Trusting God in every aspect of life...

I've been sitting here for the past few minutes pondering what I want to write about. I know what I want to say I just don't know how to say it...

In this moment in time in my life things have been extremely hard for me. I feel like I am in a time of battle and I don't know what to do. I don't mean to sound cryptic in my writing, but I don't think everyone needs to know the specifics of my life, just that I am in need of prayer BIG time. I know that God has my best interest in mind and that He is taking me down the path He has set out for me and that most of all, He loves me. Please just pray that I will have a peace about all the things going on in my life right now, good and bad.

I apologize for being such a downer in my blog. I'll try making the next one funny or at least not so cryptic. :-)

I have been commissioned...

Yesterday at church our London Team was commissioned. I have never actually been commissioned before and I always thought of it as sort of nerve-wracking. And let me tell you it was... at first. I really dislike getting up in front of a bunch of people I don't know, who don't know me and that are all staring at me. Now I know that they are not only looking at me, but also looking at the 12 other people standing up there, but it's still intimidating. One of my fears going into it was that when our pastor asked people to come down and pray for us that no one was going to come over to me. My fears came true a bit, but it turned out better than I suspected.
Let me tell you what happened:

• First Service (The Scary One) People began coming up to pray. Lot's of people were heading for Mike on my right and whoever was on my left. Finally after what felt like an hour (it was probably about 10 seconds) Anthony Lammons (he works at CBU) and his daughter and a student from my Bible Study came up to pray for me. Relief washed over me.

• Second Service (The Awkward One) Again people begin coming up to pray. Again lot's of people were heading for Mike on my right and whoever was on my left. Finally a lady comes up and it looks as if she wants to pray for Mike but there are too many in front of Mike so she suggests everyone links hands, which I do, awkwardly take her hand because some other lady takes Mike's hand as I went to reach for it, and she prays. This was probably the most awkward of all of them because the lady didn't know my name so when she prayed for me she called me, "This young one here." This makes me think she assumed I was one of the high school students going.

• Third Service (The Awesome One and maybe a bit awkward): This time when our pastor asked people to come up I could pick out the people coming towards me. Mainly because this is the service with many of our students and they know who we are. The funniest or maybe a most awkward moment of the whole thing was that when Jon McWhorter came up to us he put his hands on mine and Mike's shoulders and I reached up and patted his hand. Now my whole meaning behind this was to say thank you nonverbally. I am hoping that's the way Jon took it (Jon- hopefully you will read this so you know my meaning behind it) and I hope there will not be an awkwardness between us now. I told Mike and he thought it was funny. As I write this I think I am thinking I need to write a post about how awkward I can be (that will be for another day). Anyway, this one was very cool having our students support us in prayer, even if it was a bit awkward too.

I looked up commission on dictionary.com and this was one of about 20 definitions:

to authorize; send on a mission.

I think this is a great definition for what we are a about to do! We are being sent to do a a mission for God and we may only come back with a few results, but we are doing what Jesus commanded us all to do in Acts 1:8. This time next week we will be done with our first day of ministry and I'm sure tired, but I believe it will comfort me to know that our church will be praying for us and especially that we have students who are praying and supporting us too. So, even though I was dreading my first commissioning experience it turned out to be pretty sweet!

Remember to check out our London Blog: lovatosinlondon.blogspot.com

A Case of Mistaken Identity...

Over a month or two ago I wrote about how Casey Angulo links me on her blog, which I'm not gonna lie, made me extremely excited! Needless to say, I told you I would give you the funny story of the first time we met.

It was probably about 4 or 5 years ago now and we were at some kind of youth rally (I think at Woodcrest. Sorry, but I'm bad with the specifics). Anyway, at the end of the night there was this time for prayer and I ended up being in a group with Mike (my husband), a random student (I think) and another girl (Casey) who I thought was a student of ours named Katie. While we were praying I prayed for Katie (or Casey in this case) by name. Not the most embarrassing moment of my life ever but I didn't even realize what I had done until a few moments later when we were done praying and Mike introduced me to Casey.

In my defense it was quite dark inside and in my opinion Casey and this other girl Katie look a lot alike, other than the fact that they are probably about 7 to 10 years apart in age. For some reason this case of mistaken identity has always remained a memory of mine. Now every time I am going to pray with a student I make sure I look at them first to make sure I say the right name.

I now have Casey linked in my "Blogs I Read" section! Go read her blog, it's pretty sweet!

Makin' Some Changes

I am trying to give my blog a different look, so if there are some weird names or titles on it for a few days do not be alarmed. I didn't change the name of my blog, hopefully just the look!

Just a Few Words...

Today was a lazy day. This is a day I haven't had in a long time. It was good for me and also not so good for me. For those of you who know me well, know that I'm a worrier (is that word?) and it is always something I am working hard not to be. Some people also may know that I struggle with anxiety, so this does not help me along. I tend to be in these states of anxiety and worry mostly when I am doing nothing. So, today was a particularly hard day for that! It is something that I am working on trusting God with and it's getting better, but I guess we all have our days! The good part of my day is the fact that I actually took the day to do nothing but sit on the couch and read (except for the hour we went out to do London stuff). I am now more than halfway through Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and I am pretty sure I will have it read by the end of the week if not in a couple of days. Well, there are my few words for you, not words of wisdom, but just some thoughts from my head.

My S.H.A.P.E.

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about where I fit in ministry in the church. For the last 7 years I have been involved in youth ministry and while I love it I have been thinking lately if this is where I'm really supposed to be ministering... until this week. At our church this week is a little thing we like to call VBS (Vacation Bible School). I have been teaching second grade all week and let's just say...whew! I am exhausted. I am pretty sure that I have found my shape and it's not children's ministry. I love the kids, I love that they love me already even though they barely know me and I especially love that they have this joy about loving God at such a young age. The things I don't love is constantly having to count and make sure we have ten kids, singing and doing hand motions for a total of 45 minutes a day and the fact that our theme is sports and all they want to do is play baseball in the classroom. At one point this week I actually thought, "I do not want kids!", but then I came to my senses and realized that there is no way I would have ten kids at once or even ten kids total, so I felt a little better. Only two more nights of what I call pure chaos and then I can get back to what I do best... loving on high school students!

Oh! Check out my other blog about Mike and I going to London.

Well, we just got back from camp last Friday and it was awesome! It was probably one of the best camps I've been to and if you know me that's saying a lot. Below are some pictures from Hume in San Diego. WE are leaving today to go to the Student Leadership Conference at Saddleback. I will post more about both this weekend or next week!

Ingimar... What! Our large rec team won!

What are Mike and Ben pointing at?

We went to a church and fed some homeless people! It was amazing!

Inviting some people to the meal at the church!

I'll post more pics later!