14 Years

Fourteen years ago today we said I do.  Looking back at my extremely young self I don't think I had any idea what God had in store for us back then.  The blessings we have been able to be a part of, the struggles we have walked through together and the joy found in every situation is something I always cherish in my heart.  I have a partner in life who loves Jesus with all of his heart and leads us through each step and that is something I do not take for granted or ever will.

We took the step towards full time ministry 12 years ago full of excitement and no fear.  We have served together every moment of the way and have found when our marriage is strong, our ministry is strong.  We have seen so much of this amazing world together and have been able to serve side by side...while teaching a village about God's love, providing clean water to those who are thirsty, held the hands of children with no parents, rejoiced over the one who was found, joyfully looked on as our students overcame fears and boldly followed God's lead, clung tight as we have been unsure of the next move and shared contentment when knowing we were right in the middle of where God wanted us to be.  We have laughed a lot with an amazing group of students and leaders, watched many students grow into wonderful leaders themselves, cried many tears of sadness of loss and tragedy alongside them.  I can't believe what God has done these last 14 years and I am so humbled to be able to be standing next to you and sharing those moments together.

Our life has now been invaded (for the better) by the most precious and loving 4 year old boy who loves and enjoys life more than any person we have ever met.  We look at him all of the time and can't believe God has given us this task of raising this awesome little boy into a man.  God has given us another ministry partner, someone who is ready for the adventure and I am so thankful he has a father to watch who fears and follows the Lord.  We may have thought 14 years ago we would have lots of little ones running around our home, but now we have seen that God has a different plan for our lives.  We have a son full of so much life and love and hundreds of other students who are running around our home.  What a blessing we didn't even know we would have when we said I do.

When I look back at all that God has done in 14 years it strengthens my faith and gives me the perseverance I need to keep running the race to which we have been given.  Some days we doubt God's call in our life, feel inadequate or ill-equipped.  But, God always gives us the encouragement we need through each other.  One of us is always there to pick the other up.  God is always providing.  I can't wait to see what happens the next 14 years.

I love you seems too simple of a statement sometimes but -I do.  Love comes from Jesus and He has poured it out for us to share with others.  There really is nothing greater than that Love.  We have a sure and solid foundation and together we get to cherish that every day.  God, bless our love.

Panama 2015: Doing Life Together

Disciple Now, Panama, Torn Achilles, Surgery...just a few things that have been a part of our life lately.  Several weeks back we had the awesome opportunity to take our third trip to Panama.  It has become one of our favorite places for so many reasons!  We were blessed to be a part of an awesome group that went along with us, mostly consisting of College students and we loved every minute.

There are some things that are just becoming really clear for Justin and I when it comes to ministry and living life.  The two have to be the same.  Ministry happens as life happens.  Whether you are in your hometown or in a different country like Panama - its all intertwined.  Ministry is not a special program or a set apart time during our week.  As we go, we are to make disciples.

 The first day there in Panama we decided as a group to not consider this trip as a mission trip - like a special week we set aside to come together and serve.  But we considered it a "doing life" trip.  It was just an extension of our lives from home.  We are all friends doing life together as we went.  We are so thankful to have a wonderful friendship with the missionaries in Panama as well.  They are great examples of this.  They "do life" with all of the people they minister to on a weekly basis and consider the people they minister to as friends and family.  They eat together, talk together, play together, give and help meet needs, share their lives and while all of this happens Christ is being preached and disciples are being made. 

Because of our friendship with them we find it easy to come alongside of what they are doing in Panama and join in for a week to help.  It really is a beautiful way that God has provided encouragement and love among the body of believers.  

God has been piercing my heart in several ways in relation to this (on a personal level) some of which I plan to share about here on the blog soon.  I can't help but think about the early church in Acts and how they lived and how different it seems to look now for us.  We are so separated, so independent and have a hard time accepting help.  

So this week, as you go, think about the people you are doing life with.  Who is your community?  Whose life are you pouring into together?  Or, who do you need to be pouring into together?  God has placed us in friendship for a bigger purpose than a few laughs and someone to watch a movie with and he has given us purpose together as one community of believers.  We have a bond through Christ to make His name known - as you "do life" together.  Remember your first love and His purpose for you.

We love because He first loved us.  John 4:19

5 Tips for Memorizing Scripture

It seems as though a lot of us have ourselves convinced that we just can't memorize scripture, as much as we feel like we should or want to.  My husband and I have heard this so many times from our students and even adults and I know I have felt that way myself before.  But, what I have found out about myself is that its not so much about why I can't memorize but how much time I actually spend trying.  Through the years I've learned a few things about memorizing scripture that have helped me.  This is not a quick and easy trick for memorizing scripture but ways to help get us started on the right track.  Memorizing takes times, just like a true relationship does.  

1. Spend Time Reading Scripture - I know this seems obvious but this is the first step to knowing God's word.  You have to take time to start reading.  Lots of the time when we feel far away or unsure of what God's plan for our life is its because we aren't spending time reading His word.  Scripture is from God and for our benefit.  He speaks truth into our lives through it.  There is no way to be disciplined into knowing scripture unless you are actually reading it.

2. Find Someone else to Memorize with you - This is probably the best thing that helps me when keeping on track.  Justin and I have at times set up lists of scripture we wanted to memorize and taken a week at a time memorizing one together.  This helps so much when you know you have someone to be accountable to.  Plus, the other person is helping you along the way.

3. Read in Context - This may seem like the first but its actually different.  When memorizing scripture its so important to take some time to read that particular verse in its correct context.  After choosing a verse you want to memorize, spend time reading the whole chapter around it.  It will help you put the words into the right perspective and help you remember the truth its teaching.  And you will probably learn something new, which will in turn strengthen your faith.

4. Write it in places you see Daily - This is a simple way to keep you on the right track.  I try and right the verse in several obvious places I see daily.  Then when I see it, I make a mental pause to say it in my mind (or even out loud).  Just pausing a few times daily will really help!

5. Start Easy - Don't get overwhelmed too early.  You have to build some foundations and routine first.  Choose some simple verses or even just one verse and stay there until you feel comfortable with what you know.  Even choosing one verse, reading it in context for a week everyday would be a great start.

Bonus Tip - Memorize the Reference, not just the text! - This is something I have to get better at!  I'm learning its so important to not only know the verse but to know the reference as well.  There are so many times when you will be reminded of a verse you want to share with someone, or even just something you need to look back to and you can't find it!  Knowing the reference is so important so take some time memorizing that as well!

Some of the benefits of knowing scripture - Strengthens your relationship with God, Helps you grow in your faith, encourages you, brings you peace and understanding, comfort...I could go on.  God speaks through scripture and He wants you to know what He has to say.  Spend some time getting familiar with God's word this week!

A few simple verses to start to Memorize:

1 John 4:19

Psalm 119:11

Psalm 56:3

James 1:22

Colossians 3:2

Romans 3:23

John 14:6

Merry Christmas!

Glorious now behold Him arise,
King and God and Sacrifice.
Alleluia, alleluia!
Sounds through the earth and skies.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

Merry Christmas to you all!  

Our Weekend - Disciple Now

We had the best weekend.  Each year our student ministry hosts a disciple now weekend here at our church.  Its pretty much a weekend retreat but done here at home.  We had an amazing speaker - EJ Swanson who joined us as well as an awesome band - The Justin Teseniar Band.  They led us in our worship times and we love, love having them with us.  Our group was really challenged this past weekend and so many students made steps in the right direction, increased their faith, grew in Christ and even accepted Christ as their Savior.  These times are so special to us, we are so thankful for being able to do this with our youth.  We have an amazing group of adults and college students who set apart their weekend to help host students in their homes, drive them all around town, feed them, lead them in bible studies, cry with them, laugh with them and just pour into their lives.  What a blessing to see our church come together to teach and love teenagers - so precious.

Justin and I love this weekend for so many reasons.  Since its just our group we all get the chance to make deeper connections.  Each group is divided by age and gender for their small group times.  Those times are so important to the students.  That's where real discussions, fellowship and sharing happens.  We also enjoy this weekend because we get the chance to plan every detail.  We plan the activities, the theme, the small group questions, etc.  We prayed and prayed over this event this year and it was awesome to see each and every detail work out.  God's hand in this was present from the beginning months ago and He was faithful until the end yesterday.  We saw students who we have been praying for- for a really long time - whose heart was burst open wide for Jesus.  It just doesn't get any better than that.

One of our big activities for the weekend was an Amazing Race challenge.  These guys were revved.  They came dressed in their war paint, their thrift store finds and whatever these guys are dressed in below.  We had stations set up all over town where they went and completed tasks to receive their next clue.  It was so much fun!  Shout out to all of the awesome adults who braved the cold and helped run a station.  

Our theme for the weekend was "One".  Justin and I had prayed over this for a while and this just kept coming up for us.  We just believed it was perfect timing to focus on unity, togetherness and being one with each other the way God desires us to be.  It was so cool to see this group really work on unity, to forgive and reconcile, to reach out and to have true fellowship.  I can't say enough how awesome it was.

We took several weeks working on a big photo prop.  We wanted to get a pic of every student and have them all together on stage for the event.  We also grabbed photos of our town, schools and church.  We wanted it to be a symbol of us coming together as One to bring God's message to our area.  We decided to use instagram and we printed them using prinstagram.  This company was awesome - super fast and great quality photos (and I'm just saying that because I love them).  We used foam board and photo mounting tape to get them all together.  It was kind of a tedious process but so worth it.  We are planning on doing something more with these later.

Justin and I cherish these moments.  Its such a blessing to be able to do what we do.  We have amazing students who are running after God and we are so thankful to get to be a part of their lives.

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend!  I will be here tomorrow co-hosting the GFC blog hop with The Life of a Not So Ordinary Wife so make sure you come back and link up!  Its a great way to meet new bloggy friends!

Linking Up Here:

Passion Conference 2013: In it to End it.

Please excuse my absence last week, we had the privilege of taking our college students to the Passion Conference in Atlanta, GA.  Sitting down trying to do a recap of our week is posing to be rather overwhelming.  There was so much that took place, so much that we learned and so much I want to share.  One post would not do it justice.  So for now, this will be a brief recount of what happened, later I will have more to share.

If you aren't familiar with Passion or 268 Generation, take a look over at their website.  They exist to see a generation committed to serving and loving Jesus.  This year 60,000 students filled in the Georgia Dome for four days of amazing worship, teaching, learning, growing and awareness.  It. was. crazy. - to say the least.  That is a ton of people - there were no shortages of lines (our hotel was fully booked and some days we had to wait over an hour for the elevator...we were on floors like 55 and 60 so stairs were a last resort, even though we had students go for it!)  But even though there were crazy crowds and insane lines our students didn't seem to mind much.  They gladly joined the crowds and were excited to enter worship each day.  I was glad to be among them - they really are a special group of people.

Thoughts on the Sessions
So Passion has a pretty good track record for bringing in great communicators - Francis Chan and John Piper are always there.  I really enjoyed both of these messages last week.  I loved that Chan focused on the simple yet powerful truth of God's word and how we can absolutely trust it.  When God says He will be faithful when we are faithless - we can count on that.  John Piper always delivers a message that stretches you. This year he preached out of the passages of Hebrews 10, 11 & 12 which unfolds the pattern of power to endure and embrace the suffering in the path of love for the cause of liberation - it was good, I will just tell you that.  Go and read those chapters if you haven't in a while.

Passion has launched a new awareness campaign that focuses on shining a light on modern day slavery.  The movement is simply called End It.  Our hearts were completely burst wide open on this subject while there.  We learned so much about this issue and its something that I feel compelled to share here on the blog.  There is too much for one post. So each week I will share something that I learned (or have learned since) about what's going on in our world when it comes to human trafficking and forced labor - what's being done and what we can do about it.  You might find some of it staggering, I know I have.  Thank you Passion for opening our eyes to such a grave injustice and challenging us to be in it to end it.

Thanks so much for letting me share about our week!  I pray that God would do immeasurably more than you could ever imagine in your life.  Have an amazing week!

2012 - Is it Over Already?

I honestly can't believe that 2013 is just around the corner.  This past year has been so chocked full that I feel like I can barely believe its coming to an end - although I really am eager in anticipation to see what kind of year 2013 will be.  In thinking of this last year I can honestly say that this has been a year of transition for us.  We experienced lots of changes and have been learning how to adjust our family, ourselves and our lives to the new things.  Through this process of change I can say that I have learned a lot - especially a lot about God - maybe even more so than if things would have just been super easy.  So here is just a little look back on 2012 from this here blog and also a little personal perspective.

1.  Our big house project:  Painting the Exterior.  Ok, I think this is kind of funny because our huge project for this year (that took up a huge chuck of time) was dedicated to painting and revamping our house exterior.  The funny part is that I have never showed you a final look.  I shared the process of choosing colors, how we had lots of help, our newly painted doors, our painted shed, new lighting and the beginning of new landscaping but never did I share a painting of the house post.  That is definitely a new blog post resolution that I will work on soon!

2.  Another big project for us inside our house was working on our laundry room, bathroom and closet area (all connected in the back of our house).  I'm still working on the organization of that space as we have little space to work with so I want it to be maximized to its potential.  That is definitely an area that will see more attention again this year.

3.  I got super crafty this year - I painted silhouettes, made roman shades, pillow covers, jewelry, paint chip art and went crazy this christmas hand making ornaments and making square wreaths.  Getting crafty always helps keeps me in check, as I wrote about in this post.

4.  We had a big transition in our life this year when it came to Justin's job and student ministry.  Honestly, we look at student ministry as more of a part of our life than our job - it just wouldn't work for us any other way.  I got to start hosting girls ministry events and hosting a small group each week - both things that I have really loved doing.  This year has been difficult to juggle for me at times since I now have a two year old - who requires a lot of my attention.  I love being a mom and I love that I get to spend so much time with Silas.  It does however make it different for me when it comes to working with the youth group.  Some of the things I used to do just have to be on hold right now.  But, then I get the weekly moments with my small group as well as many other things that I still do with Justin so it has been really good.  It just took some time to figure out how to make it all work.  I'm sure that we will adjust and grow each year as our family situations change and our student ministry changes.  But over it all God is still the same and knowing that strengthens my faith.

5.  I believe this year that God has stretched us - and through that we have been taught things that we would not have learned if we had been left the same.  The greatness of God has been evident and proven over and over to us this year.  The tenderness and loving embrace of God's word and presence of the Holy Spirit has been evident - many times leaning on God's wisdom and strength to walk us through different situations.  For me, the word Faith has been brought forth many times - God has wanted me to strengthen my faith and learn how to fully trust Him in every little detail.  I pray for an increase in faith daily and God is still showing me how faithful He is.  Justin and I have definitely grown this year spiritually and I believe closer as a couple as life has changed and shifted.  God is always molding and shaping us - pruning us when we need to grow.  I'm thankful for all of that.

6.  This year I have done a lot of praying about this blog - about what it needs to be, where God wants it to go and honestly if I even wanted to continue.  As odd as it might sound I finally feel at peace with it and am excited about the direction its going.  This blog has meant a lot to me - I've put a lot of time, sweat and emotion into it (as many other bloggers would totally agree with when it comes to their own blogs).  For me it has been an outlet of sorts and also just something that I truly enjoy doing.  I'm so thankful for all of you that have been on this journey with me and continue to come back.  You guys are the best and I can't wait to see where this blog goes in 2013!

Hope you all have a wonderful New Year!  We are on our way to Atlanta for the Passion Conference and we can't wait!  I'll be sharing with you soon!!

PS - I have finally updated my project page with all of our projects, events and crafts!  Everything should be easier to find now, yay!

Linking Up Here!

Our Weekend in Boone

We have the sweetest people in our life.  Over the weekend we had a great opportunity to get away for a few days and spend some time together as a family in Boone, NC.  We were able to go because a family at our church thought of us and gave us their timeshare that they were not using.  We felt so blessed and so thankful and gobbled up the chance to spend a few days away together.  So, thank you so much John and Teresa!

Justin and I have not had a chance to really take time to explore and enjoy the NC Mountains in forever, we have gone many times as we have taken our students on ski trips every year - but those are focused trips.  We really just wanted to take the time to relax, slow down and let Silas explore - he is so into exploring and discovering right now and this was the perfect place for him to do that!  Oh, we also got to meet up with a lot of our ASU students and have dinner with them - such a sweet time for us as we have missed them so much!

We spent a lot of our time on the Blue Ridge Parkway, stopping at little trails and historical spots along the way.  Silas loved these little cabins or houses as he called them, walking though the woods on the trails and throwing rocks in the creek - all the things a boy loves.

We actually were able to snap a few family shots - something we haven't done in a long time and Silas actually cooperated.  We found that making a game out of the camera timer worked perfectly, at least for a little while anyway.

The next day we explored Blowing Rock.  I was actually pretty surprised that it cost $6 to enter - not that it is a ton of money but I couldn't understand what was so special about the views here - they were pretty and all but so were all of the views along the way, I guess its just the big rock?  Either way we still had fun and our friend Allison who is one of our college students at ASU got to come along with us - it was like old times.

Justin isn't the biggest fan of heights so this freaked him out a bit but, he quickly got over his fears and even let Silas take a look at the view.  

The last day we made a little drive to visit Linville Falls.  It was so beautiful but it may have been a little much for little Silas.  He hung in there but Justin had to carry him all the way down from the top - he just quit, haha (I laugh now but there was no laughing the .8 miles down the trail).  The trial was easy but I think a bit long for him.  He absolutely loved the waterfalls but once he saw them, he was done.

We took a thousand pictures, can you tell?  It was such a fun time, we enjoyed every second.  We have always considered ourselves beach people but there was something calming and peaceful about the Mountains that we enjoyed so much, so much that we have talked about when we were going to take our next visit.

The most beautiful thing to me was the night sky.  I don't know if I have ever seen such a clear and bright night sky.  You could literally see millions and millions of stars.  It honestly brought tears to my eyes as I felt so small under the vast greatness of God's creation.  His love and power was overwhelming.  I read a lot of verses that weekend about God's stars, creation and power.  I don't know if I've truly grasped the meaning of these words until this weekend.  Its really just pure awe and wonder.

He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. Psalm 147:4

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Psalm 8:3-4

Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing. Isaiah 40:26

If you ever need to be put in your place just go take a glimpse of the night sky (especially a Mountain view one) - thats all it will take.

There is something so precious about a few days away, I cherished every moment and I'm so thankful for the chance to do it.  

Hope you guys had an amazing weekend!  Thanks for stopping by today!