Life lessons in the home

God has yet again blessed our family.  As most of you know in August we moved out to Camp Horizon.  I took the Graduate Intern position and the position came with free housing.  We have been loving life at camp! It's been a true blessing to see how God works through this place in so many different ways.  I work in the office and see so many different faces and names come through.  I get to hear the wonderful stories of so many people who have been to camp and who have seen God work in their lives.  It's a great place to work.  The camp is in the midst of a building campaign to build a sanctuary.  It's been a blessing to see the generosity of so many people as they give to help further the camps ministry.  

But I want to share with some of you what our little home has taught me.

1) Patience

I'll be very honest when we took the position at camp we had a small idea of what we were to expect out of the job, but not much of one.  We live in what is normally the summer staff cabin.  We have 4 rooms and 2 bathrooms.  We have no real kitchen.  I remember when we first talked about taking this position thinking we don't need a kitchen we'll just use one of the camps kitchens.  But shortly after moving in we learned that was easier said than done.  Most of the weekends are booked out here with groups that use almost all of our facilities.  We have 2 kitchens for them to rent out and use, which meant for us that we aren't guaranteed one.  We made due with what we had.  I cook on a hot plate that has 2 burners and if I have something to bake we use a toaster oven.  The first few times I cooked in our makeshift kitchen the meal always ended in tears.  I was so frustrated I couldn't provide an adequate meal for my husband. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how on earth to cook on that hotplate! I tend to jump to conclusions and most of the time make what seems bad into much worst.  It took sometime to figure out I need to have patience.  Cooking the food takes a little longer on a hotplate than a regular stove.  This kitchen has taught us both a lot in the way of patience. We also had a tiny little sink.  Like one you would have in dorm. It was hard to wash dishes! But thank goodness we have been blessed with a bigger one now! Our house is divided into 2 different sections.  When the counselors are here one side is the guys side the other the girls.  In order to get from one side to the other you have to go outside. This is something I found on Pintrest and it fits our little home perfectly. :) 

Thank you Camp Horizon! 

2)You don't need stuff

When I used to picture my home with my family I always imagined it as a big home with 3 or 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, a large kitchen that flowed right into the dinning area.  A big area for a living room.  A large backyard and a very nice patio.  I wanted a basement that was filled with fun toys for the kids and their friends.  Our home has taught me that I don't need that stuff to be happy or have a nice home.  It's not the stuff that makes the home but the people in it.  I like small.  I like having a cozy home.

3) Make the little things count

Even though our home isn't a typical home we have learned to make the best of it.  Sure we get frustrated with it, but we have already made so many memories in this home.  Memories that we will look back on and laugh at.  We have been taught things by this house that if we lived anywhere else we wouldn't have learned. 

This is our first home and I love it. I thank God for providing for us.  For giving us a house that has many lessons to teach us.  Our fist home is perfect.

Here are some pictures, just to give you way to visualize our little home.

3 weeks in....

David and I are starting a new adventure this next week.  We are moving out to Camp Horizon and I'll be the new graduate intern for the year! Both of us are super excited!! This position is truly a blessing to both of us.  With David still having a year left of school we knew I would have to look for a position around this area. In the spring we both started looking for jobs particularly in the Augusta area.  Both of our families are from that area and we wanted to be close to them.  We weren't really sure what there was for us out there but knew that was where WE wanted to be.  Both of us had some interviews and were pretty hopeful about getting the positions.  Looking back on that time it was stressful and empty time for me.  I can't speak for David but for me I wasn't in tune with God on the whole thing.  I would pray and then turn things into what I wanted.  I didn't listen to what God was telling me.  I felt this uneasiness in my spirit and I knew what it was about but I ignored it.  When the job I was interviewing for fell through I couldn't ignore the uneasiness any more. I began to get a little freaked out.  Graduation was approaching and we still didn't have jobs.  I had an internship at a local church for the summer but nothing after that. Horizon contacted me about the intern position. I knew that this was where God wanted both of us.  I no longer had the uneasiness.  I was excited and energized by the position (another sign that this was where I was supposed to be).

We recently started our move out there.  A little earlier than planned because our air conditioner went out. Not a bunch of fun when you live on the top floor and the low for the day is 108! But Joel and the rest of the staff were super nice and let us move into one of the rooms early! Another blessing! As we were moving I started to get nervous about the position.  Was this really the right choice for us? Did I just put us in position that wasn't right for us? Is this really what God wanted for us? My stress level went up and my brain went into overdrive.  I tend to over think things and that's what I started to do.  David and I spent a good amount of time talking about how I was over thinking and that this would work.  That this was really what God wanted.  But he's my husband, he had to say that stuff.  If I talked to my best friend though she would tell me  what was up.  She would be honest with me.  And she was, I didn't fill her in on everything I was thinking and without her really knowing she confirmed what David was telling me.  God just kept reaffirming that this was where he wanted us.  I know that camp is where we are supposed to spend the first year of our marriage. 

I can't put into words how blessed we have been these first few weeks in our marriage.  I don't know why I am so often amazed by the how God works.  I don't know why I often find myself doubting him and the way he works.  God has never left me hanging before, so why would he start now?  He has always provided for me, and I don't know why I forget that.  

 I'm so excited to start this adventure with David.  I'm excited to see God's plan unfold for our life together.  And we are so blessed by the people who are in our lives and those who get to experience this part of our marriage with us.  

So to sum up the first few weeks of married life, it has been stressful but not in a bad way.  We have learned a lot.  We have been reminded of even more. We have been blessed in many ways that I'm sure we won't even know about until we look back.  Now to sit back and experience this chapter of our life together.  

A day in the life...

I am a youth intern at a local church and as part of my job I work with the Tweens after school program. Here is a small glimpse into my world:



These kids bless me, challenge me, and more often than not make me laugh:

My blessing:

2 weeks ago was Ash Wednesday myself and 2 other volunteers went to church with our crosses on our foreheads. The students asked many questions about what these were and why we had them. In the process of answering questions we decided to have an impromptu Ash Wednesday service right there with the kids.  I know many of them understood it more than I ever did at that age! Can you say blessing!!

My Challenge:

Today was a challenging afternoon, in a good way.  We talked about how the Scriptures help show us when we are doing something wrong. One student piped in saying that the Bible is wrong, "I believe in God but not the Bible."  How am I supposed to explain this really heady and sometimes challenging concept to a 10 year old? I tried my best by saying that God inspired the writers to write the Scripture and that's how we got the Bible.  Then tried to move on but this one student wasn't done challenging me.  "Why did God tell people to kill people if He told us that killing is wrong?" AH! How do I explain THIS to a 10 year old? I tried to just skim over it and move on, but she wasn't quite done with me yet.

My laugh:

 The same student: "I watched this movie about Jesus' life and how he was killed. He could connect with God in a way that no one else could and this made some people really mad.  It was either the British or the Jewish but I can't really remember. So they got mad and put him on a cross and he just wouldn't die so they took this really big needle and injected him with poison." Again I tried to explain that this isn't really the way Jesus' death went down.


These students are amazing. It's these students that make the ministry life so wonderful for me. While just one second ago they were annoying and I swear they weren't getting one single thing from my lesson they say the most wonderful and thoughtful and deep thing I've ever heard! They challenge me, they bless me, and more often then not they make me laugh.

Matthew 19:13-15 (The Message) "One day children were brought to Jesus in the hope that he would lay hands on them and pray over them.  The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus intervened: 'Let the children alone, don't prevent them from coming to me. God's kingdom is made up of people like these.'

Luke 18: 15-17 (The Message) "People brought babies to Jesus, hoping he might touch them.  When the disciples saw it, they shooed them off. Jesus called them back. 'Let these children alone.  Don't get between them and me.  These children are the kingdom's pride and joy. Mark this: Unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never get in.'"

My Valentine

I told one of my very dear friends and old roommate that I would blog about my Valentine's day. So here you go Lauren :)

I had been trying to figure out a way to do something sweet and simple for David. We decided awhile ago not to spend to much money on gifts, or maybe it was that we were going to skip the entire thing. I wasn't to in love with that idea so the plan was I would surprise him with a nice dinner. I know one of his favorite meals is Chicken Cor Don Blu so I started looking for some recipes. As luck would have it my mom gave me a cookbook that had a very simple yet yummy recipe in it (a crock pot version!). But because he knew I was going to make him dinner I needed one more thing to surprise him with. I had seen a really cute idea on Pintrest with cinnamon rolls shaped into hearts. What a great idea!

They didn't stay shaped like hearts though.  I snuck them into his house before I left for work.


After all was said and done it was a great day and a pretty yummy meal!