Korea photo update

                                  Here are pictures of our adventure so far!

 

Dr Fish. These fish eat the dead skin off your feet. It tickled so much!!!

It was recently Buddha's bday so every street was lined with paper lanterns

The bay that leads to the Pacific Ocean

So far this is our favorite iced coffee cafe 

Home of the 2018 Winter Olympics. You could see the ski jump from our hotel.

Enjoying Korean night life. (Go out at 8 or 9 and stay out until 4ish. We only made it to 3...)

Korean folk village. This is the 1988 Olympic mascot. Zoe and I thought he was just a funny looking character.

Coffee on Easter.

Xoxo

D & A

He is Risen! Easter in Korea

Our time in Korea has come to an end and while most of you are waking up to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, Danyale and I are packing and getting ready for bed. We've been here 9 days and seen almost everything you possibly can. 

Today we took a day off and celebrated Easter, just the two of us. We started our day with some local coffee and pastries to enjoy while worshipping through Saddleback's online campus. Our day then included shopping on Gangham street, watching movies, dinner at CPK (we needed some American food) and is ending with coffee from a different cafe and a movie in bed. We are so blessed to be able to spend Easter together in another country. Korea doesn't make a big deal about Easter. The Christian lifestyle is very different here. So we made the best of it but can't wait to maybe dye some eggs when we get home.

We've been to temples, villages, historical landmarks and some of the most breathe taking national parks. Neither one of us expected this country to be so clean and so unique in the way it's built. There are no suburbs here. You live in the city in a high rise apartment or out in the middle of nowhere in a family village. The east coast is beautiful with a fabulous hiking trail through the cliffs along the shoreline. The mountains are a lot like ours except for the hiking trails are built with cool bridges over the river that runs through the mountains out to the ocean. We kept saying all week how much we would love for our trails at home to be as nice as they are here.

 Amidst all the sites we've been to, we are loving the coffee here! Seoul is a city that literally sleeps for about 2 hours so there are cafés all over the place. Just about every other store is a large 2-3 story cafe with wifi, coffee roasting, and plenty of seating for work meetings, casual dates, or playing games with the kids we are with. Cafés have been a highlight!

Well we are headed out to Bejiing, China tomorrow until Friday (Thursday America time). Hopefully we'll get so,e wifi there and we'll update you more.

Xoxo

D & A

Korean Culture

Day two of being in Seoul was all about culture. From learning about the chosen dynasty to flee market shopping it was a good day. We also have discovered some things about Korea that are both entertaining and odd.

     -The toilet seats are heated & get warmer the longer you sit.

     - Pine trees are sacred because they demonstrate how you life should go. Straight and narrow without going off the beaten path.

     - Everyone points with their middle finger. It's not offensive here. They use their middle finger like we use out pointer finger.

Anyways here's a list of some places we went along with some pictures.

First stop: the Korean Palace & Museum. We learned about the fallen dynasty, the life of the dynasty while they lived in the palace. The details of the buildings were stunning. Everything here reminded me and Danayle of the movie "Mulan"

Second stop: Tradional Korean homes. Most families now live in apartments so it is rare to find a neighborhood of tradional homes. The grandma we are with was so excited to see these. She grew up in a home similar to what we saw. When you walk in the front door you are in the living room which is surrounded by 3-4 bedrooms. She said there was and is no privacy. It's very easy to notice when someone comes home late at night :) 

Third stop: Korean flee market. This happens only on Sundays so it's a big deal. Talk about flash back to the 90s and before. They had TVs that my grandparents talk about. VHS tapes everywhere right along side every kind of antique junk finds you can imagine. It was crazy! 

Fourth stop: The Han River & Hangang Park. This is a park that Danyale found on Pinterest and we were so glad we asked everyone to go. It's a beautiful park that you can rent bikes, fly kites and of course picnic at. More importantly, The Avengers was filmed here! We played on the exercise equipment and enjoyed some fresh air along the river. It was a good way to end our city tour for the day.

After a rest and some dinner we got this crazy ice cream thing. Danyale and I just enjoyed a bit since it didn't look super appetizing to us. The cone tasted like corn flakes, the ice cream was very rich. 

It's been another great day! It's only 7am on Monday here and we are wide wake...thanks jetlag. So it's time to watch church online since it's still Sunday at home :!

Xoxo

Alaina & Danyale

Korea adventures Day 1

Hello!

**disclaimer - if you had no idea I was going to Korea & China with my sister, and a family we've become great friends with...well we are and I'm sorry you are just finding out.

After a long but somewhat restful 12ish hour flight, Danyale and I made it to South Korea. With only a couple of hours of sleep & it being 5:30am here, our group decided to start the adventures right away. 4 hours into the trip & we had already been to one of the largest fresh fish markets, the top of the highest point in Korea, and to a street market. We are tired but having fun so far. 

The Harts & The Prstajkos after out flight. 

A famous lock wall. It is believed that if you and your loved one place a lock here than the gods of the mountain will give you everlasting love for each other. 

The Cherry Blossoms are in bloom!!

                       Fish Market

That's all for today. Off to dinner & maybe some karaoke with the locals. 

Xoxo

D & A 

2014 - A ripple effect

The ripple effects of events from 2013 have quickly filled my calendar. It's only three months into 2014 and I have 4 weddings, multiple bridal showers, a handful of baby showers, birthday parties, work events, and a family reunion on the books. Some of those include my love for planning while others I get to just sit back and enjoy. Needless to say, the plans are beginning to unfold for several of these large events which leaves me with little time to sit down and update you guys on life. As my job now includes overseeing all of our events, and I'm quickly getting asked to assist in everyday life events for family and friends, I'm learning that Pinterest is my best friend. If you don't know what Pinterest is Google it, your life will forever be changed. With each pin, I get more and more excited to help create opportunities for people to fellowship and for students to meet the Lord. From cakes to silly games, it's exciting. My life has become one giant event! I love decorating my home, making dinner for guest, planning trips to Disneyland, and even simple crafting. It's refreshing to sit on my couch and dream of what can be done to make a friends' birthday party special.
+This past weekend I hosted a baby shower for a former student, now friend. Here are some highlights.

++Can't wait to meet Zadok

xoxo A

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

Holy Moly - guacamole?!?!

Holy Moly describes how I feel just about every evening for the past 2 weeks. I've been going to bed with so much on my mind that I can't help say "holy moly, what did I even accomplish today if I have that much to do tomorrow?" And then I look back over some word "vomit" that's in my journal and realize that what I've been song each day is helping further the kingdom of heaven. I may have just answered phone calls all day or emails but it's all for the glory of God. "whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God"
Here is a pic of journal entry this morning. Thought I'd share it so you can see what God is doing in my life right now :)

Photo update

The last couple of weeks have left me feeling overwhelmed!! so here is a photo dump of what life has been looking like lately.

Confession time

I am addicted to reading blogs!! I love reading what's on other people's hearts. I love reading about the adventures my friends are going on. I love reading about what God is doing and has done around the world through ordinary people.
One of my favorite blogs is written by a lady named Kristen Howerton. She has some incredibly inspiring post about every day life, but my favorite section of her blog is the "What I want You to Know" section. It is here that guest get to write post about real life struggles and how the outsider can help. This week I read the following post and it hit home for one reason in particular. It is a post about online sex and porn. In HSM we have a LOT of students struggling with this addiction and it breaks my heart. Read the link below;

http://www.rageagainsttheminivan.com/2012/02/what-i-want-you-to-know-getting.html

I love the honesty of the writer! I love the reality that cybersex is happening all around us and in people we might not ever expect. However those people are people. They are our friends, coworkers, and even family members. They need just as much love and support as someone that is caught up in the sin of lying. We all fall short and are in need of a Savior!!

HSM Boy Band

I love my job for several reasons. Here is just one more:

For those of you who don't know what the heck this is all about...here is a brief catch up for you. Our teens are in LOVE with a band called One Direction. They are kind of the Backstreet Boys of 2012. They have this music video all about their song that has hit the charts and makes teenage girls go crazy. HSM decided to use their lyrics and make a video of our own. Totally the One Direction song, but our staff, our dance moves, and our crazy, silly antics.
These are the guys I work with =)

Third World vs First World

This is my favorite wall in my room. The only things on it, besides a headboard, are these two pictures. They are a constant reminder of the gap between third world countries and our country.
The picture on the left is of a place that stole my heart several years ago. A place that feels so much like home when I'm there, that I miss it often. It is a picture of homes that surround the garbage dump of Guatemala City, Guatemala. A neighborhood known as the squatters area. Many people don't want to go hang out there, but for me it brings so much joy to hang out with kids and teens that live around the dump. Sure they smell, have little to no education, search for food in the dump and probably have lice, however they have faith like no one in the US. Little kids still run around with grins like the Cheshire cat and laugh those deep belly laughs that are super contagious. Everyone that lives in the squatters area just wants to hang out. They want to be heard. They want to share their story, and teach you as much as you might want to teach them and share Jesus. Run and play soccer with them for 10 minutes and they become your best friend. There are teens that are so jaded by what love is, that it has to be hard for them to understand the love of Christ, and yet they are so willing to sit and read the bible with you or sing worship songs. Just writing about this place makes me want to leave the comfort of my home and go visit again. And that is just part of why I love this picture. It is also a reminder to love the orphans and widows. To be the hands and feet of Jesus. To go where no one else is willing to go. To love the unlovable. To do all of it because Jesus loved us first!
The second picture, on the right, is from the top of the Empire State Building in New York. It reminds me daily that I live in a place of many blessings. Roof over my head, food in the refrigerator, new clothes in my closet, and clean air to breath. I know who my parents are and I love them. But despite all those blessings, I find myself sometimes wanting more. Wanting to be something more, do more, and have more. After all more is best right? NOT. The words on the picture say, Hope, Peace, Integrity. The more I have the less I need Hope, because the less I think I need God. I also think the more we have the harder it is to have Peace, since everyone wants what their neighbor has and will always be at war with ourselves and jealousy. Also the more we have/want the harder it is to keep your Integrity. But this is all possible when you realize how blessed you are to be living in this first world country. So this picture reminds me to Hope in the promises of Christ, to keep Peace with friends, neighbors, family and even enemies, and to keep Integrity amongst a society that definitely doesn't value it.

Favorite things in my room =)

Life Giving Relationships

I have always taken extreme pride over the friendships that I have. I'm kind of picky when it comes to whom I spend my free time with and who I share lifes ups and downs with. If you know me well, you know that I'm pretty introverted and love small group or one-on-one relationships. I'm not the life of the party. I'm not the person that loves large crowds and environments where I know no one. I would rather have a small dinner party and game night with close friends then a large, crazy Friday night party. 

In the last two years I have had to become a little more extroverted as I work with high school students in ministry. But to be honest by Sunday night, after working 6 days and pouring into students, parents and volunteers, I'm exhausted. The introverted side of me wants to crawl into bed and be by myself for 24 hours. Resting, thinking, and processing the week that just passed. I can be pretty selfish by the time Sunday night and Monday morning roll around. I don't really want to spend time pouring into others, I want to spend time being poured into. I want to hang out with people that are easy going, low maintenance, no drama. With people that understand how a true relationship works, give and take type of things. And that is where Life Giving Relationships play in. 

I have 6 friends that are life giving! They are incredible women who love the Lord. We have all had our fair share of ups and downs and we have definitely seen the ugly side of each other. Despite the messiness of friendship, we love each other. And this last week I was blessed to spend time with each of them separately. Disneyland, lunch, sno-on-the go, 2 hour phone convos, all so refreshing. By the end of the week I felt like a new breath of life had been breathed in me. As silly as that sounds, I felt that the advice, laughs, and intentional conversations I had through out the week, had left me feeling loved, valued, and blessed. Blessed that I can walk through life alongside of these friends! 

I think it is obviously so important to have friendships that give and take. For me, it is better to have a small group of friends that can walk the storms of life with you then a large group of acquaintances. Life isn't meant to be done alone. We are meant to live in community. This is my community. 6 friends and a loving sister! All living for the Lord. All challenging each other to grow physically, mentally and spiritually.

40 Days is over

40 days of no Facebook has reached its end! I have to say it has been a long 40 days but so good. Yesterday marked a day in history that has forever changed my life and hopefully yours too.
Jesus conquered the grave!!!!

I've spent a lot of time thinking about what Christ did in the 40 days of let and what He teaches us through that. Some of my older post have better summaries of what've learned but below is a picture of what has been going on. 6 words for 6 weeks of reflection. All on my mirror as a constant reminder.
I'm so not ready to jump all in on Facebook again so I've decided the fb app will never go on my phone again. I spend way too much time on my phone without having Facebook to distract me.

Featured Music: Enough

This week's featured music is an oldie but a goodie! "Enough: by Christ Tomlin use to be one of my favorite worship songs when I was in high school. It is so simple but so great. God will always be enough!
(bear with the cheesy images)

re:Deemed & re:Joice

Lent Learnings:

Week 3 re:Deemed:

• I am a redeemed child of God
• God set us free as he was nailed to a cross with arms stretched out wide. Those arms reach down now to comfort, protect, and teach us that we are his beloved. We are his redeemed which means he has paid our debt, he has bought us. How cool is that?!?!? Christ hung on that cross to purchase you and me. Who would do that? I don't deserve to be bought at that price. The price of one's life. Yet Christ did it and I am forever thankful for that kind of love.
• Ephesians 1:7- "we have redemption in Him through His blood, for the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace."

Week 4 re:Joice:

• I am to rejoice in all circumstances. To have a joyful heart
• In the bible we see distruction, war, devestation, people walking away from the Lord, God's disciples thrown in prison and so much more that would cause the normal person to be angry, sad, hopeless and for sure not joyful. Yet Paul rejoices while in prison. The people of the Old Testament find joy in God's delieverance. So why is it so hard to find joy in the midst of our pain? Our society focuses so much on harvesting our depression and anger instead of finding something to be joyful about. 
• I am normally a pretty positive person and have learned to "rejoice in the Lord always" (phil 4:4) but this week I found it a little hard to rejoice and had to get a reality check from my mom. One of my good friends is about to loose her mom to cancer and it is devestating. Yesterday I went home to my mom's after a conversation with my friend and melted in my mom's arms. I couldn't understand (and won't ever), how such a great lady could be suffering so much. And more than ever my heart is so broken for my friend. My mom had to help me remember all the good times my friend has shared with her mom in recent years and all the cool things my friend has done that has brought her mom such joy. It was a moment that made that verse above come alive. We are to rejoice ALWAYS, which means even in pain and even when we don't understand, we are called to rejoice in what God is doing and what He has done.
• I found this verse this week during a quiet time and loved it!! Isaiah 29:19 "The humble will have joy after joy in the Lord, and the poor people will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel."

I have learned that God relentlessly pursues me, I need to constantly repent, I have been redeemed, and I am called to rejoice always!

1 Month!!!

One Month! Wow one month away from facebook and I can honestly say I DO NOT miss it. Okay so technically it will be one month on Thursday but I know I won't have time to blog this week so I'm getting ahead =) After a month of being "disconnected" to the facebook world I have realized just how much our current culture relays on it. Students, parents, my family, friends, coworkers, everyone is guilty of using facebook as a HUGE source of information. I can't tell you how many times a day I hear "did you see on facebook ______." No I haven't because I've been working, exercising, talking on the phone or just plain hanging out with people. It isn't all bad but it has opened my eyes to a whole world that I knew depended on the social media but never realized how much. Because of this reliance I have had some frustrations while away. It has been hard to connect with students for serve projects, weekend services, office help and just plain hanging out. It was most frustrating when I couldn't communicate to our El Toro Owns the Weekend Kids. I know I have missed some birthday parties and other events because I forgot to put them on my calendar before signing off facebook (sorry if i missed your party). I miss writing notes on students walls and celebrating them in status' so everyone can see. Here is some honesty for you; I hate that two of my small group girls have new boyfriends, and I can't get online to "stock" them and make sure they are good, God loving, boys. I hate that a friend from college had a baby and I'm not going to see pictures until he is over a month old (I love baby pics). And yet I love that I have to trust my girls when they tell me the facts about these boys. I love that after the facebook hype over my friends baby pics, I'll be able to look at them and bring some new joy and hype back to her pics. With all that said I also have to admit that I have had people help me stay a little up to date on what life is like on facebook. My mom has kept me up to date on what family status updates are out there and what some of my old friends are doing. My Life Group girls have updated me on all student drama, including sending my some screen shoot pics. So I'm a little in the loop =)
While feeling a bit disconnected, I have also felt a huge relief. I am involved in less drama. I am less consumed by looking at peoples pictures. I don't lay in bed at midnight looking through status' on my phone. Most importantly I am connecting with the people most important to me and not worrying about the people who aren't truly in my life. It is not that I don't care about the people that I would call acquaintances, it is just that in the small amount of time I have outside of work and pouring into students, I would rather catch up with people that are near and dear to me. And that is exactly what I have done. I have spent hours on the phone. Hours reading books. Time writing cards and sending emails to family and distant friends. I spend less time looking at my phone and more time looking across the table with my family. Needless to say I am really enjoying not having facebook!! I may even dare to say that when I go back to it, I will check it occasionally but not use it anywhere close to how I use to.

10 Day Review

Here is a 10 Day Review in Pictures:

 Spent last weekend in Havasu remembering my cousin and her daughter. These crosses are at my grandma's church and it was so neat to just sit at the foot of the cross and remember all that God has done for my family through our pain.

 I LOVE sports! So it has been so nice to spend some evenings watching my girls play their favorite sports.

 This weekend was ET Owns the Weekend at HSM! We did a pancake breakfast for dinner on Sat night and pancake breakfast on Sunday.

ETHS students rocked it this weekend! So proud of them and what they are doing for the Lord. It is great to see amazing things coming out of my Alma Mater =)

Featured Music

This is the first of a bi-weekly post that will feature some type of music. It may be random. It may have some explanation attached. No matter what, I promise it will be good!

This weeks featured music is "Never Once" by Matt Redman. It has been about a two weeks since I first heard it and let me just say, I'm a little obsessed. My life hasn't always been the most glamorous and I have definitely had my fair share of struggles. Struggles and life situations that have really caused me to question God and question his purpose and timing of certain things. "Never Once" is a great reminder of God's faithfulness even when we think we are walking alone. Check it out:

Life in Pics

Mom and I went to the LA fashion district for great fabric finds. 

 Spent the weekend in Murrieta w/a great college friend, Ashlee Martin

 Went to Louisville, Ky for a conference. Got to tour the slugger factory!!

 while in Ky the tornados hit the surrounding area. a couple of us went out and bought supplies and then took them to Henryville, which was only 20 minutes from our hotel.

 I went and "hair modeled" at a salon called "Dry Bar". So cool and fun! loved this lamp!

In honor of National Women's day, the HSM girls went to LA together. Love them so much!