Weekend update

It was a WONDERFUL weekend. WE FINALLY were able to go outside, seriously, long long long overdue. We FINALLY spent some time outside on Saturday and Sunday. Friday night and into Saturday I was on retreat with our seventh and eighth graders from church as well as four neighboring churches at a bible camp not far from us. It is always great to get together with the groups from our area. We had a great time and the weather played along as well, last year at this retreat we got stuck part way home and had to extend our trip a day due to horrible weather. This year we had a great time. The kids got to play games outside and go sledding what more could you really want?! Not to mention they were EXHAUSTED from all the time spent playing outside. Fresh air is a gift for sure.

   On Sunday, Marc, Dakota, and I were able to spend almost the whole afternoon outside! IT WAS AWESOME. It was good for the soul for sure. (We gave in and bought new rainboots for Marc and I, due to our new living location, and the need and desire to get be able to slip shoes on and run to doe stuff outside without having to worry about getting our shoes all muddy, when mud season finally arrives.) We started chipping away at the ice that is nearly a foot and a half thick on our drive way, it took us quite a bit to get a bunch of it chipped away. The problem is we still have a LONG ways to go. We were only able to get so much chipped away because of how hard the ice was. We did get some of it done though and were able to chip into some of it in places so that when the sun shines hopefully it will help to get it melting faster.  I also started chipping away at the ice on the deck, which is also obnoxiously thick. Marc scraped away the snow and ice at the door/front entryway so that we can finally use that door without falling on our bums. Dakota thought she had died getting to spend so much time outside. Although there was still a serious challenge in running around in the snow.








How was your weekend?
Do you still have snow on the ground? (we still have a TON of snow on the ground here)
Did you do anything wonderful this weekend?

Middle School Mission Trip

        After our day at LutherCrest we headed to Milwaukee on a CHARTER BUS (I was fairly certain we were taking a school bus). The trip was wonderful. While we played lots and lots of bus games, made many a good bracelet out of string, I welcomed the opportunity to put in a movie and allow the kids the chance to space out, be entertained, and sleep. While we were in Wisconsin we got to serve in six different locations, take in a Brewers game, play some putt putt, and enjoy some fellowship.
       
I love working with middle schoolers, they are at such a funny point in their lives, life is awkward and wonderful, life is what it is at that point. I also love that middle schoolers will always always always tell you exactly how they understand the world around them, they don't sugar coat it. When I first began working with middle schoolers this was a really really hard lesson for me to learn - they don't mean to be mean they rude or abrasive, they are just saying it how they see it.
     I was also impressed with how hard these youth were able to work. As projects were put out in front of them - they were determined to get a job done and do it well. This by no means that there weren't moments of complaining - but overall our youth were ridiculously hard workers. They got each and every job done that was set before them. One strange job that we had that fascinated all of us was that at a community garden in Milwaukee gets over 1,000 pounds (yes, 1,000 pounds) of crushed garlic and we got to help haul it and lay it down and incorporate it into the soil. Our hands smelled like garlic for days despite how much we washed them. Another project we had was to haul mulch for the foundations of an orchard that will be placed in the middle of the city. We had two huge mulch piles that we were got to spread around. It was a little nuts to see how much mulch these youth could haul. As we were getting to the bottom of some piles it was funny because the youth thought they had completed the job when another huge semi pulled up with more mulch and the youth rallied and got all the mulch laid.
      At a homeless shelter called "the Guest House" we got to make sandwiches for the residents and we got to prepare for a fourth of July party. The youth had an amazing time making cards and decorations for the house. I hadn't taken into consideration how much of a celebration I am accustom to, I gather with family and friends, enjoy a BBQ that is much more than we can eat, and enjoy watching the city fireworks. I can't' imagine not having those opportunities. I am excited that we were able to help these men be able to celebrate and enjoy the day like I will.
      All of our serving opportunities were great foundations for being able to have outstanding conversations with the youth. They were asking all sorts of great questions and have a great gifts and talents that they too get to offer to the world. I am thankful for the chance to help foster their growth, I am thankful for the parents who leave me with their most valuable (or one of) things in the world. I know that these youth mean the world to their parents and I am humbled to have the chance to walk alongside them in the midst of these important milestones in their lives. I am thankful for the chance to have these conversations with the youth as they discover the world around them. I am thankful for my call to serve.
     I will admit being married does make these types of trips harder. It was hard to be away from Marc for a week, knowing that he was back at the house with my sweet puppy. It was hard to not be able to go for a run with him as we normally would and to be able to share our days as we normally would. At the same time, he was over the top supportive and open to phone calls at crazy times and text messaging from time to time. He was sneaky and left notes in my bag, backpack, and sleeping bag.
   I also will admit that these trips are challenging because I don't get to control what I eat and have the opportunity to run, swim, bike, and workout like I would like it. It is hard to not have the chance to go for a long run during the week. Sometimes while I am away I do get in a run maybe two but they are never to the distance I would like and I can't fully relax knowing that I am ultimately responsible for these youth. But it is worth it.



 Do you get to travel anywhere fun soon?

Low Ropes & High Ropes

This past week, I and 26 of my favorite middle schoolers (seriously, I love all middle schoolers - life is so weird at that age) and a few other adults traveled together to Milwaukee with a stop at LutherCrest Outdoor Ministries in Alexandria Minnesota. As part of our trip our youth (and the adults and I) had the opportunity to spend some time on their low ropes and high ropes challenge courses. I love love love taking my youth on challenge courses. It is amazing to see the ways in which they are able to work together, to overcome adversity, to rise up with leadership skills that boggle my mind, to problems solve, to believe in each other, and most importantly believe in themselves.

   I could tell you countless stories of kids who upon seeing the high ropes course told me that they wouldn't go past the ladder, or would only climb the pole, and successfully completed the entire element. Were they scared, probably. Is it hard work, yes. Did some come down part way through, yes. Was I proud at how hard they worked and how they pushed themselves past where they thought they could, yes, I was over the top thrilled for them. We don't force the youth to do anything, they are free to choose their own challenge and name when their challenge is over, however, I do allow myself the freedom to push them a little, to have them take just one more step if they can or climb one more rung higher, or try to get onto the floating islands. These youth are AMAZING. 

   These skills that the youth gain while doing crazy challenge activities feed them for a life time, they realize they are capable of more, that they can do hard things, that they do have leadership skills, that they are rockstars. Middle school is tough. Life is hard. Life is messy. I love the opportunity to provide youth with the chance to succeed to do more, and to celebrate their victories. I was so impressed with my youth as they supported one another, as they worked together, and as they celebrated everyone's victories no matter how big or how small they were. I wish I could take more youth to these types of events. I want everyone to be able to experience them. I also am hoping to get something set up where we can take entire families (middle school kids on up and their families) to ropes courses, I think it would be amazing to see how the families could come together, rally, and work together to overcome big obstacles. 

    While we were at LutherCrest our youth got to experience three different elements, a floating board type element where people on the ground got to help hold the board in place. There was one youth on each end of the board and they could turn the board and spin the board and pull them closer and further away. The kids got to work on communicating and to help one another. They worked their way across the planks and got to hit the wall and then were lowered down. On the other element we walked across this small wire and held onto small ropes which helped to provide supports. At the end of the wire we then climbed up on a plank and got to zip line down to safety. It was ridiculously fun. It is hard to hold still while up on the wires and my legs, abs, and arms were all clenched in tight in order to help stabilize. It was wonderful.

   I highly recommend if you ever have the opportunity to experience a high ropes or low ropes course - DO IT. I know I am always looking for adult leaders to come alongside the youth and myself to help with our youth. I have gotten to see many an adult experience ropes courses for the first time several times. Much like the youth we all have fears that we get to overcome and expectations. I am thankful for these types of experiences. 

Have you ever gotten to do a high/low ropes course?
Have you ever been on a zip line tour? (My family did one in Cancun a few years ago, it was awesome too)
Do you like heights?

Mission Trip Prep

Prepping to head out on a mission trip with middle schoolers is always an interesting endeavor, I feel like there are about seven layers of stuff to get ready:

• the kids forms and paperwork, the activities to pull out of my bag as I may need them, the med kits, the snacks (just in case a kid gets hungry - which leads to crabby kids), and a few miscellaneous type things for kids to do
• the work I will miss while being out of the office - this is just a strange layer of stuff - I have to make sure that all the stuff I would normally do in any given week gets covered by someone and that they have everything they need and that they are well prepped for my absence (I realize I am not the end all be all and that I am not perfect or have all the answers, however, I know there are just certain things I do without thinking about them that help to make things run more smoothly) - also I like to leave my office with a clean desk (it is easier to tell what has been piled on it while I was gone) - set up the auto reply on my email to let people know if they need something that they can either contact my colleague or call my cell
• pack for myself - this is actually probably the easiest piece for me - most of the clothes come out of the "mission trip" tote of clothes that I just keep in my closet - I know it may seem strange to have a tote full of mission trip clothes but it makes sense to have a bunch of clothes that can get painted and stained and look a little crappy with who knows what on them - and if I have to throw them away it seriously is no big deal - also the packing piece seems to be the easiest for whatever reason - I pack WAY on the light side - I have the haul enough other stuff for the kids that I don't want to have to haul anything extra for myself
• leave Marc a list of all the stuff that he may need to know - he just moved into my place and hasn't quite yet learned the schedule of when the recycling and the trash needs to go out - when Dakota needs fed - where the key to the lawn mower is - the number of the plumber who is working on fixing the sump pump in the basement etc... - yeah it doesn't sound like much however - when everything is new I would rather leave him a list with all this stuff than expect him to remember it - not to mention I think we are going to try to sell my house and it will go on the market at the end of this week --- soooo just want to make sure he knows what's happening there and what not (yes, yes, we have talked about all this and he agreed that a list would be best for him)
• return & renew the library books that I have (seriously I am anal retentive and have never had a library fine in my life and hope to keep this streak going) - I LOVE public libraries

Do you have any particulars when you go on a trip?

I love traveling with my youth but why does it always seem like more work to be gone than to stay home?

Do you get to travel anywhere fun this summer?

Back to Work

I feel like I am cheating by leaving only taking off Friday through Wednesday. I haven't missed a Thursday and now I find myself back on a Thursday, seriously the best day in the summer as I work alongside our summer stretch youth. True story: I am glad to not miss a Thursday. It will be interesting to see how they respond and to most of them they won't know I have even been gone. Middle schoolers are such a funny funny group of people, I am thankful that we only have to go through middle school once not to forget that hanging out with middle schoolers keeps me humble.

I am thankful to be back to work, our quick get away was great on many levels. You can count on some good updates about our trip here once I get pictures off the camera and onto my computer and catch up on a little sleep.

Life is indeed good.

Summer Stretch

While all the wedding chaos is happening I am still working and while balancing time with my family, friends, and work. It is interesting and I feel like I am running 12,000 places at once but actually enjoying it during the process - so we are going to go with it.

Today begins one of my most favorite things of the summer - Summer Stretch - six Thursdays out of the summer roughly 150 middle schoolers from seven different churches and four denominations gather together to serve our area. In the morning we all head out all over town and we do service projects of every shape, size, and in nearly every location. We walk alongside our nursing home friends, our fire stations, our animal shelter, other congregations and ministries, our food shelf, the middle school, and so much more. These kids make a deep impact on our community and people eventually start looking for the mob of kids all dressed in the same shirt to be around. (Not to mention it gives me an amazing excuse to wear a t-shirt to work one day a week) 

After our morning service project we find a park or some green space or link up with another church somewhere and we eat our bag lunches and do a bible study. EVERY church is doing the same bible study (obviously with our own swing on it) and this summer we are focusing on Jesus and our call to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the world.

The afternoon is spent as a ridiculously large group doing all sorts of fun fellowship. We live in a bit of a touristy area, however, most of our kids don't have the opportunity to do many of the touristy things. Soooo we make deals with the local places and they cut us great deals and let our kids come and play for a few hours in the afternoon. We spend our afternoons at a local water park, the big mini golf course, playing at the beach, playing games in a park, paddling down the mighty Mississippi, biking up the amazing bike trail, and eating copious amounts of ice cream. The local paper is even coming during our afternoon fun today to take pictures of our kids and put them on the front page of the newspaper. THIS is the kind of stuff I love to see in the newspaper!

The idea for Summer Stretch came out of a Summer Stretch ministry that is happening the in Minneapolis/St. Paul area. 

My youth look forward to Thursday every week and are VERY annoyed with me when they graduate out of the ministry and no longer can participate. I am always tempted to begin a Summer Stretch type ministry with the high school youth except they all have 12,001 things going on between work, summer sports, and vacation. 

Unrelated side note: my wedding to-do list is getting shorter and shorter by the minute and while I am off summer stretching my mom and dear friend are continuing to cross stuff off my list! GLORIOUS!

An Open Letter to Graduating High School Seniors

Dear High School Class of 2013,
    I am not going to lie here, there is a piece of me that is sad to see you graduating. You haven been transformed over your years at school much like the classes before you and the classes that are following you. You have grown up a ton (thanks be to God). You are fine people (despite what the world wants to tell you). You will make a difference in the world, you aren't just the future of the world but rather you are the world now, your role is very important. While at times it may seem like we adults don't want to acknowledge your presence and often think less of you than we should, we know you are gift and talented and we expect you to use those gifts and talents.
    Do what you love. Love what you do. Serve the world. Serve others. Dare to dream and dare to think you could be wrong. Go on great adventures to far off places and come back home, to where ever that may be, share your story with the world, and learn from the world. YOU ARE IMPORTANT, YOU ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE.
   It has been an honor to watch you transform from just young kids into awkward middle schoolers (really who wasn't a strange middle schooler at some point), it has been quite the ride watching you go through breakups and athletic success, seeing you care for one another and your passions for the world. While your greatest concern once was what color crayon to use next, now you are on to conquer the world, you can do it. Your career may change once or twice or ten or twenty times, go where God calls you.
   Thank you for the ways in which you have taught me about the world, thank you for the ways in which you have reminded me of the joy in the simple things, and thank you for being you. Thank you for being bold enough to step out in faith to trust that God has made you wonderful.
     Welcome to the world of adulthood. Welcome to the world as crazy as it may seem. Welcome to life after high school. You will do awesome.
   A blessing for you, one that I hold dear, from the summer camp that helped to form me into who I am today:
          As you go on your way may Christ go with you, may he go:
                                                            before you to show you the way
                                                            behind you to encourage you
                                                            above you to watch over you
                                                            beside you to befriend you
                                                            and within you to give you peace.

Peace & Love-
   an adult who values you highly

Middle School lock-In

Everyone loves playing in the snow!

 Ahhh middle schoolers. I actually with every ounce of my being love, Love, LOVE that I am called to walk alongside youth in middle school, and every day I give thanks that I am no longer in this strange point in life. Middle school is such an awkward time in life and I am thankful to be able to come along side these youth and remind them that they have been fearfully and wonderfully made, despite what their peers tell them, that they are loved unconditionally and showered in grace, despite what they hear from the world, that they are enough, despite what they may hear from who knows where. I love middle schoolers.

One of our prayer stations Friday night

This past weekend I was suppose to head out on a one retreat at LutherCrest Bible Camp (BEAUTIFUL CAMP) and so some of my most favorite colleagues (we represented 4 different churches)  myself, and 27 of our favorite (they all are our favorites) headed down to Alexandria. We spent the night in prayer, playing tons of games, telling stories, taking a break from the world around us, the next morning we woke up ate some amazing food, did devotionals, played some more games, ate some lunch, and then channeled our inner first grader and played in the snow for a couple of hours. We packed up the vehicles and we were off and headed back to Brainerd. Sounds simple. The roads were awful. We made it twenty miles before we started calling churches to see if we could crash on their floors for the night.

After calling a couple churches we got a hold of someone who welcomed us with open arms. We spent the night at First Lutheran in Parker's Prairie. Phone calls to parents, senior pastors, and our own families were made and we began to pull tricks out of our sleeves. We played games, we ate pizza at this wonderful little pizza parlor, we worshiped, and we slept. We had an outstanding time! I am so very thankful for my colleagues, I am convinced that I have the world's best, we thought we weren't prepared for this experience. We hadn't packed anything to entertain the middle schoolers, we had no supplies, we had no food, we had no plan. I am certain however when our kids look back in this weekend, it is this portion of the weekend they will remember.

Making one of our pizzas, it was fun to watch the man throw the pizza
dough high in to the air to create the crusts

The youth were amazing and my colleagues and I were prepared, we had the gifts and the talents we needed to pull off a great overnighter with no supplies. We had years of experience of playing games, we executed worship with no music or guitars, we had plenty of food, and a good time was had by all! It was crazy and chaotic and today I still feel a bit tired from the experience, but thankful for the safe travels, flexible youth, and my colleagues.

REJOICE

Thanks be to God, it happened. Last night at our catechism meeting after telling all the parents that I would need them to sign up to help lead two groups due to a lack of volunteers - two people (of whom I had called several times) stepped up and volunteered. WHOOP WHOOP!!! Seriously probably doesn't sound like that big of a deal and sounds totally lame that I am this over the top exctied about it, but I really am! I couldn't have been more excited when they volunteered. Both of them had a condition that they had a couple nights they couldn't be there, I said no problem I will start working to find subs.

Seriously when volunteers stepped up I did a bit of a happy dance and wanted to hug them. I really am excited about catechism and love working with middle schoolers I just do not love trying to beg and twist arms to help out with middle school and high school ministry.

Thanks be to God for the Holy Spirit leading and guiding a couple of amazing men (the two that stepped up were on the top of my list of people who would be rockstars with helping to lead small groups) to be a part of the catechism ministry.

Any great joys in your world lately?

Frustrating

After coming back from a major youth trip I am now finally able to see my desk again (woot woot) and am now seriously working on planning for the next year (yay)! I thought I was ahead of the game and began looking at youthworks sites, but some are already filling! I hate the feeling of being behind the 8 ball. It is only August and already feeling behind. I am excited to explore a new avenue for my middle school youth, mission trips through LutherCrest bible camp. I just couldn't believe that people (lots of people) are already ahead of the game and have their sites booked for next summer.

In exciting news I do actually really enjoy the season of planning and dreaming. I love the season of hope for the future, a season of preparing for growth, a season of tending the fields and evaluating the last year what went well and what needs help. My South Dakota roots have taught me the value of tending the field and cleaning up last year's field before beginning next years.

It could be that part of my planning joys is in knowing that I am not going anywhere next year, I am not moving, I get to continue to walk alongside the same people, I get to keep my roots planted. I have led a very nomadic life since graduating high school and so there is great comfort in building longer term relationships and remaining in the same place. I love that I just rolled over all my leftover mission trip money (very small amount but some none the less) from this past year to the 2015 youth gathering - knowing that there is a very good chance I could be here then! I love it!

Total side note: I rearranged my desk yesterday and there is something liberating about rearranging stuff. I am not yet committed to keeping it the new way but I am already liking it better because I can see out the window and I am not staring directly out my door. I love being able to look outside even if it is into a parking lot, I am loving not looking out my door and having to stare at everyone who comes in the office, people are more than welcome to come in my office but I don't have the strange need to look up every time our office door opens. It is glorious.

A view from my newly arranged desk looking out the window.
Sorry about the not amazing photo- it was taken on my phone

Jesus in unexpected places

Almost all of the 100 2012 Summer Stretchers

    Often times when I tell people that I get to work with middle schoolers, they laugh, make some sort of an apology, or say something along the lines of "I am glad it is you and not me." Many people detest working with middle schoolers and I can't quite understand why. I know they are middle schoolers, sometimes they smell, sometimes they have an attitude, some times they talk back, sometimes they are rude, sometimes they are hard to understand. Often times middle schoolers are: generous, hospitable, loving, caring, concerned, questioning, confused, open, and willing. There are many adults who I could say sometimes: smell, have an attitude, talk back, are rude, and are hard to understand and there are adults who are:  generous, hospitable, loving, caring, concerned, questioning, confused, open, and willing. It all works out in the end and I love working with middle schoolers.

   Here in the Brainerd Lakes Area there is a ministry known as Summer Stretch. Thursdays middle schoolers from all over the area here do a wide variety of service projects (each church works on their own projects because no one has projects for 100), we eat our brown bag lunch, share in bible study (the summer we are looking at "Living Water"), and then we gather together for fun and games (last week it was games in the yard and ice cream, this week we are playing mini-golf). Together these youth represent five lutheran churches.

  It was amazing to see the kids as we were gathering last Thursday for the first time and they were shocked to see which of their friends were also participating and to realize that they too go to church, just not the same church. The kids are beginning to see that they are a part of something bigger than they are and that God has in fact called them to love and serve in the midst of a community, they have not been sent out into the world to fly solo, rather to live in community.

  The group I get to work alongside (8 boys and 1 girl) went to serve at the middle school here, this was the service project I was most nervous about. I wasn't certain how the kids would view cleaning up a locker room. So as we arrived they met the janitor, Ron, and they all said things along the lines of "we have seen you around but never knew your name" and so they became fast friends. Ron equipped the kids with buckets, rags, and gloves and sent us off to the 7th & 8th grade boys locker room. (Talk about stinky) The task before us was to clean up the lockers: wipe them all down with a special solution and clean out anything that is left in them.

   At first there were a few grumbles about the task ahead but soon the kids saw the ways the lockers were looking and became proud of their work and the work that they were doing. They talked about how they were helping Ron out and all the middle schoolers. They discussed life, upcoming movies, and plans for the summer. In the midst of it they said that they were excited to come back next fall and share with their classmates that they got to clean these lockers. As we walked out of the cleaned locker room the boys pushed the cart of buckets back to in front of the office, they asked about coming back, knowing that there were several more locker rooms that needed cleaned. They held their heads up high knowing that they had made a difference in their middle school community.

   It was there in the locker room with those boys that I met Jesus. I met Jesus as the boys (my 1 girl was not present last Thursday) scrubbed the lockers clean and made them shine. As the boys scrubbed crusty old deodorant out of the lockers, Jesus was there using these middle school hands to help out the community. The Holy Spirit was working in and through the lives of these middle schoolers for the betterment of the world. In the middle school boys who many want to label as less than or not worthy or something else I saw Jesus moving, speaking, working, and continuing to transform the broken world. I have hope for the future - I see good in these middle school boys as well as the other 100 middle schoolers I get to walk alongside this summer.

  Thanks be to God for middle schoolers.
  Thanks be to God who loves and works in the lives of everyone, despite what the world may think of them.
   Thank be to God for the opportunity to journey with these youth.