Okay, I am so technically challenged. This is the third and final attempt at posting these pics. Wanted you to see the beautiful church we served in. Saint Sans is what they called it. It has a longer formal name that I cannot remember. So, enjoy my last pics for posterity!!

Some pics!

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Here are some of the highlight pictures. I wish I could get a tutorial on how to load these suckers. This looks so trashy but I wanted to show some of the trip. We served at a soup kitchen located in the basement of the church shown above. It also has a school that we worked in which is where I am located when taking the picture. Here are some of the kids trying to get on the L.

So, this a little flavor of the trip!! Thanks again for praying!!!

Chi Dos....the name of our worksite

I AM BACK!!!

Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!! I have returned and recuperated somewhat. Thank you for praying. It made a world of difference. I felt completely covered in peace throughout the entire stretching week.

Some of the most obvious moments of peace prevailed when I headed down Michigan Ave the wrong way and had to hike my 15-passenger van over the median to get out of on-coming traffic!! Yeah, it was a bit harrowing but God is good and He prevailed.

I know He poured out His power when the 47 of us were lost travelling through southern Chicago trying to find our way to the L. I hate it when we lose direction. It was one of the most challenging moments of the trip. You combine that with a few of these doosies and I did have moments of sweaty pits and cussing thoughts!

Doosies:

-HS girl gets shoulder dislocated and has to stay in ER for 6+ hours.

-Different HS girl cuts her finger open in the shopping district and feels like passing out.

-Driving through Englewood, the most impoverished ghetto in Chicago.

-Watching HS girl get stuck in window because she is determined to climb outside to clean.

-Seeing HS boy scale a building over 13 feet high.

-Finding a pregnancy test box in the girls trash (learning later it was a prank from boys!! not funny!)

-Never having a moment to myself from 6:30am until 11:30pm every day!

See, it was a memorable trip. I am sure I am still missing some highlights. I just wanted to give you a broad glimpse at the week. Plenty of drama and fun and also a beautiful spiritual element as the girls I work with opened up with new amazing questions of faith. They invited deeper accountability and showed such grace and maturity when they invited me to be prayed for after our foot washing ceremony. It was amazing to hear them intercede on my behalf. I was blessed.

So, all in all, Beautiful Chicago memorable moments. Am I sad that this is the farewell tour? Gotta confess, yes and no. Yes, I am going to miss the opportunity to see God's powerful influence in student's lives up close and personal. No, I am not going to miss sleeping on floors, dressing in closets, doping up on caffeine and mothering the masses. Until they ask me to go as a parent volunteer!!

Prayer Requests...

I leave for Chicago in the morning for a mission trip. I am driving with 40 some odd high school kids in vans to the inner city. Can you hear the energy in my voice?

This is my final mission trip with HS students. It is a beautiful bittersweet moment. Beautiful to be part of watching God's transforming hand touch and shape students eternally through the opportunity to serve and extend beyond themselves. Bitter being the oldest person on the trip!

This is an amazing privilege. A joy and gift. I want to grab and suck the marrow from but instead all I can think about is: will they have coffee?

Does that question reflect my spiritual maturity? I hope not. I am thinking it just reflects how chronologically mature I am. I am the old lady obsessed with finding enough mattress things to sleep on so my back won't hurt all week. I am so old I went by AAA to make them show me the best route to Chicago. (*I am glad about this one since all of Iowa is flooded and we wouldn't been in detour heaven.) I have packed my own food filled with fiber so I wouldn't get all backed up while traveling. (does that sound like your grandmother??) I packed my little eye covers so I could block all the light in the gym that we will be sleeping in. (and I have the matching ear plugs!) Let's see, I also carry a magic bag with everything from band aids to Gas-x. Yes, I have become my mother!

I remember the trips I took when I was young and carefree. I looked forward to staying up all night with the girls whispering and telling stories. Now, all I can think about is: will there be anytime to catch a moment alone to refuel and refocus? I loved driving forever, singing with the students and telling our life stories. Now, I am so worried about safety and protection of the students. I clench the wheel so hard my wedding ring is the shape of a triangle. I have so much to trust Christ with for the week, I invite you to pray for us.

So please pray for:
Safety and protection out and back to Chicago.
Pray for students to radically be transformed by the powerful influence of the Holy Spirit moving in their lives.
Pray for more of Christ and less of me. less and less and less of me.
Pray that our team of students would extend to the ones that are new to our group. That they would have servant spirits, joyful hearts and sincere love for one another.
Pray against a spirit of opposition or division...that would like to distract and destroy the work that could be accomplished on behalf of Christ.
Pray for those who we will be ministering to, that they would be open to the Holy Spirit and that the Lord would be glorified.
Pray for my spirit, that I would not be the bitter old lady on the trip.

I hope you hear from me sometime next week after I recover. For the record, I packed my own light Starbucks coffee, in case you were wondering! Thanks for praying. Have a good week! We'll miss you JULES!!

If I ever do come back in a reincarnated form (which I fully do not believe will happen) I would like to be a photographer. Not one of those wedding photog types. No, I was a wedding coordinator a lifetime ago and I can whole-heartedly say I would rather have my teeth pulled one at a time then go on the wedding circuit.

No, I would be the Ansel Adams lady. Yup, just travel the world with my trusty camera and capture life as it happens. Would that be so fun?

It would require some education in the finer art of photography. Maybe some classes on lighting and staging. It would be cool to take a Photoshop class and learn how to edit and manipulate the pics too! I wish I could say that is a priority right now, but it is not. Neither is storing my pics in organized books with creative captions and pretty pages. No, that ain't happening either.

I am simply about the shot.

I have recently done a wall with some of my prints. I would like to say that are all really snazzy and cool but honestly some are grainy and a little too dark, but they are a piece of the creative me. The part that rarely comes to surface.

I used to paint. I was terrible but i loved the act of quieting my spirit and spilling colors all about a canvas. They were not pretty, abstract, or worthy of display, but they were the demonstration of the discipline to create.

I think the creating thing must be innate to all of us, huh? We were wired this way from the Master creator. Doesn't everyone have a creative, artistic side to them? They surface in different and unique ways, all worthy of appreciation.

How 'bout you? How do you express your inspired self?

Mother's day surprises!

I haven't had time to post about the amazing gifts I got for Mother's day. One was this handmade box designed by my darling little ten-year old boy. The teacup and saucer were hand-crafted by my 7 year old daughter. My husband took me to see Wicked and my oldest gave me a card.

The most unique surprise goes to my sweet baby girl who used her heelies to fly down a debris infested hill to land squarely on her face. The ten stitches above the eye really was the gift. I thought she swiped her nose completely off her face the way she tripped over the twig and slid down the blacktop. It was frightening.

Have you done the head wound thing before? If not, think blood, lots of blood. I have seen this in action and so, I was not surprised as I lifted her off the pavement to see her face covered in the red velvet goo. Thankfully, it was only the eyebrow. God clearly grabbed her little face and protected her from complete reconstructive surgery. This I am certain.

Guess I had to put a little space between Mother's day and now to relive the dreadful moment. I think I feel guilty that I enabled the accident. Because she is so skilled on the wheeled shoes, I have never been fearful of an accident. The child is a master. She could totally earn Olympic gold on those silly things. So, I confess when she begged to go up a hill before bedtime, I conceded. Of course, no problem. 15 minutes to the park and back. No worries. In fact, she even had her nightgown on with sweats over it because this outing was to be so short and sweet.

Did I mention my older son was with us? He was propped high on a 8 foot brick column at the foot of the hill his sister ascended. He was the one I originally worried might break his neck. He was the one who had the phone to call dad. He was the one that chimed, "Well, that was a good idea to go down the hill, MOM!"

2 hours, 10 stitches and 100 bucks later...we were back at home. Thanking God for one of those Mother's days that will go down in infamy. The one that years from now will be replayed by the kids as the year mom dragged little sis to the giant hill and forced her to roll down face first into the blacktop. I can hear them now. Happy Mother's Day!

Junior High days....ah...the memories.

My oldest son is in the throws of adolescence. He is treading through the dreaded days of Junior High. I have been reliving my own moments through his sincere effort to find himself in this space and time.
He has been spending lots of time texting young ladies. It is a bit disconcerting for me, the momma. He sits beside me and sweetly requests advice on how to best tell his best friends love interest that he does not want to sit by her at the movie because it may hurt his friend's feelings. To which she responds, in some typical pouty jr. high girl way touting depression over how all she wanted was to "hang out!" He gets worried and tries to text back. "I think we should invite more people and make it a big party." She whimpers, "then I will never talk to you." He counters, "It's just the end of the year movie. We won't be able to talk anyway." She doesn't respond. He feels bad. OMGoodness. This is so JR. HIGH!
I appreciate so much that my son is trying to spare the feelings of all those he cares about. He sincerely wants to work all details out to please everyone. Which in Jr. High is never going to happen.
I remember the days of brooding in my room littered with glowing candles and playing the Heart song, Dog and Butterfly over and over and over again. Instead of texting we would linger for hours on end on the phone. (Which honestly, i think made our generation a much better communicative generation then these up coming ones with all their impersonal technological gadgets to speak through, text, im or whatever. )
The issues still haven't changed. Relationships. They are complicated. Boy likes girl. Girl doesn't like boy. Trouble ensues. Life sucks. Boy likes other girl. Girl still doesn't like boy. Now the first girl is interested in the boy who has since given up on that girl and is spreading vicious rumors and life still sucks. Insert your own silly scenario. Drama, oh the drama. When will it end?
I know I went through lots of candles and melancholy music in my junior high years. I know I was just like the girl my son texted last night on the phone. I worked hard to find my identity through dating the perfect boy at the skating rink.
My man ended up being several years my senior. He was mature and seemed to have it all together. In retrospect, all he had was the uncanny ability to skate backwards and the authority of being a "skate guard" which in those days was quite the varsity status. His greasy black hair and lack of intellect did not seem to factor in when I invited him to one of my babysitting jobs to hang out. Now, you may wonder who was lacking the brain power since every good teenage girl knows you are NEVER, EVER supposed to invite friends, especially BOYS, over to the houses you babysit, right? Well, apparently if you have been sucked into the Junior High "Boy" bubble you shape shift into stupid and that is not where my brain power ended, it gets worse. I leave the children unattended and proceed to make out on the side of the house with the slimy skate guard. Yes, this is very irresponsible. Yes, I am completely mortified that I did that. Yes, it is a turning point, one that will forever alter my moral compass and impact the rest of my life. Did I get caught? Heck yes! I was in my own neighborhood for pity sake! The guy next door was washing his car and saw us, told the family and they called my parents. Nice, huh? Proud moment. Not really.
So, I take that special memory and turn it into a teachable moment. I am reminding my sweet son that there are wacky girls just like his mom looking for sweet boys to give them their identity and build their self-confidence and he must proceed with caution. All the girls in his circle of life are doing the same thing he is and that is trying to find out who they were created to be. They tread through this season in trial and error in hopes of finding their skate guard moment. The pinnacle place when it all comes together and they release who they are NOT.