Novemeber 20

This morning, our church had a ministry spotlight on InterVarsity.

I am thankful for a church that is faithfully encouraging me and praying for me as I work among college students.

I am thankful for Grace, who shared among the church about what God is doing among the students at Albion College.


I am grateful for what God is doing among students. I am so thankful for His work. It is crazy to see, and I am so awestruck. I am thankful that God has asked me to partner with Him.

And just in case you wanted to see a picture of what God is doing on campus, here ya go....

"Come forward and put your arm around someone"

Those words make me cringe. I hate being forced to touch people and physically love on them, being pushed outside of my comfort zone.

My pastor is really good at that, pushing me out of my comfort zone. I guess that is part of his job, right?

Often at the end of our worship service he calls the whole congregation together. He calls us out of our seats, and we link arms around the sanctuary, pray together, worship together, and simply be in community.

Ah, community. 


Community is so different than what we as Americans want. We want individualism, but time and time again, Jesus calls us to live in community. To grow in community. To struggle together in community. To strive together in community. To be a part of redemption in community.

This is so hard!!!

My knee-jerk reaction is to buck and community and scream "I don't need you. I can do this on my own!!!"

I am learning to love community. I am learning that I need to lean on other people and other people need to learn on me. I am learning that we are all part of the body, and together we move.

After our worship service together a beautiful thing happened. We joined together in worship, declaring that Jesus was all to us. Children in the church came and put their hands on our pastor and prayed for him (he is leaving on a missions trip), and together ended our service.

Tonight, my mind is on community.

Sweet, community.

Perfect Attendance

Guess who got perfect attendance at VBS this week?

Oh, and his mommy did too.

Feeling Blessed

3 years ago, Jon and I packed familiar surroundings and moved to a new town for new jobs. We were very unsure of this town, it didn't feel like home, we missed our family, we were working a lot, and did not have many friends in town.

It took about a year to get adjusted. That is A LONG time to feel alone in a strange new town.

We have definitely found our place. We have a great house, with great neighbors, neighbors who feel more like family,

We are part of the community, from rec events, to a mom's group, to making sure our money stays in our community in where we shop and eat,

We are part of a great church.....

A church family that loves us and cares for us well. A church family that has mourned and rejoiced with us. A church family that has lifted us in prayer, given us words of encouragement and has stood by our side.

A church family who has fallen in love with our son,

So much so, that they threw us an AMAZING shower! I was so incredibly blessed by this shower. I felt loved and cared for and had some material needs met.

I am grateful that Caleb is going to grow up in a church that cares so much for him already. I am excited to share with him the ways that these people have been a part of his mom and dad's life. During the shower, folks were able to write down prayers/blessings/advice, etc for myself and Caleb. I am so excited to put those in a scrapbook and share them with him as he grows up.

It was great to merge two worlds--my mom and my sister were able to attend. It was fun to have them meet these dear people and be a part of this special day.

As you can see from the photo, this day tuckered my lil' man right out:)