This Time

The empty apartments we left held many memories for us. Closing the door and turning in the keys to our old apartments meant the official end of college life. Each box carried down to our small sedans reminded of meals shared with friends, late night conversations with roommates, Pop Culture Trivial Pursuit with 101 v. 310, scooter rides and church meetings, all-nighters and exams, walks to Starbucks for hours of studying, precious and few solitary moments, midnight praise and worship, and everything in between.

Like an 8 page english paper due at 8 in the morning with only two pages written by 11:00pm, JD and I found ourselves in our separate apartments with barely anything packed at 4:00pm with a mandate to be out by 6:00pm (we both live in the same apartment complex). To top it off, our roommates had already left so we were on our own to trudge through the remaining dishes, trash, unclaimed linens, and food. At 5:00am we finished and drove to very temporary homes. JD is staying on the floor of a friend's place and I am living with my roommates on a couch. It was emotional for us... our eyes misted as we closed the door to the life we knew so well.

And for a couple months at least, in this very wierd transition time, we won't know anything really... Where we're going, when we're going... We find ourselves praying together daily, sometimes more than once, in our humble attempt to hear our God.

Today we polished our resumes and wrote a cover letter. Now it's time to send them out... send them to churches anywhere and everywhere. Our hearts and minds are ready for action - ready to be thrown into the world of youth ministry as more than just volunteers. With Chap Clark in our back pockets, hearts shaped with experience, and R.O. and Mindy's words of wisdom in our minds... and with the passion and desire given by the Holy Spirit, we seek to devote each day and night to serving the kingdom through ministering to youth. We love it. Never have either of us been more certain of the call and yet are completely unaware of the means or direction... In our attempts to discern, we have no choice but to surrender our own timelines, our biases and presumptions, and stand in this place - as awkward and hard and emotional and truthfully terrifying as it may be... we are called to patience and faith.

Please pray...

Please pray for us as JD and I seek to hear and respond to God's direction for us in this hectic time... We are seeking to serve Him vocationally in Youth Ministry, and the search is baffling, confusing, frustrating, exciting, and terrifying. More to come...

My Crazy Cousin

Just wanted to alert you all of my cousin's 2 year adventures riding the spine of the Americas with two companions. Starting in the Northernmost tip of Alaska and ending at the tip of South America, Jacob and two buddies are cycling endless roads with incredible adventures. If you want a good read that seems nearly fiction, go to their website: www.ridingthespine.com and read their stories... You'll read of wolf chases and raw egg nutrition, wrong turns and guardian angel truckers... I'm so proud ;)