C3 Sunday, Student Fun, & a Con Artist??

Yep…I find a way to talk about all 3 of those in one post :)

It’s been a busy couple of weeks… we finally got to be back at C3 Sunday! I missed it- we were on vacation one week and then we didn’t have church the weekend of the 4th….felt like it had been forever! :)

I loved the message…Pastor Byron talked about being let down relationally… something that happens to every single one of us in life. It was almost like an epiphany for me- why had I never thought of simply praying these things that he mentioned. He talked about how when you’re let down by small things to pray for thicker skin- and one thing he said that stood out so much to me was: “When you choose to be easily offended, you’re choosing to be miserable.”  So true… we make the decision to be easily offended or not and I can say from experience- when I make that decision, I am miserable! I’m very grateful for Sunday- I am praying for thicker skin and for a stronger heart.

Yesterday we headed out to Rock Springs with our students for the day. It was a blast- we had never been there before. The water was freeeezinggg :) But it was still fun! We did some tubing and played some volleyball and just spent the day out there. I love hanging out with our students!

Lastly- if you’re reading this and in the central FL area please check THIS out. You’ll want to know about this woman and the fact that she’s a con artist! One of my best friends bought her wedding dress from here…and now it’s gone and so is her money! Awful! Sadly it happened to many brides who trusted her and now she’s run off with their money… Check out the story by clicking HERE. Praying that every single one of these brides can find another way to get the dress of their dreams!

Thursday Ramblings…

So I really need to be cleaning a bit or being productive but who says blogging is not productive?!

Anyway…

Last night we had 413 our high school student group. It was amazing! Love those students so much and they have such a great heart for God. Last night was the last formal meeting for the school year and I have been amazed at how much they’ve grown in the past year. God has really done some great things in and through them…it’s awesome! I’m so proud of all of them! This summer should be a blast with them- camp and then a bunch of cool stuff we’ve got planned! I can’t do much of it…(I mean I guess riding rides at a waterpark is frowned upon when your pregnant…who knew?! ;-) but I’ll definitely be along for the ride and love hanging out with them!

Some people know we’ve been trying to find a new car for a while…we leased our last car and that was up so it was time for something else. We FINALLY found something we like and that’s affordable. We got a ’07 Camry. I love it so far! Great car and even better gas mileage than our VW. That makes us happy :) I’m just honestly glad to be done car shopping…I’m really not a fan! Especially when you are trying to look at cars outside all day when it’s 450 degrees! ;) We had to go to Jacksonville to pick our new car and to drop off our old one…since we leased it there.

Princess was thrilled to be traveling all day… :)

I love  my husband! He’s the best….just though I’d throw that out there since I’m rambling :)

Looking forward to this weekend- We have community group with the college/young adult group! Love that…it’s always a blast. Then next weekend we’re having a fun pool party with them! Should be awesome!

I love being pregnant but what is up with the food I’m having to give up! I mean who has aversions to yummy things like bacon?! Yep, me. The smell of it makes me sick…and barbecue! That doesn’t work that well in our household….if anyone knows my husband at all, they know he loves his barbecue! :) He’s been great about it though!

Well I’m going to go be productive…or maybe I’ll avoid my cleaning some more and just go work out! That’s productive, too! :)

Updates :)

We’ve been so busy lately I almost forgot about my blog! :)

Just to update everyone in case they didn’t see it on Facebook- Matt and I are having a baby! We’re thrilled! I’m 12 weeks along so almost done with this first trimester…I’m hoping that what everyone says is true: That my energy will come back! I’m stinkin’ exhausted recently. And I thought I knew what it was to be tired…this is totally different…it’s crippling sometimes! I do have to brag on my husband for a minute- he’s been AMAZING through this so far! He definitely takes great care of me and loves me unconditionally…If I didn’t know his love was real before, I know it is now… especially if he can love me through my moods! ;-) He’s the best! He’s been doing it all lately and I’m so grateful!

Anyway- I’ll definitely be glad when the exhaustion is done with… I can tell I am starting to get some of my energy back which is awesome!

I’m pretty excited about the upcoming weeks and months- we’ve got a ton of stuff going on! Our community group this weekend is going to be a blast (even though it always is!) since Pastor Byron is coming to visit with us. Then in a couple more weeks we have a Sunday night service at C3- should be an awesome night!

In June we’ve got summer camp with out students… it’ll be a blast and interesting all at the same time! I’ll be about 5 month pregnant by then… lets see me try to go tubing and play all these crazy games! Just kidding :) I’ll be taking good care of myself- I’ll be the designated picture taker- someone has to capture all these crazy moments!!

June is also the month which we will hopefully *fingers crossed* find out what we’re having! We’re wishing we knew already! Then in June we’ll also celebrate my 25th birthday! I’ll be 25 and still get pretty excited about my birthday :) although I don’t too excited about being one year older!

Speaking of birthdays… one of my best friends birthday is Friday- Happy Birthday to Kayleigh :) I’m so glad you were born! Thanks for being such a great friend- don’t know what I’d do without all our laughter and craziness :)

That’s all for now :) I just wanted to update!

Sunday Sunday!

It’s been a reallllllyyy long day….but I wanted to write about how great our Easter Sunday was!

C3 was absolutely incredible! The poet they had speak brought me to tears- All around an amazing message of hope for those who know Christ and those who don’t. I’m so grateful for everything this past weekend meant… I’m so thankful for Christ suffering for us on Friday so Sunday could happen and we can have everlasting life and hope in Him! We invited our neighbors to come and they came- they of course LOVED C3 :) They have two little kids also and they both loved Playhouse! Their daughter immediately said afterwards to us: “I’ll see you here at church next week!” and then looked at her parents and said “Right?!?!” :) I love that C3 is a place that adults and kids love to be!

Today (although it’s not Sunday) was a long day….did I already mention that? Yeah…it was that long :) But I’m looking forward to tomorrow- should be a great day and hopefully a little less exhausting! :)

More later…time for 2 hours of Jack Bauer and then bed! Yes we love Jack in this house :) Sad that this will be the last season of 24!

It’s Worth it

Check out this post by Pete Wilson- Engage or Withdraw. I really enjoyed this post- it challenged me and made me think about my own trust issues. I definitely have a few :)

Here’s a little bit of what he wrote:

I’ll admit that at times I have a hard time trusting certain people. I generally develop my feelings of distrust after someone has done something intentionally or unintentionally that makes me question their character. And let’s be honest, if you’re in any kind of relationship with someone long enough from time to time they’re going to act in a way that will bring the issue of “trust” to the forefront.

We all have a trust-meter. Every time you interact with another person your trust-meter goes up or down based on a set of factors that would include such things as the person’s truth-telling record, their commitment keeping pattern, their confidentiality, their consistency in character, etc. This is true of all of your relationships…

Pete Wilson also wrote something else a few days ago that bothered me…He wrote this about college students..

I was shocked last week to hear that the second leading cause of death among college students is suicide. Furthermore, I read that as many as 50% of college students have thought about suicide with 15% of them seriously considering it.

You can read the rest of it HERE.

This is upsetting- Matt and I recently started leading the C3 College/Young Adults group with Bryan and Gina Zugelder… To think about the fact that possibly half of them may be considering suicide- honestly to think about the fact that this happens with ANY college students in general is sad. I remember that time in my life- it wasn’t too long ago- and if you’re not careful it is easy to slip into your own world and slowly those thoughts can creep in. I’m very grateful I had people in my life then to make sure that wasn’t the case. My hope and prayer is that all college students will find that… All the more reason to be intentional and invest in people. Because lets be honest… It’s not just college students who have thoughts like that and need help.

I’ve still got Sunday morning on my mind… Remembering what those videos said- “Will you risk it?” “Am I worth it?” I can’t think of anyone who is NOT worth it! I pray I never forget about that and am always intentional in building relationships and inviting people to church…even well after Easter. I also pray that I don’t slip back into that comfortable lifestyle where I just coast and don’t really pay much attention to those around me… because they are truly worth it. And because I’m reminded that God placed Matt and I where we are for a reason- There may be certain people that God has placed in our lives that are waiting on us to invite them… All I know is- it is definitely worth the risk.

C3 Sunday!

Today was amazing in many ways! C3 this morning was powerful and moving… It definitely woke me up to something I may have already known I need to do but have not been following through with it. They reminded us that we don’t know how long we have here, whether we go or He comes back for us… time is precious. Why have I been wasting it? Pastor also reminded us that there are so many who, when He comes back, will be left behind. That’s our job as Christ Followers…to follow what Jesus did and go reach people for Him. There are people we’ve been wanting to invite for a while and honestly we sometimes, flat out, make excuses. We let life get in the way… not remembering that they don’t know Christ. It basically comes down to how much we care about them… all I know is I want to be able to know I did what I could to make sure they won’t be left behind and that they know we do care. I want to purpose to be intentional every day- building relationships with people so that I can share with them the greatest thing that changed my life!

It was just an amazing Sunday- I absolutely can’t wait for Easter next week! If you’re reading this and don’t have place to go for Easter: http://www.c3church.cc – It’s incredible! Of course, if you are in or around Orlando :)

After church we had our flag football game…finally beat the team that beat us in overtime in the championship last year! That felt good :)

Then tonight we had our community group! Seriously love our community group- such real and authentic people who love God and really love others. It’s a place where we challenge each other and get to discuss, on a much deeper level, what Pastor talks about on Sunday mornings. You can see it in the group that they all have such a desire to reach a city… it’s contagious and such a great way to end our Sunday.

Well if I want to start my Monday out productively I better head to bed… I mean technically it’s already Monday and I’ve blogged so I feel like it has already been productive…but…yeah :) I better get to bed!

I love our C3 Sundays!

Yesterday…

Yesterday at C3 was awesome! We’re still in the series: ‘The Sickness Within” and yesterday Pride was discussed. It definitely hit home to me… I just wrote about how at times I feel like I’ve got a handle on all my problems and I don’t want to bother God with it…. Sometimes I have the thinking of: ‘He’s got enough on His plate, I’ll just deal with this myself.’ And that isn’t trusting God fully… I’m so grateful for being a part of a church that is so real and authentic! I’m also so grateful for ALL the amazing people that make this movement happen every week! Seriously… it takes a lot of dedication and people who truly love Jesus and others… It’s humbling to look around at all the people who sacrifice each week to give of themselves and be a part of what God’s doing here. C3 truly is a family and I love all of these wonderful people!

Yesterday C3 also gave away a ton of backpacks full of school supplies to students in need! Amazing… This is truly what church is all about- reaching out and helping the community around you!

I got to meet tons of new students yesterday! I am pumped for our fall schedule of 413 (Our high school student community!) It’s gonna be a blast :) I hope all our students had a great first day back at school… Speaking of this… my sister started middle school today! She went from being in a small private school for all of elementary to a big public middle school… I’m hoping she has a really good day. I don’t think she’s too nervous but I sure am :)

Ok I think that’s all for now… I have like 682 loads of laundry to do that have been piling up… maybe a little bit of an exaggeration but still- it’s a lot :)