Yee-Haw! Welcome to Houston Presbyterian Cursillo #45!

Howdy par-dner! Ok so I received several impromptu lessons in how to "talk Texan" but I soon realized that even those from Texas have different ideas about how words should be pronounced. So, I did the only thing I could do...made up my own accent and said I was a California-Texan....which they all agreed was ridiculous and I could never pull off being a Texan. I just returned from serving on the staff of Houston Presbyterian Cursillo #45 this past week, and definitely feel like I am still trying to recover from the lack of sleep, long days, and time changes...but I am also still floating on a cloud of the love, encouragement, and grace that always comes with a Cursillo weekend. I got to see friends I have made my last several trips to Houston, and I got the chance to make several new friends this weekend--and once again I was reminded of how huge the Body of Christ is and how deep God's love is for each of us, the children that He calls by name. Here are some pictures from the weekend...

Sophie and Cheryl during our first staff meeting Wednesday nightSophie and I with our friend Sam, and the t-shirt we bought him for his birthday from the Bubba Gump Shrimp Factory (it says "my mama says I'm special")...we think he's pretty special too!Sophie and I--we have experienced every Cursillo-related adventure together this past year, and I'm not quite sure what a weekend without her there would be like...Sam doing a solo on the saxophoneBack in September, someone made Kernie (our monkey) his own green apron to designate that he's a staff member too...but unlike the rest of us, he chooses not to spend the whole weekend in one role, he likes to make the rounds to the different teams. So Friday Kernie spent the day with his uncle Sam and the rest of the music team leading people in worship and celebration.

My wonderful staff prayer partner, Gina--it was AMAZING getting to know her and hang out with such an incredible woman of God!

Our illustrious spiritual advisors (ordained pastors on staff for the weekend)...yeah...about the hats....don't ask...Kernie spent Saturday as a spiritual advisor, so they made him a hat, which I don't totally understand, and then sat him on top of the communion cup, and then put whopper candy in the bottom of the cup to be monkey poop...and then they spent the rest of the weekend throwing the monkey poop at the camp coordinators sitting at the next table...yeah it was a wonderfully mature weekend! So when we took the monkey away, the spiritual advisors got a little sad, so they stole our observing moderator's stuffed chicken--the chicken was being used to illustrate a point earlier in the weekend and then spent the rest of the weekend substituting for Kernie as a spiritual advisor...poor chicken.... My wonderful team I got to serve with all weekendSophie and I were helping with something Saturday afternoon, hence the outfits. "Seriously" was picked up by everyone by the end of the weekend thanks to our skit...seriously, it was.I got to see my first sunrise over the water! It sets over the water out here, so I was very excited to see the water on the east coast...ok so later I was told it was the Gulf Coast, but it still rose over the water, and was absolutely glorious! We really didn't mean to match most of the weekend...it's just that when one of us finds something with butterflies on it that we think is relatively cute we buy two, then we got there and realized everything in our suitcases matched...Like our "Life is Good" shirts...here we are with our friend John who we met back in September--John decided our monkey was pretty cool and even made Kernie his own official Cursillo nametag back in the fall!My new friend Robert and I--we spent all weekend serving together, and he was a HUGE encouragement to me!We needed hats for something...so we sent out an email asking for help, and received more offers than we could count--apparently a lot of people in Texas own hats! Us putting them on only confirmed to everyone that we weren't ever going to be able to pull off the Texan look.This wonderful group of women were such a joy to serve with! This was taken Sunday night after our staff party...we were a little tired!Our spritual advisor, Mike, hanging out with Sam Uncle Sam hanging out with his neph-monkey at the staff partyExcept when Uncle Sam wasn't looking, Kernie finished off his margarita...bad monkey!Ashleigh, Sophie and I--roommates for the weekend, we are convinced our room was somewhat possessed, we didn't sleep really at all for about 4 nights....

He is Risen!

From the time I was young, I have always said that Easter is hands down, my favorite day of the year. It trumps my birthday, Christmas, teacher inservice days, and even the 4th of July fireworks--and since the time I've been about 10, that has been the case. (Before that, nothing really beat Santa, I'll be honest...) And really, even as a kid, while the easter bunny was always cool, and easter morning surprises were wonderful, the thing that makes the day stand out above all the rest is not the candy, the easter baskets, the egg hunts or the family dinner. It's the trumpet fanfare that announces the resurrection of Christ and the congregation rising to proclaim that Christ the Lord is indeed risen today. I'm a person that loves tradition, I like things to be the same year after year, and while some may say that is boring, I beg to differ. I think there is somthing reassuring and comforting in our crazy and chaotic world when certain traditions are held. I still get chills down my back when I walk in to a sanctuary, pretty much any sanctuary, and see the alter, which three days earlier had been stipped bare and covered in black, now adorned with Easter lillies, white alter cloths, and candles. And then the service starts. I think I must have been a fairly nerdy kid (ok, I know I was a fairly nerdy kid--I still am....) but I remember LOVING going to the Good Friday service, sitting in silence as the altar is stipped bear and covered in black, and watching as the cross that always stood next to the communion table was shrouded in a black veil and carried down the aisle and out of the sanctuary. I loved that night because I knew that Sunday morning I would come in, find the space fully decorated, and would wait for the opening strains of Lift High the Cross--which would be our cue to stand, turn and face the back of the church and wait for the cross, now very much without it's black veil, as it processed down the aisle. While I haven't been to a church that has been big on processionals in quite awhile now, I never get tired of hearing the pastor proclaim for the first time that "Christ is Risen!" Each year, it is always the same--as we join together to sing Christ the Lord is Risen Today I feel like we are given a tiny glimpse into heaven where we will one day, spend eternity proclaiming:

Christ the Lord is risen today!

Sons of men and angels say

Raise your joys and triumphs high!

Sing ye heaven and earth reply....

Lives again our glorious king

Where, O death, is now thy sting?

Dying once, He all doth save

Where thy victory, O grave?

Love's redeeming work is done

Fought the fight, the battle won,

Death in vain forbids Him rise,

Christ has opened Paradise.

Soar we now, where Christ has led,

Foll'wing our exalted Head;

Made like Him, like Him we rise,

Ours the cross, the grave, the skies...

Alleluia!

Here are some random photos from Easter 2007....my day started at 7am when I joined Becca, Sophie, and Jenn for San Marino's Sunrise Service at Lacy Park before heading over to Burbank for First Pres' service.

You know you have too much in common when you show up wearing the same shirt....

Hey, we're still cute! The butterfly necklace was a gift from Sophie in time for Easter and Cursillo this next week...
Then it was off to Burbank to celebrate with my church family there...putting together the flower cross is a multi-generational event that gets to involve the entire community, and it was gorgeous when it was finished!
Who wouldn't want to be welcomed by such a wonderful greeting team??

My New Favorite Quote

As you know, I am now officially addicted to Grey's Anatomy and think it is one of the best shows on TV, but since I just started watching it I am watching seasons 1 and 2 on DVD to get caught up. I think I just found my new favorite line ever:

It's in the season 2 episode with the train wreck, and the chief of surgery is trying to reattach a patient's right leg, the only problem is that every right leg that Dr. Christia Yang brings him doesn't match the patient. After the chief threatens her job unless she can find the correct right leg, Christina tells Dr. Burke: "if i don't find this leg the chief is going to cut me from this program, and I cannot go back home Burke. It is too sunny in Los Angeles, it is sunny every day there!"

Finally, someone who thinks like I do about the weather in LA!

Keeping Our Eyes Open

I noticed something this week in Maui. We live in a world that is incredibly focused. We go through life with our gaze fixed straight ahead—usually on the sidewalk directly in front of us making sure we don’t trip on anything, and we move quickly, dead set on arriving at our final destination as efficiently as possible. I’m completely guilty of this myself usually. One of my former roommates used to tease the rest of us for not “lolly-gagging” enough and tried to teach us to slow down, but I’m not sure it really worked. Until this past week that is. See, I have been to Maui several times now thanks to various people’s weddings and business conventions being held there over the years, and my all time favorite thing about being on the island is whale watching. I have never been to Hawaii when it has not been whale season, and quite honestly, I am not so sure I would enjoy it as much, as crazy as that may sound to some. There is something about literally sitting for hours doing nothing but staring at the water searching for the tell-tale puffs of mist that signify the presence of a whale beneath the surface that is absolutely addicting for me. On my last few trips over here I have pretty much insisted we go on a whale watching trip, not because I love being on a boat with 80 other tourists, but because it gets me out on the water and so much closer to these magnificent animals.

Anyways, the other day my parents & I had left our hotel and gone to lunch in Lahaina, at a beach-side restaurant that had a fabulous view of the walkway that connected several different major hotels with the beach (perfect for people watching), and the ocean beyond that. The entire time we were waiting for our meal and then while eating I couldn’t stop looking out at the water searching for those puffs of mist, and the occasional breach of a humpback, when I realized something. The whole time I was fixated on the water, literally thousands of people passed in front of us on the walkway, heading to or from their hotels, and none of them stopped walking to look around them! Maybe they figured that when they got to wherever they were going then they would look around and take in the view, but while they were walking, none of them slowed down enough to notice that right in front of them were some of the most majestic creatures on the face of this earth playing in the ocean.

That got me thinking. How many ways does God reveal Himself and His creativity, splendor, and glory to us? And how many times does He do this to have us completely ignore it? It’s like I preached about back in January—God reveals His glory all the time, but we are so busy being so focused on where we think we need to go that we frequently miss it. Even though we often ignore Him, God is going to continue revealing Himself to us. Those whales are going to continue breaching, blowing, spotting, and playing right in front of us, whether we are watching or not, but it is my prayer that we might all open our eyes a little wider, walk a little slower, and shift our gaze from the sidewalk in front of us to the splendor around us. Who knows, when we open our eyes, we might be privileged to see something like this:

or this...(a mom and her calf)

Aloha!

There’s nothing like 5 days of doing nothing but staring at waves, watching whales, and reading for fun! It was definitely a different vacation for me though! For one thing, this was the first family vacation I’ve been on since Megan and Nathan got married. They weren’t able to join us, so I was the “only” child for a week—lets just say I missed my sister! We’re used to going on business vacations, where Mom & Dad have banquets or business dinners each evening, but when that happens the two of us usually go to dinner together, and then either go for an evening swim, enjoy the hot tub, or go down to the beach together to watch the sunset. I wasn’t prepared to have to eat several dinners alone! I’m usually ok with doing that, with reading or people watching if I have to be in a restaurant alone, but there was something about it this time that felt weird! I’m not sure Hawaii is as much fun without you, Megs!

But, because this was a business trip (Thrivent, my dad’s company, takes their top insurance sales people and spouses for a week long trip each year to celebrate their accomplishments in 2006 and to re-motivate them for this upcoming year, and my dad was there from the corporate office to act as one of the “hosts” of the week), Thrivent chose the location. So they pay for the rooms, but each family is responsible for anything extra they order—food, drinks at the pool, movies etc. So since Thrivent chose the place to honor their top 100 sales people, we were at the Ritz Carlton, a place I have never stayed, and a place known for their astronomical prices & phenomenal service. Anyways, so I was on my own for all but 2 dinners of the week, so I went to the restaurant a few times and ordered room service a few times. I thought I’d save money one night by calling room service & ordering something from their kid’s menu, which they won’t let you do in the main restaurant but they will via room service. I didn’t have the entire menu in front of me, so I asked what they had on their kids menu and decided that the hot dog/French fry meal with a bottle of water—this sounded like a good, and probably one of their more inexpensive options available. So the bill comes…yeah, I enjoyed a $15 hot dog and a $12 bottle of water….and that was the most inexpensive thing we were able to order all week…needless to say when we go back to Hawaii on a non-business trip we won’t be visiting the Ritz!

Here are some photos from the week:

The first day I was there, my mom and I went on a hike with about 10 other Thrivent folks out to a blow hole and to a spot with this crazy cool lava rock spot.

Maui has all kinds of crazy beautiful spots that you just kind of stumble across as you wander...

The Ritz...yeah it was a rough week!We went whale watching on Saturday, with our new friends Hana and her grandpa. Here we are, ready to head out to sea in search of humpbacks!The West Maui Mountains from the boat Our hotel had baby sized palm trees--they were SO cute and I was actually taller than them!The beach by the hotel

And…even though I am not officially Lutheran any more, the one thing I have always appreciated about Lutherans (even though this is not something you might expect me to say…) is that they sure do know how to throw a party! Each night of the week had a different theme, and they did a full-blown bash every night to celebrate the accomplishments of their top producers. I wasn’t invited to any of the parties until last night when they let the families come to the St. Patrick’s Day party, and I was blown away by what they had put together. I didn’t realize this but Thrivent has a team of event planners that do nothing but plan the big events for Thrivent throughout the year. Since the last night of the week was the 17th, an Irish pub crawl was quite appropriate, and it was also a fabulous way to announce that this top conference for 2009 would be taking place in Dublin, Ireland (next year’s is a Mediterranean cruise…I’m kind of bummed my parent’s probably won’t be asked to host that event!) Here are some photos from last night: they even brought in a band that impersonates U2, they’re called “To-You” and were surprisingly fabulous—they did all the U2 songs and did them really well, getting everyone dancing and celebrating.

The entry bridge

They very cool guy hiding in a fruit platter who startled people as they reached for dessertOf course they had plenty of accessories around to help everyone get into the Irish spiritHana beating me in foosball

And...That's a Wrap!

So I haven’t decided if this is going to be a ridiculously long post or if I am going to split this into a couple different posts—I’m currently writing this in a word document as I’m on an airplane, but we’ll see how I am inspired when I actually go to post this tomorrow! I haven’t written in quite awhile—and have actually received comments from a couple of you asking me when I’m going to have something new to read—I didn’t even know people faithfully checked this page, so to my faithful readers, thank you! And I’m sorry for being so delinquent in my writing! I can blame it on class work, and finals, but really laziness and a lack of inspiration also have played a part too!

So winter quarter is officially over, and it was pretty much insane right from the beginning. Classes were a lot of work, but we also had a ton of extra events for the Presby community that took up a lot of time planning and organizing. It just felt busy from day 1, and I never felt like I even came close to being caught up until I turned in my last final paper. Mom and Dad had a business trip to Maui scheduled for this past week and had invited me to join them. I of course jumped at the opportunity & then realized it was finals week, not spring break, so that meant trying to turn in all of my work early, which sounded totally do-able about 2 months ago—and about a week ago sounded like the most ridiculous idea I have ever had. But, somehow I managed to get everything finished, turned in, and on Tuesday I hopped on a plane and spent the past 5 days relaxing in Hawaii. It was a wonderful trip…and I have more thoughts/pictures on that, so see the post below (Keeping Our Eyes Open).

This quarter found me figuring out a new passion of mine that I didn’t realize I had—preaching. This quarter also found me discovering one of the most difficult and frustrating things I have ever done—preaching. I took homiletics this quarter, and supposedly learned how to write a sermon…what they don’t tell you is how unbelievably difficult and aggravating this process can be. I can research just fine. Give me a passage and I’ll somehow figure out some cool historical background information on it, I can tell you if there is anything interesting in the Greek grammar of the passage, I can talk about who the original recipients of the letter were etc. But, the process of taking all that information and putting it into a message for people, a message that is not simply a lecture on the historical background of a passage of scripture but a message that actually speaks to their present situations is enough to drive me to tears each time. I love to write, and I love to speak, but somehow this process of sermon writing is unbelievably overwhelming to me. Yet I still love it. Because, it is a time when I am forced to say “ok God, I cannot do this on my own. I have nothing to say to this audience on my own, I need you to give me your words, I need you to help me figure out how to frame this in a way that people can hear it.” And what absolutely shocks me, is that every single time this has happened, God has been faithful. He does speak, sometimes not on my time schedule, but God does speak, He does eventually help me craft my research into a message, and I get to deliver a sermon that I know I did not write on my own. It is a crazy experience—one that I can’t often describe, but each time I am more and more amazed at how faithful He is. In April I’m preaching again at First Pres, Burbank, and am tackling a passage from the book of Revelation—which I am very excited about…so stay tuned J

I am also really looking forward to next quarter because I have decided to try slowing down a bit. I am only going to take 2 classes instead of the 4 I was originally registered for, and I am hoping to be able to spend more time experiencing different aspects of ministry in my internship because I feel like I just did not have the time this past quarter to really learn as much as I could have in this fabulous opportunity I have to serve on a church staff before I am thrown into my own church to sink or swim! I also hope to slow down a bit and be more intentional about keeping in touch with those who I have pretty much managed to ignore this quarter in my self-centered busy-ness—so to those of you who I have not done a fabulous job of keeping in touch with, I’m sorry and I am hoping spring will look a little different for me!

Anyways—I’m on my way back from Hawaii, and because I left early during finals I still have a whole week off before class starts!