last day cupcakes

• grabbed coffee from Panera
• sent mailouts
• got to chat with one of my heroes: Ken Ladner
• Charlotte brought me a cupcake (pictured below)
• worked on my senior project
• daydreamed about Hong Kong
• soaked in one last afternoon in my office (aka: a booth in the cafe)
• sat in on a leadership meeting
• was reminded of the overwhelming love of my Father

i'm currently sitting in an auburn coffee shop.

i just picked up my cap and gown and i'm finding it hard to believe i'm actually going to graduate monday. it's been an incredible four years but i know that i'm moving forward in sync with the Lord's timing. these moments are precious to me. and as the next adventure approaches my heart seems to beat faster with even the utterance of hong kong.

joy that challenges me

this is my friend abby. she is going to be a senior in high school next year, she is an incredible soccer player, and she is one of the most joyful people i've ever known. i met abby this summer when her friend rachel brought her to an event we had with HaU. a little over a month ago abby came to m-fuge with us and on that trip, she came know Jesus in a personal way. i will remember the night she surrendered to the gospel for the rest of my life. i was walking down the hallway of the dorms where we stayed in nashville and from the end of the hallway [about 50 feet away] i could see abby grinning from ear to ear. she was about 10 feet from me when she said "guess what?", without giving me time to even take a breath and with all the volume she could gather, she yelled "I love God!". i think that she woke up everyone that could hear the sound of her voice, but her joy and excitement were not going to be silenced that night. she had come to know true forgiveness, grace, and love; and she just couldn't contain it.

today i got to sit at panera bread with abby and just talk through what life has been like for her this summer and what she is looking forward to this year. as i sat on the other side of the booth i was humbled by the burden she has for friends to know the freedom she lives in and challenged by the undeniable joy she has in relying on the Lord more everyday. she shared with me how nervous and excited she is to live her last year of high school differently. i can't wait to see how God uses abby to change the girls on her soccer team and the people that sit behind her in math class. one thing is certain, He has big things in store for this precious girl.

in the works

reason # 812 why i love my internship:

painting is on my list of projects.

verse 2

tonight i get to walk through ecclesiastes 3:1-11 with my high school girls. as i was reading through the lesson trying to fill in the gaps and make sure all my thoughts and questions flowed nicely, i decided to treat the lesson as though i was participating in it, not teaching it.

in the lesson i ask the girls to identify themselves with a "time" mentioned in verses 2-8. each pair of antonyms reveals the truth that in this life on earth, we face adversity. but as you continue to read each verse breathes this gentle reminder of a time of restoration. verses two - eight seem so up & down, yet memories begin to flood back of different lessons that have been learned throughout life's unpredictable terrain. isn't it peculiar how quick we are to forget the times we've walked from mourning to laughter or torn down only to build up again? then verse eleven brings it all to together and says, "He has made everything beautiful in its time..." wow. i love how this verse comes after all the different 'times' mentioned.

as i was thinking through my summer i came to the conclusion that i find myself most in verse 2. there are definitely other verses that are applicable to my heart and what i have walked through this summer, but verse two seems to be a nice umbrella covering of every aspect. whatever 'time' or season your life may be in, be comforted that God has purpose and vision for this season and that it will be made beautiful in its time.

"treasures"

saturday morning a dear friend, Melba, organized a rummage sale to help raise some funds for hong kong. as we unloaded donations into the youth building on friday night she continued to refer to everything as little 'treasures'. she put so much effort into making sure all the details were covered and picked up donations from her friends. as we were setting everything up i just hoped and prayed that the Lord would honor her efforts and that he would surprise us with donations and sales.

mary catherine and i got to the church around 6:20 to eat some breakfast and open the doors at 7. as we were eating we kept seeing cars driving through the parking lot, slowing down, looking at us, then circling back around. by 6:30 there were 5 cars already in the parking lot waiting to come inside. needless to say, the serious garage sale bargainers were out and about bright and early. i had some hilarious conversations with people that came through and even witnessed an argument over a flower arrangement- these women don't play. sometimes i wonder if garage salers bargain with everyone they encounter. can't you just picture them finishing their adventures and going to breakfast and bargaining for their breakfast? i think there should be a documentary about a day in the life of a professional garage saler. it would be fascinating to say the least. at noon we made our last sale, closed the doors and started to clean everything up. i had the chance to share about grace campus with a few people that came through and as i sat and counted the money from the sale i was reminded of a verse in matthew that talks about storing up treasure in heaven. the Lord gently reminded me that in the midst of selling an assortment of people's earthly "treasures" that he was preparing me to go share heavenly treasure with people half way around the world. at the end of it all, the Lord blessed me with over $750 from the sale that will go as a one time gift towards my move. it was so neat to see how he's still piecing everything together a little bit at a time.

the picture below is the result of little sleep and my brilliant sister's solution for me raising support.

little reality checks along the way...

yesterday i had to say my first good-bye that wasn't follow by the phrase "oh, i'll see you before you leave." this good-bye was a real "i don't know when the next time i'll see you again will be" good-bye. these aren't getting any easier lately. i know i will see people again. i dont want to sound dramatic like i'm saying good-bye forever. but there is a reality to moving across the world, and slowly i'm meeting that face to face. i'm definitely still so excited and convinced that hong kong is exactly where i'm supposed to be for the next season of my life. i'm just really going to miss these people.

people that i love

[group photo from m-fuge 2009.]

their faith has changed me.

their love reminds me that i belong.

intern days

I have the best internship in the world. I am learning more and more that I still have a lot to learn. But in the midst of all my learning, I am having so much fun. Yesterday, I went to see the movie 'Up!' with a group of recent grads. It was really good, if you haven't seen it and you're in the market for a wholesome family film- this movie is great. As you can see, we opted to see the movie in 3-D. Let's be honest, how can you turn down a chance to wear some really stellar glasses and watch a movie at the same time?

Well, along with wearing stellar glasses and going to see movies, I get to spend some great quality time with some of the girls in the youth group. This afternoon, a few of us gathered around a booth in the cafe and talked about grace. There was no set agenda, it was just time to sit and think through what grace means for each one of us. My time with them encouraged me so much and since I started to prepare for our time together I haven't been able to think about much else. While we were dead in our sin, God saw purpose in giving us life and freedom and forgiveness. Grace has inundated my mind. Whether you have 30 seconds or 30 minutes, I would encourage you to take time and think about what grace is. For once you truly encounter the depths in which it is intertwined in our forgiveness, you can never be the same.

camp fire chats

This past week I have been spending my nights in a weather-sport tent in the chilly Colorado weather. I loved every moment of our trip out there. Something really incredible happens when you stand in the middle of God's creation. Not just to stand, but to stand embracing what is around, turning off your cell phone or your iPod [or music playing device of your choice], putting down your camera, tuning out conversation, not thinking about what is happening tomorrow, but standing and focusing on how beautifully God has expressed His creativity all over this planet. It's humbling and refreshing. Another really neat part of the trip is camping out with a bunch of high school seniors, excuse me: high school graduates. Camp fires seem to naturally draw people together and this week one of my favorite moments happened Monday night around the camp fire. Our whole group started out seated in a circle and four of the seniors led a devotion. Then we toasted marshmallows until they were golden and delicious. As the night grew later, the circle seemed to be getting smaller and eventually there were only ten of us left circled close around the warm fire. Some of the students had already gone to bed and others were just tucked into their sleeping bags to get out of the cold. As we laughed and made surface conversation, one of the students looked up from the fire and said, "Let's talk about something controversial." So the conversation began...I believe the topic that sparked it all was predestination/freewill. I don't want to give you a script of what was said or all the different opinions that came together that night. But I do want to share the end result, which was, as each person began to share their thoughts and questions, one topic inevitably led into another thought or question. About an hour into our camp fire chat, I realized that we were meeting with the genuine hearts of our students. They felt free to speak honestly and openly about where they were. It was such a reminder to me of how important community is. And in that same thought, how important it is to be vulnerable with one another. It was so neat to have the privilege to ask them hard questions, to encourage them with truth, and to watch them open up and to hear how God is stirring something so much bigger in them. After about two and a half hours of discussion we ended with the thought that God has to be our deepest passion. And as His chosen people we must be convinced that a relationship with him, through Jesus, is the best thing that could ever happen.