god protect my family

the lord is my shepherd, i lack nothing.
he makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he refreshes my soul.
he guides me along the right paths
for his name's sake
even though i walk
through the valley of the shadow of death
i will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

you prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
surely your goodness and love will
follow me
all the days of my life,
and i will dwell in the house of the lord
forever.

my last night at npc

it's been a long week and i'm on day 10 but the bright side is that i'll be leaving in 2 days. i'm so excited to finally be going home and to see tony, sue, and all the kids. i miss my church and while i love being here i just haven't connected to the convention like i did last year so i'm feeling the loss of church over these last two weeks.

it was a lot of fun to have my pastor and the teaching staff from madison hear and sharing in on this experience. there is something about serving pastors that just makes everything seem worth the long hours and sleepless nights. we've had so many people come through to just thank us (all of the z staff and volunteers) for all of our work and for making them feel welcomed.

we did something very new this year and added a digital cafe where our attendees could just relax, listen to some music, and be alone. i wasn't sure how things would work but we were all pleased when it was filled daily and became a gathering place.

it will be hard to leave the warm weather and friends i have here but i'm ready. cheers to another great npc.

npc update

well i've been in san diego for a week now and i'm just finally getting a chance to sit down and catch my breath. wednesday i got here and things were a little rough for me, thursday wasn't much better but i made it through it. friday night i got to spend with the focklers (my california family).

saturday is when i thought the world was falling. somewhere around noon i got a call that grand rapids was under a blizzard and our team wasn't able to make it out (well at least not all of them). the great news is that everyone made it out here some late but made it safe. thank you jesus. sunday started about 2 hours later than we had hoped it would but we worked hard and worked together and got the job done. we even convinced our hotel staff to bring a tv to us so we could watch the super bowl. sorry bears.

monday was a long day and our team worked diligently to get all of our tasks done. i don't think everyone thought we could pull it off but we did and everything looks great. i heard from a few of our leadership folks that they thought the store looked better than it ever has. that doesn't have anything to do about me but all about our volunteers and staff memebers. yesterday was our first official day and today is our first full day. things are busy but pastors are being served. it is so nice to see familiar faces and catch up their life's happenings over the last year.

please pray for us during the last 4 days. we are excited to see what is going to happen and how god is going to move. i miss all of you.

misguided priorities

I hate when I realize how I’ve failed god, and yes that is strong language but it’s true. But at the same time I love the fact that I’ve finally recognized it. I’ve been trying to find my joy my happiness in things that without a doubt were wrong. For instance when something goes wrong at work I’m instantly sad and depressed like I’ve failed at life and assume that it means I’m not good that I don’t know what I’m doing (okay that part may be a little true sometimes). But what isn’t true is my job will never make me happy or at least it can’t be the source of my happiness. Neither can my friends or my family because just like my job I’m left disappointed at some point in our journey.

Last night was one of those moments that I realized my happiness has been misguided for years. It is such a freeing place to be and I can’t help but smile and enjoy the lesson I finally learned. Do I think it will be easy? No. But at least now I have the foundation to come back to.

I heard someone say once that when she started looking for her joy in her husband and not her heavenly father she knew that their relationship was in trouble. So for right now I’m going to practice finding joy in him that created me and finds joy in me learning from Him.

Shalom