Beach Retreat 2012

Beach Retreat was an amazing week this year.  We took our High School students to Gulf Shores/Orange Beach, AL and our JHigh students went to South Padre, TX.  This was Jonathan's first year as Student Pastor to go to both weeks of camp.  I was so glad that, even though I was pregnant, I was able to be at High School Beach Retreat again this year.

Evening Worship

Dr. Young bringing the message at Evening Worship

The view from our condo tower at HS Beach Retreat

Silent Sounds: Each morning and evening, we head

out to the beach, and we get 30 minutes of time with God.

It's such a powerful time of just being still and quiet before

the Lord - Bible and devotion in hand.

Afternoon free time at the beach and pool...

Me and my condo girls

So glad my sis, Amy, was able to come down

and be a leader for the week!  So fun!

Jonathan on stage at JHIGH Beach Retreat

Some of the student pastors went Bunjee Jumping

one of the nights after the kids were all in their condos.

Jonathan had a blast, although I was a nervous wreck

while I knew he was doing it.  I'm just glad he is alive.  Ha!
See video HERE

The guys right before jumping...

...They made it!

While we were at Beach Retreat, Brayden had fun 

at Mimi and Papa's in Oklahoma.  Here he is representing

the Oklahoma City Thunder with his James Harden beard.

It was a fun week(s), but we were both glad

to see this little man when we got done!

Lead Retreat 2012

A few weeks ago, we had a leadership retreat with our students in our Student Ministry. We got to go away for the weekend to a great retreat center a couple hours away. We had a great time with our students, but it was especially fun, because all the youth pastors from every campus also brought their families up for the weekend.  We don't get a lot of chances to all hang out, so it was a great time together.  

Here's a pic of all of the kids together crammed on the couch.

Brayden is the 2nd from the left on the couch.

He was NOT in the mood for a picture, but he hung in there

and happily sunk into the comfy couch behind everyone for the picture.

Panther Pride

We went to a high school volleyball game to watch some girls play who are in my Life Groups at church.  Their mascot is a panther, and when it showed up at the game, Brayden was so excited.  He ran over to the Panther and yelled, "Hey, Panther" about 10 times until he turned around and noticed him.  He walked right over next to the Panther and sat down.  The Panther put his arm around Brayden and sat there for a good minute watching the volleyball game.  I was cracking up!  It was so cute!

Homecoming King...for a minute

 Brooks and Shelby are two of our high school students in our ministry,

and they won Homecoming King and Queen at their school.

Brooks was so nice and let Brayden be "King" for a minute.

Brayden thought it was so cool!

Tabletop Tapestry 2011

This year for our women's event at church, we had Tabletop Tapestry with a twist.  Instead of just decorating the tables, everything we used for decorating was donated to one of four amazing organizations.  Free the Captives was the organization that our table donated toward.  Free the Captives is an anti-human trafficking organization based here in Houston.  They work with at-risk teenage girls to help prevent or rescue girls who are or have been susceptible to being trafficked.  I pray that God uses these donations toward their freedom from this awful problem that is so rampant (yet somewhat hidden) here in the U.S.  They asked for art supplies which will help toward art therapy with the girls.

The centerpiece is an 'art cake' made of wrapped 

boxes surrounded by lots of fun art supplies.

Around the table was a rainbow of hundreds 

of circle punched paint chips.

Composition journals covered in scrapbook paper

 Marshmallow pops in a vase covered with colored pencils

 The place settings were blank canvases with paint and a paintbrush
Rainbow printable nametags & notes

 I made placecards of index cards held up with a crayon

 The chair backs were covered with rainbow crepe paper

 It was so great to have my mother-in-law, Dixie, there with me

for the event.  I was so excited she got to be a part of this night!

 Alison and me

It was such a fun night!  I'm excited to see what all God

does through the ripples of what happened at Tabletop this year!

More Blueberries

We went back to the blueberry farm for another round of blueberry picking.  This time, we took our two summer interns, Emily and Zach, with us.  It was H-O-T, but we got lots of berries and had some good times.

Jonathan inspecting our blueberries

Emily

Zach and Brayden just chilled under the bushes

listening to Zach's iPod.  Brayden loved it!

Walking back, still listening to the iPod

Me and my bucket-full of blueberries!