full house

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No I am not talking about a hand of cards! I am referring to our very full house tonight - full of young adults!

We are so blessed to part of their lives!

Crossroads summer college Bible study group begins next Wednesday with Pastor Tim.

The group is limited to college students between the ages of 18 - 25.

I am so excited for the young adults of Crossroads...it is going to be a really great summer!

one thing after another

Wow! I thought small kids made my life busy...young adults are even busier!

I feel blessed beyond anything I could possibly write describing our kids and their latest accomplishments.

Saturday morning we had the privilege of watching both of our kids graduate from college. This blessing came straight from the throne of God. He provided the means, He provided the ability and He provided the unique personalities that drive both of them toward His perfect will for their lives.

None of us ever stop preparing for following God's will. We must be ready - educating ourselves for serving Him wherever we are called, growing in our Biblical knowledge and by taking spiritual maturity steps every single day.

This weekend will remain in my heart forever as one of my favorite, one of my most proud moments and perhaps the most thankful I have ever been since their birth and since I married my husband! Great weekend indeed!

praying badly (on my day off)

My daughter has a person in her life at college that is causing her grief in a work setting. She was recently sharing some of the harassing this person has been doing and I could feel the hairs on the back of my motherly neck beginning to stand up.

You just don’t mess with my kids or friends.

My usual serene exterior quickly deteriorated into what some of my family not-so-lovingly refers to as a “mama-lion”.

I become quit defensive for my loved ones (understatement).

With the shock that anyone would be less than kind to my daughter weighing heavy on me, I took it to the Lord. My intentions were noble – my flesh was weak.

After two or three lines of asking for God’s help, my mind drifted off into the possibility of taking matters into my own hands.

This without a doubt is less than pleasing to the Lord. After a few minutes of thinking through the possibilities of my involvement my focus returned to what I had originally set out to do – pray.

A few lines back into my prayer I once again found myself somehow considering the idea of sending the perpetrator a letter expressing my great disappointment in his behavior. Rehearsing what I might write in great detail in my mind…finally the return of helplessness came back over me and I turned back to the Lord.

I kid you not, 5 minutes back into prayer I returned again to yet another scenario, this time picturing my self confronting them on the college campus. Now, let’s just picture that in our minds for a moment. ME confronting a college student I don’t even know – which would completely undercut my daughter’s authority, and would require that I actually be confrontational (can you say chicken?)

Anyway, by the end of the time which should have been a hallowed time of coming to my Lord asking Him to intercede, I highly doubt He was even listening. I can just picture Him leaning in to hear my prayer 3 times, and finally giving up and turning His focus toward someone else. (I know, bad theology)

Anyway – am I the only one that has trouble remaining focused in prayer?

farewell college cousins

We had a great dinner with family tonight, nothing better than that! Our daughter and nephew will be leaving for college again next week, so we got together.

I cannot remember when I have ever laughed so hard! 5 of us were laughing so much we couldn't breathe and had tears running down our faces, much needed relaxation! Here are a couple of the pictures we took of one another before leaving!

I hope you have an opportunity to get together with people you enjoy this weekend. I think God takes pleasure when we enjoy one another and when he hears his children laughing!!

party!!

Tonight was the first Crossroads College party! We hosted 22 young adults who enjoyed getting to know one another while eating continuously and playing games. Several post college young adults agreed to attend as well and were a lot of fun for the students to connect with.

Our ministry will die without this generation's involvement. We value them highly. Their enthusiasm is contagious!

Our hope is that this group will grow and become a vital part of Crossroads. We want them to look forward to being back at Crossroads whenever they are back on breaks. They are amazing people!

connecting generations

Last night was amazing. I have mentioned in previous articles that we created a college student group in our data base. Well, the group became real last night.

We packed our first shipment of care packages intending to encourage our Crossroads students as they prepare for finals, what happened instead ? The moms were encouraged! We introduced ourselves to one another and talked about where our kids were in college, and connection happened. We traded stories and all were blessed.

One mom shared with me the week before, (a lady I only know because of this group), that her son has wandered far from God. I told her, "he won't know what hit him, we are going after him!"

After our conversation took place this dear mom attended a training at Crossroads this weekend where she just happened to sit by a mom who has a wonderful Christian son 2 floors above the wayward son. Wow, what a coincidence! NOT! The plan coming out of that encounter: the Christian son is contacting the wayward son inviting him to study with him because just by chance, NOT, they found they are in the same class!! COOL!

To end the stuffing of the care packages, we laid hands on all the boxes and prayed for our Crossroads kids. We are going after the next generation!

Connection is so easy if we just identify needs that are already natural areas of focus in our everyday lives. It isn't Rocket Science!

God's calling

As I prepared to leave Indiana Wesleyan today, I had lunch with my kids. Conversation was lively but typical. Soon however, it took a turn toward extraordinary!

Out of nowhere my son Eric announced he feels God may be calling him to create a ministry that connects churches' efforts to evangelize local communities. He feels strongly that local churches waste time and resources all trying to work separately within the same communities as if it were a competition between denominations.

I looked at my son and all the past years experiences came rushing back. I thought back to questions as a child about why all the churches and pastors in town seemed to work against one another. I remembered his tender heart toward kids he came in contact with that did not know the Lord. I remembered when he was invited to be the outreach/evangelism coordinator for his dorm. And the excitement on the other end of a phone call this summer when his band had a performance where a young man accepted the Lord. And then his most current work, his practicum where he and his buddy Moose drive a bus that picks up inner city kids and drops them off for Wednesday night church. And God willing, Eric will get to go to Cambodia to work with orphans this spring. God has been preparing his heart for this type of work his whole life. Amazing!

Next my daughter, Jocelyn chimed in with her most recent decisions. She is second guessing her decision to make her second major International Community Development. She went on to talk about how she feels God may be calling her to work among the influential in the United States instead of with missions or overseas. She said she had been wondering whether the bigger kingdom accomplishment might be to use her writing skills to influence this American generation in politics, corporations, media or other influential areas. Some of our most celebrated people, are among the most desperate seekers. I remember her talking about this very thing many years earlier, passionately talking about how much more her own country needed evangelism then many foreign countries did. And now she was making college level decisions about how best to prepare for whatever God was calling her to.

I understand that young adults change their minds many times before discovering their life long calling. But what a blessing to hear them both talk about what they feel God may call them to do. I will never forget today's conversations and I can not believe how good God is!

to college we go

This should be my last post concerning our journey to take both of our kids to college. A couple posts ago I talked about our son leaving for college instead of us taking him. Well today we made the trip to Indiana to deliver Eric's belongings. His small car only was able to take the bare essentials, so we took everything else.

The things we took were almost all related in some way to music. Eric is an extremely talented musician and singer. We have been so impressed this year with the leadership skills he has developed scheduling, organizing tours and writing music for his band. We are very excited to watch the Lord continue to use and develop these life skills!

Once all was put in place we spent a short time with both of our children. What we discovered was they have completely assimilated into college life. So much so that we soon realized we were cramping their style. We found ourselves sitting alone at a table in the coffee shop as they chatted with friends and ran back and forth from their rooms.

You may think this made us sad. But as we packed up our laptops and waved goodbye we realized this is exactly what we have worked so hard for. Confident young adults surrounded by Christian friends, ready to prepare for the rest of their lives. God has been very, very good to us. Our kids have left our home to follow the Lord. This is as it should be.