Sunday, April 19, 2015

Past and Present Churches

I've gone to a lot of churches in my day but let me tell you about the last two significant experiences I have had and I am having....

I attended a Pentecostal church from July 2012 to April 2013 which supported me in affirming that I am okay loving a woman.  I learned more about the spiritual realm than I have anywhere else in my spiritual journey.  I questioned a lot of who I am and what I believe and especially the WHY behind what I believed.  Through God, I grew in knowledge and wisdom. 

I am a now member of a church in STL (since August 2013) which is over an hour away from my house one way.  I love this church and the work that it is doing within the city of STL! For a few months, Nichole and I led a core group (small group) of LGBTQ persons in 2013.  It was an amazing yet challenging experience.  I learned through this experience and mostly I learned that I'm not alone in my faith even with my orientation.  Because of my church, I was challenged to grow in my relationship with God because my sexual orientation was a non-issue. 

This church also allowed me to be involved with the Student Ministry which has been my favorite part of the life of the church!  Last summer, I was able to go to Cape Girardeau, MO for a mission trip with the students AND help with summer camp!  It was really cool and taught me a lot about what ministry among young people looks like now that I'm an OLD adult!  It was also fun just to connect and have a meaningful time hearing about students' lives and how God is interacting with them along their journey.  The great thing is that in January 2014, I started with a small group of students at the Clayton site and while it looks very different than when we first started, I love them wholly!  It is awesome to see students getting into the Word of God and asking questions that some adults are even afraid to ask!  I love seeing them every week and it is totally worth the hour and fifteen minute drive in at 7:30am to worship and grow with them.  If I could tell all the stories and profound things that they've said and taught me, I would not have room in this blog for anything else! 

Let me just tell you - I am headed to Louisville KY this year for the mission trip with the MS and HS students and I am SOOOOO EXCITED!  Not only that, but I also have the privilege to be a mentor at the summer camp in August for the 4-8th graders!  I cannot wait to see how God impacts the students' and mentors' lives AND for the amazing amount of fun that we are going to have! 

It's awesome to be a member of such a cool church.  The Gathering UMC - in case you were curious! 

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

A Life Lived

It has legitimately been forever since I posted on this blog.  August 2013?!  Good gracious!  Regardless, here I am starting again, even though few people read this thing anyway. 

I have been out living life and doing a lot of crazy cool things.

FIRST - I guess I should just start out by saying that I am MARRIED!!!  Missouri (in like 3 counties) legalized gay marriage, so I am officially married and I am thrilled.  Not saying that my marriage in 2012 wasn't legit, but this one is like official for the government.  Not much of my family was able to come to my first wedding, so having everyone over to the house to have my former flute and band teacher to perform our wedding in front of my Christmas tree exchanging ring pops and eating potato soup that I didn't have to make) and brownies (that failed miserably to cook thoroughly) was absolutely amazing!  I also was thrown a small wedding shower at work which was super cool since I hadn't ever had one and they even bought us a hotel for that weekend since we were married on Black Friday 2014! 

SECONDLY - I now work with kids with disabilities within a school district.  My initial passion in moving to working in schools still stands - to give students the fullest potential to learn AND to modify behaviors before they become really problematic when they are grown adults and kicked out of the school system.  I love what I do most days and though it is hard on the body and sometimes even the mind, I know (most days) that I'm making a difference in the kiddos' lives! 

THIRDLY - I go to church at a crazy cool place called The Gathering UMC in St. Louis.  They are doing some awesome things within the city and around the world.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE serving in student ministry.  If I could legitimately do student ministry full-time, I probably would.  I actually do Sunday mornings with kiddos between 4-7th grades.  I do a lot of teaching of new things and get to explain God in a way that makes sense for kids who are starting to become skeptics and answer a lot of really hard questions!  (Though a lot of times, I take Jesus' strategy and ask a question back...haha) 

LASTLY - Here's a lot of other really cool sentence things that I'm doing these days:
  • Going back to school - Major: Psychology.  Ultimate Goal? Walk through doors God opens for me......Dream job?  Teach courses like Old Testament and Hebrew at a university!
  • I have a host daughter from Thailand who is awesome.  She will be with us another two years hopefully! Though she is currently blowing up my phone with snapchats!
  • I'm attempting to learn Thai before I go to Thailand...It's harder than it looks - 5 tones...blargh.
  • I love writing and I want to write more often - Do people even blog anymore these days?

Essentially - I want to make sure I live my life to the fullest potential and I want to do it how God envisions.  I want people to say that my life was a life well lived.  And I want to start that well lived life with every breath I have the opportunity to breathe! 

Thanks for reading!