Update update update

Its been awhile, I know. Summer is crazy!!! There have been camping trips, beach trips, camping trips to the beach, house concerts, pool parties, bbq's... you get the point. Here are some highlights as well as some pictures (mostly from cell phones and mostly at the beach) of the summers activities.

-Camping at San Onofre State beach... beautiful! Several miles down the road there was a nudist beach so there were "Nudity Prohibited" signs everywhere. It was westons last even so we sent him off right.
-Beach Beach and more beach- I have been blessed with two nice surfboards this summer; borrowed from people who don't surf much anymore. That doesn't mean that I've surfed at all this year though. Good intentions and early mornings are like oil and water!
-I've only been sunburned once this year (and according to Kymbri it looked like my face was bleeding...whatever:-)
-John and Kymbri are here for the summer!!!
-Jamie MOVED here!!!
-Jamie MOVED here AND he brought my curtain rods!!!!!
-BBQ's and dinners on the patio. We love it! And trader joes has the best cajun salmon!!! work the next morning seems to be problematic though... but then work seems to be problematic every morning:-)
-pool parties including a "light show" toy for the pool.. although you can't look at it to long withoug having a siezure. And FINALLY the hot tub works!
-The vegitable garden and fruit trees. We planted a garden in the back yard. combined with the orange trees, lemon tree, plum tree and lime tree.. healthy eating is cheap. the work is worth it
-Thursday night Jogging (pronounced "Yogging") The brain child of John, who is currently the youth intern. a group of kids meet to run/walk/skateboard around town in homemade "uniforms."
-Air Kareoke on the living room couch- found by mistake while looking for movies on demand. Its free and really really fun!!! No one can sing britney better than we do on sunday afternoons!!
-piercing...
-Going away parties and Welcome parites...
-Dinners, walks, outings with Sam, Joel and the rest of the Walker family













I am exhausted, and very, very fulfilled!!

Pool boy??

I've been talking about weston, our youth pastor, leaving for awhile. Over the past 6 months the search for the new youth pastor has begun, ensued and as of last weekend finally come to end. Though I was not involved in the selection, from initial interviews to even being able to voice an opinion about the final decision (which was hard because I'm super involved and someone new means huge change for me as well as the kids) I glad that it's finally over. I'm also glad to announce that the new youth pastor will be non-other than lancasters own Jamie Sensenig.

I know some of you (all probably, unless you were of the few who heard me talk of it) are wondering "how the heck???" and rightly so. So I'll give a brief synopsis of the (long) story of how this can to pass...

This whole decision actually started 2.5 years ago... for real. The Sensenigs came to California to celebrate Jamie's 30th birthday. While here Jamie and my dad became fast friends. It was then (or so I'm told by my dad) that Jamie first shared his heart for youth and youth ministry with my dad. It was also then, after Jamie left, that I heard my dad say that Jamie would make a great youth pastor.

Fast forward 1 year- Jamie and Jason did me the HUGE favor of driving my belongs across the country. Again, Jamie and my dad spent time talking about life and Jamie's increasing desire to be in youth ministry. This time Jamie and my dad stayed in contact. After this visit I heard my dad say that he was "watching and waiting to see how God worked, and what doors God would open to bring Jamie out."

Over the course of the next few months, Weston made it clear that he was being called to serve elsewhere, specifically in urban ministry and was beginning to seek out opportunities to move in that direction. Shortly after christmas, Weston informed my dad and close friends that he was not going to be youth pastor the following (this coming) school year, and made it official by handing in his resignation.

My dad, who makes tri-yearly trips to PA and who had kept in touch with Jamie, made plans to out to breakfast with Jamie while in PA early February. I don't know much about that meeting except that when my dad came home he told me that Jamie would be coming to winter camp at the end of the month to counsel as a trial run. It was also at this time that it was decreed by all parties involved (and I think several foreign governments) that, though I was/am extremely involved in youth group that I would not be given information nor be asked for opinions in the matter due to my friendship with Jamie. I GLADLY agreed.

Jamie flew in for a short, but really busy weekend. During the weekend, Jamie had his first interview with some elders of the church as well as meetings with different people and spent a long sleepless weekend with some rowdy kids in the mountains.

In the last 4 months, there have been countless interviews with candidates, some good, some bad, some qualified and some, well, not so qualified.


A week and a half ago, Jamie flew in for a second interview with the church board (elders), the youth team and some key parents at the request of my dad. It was long day of interviews with those who were being considered for the position. After the interviews, those involved in the decision making were asked to take a week a pray about the next step.

Thursday, before the week was over, each of the 'decision makers' had come back individually saying that they felt the Lords leading in inviting Jamie to come serve as youth minister- UNANIMOUSLY!!!!


Jamie accepted the position and will be moving the the great state of California in the beginning of July. CRAZY!!!!! And finally, I can talk about it!!!

Big Sur & East meets West

(so I wrote this post thursday morning but haven't posted cause I was waiting for pictures from Jacquie which i still have, but over the course of 36hours there have been new "developments" worthy of a post, but I'm really tired and want to sleep... so check back soon).

I realized the other day that my last post was, oh, a month and a half ago.... but I've been busy. Having a house, (not to mention a roommate who's a chef) lends itself well to hosting dinner parties... which lately seem to be happening tri-weekly (believe me when I say that is not a complaint! It's been a blast!)

But dinner parties and all, nothing has been blog worthy (ok maybe they have been but I didn't post sooooo whatev.... ) It's probably easiest to just to start with the more recent big events....

BIG SUR
Memorial Day weekend I went camping in Big Sur california. It's about 6 hours up the coast on the Pacific Coast Hwy and is considered "Central Coast." It was a spiritual life retreat with the young adults and young marrieds from church. I have to say that my attitude wasn't the greatest. I really wasn't looking forward to the drive esp after all 4 passengers in my car bailed at the last minute. My attitude didn't improve much when I got up there close to midnight and couldn't find the campsite. This was further complicated by the lack of cell service. Long story short I ended up about 45minutes north in the quaint little town of Carmel, at a hotel. I made it back down to the campsite the next day, which was much easier to find in the daylight, and had a fantastic time. This part of the coast is breath taking!!! Early Sunday morning I woke up and drove down the coast a few miles, specifically to find a latte. Latte in hand, I pulled over at a turn out, got out of my car, sat at the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean and watched the waves come in. Half awake, my mind jumped from subject to subject and I began to make a "to-do" list of all the things I wanted to do when I got home. And believe me, all I wanted to do was go home, or at least start the long drive.

I must have been sitting there in silence except for the sound of the water, for at least 20minutes planning my day, my week, and probably my life before God interupted me with one statement "Enjoy this quiet, your life is about to change." I don't pretend to know what that means or in what ways it's going to change or even if the change is going to positive or negative, but I do know that with that statement came and overwhelming sense of peace about my future that calmed and has continued to calm the anxious untrusting corners of my mind. I sat there for awhile, my mind as quiet as possible, with a new sense of peace, feeling slightly dangerous (as one should with an unpredictable future) and then drove back to the campsite where I was greeted by friends and pancakes.....


EAST MEETS WEST

Last weekend was a weekend for reunions. Some of my favorite people made their way west! John and Kymbri came home from college in PA and Jamie flew in for a visit (the timeing is kinda funny, because before J&K left to drive west, they stayed with Jamie at my house in Lancaster for a few days). It was a busy weekend. Both Jamie and John and Kimbry arrived thrusday night, Jamie by plane, J&K by car. Friday we made plans to go surfing (ok I made plans for everyone) which were then changed to just going to the beach (need a new roof rack for the board)but by friday mornining reality that we were having 25 people over for dinner friday night (Last Friday Dinner, happens every month it just happened to be our turn to host)hit me. Overwhelmed at the amount of cleaning and food prep that needed to be done, I decided it was best for me to stay home but offered my car to anyone who wanted to use it. Being the upstanding gracious men that they are, Jamie and John spent the day cleaning the pool and the pool house. And trust me, that may not sound like much, but it was a huge task!!!! I promise the pool and the pool house have never looked so good!!! Thanks again boys!!! by the time 7pm rolled around, the house looked amazing, and we were exhausted!

The entire weekend flew by! Besides Last Friday Dinner, there were trips to the movies, the beach, contact broomball with the youth group, dinner with friends.... etc. I dropped Jamie off at the airport Monday afternoon and promptly took a nap.

Of course it goes without saying that I have a ton of other things to post: Working at Union Rescue Mission in LA, Youth Pastor transitioning/interviewing, vegitable garden growing and learning how to eat "raw," training for a "muddy-buddy" race, surfing stories, but more importantly the things God is teaching me. But those will have to wait for another day...

Swimming Lessons

Today was/is beautiful. High 80's, low 90's maybe (quite different then PA 80's and 90's. It's quite comfortable with no humidity)... anyway- we (susie and I) used the pool for the first time today. Our objective is to work on a tan (vain... I know). We both agree that fried chicken is more appetizing than raw chicken... and right now we're both looking like raw chicken. Sid was lingering around the pool, looking a little parched. Instead of going and getting him water we decided to put him in the water. First on my surf board, then on his own. He did swimmingly (pun intended). Typically I'm extremely opposed of putting pictures of myself in a bathing suit on the internet.. or anywhere for that matter, but Sid looks so stinking cute... and maybe a bit terrified









I'm not sure how he felt about the whole experience but it's good exercise for the chubby little pup. I'm sure a few more times will have him jumping in on his own..... maybe

these numbers make me smile..... a lot

oops-

So I've never lived in a house with a pool, let alone had to be responsible for the pool. Our first weekend here the landlord stopped by and told us the only thing we had to do for the pool was top it off every once in while when the weather is hot... something about evaporation and the filter.... the pool man would take care of the rest. Well, I was relaxing on the patio Sunday afternoon when I saw that the water level was a little below where they like it. So I throw in the hose, turn on the water, pat myself on the back for being a good renter and go back to relaxing.

Later that evening... err ummm, that night, I was on the phone with Jamie talking about rainy PA weather when I started to say that when it rains here all the left over fall leaves end up in the pool when it hit me.... I never turned the water off from 4hours before!!!! I ran outside to find the water completely level with the edge of the pool. Any longer and water would have been flooding out.

Truthfully it was really cool looking and thankfully, we don't pay for water!

couple of weeks

It's been a couple of weeks since I moved into the new house. It's been great! It's a great house that has come with a sense of freedom and adulthood....

My roommates, Susie and Jennette, and I have been busy making the house a home. We've planted a ton of flowers on the patio, in the front of the house along a trellis, in the flower bed beside the driveway, on either side of the pool house (morning glories to climb around the gigantic sliding glass doors)and even an organic herb garden (Jennette is a chef.... yeah, I know, I'm lucky!). We spent the first Saturday at the house working on the patio and pool house. My gracious roommies have let me make all the decorating decisions in the house (sadly though we don't get to paint:-(, while Susie has taken over decision making for the pool house (which is furnished with my parents living room furniture- they re-did the whole house as soon as I moved out including getting new furniture- yeah I know, I'm lucky!)

Here are some pictures of the house when it was still empty and the patio. Click on th album to see the captions others otherwise it's just a bunch of white walls