyone who wants to come. There will also be clothing given away, an area for kids to play, hygiene kits for anyone who would like one, and other things given away like sleeping bags and blankets. One year they even gave away haircuts.

As I look around me at the bounty that I enjoy, I can't help but think about those who do not enjoy those same blessings. And I know that there are people who aren't technically homeless who don't enjoy a lot of my same bounty even though they have a roof over their head.

So today I'm thankful to God for all that He has given me, and I acknowledge that all good gifts come from Him.
K

day 7 in youth group

Today I want to be thankful for my fellow Youth Group sponsors. I have been working with the Youth at my church for about 7 years now. Like anything, I don't love it all the time, but most of the time it is great. Last night at youth group, we were playing a game of pictionary. In the middle of that chaos, I realized how much I enjoy hanging out with them. Yes, the kids. But also the other sponsors.

Even though a lot of things have changed in the past 7 years, there are 3 of us sponsors that have been there for that whole time. And even though we have had different youth pastors, I am so blessed to truly like each one of them and enjoy serving alongside them.

The kids grow up. They graduate. They go off to college. Yet, here we are. Still growing along with the kids we have now. Still taking advantage of our time together to learn more about Jesus and to be more like Him.

You'd think that I'd have an advantage, what with all the time I've spent in Youth Group. But, no. I'm still learning. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
K

Lincoln, Nebraska

Where has the summer gone???

This is the big news of the summer so far:
2 weeks ago, about 70 of us hopped in several identical 12-passenger vans and went to Lincoln, Nebraska. There is a baby church there, and our church here in the springs wanted to support them. So, we went and did our WHOLE Vacation Bible Experience (VBX) at their church. And, we had about 6 or 8 guys that did construction or repair work around their church while the rest of us did VBX.
It was really a great week.

There were about 140 kids total that came, and only about 25 or 30 of those are affiliated with their church in Lincoln, so the rest came from the neighborhoods and community centers around there. There were 50 kids that made a decision for Christ that week, so that in itself was worth the trip. My mom went, and helped with the cooking, and it was fun to have her there, even though we only saw each other about 5 minutes a day.

Painting

Getting ready for VBX

Construction on the ceiling of their Gym

Evening service with our group, me playing the drum

Group Picture!

I had a fantastic trip, and I'm glad we went. It was worth it to encourage the Lincoln church, and most of all to see lots of lives changed for Christ.

selfless-ness

In youth group, we are talking about serving, and how we can help others.

I really am touched by this, not only to see what God can do through a group of High Schoolers, but how much He is asking me "how are you serving others?"

Not to say that I thought High Schoolers are incapable of serving; I never thought this. I just never realized the extent that they would jump on board. I have really enjoyed serving with them (see previous post), and learning in the process.

Our next project is making hygiene kits to give to the Rescue Mission. These will go to homeless people in our community, and hopefully be of help to them.

Our small group just finished a babysitting night, to help out families with kids. We babysat the kids, and gave money to the parents to go out to dinner, or to go Christmas shopping. Even though it was "just babysitting", I had a good time. I think we all did!

Just goes to show that you're never too old to jump in and serve others.
Here's to having a servant's heart.
K

on thankfulness

I am so grateful for my life.

Here in town, the Springs Rescue Mission does just what it sounds like it does. Member of the association of Gospel Rescue Missions, they help people who need help. This help comes in many forms: evening meals every day that come after a brief church service, donations made available to people who need them just for asking,  a New Life men's program for men who commit to the recovery journey, job training for these men, and big free community meals for each holiday. Yesterday was the Great Thanksgiving Dinner. The mission rented out the city auditorium and put on a free Thanksgiving dinner for whoever wanted to eat. People were offered bibles, prayer, but also the most talked about, food. There was a child's area with games, and lots of people to serve.

Here are a couple of my awesome high schoolers that went with me and dished up food:

I'm not sure why Daniel looks like that...

And Stephen was snapping the turkey tongs - that's why they are blurry!

The 2 Ms: Megan and Michaela

and Zandy, cheerfully serving all day.

These kids went willingly, served cheerfully, and were a delight to be with all day. I am thankful for them.

I am so grateful that there are people and organizations that do this.

I'm grateful that there are people that donate to make this possible.

I'm grateful that there are people like my kids that willingly and cheerfully go and serve others.

I am SO grateful for my life, and that I'm not in a position to need the generosity of the Springs Rescue Mission. I feel that quote very deeply right now: "There but for the grace of God go I."

Here's to being grateful for the blessings in your life. As my pastor said on Sunday, "If there are any blessings in your life, it is because of The Blessor."

K

LIFE

So, here's the deal on LIFE. The church denomination I grew up in and go to now has a HUGE youth conference every three years, and it's called LIFE. I went twice when I was in High School, and it was awesome. The best quick description I could give you is that it's like church camp, but on steroids.

The main attractions for LIFE is that everything is awesome. The speakers, the worship leaders, the bands and concerts, the seminars, the things that are available in the activity center, and even the "services". They are actually called sessions, but most of the time it's like church. Fun stuff to start off, singing, special presentations, and speaker, all designed to speak to teens where they are. But, I will tell you that I am NOT a teen, and I loved every minute of it.

So, some examples of this awesomeness would be...

Speakers: Francis Chan, Derwin Gray, James Grout

Worship: Logan Martin Band. They are from Salem, OR, and if you haven't heard of them yet, you will soon. They were GREAT!

Special Presentations:Trace Bundy (guitarist), Bradley Hathaway (slam poet), Carlos Oscar (comedian), Danny Ray (illusionist), and lots more.

Bands: Hawk Nelson, Kutless, Proxy (hip-hop artist), Flynn Adam (DJ before each session)

If you want to know any more about these awesome people, you can check them out, but I just don't have the time to tell you about each one. I loved them, the kids loved them, and a good time was had by all. It all combined to make the sessions less like "church", and more like a fun get-together. Very entertaining.

The theme for the week was "collide", and all the speakers talked on this theme, and how it relates to us. The first day was on the collision that was creation - God spoke and everything we know came out of his mouth. He created eating! Francis Chan talked for several minutes about how weird eating is. But God chose to create eating, rather than creating us like trees, sucking up nutrients and water from the soil. This was all very vividly demonstrated with a Kit Kat bar!

The second day was the collision that was incarnation - Jesus' choice to become human and messy, and take on our sins. That Jesus came down to earth to live outwardly through us.

The third day we talked about the collision of our Faith with our lives, and what it means to live out our faith. James Grout talked from James 1, and basically said that we need to live out our faith - if there is no evidence of our faith in our day-to-day lives, then our religion is useless.

That really struck me - what evidence of my faith is there in my every day life?

Friday night was the Project night, and we got to choose from all of the concerts or performers. It was pretty cool, I thought, that there were so many choices. The Hawk Nelson concert was a big draw, but several of my kids went to different shows, like Danny Ray the illusionist, or Carlos Oscar the comedian.

Saturday, the last day was on the collision that is the church. James Grout talked from Luke 10, and reminded us that our "job" is to love God with everything we have. Often we get so busy doing the "work" of the church, that we forget to love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, etc. If we love God with everything we have, we will act as the church should act.

This morning, was pretty cool as well: there was a missionary parade, with Alliance missionaries carrying flags from all the countries where the Alliance has workers or a missionary presence.

Here's what it looked like from above:

Saturday night was the last meeting, and Jason, our "pastor" for the week gave us all glow sticks! It was pretty cool to see 6500 teens waving glow sticks. Here's a picture:

It just reminds us that in order to bring light to the world, Jesus had to be broken. Such as it is with a glow stick.

So, I haven't even touched on half of the things going on at LIFE, but I think you've got the idea. The most amazing part of this week was that God put a call on several of our kids' lives to go into the ministry. I am SO grateful that they were in a position where God could speak to them, and they listened.

Any time God can grab ahold of a teenager's life and change it for good, I'm all about that.

So, now LIFE is over, and until 2013 in St. Louis, I guess we will have to look back at the pictures and notes on the speakers, and continue to apply all that we've learned.

Thanks for reading, and here's to living out the collision in your life.

K

grow, connect, serve

I just had a fantastic weekend.

The High School group at church went on a winter retreat this weekend: High Altitude. It was GREAT!
We played: in the pool, dodge ball in the gym, card games, relay races, tubing run, and we duct taped several people to the wall. It was fun!

We ate: food was good at the camp, and one of our moms sent a TON of great snacks. We ate all weekend. The group that eats together, stays together...?

We worshiped: Jeff came up and led us in several great times of worship. It was perfect, to be able to sing and worship all together as a group.

We fellowshiped: several of us just sat around and made bracelets and talked.

We talked: our topic was Grow; Connect; Serve. Our new pastor come up and did our talks on Saturday. He talked about how important it is in you spiritual life to Grow - to be continually in the scriptures. To have a plan to do this, and to be faithful in it, otherwise your faith will founder. He talked about how important it is to connect with other believers - to have people you know and that know you. People that will support you, as well as call you on stuff. People to live life with and alongside. To have a plan to do this, otherwise your spiritual life will wither. He talked about how important it is to serve - to find people outside your usual circle of influence, find out what their needs are and meet them. Because in serving others, you have relationship. It was really good. Then, on Sunday, we all talked in a big group about how we can do this in real life after retreat is over.

We celebrated: my friend got a personal relationship with God this weekend. That was the MOST exciting part of the weekend. I'm super glad she came and that she opened her heart up to Jesus.

We loved: my friend Beth was there, and we got to spend time together and grow our friendship. I REALLY enjoy spending time with her.

We didn't sleep so much, but that's what tonight is for!

On the way to a nap,
K