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!

Climbing Higher Retreat

This past weekend, a small group from Mt. Carmel joined some other youth groups in the area for a retreat called Climbing Higher. This was a really great weekend, and the small group of Mt. Carmel students really provided the opportunity to get to know each other better. It was also really fun to see all my MLUPC friends who I don't get to see very often!

The band "Brother" led worship, and each session was really amazing! The students learned some new songs that impacted them and it was such a blessing to see my students really getting into worship and praising God. This is certainly an exciting thing for a youth leader!

The speaker focused on these verses from Romans throughout the weekend: "Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing, and perfect will" (Romans 12:1-2). It was so interesting to hear the students' perspective on what the pattern of this world is and how we can change our lives to reflect the pattern of God's world. Here are a few pictures from the group sessions this weekend.

Complete Gratitude

It's been awhile since I have read a book that was just a story, and I am now reminded of how much I love to read them! I came across this book while on an afternoon trip to Barnes and Nobles (one of my favorite things to do!) Last year, I saw the movie The Kite Runner and was really moved by it, so I thought this was a good choice.

This is the story of two women who grow up in Afghanistan in the late 20th century. The book begins with one young girls story, then moves to another girl, and then continues to tell the story of their lives together as wives married to one husband. Their stories are full of hardship and oppression. They experience the transformation of Afghanistan from a place where they have a life of freedom and carefree childhood to a country in which women are treated terribly and forced to live in fear. Fear of their husbands, fear of the government, and fear for their own safety in the midst of a country full of warfare.

The way in which the author tells the history of Afghanistan through the lives of these two women is incredibly powerful because it doesn't seem like you are reading a history book, although you are learning all the history just the same, and from a very intimate perspective. The history element of the story becomes especially interesting when the day of September 11th is described. There were many times that my heart actually hurt while reading this story. The suffering and loss these two women experience is truly tragic, and I often felt a portion of this heartache right along with them.

It seems cliche to talk about how lucky we are in America to not have the same struggles as these women encounter, but I was reminded of this reality while reading A Thousand Splendid Suns. I am reminded of how blessed I am to be treated as an intelligent and worthy person. I am reminded how blessed I am to be able to go for a walk and enjoy my neighborhood. I am reminded of how blessed I am to have a job, especially one that is typically seen as a male role. Perhaps the biggest blessing I am reminded of is the blessing to be marrying a man who loves me and would never ever want to hurt me, a man who supports me in my dreams and helps me pursue them. So many women in our world do not have this experience.

Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in my own life, in my own relationships, and in my own future. These are the times that I need a wake up call to keep me humble and keep me grateful. Reading this book was one of those times. Although it tells a tragic story, there is a sense of hope in the end and a reminder that even in the midst of complete tragedy, we have been given the gift of love, and that we need to recognize this gift and enjoy it! I won't give away anything else, so I will close by highly recommending this very powerful book!

"Spring" Cleaning

Winter has begun to take its toll on me this year! I long for the days of flip-flops and sundresses and eating ice cream outside! At this point, I would settle for a day when I don't have to scrape my car windows in the morning!

The mess in my office was driving me crazy today so I thought I would do some cleaning and organizing, with the hope that "spring cleaning" would make it seem warmer outside. As you may have guessed...it didn't work. In fact I think it got colder in here! I decided to give into my craving and look online for spring stuff. Come soon warm weather!!

On Cooking

Since trading in cafeteria cuisine for whatever I can whip up, I have taken a great liking to the art of cooking. I never thought that this chore could be quite so enjoyable! Recently, I was reading one of my old issues of Real Simple (great magazine!...and not many annoying ads!) I came across an article entitled "10 Things Cooking has Taught me About Life." I really enjoyed reading the author's list about things she has learned from cooking and it made me think about the lessons that I myself have come to learn.

Here is her list, and then I added a few of my own!
1. Small gestures can make a big difference
2. Cheap thrills are closer than you think (she encourages readers to grow some of their own food, which I can't wait to do someday!)
3. Control is overrated (I've learned that having others help you is much more important than having it done your way)
4. Sing if you must, but stop thinking so much (it's just like singing in the shower, and it really helps me to enjoy cooking!)
5. There are always second chances (this is huge for me! the good thing about cooking for just myself is that nobody has to know if it turns out bad!)
6. Substance beats style every time (amen sister! I would take a good old hamburger over tiny pretentious portions any day!)
7. We all have what it takes to create something (this is the great thing about cooking...whether it's mac and cheese or filet mignon...it's still cooking, and you still get to eat the final product!)
8. Communicate, any way you can (she shares the story of how cooking with her family allowed for conversation about challenging stuff)
9. your instinct may be the best, but it's your's
10. Less really more (this may be my favorite point because somedays there is just nothing better than a grilled cheese and tomato soup, or a good old PB & J...extra crunchy on the PB of course!)

Now it's my turn:
11. Cooking=total stress reliever! This may be the opposite of some people, but for now in my life, I look forward to cooking after a long day...really takes my mind off of the busyness of life.
12. It really is more blessed to give than receive I totally agree with this when it comes to food...I have found that cooking for others is a great way for me to show how much I care about them! Hopefully they see this as a blessing!
13. Wonderful bonding One of my favorite parts about living in a house of girls this year has been the time spent together in the kitchen. I love sharing recipes and creations with them, and I love it when they share theirs with me!
14. Great excuse to shop If you know me at all, you know I love shopping, pretty much any kind! Since I have gotten into cooking, I have really come to appreciate the wonderfulness that is William Sonoma, Pier One, etc. Sometimes I just like looking at pretty dishes or cool appliances or even mixing bowls...don't judge!

So that's my list, hope you enjoyed it!

Movies

I have always been a movie lover, but now that I am out of school, I seem to have more time to spend watching movies. Although 2009 just began, I have had the opportunity to see some very great and powerful movies. Here are my thoughts on three of them:

I went into this movie with no idea what it was really about and sort of indifferent towards seeing it. I'm glad I did though! If you are sensitive to cursing, then this is certainly not the film for you. Honestly, I am usually opposed to so much cursing and offensive stereotypes in a movie, but Eastwood depicts an unfortunate reality in this film. Eastwood's character is a Korean War Vet and still harbors serious racism against those of Asian descent. This was sad to me, especially when I realize that there are so many people just like him who are racist still today in America. Although Eastwood's character is very rough around the edges, and is not appropriate for children and younger teenagers, the movie does an excellent job of depicting the power of transformation that comes out of having compassion and kindness. It takes a very unlikely person to make Walt (Eastwood) change his views about others and about himself. A Chinese teenage girl who lives next door decides that she is not going to give up on Walt, no matter how terrible he is towards her. Walt ends up protecting her family on many occasions, and teaching her brother how to be a man. Without giving away the ending, I will just say that this film has a variety of redemptive qualities and it depicts the power of grace and sacrificial love in a way that no other film ever has.

Now this is an incredible film! Defiance is the story of Jewish brothers living in Europe during World War 2 who come home to their murdered family, and realize that they must escape to survive the Germans. The movie doesn't focus much on the war itself, and it certainly doesn't glamorize war, it depicts some very tragic and graphic realities. Rather, it tells the true story of brothers who start a community in the woods to avoid their German attackers. They take the responsibility of protecting and leading all the Jewish escapees who join them in the woods. They are constantly on guard, and often on the movie to avoid being discovered. This movie is an incredible commmentary on human suffering and overcoming obstacles that I can't even begin to imagine. This movie tells a story of hope in the midst of a hopeless situation. One of the most powerful lines in the film for me is when Daniel Craig's character is speaking to all the Jews in the group and he says, "We may be hunted like animals, but we must not become like animals." The journey of these people depicted in the film chronicles their desire to do just this, maintain their humanity. This true story is incredibly powerful, especially because it seems as if stories like this one aren't often told. I would highly recommend this film.

Also, a great movie. Tom Cruise was excellent in this film about a secret mission to kill Hitler. Not only is this movie very entertaining, but it is also incredible to hear yet another story about World War 2 that seems to be hidden from history. I know a thing or two about history, so I knew the outcome of this mission, but the film still had a way of keeping me in suspense.

Family Christmas

Things are starting to go back to normal after the craziness of the holidays. I can't believe it's already 2009! This Christmas was really great. I got to see a lot of family and Nolan got to spend a lot of time with them too. Here's some pictures of the family downtown.