hello there,

i'm in kansas right now with the cup (cbc's yearbook). we are here to design the cover of the 2009 yearbook. after a couple of near death experiences, we arrived here at the holiday inn and had a couple of hrs of 'chill time' and then to dinner at this fabulous steakhouse. i'm still full. Sadly because we are in kansas we missed the cbc v. bbc game @ bbc. its one of the biggest rivalries of the school year. but we won!!!! yay!!! Earlier this week we had a wonderful springfield ice/sleet/snow storm (they occur every year). which got us out of school for two days!!! always a good thing but it gets me off my schedule and now ive will have been out of school for almost a week due to the trip here. Also mike and i started our engaged seminar at school during chapel on mondays. i was kinda nervous but it ended up being fun and we learned a new way of communicating which mike has preceded to use as much as possible!!! i can't wait till next week!! anyways ive been reading mark batterson's blog and i just saw a book that he recommended and i can't wait to find it and read it its called: "All i need is Jesus and a good pair of jeans." i can't wait it looks so good!!! anyway i need to get to reading. Night!!! Loves!!!

daddy's

i saw this posted in facebook by one of my friends and i had to put it on here. it is a letter from bush twins to obama's daughters. i watched it and i cried the whole way through. i know the bush twins have had their ups and downs while their dad was in office but this shows that their parents raised them right. and i know that obama doesn't stand for all the right things but his little girls prolly don't even realize the importance of their daddy's job. the bush twinsare so compassionate to these little girls that are having their life changed more and more everyday. they are the only ones to really understand what its like to grow up in the white house. it reminds me that love overarches all.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/23/bush-twins-read-letter-to_n_160318.html


it reminds me of my life and how i know my dad as my dad. he isn't pastor dwight to me, hes daddy. except for the one time i called him pd. i got in trouble for that. and he loves me for me. he listens to God and follows. he is a great provider and thinker. thanks daddy for being daddy even when you had to pastor dwight to so many other people. love you.

variety-God's choice

today im chapel during worship and i'm singing the chours of a song ive sung a million times and it all of a sudden comes alive to me:
"Desert Song"
all of my life in every season
you are still God and i have a reason to sing
i have a reason to worship

i sing praise, i will sing praise
no weapon formed against me shall remain
i will rejoice and i will declare
that he is my God and he is here!

This song has been in my head all day and today when i got frustrated or mad at my circumstances, i would start singing it or humming it. it instantly makes me smile and remember that god is always there. he has always been there for me. this past year has been rough but god is there and slowly i'm beginning to see all the good that has come from it. it reminded me that i do have a reason to worship. i'm alive. i have a great family that supports all my decisions. i have a wonderful fiancee that loves me more than life and works so hard to provide for us. i have a great relationship with my future in-laws (some people don't get along with their in-laws and hate to be around them--i thank God every day that we all get along and enjoy spending time together and that they treat me as one of their own children.) i have friends that encorage me through rough times. i have a calling on my life to change the next generation. all of these things make me want to sing praises to the God that made them all possible. this jan. has been full of changes already. jobs, room arrangements, wedding details, devotional times, classes, chapel, and just life in general. but every little change is getting me one step closer to right where i god wants me to be.

mark batterson spoke about ministry philosphies today. he talked about variety--there are over 200 types of beetles on the earth--one is just fine for me but God looks at if differently. he said that he used to get frustrated as a young minister because there was no 'order of service' recorded in the Bible. he struggled with how many songs to sing, how long prayer time should be. then he realized that Jesus taught differently when he was speaking to different people. mark is convinced that there are so many ways to do church, we as pastors just haven't thought of them yet. to be honest i was beginning to get neverous. i didn't really know where he was going with the sermon. ive heard sermons go this direction before and they ended up bashing traditional churches. ive grown up in traditional churches and i attend one now and i love it! but he went to a place that i didn't expect him to at all. he said that all churches need a 'church print.' everyone had a different finger print, with that in mind all churches needed to be different. different churches meet the needs for different people. this was where i had wanted every pastor i had heard preach a sermon on ministry go. mark said bottom line: we need to minister to people. help them change their lives. he said that his church is traditional in beliefs but not traditional in they way they taught them. at the end he showed a black/white video of his church's baptism service, he was wearing cut-off shorts, a sleveless tee, sunglasses, and a backwards baseball cap. they were in a river. this is nothing like i had seen before. but the their was one common denoiminator. he was baptizing people. those people came up out of that water CHANGED!(and in color) and they showed it. they jumped up out of that water with arms streched towards heaven and praising God. i thought that this was a great illustration of the baptism. but that excitement about the Lord that is what ministry is all about. helping people change their life with Christ. it doesn't matter how they get there-just that they do.

tonight mike and i went and picked out our wedding bands. i got to bring my home and we ordered his. this was a big step for me. i'm sitting at the counter remembering when we were picking out my engagement ring. it has gone by so fast. i still can't believe that we are under a 100 days its always been real but its really coming together. everything that we plan and set into stone for the big day just makes me remember how much closer the day is getting. and to think that i only wanted to be engaged for 6-8 months. there is no way that i could have pulled it off!!!

reflections

ive been gone a while. sorry. life has been crazy. but i'm going to be here more often. promise. i got my letter to say that i was approved by the boa to participate in graduation activities this may! i'm graduating in may, this may!!! i cant beleive it. i'm shocked that i have been in college for 4 years. ive come so far. i have changed so much. so much around me has changed. good and bad. but all of them will turn out for the good in God's timing. God is so faithful i can't even begin to describe it. i can't wait for my internship this summer hopefully at 1st. i cant' wait to pour out my time and dreams into these children.i can't wait to teach them all about Jesus. i'm so excited to see all the differences between the iowa and southern missouri districts. i just cant wait. i'm so excited to get out into the world and do something for the kingdom. i can't wait to have my own ministry, where its me and God and thats only the beginning of the story......

im taking 21 credits this semester, working 13 hrs, working for a prof 2-3 hrs a week, designing the yearbook, oh and planning that thing called a wedding!!!!! none of this is to ask you to feel sorry for me, i'm just wanted to be able to look back at the end of the semester and see that God has provided me the strength and the hours to get everything done!

we have been having spritiual emphasis services this week. our speaker is mark batterson, pastor of national community church in d.c. they have been great....here are a few of my notes:

• live your life playing offense
• i want to live my life so that its worth telling stories about
• we need to be a genersation that fears missed oportunities rather than our mistakes!
• Jesus wants to make eye contact with me
• God can recomission you
• mark also gave a brand new demension to the story in luke where peter denies Jesus three times. ive heard the story a million times and i had never seen this truth: Peter denies Jesus 3 times and then the rooster crows. have you ever wondered if everytime after, peter heard a rooster crow that he was taken back to that time he denied Christ? Satan wants to program our refexes to dwell on the bad. But Christ recomissioned Peter 3 times in john 21 and he did it in the early morning. (this never dawned on me....) when do roosters crow? in the morning!!! Jesus wants to (He did with peter) recomission us. he wants to reprogram our reflexes. He wants to help us forget our mistakes and move on. this is such a new concept to me and i love it. i never thought about it. it just once again shows me that the Bible is full of new concepts that i have never seen even thought i have heard most of them. God is so amazing!!

Christmas and New Year's

Here are a few pictures of our Christmas......

Hey everyone....Christmas was great. We had the 1st Christmas Eve service that they had had in a while. It was alot of fun. The kids had a bell choir and one of the little girls did a flute solo. A couple of the teenagers sang and played instruments. We let a soamoan church use our building on sundays and they sang a number in their native tongue. it was absoulty beautiful. I'm pretty sure that there wasn't a dry eye in the place. I read the small one to the kids and also sang. Dad read the Christmas service in conclusion. It was so fun. Of course after the service aaron, mike and i were ready to hit the road and get to the house. As soon as we were done eating our pizza it is PRESENTS!!!!! I got to open the longest because aaron got an itouch. he was so excited. mike got a garmin and dvd seasons. i got a digital camera, digital photo frame, clothes, ugg boots, dvd seasons, and a few movies.

On Christmas day mike and i got up and drove to Ohio. 10 hrs later we pull into the driveway and no one knew i was coming....so surprise....i'm pretty sure his sisters were more excited to see me than him....we had dinner and opened presents we all got giftcards and mike got a 6 foot ladder, i got a few commentaries and we got some things off of our registry. We got to meet our new nephew Matthew Christopher...he is such a doll.....We spent the rest of the week hanging with family and our ohio friends. Lots of lunches and of course bowling. it was good to go to church at Radiant Life, we hadn't been there since last Christmas. The church is growing growing growing. Its such a joy to visit. We spent New Year's Eve at mike's sisters with the whole family; but mike and i went to bed before the ball dropped. this morning we made the trip back to Missouri.

Tomorrow i have a to do list that is prolly a mile long but it has to get done!!! Here are few pictures...Enjoy!!!!