Whew...

Where has February gone? In the midst of all the craziness I haven't (well we haven't, it is still weird for me to talk in we sense) been able to keep up with our new blog. Here are some highlights from the last couple of weeks:

21 Day Challenge Highlights
- Jesus burned with passion for the church (John 2:17)
- Jesus is bold...
- Jesus didn't try to hide who he was, He is the Good Shepherd (John 10)
- Reading all the fulfilled prophecies blew my mind
- John 15: 9-10"I've loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you'll remain intimately at home in my love. That's what I've done—kept my Father's commands and made myself at home in his love.
- Jesus cooked the disciples breakfast (John 21)

These are just a few of the many thing I pulled from the Gospel of John.

Friends:
I had a few friends from high school come up a couple of weekends ago. It was such a blessing to see them all. We have got to see each other more in the last six months ,because of all this wedding nonsense, than in the last 3 years. We want to keep it that way. Nothing is better than a good chick flick, pizza machine and chocolate fondue, yum!

Finished:
Last night, Jenny, Hannah, Erin and I finished our first bible study book (I say first because I hope there are many more to come). God so is good and wise. I started my internship praying to be challenged, praying I would still have community even though most of my time would be spent without my normal crowd, praying for a small group that I wasn't going to teach. He provided three of my best friends to spend one night a week with while looking into our purposes. We are all in different places right now and he used our different experiences to challenge us and create great conversations. It only took us 5 months to meet 8 times but we made it!

Started:
Small groups at UIS started a couple weeks ago. I am teaching a relationship study with my friend, Amelia and David. We have some great resources: Louie Giglio's audio series Boy Meets Girl and Craig Groeschel's book Going All The Way. They are funny, truthful, and challenging. More on that later...

Finally, Retreat!

This weekend is the Illinois Campus Ministry Retreat at Lake Springfield complete with Don Chafer of Waterdeep. David and I are both excited to hear some great music but more than that we are excited to retreat. My prayers this week have been, please let us feel the retreat. I am doing the registration for all the campus ministries for this retreat. I was worried at first that this was my time to shine and if I mess up they will think I am weird and my dreams of campus ministry will be washed away in a single weekend...yes I know it is silly. However, I decided this week that I have a choice going into this weekend. I can go in on edge or I can enjoy doing this organizational work (which I love) and then leave it at the door as I walk into the retreat. I pray this will be a great time to connect with my students and that I will be refreshed with them.

Ok this is really long...I only have one more thing. My amazing, husband bought me tickets to go see Derek Webb and Caedmon's Call on Saturday, April 19 in Chicago. I was so excited and he had all the CD's in my car so I could start jammin' out now...alas two days later all my dreams of musical wonders were crushed. I can't go that day. If anyone is interested in the tix let us know.