Wait for hope to appear

God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks. It's a good thing to quietly hope, quietly hope for help from God. It's a good thing when you're young to stick it out through the hard times. When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence. Bow in prayer. Don't ask questions: Wait for hope to appear (Lamentations 3:25-29, The Message).

I gotta feeling

We learn to speak like those around us. From infancy to death, every stage of life gives us different influences for our written and spoken words.

In central Phoenix, on the eighth floor of high-rise, is a small marketing and creative services company with eight employees. These eight have been around each other for at minimum, one year and a half, and in that time they have gotten into each others brains*. This company is the one I work for. We have developed our own lingo that outsiders sometimes just don't understand (though we do try our hardest to get into your brains too).

I'm in love with the idea

I want to live in so many different types of homes. Lord help the man I ever marry (sigh- another blog that may soon be written), because I want to try some many different options. This fact, I think, adds to why I have wanderlust. Different places offer different things and why not try them all...

On a visit to see my brother and his wife in Boston, we were driving down a street near their home and I asked them to point out their ideal home if they saw it. They quickly responded with "that one," pointing to a two story, modest home with a porch and a fence. Jaime's family, my sister-in-law, has lived in the same home her entire life and I may be incorrect but it is also the home, or near the home where her grandparents lived. This is their ideal – buy a house and stay there forever.

I, on the other hand, looked across the street and said, "I want that one." I pointed to one which was a old store front that had been converted into a home. I love the a-typical living space. A home that doesn't necessarily appear to be a home. Do I always want to live in that? No. Is it my ideal? Yes. No. I don't know.

I would love to live in:

• a little cottage
• an old barn
• a highrise apartment
• a loft with one main room and exposed brick
• a house with a porch
• and more...

But let's avoid:

• a tree house in a jungle
• a house boat

So I saw these pictures today on Design*Sponge. I love the idea of this. The couple turned an old plane hanger in Germany into a home. Would I live in this particular space? Well,  can I live on the patio? Because I want to. But, I'll leave the rest I think.

I love working with youth for these reasons...

It's no surprise - I work with youth. It's littered all over my posts that I work with them. Tonight I feel like sharing how amazing I think they are.

I'm sitting here tonight thinking over a passage from Matthew that one of them sent to me over Facebook. She sent the passage as an encouragement to all of the struggles I've faced recently with my travel plans. It's often the other way around where I am posting verses for them when they need it. She took the time to think of me, to listen to my situation and to encourage me. Moreover, when she sent it, it was at the perfect time.

This little act of service is just one of many that are starting to pop up like wildflowers all over with these teens. I seriously could jump up and down in giddiness from the joy this brings me. These kids truly want to change the world around them and they are doing something about it.

Throughout this week was the Vacation Bible School at our church. The smaller children are split into several age groups with a few teens and leaders assigned to them. On Wednesday, a 10yr old girl in my group had slipped on a wet floor. She couldn't straighten her knee. My mind went to getting ice, talking to mom, sitting her down- but not my teens. Immediately, they asked the girl if they could pray for her. And they did! Six to eight of them gathered around her, placed hands on her and prayed for healing!

Every Sunday we ask them if they have God Stories to tell, stories of opportunities they had to pray for someone or how they saw God interact with someone. Every Sunday more stories pour in. One girl flew to her father's home in another state for the summer. On her plane ride, she prayed for a woman who has never had a plane ride without being sick. On that flight, she never became ill. Praise God!

We arrange treasure hunts, where we as an entire youth group, go out into the community, intentional on finding people to pray for. Each month when we do this more and more of them show up willing and eager to participate.

Besides acts of service, they are really allowing themselves to be real. I had an awesome opportunity to chat with a guy who is about to sign with the military. He really likes to act tough and strong. I'll guarantee that he'll even deny the words I write, but parts of his real heart broke through in that conversation. He showed vulnerability in that he's scared of how huge of a decision this is. And he showed concern whether he's really making the right choice.

A girl, for the first time, opened her heart to a group that she wants to be involved in full-time missions work. To say those words aloud was a huge step for she feared ridicule.

There is not a doubt in my mind that these teens are reaching up to God saying, "I want you in my life" with God replying, "I want that too. I'll never leave you. I'll show you the way, just follow me."

Some new work...

This is a small glimpse of some recent design work I've done. They're simple and not too over the top. There was an update to the youth room at Vineyard Community Church in May. The need was to things to hang on the walls that were not going to be outdated quickly or have no relevance to the teens- i.e. no photos.  It seems that the youth have been eager to learn more of the Bible lately (which is fantastic), so it seemed like a fitting solution to cover the walls with verses.  

These are some of my favorites.

Love Rain Down

I think I have played this song at least 7 times today. And I think more is to come.


Love Rain Down from Vineyard Records UK on Vimeo.

The Gardener

I was in transition. I wasn't in a good head space. I was moving from one apartment to another. And I wanted something to add a soft touch to my home. Some people get pets. I get plants. 

When I moved into my current apartment, just under two years ago, I purchased a few plants. Since I had proved to have a bit of a black thumb previously, a few different types of plant were what I ended up with. My thought was maybe with multiple plants, if one died then I had others to make thrive (or my apartment would become a plant grave). At Ikea I found two desert-type leafy plants for 50 cents each. They were almost dead already, which was going to be my excuse if they really died. I picked up a rubber tree and another vine-type plant at Home Depot. And a my mother gave me a plant that she nearly killed herself. I got them home and I arranged them in spots where they'd get the light that was appropriate and I then I got to searching for how I was supposed to care for them.

Two years later they are all still around. These plants take time I've learned. But time that I honestly love spending on them! The routine of caring for them became something I looked forward to every Saturday morning. I'd search each one for dead leaves which I'd carefully remove. I would turn them so there was equal time facing the sun. I've re-potted them once. And when I saw little webs appearing on them, I freaked out. What was on the plants and was it going to damage them? Immediately I found how to eliminate this problem and they're all good now. I can't tell you  how happy I am when I see a new leaves budding up through the soil or a new stem growing out of a branch.

Last summer when I was out of town for two weeks I brought the plants to my parents house. Living in the desert, the summers become extremely hot, and for the duration I was gone I was shutting off the AC in my apartment. I didn't want to leave the plants in the heat with no water for that long. But even the transition from my place to theirs and back again, almost killed a few of the plants. It was a shock to them. So much change in such a little amount of time. All the more diligent I needed to be in caring for them.