life is definately in full swing. we have jobs, schedules, expectations, and responsibilities. i'm finally getting to a point where this is starting to sink in. we're in this for the long haul... together. it was different but exciting to figure out how to live together. it's an adventure, and i'm really glad that josh is with me to figure it out.

i work at a church. things were a bit rough at the beginning, but God in His grace is displaying forgiveness and removing my mistakes. i think if i focus on God receiving the glory in every part of my life, this year will fly by but it'll be one of joy and not tension.

we're always looking forward to when we will move overseas. each day brings us one step closer, but it also reminds us of all we have left to do! visas, selling cars, packing, visiting family as much as we can, raising support, and just being spiritually prepared. some of these things we will wait until later. so you won't come over and have to move around boxes because we're packing up our apartment :)

overall, we miss all of our friends. we're realizing that we've grown up. it's hard to make new friends when the old ones are so cool and exactly what we need (and want). so please pray for us. that we would find a young couple in the same stage of life that lives close to us. or pray about moving closer to us :) just kidding. i agree with abby when she said that she wanted us all to live in our own community, it would be neat. it would still be hard to leave that community. so i guess, leaving or moving never gets easy. God is there with us when we leave, when we arrive, when we move, and when we live life. so we're never alone. ptl.

Faith

Faith, mighty faith
The promise sees
And looks to God alone
Laughs at impossibilities
And shouts, “It shall be done!”

And shouts, “It shall, it shall be done!”
And shouts, “It shall, it shall be done!”

Laughs at impossibilities
And shouts, “It shall be done!”

                                     written by Charles Wesley

It’s blessed, Lord, to serve You here
Together with our friends,
But also You command us “Go!”
To earth’s far distant lands.

Then send us forth to do Your will,
Where e’er You please, o’er vale and hill,
And use us, Lord, to bring Your Word
To those who have not heard.

                                      written by Ken Remer

Married!!

life lately has consisted of sending wedding invitations, preparing newsletters to mail out, cooking, and substitute teaching. the invitations are sent, the newsletters are on their way with their envelope homes ready with stamps on them, and substitute teaching is finished! so i have had some time to look at stuff on the internet.

first, i love relevant magazine's website. they have these  things called slices. it's sometimes a random newsfeed that has nothing to do with anything, but other times it's quite interesting. this finding led me to a website called "off-the-map".

let me introduce you to jim. jim was a pastor with a ministry that was heading no where in seattle. he began to pay people 25 dollars to go to church to fill out surveys and turn them in.

does anyone remember the guy who "sold his soul on ebay" last year? his name is hemant.

Wall Street Journal, March 9, 2006:
A few weeks ago, Hemant Mehta posted an unusual item for sale on eBay: a chance to save his soul.
The DePaul University graduate student promised the winner that for each $10 of the final bid, he would attend an hour of church services. The 23-year-old Mr. Mehta is an atheist, but he says he suspected he had been missing out on something.
“Perhaps being around a group of people who will show me ‘the way’ could do what no one else has done before,” Mr. Mehta wrote in his eBay sales pitch. “This is possibly the best chance anyone has of changing me.”
Evangelists bid, eager to save a sinner. Atheists bid, hoping to keep Mr. Mehta in their fold. When the auction stopped on Feb. 3 after 41 bids, the buyer was Jim Henderson, a former evangelical minister from Seattle, whose $504 bid prevailed.
Mr. Henderson wasn’t looking for a convert. He wanted Mr. Mehta to embark with him on an eccentric experiment in spiritual bridge-building.

So instead of Hemant going to church every Sunday for a year, they settled on him surveying 15 churches. His findings and thoughts are quite stirring. Both Hemant and Jim Henderson went on to write books on this topic. Hemant's is "I sold my soul on ebay" and Jim's is "Evangelism without Additives".

This is the part I'm excited about. Jim has partnered with another athiest who is open-minded named Jim Casper. This book is the same type of survey work that Hemant did. The churches that were surveyed ranged from Rick Warren's church Saddleback Church in California to TD Jakes church the Potter's House  in Dallas. I have read the first chapter and the response and dialogue between these two men is really thought provoking. The book is called Jim and Casper Go To Church.

The website www.off-the-map.org is a place of open and peaceful conversations between Christians and Athiests. Let me know what you think.

it's a scary world we live in when someone can walk into your dorm room and shoot you or walk into you classroom and open fire killing around 30 classmates.

honestly, i'm completely heartbroken for these families. they will never know a clear motive as to why this person shot their son or daughter.