Changing

Do you know what freaks me out about life?

CHANGE.

Life can change so quickly...it's so important not to grow too comfortable. 

Josh is officially the youth pastor at Bethel Baptist Church in Kansas City, Missouri.

I'm so ready to jump in with both feet.

Ready to serve and love with all my guts.

It's such a priviledge the Lord would call us.

Life following Jesus Christ is definitely an adventure.

Scary, uncertain, exciting, fulfilling, unpredictable, marvelous, painful, glorious...worth it.

Moore from Tish

So I hear I look like Jennifer Garner, sometimes Jessica Alba, even one time Hilary Swank!  But almost once a week someone stops me and tells me I look like Mandy Moore!  I mean ALL the time!  We even have some couple friends that took a picture of me on their cell phone and e-mailed it to thier friends saying I was actually Mandy.  Their story was that they had a friend that knows Mandy Moore and that Mandy came over to their house after church one Sunday and they took a pic to prove it.  And their friends BELIEVED them!!  I know I don't know if it was probably largely due to a blury, small cell phone pic...but I guess funny none-the-less.  Although I do have to say for the record if there is a similiarity SHE actually looks like me because I turn 23 before her!

Religious

This semester there is has been one difficult thing for me.  In two of my classes I will be graded on evangelism.  The requirements:  they must be strangers, there must be 6 people, and you must bring them to the point of decision saying, "Do you want to accept Jesus as your Savior right now?"

Then I  fill out a paper giving the details of my encounter...it is 30% of my grade.  It just struck me very strange that we're graded on this.  I appreciate the challenge to share my faith very much.  But in the past my goal in talking to people about Jesus has been to challenge them to take the next step toward Jesus, to plant a seed, to speak truth.  And these encounters are usually people that I have met at the gym,or at work and where a friendship or acquaintance has been established, sometimes they have been strangers but very rarely.  I have never been the person to go door to door or  to 'street witness'.  Not that the Lord doesn't or hasn't worked in this way.  I guess I've just seen it done soooo often without follow-up and discipleship.  Maybe this approach just feels 'religious' and  forced to me because it's never been my approach.  I will admit I could stand to be more bold, and I'm positive there are many times in life where I should have said something...but I didn't.  I'm just not sure how I feel about all of it.  No doubt it will be an interesting challenge..  

Recreated

Today after church the wait was insane at the restaurant we were eating at, so we decided to have our coffee and salads at the bar.  There was a man next to us who looked like he hadn't shaved for awhile, his eyes were glazed over from the alcohol he had already consumed, his words were slurred, and his hand unsteady as he drank his tall budlight.  Josh had to treck across parking lots to get the wallet that we had left in the car and so I struck up conversation with the estranged looking man.  It turns out that his "Pa" had died last Christmas and his "Ma" is in the hospital right now.  He lives with his "Ma" and cares for her.  He said he hates this time of year.  I got to have a short conversation with him and I hope that I was able to just bless him a little with a kind word.... I began to think what an unhappy time of year this is for so many people.  How hard this time of year used to be for me years ago.  I was overwhelmed by how blessed I am to know Christ.  What an incredible grace from God that I am free to love and to live in hope.  Man to think where I would be today if God had not recreated my heart!  Today I'm thankful...    

Currently Watching X-Men By Stewart, Mckellen, Jackman, Paqui see related

Adventures with Icy Hot

So there is a series of movies that I just never got around to watching that I've decided to see what all the hoop-la is about... I guess just for fun.  I have never seen the Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Spiderman's, the Last of the Mohicans, the God-Father's, or the X-Men's.  Well Josh has been working on me...thanks to him I finally watched the Lord of the Rings (which I loved), Braveheart, and The Last Samaria.  So now we are going to watch the X-Men's.  Suprisingly... the first one was good.  We also watched the first Spiderman...it was soooo cheesy ( I actually burst out laughing a couple of times) but I guess that is part of superhero movies huh?

Well last night was interesting.  I could not sleep AT ALL.  Yesterday, I was doing my  routine workout when I though oh my gosh this is hard, infact I barely could finish my reps.  Then I realized I had accidently grapped the wrong barbell w/ a higher weight than I'm used to!  I know you are thinking "Tish,  you didn't notice before?"  I'm sure that's what my amazingly patient husband was thinking when I woke him up to help me put icy hot on b/c my whole body was throbbing and keeping me from sleep...then I managed to get icy hot ALL over the bed.  You know how intense the smell of icy hot is, imagine your entire bed smelling like that...we nearly suffocated!  I don't think we fell asleep until like 3:30 a.m...oops.

Well only three more finals between me and freedom!!Woohhooo!