tryptophan filled turkey chili

Today in the cafe I had an awesome time of fellowshipping with Jackie, Carol, and Joey…while the girls had the turkey chili combo. It was delicious but immediately upon getting into my bloodstream I became uncontrollably sleepy. I couldn’t handle it. i wanted to crawl under every table and just nap. It was later when I explained this need, that Jackie and Carol both agreed that they felt the same way. Then it hit us like—-Turkey. We felt like we did on Thanksgiving day when we get a Tryptophan sleep induced coma. That’s what it was. So no more Trypto-Turk chili for me. :) Although it was delish—zzzzzzzzzz.

A good article on transitioning from Highschool to college.

A good article on transitioning from Highschool to college.
I have had the distinct pleasure of not only being a Girls Minister for the past 6 years, but of also journeying with a group of about 15 teenaged girls for the past 6 years. I have been blessed to know them and now they are Seniors. I have 7 official Wednesday nights left with them and I’m floundering in all that I want to talk with them about before they leave for college or their next steps. This link is a great start to helping you think through some things that need to be discussed before Seniors leave for college. Hope it helps you.COLLEGE TRANSITION ARTICLE

Wait...what am I forgetting about March 13th?

You know how you have dates and numbers forever entrenched in your memory…like my very first phone number was 217-546-5926. I will never forget it no matter how much I try. My first ID # was 194460. and I never forget Tammy Shim’s birthday because I think she brainwashed me in 6th grade to always remember February 18th is her day:)
But for some reason all day today I couldn’t remember why March 13th was locked in my mind as something and then it hit me…it was my dad’s birthday. It’s been 9 years since I have been able to call him on his birthday or come up with some silly gift to give him. Even though we had a really rough relationship, Clarence Morgan was still my dad. He never really was all he could be as a dad and that is the sad part but God still blessed him with an amazing daughter :) and I’m pretty sure he was proud of me. So here’s to you dad! Happy Birthday—-I will continue to do my best to honor my father with the life I’ve been given because that’s just what you’re supposed to for your parents and by doing that…I pray I bring honor to my heavenly father. If you find yourself today having a hard time loving your parents…hang in there. I pray He gives you peace in that relationship today and that you experience healing in the broken places of your heart just like Christ has done for me.

Dear church...

Yesterday my pastor friend shared some news with me about the recent decline in adults being baptized in North America. He said the decline was not really an indication that people had stopped sharing their story of redemption with people but that records indicate it is directly linked with birthrates dropping in the church.

I drove home yesterday thinking about you church. I drove home thinking about the parts of you that I saw in Southeast Asia. How inspiring it was to see people actually cry when I asked them to share how they came to know Jesus. I realized I had become numb and had forgotten how blessed I was to have my heart wake up and understand that I am broken and that Christ is the piece I have needed to make me whole. My friend in the closed country I visited still remembered when the Jesus Film was dropped into her village by airplane and how the story changed her life. She sobbed for her mother and father who did not yet know you. I saw my mom cry over the knowledge that her mother (my grandma) was not in a relationship with Christ. I drove home broken-hearted for the church of north america.

I think Satan has distracted us from sharing our lives with our friends and neighbors. I think satan has gotten us discouraged from thinking we have something to share. I think Satan has gotten us divided from each other in our churches…we get so worked up over silly things. I got so encouraged by a student the other night who made a challenge with me to give up my iphone for 24 hours if she and another student would commit to sharing their faith with as many people as possible. She came up with that on her own.
I think we as the church have made other things our priority in this side of the world.
I don’t know what God will do with us during this interesting time of economic turmoil but I want to prioritize.

I am finding it a blessing to sit with about 15 other ministers in my church on a Wednesday morning and pray that God would break our hearts for those who don’t know you. We’re praying God would give us boldness to share. We’re praying that God would break the hearts of our church members to pray and share. And it is so refreshing to come together and lift our hearts as one to God.

So church, I know that God is at work in you and through you. I asked Him to show me while I was on sabbatical. Globally speaking, God is doing some amazing things…but North America my prayer is that we would shake our legs because we’ve been sitting way to long thinking someone else will do what we’re supposed to, and we’ve fallen asleep.

There is a murmur of “new things” and “movement” that I am hearing as I speak with friends and I see God calling up new leaders within our student ministry. And I know it doesn’t start with us, but those things…those heartbeats…those movements…they start with God. So God I pray today that you would wake up our churches in North America. That you would break our hearts for the things that matter. That you would teach us how to share about your salvation and remind us about the day you saved us. I ask this in your name Jesus and I praise you that You are up to something that we cannot see.

Amen.

Girls at Snowball doing ZUMBA

Girls at Snowball doing ZUMBA

celebrating snowball

So this past weekend we had so many girls come to Snowball. With adults and students we easily reached 175-180. But the thing that was most successful about Snowball was the fact that girls between the grades of 6-12 were getting to know each other and learning about what Godly friendship looks like. We had the theme of L.Y.L.A.S this year which if used to be all the rage when I was growing up. We would sign each other’s yearbooks with the phrase “Love Ya Like A Sister”. This year at Snowball we really challenged each other to do that…We had 5 different stations that 10 tribes of girls would rotate through. The first station was and L station that stood for Love. At that station girls were encouraged to think through how they love each other with words. They were encouraged to consider that what comes out of their mouths is truly an overflow of what is going on in their hearts. They ended that session by writing encouraging words and words of love on the Snowball themed t-shirts that had L.Y.L.A.S spray-paint stenciled on the bottom of the shirt.
The second station was the Y station. The Y stood for YOU at this station. This station we learned how to celebrate the gifts and uniqueness that God has created in each of us. We did this by making our own FLAIR buttons and then swapping flair buttons with a friend.
The third station was another L station. This L stood for loyalty. We talked about how important it was to have Godly friends to lean on in the difficult times. To illustrate we played a MEGA game of twister with 6 mats. Then the 3rd station was station A. ‘A’ stood for attributes. We talked about the different attributes we should look for and exhibit as christian friends. We had a little fun with this one. We had them play Attribute dodgeball. The way we did this was to take the positive attributes from the book series that has recently resurfaced on facebook…”little men and little misses”, and placed 6 of those on buckets with candy in each. So the Little Miss sunshine picture was placed on a bucket of butterfingers. And Little Miss Caring was placed on a bucket of kitkats…etc.
Then the negative attribute pictures like Little Miss Gossip was placed on a dodgeball.
The goal was to get as many pieces of candy out of the positive attribute buckets for your side without getting hit by a bad attribute dodgeball from the opposing team. If you got hit, you were out. The girls had a great time with this. The last station was station S. At station S we talked about the importance of serving others as friends. We made picture frames to give away to those we serve through our weekly lifegroup missions/service projects at Trevecca Towers.
Following the LYLAS stations, we went and did an hour of ZUMBA with Andrea Smith. She was amazing and ended by sharing about how as Christians girls we are God’s daughters and that speaks to how valuable we are in His eyes.
Then we ended the night with a prayer experience designed by myself, a wonderful mom and leader Jean Crosby, and most importantly—-a 12th grader named Madison Thompson who helped shape the experience with her own testimony and verses that helped her understand how God designed her uniquely and how we are to love others that are designed by God. We created paper dolls that were to look like each of us. We cut the dolls out and each of the dolls had 4 verses written on their arms and legs to support what Madison had talked about. Then we cut them out and got in a big line. We then talked about Ephesians 4:4 which says we are (MSG) called to stay together both inwardly and outwardly…that we are permeated with the Oneness of Christ…
We then took pieces of ducttape and joined the hands of each of the dolls to create a long line of paperdolls. We had the girls pray for the girl on her right and her left and then the adults went and hung the dolls up on the upperdeck of the connection center as a reminder of the prayer experience. It was awesome to be a part of. It was also super cool to have Melissa Trevantham and Sissy Goff share with our girls at the very beginning. Our girls have not stopped talking about what they shared with them and I see it all over facebook when girls will say “YOU MATTER” to another girl because that’s what Sissy and Melissa said to them. We also had a large dessert buffet for the girls to munch on throughout the night. It was awesome. Now I’m going to rest and hopefully get my voice back this week. It’s a blessing to serve in girls ministry! L.Y.L.A.S!