Life Fast Forward

It's amazing how quickly life begins to travel. When you are 6 you can't wait to turn 7, then you eagerly await becoming a teenager. Once you're a teenager you can't wait to become a driver (sweet 16), then an "adult" (18), then "legal" (21), college, job, marriage, kids, etc.

Remember thoughn those stretches that seemed like eternity, waiting for the next benchmark of life? You thought you would be a child forever.

This week I have been strangely and swiftly reunited with my recent childhood. I'm 24, so I've still got many benchmarks to go, but sitting around a folding table in my old youth room with many of my childhood friends and a slideshow of pictures from when I still wore braces reminded me that life is always in fast forward.

We are those adults we dreamed about being only yesterday. We are pursuing real dreams, passions, visions that seemed like fairytales to our starry eyed hearts.

Some days I want life to slow down a bit; to not pass me by too quickly. But then I am struck by the beauty of life in fast forward. I wouldn't trade a split second of it.

New Season

It's hard to believe how quickly time has gone by! We are currently on I-95 somewhere south of Savannah, GA with a huge 16' Penske and our '93 Accord in tow, on our way to sunny Florida...to stay.

The past 2 years living in Gaithersburg, MD have flown by! It's been a rich couple of years growing in a culture somewhat foreign to me. Jacob and I were blessed to work at a large church full of wonderful people where we've grown in our character, our skills, and our relationships with God and each other. And hopefully left a little something behind in the AMAZING group of young people we hugged good-bye.

Change can be hard. Even "moving home" is a little intimidating. I've lived away for 6+ years now and have only been in state on breaks and vacations. Now I've hugged good-bye the people I've spent the last two years pouring my life into (I tend to love hard, with everything I've got) and am embarking into the somewhat unknow. Just me, Jacob and God.

And yet there seems to be something radiating in the distance ahead of us as we pull this bigrig south. There's a glow of Hope, backlit by Faith and filled with the Promises of God. Change is hard but when God leads you there is nothing more satisfying than following Him thru it all.

I can't wait to be in Sarasota. I can't wait to pour my heart out in a new way. I can't wait to see what plans God has for Jacob and I in the Kingdom, in the Church of Sarasota.

Incredible Day with Jessey

Today was an incredible day spent with a good friend of mine Jessey. She has spent the past 24 hours being monitored (as you can see in the picture) to find out if she has seizure activity. Brave soul that she is, she came to youth last night wired up and disguised with a bandana and skater hat!! Today she got to take the device off though and I was honored to help her in the tedious process. As I sat there peeling off the patches from her hair I thought "this is why I love youth ministry." There's nothing humanly glorious about it; it's just loving teens in every way, being there for them, and in doing so showing them the love of Christ in a way they will never forget.

We managed to get the mess out of her hair and as a reward I took her for starbucks and a small adventure. We drove five miles out into the country and found a field of sunflowers spanning one square mile! Now we are all fairly desensatized by tv and movies but this was an incredible sight. I kept thinking of the song by Jars of Clay that says, "In open fields of wildflowers she breathes the air and flies away..." I was breathless at the sight.

I am so glad that in one afternoon God blew me away by getting to share his love and being blown away by the beauty he created. I think it blew Jessey away too!

Awesome God

So I have to share what happened yesterday. As you may know by now Jacob and I are moving to Sarasota on July 30. Moves are no small project and are fairly expensive so things have been a wee bit tight. On that note Jacob and I were very disappointed Saturday night when our car started steaming...! The last thing we needed was an expensive repair. We took it in and the diagnosis was pretty major; we essentially needed to replace all major components of the radiator. I was nervous but Jacob prayed and we asked God to provide. Monday we gave the shop the go ahead to start repairs and wouldn't you know that when we got home from work that day there was a check sitting in the mail for $6 more than the amount we needed. Isn't that so cool? We weren't expecting a refund and not only that we turned our taxes in April 15 and here we are July 20 getting the money we need on the day we need it. All I can say is, isn't God amazing?!?!

Family and Friends

This is going to be just a short reflection. Today I woke up in Stillwater, Oklahoma. My home away from home. Or maybe it's just one of my homes. It's been 6 months since Jacob and I have been here to see OUR family (his by birth, mine by marriage and love) and that was far too long to go without. Jacob and I have been living in Gaithersburg, Maryland for the last 2 years of our life; far from both sides of our family and constantly having to divide our vacation time between the two of them. It's been so hard at points, and this has been one of those points.
I've always been a family person. I'm not really a home-body--I went to Oklahoma for school while my family lives in Florida; I spent 6 months living in Spain learning the language; I traveled solo (or sometimes with a couple of friends) through England and continental Europe. So I don't consider myself a home-body. But no matter how many adventures I take, no matter how many new places I see and love, the saying is always true for me. "There's no place like home."
Home really is where the heart is. Coming from a girl who has moved 14 or 15 times in her life, I know that home isn't a location, not a town or a building you live it. It's where you are surrounded by people who love you and know you. People who don't base your love on performance or what you have to offer. It's being with people who laugh with delight when you do something embarassing because you are so precious to them, they don't laugh to make fun but laugh to love.
It's good to be home. I get to go home to Florida in a couple weeks too! I love being home.

Fireflies and Bunnies

So Jacob and I are having the time of our lives babysitting 3 of our most FAVORITE kids in the world: Jordyn, Camden and Morgan. Their parents are world travelers and we are live-in sitters for a few days. Well wouldn't you know that when babysitting 6, 8, and 10 some good stories are bound to arise. I thought this one was definitely worth sharing...

Last night we put the kids to bed and were down stairs quickly cleaning up the dishes so we could go enjoy cable t.v. for a little while (we don't have cable at our house) when Morgan - 6 came downstairs sniffing. "I'm scared..." of the dark it turns out. So I walked her back to her room where I prayed with her and sang her a song I remembered from my Children's Church days. I was just beginning to explain to her that "God gives His angels charge over us to keep us in all of our ways," and that right then in that very moment there were angels guarding all around her room, when a firefly sparked right in front of our faces! I was shocked. It was one of those moments that stuns you with its perfection and timeliness. I was speechless for a moment then all of the sudden I said, "See Morgan, God wants you to know that He's here and so are His angels." We watched the firefly dance around the room for a little while until he took his post by the door. She was so excited/happy I can't believe she went back to bed; this time not out of fear of the dark but excited about God's Firefly. It was so sweet.

I went about my business for the rest of the night and into the next morning, forgetting what had happened. We dragged the kids out of bed, ate breakfast, fought hair tangles and got ready for VBS. As we were leaving the kids noticed 3 baby rabbits out in the side yard. They quietly followed them around the house while Jacob and I looked for the minivan keys and put our shoes on. I went out back to tell the kids it was time to go and Morgan started whispering something to me. She was whispering because she didn't want to scare the rabbits away so I bent closer. She asked with the sweetest, most innocent look in her eyes, "What's God telling me now?"

I could have cried for joy in that moment. The precious reminder I had so quickly forgotten the night before had stuck in her memory through to the next awesome moment when God's creation declared His glory! Psalm 19:1-3 I'm so busy, so anxious, so "productive" most of the time that I miss the whisper of God speaking to my heart, "I love you child."

'He loves you Morgan. That's what God's telling you right now. Every time you see a bunny, every time you notice a pretty flower, every time a bird chirps or you get to play outside on a sunny day, that's God telling you how much He loves you." I was speaking to her but also to me.

"The Heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard." He's speaking right now. Are you listening???

I'm really bad at blogging...

It's been a little while since I've written. I keep taking pictures thinking "I need to blog these!" I guess I'm still not use to doing this regularly so please forgive my lapse of time.
It's been a few weeks now but recently Jacob surprised me with a romantic dinner/hike. He told me to wear comfortable shoes, he packed up dinner (sandwiches and Vernors) and we headed out on a surprise adventure. We drove for about an hour until we reached a state park in Maryland called "Cunningham Falls."
We hit the trail in search of the park's name sake. It was a beautiful evening with the sun just behind the trees so we could enjoy one of the final days of cool spring temperatures. Maryland keeps surprising me, I have to say, with it's diversity and beauty. I guess I've been so close to the capital beltway for these 2 years that I forgot there's more to Maryland than D.C. and Baltimore.
The hike was peaceful (we took the easier option since we were already hungry) and ended at the picturesque Cunningham Falls. It wasn't like regular steep waterfalls that I was use to seeing. It's more of a giant rock with a river flowing down it. The first thing I spotted was the "Warning" sign; the first thing Jacob spotted were all of the adventure-seekers climbing the steep rocks. He naturally wanted to join in, I naturally wanted to eat.
After much debating, me sounding like a "chicken" and a little bit of dinner, Jacob headed up the steep sloped without me. I stayed back to "take pictures." This is precisely the moment I remembered something about myself. I don't like to be the chicken in my group. I'll wimp out if other people wimp out with me, but I refuse to be left behind. There's nothing like a good dare to get you climbing. It wasn't too hard (it's was DEFINITELY not easy either!) and I made it up the rocks to surprise Jacob. Of course Jacob wasn't satisfied with his feat either so he had to go one more step and climb out to the rock that NO ONE was on that hung out OVER the waterfall! This time I did NOT follow but stayed behind to take pictures.
It was a fun afternoon. I am glad I ignored the warning sign (or rather Jacob ignored it for me). If I hadn't, I would have never seen Maryland from that particular view!

Retreating with God (and 150 teenagers)

I'm two weeks behind in telling this story but hey, that's okay! April 24-26 Jacob and I took another semi-annual trek up to North East, MD (very hard to find on a map!) with our incredible youth group "elevate." We joined 150 passionate teenagers as we all gave up our regular weekends to meet God in the wilderness. Okay, there's not much wilderness about Sandy Hill Camp but it was great to be near the lake and under the sunshine out in the fresh air. We played games (I never knew how terrible I was at dodgeball until then!), had some cool teaching sessions, worshiped our hearts out and ate the best camp food this side of the Mississippi (seriously, it's not bad there)!

Retreats are one of my favorite things we do in elevate because I feel like I really get some quality time with the kids. Wednesday nights are so fast paced that hi and goodbye is about all we squeeze in. At the retreats we eat together, sleep together and most importantly worship together. I've seen so many incredible things happen on the retreats; God "wows" me every time!

This year I had a bonus. My parents were able to join us for two of the three days! It was so exciting because when you live far from family it's hard for them to picture what your life looks like. Having them here for a Wednesday night service AND a retreat helped me feel a little closer to home.

I also realized how much I love planning events on this retreat. I don't consider myself to be the most organized person but I definitely kick it up a notch when I'm event planning. I get out my three-ring binder and little printable divider tabs (seriously, I do) and make everything all "matchy matchy." It's so uncharacteristic of every other area of my life!

Well any way, there's not a TON to say except I always look forward to the next one!!!

Floridahhhhh!

A week and a half ago Jacob and I finally made it back to my lovely Sarasota for a wonderful visit with our family and friends! It was a short stay but a nice little refresher after a longer-than-usual winter. (The weather folks here are calling for one more snow before the SUN)! Among the highlights was getting to meet my best friend's new boyfriend, Josh Hunt. Laura and Josh are so funny (they get each other on a finish-each-other's-sentence kind of level)! Hanging out with them, oddly enough, kinda felt like hanging out with ourselves lol! We had such a good time!

We also had a great time hanging out with my family. We took Jacob to the highlight of all highlights...the Red Barn flea market. Okay so maybe it's not the MOST exciting thing, but it's a must do for me and my nostalgic memory. Beside where else can you get amazing kettle corn and beef jerky?!

My dad recently had surgery on his knee, so the visit couldn't have been more timely. It's hard to be away from family when stuff like that is going on, so it was wonderful to just be there to spend time with them. We got Dad out of the house a bit and kept him up late playing Shanghai Rummy (a Robinson family game, a staple in the Broadway home and now a staple in the Miller home. Isn't marriage a beautiful thing?).

Our family is precious to us (both sides :) and we don't get to see them NEARLY enough! But when we do it certainly is a WONDERFUL thing! We miss you Floridahhh!

"Across the Miles"

Hi Family and Friends! I've been following a few blogs of family and friends for some time now and decided that a blog would be a great way to keep you all in the "loop" of what Jacob and I are doing here "across the miles." I don't know that I'll always have many interesting things to say but hopefully you'll feel a little more a part of our lives here.

Jacob and I are both on staff at Church of the Redeemer in Gaithersburg, MD. We both work with the youth department; Jacob as the Youth Worship Coordinator and I am the Coordinator for Grow Ministries, which is really just a fancy way of saying that I oversee our discipleship elements like small groups, missions, service projects, etc. The youth group here is called "elevate Student Ministries" and you can ALWAYS check out what we're doing at www.elevatestudents.tv. Jacob and I both feel so blessed that God has brought us here where we are being stretched and growing in ways we could never have imagined. Isn't He awesome?

Right now our church is geared up for two exciting events, Servolution and our Easter Presentation. Servolution is a movement started by a sister church of ours in Louisiana, Healing Place Church. The week leading up to Easter hundreds of churches around the nation will participate as we reach out to our communities with the love of Jesus through service projects. I've been involved by coordinating outreaches through our LifeGroups (what we call our small groups). Our teenagers have been creative, helping plan and initiate different projects. It's times like these when I feel expecially grateful that I get to do what I do every day. Our Easter Presentation is another exciting thing we have going on. We have presentations running multiple times Friday, Saturday and Sunday of Easter weekend. It's an incredible experience, a full blown drama with an incredible cast and crew. Needless to say we are all very busy but it's an incredible time together!

Well I won't bore you with too many details right now! Check back frequently to see pictures of us and read updates on what is going on in our area of the country. We love you all and miss each one of you who are "across the miles." Love and Blessings!