The Leonbergers

I recently had the privilege to shoot pictures of some good friends of mine! I'm so happy with how they turned out, but rather than talking about them, I'll just let the images speak for themselves!

Simple Things

It's the simple things in life that we must cherish. Simple things like eating a sandwich (minus the bread for me) from a small market in the middle of the country...enjoying that sandwich on the porch and throwing rocks at a stop sign...all with great friends.

My morning walk

I went for a walk this morning. Normally I go for runs, but my trainer asked me yesterday if I was willing to not necessarily throw out all my knowledge of health and fitness, but if I was willing to start from scratch. To start at the foundation, basics, and work my way up. Starting with nutrition (as I blogged about last time). But anyways, to get some cardio work in everyday, and not hurt my knee, he is having me walk for 45 minutes or so daily (Granted, today is day one and it went well btw!) But as I was walking, I was thinking about the season I'm about to walk into with the Immersion Discipleship Training @ New Song. As I've been praying in preparation, I've really been asking the Lord to basically take me back to the foundation of who He is. Not to start from scratch, but after 22 years (basically) of being a believer, my mind can get cluttered (which it has) and my view of the Lord distorted. So I have been asking the Lord to reveal to me who He is..in a new way... Not that I rid myself of all the knowledge that I have of the Lord, but I guess in a sense, set it aside, and let the Lord give me new knowledge of who He is. Just like I'm not ditching all the knowledge I have of exercise, or running, i'm just taking it back to the foundations.

A new way..

Romans 6:13 says: "And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God." This verse has been on my mind and heart a lot over the past few weeks and I have been challenged lately with not only presenting my body as a living sacrifice daily, but also presenting my members as an instrument of righteousness. What does that really mean? Well, I've found for myself that it means I must make myself presentable to the Lord. My body is a temple of the Lord and it is to be an instrument of righteousness for the Lord to work through me. One of the largest things that has been brought up in my prayer time is how I have taken care of (or lack there of) my body recently. So after some prayer, I approached one of the leaders at Frontline who is a personal trainer and asked him if he would help me not only get in shape, but if he would help me transform my lifestyle when it comes to food and my body.
Well, I met with Mike today and man was it informational!! We didn't even talk about a workout program, but Mike really focused in on nutrition. I thought I knew a lot about nutrition and health, but man was I wrong! I learned so much tonight and it is going to be an adjustment, but I am so looking forward to it! Sure, I'm looking forward to the weight that is going to come off, and the muscle toning that will happen, but above all I'm looking forward to the energy that I'm going to have. When I have more energy I am going to be able to do so much more for the kingdom of the Lord!

So now I am on a new adventure, finding new foods and making better food choices. No longer eating 3 meals a day, but 4-5 smaller meals. In a week or two, I'll meet with Mike again and we will assess where I am at and what the next step will be (workout program etc.) I'm looking forward to this new season for many many reasons, but this is one of them! I'm sure I will post on here as my journey towards presenting my body as an instrument of righteousness continues.

Now Presenting the graduating class of 2009

I had the great privilege to shoot some great people today: The graduating student interns from New Song! Joel, Luke, Kelsey, Lauren and Rochelle have dedicated the past 3 years of their life to the call that the Lord placed on them for this season and now their hard work is being honored. As you can see below, the Lord radiates through them. I had so much fun shooting them and I hope you enjoy the pictures! For more images click here.

My family

As I was editing pictures from my Grandma's birthday in July, I realized again just how much I love my family! We are a small and tight knit family, which I think is simply amazing!

Whenever we all get together, it is non-stop storytelling, laughing, game playing, home video watching, funny faces and more laughs!!

So this is a post just to say how much I love them and am so thankful to the Lord for blessing me with an amazing family!

what a weekend!

Ever have one of those weekends where you are just super busy and you really don't know where the time went? (I know Bethany has had a few).. Well, this weekend was that for me!

Friday night, I went to Frontline where we had small groups. It was such a great night where myself and a few other girls got to sit down and talk about what the Lord is doing in our lives. After small group, a friend and I sat and talked for a little while longer, and let the night get away...

Saturday, I woke up at 6:30am, had my quite time and then headed to Jim Warren Park, where Frontline was hosting a 5K to end thirst in India. I've posted about it before, you can read that post here. Anyways, after months of preparation by our "GO" team, the race finally came. Now this race was more than just a run, it was about more than ourselves, it was about India and building a water tower. It was also my first "race" back since my injury last summer, and let me tell you, it was fun but not easy!! A few weeks ago, I injured my knee again playing softball in CA (I know, my fault) but that prevented me from being able to run the entire 5K. As I was walking, I was praying through a lot of pride...But, like I said earlier, it was about much more than me...and I finished!From there, I sped home (not really) and jumped in the shower to get ready for Madison's birthday party. Saturday she turned 9 years old and had a science birthday pary! This party was pretty fun, it included everything from learning about electricity to playing (kinda) with dry ice to making giant bubbles and bouncy balls!! Robyn and Carey hired a science man to come out and teach/entertain Madi and her friends. He also showed up with a smoking volcano birthday cake (which I couldn't eat)! It was quite the sight and so much fun!
A few hours later, I got to talk to my sweet friend Kaycee and I was so thankful for that!

Now that I have run/walked 3.1 miles and spent hours with about 5-6 8/9 year olds, I had to muster up enough energy to go to work...AND CLOSE!! My shift started at 1730 and I left Beef O' Brady's at 2030ish... it was a long night, but a good night! I love how the Lord strategically places us places. He is showing me more and more everyday exactly how I am to be on mission with Him at work. On Saturday night, I had the opportunity to share with a couple of coworkers about Guard Your Heart and why I have chosen not to date. It was a sweet conversation, filled with lots of questions and the Lord speaking through me. I'm so excited because I know that there will be many more conversations, probably about GYH, and I so look forward to that!!!

So there you have my SATURDAY: wake up at 6:30 and go to bed at midnight... Great! Just enough time to get a few hours of sleep and wake up bright and early for church!

Sunday rolls around and I honestly didn't want to wake up! But, I rolled out of bed (which has been a couch for the past few days) and got dressed b/c I needed to be at the church by 8:15.
Can I just say that service was AMAZING this week! The Lord has been speaking and showing me so many things this past week and service just confirmed it all for me. I knew going into service that there were going to be a lot of hearts changed and convicted all over the New Song Network by the Lord through the message that the teaching team brought forth, and that was exactly what happened.
From church, I ran over to Robyn and Carey's house for about an hour, just enough time to catch a small nap (thank you Lord) and then head back to work to walk in the provision of the Lord. Although work was kinda slow, the down time gave me an opportunity to again talk to my coworkers. This time, one of my managers and I got to talking about bills, debt, life, careers etc. and I was able to share with her about how the Lord has given me provision in the area of finances and how I have a peace now that I never had before, EVEN when I have school loans and car payments-with minimal income... Also got to share with her about the call that the Lord has placed on my life for full-time ministry! She seemed receptive, but now I have been labeled by her as "preacher-girl"..not a bad thing I guess, and she doesn't refer to me as that, she just catches herself when she starts to talk foul... she says "oh sorry, I can't talk like that in front of 'preacher girl'"... It just makes me laugh.

Now Monday rolls around and it wasn't as crazy, but still a little busy... The Goodside girls had dance boot camp at church, so Robyn and I took them and came home... We ended up having a much needed conversation (on my part) and it was so sweet! Then we realized (after 2 hours) that it was time to go pick the girls up again... We went and got them, then I dropped Robyn off at the hospital for chemo, went to steak and shake, grabbed lunch, took the girls back to spring hill and I headed back to the hospital. Monday was the 5th treatment of chemo that Robyn had to undergo, but it was the first treatment of the new drug. Because it was the first time she had received that drug, they had to administer it to her a lot slower, so we ended up being at the hospital for 4ish hours. Even though we were just sitting there, it was still very draining! We came home and I went straight to work... Had a decent night at work, again I was closing and didn't leave until about 2030! It was another late night!

That was my weekend, as long and full as it was, I had a blast with every minute of it!