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?!?!