Minnesota--part 1

We survived finals, jumped on a plane on Friday morning, and have been in Minneapolis since Friday evening. As I write this, I am experiencing an absolutely perfect Minnesota-moment. The house is silent except for faint Christmas carols drifting down the stairs. The fireplace in front of me is going, snow flurries are falling softly out the window. Chuck is asleep on the couch and I am sipping hot cider as I write this. Chuck's mom and dad were here this past weekend for a couple days meeting my family and experiencing a bit of Minneapolis. Since the high this weekend was about 7 degrees (that was the HIGH mind you) they have declared Minnesota a great place to VISIT. My poor fiance is a little chilly as you will see in the photos below. We had a nice visit with them, showing them where the wedding will be, figuring out the location for the rehearsal dinner, seeing the broadway performance of White Christmas down in St. Paul one night, and of course, visiting the Mall of America yesterday. We taught them a few games, and also showed them one of our family's favorite movies, The Ultimate Gift. Here are some photos from our vacation so far.

Chuck's dad, Ed, hiding behind the desserts. We took them to tea at the arboretum on Saturday afternoon so they could see the place, the tea and food were excellent!At the arboretum they decorate Christmas trees every year, using ornaments made from all natural materials. It is amazing what you can do with leaves, branches, twigs etc!

This little guy was my favorite!

It wasn't TOO cold on Saturday, in the low teens I'd say, for our brief walk at the arboretum.

I loved this, they made a Christmas tree out of fruit and other natural objects.Sunday night we went into St. Paul to see White Christmas. Let's just say the temperature had dropped and the wind chill picked up. It was COLD walking from the parking garage to the theater. And this was before it started snowing. But the park we walked across was beautifully decorated with lights!

My dad explaining to Ed and Audrey that this is what we call a "wind chill..."

Inside at the theater

Looking out the theater window at the park,with the lights, and the snow that had started falling.Walking back to the car...I am sorry, I couldn't resist. People looked SO miserable! The snow was falling hard and the wind was strong, and it was at least 0 degrees if not colder. My dad is escorting Audrey and Ed is bringing up the rear--it was a cold walk!Monday I went with my mom and Audrey to get my wedding dress fitted (and I love it just as much as when I bought it so that is a good thing!) and Chuck, my dad and his dad went to find us a bed and breakfast for after the wedding. Since it was so cold (the high yesterday was about -5) we headed to where all Minnesotans go to stay warm--the mall of america of course! Here's Chuck and my dad enjoying their Long John Silver's lunch while overlooking the amusement park.

I got to enjoy my favorite drink (a 1-shot mocha with half the chocolate and a little whipped cream) at my favorite mid-west coffee shop, Caribou Coffee. There are 4 of them in the Mall of America for your caffeine enjoyment :)

My mom decided to BBQ chicken last night. It was -7...it was so cold the chicken took forever to cook and the BBQ wouldn't lite properly. So for anyone else out there who might want to try this, she says that BBQ-ing when it is in the low teens works fine, but below zero doesn't work so well. You know, just in case you thought you'd attempt this.After dinner Chuck decided he was chilly, so he and Hannah, our cat, hung out together in front of the fireplace.

Today we took Chuck's parents to the airport and then we headed over to St. Paul to meet with our florist. Chuck decided -2 was too cold to be out running errands. This is him, bundled up in my dad's ski jacket, gloves, hat and scarf. And this is INSIDE the car!

On the way back we stopped at Minnehaha falls to see it frozen over, which is pretty cool to see! Although before he got out of the car Chuck asked if it was going to warm up this week--he was told it would get up to about 15 degrees later this week and he thought we should wait until then to get out of the car...My Florida fiance...

I think this could be our Christmas card photo next year!The rest of our week looks pretty relaxing. We are meeting with some wedding person each day (I chose all my flowers today, tomorrow is the meeting with the photographer, and Thursday we meet with the DJ and the catering people to finalize our menus). Tomorrow night we also get to go meet up with my dad's great uncle and aunt, Ernie and Joanne which I am very much looking forward to, they are a wonderful couple who I have always enjoyed spending time with! Friday is our family's Christmas here (since I can't be here on Christmas this year) so we are looking forward to that as well!

we survived...

This will be just a quick post to say we both survived finals week...barely, but we're still hangin in there! It was a pretty long week, LOTS of writing, researching, listening to Chuck practice his final sermon (which was great, I was very proud of him!), and running a million errands trying to get christmas gifts organized before we left town. Oh and I had to buy wedding shoes before my dress fitting on Monday, which I found in 10 minutes flat, I was quite proud of myself. We leave early tomorrow morning to fly to Minnesota to spend a week with my parents before heading to the south to spend time with Chuck's family, so stay tuned over the next few weeks for advent reflections, photos and updates of our traveling adventures/wedding planning! Happy end of finals week for all you Fuller-folks!

a few more photos from Bethlehem

I couldn't resist, I had to post these that I swiped from a friend's page...

Everyone's pastor dresses like this right?? Here is Ross and his wife Kathy

Carlton (one of the 3 kings), Charley (his banner-carrier), and Andrew (a soldier)Little Isabella (she was "my" baby Jesus 2 years ago, she's not such a baby anymore!) Here she is making friends...3 Shepherds

Journey to Bethlehem

The greatest event my church here puts on is the annual Bethlehem Village, where we transform the parking lot to 1st Century Bethlehem, with animals, booths of goods you could buy then, the carpenter shop, the blacksmith, the fabric shop (where you can watch them weave and dye fabric) etc. We're a church that averages about 220 people on a Sunday morning and we have 150 people somehow involved this year which is awesome! It's a project that involves everyone from the littlest members (3 month old baby Ava played baby Jesus this year!) to the oldest who may not even be able to attend but help with crafts, and prep stuff ahead of time. I didn't get a ton of good photos last night, my little camera doesn't take the best night photos with it's little flash, but here are a combination of photos from this year and from 2 years ago. The photos from 2 years ago were taken by a professional photographer, so the flash worked a little better =) Two years ago I played Mary, so some of these are photos of me as Mary, and some are from last night when Chuck and I were just visitors to Bethlehem.

Upon entering, you are greeted by census takers who give you "Bethlehem coins" to spend while in the village and Roman soldiers who make sure you sign the census book, and wander the village collecting taxes (so make sure you have some Bethlehem coins on you!)Then you wander the village visiting various shops and markets. Last night Ms. Ellie was working the pottery booth, demonstrating her skills, she actually helped make the bowl in front of her out of wet clay!The spice shop from 2 years ago--you can smell spices popular back then and take some home!The carpentry shop, they were building stoolsThe marketplace, where a coin will get you hummus, pita, olives, figs and of course, apple cider!The Jewish Synagogue you can visit to learn from the Rabbi what life was like for Jews then and to receive a blessing in Hebrew.Every 1/2 hour a live nativity show starts, where Mary & Joseph wander through the village, asking directions to an inn before they are told there is no room. They are shown to the stable and one by one shepherds, kings, and angels come visit them with the new baby Jesus.
Tim played a shepherd last night.The angels above the stable announcing the birth of the MessiahThis year's Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus--Alex, Abby, and baby Ava (borrowed from another family!)The Holy Family surrounded by the little angels that came!Presenting the baby Jesus to the people. Ok, the orange pacifier isn't all that authentic, but Isabella wasn't super thrilled to be baby Jesus, so this kept her relatively quiet!The shepherds, wise men, and animals all at the manger. This was from 2 years ago, mine from last night didn't turn out.Dave, myself, and the little angels that came to visit the new baby.Chuck making friends with the mule last night!Watch out for the Roman soldiers who might take your money!

There is one more chance to visit Bethlehem this year! Tonight, 6-8:30 at First Pres in Burbank!

The Expression on Jesus' Face

We were asked a provocative question in my youth ministry class yesterday, that I'd like to pose to you all. When you imagine Jesus looking at you, what is the expression on his face? Close your eyes, and think about that for a minute. What do you see? Our guest speaker yesterday, who does a ton of work with high school and college students had a fascinating fact for us. She loves asking students that question, to enter into dialogue with them about Jesus, so she's asked a ton of people to answer this. What she said blew my mind...and then quickly resonated with me. She said that almost more often than not, when a college student who grew up in an evangelical youth group, from any denomination, is asked this question they will respond with these words...Jesus is looking at me in: anger, disappointment, sorrow, sadness, frustration, or even contempt. She said she can predict this response 9 times out of 10. At first I was appalled. Then, I thought more about it and realized I would respond the same way. In fact I have recently responded this way, in a conversation with someone, saying 'I wonder if God is mad at me?' Throughout college I wrestled a lot with feelings of not being a good enough Christian. I felt like I had disappointed God, had somehow not done enough to serve Him. Our professor was saying this is because we have gotten really good in youth groups of perpetuating the "Gospel of Sin Management," meaning we always tell kids, "don't do this...stay on this path...just pray harder...read those bibles...have that quiet time...bring friends to church...don't drink...definitely don't have sex...honor your parents...oh yeah, get good grades too, Jesus likes it when we're good students..." Any of those things sound familiar? I was very involved in two churches in high school and I received these messages in both places. Certainly, somehow we do have to encourage kids to make wise choices, yet in our attempts to do so we have managed to make Jesus some tyrant who is waiting to punish us. Where do we talk about grace, freedom in Christ to be who we were created to be? Or maybe grace was mentioned, but how often? And in what context? Even today, as someone heading towards the ministry, I find myself still struggling with this. I don't live as if I am the Beloved of God, I live as if I still need to play by all the right rules or I will be punished.

I started thinking about the way Jesus is depicted in art, and the expressions on his face, so I started typing different things into Google to see what I could find. I found a variety of images, and I think they are fascinating to reflect on. Lately I have had people in my life who have taught me that it is ok to laugh and joke around when praying--that Jesus delights in us! Of course he loves our laughter! We don't have to approach him with such solemn faces and properly folded hands. I actually think sometimes he'd just as much prefer us to NOT fold our hands and bow our heads! So my favorite pictures these days are of Jesus laughing:It is interesting to me that when Jesus is depicted as laughing or smiling, he is usually with children. I wonder if we can learn something from that? I don't think that is a coincidence...

This next one fascinated me...not just the picture of Jesus clearing the temple, but the caption printed beneath it.One of the reasons our professor was saying youth especially have a tough time picturing Jesus as anything but angry is that we don't teach them about the compassion of Jesus...the tenderness of Jesus who longs for us to crawl up in his lap and call him "Abba!" The Jesus who longs to remind us, when we have screwed up, that He still loves us passionately, more than we could ever imagine. This picture is beautiful to me and I hope is to you as well:Think about it...when you imagine Jesus looking at you, what expression is on his face? And where in life did you learn to view Jesus in that way? I think for most of us, we might need to expand our vision of Jesus to encompass a bit more of the joy, delight, laughter, and freedom we have in him! And to close, here's one of my very favorite images of Jesus (and really you can't even see Jesus in it)...it's a statue at the Crystal Cathedral here in Southern Cal...may we be like this child, running without shame, into the arms she knows will catch her.