birthday pictures and thanksgiving

i'm so excited for the holidays! my mom and sister are visiting (less than a month from now) and lots of friends i haven't seen in ages are coming home. it's going to be so good. and it all starts this week!

thanksgiving will be pretty different for me this year. i'm going to be at a training for family camp on thursday and friday morning and our "family" thanksgiving will be friday evening. we bought a huge turkey at mistletoe market at rosslyn and have invited other americans (and south africans, the love it) to join us. i'm supposed to make some pies today because i won't have time on friday. hopefully some of the ones we've invited will be able to make it, but it seems like everyone is traveling this week.

this week is also the last of youth group meetings for the year. there are only like 3 weeks of school left. this coming sunday will be the last "real" meeting and the next weekend will be youth christmas parties. there will be cookies, costumes, and white elephant gifts. i will post pictures for sure.

this past weekend after youth group we went out to dinner at diamond plaza (indian food). so good. i had some pretty significant conversations with some students. i LOVE that i am able to speak the truth of the Gospel into their lives and though it offends some of their beliefs and lifestyles, they still want to hang out with me and tell me all their crazy stories, and get advice. it's truly a miracle and blessing. i love them. and i had the high school leadership team over to our house last night for waffles. i love watching them grow in their leadership. two of them are sharing their stories this week at youth group. they are so nervous. it's going to be wonderful.

today i rode with a dear friend to the airport to collect her lost luggage that'd been found. the airport isn't very far away but it took a few hours. we got to have some really good conversation. Praise God for relationships! what a sweet friend. God is so faithful to provide and place people in our lives to bless us and show us more of Himself.

here are some birthday party pictures and hopefully i'll get some good thanksgiving ones. some day i'll catch the pictures up to go with the blogpost instead of always promising pictures later.

happy thanksgiving! i am thankful for you!

retreating and visioning

is visioning a word? spell check isn't pointing out that it isn't so i'm going with is.

this week we went on a strategic planning retreat. a great friend and amazing leader from winshape wilderness came out to facilitate. sometimes just being in her presence makes me feel better about life. she's someone from home. i love it.

tammy seems to be an expert on teams, vision, strategy, or maybe she's just an expert on facilitating things. at any rate, she did a fantastic thing with us. THANK YOU tammy!!!

we spent about three days talking about the vision, mission and plan for our organization. it's all at once frightening and exciting. we talked about 10-year plans and goals. we haven't talked specifics about that before. it's crazy how it makes the day-to-day easier and more exciting when you know where you're going and why you're doing the things you do. again, thank you.

we stayed at a house in the rift valley. people keep asking me where it was and i don't really know how to describe it. i never remember places and how to get to them when i don't drive there. and i've not driven myself on any of these roads before even though i've been there. the area was beautiful! i love living in kenya so much. we were in the hills so it was cold in the morning and at night and really hot during the day. our last night at about 4:30 a.m. the sky fell apart with a huge downpour. i was sleeping under a tin roof so the loud sound woke me. when the sun rose i looked outside, but couldn't see anything because of the low clouds and the thick rain. lovely. i tried to let it lull me to sleep, but my thoughts stayed with the muddy, rocky roads that got us to the house. the rain cleared up during breakfast at which we celebrated clay's birthday with chapati, eggs, bacon, and chai. delish! and, don't worry, we made it safely down the mountain. the mud was already dry. :)

this is the view from our porch. great rift valley. stunning. God is so good.

after the rain. you can almost smell this picture. ok, well, i can remember the smell anyway.

our retreat was from sunday to tuesday and the friday before was the football (soccer) finals. the school where most of my youth group kids attend was in the final. sadly, they lost the game to a team they've already beaten twice. such a heartbreaker. here's a pic of me giving relationship advice (ha! as if i knew anything about relationships!) during the game. and then all the fans on the field doing the soccer cheer one final time. i LOVE their soccer cheer. it gets me really psyched and i'm not even a student there, nor have i ever played soccer. except that once on the intramural field when i ran AWAY from the ball and then that other time in Western where i just laughed the whole time and ran around.

thanks for reading about me! keep praying!!!

thank's mom for having me!

yesterday was my 27th birthday. wow. this is not where i thought i'd be at 27... its way better! i LOVE how we can make plans all day, but the Lord directs our steps. and He is good.

i remember (painfully) when i was a teenager sometimes asking my mom why she even had kids if she dislikes me so much. that was usually followed by a smack or being grounded. now that i hang out with teenagers all the time i understand the smack and groundings. i see so much of my self in some of these girls and guys. i find myself thinking, wow, sorry mom, all the time.

these 27 years have been pretty darn good. thank you, mom, for having me. i know it hasn't been, and probably still isn't easy.

yesterday morning some of the students surprised me with a birthday party at java house before school! they're amazing! maybe i'll have pics in a few days. i didn't take any, but i think hannah did. there were balloons, flowers, cake, and presents! pretty sweet!

and last night the homies (this is what i call my housemates/teammates) took me out for sushi. awesome. and lauren made rum cake! delish! they're so great!

the homies (but lindsay left already and stu and lauren aren't pictured here)

today is the soccer finals at rosslyn. it's a big deal. i'm excited. and i had breakfast with a really sweet student this morning. this is a praise and a prayer request!

here are some pics of youth group that kim gave me. aren't these guys great?!

this is my girl hannah. we were giving the guys some advice about how to ask girls out.

i know you're not supposed to have favorites but....

ok, who am i kidding? they're all my favorites. these are the "under-appreciated" hot boys. haha!

thanks for keeping up with me and praying for me! God is faithful!

quotable

Things I’ve heard lately:

“I have been in youth group and I have never met youth leaders like you guys before.”

“to redeem is to love and to be redeemed is to love back again.”

“Bye!” Graham, in a strong southern (no, more like country) accent, as he’s walking backwards up the hill waving to the dog while Lauren is slowly walking backwards beside him slightly tugging him up the hill.

“so…I’m going home tonight,” says Lindsay in my room this morning.

“So, Kim, what’s up?” Tom to Kim at lunch today in reference to why she's single.

“We had a good conversation on the long ride home after youth group last night and I just want to thank you for what you do.”

“Um…Amanda…what’s gender mean?” Middle School youth group.

Amanda: “When is a guy ready to date?”

Middle School girl: “When he’s mature enough for a relationship.”

Amanda: “Good luck with that ladies.”

Amanda: “Dating is…”

Middle school boy: “A waste of time!”

“I think that’s right, but I just don’t want to believe it right now.” about a scripture passage studied at youth group.

“YAHTZEE!”

“We are just underappreciated. If the girls at our school only knew how hot we are compared to boys in America…” high school boys not thinking that I’m listening to them from the front seat of the car.

all in a day's work

leadership team for middle school youth group (plus david, the tall ginger in the back)

things have been really busy for me lately. i'm working so hard to prevent and treat burn-out as i have seen some early warning signs in my life. THANK YOU to Anne Jackson for writing a wonderful blog and publishing a very helpful book and burnout and ministry. i've been very deliberate lately to take a Sabbath (usually on Monday) and make sure i get personal time with Jesus every day. it's tricky to do when part of your job is studying the Bible and reading books about spirituality.

my busy-ness looks different every day and not everyone would call it "work." and I LOVE IT. and i just want to tell you about my tuesday...

6:30 a.m.: run with my new sweet friend and running partner mina. she's a gem!

8:00 a.m.: then i wrote some emails for camp: scheduling two phone interviews and sending out some applications. and worked on the message for youth group on sunday: moral boundaries and spiritual disciplines.

11:00 a.m.:from there i went to the copy store to get some things printed for sunday school. 12:00: then i took some pizzas to rosslyn for lunch. it was the prize from middle school youth group a few weeks ago. the kids were like, "i don't know what this is for, but thanks for the pizza!" not exactly what i'd planned, but i always love seeing them at school and they were pretty excited and felt special for getting pizza during lunch.

1:00 p.m.: from there i took hannah home and took out her weave and dyed her hair. yeah, i know that sounds random, but she's in the play and a pretty little blonde with green eyes and playing a Anne Frank, a jewish girl. so she needed brown hair. check out the pics on my facebook page.

3:00 p.m.: afer dying her hair i went back to the copy store to explain in more detail what i wanted copies of. essentially i was having them print out all the copies for sunday school for the whole year. so it was like printed the Bible in coloring sheets. it did generate great discussion among the employees and myself.

3:30 p.m.: from the copy store i went to cheerleading practice

5:00 p.m.: after cheer practice back to rosslyn to catch the end of a soccer game and take another student out for coffee.

7:30 p.m.: i finally made it to the house for team night with the homies.

dying hair, drinking coffee, making copies, talking about God, reading about dating, all in a day's work.

this is the hair i dyed. can't really see it in pin curls.

i will add that i am really enjoying facilitating youth group these days. i have to study a lot to prepare for the lessons and it's been great for me to get my thoughts in order about authentic faith, spiritual disciplines, and sex and dating. and if anyone has any advice on these topics with teenagers feel free to send them my way!

thank you so much for praying for me and for all my crazy days like this one. please continue to pray for:

-the students i'm blessed to hang out with (some of them are really hurting)

-our team

-my financial support (mainly that i won't worry)

-my friends who are getting married soon and currently, for two more weeks, live in seperate countries

-the Church at ICF

-my family in U.S.

-Camp BlueSky 2010: counselors, campers, program, and THEME (we're currently working on establishing the theme and will begin the devotion guide as soon as that's done).

thanks for reading, praying, and loving!

Diwali pictures

I promised to post some pictures of Diwali. Thank you Megan for letting me steal these from you! You can read my post about Diwali here.

yummy festival food!

homies enjoying the festival. i wish you guys could see the way kim was darting around all excited like a 10 year old. it was priceless!

bring it on

i'm coaching cheerleading again.

i've done this before at this certain school and it was a total bust. i mean i got to know some sweet girls and got on campus several days a week (i guess that was probably the point), but the whole cheerleading thing didn't go over well at that school. this time, though, it's different. it's totally student organized. i joined after they'd already been meeting and had picked out uniforms. so it doesn't at all involve me trying to recruit girls. and let's all pray that it doesn't involve me performing a dance routine in front of the entire school again.

it's also different because i'm older. i did one toe touch the first day of practice; the girls laughed at me and i was sore the following day. and every time i demonstrate one of my cheers i feel like i look like my mom. anyone remember that? when your mom says, 'here's a cheer i did in high school,' and you're thinking, "please stop doing that." and i can feel the flab on my arms jiggling when i do a high-v. i don't remember that from high school. so i started working out again this week.

the girls are so cute though. and i love spending time with them. and it's such a divine blessing to have this opportunity. we spend a lot of time at our practices talking about life and what's going on with them. i've even already talked about my faith! we meet twice a week and i think i might plan a saturday clinic (to include episodes of one tree hill and all three bring it on movies per their request). they make me laugh every time we hang out. we tried stunts yesterday for the first time and i just knew someone was gonna leave practice with a broken arm. everyone is ok and they finally got into a basic stunt. they were thrilled! it was precious!

so in between planning youth group, praying for kids, and recruiting camp counselors, you can now find me looking up cheers on youtube and practicing them in the hallway. clayton's dog zoe hates when i cheer in the house, by the way. she jumps and tries to bite me. weird. she also doesn't like my tap dancing or hip hop dancing. hmmm...everyone else just loves it. ;) will post video soon.