and these are my thoughts...

2012-02-08T23:55:00.000-08:00

love this.

2012-01-05T20:36:00.001-08:00

2011-12-31T17:42:00.000-08:00

So my new years resolution for 2011 was to blog regularly, apparently I didn't quite keep that one (unless regularly means once). So I figured I'd send 2011 off with one final blog post...it seems like a proper thing to do. 2011 was a tough year for me, like really tough. But instead of doing a winey annoying post about all that I decided to say a few things that went well. So here it goes...
-I spent the first three days of 2011 in three different countries
-I made some amazing new friends and am in the process of learning how to be a good friend to them and all the new people God keeps putting in my life
-I finally have a home and got to unpack all my things
-I have two jobs that I absolutely love doing
-I work at a high school that loves Young Life and wants us there. We had our first club this month and I got to share the message of Jesus with my high school friends.
-I'm getting involved in a community that has a deep desire to see people fall in love with Jesus
-I've been able to see God start to heal brokenness in my family

Even in the midst of all the hard stuff this year it's been amazing to see how good God has been to me (see list above). I'm glad 2011 is over (and ending on a high note) and I can't wait to see what God has in store for 2012

2011-05-02T21:45:00.000-07:00

wanderlust. thats what ive been diagnosed with. and its a real bad case.

not sure yet if there's a cure.

ive been reading captivating. apparently every woman longs to be a part of a great adventure. i wonder if thats why im so desperate for one right now.

2010-10-27T00:56:00.000-07:00

things ive been thinking about tonight...
i dont think im very good at seeing the world how God sees it. but i want to be.
i wish i had more money so that i could give to more causes and i wish i had more time so i could serve in more ministries; God is doing amazing work in so many different places and i really want to be a part of all of them.
i want to empower kids to change the world. not just tell them they can, but teach them that they can.

2010-10-18T23:33:00.001-07:00

after nine years of walking with Jesus what im learning is that prayer really works. i feel like maybe ive learned this before, but i think i forgot. i dont think im going to elaborate other than to say God is doing really cool things around me and its fun to get to watch.

2010-10-09T11:27:00.001-07:00

we started a new blog for young life in the diablo valley to share what God is doing in our different ministries with anyone that wants to hear them, if youre one of those people you can check them out at
http://younglifediablovalley.blogspot.com/
the stories ive posted have san ramon in the title, but the other stories are really encouraging as well. check them out.

2010-09-28T10:02:00.000-07:00

this is long overdue...
i moved home. home being a weird word because i think i lost all sense of it after living away, but im hoping soon that this will start to feel like home again. life here is good, really good but it's still really hard. i miss europe like crazy...i miss my friends and i miss traveling. but life here really is good, i mean it. God has been so incredibly faithful to me. stepping out in faith and moving home even though i didnt have heath care, or a full time job or a home was scary as heck but God has provided (i still dont have heath care or a full time job, yay for fundraising, but God has taken care of my needs with every step). i keep waiting for the bomb to drop and for life to get miserable (they say moving home is harder than moving away) but it hasn't yet and ive just been kind of 'in awe' at how easy it all has been. especially young life, i dont feel like ive been trying that hard but God has just been bringing all the pieces together anyway and its really awesome. we have volunteers (a team of 10!), student leaders (seven from all different churches, we didnt even plan on having student leaders), homes to meet in, parents that help buy club supplies (because we have no money), local businesses that want to partner with us to help us raise our funds for camps, and we are a campus club so the volunteers and i get to hang out on campus every wednesday at lunch! while i would love to take credit for all (or even part) of that i can honestly say that all of those things had nothing to do with me. God hooked it up, but that's the kind of awesome God we serve.

2010-07-04T10:11:00.000-07:00

i move home in barely over a week (july 12th), i wish i was more excited. i think i will be after all of the goodbyes are over. on a happier note, we just got back from both weeks of beach break and they were great. especially middle school week. i got the opportunity on the trip to pray with a student (one that i talked about in my december-ish newsletter that wasnt interested in Jesus) as she gave her life to the Lord. and then the next morning i got to hear another beautiful confession of faith coming out of a middle school students mouth as she became a follower Jesus. it was beautiful. so many kids came to know Jesus during the middle school week...there were at least 10 from our group alone. and the cool thing is that they were all so pumped about it that on the 14 hour bus ride back there were so many middle school kids reading their Bibles and asking questions about their new faith. the two girls that i had the opportunity to pray with had their bible open and since they didnt know much about how to read it they had started in genesis. i walked up and saw them and suggested that they maybe read matthew and get to know Jesus a little first and then explained to them how the Bible isnt a book that you have to read front to back and its ok to skip around, i also explained what some of the different parts are about. a couple minutes later i walked back over to them and they were reading matthew out loud to each other, as i came up they had just read how Jesus was born of a virgin and were giggling over the word 'virgin.' middle school kids make me laugh.

2010-06-01T22:08:00.000-07:00

im a terrible blogger. so i'll hit the highlights. poland was great, hopefully if youre a donor you got my newsletter. after poland i had a week in germany and then i went to israel for a week. i had a couple days back and then headed to southern france. after france i was back in spangdahlem for like two days and then headed to a conference for work in southern germany where i was officially goodbyed (its a time when people get to share stories and thoughts with people that are leaving staff...kind of like a verbal yearbook). then after a couple days my friend caroline came in from tennessee for like five days or so and then i headed "home" to california for a week for lauren and tonys wedding which brings us to the present. sorry i have been such a terrible blogger but my life really has been crazy. on top of all of that ive also been fundraising for my new job and trying to finish well with friends and kids and life in germany. please pray for my transition, its a lot thats going on. and my life will continue to be crazy when i get back (we still have our high school and middle school outreach camp this month and then i move back to california july 12th).

sea of galilee

jerusalem from the mt of olives

hezekiah's tunnels

tel aviv market

making sombreros at club

human pinata

sheila on a zipline in andorra

carcassone, france

in the monte carlo in monaco (think james bond)

meghan and the inside of a sheep

thats all for now.

2010-04-09T01:01:00.001-07:00

even after living here for three years there are still things that i havent gotten used to. like the fact that this is our base's mission.

this is the welcome mat outside of our bowling alley. no joke.

on a different note we leave for poland tonight with the kiddos. i'm kind of dreading the bus ride (about 20 hours in a bus) but i'm really excited about the girls in my group, they are so fun. if you're the praying type pray for sleep on the bus ride, pray for good conversations with students. pray for the two girls in my group that dont know Jesus that they might come to understand what He did for them this week. pray for our students to come back with a bigger understanding of our God and the value of serving. also pray for unity and fun among our team and the other groups from around europe that will be in poland with us. thanks for praying.

2010-04-03T00:55:00.000-07:00

i have a good life. and a lot of fun things have been happening but i wish to share three of them (for now).

first, laura and alyssa came out to visit, they were only here for two nights but it was fun hanging out with them and adventuring around germany, france and luxembourg.

second, and this one is big, i bought a one way plane ticket for july 12th back to california. everything has been approved for me to come back and do young life in san ramon (!) so i'm now in the fundraising stage and assuming all the funds come in i will start august 1st (so if you are one of my current donors reading this start praying about if you want to continue your support after i leave germany and i will be contacting you personally in the next couple months). to answer the question that seems to be coming up about how i feel about all of this, my answer is that its bittersweet, i'm sad to leave my life, friends, and kids here but i'm so excited about the ministry in san ramon so ya, bittersweet.

third, for those of you that know meghan marell you might know that she is coming out here to be our summer intern, she gets in on wed and leaves july 12th with me. she will be here in time for our service project to poland and will leave after our beach break to italy. its good stuff. (and if youre the praying type pray for her time here and God would use her and teach her lots.)
thats it for now.

in trier with laura and alyssa

in metz, france

2010-03-22T17:15:00.001-07:00

ive been volunteering at the teen center (kids ages 9-18 can go there to hang out) and today i had a funny conversation with a 4th grader named jade. it went something like this:
jade: "are you married?"
me: "no"
jade: "good. i dont want to be married. i dont need a man and i dont want to deal with all that"
me: "thats very independent of you"
jade: "ya, but i still want kids so i'll adopt, cuz i dont want to deal with the whole pregnancy thing, and i dont want to do something gross with a boy"

it made me laugh. i wanted to tell her to write that in a journal and look at it in 10 years...but i didnt.

just wanted to share that little moment in my life with you all.

jade and me with our clay dogs we made.

2010-03-11T12:38:00.000-08:00

so i said that i'd keep y'all posted on what happened with soccer. i went to the coach on tuesday to see if it was just a misunderstanding and she told me that she really didnt want my help. i was pretty bummed but i know that its not because of anything i did (or didnt do). i'm trusting that God has a reason for that which makes it a little easier. so thats the update. kind of a bummer.
on a better note we had an open mic night on tuesday at club and it was really awesome, the kids did great. and then we showed a short lou giglio clip and i spoke about how God is a big God but He's also a God of details and design. i often wonder if kids really pay attention but tonight God let me have a bit of affirmation and while we were talking about something completely different one of the girls was like 'ya, God loves us so much He even put this cross shaped protein in us to help hold us together' it was cute. and i'm thankful for moments like that when God lets us see that He doesnt need us but still chooses to work through us.

middle school club

peeps baseball at the lock-in

mini golf at the lock-in

just starting to snow

joe during our battle for the most awkward dance move

samzies chapstick

"games with adam" (we had put games with adam on the schedule for the lock-in from 7-8am but adam was far too tired to run them so this became 'games with adam')

driving home the next morning

i legitimately spent a saturday night playing the game of life with some friends

open mic night

2010-03-04T02:47:00.000-08:00

i dont know whats wrong with me but i have not been sleeping at all recently. i think i have this tendency to get really excited about things and then not be able to sleep. but i am excited about a lot of things in my life right now. i'm excited about Jesus; God has been answering my prayers like crazy and ive been really enjoying time spent with Him. i'm excited about new friends and the boldness God has been giving me in relationships with old friends, i feel like ive really been learning how to be a friend recently. i'm excited (and a little nervous) about our lock-in on friday (pray that kids will come and not be sketchy). i'm excited about the kids coming on our poland trip. i'm excited about the fact that laura and alyssa are coming out to see me at the end of the month. i'm excited that meghan marell and rob calame are thinking/praying about coming out to be interns during the spring/summer-ish time. i'm excited that its been sunny for three days in a row. i'm excited about the next steps in my life and the fact that we have started the fundrasing process for young life at dougherty (oh hey, thats some new and big news for some of you...as of now i'm planning on coming back mid-july...yay! so thats the plan unless God changes it..but i'm pretty sure its His anyway).
but all of this excitement has equated to lack of sleep, which isnt good (especially with the lock-in coming up).

i really want to leave you with that as most of it is happy news but i do have a prayer request for those of you that like to pray about things...
for the last two years ive coached soccer at the high school, its my favorite part of everything that i do. (its 6 days a week with kids playing soccer, whats not to love?) but we got a new coach this year and i emailed her asking if i could help out again and she didnt seem real excited about having any help. so pray either that God would soften her heart to the possibility or that i wouldnt be too bummed about not helping out. i'll keep you all updated on how it turns out.

now some pictures:

rock climbing in ramstein

our knights at mideval club

jousting at mideval club

pumpkin gnocchi in balsanno del grappa, italy (where the liquor grappa comes from)

on our way to asiago, italy (where the cheese comes from)

these are for real baby foods

really big cheese wheel in asiago italy

up there with the grossest games ever...i was sick so i couldnt smell these but then all of a sudden it didnt matter that i couldnt smell, i could taste it. i almost puked.

thats all for today folks.

2010-02-18T15:38:00.000-08:00

God provided a car. might just be a temporary solution but i'm grateful for it.
i was invited by one of our student leaders to attend his swearing in ceremony as he enlisted into the navy today. it was interesting and really cool that he asked me to be a part of such a huge event. heres a picture, it's a little rough and not that exciting but i couldnt figure out how to post the video.
and one of my favorite pictures from club on tuesday

2010-02-17T02:50:00.001-08:00

i need a car. or i need someone with an extra car to let me borrow theirs. and this all needs to happen in the next 24 hours or i will not be able to get to base. please pray for this, or maybe for a solution i havent thought of yet. thanks.

2010-02-11T14:46:00.001-08:00

ive been feeling hopeful recently. and like i'm on the brink of something really good with God. i'm also pretty confident that my time in europe and with the military is coming to an end, i still don't know what's next but those are the parts that feel like the Lord has been revealing to me recently.

2010-02-06T08:45:00.000-08:00

i'm hoping that most of my blog readers know this by now (as most of you are my donors) but in case you dont (first i'm sorry for not getting the news to you sooner and second) i'm staying in germany. the plan as of now is to be in germany till july/august and then move somewhere new to take a higher position in young life as of summer. some of the places that have been thrown around are japan, south korea, delaware, colorado or san ramon. now normally i wouldnt be this honest in a blog (not that i lie to you all, its just normally not the place that feel is appropriate to share the deepest desires of my heart, however, i feel like i really need the prayer on this one) my greatest desire (concerning a young life placement) is and has always been to come "home" (seems silly saying that after my last post) but i want to come back to san ramon and start young life here. i have for quite sometime. the problem is the economy sucks. bad. and there is no money to hire me. and there hasn't been. and i thought God had closed that door, and i had a peace about that. but now that door is open again, not very wide...but open. and i dont know if God is telling me to walk through it or not. and this is where i need so much prayer as i just dont know if my heart can take it if that door closes again (i know i have to trust that God wont give me more than i can handle but its still hard). there is nothing i desire more than to be at the center of God's will for me but this keeps popping up, in my heart, in my prayers, in by head. but there are like a million obstacles, a lot of people have to say "yes" and even if that happens there is still no money so id have to raise it. and i trust that God can provide but it's a Lot of money.
so pray for me. pray for my heart, not that God would protect it but that my greatest desire would be for the things God has for me (be it san ramon or elsewhere). and if it's here (san ramon) pray that God would provide. i know He's bigger than money and bigger than the economy and that He provided for me to get to germany. but it's a lot of money so i feel like that necessitates a lot of prayer...and maybe some rich friends :).
thanks.

2010-02-05T19:25:00.000-08:00

today gary told me this:
"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him."
and i liked it.

ive also realized that i greatly lack a strong sense of home. which i guess is both frustrating and comforting (as are most things in my life). germany isnt home (sadly it never has been) but here (california) doesnt feel like home any more either. my friend erika said that the fact that no where really feels like "home" is just a good reminder that this really isnt our home, i sometimes struggle with cliche christian things like that but the more i think about it the more i'm comforted by the fact that i dont feel comfortable.

2010-01-24T04:34:00.000-08:00

i suck at blogging. here are some pics since my last post...

they guys after student leadership decided it would be fun to try to push a car up a hill at my house (strength training)

taking the middle schoolers to the trier christmas market (notice the creepy man in the back...he's not with our group)

at club beyonds tacky sweater party

when the movers came and took all of our stuff
my old neighborhood on moving day

snowboarding

singing christmas carols at the hospital (germans dont do that so they really enjoyed us doing that for them)

christmas eve, making snowmen at my new house

the road to base (trying to capture the feel of where i live)

new years in cologne

girls night with the high school kiddos

trains in bratislava

at a market in budapest (so gross!)

in budapest

at the thermal baths in budapest

in bratislava (slovakia)

playing in ikea

middle school club
louis and rachel at louis' return from deployment

metz, france

clubbin at club

you've now been updated...kinda

2009-12-05T04:37:00.000-08:00

morocco was great, so different than anywhere i had been. here are a few pictures...sorry its taken so long.

2009-11-24T16:06:00.000-08:00

i'm going to try to highlight a few of the more exciting things since my last post.

two weeks ago (ish) i went on a middle school retreat, we took 20 something kids from here and went to camp with over 100 middle school kids from around germany, it was kind of nuts.

pictured above is the group of girls that i had for the weekend. i took them because i like to have the toughest group at camp...and goodness they were. only moments after we'd got to camp they had picked a fight with a group of girls from another group...lets just say there was some serious name calling, but i was determined to not let Satan have them that easy so me and the leader of the other group had an intervention and for the most part it worked. we had a good time and we laughed a lot and i wish i could say that they all left loving Jesus...but they didnt. it's one of the greatest pains for me to walk with kids to the feet of Jesus and have them say 'no thanks.' but i trust that the Lord isnt done with these girls so Jesus and i will continue to pursue them in love for as long as the military keeps us in the same place. pray for us.

on a similar but different note this is cameron (right) and hayden (left). hayden is one of my favorite middle school boys (he's quite sarcastic which i think is why i like him) and cameron is one of our student leaders for high school (he's on our SALT team) and we brought him to be a leader on the middle school trip, he did amazing. like seriously, he was such a good leader. he told me that he thinks he wants to do something like this next year when he's at college. (and a fun fact about cameron: he's an amazing dancer and was in sierra's two step video...oh and for those of you vbc-ers he reminds me of jason hicks...like they are kind of the same person, just cameron is a little younger)

i had our SALT team (service and leadership training...aka student leaders) plan a club and they planned a club called 'fight club' i thought it was quite clever. above are a couple pictures from it.

on friday after chaperoning a middle school dance (it was right after school, how strange is that?) we had ice skating with the high school kids.

and then saturday i took the day off and played. it was great, we went to trier and played at a park, then drank tea from the third floor of my favorite tea shop in downtown and then later that night i went out country dancing with some friends.

and finally today was thanksgiving olympics at club

tomorrow (wed) i'm going to a thanksgiving dinner at the hospitality house with a bunch of other people and then super early thursday morning i leave for morocco for a couple days with some friends, should be fun but please pray for our safety.
hope you all have a joyful thanksgiving.

2009-11-12T13:12:00.000-08:00

so we had nerd night for club last tuesday and i couldnt pass up another good dressing up opportunity and i thought y'all might like to see a picture.

i shared about the woman caught in the act of adultery and tied in romans 6:23 and was really bold in telling kids that they are on one side or the other, its death or life. and pridefully it was a hard message to share, to make kids see that they headed towards hell or heaven, death or life is tough. so please be praying for our students and that God would be working on their hearts this week as they process that message. thanks.

2009-11-08T11:53:00.000-08:00

so there was this airmans ball on base here (a sudo-formal event) on friday and my friends and i decided it would be fun to get dressed crazy looking and go. here are a few of the pictures from it (they had a professional photographer taking pics).

2009-10-26T01:55:00.001-07:00

i just found out that there are actually a lot of you that do still read this so i will do my best to continue to update it regularly.
since my last post some fun things that have happened (i'll show you in pictures)...

we had a middle school rock climbing event

then the next day we had a high school drive in movie...parked cars on the the side of the chapel and project the movie cars on to the side of the building. (i talked about this in my last post.)

i went to a military court house wedding

i went to a gaming convention (its this huge deal here, its where they name board game of the year...like settlers of catan won one year...this year it was a game called dominion. but the convention was the strangest thing, there were so many people dressed up in their online character outfits and stuff. so weird.)

and after the convention we went to this awesome italian restaurant because it was simons birthday

there are tons of other things i could update on (like club and my crazy life) but thats all i have pictures for and pictures really are the best part.

2009-10-18T02:23:00.000-07:00

i recently had the opportunity to go to norway (oslo) and sweden (stockholm), both were great. oslo was a trip that lana (my recently returned roomie) decided to book super last minute because the tickets were crazy cheap, and stockholm was a girls trip that five of my friends and i have had planned for a while (four of them have deployed husbands). scandinavia is beautiful, i highly recommend checking out either of the cities.

oslo, norway

stockholm, sweden

on a totally different note, club is still going amazingly well (praise God!) we've been having over 50 kids for the past couple weeks and no longer fit in the space the chapel has given us (it's kind of an awesome problem to have). last night we had a dive in movie at the chapel (we parked cars in the parking lot facing the side of the building and projected the movie cars onto the side of the building), it was a lot of fun.

homecoming game

homecoming dance

another dance picture

tp-ing at slumber party club

pillow fight at slumber party club

one of my favorite pictures from super hero club

thats probably enough for now...you've been updated.

2009-09-27T23:31:00.000-07:00

last tuesday was pop n' go at high school club, we had so many new kids, it was awesome, and troy (one of our volunteers) did a great job of talking about the question "how can we know God is real?" it was a good night. thanks for your continued support and prayers.

2009-09-21T14:57:00.000-07:00

so last week we kicked off club with "get smashed with club beyond" where we dedicated an entire evening to smashing stuff. we started with smashing furniture, then a car, then we threw plates off the third floor of our building and finished with having kids smash their faces into cake in search of a two euro coin. it was a good night. we had like 40 kids there which is pretty crazy, i'm super stoked about all that God is going to do this year. then on thursday we had a squash fest with the middle school kids where we took regular games like ultimate frisbee and an egg toss and substituted in squash for the frisbee and egg. the highlight was probably a toss up between batting practice with squash and bobbing for squash, we had close to thirty kids there which is crazy because last semester we averaged 5-10 kids in the middle school group and we even had some volunteers (three! which is very unusual for middle school club). then friday we took a group of middle school kids to a wildpark which is basically where jurassic park meets the zoo meets a playground on crack. it was a lot of fun and one of the highlights for me was seeing one of our volunteers have her car chased by three llamas. i have such a strange life.
please continue to pray for the ministry here that kids could come and have fun and that truth would be boldly proclaimed.

2009-09-11T01:01:00.000-07:00

i'm not completely sure if its possible...but if it is, i think my head might literally explode from thinking too hard. i've been processing through a lot recently (mostly good stuff) and it's a bit overwhelming. on top of that i have to turn in my final papers for my theology class on monday, get things ready for a volunteer leaders dinner (also monday), plan out the logistics of our big kick off club (were smashing things and calling it 'get smashed with club beyond') which is on tuesday, plan out the club talk for tuesday, and have some conversations that i'm not exactly looking forward to.
please pray for me, i think i really need it right now.
on a different note, i had a really fun weekend last weekend with friends, followed by some really hard goodbyes this week. we are in another huge deployment cycle and a lot of my married friends have a husband that is leaving or has left already to go down range.
this life is so different from what was normal when i lived in california but most of the time i think i really like it.

2009-08-20T02:15:00.000-07:00

please pray for my lana (my roomie).
as some of you know shes deployed to afganistan and heres part of a recent email i received from her after i sent her an email asking what happened on her base (it was in the news) and how she was doing physically, emotionally and spiritually. (i did get her permission to share this and she asked for prayer also as the elections are happening in afganistan right now which makes it more dangerous)

heres the email...

I'm ok... a car bomb hit our main gate, killed 7, injured 91 and blew up my room. I was at work, outside when it hit. I didnt really have a clue what was going on. No Americans were killed. I feel for the families and people that were lost though. I cant imagine. These people have to live in fear every day of their lives. It just isnt fair.

Physically I'm good. :) Praise God.

Emotionally...not so much! I'm pretty much miserable. I'm just so ready for this nightmare to be over!!! I mean really, when does it stop.

Spiritually...God's good. I'm so thankful for all he's done. He's loved on me SO much and blessed me beyond anything I could possibly deserve.

I miss you. I cant wait to come back! Then I cant wait to get to AMERICA for good! I found out today that I'm going to Alabama. Again, not necessarily where I wanted to go but it's where God wants me. :)

Pray for me!

Lana

2009-08-15T08:29:00.001-07:00

so this last week has been filled with crazy amounts of time with kids. ive been meeting tons of new kids who are moving here and ive had to say some really hard goodbyes to kids that i love a lot. but here are some picture highlights from this last week.
shiv and morgan (morgan wrote in my last newsletter for those of you that get that) came over to paint and make brownies

gabby and aiesha playing settlers of catan with me (shortly after this picture i went to a dinner to say bye to aiesha)

so i was house sitting (teenager sitting) for brook and aaron (her brother) while thier parents were out of town and brook had a while ago asked if she and devynn (the other girl in the picture) could sleep over at my house and "sneak out" so this is us sneaking out at 1am to go to the park.

shiv and morgan came back over for frisbee golf and other adventures

morgan got her frisbee caught in the bush

but we got it out

taking pictures while youre driving is really safe (shiv was trying to be a creeper in the background and she did a fantastic job)

matt, one of several new kids i met this week, trying out the zipline in my town

2009-08-07T17:29:00.001-07:00

today...actually yesterday, was my birthday, well its still my birthday in california, i guess thats a benefit of living in europe, 33 hours of birthday...anyway, it was great. i felt extremely loved and it came at such a good time (im well aware that it comes the same time every year) because id just been kind of feeling disconnected with how much id been gone this summer. i had a group of friends come over and we grilled out, drank good wine, ate a lot of cake and played pictionary, it was really wonderful, especially since i had such low expectations for today.
perhaps one of the stranger things that happened was receiving this text from my cell phone company "Sehr geehrte Frau Wallace, T-Mobile sendet Ihnen die besten Gluckwunsche zu Ihrem Geburtstag"
basically, 'miss wallace t-mobile sends you best wishes on your birthday'.
i didnt know phone companies did that. so random.

simon and louis grilling out

louis and rachel with the cake they decorated for me

kim enjoying the frosting more than the rest of us

2009-07-22T23:59:00.001-07:00

i want to share two quotables with you.

first one.

we took some of our middle schoolers on a hike the other day and as we were hiking one of the girls (going into 7th) asked another (going into 6th) "are your parents rich?" and the girl (going into 6th) was like "ya, my parents are super rich, my mom was a realator before she had to move here, she made like 1,000 dollars a month"

next quotable.

i just got back from a week long conference in southern germany and i have two nights before my class starts here in heidelburg so i'm staying with the bryans (a family also on staff), they have two boys and the younger one is luke (i think he's six), luke was getting ready to leave for school in the morning and was impersonating an old person with a cane. i told him "dang youre so old" to which he responded "ya, i'm in college" .....apparently i'm really old.

2009-07-06T06:50:00.001-07:00

i really wish i had time to write more but i just wanted to say that beach break was good. high school week was a blast, i took some of my favorite high school kids with me so it was so fun getting to be with them as they heard the gospel message (several for the first time). then i flew home for four days to be in mandie and justins wedding which was great. and then i flew back to italy for middle school beach camp which was also a lot of fun. we brough three of our high school kids back to help as leaders for middle school week, two of them to be small group leaders and one that didnt know jesus just because we wanted her to hear the message again and the latter one totally came to know jesus on that trip. so awesome. it really was a great two weeks, even with all the crazy travel. i leave on wed to go play in a soccer tournament in england...i'm a little nervous because were playing like 8 games with no subs and a man down so we should be pretty tired. but i'm excited to get to know the girls on my team better and to play soccer. so ya, life is nuts...but i like it that way.

oh, and i started a new club beyond facebook, if youre interested in seeing pictures from our camps or clubs or hearing about what kinds of stuff we are doing week to week then check us out, just search for C.b. Bitburg.

2009-06-15T12:07:00.000-07:00

to my faithful blog readers,
i wanted to gift you with this:

2009-06-05T07:28:00.000-07:00

so apparently i'm a slacker and havent updated my blog in months.
sorry.
life has been crazy and i guess i just havent had time, or when i had time there were other things id rather be doing. but i said id do it this week so to be true to my word here it is.

for starters, in april we had our service project to poland, it was great. deej, tony and lauren clarkson were able to come out and join us for that and it was so great having them here. our kids loved them and they did a good job of loving our kids, it was fun to kind of see my two different lives meet up and how well it all fit together. we ended up taking 20 kids to poland (last year we took seven) for a week of serving while teaching esl, building benches and playing lots of soccer, it was a blast and God radically changed the lives of some of our students that week. we had two kids come to know the Lord for the first time (kirk and kayla, pray for them, they are strugging to work out their salvation and cling to Jesus in the midst of a lot of peer pressure) and thee kids who had walked away from their faith rededicate their lives to the Lord (chad, katie and derek, pray for them as well). it really was an amazing week.
then the morning after we got back from that tony and i were off to the airport with my friend roger (he runs the hospitality house and his wife is my mentor, sheila) to pick up the vbc crew. to be honest i was so exhausted from the 20 hour bus ride the day before that i was pretty out of it. it was fun seeing some familiar faces and getting to meet a lot of new people that i guess have started being around since ive been gone. they came in on a saturday and that day my volunteers and i shuttled them along with like 10 of our students to trier (the oldest city in germany to explore the town) it was pretty chill. then sunday vbc led an easter service at the hospitality house for about 60 people (its a lot of people to have in a house), people here were really encouraged by the drama and message. then i managed to get all 19 of them signed on to base and brought them to chapel with me for the evening service i attend, i think people were a little shocked to see 19 new people show up but it was fun to see vbc interacting with my community here. then monday and tuesday they did different work projects, half the crew was babysitting kids of parents with deployed spouses and the other half were doing work projects at roger and sheilas. what made that so fun is that some of our students here got their parents permission to skip school and spent the day working along side those doing work and roger and sheilas. on tuesday night we brought all the vbc people to our high school club (the ministry i run here) and ended up having 70 people up in the little room we meet in, it was crazy but a lot of fun to show everyone from home how much God has blessed the ministry here. then on wed we went to a tour of a pig farm (i guess we all narrowly missed swine flu) and then vbc left. i'm glad vbc came, i wish i wouldnt have been so tired the entire time (it was a lot of going at full pace especially coming right off of our big mission trip) my favorite part was just how well everyone interacted with one another and the connections that were made.
so the day after vbc left i got on a plane and went to italy to be a part of my friend jocelynns wedding. it was such a fun wedding, and in such a cool location (cinque terre, one of my favorite places in europe).
between the time getting back from the wedding and until i went home for chris and ashleys wedding my life was pretty much dominated by soccer (i coached at the high school) we had practice five days a week and games on saturday but i loved it. it really was the highlight of my day each day.
going home for chris and ashleys wedding was kind of a whirlwind. it was a lot of travel and i dont think my body handled it all that well as i got quite sick and although i was on enough pain meds to have a blast that night and make it through the wedding (it really was such a fun wedding), i spent the entire night afte the wedding puking. and was sick the rest of my time home, not so fun. but i loved getting to be with my family, especially my little sister. and really got things nailed down (Lord willing) for my move home in jan, and getting Young Life San Ramon Valley up and running (i'm stoked).
when i got back here i had like a week before i left for Rome which i spent coaching soccer and watching the girls play in euros (its the soccer tournament for all the military schools in europe).
Rome was fun minus losing my camera, fortunately my friend Brent had a lot of the same pictures i did so i was able to get his. it was the first time that i felt like i was able to stop going at a million miles an hour and i think i really needed that.
coming back from rome was good, soccer was over so i was able to focus on finishing out club and the school year well and finishing up my 6th out of the 7 classes i take as part of my intership.
our last club was this last tuesday, we had 48 kids which is more than we've ever had before (about a sixth of the school). i spoke about living out our faith and how we should look different from those around us. and then we went outside for some crazy messy games. it was so much fun, basically a giant food fight. it was such a fun way to end the school year.
now that club is over i'm just working on that 7th class (its a seminary class on theology) and trying to be present at all of the crazy senior activies (bacclauret, gratuation, monte carlo night, banquet, etc). i really love my job.
so thats my life. well the good parts at least.
there are tough things, lots of my friends have deployed in the last month, lots of people are gearing up to pcs (move), and my car died. but its hard to complain a lot when i see all the other ways the Lord has blessed me.
please keep praying for me, i need it more now than ever, i feel like God has really been showing me some tough things hidden deep in my heart that i didnt even were know there...but i'm clinging to Jesus and He's meeting me where i'm at.
life is good. God is good. and thats the update.

2009-03-26T14:03:00.000-07:00

i write this with mixed feelings, on the one hand i realize i'm incredibly blessed, even though my roomie has left i still have amazing friends, i love the kids that God has allowed me to spend time with, i love coaching soccer, ive had amazing travel experiences recently and ministry is going so well (we have like 35 kids coming to club each week...more than 10% of the school!)
but if i'm being honest its been a really tough week. really tough. i feel like ive been hit hard by external circumstances. hard things have happened with my family that makes me desperately wish i could be home. ive lost donors in our crappy economy. ive recently found out even more of my close friends will be deployed to places like afganistan and iraq. i miss my roomie. and the weather is miserable...cold, gloomy and raining or snowing.
but God is still good. and the cool thing is that i really believe that. i led worship yesterday for the hospitality house (where i go to study) and it wasnt even hard to worship because i know that God is still worthy of my worship. so i guess thats good.
but if you think of it please pray for me. its just really tough.

on a happier note here are some pictures from a couple weeks ago that i finally pulled off my camera. they are from training and soccer and london i think.

2009-02-27T00:25:00.000-08:00

life is really good.
minus the fact that my roomie is supposed to deploy in two weeks. ive been praying against it, but also for Gods will...but mostly that His will would be for her not to go. please join me in doing that, acutally pray that i'll have peace either way. but as of now shes going...but i still believe God could do something awesome and she wouldnt have to go.
heres some pictures from my last two weeks, they just further aid in my bragging about how good life is.

2009-02-12T00:48:00.000-08:00

club has been going so well.
here are five things ive really enjoyed since we started back up.
1. measuring my leg against deions arm (deion is 15 and six foot six) and having deions arm win.
2. having a student put a hole in the bucket of water that we were using to sink the pirate ships in at pirate club (they were using marbles to try to sink the opposing teams ships...sort of like cannon balls) and having the room start to fill with water while one of our adult volunteers tried to plug the hole with their fingers. i laughed so hard i was crying.
3. having all the adults bust into dance moves in the middle of a game when a backstreet boys song came on at club
4. when ronnie got lipstick all over his girlfriends teeth during a game (they were supposed to do apply lipstick to their partner but couldnt use their hands) and then seeing her smile after only they (ronnie and his girlfriend kristin) knew it was there; it was a fun suprise for the rest of us.
5. having our student leaders leading games, giving announcements, doing clotto, and running the powerpoint. its been really cool to see them take on leadership roles at club.

2009-01-31T23:25:00.000-08:00

i would update more but i find it overwhelming. honeslty life has been overwhelming. but in such a good way.
i had strayed from God to the point where i didnt even know how to fight for myself. but its comforting to know that we need only to be still and the Lord will fight for us (exodus 14). God knew what i needed and when i cried out He met me there. i love that about our God, He isnt going to pull something out of our tightly gripped hand but when we give it to him freely he is there to clean us up. God has been blessing my socks off since. there is so much more that i would love to share...but i have to get to mass.

2008-12-28T01:35:00.000-08:00

assuming nothing crazy happens with my flight, i will be home tomorrow. should be swell.

2008-12-18T04:47:00.000-08:00

i need to send out my news letters. its not that i dont appreciate my donors, cuz i really really do. its just that i hate paperwork. and folding and addressing and mailing letters is definately paperwork. but i know its important. and procrastinating isnt going to make it go by any faster.

this winter has kind of been a whrilwind. but a couple highlights from the last month...mostly ministry related.

1. we BOLDly proclaimed the message of Christ in club to over 50 kids that have come through out the semester (we average around 25+ per night)
2. i went to Berlin with some friends and had a blast (ok that one isnt ministry related)
3. we've been bringing tons of our non Jesus lovin friends to church with us (God keeps opening doors)
4. my favorite kids at bitburg high school came to club for the first time this last week (i want them to know Jesus so bad)
5. we have more kids signed up for service project than we took total people last year (we had 10 people last year)
6. ive been to five different christmas markets (its a fun euro thing...like christmas on crack)
7. i had a fun cookie baking day with some friends
8. i rediscovered a love for reading
9. i got four new documentaries in the mail and i'm having documentary filmfest with some of my high school friends this week
10. we had a day of sun this month (i'll take what i can get...even if it was still so cold that the snow didnt melt)

i leave in about a half hour to take some middle school kids to a christmas market in trier and then i'm going to the circus with some friends. life is silly.

i still hate the weather. but it feels lame to complain too much when life is really pretty good.

2008-12-05T23:27:00.000-08:00

winter sucks. i want to be home.

2008-11-21T01:05:00.001-08:00

i'm going to be slightly vulnerable with you. but not inappropriately so.

things here are really good, were having record numbers of kids coming to club, volunteers are really owning the ministry, i'm really enjoying my friends and my roomie, ive had amazing oppprtunites to travel, i love my mentor, etc etc and life is good.

but...

the weather really gets to me. its storming and cold and should be snowing tomorrow. i havent seen real sun in over a week. its dark till late morning and dark again by five pm, the hours of light are getting shorter and shorter. and even the day time is miserable, its just a gray fog...all the time. and while logically i know things are good, my body is having a hard time believing me. all i want to do is sleep. always. i have to struggle to get out of bed everyday. and i know life is good. really good. its just tough.

so please pray. i dont really know what to ask you to pray for. i would say for sun, but thats just not germanys style...so just pray that God would give me strength and wisdom in dealing with the weather and the darkness here. thanks.

on a happier note, i got to travel to greece with my mentor and her husband to watch some of our friends run the athens marathon. it was pretty incredible. heres a few of my favorite pics.

above is the bema in ancient corinth where paul stood trial.

2008-10-28T14:58:00.000-07:00

heres a lot of pictures. because thats what most people want to see.

2008-09-26T03:45:00.000-07:00

i feel like ive kind of abandoned the world of blogging. not intentionally...well maybe a little. its just that theres been a lot going on, and so the more days that pass the more i feel overwhelmed by sharing it with you all. on top of that i feel like blogger isnt quite the popular destination that it used to be so i often question if its even worth it to update. but here i am. i thought about writing all the things that are going on but i decided against it. but i want you all to know that life is good. not just good for here, or the best out of a bad situation, but truly good. ive had several nights over the last few weeks while sitting around with friends where i am able to mentally take a step back and just sit there and rejoice in the fact that i am truly happy. i'm well aware of the fact that life isnt about being happy, i think ive been though the worst year of my life this last year so if any one has the right to say that life isnt about being happy its me. but i'm learning more and more what paul was talking about when he spoke about learning to be content in any and every situation. but life is really good, not all the time (this week kind of sucked, ive been writing a final paper), but i've been really blessed, i have an amazing living situation with an awesome roomie, we get along amazingly well and will sit around for hours talking (i got pretend mad at her last night when i looked at my phone and realized it was 4am and were still talking after i told her i was going to bed at 1230). i finally have a mentor, she challenges me, pushes me and is honest with me, its refreshing. i have such a fun group of both chrisitan and non chrisitan friends that come over to our house on an almost nightly basis, to hang out, eat, talk or play ddr (yup, we have ddr...and we are getting rock band). i'm learning that church isnt about what i can get out of it but about gloriflying and praising God so chapel seems to have purpose again. i'm part of a ministry called the hopitality house that i attend on wednesday and friday nights for dinner and a bible study (my mentor and her husband lead it) and i am learning and growing with a group of people that i enjoy spending time with. i'm loving the kids that i have relationships with at all three schools (high school and two middle schools), ive finally gotten to the place where i know enough kids at all three schools that going to lunch is really fun. both our high school and middle school clubs are growing and new kids are coming each week. ive been running the high school club and half the time i'm terrified but its been good to be challenged in that way. i have an amazing team of volunteers that support me and really love jesus and kids. like i said life is good. thats not to say that sometimes things still dont suck...ive had to say bye to two of my best friends in the last week or so because the military has moved them away, i was recently in a kind of intense car accident (i want hurt...just the car), and there are still things about the military that are a constant struggle. but all that pales in significance when i look at the list above of the ways God has blessed me.

wow that is a lot. i'm impressed if you actually read that. ha. i guess i just felt like i needed to explain why i hadnt updated in so long. so there it is. all of it.

so how about some pictures that have been taken since my last post. i really have no intentions of explaining them so ya...here they are.

2008-08-21T00:20:00.000-07:00

life has been crazy but good.
the day after i got back we left for leadership camp which was a lot of fun. doing outreach ministry we dont always see that group unity in our clubs and trips and stuff, but on this trip because they all had Christ as a common bond they really bonded together as a group, it was cool to see.

on the night watchmans tour (it was an old walled city that used to have night watchmen)

i convinced joe it would be a good idea to jump into the fountain

the day after leadership camp we had middle school swimming, it was funny having seven middle school girls try to dunk me underwater rather unsuccessfully (they havent learned to go for the legs yet)

trying to dunk me while i took pictures

the day after swimming we took the high schoolers caving and rappelling in luxembourg. it was pretty intense (like boy scouts) but really fun. we went down this 70 foot cliff and even got to rappell into a cave (it felt like a movie...like national treasure or something)

yesterday i took two of the girls to cologne to hang out for awhile and then we picked up my friend stefanie from the airport. today stefanie and i are going to tour around here and then we leave for a week long apologetics class.
so like i said, life has been crazy since i got back but really good.

2008-08-14T11:25:00.000-07:00

it was sooo good being home. its crazy that its been a year, God has brought me a long way. as i start the process of figuring out whats next i'm excited. i feel like i truly am beginning to understand what it means to be content in any and every situation. i have no idea where i'll be in a year but i would love your prayers (even if they may be biased) as i seek the Lords direction, fortunately there isnt a lot of pressure to decide quickly...i still have like five or six months to make that decision.

being back in germany is normal. this is a strange analogy but i feel like i felt when i used to live part time with both parents, both places are home and both are comfortable but i kind of like one better than the other (ha, its true).

tomorrow we leave for leadership camp, should be pretty fun.

2008-08-04T12:50:00.001-07:00

its good to be home. but thats not what i want to talk about.
last night i was hanging out at my old house 4718. and spiz and kristin introduced me to this blog:

stuffchristianslike.blogspot.com

youre welcome.

2008-07-28T13:30:00.000-07:00

my bowling league ended tonight.
we won a dollar in prize money.
split six ways and id say we did pretty good.

tomorrow i leave for america.
pretty stoked that tomorrow i'll be home.

2008-07-12T07:28:00.000-07:00

soooo much to update on so i'm going to try to keep it brief (maybe it would help if i knew how to spell that)

middle school week was awesome. i had so much fun playing with kids, middle schoolers just play which made the week so much more fun than high school week, it was such a plesant suprize (i'm debating if thats a z or s...my english isnt so great anymore). we went snorkeling, cliff jumping, toured around and ate tons of gelato. i had the 6th and 7th grade girls, most of which i had never met but relationships formed deep and quick. we had tons of incredible conversations and on the last night two of the five girls gave their life to Jesus. it was amazing, and so not about me. two of the other girls rededicated their lives to Christ (i hate that term, i think they just relaized that Jesus is someone worth being serious about) and the other on already knew Christ. it was such a good week. one of the girls already moved to america but the other four are here for at least another year so that will be fun.

so i left the day after middle school week for ireland. ireland is amazing, second only to portugal in my heart. we went up to giants causeway (google it if you dont know what it is because it was one of the most amazing things ive seen) and then hung out in belfast. we also hung out in dublin, toured around in a water bus (part land tour, part water) roared at strangers with little kids, drank guinness at the storehouse and listened to live music on temple bar, pretty awesome.

the day after we got back from ireland we left for paris. i am not a fan. it might be because i was sick. might because its over rated but reguardless, i am not a fan. perhaps my favorite part was hanging out at the cavern and listening to this really fun band cover 90s songs part in english part in french. they had this really cool funky folk vibe going on.

two days after paris i was canoeing down the river that separates luxembourg from germany with some of our high school students. as i am temporarily running our club beyond ministry for the summer while we wait for sallys arrival in sept.

so thats whats going on with me. today zack taught me how to change my oil and as soon as i finish this i'm heading to john and shannons going away party. i leave for a week long conference in three days or so. then a week after that i am headed home for two weeks, which i couldnt be more excited about. it will be so nice to just chill.

2008-06-21T04:35:00.000-07:00

i got back from our high school italy outreach camp on thurs. it was super tiring but good.
i had three freshman and a junior (soon to be sophomores/senior) in my group. these girls literally had no background in the church at all, for example, they had never heard the story of adam and eve and didnt know about the apple or the serpent and that its how sin entered the world. they were pretty disinterested in the spiritual aspects of the trip which although we had fun made it one of the most challenging (spiritually) trips ive ever been on. although none of the girls came to know Christ at camp they did make significant steps towards on him. on the last day they were given 15 minutes of silence on the beach to talk to God and to think about what the speaker had been saying. when we met up as a group to talk about their 15 minutes i asked them how it went and what they were thinking about. one of the girls said "it just doesnt make sense apart from God, like even if we came from plants how did the first one get there." although they didnt walk away knowing Christ i feel like God was doing something significant in their hearts and that this was a huge step for them.
i leave tomorrow for middle school camp and if i'm being honest and a little vulnerable, i'm nervous. last week was so tiring spiritually and physically that i dont know if i'm ready to do it all again. and on top of that i will have six girls this time in my group most of which we've never met and have never done anything with club before. so pray for relationships to develop quickly and deeply, pray for fun, pray that God gives me supernatural energy. and pray that God would be moving and working in the hearts of the 20 (maybe 19 or 21) middle schoolers coming with us this week.

and a few pictures from last week:

(the last one is in switzerland, not italy, dont be confused...we stopped on the way back at this gorgeous rest stop in the alps)

2008-06-11T12:28:00.000-07:00

i leave for italy tomorrow. (for our outreach camp)
i wish i was a bit more excited than i am.
i think that once i get on the bus i'll be more excited.

pray for safety, fun, and that God would be drawing several of the kids back to himself this week.

2008-06-06T07:57:00.000-07:00

i wish i had creativity like this.
not exactly like this. i just wish i was more creative.

2008-06-02T14:58:00.001-07:00

i went to prom on saturday, it was tons of fun. the girls were suprised to see that i could do more than just awkward dance (we've had awkward dance offs before). towards the end i even went out and danced with the kids. it was great...

then after prom some of the kids came over and played on our trampoline. the girls are so great, one of them was like "all of our friends are out getting drunk and were here jumping on your trampoline," good times.

so the girls left our house at like 215am and because of the late night all of sunday i was completely dead, so the roomie and i decided to go for a sunday drive around our town and we found this cool road that kind of over looks it. so here is a picture from that. i really love my new house and my new roomie, both are fantastic.

and tonight i had bowling league, its a lot of fun. we finally got our shirts which i think are super funny (now all the other teams want shirts). basically my team is just really obnoxious (we even have fans) and we cheer and yell and have fun. the other teams are all really serious and dont really appriciate how much fun were having but o'well. its been fun becoming friends with some of the girls on the other teams. i'm excited about all the cool things God has going in my life right now.

2008-05-31T04:59:00.000-07:00

yesterday part of our base flooded. some of my friends had water in their dorm rooms and several families living in military housing had their basement and cars flooded. there is mud all over. it was just like a crazy flash storm in the middle of the night and the drains couldnt handle the amount of water coming down. its going to be some crazy clean up for the next few days. i'm glad that i moved because were pretty sure my old house got a couple of inches of water in it.
on a different note, prom is tonight. i've been helping the girls set up both last night and today. i'm planning to go as a chaperone tonight to see all the girls in their dresses (i even got invited to a bon fire after with all of them but i'm not to shure if i'll go). i'm pretty stoked about where i'm at with friendships with kids right now. its a lot of fun.

2008-05-29T04:35:00.000-07:00

soccer is over which is very sad.
i miss seeing the girls six days a week.

i'm sad that about 75% of the team is moving this summer.
i guess thats the military for ya.

i realised the other day that beach break is in like two weeks.
so crazy. join me in praying that several more kids sign up.

other than the crappy weather weve been having recently life is pretty good.

2008-05-21T11:45:00.000-07:00

i dont really know what to say so i decided to post a few recent pictures, soccer pretty much is my life so almost all of the pictures are from soccer or with soccer kids. goodness.

hanging out at the free edwin mccain concert they had on base

some of the jv team after their breakfast at burger king

me and the other coaches during our game at ramstein

some of the girls painting my office before bigger or better

2008-05-17T15:29:00.000-07:00

i gave blood the other day.
definately passed out when they took the needle out.
mildly embarassing.

today was the last game of the jv season (we still have another week of varsity), i'm pretty sad i wont be seeing the girls six days a week anymore. the good news is that some of them are going to start coming to club, and might even come on beach break.

thats all the thrilling news i have for now. life is pretty normal.

2008-05-13T04:08:00.000-07:00

my bowling league started yesterday.
yup, you read that right.
we had this meeting before and it was super funny, there were teams that were really into it, they were fighting about things like how many people should be on a team and how long it should last and what was allowed in the pit (the part where you have to wear bowling shoes), it was great. my team is just some of my friends that thought it would be funny to be on a bowling league so we were super obnoxious. were even having shirts made (they say 'bowling doesnt impress girls). the league is a no-tap league which means that guys only have to knock down nine pins to get a strike and girls only have to get eight. because knocking eight pins down isnt that hard i bowled a 209. i know, youre impressed.
bowling is so nerdy. i love it.

2008-05-07T05:40:00.000-07:00

moving isnt fun. its like packing but longer, and packing sucks.
sitting through a chapel staff meeting after drinking lots of sweet tea is not so great either.
however, the sunny weather that made it possible for two bbq's today (lunch and dinner) is fantastic.

my life is finally starting to feel normal.

2008-04-30T01:48:00.001-07:00

three very exciting things happened to me this week.
first, my lucky charms came with a real prize, it was right after i had commented to my friend joe about how lame his cracker jack prize was. i was pretty stoked about it, even as an adult. but they changed it so you dont have to go digging for your prize, they just set it right on top in plastic wrapping, i kind of enjoyed the dig...but now that i think about it, as an adult (and a raging germaphobe) i dont think i would want everyones fingers in my cereal after a good dig.
second, i got sun burned. our weekend was amazingly sunny, on saturday while i was out coaching soccer and then playing an amazing round of frisbee golf i got burned and i was pretty (legitimately) stoked about it. since then it hasnt been as nice...rain and gloom, but i was still greatful for a nice sunny weekend.
third, and perhaps the biggest news (thats why i saved it for last...well, its biggest for me, some of you may think that the lucky charms was the biggest news and rightfully so, its so rare to actually have a real tangible prize in your cereal anymore)...i picked up a key to my new house. yup, i'm moving (dont worry my american mailing address and all that stuff will still be the same). i had kind of a rough night like a week or two ago and had my friend lana come spend the night and she was like "why dont you just move in with me" at first i thought she was kidding but she went on to tell me that she really misses having a room mate and such and then spent a week or two convincing me that she really meant it. so were doing it, and i'm stoked. she is currently in croatia, the military sent her there to film something (she makes docs for the military) and told me to go ahead and move in while she is gone. i'm pretty stoked, it will be so nice not to live on my own and to live practically for free (the military pays for her house). oh ya!

2008-04-24T12:48:00.000-07:00

i seriously love coaching. its been so fun getting to know theses girls. here are some pics from soccer that i took on my phone, i cant get them to turn the right way because bluetooth wont let me so turn your head, its easier than me trying to figure it out.

2008-04-18T02:08:00.000-07:00

i got some comp time after the service project and i was able to do some fun stuff...
the day after i got back from poland i made the two hour drive to brussles and was able to hang out with my good friends ashley, stefanie and liesl that i met in the training process to come on staff.

liesl goes to this sweet church that meets in a bar, its called jesus paradise, its this cool 70's style retro bar and we were able to sit around, drink beer and talk about God. it was pretty jammin.
then the day after i got back from brussles i left for venice and vicenza to visit my friend jocelyn.

i loved venice, we just walked around which was so chill and so great. i think my heart is happy when theres water near by. jocelyn is also an amazing cook so we ate incredible meals the entire time i was there. it was great.

today i'm back in germany dealing with the crazyness that is my life here. so many things got all messed up while i was gone. pray that i would rest in the fact that none of it is of eternal significance and just focus on the one who is.

2008-04-14T10:26:00.000-07:00

thoughts on poland:
well i was less than excited about the poland trip, actually i was dreading it. i was nervous about group dynamic, bummed that i wouldnt be with any of my close friends on staff and not sure how i would react to the terror of auschwitz.
but this story ends well.
the first night the worship leader had us think of something that was holding us back from truly meeting with God during the week. as i sat there annoyed that i'd already had to sing 'every move i make' twice, i realized that it was my cynical heart that was keeping me from truly entering into the presence of our awesome Lord. at the instruction of our worship leader i figuratively held my cynicism gripped tightly in my hands, and as the band sang "eveything i hold in my hands i give to You" i slowly lessened the grip and gave it to God.
God is so powerful when we just get out of the way and trust in that.
during the week the four girls i had in my group had their world rocked by Jesus, and this truly had nothing to do with me (remember, i was the girl that didnt really want to be there).
two quick stories: one night gabby shared with our group some pretty serious sin that was keeping her from meeting with God and she was ready to be done with it. she gave it to God and we talked about what it means to be forgiven and clean. the next night gabby shared with us that she feels like God is calling her into full time ministry, she told me that she wants my job. and she really would be amazing at it. pray for her.
story numero two: kattie is my high school friend that i have talked about before in newsletters and such (the girl that i met at a football game and then gave her life back to Christ one night at club). kattie for the first time was able to understand what it really means to pick up your cross and follow Christ. she realized that she has been living a life of rebellion against the God who has freed her from that. on the last night kattie started to cry, she was terrified to enter back into her life here in germany. she realizes how amazing God is and doesnt want to walk away from what He started in her heart in Poland but has literally no support system at school or home to walk with her. she is ready and willing to make sacrifices and truly die to herself but obviously is scared about how her friends will react. pray for her.
other exciting news; two of our boys (spencer and brock) gave their life to Christ for the first time that week along with about thirty other kids at the camp. it was amazing.
on the bus ride home i was able to sit in the back with some of our kids and just listen as they talked about how different life would be going back and things they wanted to see change in their life and how they treated others at their school.
God is so good.
thank you for praying.

2008-04-04T01:15:00.000-07:00

well i leave for poland tonight. its our sevice project for club beyond. i have really mixed feelings about it. i think i'm a bit nervous because we'll be visiting auschwitz which i know will be intense, especially with high school kids. please pray for safety and for the Lord to be making us all more like Him.

yesterday was our last day of soccer before spring break so we decided to go to cascade, the indoor swim place here. here are some pictures the girls took on my new waterproof camera.

(carter, not on the socer team, he's our teacher sponsor's son)

2008-03-31T02:39:00.000-07:00

about a month ago i lost my little camera, it was quite tragic.
yesterday i bought a new one. its waterproof, which i think is so fun.

today i took this picture of the propaganda on my milk carton.

2008-03-26T04:49:00.000-07:00

some pictures from yesterday...

i took this during practice and i dont know if you can tell in this picture but its snowing super hard.

well because this picture was taken on my phone and sent to my computer via bluetooth i cant get it to rotate (i lost my little camera like a month ago, it was quite tragic, so most of the pictures ive been posting have been taken on my phone) but this was taken during 80s club last night after the big hair competition.

2008-03-25T01:00:00.000-07:00

so yesterday during practice i had the team have an awkward dance off. we had been joking about for a while so i decided to make it a reality. our dance teams lined up around the circle and took turns doing our most awkward dance moves. it was pretty incredible. i cried a little. my team lost but the other team definately deserved the win.

2008-03-22T16:20:00.000-07:00

we had our first game today.
(it wasnt canceled)
it was a lot of fun.
even though it was snowing most of the time.

the girls are super ba.

2008-03-21T14:38:00.000-07:00

its been snowing all day.
now its practically blizzarding.
i have soccer tomorrow from 8am to 6pm.
the conditions arent supposed to change.
as of now they still have no intentions of canceling our game.
and i'm hoping they dont.

2008-03-16T13:38:00.000-07:00

some pictures and thoughts

so we stayed in this really old castle thats been converted into a hostel, i took this picture on our tour of the castle.

we took this on our post tour adventure around the castle, we decided to do some sound of music jumps and spins since we were in austria

i dont know if you can read it but it says tomato soup with whipped cream, maybe not the best translation for sour cream

i loved the color of the buildings in this town, they had this whole row in the downtown that was fun colors

we went to salzburg, it was cool, we saw mozarts birth place and his residence and had fun just walking all around the churches and downtown area

we hiked up to the top of this waterfall which was pretty intense but a lot of fun

after they punched the snowmen they made

i convinced her that this would be a good idea. it was worth it.

brent, one of my good friends here, bought me a lift ticket so we could ride to the top of this mountain for lunch and take sweet pictures (we had others with us but they didnt think it was as cool as we did)

i thought this was fun

that pretty much sums it up, except for the first day when we went on a 14kilometer sled run, which was super fun and maybe a highlight. overall the trip was good, not great but good.
yesterday was actually super fun, we had a soccer camp for little kids that our girls coached. it was tons of fun being able to get to know some of the girls better, i'm really enjoying coaching even though i really have no idea what i'm doing half the time. then we had a movie night at club beyond and then i went bowling with some people and then had a high school friend over to watch juno (which i loved). i really love my job which i guess makes living here a little easier.

2008-03-08T08:52:00.001-08:00

a couple of pictures for y'all

this one i took outside my house a couple days ago

and this is the view from where i'm staying at in austira

2008-03-07T03:23:00.001-08:00

please pray for my heart. i'm longing to be in four very different places and i'm having a hard time figuring out Gods will in it all.

i leave tomorrow for a ski trip to austria (its a week of snowboarding, but im not sure if i'm going to ride), i'm not too stoked about it because i dont want to leave my soccer girls but hopefully it will be fun.

2008-03-06T13:42:00.000-08:00

i'm having a lot of fun coaching soccer. the girls are super fun.
today was the first day it didnt snow during practice.

i went with some friends to get greek food tonight at a place called hellas.
i think its the best food in bitburg. hella good.
come visit, i'll take you there.

2008-03-03T14:09:00.000-08:00

i had such a long day today but it was so good.
today at middle school lunch i had a girl think i was in 9th grade (14), i thought that was funny.
we started try outs today for soccer, i'm excited about the girls that came out for it, its going to be a fun season.
then tonight lana and i went out to troys. troy cooked us dinner and then the four of us (brent was there too) did a puzzle and ate funfetti cookies.
it was a really great day.

2008-03-02T13:51:00.000-08:00

our training in france went well. we stayed in a shady youth hosel in the middle of no where but i still had a really good time because i love the people i work with. our training focused on developing disiples so it was a lot about training and equipping volunteers and student leaders, i'm excited about the things that i learned. john is letting me move into more volunteer development, i even get to lead part of our volunteer meeting this month so i'm pretty excited about that. life here is getting a lot better, my new friend lana is really cool, its been fun just being back and getting to know her better. today i was in church and i realised that although being here is the hardest thing ive ever done i'm so greatful for the fact that ive been able to form community with a group of people that couldnt be more different than me, i think its a real testiment to Gods grace.

2008-02-21T07:25:00.000-08:00

i'm really starting to love middle school kids.
the ski trip that i went on with the middle school kids this last week was a lot of fun. i will try to get the videos up on youtube at some point so y'all can see what i did.

the numbers in both our high school and middle school clubs have been way down but whats important is that we are loving the kids that do come well. last tuesday i feel like we really did that.

yesterday i had lunch with lana, shes a girl that just moved here. shes pretty cool and hopefully we will become friends, i like her a lot.

tomorrow i leave for training in france, i have mixed feelings about it, but it should be good. i'll be gone for a little over a week.

2008-02-13T13:07:00.000-08:00

its been sunny and awesome for the past five days or so which has been such a blessing.
today i managed to pull some people together for a game of ultimate frisbee, we decided we are going to make it a weekly thing, i'm pretty excited about that.
i leave tomorrow to do program at a middle school ski trip, pray that it goes well and that we all have fun with it.

2008-02-12T01:02:00.001-08:00

i played paintball with a bunch of kids that are in the military, it was a little intense. i didnt get hurt too bad because i was too scared to get close enough to get hurt (you would be to if you were playing paintball with people who do a similar type thing as their job). one highlight was when phil decided we would be decoys to draw fire during the first game (phil is a trainer in security forces, meaning its his job to train people for ground combat and to shoot guns and stuff) so we ran out and started to get shot at, we ended up having to army crawl to a tree and then roll down this like ten meter hill, in the mud over rocks and sticks and stuff...it was intense. then we got shot (which i guess was the point anyway).

2008-02-07T05:48:00.000-08:00

i think its around age ten when half birthdays stop being a big deal, but today i'm twenty two and a half.
i'm ready to be 23.

2008-02-06T09:14:00.000-08:00

i hate to be cryptic but some of you need to know how things went and i'm too drained to call all of you.
the meeting went terrible. i feel like i got hit by a bus.

but God is still good...even if thats hard to say sometimes.

2008-02-05T07:57:00.001-08:00

i enjoyed this.

2008-02-04T12:48:00.000-08:00

ive heard it said that sometimes things have to get worse before they can get better, i believe that. today was a really rough day but i trust that things will be getting better soon.

on a different but very similar note, i now have the keys to four cars. three mercedes and a bmw. kind of rediculous, yet none of them really work except for the one i have to give up to the military.

this weekend i was able to go to the dutch (neatherlands) version of mardi gras, it was interesting.

2008-02-01T05:07:00.000-08:00

its snowing here. that somehow seems fitting.
a lot of hard but good conversations that have been needing to happen have been happening.
i feel tired but safe in the arms of Jesus.

learning to wait on the Lord is so hard.
but God is good. so good.

2008-01-31T02:31:00.000-08:00

i realised today that i graduated from high school over five years ago.
that makes me feel old.

i think not being in controll of things is the most frusterating and comforting feeling one can experience.

2008-01-30T08:10:00.000-08:00

i was able to spend some time with my friend stefanie in portugal this last week. it was amazing. it wasnt some glamourous vacation, i just lived life with her, but it was the best week ive had since i've moved overseas. there is something so right about living in community. and being with a friend that is constantly pushing you closer to Christ. i think its what God wants for all of us.

lots of crazy things have been happening these last few weeks, i will update more when i have more clarity on it. but pray that i would seek the will of God.
i know that He is good, and wants to give us good things, pray that i wouldnt get in the way of that.

2008-01-25T00:52:00.001-08:00

a response to the question "what was the game?"

now please keep in mind, i found this in a yl book and i didnt know how it was going to turn out, i even edited it to try to keep it clean.

2008-01-23T08:42:00.000-08:00

Post #100 thats kind of a big deal
so was yesterday, it was my 6 month mark of my arrival in germany (my departure from the states was two days prior...read my blog around the 21 of july 2007 for that story)

yeserday we had a fight in our middle school club. a kid got punched in the face, it didnt go beyond that because one of our volunteer leaders jumped in quickly. since john's absence i've put a hole in the wall playing turkey bowling, had a toilet seat broken by our boys bible study lock in, played the most inappropriate game ive ever seen in youth ministry second to tim barleys dating game my senior year in high school (i found the game we played in the young life book in my defense) and now i've had a fight break out.
i guess thats what happens when the intern is in charge. ha.

2008-01-20T14:59:00.000-08:00

yesterday was a really good day, i explored the local region with some of my guy friends and then we cooked dinner and had a family style meal. it was nice.
today hasnt been as great.

2008-01-17T13:16:00.001-08:00

this was from the conference, i found it on you tube, it was actually really great

2008-01-14T12:16:00.000-08:00

i'm back in germany
i'm so tired but florida was really good.

young life got some big (small) names to come out which was fun
andrew osenga
brandon heath
nicole c. mullins
jars of clay
jeff foxworthy (he and his wife are actually both wyldlife leaders)
jack hana(h?)
donald miller
and others that i probably just cant think of right now

it was fun to be with people that really understand my situation and love me well.
it was such an enouraging time.
God is so faithful.

2008-01-08T20:48:00.000-08:00

being home was so good but so hard at the same time, my heart was torn and i never got over jet lag (probably because of the two all nighters). it was so great that relationships picked up right where they left off but it made me long for that closeness with friends again especially when germany is such a struggle right now. today i woke up in florida and i just felt happy. the sun was shining, i didnt feel any stress or pressure and i just had this amazing peace. i spent most of the day laying out (i may even be a little sun burned) it was fantastic, i love the sun. and i know that we were never promised happiness but its so nice when the Lord blesses us with it.

2007-12-30T07:35:00.000-08:00

i'm home!
my flight was ok, 11 hours and 24 mins is a long time on a plane, but i was relatively entertained most of the time. i sat next to this super obnoxious lady and her puking son, that was the only kind of rough part. but it was definatly better than london.

so i went to bed at 10pm last night (ca time) after being up for 32 hours and i woke up at 4am today. dang jet lag. but i should be adjusted soon, its lot easier to adjust from europe to america than the other way around for some reason.

2007-12-27T12:41:00.000-08:00

despite popular beleif, i'm not home.
people keep IMing me with "youre home!"
its kind of sad
i just dont want people to be pissed off because they thought i was home (and avoided them), i'm not

i get home on sat
and i am hoping to see everyone on sunday (i plan on fighting jet lag and going to church...we'll see how it goes)

so for the recap:
i'm still in germany
but i'm so stoked to see all of you so soon!

2007-12-25T11:09:00.000-08:00

today is christmas. i thought being away from home would be a lot harder. the time leading up to christmas was really hard, missing out on so many traditions and parties, but today wasnt bad at all. i guess being with thirty other people who are also away from home makes it a lot easier. its been a full weekend. saturday i went to liechtenstien (a small country, 62 square miles, between austria and switzerland) and then spent the night in zurich (switzerland). sunday we explored zurich and then headed back here. yesterday (christmas eve) i hung out, went to christmas eve service, and then hung out some more...we even played telefax (i taught them a while ago and they love it here). today i woke up early (6am) to help cook christmas breakfast at the mill (our hang out spot) and then hung out all day and played board games, it was pretty chill. but i'm exhausted, good thing i have a job where i can sleep until noon. merry christmas y'all.

2007-12-19T07:30:00.000-08:00

i decided a while ago that i wanted to listen to every song on my itunes at least once.
i've actually started working on that.
i realised that i have a lot of crappy music. (i have a lot of good music too, but three albums of the backstreet boys, seriously? i guess thats how you know i was super cool in middle school)

i've been so frusterated recently with where i'm at with relationships with kids. but ive been encouraged by two things.
1. remembering that God gives us enough encouragement to keep us in ministry but enough discouragement to remind us whose ministry it is.
2. the fact that God gives us all the grace in the world, sometimes its ok to give ourselves a little.

my english has gotten so much worse living outside of america, especially on days like today when all the interaction ive had has been in german...like i was struggling to write that.

2007-12-14T02:21:00.000-08:00

this week has been crazy and i'm so excited to sleep in tomorrow and catch my breath (figuratively speaking of course). on friday my good friend ashley (some of you know her as texas ashley) came in for the weekend. we went to cologne, luxembourg, trier and burnkastle, and saw a ton of chistmas markets. it was so good having her here and i love that God knew what i needed and totally provided at such a great time. ashely left monday night and tuesday was club. since john was still gone i decided to set club up as more of an event than club so we made gingerbread houses and watched elf. even though we didnt have a club talk and it didnt look like a traditional club i think it was one of the best ones we had. we've been having several new volunteer leaders coming to club and i think this really gave them the opportunity to interact with kids, it was a good night. the next day i woke up at 6am and headed for amsterdam (i convinced my friend phil that it would be a fun thing to do while we were in the airport with ashley), i loved it and it was such a cool cultural experience, hard to see in different parts but i'm so glad that we went. yesterday (Thursday) was spent getting work done in the morning and then i went with some friends to see maroon 5 and dashboard confessional (brooke, i dont know if youre reading this but i totally thought of you during dashboard), the concert was great, way better than when i saw them at the cowpalace (or wherever that was). today i came into the office at 9am to hang out with rosanna (shes kind of like my intern, shes a high school kid that comes in during school hours and gets school credit for hanging out with us), i'm teaching her guitar which is kind of fun. tonight were taking the high school kids to trier to go to the christmas market, i'm a little nervous about them trying to get gluwein (its a hot wine) because the legal drinking age here is only 16, but hopefully we wont have any problems. so thats been my week, it know it sounds like a lot of play (and honestly it has been) but because of how hard i was working when john and shannon were gone they allowed me to take an extra couple days to play.

2007-12-06T08:33:00.000-08:00

so i figured out that three days after my yogurt that i bought today is set to expire i'll be on a plane headed back to cali (i never really decided how i feel about calling it cali, but it is easier to say than california).