Snapshots from Michigan

1. After a session I went to a CUTE coffee shop downtown and got to pick apart Andy Hansen’s brain. Andy has been with CIY for 23 years and is the head of the entire thing. We got to talk to him about ministry and life and people and all kinds of things.

2. Holland, Michigan is so cute and one morning a few of the bible college reps went to the farmer’s market downtown…for blueberries and peaches!!

3. There is a girl here that after a few connections I found out was in Kenya…at the same place I was…at the same time I was. She was an intern while I was there on my trip and we didn’t remember each other because we only spent time with them in passing. We lived and did ministry in the same building in Narok, Kenya and are now living and doing ministry in the same place in Holland, Michigan. CRAZY.

4. I got “adopted” by a youth group from Valparaiso, IN and it was incredible…God had (as always) perfect timing. After being at such large conferences for so long it is easy to see only crowds of people. Sometimes seeing the “bigness” of it all is great and sometimes it is really overwhelming. I missed building good relationships with students…getting to know them…know their stories…etc. So I met some incredible people and did the conference with a handful of high school kids this week.

As usual I have not had time to process a lot and may have stories later. We arrived at the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin this afternoon with the director of the conference this week and a couple other staff guys. The truck and interns don’t get in till late so we’ve had pretty much the whole day to play!

week 2

Last week was spent in BEAUTIFUL Savannah, Georgia. It was such a cool location and the conference went really well but was very under-staffed and Julie and I worked our tales off. We are pretty exhausted and don't really have a lot of big stories from last week because we barely had any down time. We still met a lot of cool people and the conference was cool but man were tired and are looking forward to this week in Michigan where we will be back with a large team of CIY staff.

Snapshots

Jayson French, the director at my first week of CIY likes to take every night sharing "snapshots". These are the things that stuck out to us from the day...the things we want to take with us on the journey. So here are my "snapshots" of the week 1:

1. An older man (probably in his 70s) named Rex came with a group of five boys. Eye-liner-girl-pants-wearing-straightened-hair- straight up EMO-boys. The group of guys wanted to come to CIY, but no one would take them. Except for Rex. Clearly Rex couldn’t relate to these guys…but he loved them…and they loved him. Rex quickly became one the favorites of the week.
2. Shawn and Nikki are two friends of Julie and mine and the four of us got to talk a lot and when the conference was over we went to Applebee’s and just had an awesome time laughing. It was just one of those “I can’t believe I have only known these people for a week because they feel like some of my best friends” type of things.
3. Julie and I sat with a youth group from Quincy, IL at lunch one day and we ended up doing security on their hall. Every night we would walk into the main session to go to our booth and there would be like six girls sitting there waiting for us.
4. We roomed with a team from Cincinnati Christian University, and Great Lakes Bible College and one night Emily Pelsue (she is in the band) came and told us the incredible story of how she god engaged. We were all in our pajamas lying around listening to the story when there was a knock on the door and Aaron and another guy were outside listening. I kind of felt like I was in junior high again. story of how Aaron (the lead singer of the band) proposed to her nine years ago.
5. Julie and I got to know Taylor Brown…who we kind of knew already…but he was doing morning show stuff and we sat with him at worship every night…we were big fans of that guy.

......was just remembering these smiles today......

My First Baby Shower

Tonight Julie and I went to our friend Betsy's baby shower and we learned some important life lessons.
Baby showers are for the baby.
And babies do not eat at Sonic.
I guess our thought process went something like this:

"Ok, this is Betsy's baby shower...lets pick out a hillarious card that only she will think is funny."
Lesson #1: The cards may be read aloud, and there might be mothers in the room. So do not get a card that says the word “sexy” all over it.
Lesson #2: The card/gift is for both the mother AND the father-to-be. Don’t forget the father.

We then had a brilliant idea that Betsy likes chocolate milk shakes so we would get her a gift card to Sonic so that she could treat herself to some chocolate milk shakes during this hot summer.
Lesson #3: At baby showers, you give gifts to the parents (sometimes off a registry) FOR the baby; blankets, for example.
Lesson #4: After the "parents-to-be" start opening everyone else's gifts and they are things like rattles, diapers, baby monitors, clothes, and baby toys...your Sonic gift card doesn't really fit in.

It was very clear to everyone at the party that we were "those college kids" trying to figure out how things like showers, weddings, pregnancy, and other real-life things work. Funny stuff.

Big Event!

I have been waiting to put this on here because I didn't want to get myself too excited in case it doesn't end up happening. But things are coming together so well, I think it is time to let people know... An opportunity has fallen into my lap in the past couple weeks. After many meetings with professors, my advisor, and Dr. Weedman (the president of Johnson) I have the opportunity to study in Costa Rica for a semester. I would be part of the Latin America Studies Program which would allow me to study the Spanish Language, Latin American history and perspectives, world view and faith practices. I would also have internship credits where I would work in a school and travel credits where we would visit other peoples in Latin America. The main focus of this Program is to integrate Christian values in a Latin America context. So many credits would transfer, doing this program will not put me behind graduation schedule at all. So many credit transfers (plus some of my scholarships) also means it will cost very close to the amount I pay per semester anyway.

The semester goes from January 13 to April 30 and is pretty intensive study-wise.

So what now?? Now I wait for an acceptance letter from the Latin American Studies Program which I may not receive until mid-October. I need prayer that my application will be accepted, and this will continue to be a smooth process if it is in fact what God has planned. I need prayer that my excitement and nerves will calm down a little bit, that God will continue to prepare me for what is next.....oh... and that my mom will not have a heart attack :-)