Monday iPhone pics

It's that time of the week again, Monday Photo Dump. I've decided to bring back the day of the week that I show you the past week in pictures. So enjoy :)

Sent one of my first camp student leaders off to college

Celebrated my moms bday with delicious dinner and dessert. (Side note; I have to BEST fam ever)

Just being crazy with some students

Work

And of course I ended the week at Disneyland. 

355 Days!

It has been 355 days since I last blogged. I would like to apologize to my family and friends around the country for my absence. I know this is where you all catch up on my life, so you are probably thinking that I have been eatin' by one of the coyotes living next to my house. Don't worry, I am back and alive and ready for more frequent updates and random thoughts on life.

Today I want to update you on my job and more specificly, me learning through my job. Lately I've been relating my job a lot to a verse in the song Oceans, by Hillsong. The verse goes like this;

"Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander, And my faith will be made stronger, in the presence of my Savior"

Never in a million years did I think I would be in youth ministry, especially working with high school students (i've been at saddleback 3 years!). The art of loving on, talking to, and hanging out with, high schoolers has been an incredibly stretching experience for me, at times very exhausting. Learning how to lead a raging hormone, boy crazy girl has taught me more about loving Christ, than I would have ever expected. While I learn to manage those crazy teen girls, and my other job responsibilies, I also am running a major event each summer for over 600 students. Let me remind you that I am a quiet, behind the scenes, organized freak that hates being on stage except for announcements, and loves one-on-one conversations more than large groups. 

Okay, now what the heck has the Lord done by taking me so deep into jobs that are way out of my comfort zone! Well like the song says, "my faith will be made stronger." That is what happens every day that I'm at work. I have learned to surrender and trust Christ, more than any bible study could teach me. Here's an incredible example of what's happening:

Yesterday I learned that we had 599 students signed up for our summer camp, which is in 17 days. I also found out we had 95 students on the waiting list. My heart for camp is that students would come to a week away from distractions and learn how to have a relationship with Christ, while being mentored by caring adults. With 95 students on the waiting list, and no more beds, I was a little anxious and frustrated that those students would miss out on some incredible, life changing moments. Well like I said learning the art of surrender has been awesome, because with that I expect God to do great things. So everyday has been a routine of giving camp and all the logistics up to God expecting him to show up and do great things. So, around 2:30pm yesterday I received a phone call that once again showed me, God answers prayers when we pray expectantly and get out of the way. The phone call went a little like this; "Hey, I have some great news, we were able to get you 100 more beds, so lets call those wait list kids, and order more supplies."

That's right peeps, we were given 100 more spots for students at camp. Enough to take every student on the waiting list!!! So in two weeks, HSM at Saddleback will take almost 700 high school students to camp. My feet will be taken deeper than I can handle, and deeper than I would ever go myself, but I know God will continue to show up and work through myself, and my team.

Would love for you guys to be praying for the team I work on, for our camp staff, and for our students. 

Until next time

A