Friday Favorites!

This morning as I reflect on my week I am SO thankful for my many connections of people I either met or got to know better because of Luther Seminary & it's community.

For instance, I got to chat with my dear friend RR, who has been on this incredible journey since we graduated as a recipient of Luther Sem's Preaching Fellowship. While that might sound pretentious or uninteresting I assure you, her gift to share story through word & song is worth looking into. Check out One Story Catcher here!

Another connection I am thankful for is TS. I think I got to know his wife a little bit better when we are all at Luther, but he has a gift for reading a LOT of stuff in one week & then sharing his highlights on his Tuesday blog. He often highlights me as somebody living into vocation which is humbling & an honor as I often neglect the part of my vocational call to simply be a community builder. TS is building community simply by mentioning the people & their works each week. Be sure to check out his works by clicking on "blog" above!

And lastly I'll highlight my friend EK who I'm about to chat with in the next hour or less. EK is beautiful inside & out. She is always quick to say hello & ask how one is doing & wait to listen for a response. She is honest when she needs to keep moving to get to her next thing & she has a gift for transparency & delivery of her thoughts. You can check her work out here!

Friday Favorites!

SO many favorites from this past week.

This picture of the word "frame" is painted on a stole that was gifted to me as a first year in ministry person. While I've truly been working in ministry of sorts for the past 10 years, graduating from seminary & living into a more defined calling made it more official for me to stand up with the people who have been working in Children, Youth, & Family Ministry for 365 days or less.

YE has been a part of my life since 1996, if not sooner. Here I am with a number of team alumni from across the country. Many of us are serving in parish ministry settings, some of us are still in school, others of us work for YE on some level or have in our past, & we all have been crazy enough to follow a call to live in intentional community sharing the Gospel around the world.

The Luther Seminary connections were around every corner at the ELCA Youth Ministry Network Extravaganza! AUB & I became good friends just in our senior year. She is now serving in IL, so we are not horribly far from each other, but visits are hard to fit in. We are both looking forward to what the future of ministry leading holds for us.

The ELCA YMN is all about networking & connecting. Here I am connecting with the lovely leaders from InterServe Ministries, Raphael Malpica (his son was one of my seminary housemates), & comedian Jason Earls.

And that connecting piece I mentioned, wasn't to be avoided at this event. Here I am with 3 of my Diaconal Ministry leaders. We all attended the Diaconal Formation Event together in 2010. Three out of the four of us were students then, & now we're serving in 4 outta 9 regions of the ELCA.

May your week be as full of favorite moments as this. This is a plethora, I fully acknowledge that, but that is why we attend continuing education events and personal retreats and community events and worship, so that we may be filled up to move forward with the daily drain of life.

Sunday Snippits!

It's Sunday Snippits with

GOOD: A week ago today Z & I graduated from Luther Seminary with our Master of Divinity degrees. We were blessed with many of our family members being able to join us in person & several cards from those who were not able to travel. We really encourage more travel for our Ordination & Consecration service(s). Monday morning we got up bright & early (3am CST) to travel to MI for synod assembly & to meet the Bishop & his staff who help place us in our first calls as ordained pastor & consecrated Diaconal Minister. I even got to catch up with my good friend LK from college! He's doing his pastoral internship in MI this year & it had been nearly 3 years since we had seen each other. Upon our return to MN we've been working. I got to hang out with WOK both Thursday & Friday this week. Friday night some friends came over to hang out & Saturday night we hung out with some other friends to celebrate SS's b-day (one of many people I know born on May 28).

BAD: We still dont know much about our future, but we have hope in what's to come. Our energy is low due to the consistant cloudy skies of MN.

UGLY: The tragedies around the country & world are the ugliest pieces of life right now. Tornados in OK, landslides burying kids on a field trip in St. Paul MN,  & the homelessness of so many people in this unpredictable weather.

COMING UP: Tonight we're celebrating JHM's birthday (also on May 28), Wednesday is my GOLDEN birthday, Thursday is camp day, & J&K WT are getting married over the weekend!

TILL NEXT TIME: So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh - for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.  For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abby! Father!" it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and join heirs with Christ - if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. NRSV Romans 8:12-17

Friday Foto Fun!

Congratulations to the Luther Seminary class of 2013 & their friends & families!

Believe it or not, I don't know every person in this photo, but I know at least most of their names. The two young men in the front are our friend's & classmate's boys who were present to receive an honorary diploma for their dad (see Dec. 2012 posts). You can barely see me standing behind & in-between the two of them. What you can see is celebration. 

I have no doubt that every person in this photo is going to do fantastic things through the Spirit and for the church each & every day of their tomorrows.

How are you celebrating graduation season?

Friday Foto Fun!

Luther Seminary, a place where the Spirit has soared through the walls of education & people, working for and with the church, for years. Together we have enriched each other's lives & together we are sent out to be "Jesus with skin on."

What's sending you out?

Sunday Snippits!

Happy Mother's Day!

The last week has been no less busy than any other. Life in the fast lane is my style, I just choose to fill it differently depending on where I am each day. After finishing my last class of graduate school last week I was able to sleep in a little extra & catch up on lost beauty rest. That brings us to Sunday Snippits with

and so that I don't forget here is the link to watch my thesis defense presentation on Spirit-led Hospitality Leadership for and with First/Third Ministries.

GOOD: Last week was a release of energy after the busyness of finishing my final semester at Luther Seminary. Monday I enjoyed baking cookies for my final class on Tuesday morning. I'm not much of a baker, but chocolate chip cookies are a sinch & I especially enjoyed the gluten free cookies (1 cup overnight oats, 2 ripe bananas, & whatever add-ins - I chose chocolate chips - you want, bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15min & voila!) Wednesday started the end of the year festivities with an outting to the Wild Roast Cafe with my Grouplife friends from Jacob's Well Minneapolis. Thursday was the annual Blessings Banquet where we honor, thank, & meet our donors. Then we went to Mannings Cafe (aka the Seminary pub of many decades) to celebrate a friend's birthday. Friday we enjoyed a cheese & wine party with friends, Saturday we served at Feed My Starving Children with other graduating classmates & their significant others. Then we ended the week with food & games at Dave & Buster's with more classmates.

BAD: Wednesday was supposed to be the annual staff & faculty vs. students & their families baseball game. The darn weather didn't cooperate though & it was canceled. It didn't start raining heavily till 7pm, but the weather is so unpredictable.

UGLY: I'm really stretching to say that anything from last week was ugly. I'm sure there were things in the news, but nothing that directly affected me. The Lord has blessed me abundantly. G'byes have started & that is never fun, so we'll say that is ugly. I'm in denial that I have seen snow coming from the sky in the last week.

Coming up: Today we celebrated Mother's Day at the St. Paul Grill with Dad & Mom N & naturally we talked about all the excitement happening this last week & in the weeks to come. Due to such excitement, I may not be blogging for Friday Foto Fun, Sunday Snippits, or Tuesday Tea Time starting at the end of this week. This week we have more celebrations & family coming in for graduation weekend next week. ONE WEEK from today we will officially be graduated with our Master of Divinity degrees! Then off to synod assembly to network.

Sunday Snippits: Resuming Life

Sunday Snippts!

I missed Friday Foto Fun due to finishing up all my work for grad-school. But the good news is, I am done! I do have to attend class tomorrow & Tuesday, but my assignments are done.

So we'll resume with the Good, the Bad, & the Ugly to get us back on track.

GOOD: Last Sunday KJ got ordained as a pastor in the ELCA. It was quite the celebration! Monday I helped lead chapel with other Word & Service leaders of the ELCA. It was a great way to show our presence on campus. I was also awarded, along with 3 other classmates, a student leadership award. It was fun & made me feel like I had something to show mom. So I sent her a picture on her phone since we don't live even down the street from each other. Thursday I was the student host for The Evidence of Hope documentary at Luther Sem. It's a great documentary with some profound statements of how we should approach our lives. Definitely worth checking out. Saturday I was up bright & early to be ready to defend my thesis at 8am. Then I got to spend the whole day with my classmates & listen to their thesis defense. The week came to a close with a fun bachelorette outing for BLF to Shamrock's Irish Nook. We rocked out with the Brat Pack Radio Supershow. Check 'em out if you're into '80's cover music.

BAD: I missed the coffee shop open mic night that I was supposed to read a few pieces of my poetry at. Yes, I write poetry on occasion, but seriously, the Spirit has to move me. I got stuck in traffic going to get groceries & couldn't be everywhere I wanted to be. I also missed my Friday Foto blog.

UGLY: While hanging with WOK, he wiped out & got a big bloody lip. Thankfully he is alright & so is my shirt that he pressed his bloody lip against. This was all while it was snowing Friday morning, later that day it was sleeting, then it rained & melted all the snow. Crazy Spring weather!

Coming up: This week is busy with 2 more classes, some meetings, & some fun. Graduation is 2 weeks from today! Happy May!

Sunday Snippits

Today I'm linking up with Kati & Kate for the GOOD, the BAD, & the UGLY

THE GOOD: I was jazzed & filled with good energy to start off last week, thus I was uber productive at the beginning of the week. I was amazed at how fast the Catholic conclave went and happy to see that everybody sincerely seems to adore Pope Francis I. Thursday night the annual Luther Seminary variety show was incredible and all for a good cause. I participated in the Zumba skit with Agape, who just happens to be a long-time friend, colleague, & classmate at Luther Sem. And lastly, time with friends is always appreciated. We went out Thursday night to celebrate a multitude of things, Friday night to celebrate AUB's b-day, and Saturday night with good friends who are going to Slovakia for his pastoral internship next year.

THE BAD: My motivation started to waiver by the end of the week & I haven't taken some prime opportunities to work on my senior thesis. I need to lock myself in a room & get it moving!

THE UGLY: I was in my first ever car accident as a passenger. Thankfully we are both okay and the car barely was scratched. However, the guy that hit us was a sad case of trippin' on something & didn't have car insurance or a driver's license. As the police officer said, the good news is the guy wasn't lying, his license had been revoked. We were able to get his license plate info and he gave his name, but ultimately he fled the scene.

coming up: I will sit down & start writing my thesis, getting to see a couple of Spoke Folk friends that I haven't seen in years, one of two group presentations will be done by Monday at 10:50am, and on Saturday I will be certified as a Basic 1 Zumba Instructor!

Friday Photo Reminder

First, a shout out to my friend Rikki & her fabulous new blog site. 

Check her out over at Thirsty, Nerdy, Cats !

Photo Courtesy of The ELCA

This map potentially defines Z's & my future in ministry. Wednesday night we received envelopes as part of a lovely worship service with our classmates and supports of staff and faculty. The information inside the envelope was that we have been assigned to Region 6 of the ELCA for our first calls as seminary graduates (come May 19). We will learn what synod (which you see by the lines & different number/letters) late next week or early the following week.  For now we wait. Yes, we wait some more. It is truly a lesson in patience and trust.

May the Spirit overwhelm us with patience & trust & peace in this time of unknowns.

Sunday Snippits

Whew! I can't believe it's Sunday again already!

This last week was truly the first week of the Spring semester, so it was odd & busy. It was odd because though Z & I are both addicted to our e-mails & calendars, we weren't familiar with our own or each other's schedules yet. It was busy because there was class & meetings & work & social life all mixed together. Oh yeah, & Ash Wednesday & Valentines happened too!

So outside of starting classes the real fun & neat stuff was Ash Wednesday services & Valentine's Day outing  Plus, a fun little road trip with our friends B&A H to Gustavus College for a choir concert.

At the Ash Wednesday service at Luther Sem, our new campus pastor turned the typical phrase of "From dust you are and to dust you will return" into "You are dead to sin and alive in Christ forever." The power of these words coming from Romans 6:8 overwhelmed me & brought me tears of joy & uncertainty about all that is life right now. Ash Wednesday service at Humble Walk was about smashing the things that we want to get rid. We were given a piece of tile to write down our burdens & then given a hammer to smash it into pieces. It was exhilarating! We then were marked with the ashes (again) & told "From ashes you came, and to ashes you will return." Overall, a very beautiful day & start to Lent.

Valentine's Day was SO much more exciting when I was a kid. No offense to Z, but Momma P always made it special & I was being goofy & nostalgic for a classroom party & all the love you receive from everybody. Z got me a beautiful bouquet of pink roses a few days before Valentine's & then we exchanged cards at dinner on Valentine's Day. We had a fun dinner at the The Happy Gnome where I tried poutine for the very first time & we shared ribs. Then we headed over to Cafe Latté to share a "Swedish Moo" (aka steamed milk with cardamom & maple syrup) & a piece of blueberry peach tart. Only to return home & watch the Charlie Brown Valentine Special on Netflix.

Coming this week: More classes, more work, AND REGIONAL ASSIGNMENT IN the ELCA