fun times in houston

here's a photographic peek into the last few weeks of our life:

BREAKAWAY 2009

group shot
we had about 15 students come with us!

this is "big chris" being baptized by eric and matt
this guy hasn't stopped witnessing to everyone he meets since he got saved in august.

kristin being baptized by nicole
she has also been set on fire for the LORD. i've NEVER seen someone so hungry to know more about the WORD and to do the right thing.

Chili Cook-Off and Costume Party

mary poppins with bert the chimney sweep :)

strawberry shortcake, a 50's girl and a ladybug

swine flu

spring, summer, autumn and winter

an exciting (and competitive) time of games

* so, here's a cool story about the costume party. we made up about 400 fliers and matt passed them out on campus 2 days before the party. we never know just how effective it's gonna be, but we're always hopeful, right? well, turns out that out of the 400 or so fliers that were passed out, one girl in particular grabbed one. she stuffed it into her one of her books and never gave it another thought...until saturday afternoon (the day of the party). she was at work and had a bit of time to study during her break and she noticed the flier. she decided it sounded like fun and much better than all the other alternatives for halloween parties that night. so, she randomly showed up...with 4 of her friends!! they were super sweet and highly interested in getting involved with a Christian group on campus.

the moral of the story? every little thing we do, even when it seems pointless, is never in vain.
Galatians 6:9 "And let us not grow weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."

good news/bad news

how 'bout the good news first, then the bad?

good news: matt and i had a jam-packed, fun-filled weekend. (i'm about to tell you all about it.)

bad news: i have zero pictures to prove it, so you'll just have to use your imagination, okay?

we had such a GREAT time hanging out with the hoogendoorn side of matt's family at a combination family reunion and celebration of his granny's birthday. can i just say how precious his granny is? she really is the kind of woman that makes it obvious why my husband and his family walk so closely with the LORD. i wish we could spend more time with her.

we had to leave jacksonville (where the reunion was) early because we had a church service in houston sunday morning. i'm gonna be honest...i had never experienced multiple church services before this, not to mention a church as large as this one, and i was actually a little hesitant about it (mainly because we got back into town SUPER late saturday night and had to get up SUPER early the next morning for a full day of services.) IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!! the people at Braeswood AG are so down to earth and so welcoming. i felt right at home.

we get to meet so many truly amazing people doing what we do. i love our job! :)

who can we trust?

we, as a society or culture, never seem to "do business" on a handshake or by word of promise anymore. and when i say, "anymore" i must clarify that i've never known a time when life was honest, but i've heard about an age, long ago, when there was no reason not to trust that somebody was gonna do what they said they were gonna do.

it's sad to me, sometimes, that we seem to not even trust the word of our friends and family anymore. even sadder that our friends and family sometimes can't trust what we say. but why? maybe because we're fallen and sinful. probably. okay, definitely.

looking throughout Scripture, we see that GOD has made lots and lots of promises to us as His children. He's promised to never leave us; He's promised that if we lift Him up, He'll draw all men to Himself; He's promised to never flood the earth again; He's promised to provide for our every need; He's promised to clothe us in robes of righteousness even though we deserve filthy rags of sin; He's promised us a hope of a brilliant eternity. Some of us claim the promises that He's made that our loved ones will come to know Him, that we will be healed, that we will have a husband/wife and that we will have a family. that's only the beginning of His promises to us.

and why can we trust His promises when we can't seem to trust the word of others? because of HIS character. He is good. and He is true. He has not sinned and is not fallen. so, it's not necessarily that we can trust in His promises, but that we can trust in who He is.

"My faith does not rest on God's promises. My faith rests on God's character..." - A.W.Tozer

welcome week 2009

here's a little visual glimpse into the very busy week at the beginning of the school year called, "welcome week." for us, this first week of school is a PERFECT opportunity to meet new students and get them involved before the semester gets thick. welcome week involves many activities and events to invite students to...and of course, FREE FOOD. we've met so many new people...friends for life. here are some pictures:

we had a table on campus during the day and passed out candy and fliers.

kickball

free pizza after a campus-wide scavenger hunt

bowling
(this is melissa...one of the new students we met! LOVE her!)

free ice cream and coffee after our first fall meeting

eric, kevin, dean and nicole

i still can't believe the team the LORD has lined up for us. they are super amazing and just keep surprising me at every turn. last weekend, matt and i took the four of them on a leadership retreat to lake livingston. we had such a wonderful time together and were really able to get some stuff decided.

i think the coolest part about them is that although we've watched their lives change and grow over the last year or so, we still haven't really seen them become completely responsible for a group of students yet. that's about to change. their lives are about to change. oh, i'm so excited!

thoughts on life/death

so, i've been thinking a little bit about death lately...depressing, i know. after my grandmother passed away last week, i began to think about what people would say about me when i died.

you see, i realized that whatever it is that we value most throughout our lifetime is what our death also becomes about. for example, if we give our lives to family (which is not a bad thing), then all that people talk about when we die is how great a mother, father, sister, etc we were. if we give ourselves to our work, the only thing people can say about us when we leave is how much we accomplished in our particular field. if we live our lives around how much money we have or all the things we can acquire, then that's all that people will be concerned with when we die.

if we live our lives for the LORD and give ourselves to Him only, then that's all that can be said about us after our life is over here on earth. even those who may be unbelievers will be forced to talk about JESUS, because that will be the very essence of what our lives have been about.

that's i want for people to talk about when they talk about my life.

it's finally official!

matt and his official badge :)

okay...so matt may not be happy with me for putting this picture of him up, but i'm just too excited!!! earlier this week, he and two of the student "officers" attended a meeting at the university that allowed Chi Alpha to become an official student organization on campus. they gave him a cool new badge and everything. the LORD really showed HIS favor on us and has some really cool things in store for UHXA.

there are only a few more weeks left of summer and it seems as though the excitement just builds and builds the closer we get to the beginning of the fall 09 semester. however, as the excitement mounts, so does the nervousness. we kinda feel like we're about to walk into a realm of something completely unknown. PRAISE GOD that He's on our side, right? even though we're a little freaked out, we can walk in confidence knowing that we're not alone and that the Most Sovereign GOD is our guide.

please keep us in your prayers during this time. we need supernatural wisdom and continued favor from the LORD.