Winter Retreat Pictures

Here are a couple pictures from the senior high winter retreat last weekend! The weekend turned out be pretty awesome--two students accepted Christ!! The only negative thing that happened was early on Sunday morning (the day we left for home), Luke and two other students got the stomach flu. Fortunately, they didn't got sick on the bus ride home and no one else got it after returning home!

The Whole Group!

Me and Most of My Freshmen Small Group Girls
(Kaitlyn Sheets, Nikki Aumsbaugh, Summer McEvoy, & Amy Spencer)

Winter Retreat

Tomorrow afternoon, Luke and I are hitting the road on a Charter bus with 41 high school students to head to SpringHill Camp in Evart, Michigan, for a winter retreat! We are so excited, as this was one of the highlights of our ministry last year! We have quite a few students going with us this year who are not very plugged into the church, so we are expecting God to do great things in them this weekend.  Please pray for our safety and that lives will be changed!  I'll be sure to post pictures when we get back.

And if you're thinking we'll be tired when we get back, you are absolutely right! We'll both be off from work and in a sleep-induced coma on Monday. ....But, we get to do this all again in February with over 50 middle schoolers! That's when we'll REALLY need your prayers! :) The high school trip is a breeze!

Happy New Year!

Well, I didn't quite complete my goal of posting a "Lesson Learned After College" every day until the end of 2011. To be completely honest, I ran out of lessons and got too busy doing other things! Even though I didn't post one every day, I know the important thing is that in addition to the education I received in college, I have learned a lot since then from simply living life.

Tomorrow is the last day of Luke and I's vacation time, and I must say, I am not looking forward to going back to work on Tuesday. I have thoroughly enjoyed relaxing and spending time with close friends and family. Luke and I were able to sleep in until 8am most days (two of those days, I stayed in my pajamas all day!), the house has stayed clean all week, I got to shop a lot, and I read two books this week! I highly recommend both of the books: Sticky Faith by Dr. Kara E. Powell & Dr. Chap Clark and The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley & William D. Danko (thanks to Aunt Marcia!).  I was inspired by both of them.

As my Christmas decorations come down tomorrow and the new year begins, I'm going to make it my goal this year to take the time to be still and remember that God is faithful each and every day. "Great is Thy Faithfulness" is my all-time favorite hymn, and I think it's a great reminder as life moves forward that God is always faithful. He's always provided everything (and more) than I have needed.