Restin' and Relaxin'

Gabe and I went to Myrtle Beach over my Spring Break with two GREAT friends, Phil and Kylee! We used Phil's parents' time share for an entire week, and it was fabulous. We didn't hit the best week of weather, but we made up for it with great memories.

Pictures tell the best stories, so here you are.

Phil and Kylee....full of laughs!


We fed these nasty fish at a place called Broadway at the Beach.

On one of our first days there, Kylee and I convinced the boys

Playing at a park when the sunshine was nowhere to be seen....

I love this picture of the four of us!

We are silly and took pictures at all of these things around Myrtle Beach.

We played Phase 10 every single night! The competition was fierce, I tell you.

Kylee and I at Barefoot Landing in North Myrtle Beach.

What a wonderful vacation for my husband and I. We needed to get away to rest and relax, and we did just that. Thanks, Phil and Kylee, for the AWESOME memories. You guys are the best.

As of lately...

I love that it is 7:15 and it is still light out. Spring is on its way here in Indiana, and I cannot be more thrilled. Gabe told me it was my turn to update our blog; I am sorry for the delay! Life has been busy, busy, busy for me, and I just didn't find the time to write on here. This has the potential to be boring, but I thought I would tell you all what has been happening in our lives lately.

• I have learned the basics of making jewelry. Well, I have actually only made earrings, but I am still proud of myself. My two great friends Kylee and Marcia are amazing at making jewelry, and I have learned from them. A great hobby for me!
• My sister and her husband, Joe, are going to Montana this summer once again. They are working at a family camp out there all summer! God is so faithful in their lives.
• Gabe's brother Joe and his family moved back to South Africa in February. We were able to spend a few months with them home which were completely wonderful. It was hard to see them go, but Gabe and I know that God has amazing things planned for them in Africa.
• We watch one TV show a week together....religiously. The Biggest Loser. Neither of us had seen this show before, but now we are hooked each Tuesday night at 8:00.
• Since watching Biggest Loser, we both have been more motivated to be aware of our health. We are eating better and getting more exercise! It's great to be motivated together!
• Each Thursday night, we head into our church office to participate in Financial Peace. You've probably heard of Dave Ramsey, the financial gu-ru. Along with four other couples, Gabe and I learn a TON about getting our fiances in order and how we can get out of debt and stay away from it. It has been so beneficial for us.
• Last Wednesday night, we had the youth group over to our house for a game night. Wow. We had 35-40 people in this house. If you have ever been here, your eyes are probably wide. All went well except a child's soda exploding on the walls and doors in the living room without him knowing about it. Hmmm...how does that happen?
• I LOVE being on the Experience Team at church. We are a team that works behind the scenes to create an atmosphere for each church service. We work on art pieces on the stage, in the hallways, and as people enter. I get to go to a big conference at Willow Creek in June and am totally pumped about getting more involved.
• We are getting excited to go on a Spring Break trip with our dear friends, Phil and Kylee. It is less than two weeks away! Hooray!
• I spent this past Saturday in Ft. Wayne at Jefferson Pointe with my mama. She is amazing and we needed a day together. Shopping and talking is what we do best. She is one of my closest friends.
• I am learning tons as a teacher. God is teaching me to totally rely on His strength each day and ask for wisdom. I try too hard to do it all on my own. I have fallen down flat often in this job, but He is so unfailing to me. I love teaching, but it isn't always easy, and I think that is good for me. I need some challenges. :)
• I am going to read the "Twilight" books over Spring Break. It's my goal at least.
• Tomorrow is March 10th. Gabe and I will be married for ten months tomorrow. How did it go this fast?
• We love our small group at church. We meet every other Sunday night with our close friends and study the Word, discuss its meaning, pray, drink iced tea, and laugh. We are blessed to have found wonderful friends.
• Gabe and I find a date night at least once a week and look forward to that time together. When we got married, the common advice anyone gave us was "Keep dating each other". We have taken hold of that advice, and it has brought us so close. We watched Slumdog Millionaire the other weekend. See it....you will LOVE it. I am so glad it won all of the awards. Such a story of hardship, faithfulness, and complete redemption. Mmm. Powerful stuff.
• Besides being together, Gabe and I have taken advantage of "boy" and "girl" nights. Right now, Gabe is playing "Settlers of Catan" (yay Austin Rampey!) with a bunch of his friends. I love that we have those close-knit groups of females and males.

God sure has been good to us. We just took a walk today and talked about what we are thankful for in our life together. There is so much. We're definitely looking for how God will mold us and grow us in this spring season. Enjoy your day!

The finale of the bus situation

I think our bus problem is over. After I wrote that previous entry, I got a guy's number from the Bridge that Chris Mishler told me to call. I called this guy, Andy Drummond, and he told me that he works with Best Way Disposal (a garbage company in Anderson) and he has 1 other unit that he's in charge of. Check this out - his unit is in Kalamazoo, Michigan - where is the bus stuck at? Kalamazoo, Michigan. Oh God, how I love your sense of humor. Andy called up there to see if they could do anything and their mechanic just happened to be on vacation. So I get that bad news and start to move forward with something else, when I get another call from Andy Drummond that goes something like this...."Gabe, the manager up there heard what I was calling about. He said he was going to send his guys over and fix it" I had a little hallelujah break down and was dancing...not literally, but I was amazed once again. Can this story can get any better?!? It actually does. The past week and a half or so, I've had some great alone time with God. When you really encounter Him and experience Him the way I have been lately, it's hard not to want to! This whole experience turned from a bad situation into what seems to be a life changing one for me atleast.
Now the ending: I get a phone call this morning, it's Andy. The crankshaft was broken (if you know what that means, I'm proud of you, cuz I don't) and the slack adjustor was not in alignment (I DO know what that means! So I'm proud of myself for that one). Anyway, Best Way up there towed it to their place, fixed everything and I get the call this morning that they are on their way down to Anderson with the bus!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! I was going to be planning a day where I drive to Michigan to pick it up!!! Wow.
I'm sure this is so much more powerful to me since I'm the one actually experiencing it. I hope I've written this well enough for you to understand and be able to put yourself in the situation to see how everything was out of my hands. If I had control of the situation, how much more stress would be in my life? How angry would I have gotten over things? Instead, when we let go of things we have no control over and just sit back and watch God at work, we are mesmorized by His awesomeness.
It got me thinking back on my life and experiences with God. Can I see His awesomeness? I know that's probably not the right word, but there's no perfect way to describe Him. I feel like if we have never seen God in His glory and to any potential "awesomeness" then I fear that maybe we have missed him, or we may never have really experienced Him. Our eyes are closed too many times to the beauty of God around us.
I used to think the only way I could really encounter God was when I was out in nature, because it was all He created and I could see His hand in everything. I never would have thought in my whole life that my greatest encounter, my greatest vision of God in my life...would be on a bus.

The Great Bus-capades!!

The ski trip is finally over and I'm home! To say it was an eventful trip, would not be enough to describe what all happened. Everything up to the drive home was pretty normal, good conversations with kids, picking on the kids, everything fun we could do, we did. I had a great time. But then it was time to leave, and since I was the bus driver, I was not looking forward to the drive. I was tired and just wanted to be home. Then a girl tells me she left something - side note - how come no matter how many times you tell kids to check to make sure they have their stuff, they never do it? I have a new appreciation for parents of teenagers after this weekend. I could tell you some ridiculous stories of teenagers just being idiots! Anyway...since this was a girl, I didn't have the heart to say no, so we pulled off since the hotel was on our way home anyway. As we were getting ready to get back onto the interstate, I felt my steering wheel get a little tight. I wasn't sure if the power steering was bad or what, so I stopped to get out and check it. Everything looked ok, so we continued on down the road. As we're going down the interstate I see I-94 but it says toward Chicago, so I didn't think we should get on there. Once I passed it, Joel told me that's where I needed to go, because it split and I would end up heading east. Since the bus was just not feeling right to me, I decided to take it down another exit for some reason where there was a gas station. As I was pulling off the exit ramp, my steering was getting harder to do. Then a buzzer went off saying "no air pressure" - I have air brakes, so that meant "you have no breaks right now". With a bus full of 22 kids, I was praying hard. The light was coming up and I remember praying "God, put your hand in front of this bus and stop this before the intersection." If I could take a picture of where the bus landed, you would believe God heard me. I was 1 foot behind the white line...safe.

At this point, my body is kind of freaking out. I have never driven a bus on a long trip like this before, and the first time I do it, it breaks down. Ok God, what's the lesson? I did everything I knew how to do on that bus and there was no way it was going to work. When I opened the hood and knew it was the air compressor, I remember praying a funny prayer. Is it weird to pray over an air compressor? Not last night it wasn't! But it didn't work. I always hear stories of how God does some crazy awesome things in situations like this. So when the air compressor just wouldn't work, I almost started to laugh thinking "What are you going to do now God?"

A nice lady and her family finally stop to help us and give me the number to a wrecker so I can get it towed. When we finally get that set up with the wrecker, I called the police. There was nothing in sight of the bus that was safe to walk to with the kids, so I needed the cops there to help us stay safe and legal. As I feel like we're getting somewhere with a plan, God begins to work. A man starts walking towards the bus, I get out to greet him jokingly ask, "are you the bus mechanic I was praying God would send me?" Obviously, he wasn't, but he kept asking me questions about who we were, really not much about the bus. He then said something that about got some tears out of this guy. He said, "I go to church right over there. They're having church right now, but there is a youth room that we could put them up in. We also have a bus, I can see if they'll come pick your kids up so they can get out of here safely" Wow.

In the meantime, I had called our bus mechanic from Anderson. He and his wife had already started the 4 hour drive to pick us up on a different bus. The sad part is, we would get home around 3 in the morning. I felt so bad about all of this, but obviously it was all out of my control.

The kids were great in the church. That church's youth was still around, so they were playing games and stuff with them. The church bought everyone pizza and they were just having a great time together. I, on the other hand, was stuck out in the cold with the wrecker waiting on them to send a bigger truck. We made some conversation and I got to know his story a little bit. But I was looking forward to getting home so much more even now.

I got to the church and was greeted by everyone! Everyone was so great to us. After a little while of us being in there, the youth pastor came and asked if we wanted to try and meet the bus that was coming up there which would safe a couple hours. (YES!) So to try to wrap this up, we met our bus and got home around 1 in the morning.

Think God doesn't know what he's doing?
-a girl forgets her stuff, causing me to pull off the interstate (this is when my steering felt funny)
-I miss our exit
-I skip the following exit (not really sure why - now I know why)
-Our bus happens to stop before the white line
-there just HAPPENS to be a church through the trees next to us that we couldn't see
-there just HAPPENS to be church that night
-the guy who helped us (I left this out of the story), should not have been on that road, but he got a call from his son that night and ended up passing us twice (once on the way home, then on the way back)
-His church just happened to have a bus...and the bus driver was at church that night
-They bought us food
-Our bus mechanic and his wife were going to drive 8 hours total just to pick us up

Everything happened exactly how God wanted it to. You can see how all these events just happened to unfold like they did. But it was no coincidence. When the kids left with that church and I was alone before getting on the truck with the wrecker, I had a very real moment/encounter with God. I had a few tears (I was fighting it!), but I saw Him working right in front of my eyes. It was just moment after moment after moment.

I could've reacted different and gotten upset or whatever I was feeling. But in those moments when you're scared cuz you have no options and you don't even know what to do, you can find peace when God says, "Be still and know that I AM GOD". Powerful...last night was powerful, I hope the kids see that. Definitely a memory maker. Sorry this was so long, it was just an incredible time last night.

Now I have to figure out a message. I'm speaking to 5th graders at Libby's school today!

Winter - how I hate thee

This is Gabe here. Is anyone else sick of winter? I thought after last week's snow storm we would be done with it. But instead, Anderson was under a level 2 emergency this week because of more snow. Most of my family knows, or people close to me, that in the winter I get a little "depressed". Not like I need counseling depressed, just feeling the winter blues. Well, it hit me this week. I was starting to hate it and get irritated by it all. I know during the winter, I have to keep myself extremely busy to avoid these feelings, but I still had them!! I don't get it! I even started planning ahead...like really far ahead. Working on camps for the summer, figuring out every aftershock we have until the end of the school year. Just trying to find things to stay productive and keep busy so I don't think about the cold and the snow. The one part I love about winter though is that I exercise a lot more. I feel like that is my drug, it keeps my spirits up and I feel better about life when I do that. But yesterday, I couldn't fight the feelings. So I sat at home waiting for my small group kids to get to my house and I kept looking at my Bible sitting here on the desk. I thought to myself "what have you learned today?". I know many times when I get with kids, I ask them what they are learning. Most of the time it's a cliche answer "God loves me". Ok, I learned that when I was 3. So how do you KNOW God loves you? How do you feel it? So instead of asking kids this question, I started asking myself that question. How do you know God better today than you did yesterday? Then I began to read and instead of just reading it to read it, what stands out to you? What part of the verses really speaks to you? Here's what I got...
In Matthew 13:34, "Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable"
I love the book of Matthew, I always have. But I never thought about this verse before. It stood out to me yesterday. Why parables? Because it helps us understand. Think about it. When Jesus says He loves you, how do you feel? Does it even sink in? Now when he relates to 100 sheep and 1 goes away, how he looks for that 1 sheep because he cares so much for each sheep. Does that hit you different? Well, it does to me. When I speak to people, I use stories, lots of them. Why? Because then we get it! Then it makes sense!
For instance, I talked sunday to the youth about how valuable we are to God and taking off the mask that we put on to become someone we're not to feel valuable. I could've sat up there for hours just saying "You are valuable" but do they ever get it? Probably not. So I used a story relating to art. A real Van Gogh painting that he painted could cost around $80 million, but I could go to Barnes and Noble and get a poster of one for about $8. What's the difference? The real painting was the one Van Gogh put his time into, he was in front of that canvas creating the art, his thoughts, his brush, his everything goes into that painting. It was a reflection of him. People want the real, genuine painting and it is worth a lot! That's how we are to God. He created each of us and spent His time, His life, His value into us. We are the image of God. So why do we put on masks that cost $8 when behind that mask we are worth $80 million? God puts so much value into us, and when we recognize that value, we'll never want to have our mask on!
That may not be a parable, but it sure makes me feel more valued and loved than just thinking "God loves me". It's broken down for us to understand it. I think that's why Jesus did it, because our minds can't fully comprehend the depths of His love. Challenging, yet encouraging. I hope this encourages someone today - that your life is worth living, that God puts so much value into you.

I debated writing this blog because I was scared I might offend people, but then I realized, it's the offended that need to read this.
This week I had to go to a bus school to learn bus safety and all that fun stuff. I'm doing it for the church, don't worry, I'm not quitting to be a bus driver! But as I sat in a class of 70 people, I looked around at everyone eating their donuts and drinking their big gulp coffee and it hit me how fat america is. You see it on the TV, you hear about it all the time, but does anyone do anything about it? Libby and I have gotten into watching the Biggest Loser and it has been inspiring for us. There's not nearly as much junk food in our house, we both are going and working out together. I don't just do weights anymore, I'm trying to get my body fat actually down. While this is good for the 2 of us, i can't help but think about the countless others who just don't care. I see people around me that are overweight and they blame it on genetics. If you think about it, it is genetic. Mom and Dad are lazy and overeat, so I guess that's what I do too. So genetics are things passed down to your kids. What kind of example do your kids have in front of you? This hit me this week. I have a horrible sweet tooth. If I could eat only desserts and be ok, I would!! I love dessert and snacky junk food. But I also love the thought of being healthy enough to run around with my kids, to keep up with them. Not just that, but for my future grandkids. I know that is a LOOOONG way off, but when will I decide to get into shape for that? For some, it's too late. Being healthy starts now, no matter where you are in your life, you have to make the decision to get on the right path. I know 30 minutes a day is tough to think about, but I think it's tougher to think about your kids or grandkids growing up not knowing you.
There's a lot I'm thinking about and I'm sure not everything is very clear in here. My biggest point is just to challenge people to think about their bodies. You only have 1 body, whether or not you like it, it's yours to take care of. How are you treating it? If you can't afford a gym membership, get an at home thing - I recommend the P90x video series. I promise that if you stick with that, it will work and you will lose weight. I talked to my trainer about it and it's been the trend lately to do, and for good reason! It's an awesome workout program and will hopefully help motivate you and get you on the right path for healthy living. I'm sure not many people even read our blog, but I'd love to be a part of helping America not be so fat! So quit reading this, get off your butt and go move around :-)

It's not about me....

I'm sure I need to preface this for those of you that read into things too much :-) Everything I write in here is in no way intended to lift me up at all, merely to show God's plan is bigger than my own. Also, I love my wife so so much, more than I thought I could love another human, so don't misread anything :-)

The reason I say that about Libby is because she is gone this weekend, and I was looking forward to a weekend of Gabe time. (that's what I thought you might read into) I never not want Libby here, but sometimes I really need alone time. It's the way I'm wired and it's healthy for me to be alone! But I learned something tonight, as it's 10:3o and I should be working on my message instead of writing on my blog. I learned that what we plan for our lives, may not always be in line with what God has planned for our lives. Here's why, since Libby is gone all weekend, I had things scheduled for ME, for what I wanted to do. I knew saturday would be great because I could talk my message out at home instead of hoping no one would be at the office so I could do it. Which there is always someone there, oh well, it's not Gabe's office :-) But my plans got "wrecked".

Friday night, I wanted to have fun and do my own thing. So I rode with a cop friend of mine to watch him bust the bad guys. That's always fun for me. I'd enjoy being a cop I think! But then my saturday completely changed from what I expected. I hung out with some middle school boys which I didn't think would last as long as it did, but it was good and I enjoyed it! But when I got home and started to talk out my message, my accountability partner called me up and asked if we could get together earlier than we planned. We were going to watch Team Impact, which are these Christian bodybuilder guys that break stuff and preach, pretty cool. But I went out with him to his in-laws house, then to the show, then he wanted to hang out and talk after. I love hanging out with this guy and talking with him, but I couldn't get my mind off of the stuff I still had to get done tonight. But as the night went on, we kept talking about ministry things and what I do and he started to challenge me. He was talking about getting rest, and actually resting spiritually. I feel like I go go go all the time that I never take the time alone for myself to really rest in God. I get so caught up in what I need to do that I don't realize I'm hurting myself more than I am trying to make things right.

Not sure if that made sense. But this whole day did not go how I had it planned out to go. As I sit here and when I came home to unwind a little before I got to work, I got to thinking about things. The ministry is not my ministry, it's God's ministry and He is using me. As I sit and worry all day as I'm with these kids and with this guy that needs to talk with me, I am actually doing God's work. I get so caught up in ME and what I want or need to do, that I don't even stop to think that God has me taken care of. Sure, I need to work on my message, but don't you think it's more important for me to be in the lives of all the people I was with today? Don't you think God sees that and used me for that reason? Instead of thinking about your message, don't you realize that it's God's message to these people, it's not your words, but His?

All that to say - God will take care of His plan. I can't control His plan, but I can help carry it out. Sometimes we think it's all about me and what I think should be done, but God comes in and "wrecks" our plan to fit what He sees needs to be done. Too many of us have the "me" mentality, but it's really about pursuing God's plan for our lives and changing to a different mentality. So as I'm sitting here writing this, I'm encouraged because I know that I had a fulfilled and purposeful day doing God's plan and not my own. So now I'm going to go talk out my message and spend some time resting before I go to bed. I love saturday nights, 5 hours of sleep if I'm lucky :-)