blt

today i ate the most delicious lunch. possibly ever. but certainly in a long, long time.
it was a staff day at the house today {meetings, book studies, etc.} and so i made lunch for all of us.
the menu?

california BLTs {it's a BLT with avocado}
pasta salad
chips & dip


chocolate chip oatmeal cookie sandwiches for dessert

it was all divine. i'm not a gigantic fan of huge slabs of tomato, so i just made mine BLA {bacon, lettuce, avocado} and it was absolutely perfect. perfect i tell you.
the pasta salad was so refreshing and the cookies? extravagant.
i'm still full. {the boys were delighted to eat cucumbers and chips and pb & j sandwiches. silly boys. they don't even know what they're missing.}

this afternoon in my book study with the other staff women i was really struck {again} by this quote from the book we're reading {having a mary spirit} about the story of mary and martha:

Jesus simply didn't want Martha to be so caught up in kitchen service for Him that she missed out on the joy of living-room intimacy with Him.....As they received Jesus's teaching, they learned the balance between a soul at rest and a body in motion, between working hard for Christ and sitting at His feet.


as someone who enjoys baking and cooking for others and serving others through providing food {and eating that food too!}, i was gladdened by the thought that it wasn't martha's actions that Jesus was rebuking as much as the attitude of her heart. her body could have been moving and working and serving while her heart was sitting at the feet of Jesus, but it wasn't. her heart was resentful and busy with tasks, not loving Jesus.

today's lunch brought me great joy to make and serve and provide {and definitely eat!} but it's a good reminder that when i am "busy" in deed, that my heart be quiet and still, seated before Jesus and longing to soak up His presence.

A jig of excitement!

I could do a jig with excitement.
You see, I've just found out that what was thought to be a rumour is actually confirmed to be true!
Mark Driscoll is not only speaking at a couple seminars at staff conference, but he is actually THE KEY NOTE SPEAKER!!!!
I am beyond thrilled!!! It's going to be so good and so funny and so challenging. I'm really looking forward to conference - even more than I already was!
Jamie and I signed up for everything today.
We picked our seminars (of course all the Mark Driscoll ones before they fill up) and signed up for incredibly fun options like Survivor and Staff Softball (pretty much my favourite sport to play). So on top of the awesome people I'll get to hang out with, and the breathtaking scenery that is Whistler, there are fantastic activities and a give-it-to-'em straight Key Note Speaker, the one and only Mark Driscoll.
I love my job.
PS If you have no clue who Mark Driscoll is, he is a pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seattle (no, not the one in Michigan with Rob Bell) and you should check out the website and listen to a sermon or five.

long time no post

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all that jazz!
I haven't written anything since December 20th and so much has happened since then.
With all the flurry before Christmas, the many family events we went to before and during Christmas (3 Christmases on Christmas day and 2 other visits on that day too!) and then winter conference, I haven't really had time to process/blog about it all.
The week before Christmas was busy, but really fun. Jamie and Brad were busy working on videos for Winter Conference and the 2 questions I heard the most were:
1. Is this funny?
and
2. Is this appropriate/can I say that?
I got the title of "voice of reason" which I enjoyed. Silas and Brad came over one night and editted until 4:30am!
I definitely wouldn't want the job of Winter Conference emcee...but those two did a great job!
And tomorrow will be my last "christmas" event with "American Christmas" in Scarborough. Should be fun!

evangelism

A few days ago I tried to blog but it got accidentally deleted - so I didn't retry it.
Now I have much more to blog about than some freak snowstorm (which is significant in it's own weathery-type category).
This past Friday was our staff day for evangelism. All the staff came to Guelph and we paired off and went into all the popular hang-out spots at the U of G to go "sharing".
Now in the whole gamut of feelings toward doing initiative evangelism (from those who just LOVE it to those who HATE it) I fall somewhere in the "I love it" category but still don't find it incredibly easy to do - or at least I struggle to get out there and do it. Once I'm doing it, I love it...it's the whole momentum thing I struggle with.
But I do love doing it and I do love going with people I haven't gone before. In the morning I went out with MC and we approached and spoke with several girls. They were all really good conversations and 2 of the 3 conversations were longer than 30 minutes. Good, solid conversations where the gospel was presented.
In the afternoon I went out with Sean and we talked to this one guy for about 45 minutes. I was so encouraged by this conversation. Here was a guy in philosophy and was captured by guys like - I'm totally drawing a blank here - crap. Basically, he was captured by the Christian philosophers that he was studying. Here was a guy who was well informed, logical and asks himself the "big" questions of life. He was open and honestly seeking.
And then came the most incredible conversation with these two guys. This time I was sharing with Allan. These two guys and Allan and I talked for over an hour and a half about everything from the historicity of the Bible, to the claims of Jesus to absolute truth, to heaven and hell and everything! It was awesome and heated and full of debate and listening and talking and opinions and questions and ultimately was all about Jesus. In the end my heart broke for these guys who think that there is nothing more than this life. One guy even said, "I am my own god."
Wow. I can't even imagine the anger/sadness/grief that is felt by God as so many people either say that statement verbally or communicate it by their actions.
But I was so pumped afterwards. We even had to cut the conversation so we could get our rides.
Who says people don't want to talk about about their spiritual beliefs?
In a span of around 4-5 hours I only spoke to 7 people! That means that I either hung out in the bathroom a lot (which I didn't) or that the people I spoke to were really interested and the conversations just lasted longer than 5 minutes.
I've said it before, but I'll say it again, I love my job.

Summit

I've only been home for just under an hour but I just feel the need to write about this weekend.
Summit was incredible. God is incredible. Over 400 students came to Camp White Pine this weekend for our Campus for Christ Retreat - my buzzer just went to change the laundry - Mm...fresh laundry. Where was I?
Right. Summit. 400 students.
My heart is so full of joy and amazement that despite the fact that this year our campuses split off (and there were only 8 campuses instead of the usual 12 or so) that we had MORE students from LESS campuses turn up. Wow!
Friday night was insanely cold; minus one degree to be exact. At least, it was cold for September 29th. Despite the cold we all gathered in the Pintages for school spirit (Guelph...I'm so proud of you and I am so blessed to be working with all of you - and Mac...the fact that you had over 130 students show up is honestly a testimony of God's grace and power - it's true...even if you were a little obnoxious. :P) incredible worship and both hilarious stories and words of truth from our speaker, Alex Philip.
I also appreciated the drive up north - the colours of the trees are mind-blowing! I just soaked it in while listening to a fantastic sermon by Mark Driscoll. I love nature. That aspect alone of the weekend was a blessing in itself.
And God showed up. He truly did.
Saturday was such a great day. Worshipping in spirit and in truth, playing some great games, talking with new friends, old friends and even recent friends...my heart was just so blessed from this weekend. I think because I remember my first few Summits when I didn't know anyone and felt extremely out of place and struggled to get to know people. Now when I come I see familiar faces who know me and love me and we are labouring together for Christ - and I love that!
Saturday night was my favourite session. Alex talked about sin and its affect in our lives and its destructive nature. I was scribbling notes like crazy as he talked about Joshua from the Bible and how when one of the Israelite's committed a sin God took it so seriously that it was not only that particular person's sin, but the entire nation of Israel's sin! Sin is serious. And another point that stuck out to me is that sin is not disconnected from God. It is intimately connected to who God is and is an affront on the character of God. THAT is why it is so serious and that's why the reprecussions of sin is death. (Rom. 6:23)
Today I woke up with the worst migraine I think I've ever had so much so that I felt sick to my stomach. This was discouraging as I wanted to participate in the day's activites. I'm not sure why this happened but I know it wasn't random. So today was hard...and not my ideal way to end a great weekend, but as we drove home I started to feel better, which was really great.
I'll end with this link to a fantastic article by John Piper. It's called "The Greatest Thing in the World is to be Saved". Check it out.
Oh and you can check out my pictures from Summit at my picture blog and some videos at my video blog.