to costa we go

So, today is Monday June 30th, which means we leave today for the airport and we fly out at roughly 6am tomorrow. due to some last minute not working out details, i have to drive my car back toward chicago and mark told me it would be cool if i just drove home and then had my family can take me to the airport in the middle of the night. so, this is what i'm doing. i will be leaving tonight at around 6pm, drive back to cp, getting in around 9:30 and then Bry and Bethany will drive me to o'hare around 1am. so i will be home long enough to grab some ice cream, take a shower and say hi to my family before heading to the airport, checking in at 3am, boarding the plane and gettin on down to dallas for our lay over and on to costa rica.
you can be specifically praying for us as we are going to be sleeping (kind of) in the airport terminal so we can get checked in and all that fun stuff. pray that things will go smoothly and that we won't run into any problems in the airport.
i get a little stressed sometimes when i go into task mode, so pray that i can still be relationally sensitive even in the midst of probably being frusterated and maybe even a little bit angry.
Thanks guys! LOVE YOU! next blog, Costa Rica.
Peace.

John 3 is good

John 3:1-21
2 verses really jumped out at me while studying this passage. v.15 and v. 21. each for completely different reasons, so i figured i'd make it a double today.
v.15 says this, " ...that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life." and the foot note says "Or believes may have eternal life in him." Eternal life...in him. what is your imediate thought when you hear eternal life? heaven right? like future, post death, after you kick the bucket, however you want to look at it, we normally don't see eternal life as something that we are in the midst of, but it SO IS! hmm. what does that mean? what does that look like? in my mind it looks like living life with what i like to call a "Kingdom" perspective. Living life with the beauty of the Kingdom of God on the front of our minds. Kingdom of God, much like Eternal life in my mind's eye is not only something that is for future! how can we live eternal life now? if i had that question figured out i'd probably be making more money than i do right now. but i think simply living for nothing other than Jesus. the problem is that as easy as it is to type it, living on that, against years of selfish habits and patterns is really stinkin hard. i guess that's why it MUST be done in the power of the Holy Spirit right? I truly believe that God wants us to grow in Him and if we ask for the tools to do that, i know He will not withhold that from us. so ask him. what does eternal life RIGHT NOW look like?
the second one was v 21 ""But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." So often we still want to live in the dark don't we? we have secrets we never tell people, we have things that deep down we are too afraid to share becuase of what we think other people will say, think, or even do. have you ever been in a conversation where someone really opens up and shares some struggles and is just completely honest? bringing things to the light that they may not have shared before with anyone? its quite profound, almost always, you're judgment of the person doesn't change, dispite the secret. in fact often we respect that person even more for sharing what they are struggling with for talking about it. i'm not saying to go spew your guts to anyone who says "hi how are you today?" but i am saying that we were built for community, we were built to live life together and i think, no i know, that we MUST have people in our lives where we get things into the light. leaving things quiet often lead to satan using them to kill you slowly from the inside out! by sitting on sins, hurts, anxieties, and other things, we just let them stew and fester until we finally cannot stand it any more, wouldn't it be so much better to just say it out loud when it happens? when the thought first enters your head, to identify it and bring it to light? where there is light, even a little bit, there can be no darkness. by living in truth, claiming it, living it, we allow God to be the center, the one who works in us. our openess, not fakeness, is what people would see and admire. then maybe people will quit thinking that Christians are perfect. but see us as we are, fallen human beings doing our best to follow the guidelines that God set up for our own good and for His own Glory.

rain rain go away....

It started raining last night around 9:30pm and it didn't stop until around 10:30 this morning. it is also forcasted that it is potentially going to be storming more today. we did not evacuate because it was just heavy rain and not any sort of dangerous weather. pretty much all of our tents are at least wet. after last summer's 3 flood outs this one brings back that twitch i just finally got rid of. i slept in sperts of 15-30 minutes last night, every time the rain, wind, lightning and thunder would pick up i would lay on my cot and pray that God would just cover our camp with his hand and not allow the weather to get severe. Severe weather means evacuation of a few hundred students, staff, and families up to a smallish rec center that is about 500 yards from where our camp is set up. the middle of the night while it is pouring is the worst time for that.

other than that things are going pretty well around here. our team seems to be shaping up nicely and for the most part really loves eachother and what we're doing here. i can't believe we leave so soon for Costa Rica!

heaven or what?

Each day down here at training camp... especially student week... is like a week and a half. except you still feel like you've only had 6.5 hours of sleep... which is mostly true. I was talking to april this morning and she informed me that it was two days till thursday, i could have sworn it was already wednesday. man alive. oh wel, i guess i'll keep on rollin. i'm normally a 8-9 hours of sleep kind of girl so the switch to between 5-7 has needed some adjusting time, i don't know that i've done that super well. luckily, i'm not the only tired sr. staff, so we all try to sneak away occasionally and get a few zzz's. Our students are all getting the full 8 hours (lucky). so you can be praying for my rest.... also my health in general. i'm feeling alright for the most part, but boy itsd difficult out here some moments.
i just finished reading an article on foxnews about how religious americans believe that their religion is probably not the only way to heaven. ?WHAT? here's a few quotes, "America remains a nation of believers, but a new survey finds most Americans don't feel their religion is the only way to eternal life — even if their faith tradition teaches otherwise.The findings, revealed Monday in a survey of 35,000 adults, can either be taken as a positive sign of growing religious tolerance, or disturbing evidence that Americans dismiss or don't know fundamental teachings of their own faiths." ... "The survey shows religion in America is, indeed, 3,000 miles wide and only three inches deep," said D. Michael Lindsay, a Rice University sociologist of religion." ... "Nearly across the board, the majority of religious Americans believe many religions can lead to eternal life: mainline Protestants (83 percent), members of historic black Protestant churches (59 percent), Roman Catholics (79 percent), Jews (82 percent) and Muslims (56 percent)."
These quotes absolutly floor me. they even make me sick to my stomach. here's the article if you want to read it. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,370588,00.html . its stories like this one that make me overwhelmingly aware that it is not only about sharing my faith, but about truly making disciples who fully understand and grasp the Word of God and it's teachings.

4:30am

our team decided to talk after the song tonight.... bummer. that not only means early morning for them, but one more night of REALLY limited sleep. starting to really drag.

If i could just sit with you a while....

John 2:13-16
When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!"

its funny... or not funny i suppose, that when we think of Jesus clearing the temple, angry that the people had made the house of God something other than what it was, we think to ourselves "man that's terrible that people would be selling animals in the Temple!" Then i think of the attitudes that we bring into our faith (not just the church) which are not glorifying to God. Long and the short of it is that the selling of animals was basically greed and selfishness, how often does our greed and selfishness get the better of us in the church? OFTEN! how often in my faith am i motivated by self? OFTEN! we tend to forget so quick what it is all about. its all about Jesus. if we were to take 5 honest minutes looking at ourselves, we don't have it all together we don't 'get it'. we are broken, wounded, fragile, and we have a loving God who has the ability to take all of that and make us whole. with this perspective, it is almost impossible to have self as the focus. looking at my heart i can almost hear Jesus telling me from time to time, "Get these attitudes out of here! How dare you turn my dwelling into something that does not bring my Father glory!" rather than allowing this to be a condemnation, i accept the Grace God offers and thank him for the push back to the important, back to his throne.

"If i could just sit with You a while, if you could just hold me
Nothing could touch me though i'm wounded, though i die
If i could just sit with You a while, i need you to hold me
Moment by moment, 'till forever passes by"
-Mercy Me

pictures!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019201&l=f7ea5&id=163800297

STUDENTS ARE HERE!!

TC is totally buzzing with tons of people buzzing around this place. i cannot explain the energy and excitement. i did the moring airport runs. we left for the airport at five am and i had the awesome responsibility to get about 25 high school students from their terminal to a shuttle that took them to the church. all flights were in on time or early! praise God! Weather hasn't been bad. mostly hot and clear with warm evenings. luckily i had my tea...

pray as the students are here.

here it comes... ready or not.

This is steph and trav's daughter. she is currently my favorite baby in the world. we had our egg breakfast for our staff and i think i gorged myself on eggs, ham, potatoes and onion until i just about burst. deffinetly not typical for a royal servants team. but yummy none the less. we've been playing some frisbee with our group and tonight we have our comissioning for them and we head to chicago tomorrow to begin picking up the students(!!! AHHHHH) so i don't know if i'm quite ready because i'm really enjoying our staff at the momet. things are a bit laid back today and i'm hoping to get some last minute phone calls to friends and family before life gets REALLY crazy. you can be praying for me, i really miss home and friends this summer like i never have before. i mean, don't get me wrong it is AMAZING to be here and i have made some outstanding friends here on the hay field, but there's something about this summer that has me missing home more. on a happy note. my sr. staff cracks me up so hard and yet challenges me all at the same time. we have such a good mix of personalities that we really work well together and are a very cohesive team.

OH the joy...

so the day is wrapping up, i have to be up in less than 7 hours to do it all over again. so i should probably be in my tent by now, but oh well. i'm in the office and this mondo roach just scurried from under my computer almost touching my hands... ew. drove into canton today to get some stuff for our staff's comissioning service and we stopped by good will... i found a really great little girl's "high school musical" sweat shirt that is most deffinetly too short in the sleeves. love it. the other sr. staff here are so amazing that i can't really tell you. we have a lot of fun together, including jamming out to MMbop. (thanks Bryana!) and enjoying Mark's ninja skills.
wow.
i need sleep.

thoughts on John 20:16

this is two days ago's thoughts.....

{Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).}
Rabboni. This morning in one of the teachings, John chapter 20 was read, verse 16 just flew off the page at me when Mary realizes who Jesus is and responds "Rabboni". what does that mean? why that word? Jesus had just been crucified and Mary expects to find his decaying body in the tomb and is horrified when it is not there. She beggs a man who she assumes is a gardener to give back the body of Christ. Once he says her name... Mary, she knows it is him and the first and only word she could proclaim was Rabboni.
We hear the word "Rabbi" several times in the new testament and at that point is was a fairly new term. The word has 3 basic forms and 3 basic levels of importance. First is "Rab" which was "Master" these are men who in rabbinic schools had been comissioned. it was the lowest of the titles. Second is Rabbi, which was "My Master". These men were comissioned by the Sanhedrin and were given a key and a scroll, the key they wore as mark of distinction and they not only had disciples but their disciples were prepared to raise up disciples of their own. Third and utmost importance is "Rabbon" which is "Great Master" or "Rabboni" Which is "My Great Master". This term is pronounced (Rahbonee) and is a title bestowed upon a Rabbi who had seen two generations of disciples. Their names were always added to the title so that they would not be forgotten.
This history excites me and gives me such a cool insight into why Mary said this. She saw Jesus as above any of the Rabbis in the assembly, raised from the dead. This moment she reaized that Jesus Christ was no longer in the grave, but now living, breathing, walking, talking and standing right behind her. In a moment of clarity "Rabboni" was really the only thing that she could say, and was quite possibly the highest spiritual appointment she could think of.
I think when i see Christ, what is my first reaction? "oh hey God" or "cool there's Jesus"... but what about "RABBONI!" Jesus Christ! one above all who have any spiritual influence and knowledge. Aknowledging Jesus as THE one.

First of all.

Here i am. i'm going to try out this blog thing. I like to write about a lot of random things, like the fact that a mole scurried accross Bryana's foot yesterday and i had to carry her back to her chair because she was convinced she had both fleas and the black plague of death. but i also like to write about what the stink is goin on in my head.... like how Mary's response to her first Christ encounter post Calvary was "RABBONI!". .....so here it comes. Costa Rica '08.
may God be glorified here.