My brain is a big, fat, fried egg.

It's 7pm on the west coast...and I have not stopped going since 7am yesterday morning! The last 36 hours, minus the 7 hour pause for sleep, have been jam-packed with meetings and seminars, and my brain is fried!

We had a corporate-wide training seminar on support raising, along with a team meeting for our planning committee for "Tsunami," an event in Spring '05, which I will mention later. For now, I only ask that you look confidently at the computer screen and cry out in a pensive, whispered voice, "Tsunami!"

All of the 24 hours of meetings and seminars were helpful, informative, challenging, growing, etc...all of it will help me be a BETTER leader for my kids....

BUT after two days of meetings, I miss my girls, and I can't wait to catch up with a few of them tomorrow.

When I told Carrie that I wouldn't be at school for lunch on Tuesdays like I always am, she said, "but, you'll call me, right? or--I'll call you!" I said, "call me whenever you want." During my 20 hours of meetings, she called five times. I feel loved.

Be Exalted, O God.

Yesterday morning, I sat in my seat at Arlington Free Methodist Church, (my new church home,) and I cried out to God. The worship songs yesterday were just that--worship. We sang, "Be Exalted, O God among the heavens. Let Thy Glory Be Over All the Earth." We sang more. "Lord, I give you my Heart, I give You my soul. I live for You alone. Every breath that I take, every moment I'm awake. Lord, have Your way in me."

Lots of things about my job and my life have felt so confusing lately, and it's easy to ask God WHY it's all so hard. And I should not have been surprised that yesterday's sermon would include passages about Job. I remember the responses that Job received when he cried out, "why?" so instead of asking God WHY, I cried out with praise....be exalted....Lord, have Your way in me....

I hope that my praise will be a blessing to Him.

consumerism and the holidays.

Tomorrow, as a fun activity for my Monday Night Girls...we are spending the day at the biggest shopping mall in Washington State. I'm not sure if it serves a spiritual purpose at all, other than I will spend lots of time praying and fasting throughout the event as I squeamishly accompany four 15-17 year-olds around the mall.

Pray for us...for safe travel and a safe, fun time at the mall on the day when we're supposed to be honoring Veteran's....which we are, I guess, by exercising the freedom to purchase material goods.

The Sty in My Eye Has Gone Awry.

I am very proud of that rhyming Title, you know.

Anyways...so, my eye is starting to swell shut because of this lovely sty..but I did get to use my Health Insurance for the first time today to have the very friendly Physician's Assistant say "Put a Warm Compress on your eye, and if it's not better in 2-3 days, call me." Oh my.

I really think it will be fine, and the whole process was rather entertaining because my roommate is the main office girl at the Doctor's Office, and her dad is one of two MD's in the practice. Therefore, the attending PA who checked me out referred to me as "practically related." It was all very friendly and fun.

Now, if only my eye will quickly return to its normal, pain-free size, then I will truly rejoice.

Scrapbooking Queens.

One of my girls showed up to Bible Study last night with ten more pages filled in her worship journal. It included sketches, quotes, clippings, a few brainstorming webs, and a paper mosaic rainbow....

The other girl made a pastel drawing of a cross with Jesus' name written across it....

My girls are AWESOME!

quote-unquote

"Lord, I crawled across the barrenness to You with an empty cup uncertain in asking any small drop of refreshment. If only I had known You better, I'd have come running with a bucket." Nancy Spiegelberg.

Quote taken from an article by James Gottry, which you can read here.

"Worship is what we are--

living, breathing, walking arrows that are always pointing to Christ." --Jason Morant.

There's this poster hanging on the wall in my office with this quote on it from Christian musician Jason Morant...and I read it everyday wondering if I'm an arrow pointing to Christ.

Last night, the Monday night girls and I discussed worship again, and I was amazed to see two of the girls return with pages and pages filled in their worship journals with photos, candy wrappers, journal entries, and sketches! It was great.

We meditated on Psalm 95 while listening to Barber's Adagio, and I read a passage about the Incarnation from Madeleine L'Engle's Bright Evening Star. At the end, the girls said "Awesome." It was my fervent prayer that last night could be a time where we could draw together in the presence of God, and we really did. And the best part--is that the girls understand that it's not limited to my living room or Monday nights...they are beginning to understand they can meet God anytime and anywhere...and that's so encouraging.

A few of my favorite kids at The Mud Hut last Monday Night. Since costumes were optional, we turned out to be the brave few... 

The aftermath of cooking with the Monday Night Girls in my apartment a few weeks back. The scarier part was when all we walked into the grocery store fifteen minutes later covered in floury handprints. 

A Weekend of Small

I spent all day Friday and Saturday in Moses Lake, WA at the "Rural Youth Ministry Conference" designed as training for youth ministers working in non-urban areas.

Besides getting to fellowship with lots of other youth workers from Washington and Montana, I also got to spend time with some of my favorite YD/RE staff, which was certainly a blast (especially when it involves an extremely animated game of darts, in which i promise that i did not break any darts....okay, wait. i cannot make that promise.)

I was reminded of a few key points about my ministry work here in Arlington: #1--none of my work or programs will succeed if they are not birthed out of prayer and God's leading. #2--in order to discern which doors God is opening and which He is closing, it means you may need to actually walk through a few without knowing if it's going to open or close. #3--I am meeting more and more youth workers who have been doing this for 20+ years, and their wisdom is inspiring. It inspires me to not become an "average" youth worker, who bails after 2-3 years....because it seems like it takes at least 5 years just to get your feet on the ground anyways (I am still only committed to YD Arlington through June 2006, however. No long-term planning yet.)

Yesterday, I returned home to my own Small Ministry to take two of my unchurched girls to my church in the morning and go running with one in the afternoon. It is certainly a privilege to spend time with them and be a part of their lives...and I'm just very curious about where God is going to take them this year.