The wait has almost come to an end!

This week brought some very exciting news for my church, Mt. Carmel Presbyterian Church. We have found a new pastor!! Ever since I started at Mt. Carmel, we have been without a pastor. It has been truly incredible to see the ways in which people have stepped up in leadership and the church has grown in numbers and in faith! It has also been very challenging for me as a brand new youth leader to be without the accountability, mentorship, and leadership that a pastor can provide. His name is Mike and he has two kids who will be in the youth group which is also a bonus!

One of the incredible ways God has revealed Himself in this process is the timing. This coming August it will be three years since the church's previous pastor left the church. This is the exact same month that our new pastor obeyed a call from God and started seminary! Talk about God choosing someone and preparing them for His work!!

He still has to preach before the congregation so that they can vote him in as the official pastor, but hopefully this part of the process will go well!

Job Shadow

Mallory is one of the Senior girls this year that I have had the opportunity to get to know. She attends a different church, but has come on a few trips with us and comes to various events. Mallory will be graduating in June and going to school for youth ministry (wahoo!) As part of her senior project, she had to do a job shadow with someone who does the career she would like to pursue, so she asked me! She came in and spent the morning with me in the office doing odd jobs, asking questions about being a youth leader, and she even wrote an article for next month's youth newsletter!

It's so exciting as a youth leader to share life experiences with my students and it's such an honor to know that some of them want to do ministry! It was a fun day with Mallory, and she is one of the many seniors I will dearly miss next year!

I love my youth group!

Somedays my job is crazy and stressful, but then there are moments where I sit back and realize that I think that I have the best job in the world! Wednesday afternoons are often a highlight of my week because my high school girls come hang out in my office for small group. Yesterday, I thought it would be a typical Wednesday, but my youth group girls decorated our youth house and threw me a surprise wedding shower!!! It was so sweet and lots of fun! They had yummy food and awesome presents! Thanks girls! This is a picture of a few of my girls raiding my office! They made this picture the background on my computer and it makes me happy every time I look at it! Rachel is the girl in the middle. She is a senior this year and leaving me soon!!! She is the one who put the shower together and I love her! The other two are Jordan and Lauren who also helped with the shower. They are sophomores so I get to hold onto them for a little while longer!

Update

It has been awhile since I last updated, sorry about that! A lot has been going on around here lately, and things have been very busy!

Last weekend I took a much needed trip to Philadelphia to visit my best friend Abbie. We had a really great time and it was so nice to just not have a schedule for a few days! We did lots of shopping and I bought two dresses that I absolutely love for my shower and rehearsal dinner.

That brings me to what else is new....our wedding is in less than 2 months! Ah! I am looking forward to this day sooo much...and I won't be sad to say goodbye to all the planning, although its been fun! I decided to change the look of my blog for a little while to reflect the wedding (green and brown are the colors).

In a little over two weeks I will be going to Colorado for about 5 days to train for Teen Community Bible Study. I am really looking forward to this trip because I have never been that far west before!

Hope to update again soon!