Joy in the Journey: February 2016

Oh how blessed we are! I'm so amazed how time flies - much has happened since my last post. We had a fabulous Christmas back home in Idaho with both of our families and now we're already well into 2016! Here's a recap of life lately and the lessons the Lord has been teaching me.

We brought in the New Year with an awesome party with our youth students. We took them on a trip to Spokane for shopping and time at Get Air. Then we brought them back to the church for games, food, and more fun. Life is busy in ministry but oh so blessed! One of my New Year's resolutions is to spend intentional time each week with at least one of our students - taking them to lunch, coffee, etc. It's been such a neat opportunity to share life with these students! We care about each one very much! Something Alex and I often have to remind ourselves is that they are in God's hands, we can't "fix" all of their struggles and brokenness. However, we can point them to Jesus who is the ultimate healer and restorer. One of the best pieces of advice I received before we entered full time ministry was the importance to recognize that we will never be anyone's "savior" but must point them to their true "Savior". Trying to be someone's "savior" will not work and will only burn us out. My dad often says "nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something. So good! We believe God's Word is powerful and life changing and so it is an absolute privilege to be in ministry and show others our wonderful Jesus. We've been really blessed to connect and build relationships with people in our church and in or community also. It's amazing how easy it is to fill up our schedules! So a great lesson Alex and I have learned is being more intentional about creating a Sabbath for us, since Sundays our one of our busiest days. God is so wise and I am now understanding why He emphasizes the need for a Sabbath rest. It's amazing how this helps me be a more pleasant person, is so healthy for our marriage, and refreshes us to carry on ministry throughout the week. I can't help but brag about my hubby! He is an extraordinary husband and also an amazing pastor! A couple weeks ago we were interviewed for the final step in his Pastoral licensing process. Hearing him tell the panel his heart for the Lord and ministry was so inspiring! It was also so neat to talk about how the Lord gave us many opportunities to be in ministry together long before we were ever married. What an opportunity to prepare us for full-time ministry as a married couple. They loved him and he passed with flying colors! He will receive his official license by next month. Alex and I are also excited about the recent opportunity to be teaching a Christian release class at the highschool called Launch Pad! In addition to church ministry, I began volunteering at Crossroads Pregnancy Resource Center. It is an amazing, Christian organization which helps young women facing crisis pregnancy situations. I love the women I work with and the young ladies/families we serve! I am passionate about the pro-life movement and supporting women during this precious, yet challenging stage of life. I am currently volunteering as a Parent Educator/Advocate and have more news to come about future opportunities with the organization :)

So that's ministry life. Now: married life. Oh how sweet it is to be married to the love of my life! Alex loves to spoil me and is treating me to a vacation to Hawaii for our first anniversary in May!!! It's now less than 100 days until our departure! I'm so excited for a vacation with my hubby! We've been wanting to invest in a nice camera for vacations such as this, family moments, and for a fun hobby together. So...we bought one a couple weeks ago! It's been really fun to learn photography and editing together. Alex has such an artistic eye for it and a desire to learn so he's been teaching me a lot! Since we will be at Winter Camp during Valentine's Day weekend, we celebrated an early Valentine's Day together last weekend. It was absolutely wonderful! I had decorated a little bit on Friday, but when I awoke on Saturday Alex surprised me with 14 handwritten hearts with the words "I Love You" in 14 different languages hung from our doorway. There were rose petals leading from our bedroom to the kitchen table where 10 cards and a gift bag were laid out. On each card he wrote something sweet about me and a date coupon to use at any time (so sweet, sentimental, and creative)! Words are my top love language so this meant so much to me! The 10th card had a coupon for me to pick out my favorite wedding picture to order on canvas! The bag was filled with my favorite chocolates and a cute hat I'd been wanting for a while. I made us strawberry, nutella stuffed French toast for Breakfast, we played a game I had gotten him for Valentine's day, and then we read a book together! We finished out the evening with a dinner date to Olive Garden (my favorite restaurant). I had him open six gifts throughout the day and we had a wonderful time spoiling each other. So fun!

At the beginning of this week, we were privileged to participate in a training with Project Six19 which teaches sexual integrity at schools and churches. We are looking forward to seeing how God will open doors for us to use this material within our church and community! We had some fun afterwords taking pictures in downtown Spokane. Then we headed over to my dear friend, Kortney's to spend the evening with her family! So grateful to live closer to her now!

Well there's a glimpse of what's been going on lately :) May God bless each of you abundantly!