The excitement of Youth trips....

Jeremy and I just finished our last youth trip......it was fun and sad all at the same time. We work with an incredible youth group, but just feel God calling us on to something new. We have no idea what that something new is yet but we are excited to seek God and see what he has in store for us. Anyways, anytime we take the youth on youth trips something always happens, we break down, the van acts funny, someone gets sick, etc etc. This week we made it to Quartz mountain without any problems and we were on the last day of our trip and nothing had happened, so we knew something was in store we just didn't know when it would surprise us. So the day went like this.....

After a morning of conferences and classes we have a break, because Quartz Mountain lodge sits between three small towns we have to drive about 30 minutes into one of those towns for lunch or dinner. At this point in our day we were getting ready to head out for dinner. We were trying to round all the teens up and it was cold outside so I was going to head to the van with a few of the youth while Jeremy rounded up everyone else for dinner. Jeremy handed one of our youth the keys to the van and I start walking behind him towards the van.....
Ben unlocks the driver side door, throws the keys in my seat, tells me the van is unlocked and then proceeds to shut the driver side door. I walk around to the passenger side door pull on the handle.....and nothing happens...the door doesn't move at all! I told Ben the door didn't open and he goes "Oh....oh no..." Yep the van keys were locked in the van! Ben begins apologizing and I inform him that accidents happen and it was fine, it definitely would make our last youth trip with them a memorable one! We wait by the van until Jeremy comes up with the other students and inform him of our little situation, he chuckles and heads inside the lodge to find a hanger. The students and I hang out outside in the cold while we wait. You have to remember Jeremy and I have never broke into a car before so we are not skilled at this open the car door with a coat hanger thing.....

Jeremy comes back and begins working on the driver side door, I notice on of the side door windows is slightly cracked but not fully open and decide to try and pop the window open by sliding a stick underneath the window and trying the pop the window handle into the open position...this didn't work all the stick just broke off into the van. After both of us working on "unlocking" the van for about 30-40 minutes I decide to go inside the lodge and look up numbers for a lock smith. As I go in and talk to the lady at the front she tells me about their handy man and calls him to see if he can helps us. He comes out to meet Jeremy and I at the van and does not have any special tool but does have a long medal rod, we proceed to push the rod inside the window that was slightly cracked open and finally get the rod where we can push the window handle and open the window. YAY! Now what? We try to rig the hanger where we can put part of your arm in the cracked window, slide the hanger down the door and hopefully pop the lock to the unlocked position with the hanger......I know impossible right? Well after about another 20 minutes of us trying this, by the Grace of God we popped the lock open!!! YAY!!! We were able to run into town, feed all the students, and make it back right as the evening service was starting.

I love youth events and I will miss all the miss-happenings of youth events. This will definitely be a memorable one with Jeremy trying to "break" into the church van while all our students stand out in the cold watching him. We truly have been blessed to have worked with such an amazing group of students these past 4 years and will truly miss be their youth leaders.

Some thoughts.....

So I finally gave in and decided to start blogging.....I thought it would be a great way to share my thoughts with whoever wants to read them. So here goes!

Here recently I have been thinking about my New Year's resolution. I want it to be good this year, and better than "This year I would like to lose weight". So throughout this holiday season it came to me. You know how we go throughout the holidays and thanksgiving comes around and you have to spend time with the family that drives you crazy, the depressing aunt, and the Grandpa who because he is getting older snaps at everyone about everything? Then you hit Christmas which is solely about everything you want and what people are going to give you or about the things you have to get done to entertain the people you don't really like. We get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of life, we worry about small things that really don't matter and we get upset about things that are not important. This year I decided my New Year's resolution was to be wholly aware and present in life. This may sound funny but let me explain....

As a Christian I strive to live my life for Christ right? Well at least that is what I should be doing. So what does this entail? To live your life like Christ? I think when we become a Christian we are choosing to die to ourselves and become like Christ. Now dieing to ourselves may sound easy but really think about dieing....does it sound fun? Does it really sound easy? To truly live your life as a Christian we have to wake up each morning tell Christ that our life is His, our desires are His, our passions are His, and everything that matters to us is now His. When we do this we give up the "right" to want, to be angry, to get upset, or to feel like we are entitled to anything. So many times we walk through life angry at this situation, upset because somebody didn't do something the way you wanted, we snap at the people we love, and we don't notice situations around us because we are too wrapped up in our own life's. As a Christian we should put all of this aside. We should pick up the desires of Christ, notice those around us that are hurting, speak life into the people we love, and realize that maybe the thing that is upsetting us isn't that important after all. So many times we feel like we have the "right" to react a certain way or to be upset. In reality we don't!! We are servants for Christ and as a servant we have no rights.

This year I want to be aware of the people around me, I want to speak life into everyone I come in contact with, I want to be present in every conversation I have, and I want to realize that my desires, my passion, my "rights" are not my own. I want to wake up every morning and put on Christ, casting myself aside. I hope I never turn someone away from Christ because of "rights" I feel I may have. If we all could realize this...if I could realize this and truly live it I believe that would be the year I truly lived for Christ.