My Baby is Growing Up

We are just 2 weeks shy from Haley turning 8 months old. Here are few recent pictures of her. She is growing too fast!

The messy face picture was taken while her dad was feeding her. I'm wondering if she actually ate her food or he just missed her mouth completely!

Summer is Quickly Ending

Where has the time gone? August starts tomorrow. I can't believe how fast time flies. School starts in two weeks. Is it just me or does time seem to go faster when you are older? I can remember thinking that summer would never end. Now, I want it to slow down. I guess that is life in general.

Last week we had a garage sale. My first ever in my married life. I had never heard of having a garage sale on Thursday until I moved to Nappanee. Now I understand. Thursday is a such a big garage sale day in this town. Friday, not so much and Saturday, so so. We did really well which will help us out a lot. I learned more how interesting people are. One lady came and she is the county jail librarian. She thoroughly enjoys it and has been doing it for a couple of years. Can you imagine what kind of ministry you would have being a jail librarian? Can't imagine. Then I met another lady who travels in a motor home(the big, nice ones) in the summer and then lives on a yacht in Mexico during the winter. WOW! That's all I could say to her while she is standing in my driveway looking at a portable gas grill that we were selling. What a life? She proceeded to tell me that it is the only way to live and she is glad that she has the life that she does. Who wouldn't? Or, would I really want that? Not sure!

Like I said, it was successful and intersting. Glad it's over though. This weekend Jason and I are going away for a few days just the two of us. It's been a while so it should be fun.

My New Friend

Meet Mallory Rondeau. She received a new name while at camp!

Introducing: Betty Lou

Summer Camp Summary

Summer camp has come and gone and I believe that what took place there did not stay at camp. It came home with the students and our junior high will forever be changed. Students met with Jesus and Jesus met with students. I have never seen 7th and 8th graders worship like they worshipped at camp. Many hearts were broken and decisions to follow Christ were made. Relationships were built and walls were broken when it comes to hanging out with people that were not friends before. A desire to be apart of something significant was evident. It was by far the best junior high summer camp that I have attended and I have been to many.
Prayer was huge. God showed us that even the smallest of prayers matter to Him. The day we went to Cedar Point the skies were overcast and the forecast predicted 60% chance of rain. Well, the sun came out for most of the day with only about 15 minutes of sprinkles. Not even enough to get wet while back at the camp, it was a torrential downpour. We had many occurrences like that. We set up a prayer room where each group went in half hour blocks late at night or early morning. This was a place to be creative with prayer. Pretty cool to see the desperation for schools, families, countries, missionaries, and friends.

Our theme was ONE coming from Ephesians 4:4-6. "We are all ONE body, we have the same Spirit, and we have all been called to the same glorious future. There is only ONE Lord, ONE faith, ONE baptism, and there is only ONE God and Father, who is over us all and in us all and living through us."

It was so much fun hanging out with students again. I met some pretty amazing girls. I can't wait to see what God does in their lives during this next school year.

Camp was awesome but this school year will be better because of what happened at camp. God is up to something!

Puppy Love

Irish and Haley have become the best of friends. Haley's face lights up with smiles when she see Irish. Irish is always giving Haley kisses and lets her pull on his hair. He is really a good dog and is wonderful with Haley. I'm glad they are such good pals!

Encourged and Burdened

Tonight we had a small group of parents come to the church to pray for senior high camp and junior high camp. I was very encouraged of those who took time out of their night to come and pray. Some drove somewhat of a distance to come. It was neat to hear their prayers and the desire to see not only their own child grow at camp but others as well. Thanks to those that came!

My heart is burdened for the junior high girls. For some reason, God has really placed a desire to pray for these girls. They face so many challenges and choices today. They are the same choices and challenges that I had at their age only magnified by 1000. Satan is definitely working and trying to put everything in their way so that they don't see the face of Jesus. I am amazed at everything that is available to these girls today. I sometimes have to stop and think if I was exposed and tempted in the same ways as today. Was I sheltered? Probably! Why did my life seem to look different? I don't know. Are times different? Sure they are but, kid are still kids.

My prayer for camp and the girls is that God will reveal himself in ways that are indescribable. I pray that 7th and 8th grade girls will find their identity in Christ rather than their friends or boyfriend. I pray that unity would develop in a way that God could only ordain in junior high girls.

I know and expect God to do amazing things! Let's go!

WOOHOO! I"M GOING TO SUMMER CAMP!

I don't believe that I have been so excited about going to summer camp in a long time. This year I am excited for multiple reasons. Here's why:

1. I get to dive into the lives of students which I haven't done in nearly a year now.

2. It will be a refreshing time for me to have a change of pace for a few days away from the duties of motherhood. Haley will be well taken care of by her grandma and grandpa Thompson. That makes going even more comforting.

3. Jason and I get to do ministry together which again, has been nearly over a year.

4. It's summer camp, so that goes without saying!

5. Most important, God is going to do amazing things this year. He is already moving at our senior high summer camp and awesome things are happening. I believe that those same things can happen in the lives of junior highers. I go back to the quote that Terry Bley said about 2 summer camps ago: "A surrendered live is an empowered life. An empowered life is a life that expects the miraculous." I believe that miraculous things are going to happen and lives will be changed.

It's going to be awesome! I'm ready to become ONE with Christ!

Click here for ways to pray for camp and updates throughout the week!

I'm Shuffling!

I have read many posts where their iPod was put on shuffle and they jotted down what came up. I decided to try my iPod. Jason and I share the iPod so it shall be interesting to see what we get. Here we go!

The First 20
1. TruDog: The Return, TobyMac - can never go wrong with the Mac
2. Go: Andy Hunter - never heard of this song
3. Grace Will Be My Song: Steve Fee
4. End of October: David Crowder Band - gotta love Crowder
5. Here in Your Presence: Ross Parsley
6. The Luckiest: Ben Folds - this song was played on our wedding video
7. O Praise Him(All This for a King) : David Crowder Band - another Crowder song!
8. Would You Leave: Everyday Sunday
9. Faithful: Steve Fee - I have to admit that I have never listened to this song
10. Be Lifted or Hope Rising: you guessed it, David Crowder Band
11. Wholly Yours: David again
12. Made to Love: Toby Mac
13. Angel of Harlem: U2
14. Sweetest Thing: U2
15. Here is our King: David Crowder Band - We must really like David!
16. Anthem: Tree63
17. Reach: Jill Parr - never listened to this song
18. Strange Dream: Andy Hunter - not sure
19. He Reigns: Newsboys - love the Newsboys
20. You Make My Dreams: Daryl Hall

I do have to say that I am somewhat disappointed about the selections that came up. They are good songs but there are others that I like better. What are you going to do? Ok, Jason, it's your turn to try and let's see what you come up with since we do share this iPod!

A Book That I Love!

I'm kind of behind the times when it comes to reading books. I don't read much because I'm not sure what kind of books I like and honestly, since high school it has not been enjoyable. I have many people around me who read all of the time and talk about the latest book that they just finished. I obviously cannot join in on the conversation. But lately I have been wanting to read a particular book that is a fairly easy read. It has been out for a few years now and so many people I know have read it. It is one that our IMPACT teams have read during their months of training before the trip. So, I knew that we had a copy of it at home and I started reading it a few days ago. It is, The Barbarian Way, by Erwin McManus. The preface of the book is living a life that is fully surrendered to Jesus Christ no matter what the cost. Let me repeat: A life fully surrendered to Jesus Christ NO MATTER WHAT THE COST. It is having a faith that is undomesticated, raw, and dangerous. I'm half-way through the book and I must say that is a life changing book. I have been under numerous teachings and have had conversations based on what this book talks about. I want to share what some thoughts from Erwin that have made me think based on what I have read so far.


Erwin states in the beginning of the book this statement, "Perhaps the tragedy of our time is that such an overwhelming number of us declare Jesus as Lord have become domesticated - or, if you will, civilized. We have lost the simplicity of our early faith. Beyond that, we have lost the passion and power of that raw, untamed, and primal faith." I was thinking back to what a child's faith is like. Jesus tells us to have faith like a child. A child is so simple. They just believe that their needs will be met and that they will be taken care of. I wonder if they worry, fret, panic, or stress out? I doubt it! I want the faith of a child. If I let my flesh take over, I will struggle to have a child like faith but if I let Jesus take over, I believe that my faith will have passion and power.


He goes on to explain what a person that chooses to be a barbarian looks like. "The barbarian way is about love, intimacy, passion, and sacrifice. Barbarians love to live and live to love. For them God is life, and their mission is to reconnect humanity to Him. Their passion is that each of us might live in intimate communion with Him who died for us...Barbarians are guided by the wind of God and ignited by the fire of God." This kind of life seems so easy to live out. Hang out with people and love them. How hard can that be? I think that is the easy part. There always seems to be something hard about sharing Jesus with people that you have begun to have a relationship with. You begin to wonder what they might think of you. Will you be persecuted? Will you be made fun of? Will you be rejected? All of those could very easily happen. Those are the risks that we all must take when living the barbarian way. If our lives reflect Jesus the way that Jesus meant for it to, then I think that people would want to know the Jesus that we talk about. They would want to have that intimacy with Christ. I want to live a life that is contagious that people can see that I love Jesus.

It's easy calling ourselves Christians. Everyone is a Christian. Being a barbarian is not what everyone is. Being a barbarian is following Christ not matter what the cost. Jesus' orginal call was so simple, clean, and clear: "Follow me." I done being a Christian, I am a follower of Jesus Christ.

While You Were Out

While Jason was away, I did some redecorating. I had a lot of help from Jason's brother and mom. They did so much for me! Anyway, this was a complete surprise to Jason. When he would call home I had to pretend that his family was not here and there was never a mention that we were painting. Now mind you, this was something that we talked about doing before he left but never made it final. It's kind of funny because one of the conversations I was having with Jason I was telling him that his dad came over to fix our grill. He was greatful but wished that his dad could have painted also. It was hard not saying anything but little did he know that when he walked in on June 25, his living room and kitchen would be a different color. He liked it and was surprised!

Here are some pictures of before and after!

Living room and kitchen before!

Living room after and kitchen after!