Let My Lifesong Sing to You

Lifesong is a pretty popular song by Casting Crowns. Some people may think it's overdone or over played, but it has such powerful words.

As I recently wrote 2008 has not started off on the right path. Maybe it has been the right path, but it has been a very rough one to follow. It doesn't matter how many great people are in my life helping to support me there is always one person or thing that just continues to try & knock me down. I just have to remember to have a servant heart as best as I know how.

My team only has 5.5 weeks left in Racine & then we will be a traveling VBS team for the summer. This was something that was presented to us so we prayed about it & discussed it & then decided that God was putting a great offer in front of us that we shouldn't turn down. It is going to be sad to leave Racine, but it would still be sad if we were leaving in August. This summer we will be joining with Kristen from the OSU Mosaic team & the 3 of us (yes there are 3 again, my long time friend Amber Roeben has joined us) & traveling as far west as Montana and as far East as Indiana (yay hoosierland). We will obviously be spending time in between these states.I'm very anxious to meet new brothers & sisters in Christ & have God's beauty of the world revealed to me even if it's countryside that I've seen many times. Just like the lyrics to Lifesong, it all has a different meaning each time it is heard or seen.

Another fun fact of my life is that I am on my 5th cell phone of the year. I had a small case of toiletphone. Yep, that's right, my phone fell in the toilet. I lost all my numbers so it's been a journey & I actually liked not having a phone for a few days. Amidst that chaos I also received & signed a letter of call to do a second year with Youth Encounter. Starting in August of 2008 I will be serving on YE's international team called New Dawn. My team will be state side for the Fall & up through Christmas & then heading to Asia in January 2009 for around 5 months. More specifically my team will be traveling to Hong Kong, Singapore, & Malaysia. I never thought I'd go to that part of the world so I'm very excited to see what God has to unveil before me this time around. I've already been chatting with one of my future teammates & am very excited to continue growing in friendship with her & finding out more about our team together.

ALSO I got accepted to Luther Seminary & plan on attended classes there starting in the Fall of 2009 for a Master of Arts degree focusing in Diaconal Ministry & most likely working with the CYF (I think that's the abbreviation, it's the youth ministry program) program as well. It's very bizarre having a bit of an idea what the next 3 years are to bring even though I know at the same time I have no idea.

Through this all, even though some days just simply suck & others are so incredible they rock my face right off, I just hope that my lifesong keeps singing for God. Recently I was able to go back to CAP for a good friend's wedding & got to hang out with some great friends the entire weekend. I miss those people so much, but know that God has incredible plans for each of us & has blessed me deeply by allowing them to be a part of my life. Through this all though I have found scripture from Ecclesiastes 11 & 12 that seems to be a good reminder. "Young people, it's wonderful to be young! Enjoy every minute of it. Do everything you want to do; take it all in. But remember that you must give an account to God for everything you do. So refuse to worry, and keep your body healthy. But remember that youth, with a whole life before you, is meaningless (Ecc 11:9-10)." This seems a bit harsh, but true. What is the point to living if only for ourselves? Chapter 12 then starts, "Don't let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator. Honor him in your youth before you grow old and say, "Life is not pleasant anymore." (Ecc 12:1)." Life hasn't always been pleasant & my teammates & I have been ready for 2008 to be over since early February, but as long as we continue to know that God has a plan through it all & we're doing our best then that's all we can do.