is he breathing?

To everything turn, turn, turn. There is a season turn, turn, turn. And a time to every purpose under heaven. Ah, the Byrds. Lea sang a remake of this song today in church. It was awesome. I was happy to hop up and do a theme intro about the seasons and express how Californians really have no idea what the seasons are considering since I got here it's really been the longest summer of my life. They laughed. Either way, no matter where you live, we all experience seasons in our life that have nothing to do with the weather.

I was incredibly blessed today by Randy and Evelyn Spilde. They are a couple from church who took me out for lunch, and invited me to go to Pageant of Our Lord at Rolling Hills Covenant Church in Palos Verdes. At this performance live people recreate famous paintings, sculptures, and other art mediums. Some of the pieces were placed inside large metallic frames, and others were stand alone art pieces. It was incredible. We got to sit in the second row!! The Lord's Supper was recreated by 13 men who began by feeding each other bread. The lights went out for one second, and when they came back on, all 13 men were frozen in portrait position. My favorite piece of the day was Descent from the Cross by Adam Lenckhardt. This small single tusk of ivory was turned into a live art form over fifteen feet tall. Each person is real. You could see the Jesus figure taking small breaths if you looked closely. The entire performance was hosted by a couple who introduced each piece from memory, a lofted choir sang and lead with the help of an orchestra! They have 17 performances within two weeks. Both Lisa Strom and I agreed that Bob should never be allowed to see something that amazing or he'd want it done at Good Shepherd too! :) They asked that no one take pictures, but I couldn't help myself. I figured they wouldn't kick me out of a church! I only took a few, because it was just too memorable to forget.

Unfortunately, I've been plagued with the same migraines my mother gets. I think mine are connected to light sensitivity, because they usually come when I'm at some kind of performance or at a place where there are dramatic changes to light. So, guess what hit me half way through the performance? Grr. I went directly home to try and sleep it off before 7:00 worship, but no luck. I got up to lead the welcome, and Bob leaned over and said, "Why don't you just go home and get some rest. I release you!" Thank you, God! I was in bed by 7:15. I slept like crap, and still had one when I woke up, but some breakfast and water helped kill it by the time I left for church. Guess it's time for Monday, Monday. So good to me.

children galore!

Eggs, eggs, and more eggs. The Easter Egg-Extravaganza was a huge success today! Over 350 kids along with their parents flooded the campus of Good Shepherd for a delicious pancake breakfast, petting zoo, bounce houses, craft room, raffle prizes, story time, and of course, an egg hunt. This is one of three outreach events held at GS each year, along with the Costume Carnival at Halloween, and Santa's workshop at Christmas. This was the biggest of them all.

Ellen, Lisa, and I led singing with actions at the start of the show. I tell you what, Father Abraham can take it out of you when you do it like a monkey on steroids. Wow. We were also asked to lead the skit/story time, so we used the jelly bean prayer as a basis for our skit. We dressed up as kids walking home from school when we make a quick trip into the "I want more Candy store!" None of us brought money, so we were forced to just look around until Ellen spots a free sample jar full of jelly beans. We each proceeded to pull our our favorite colors and explain why we like them. Then we quizzed the kids at the end to see if they remembered which color represented what. All the kids got Easter eggs with each 6 jelly beans on their way out. We tried to keep it light and fun. Of course, the crowd participation helped a ton.

As I reflected on the morning and the worship center completely full of people, I couldn't help but wonder where on earth all these people are on Sunday mornings. Seriously, at the first performance, the whole floor level was filled with people. One of the coolest things I've seen since I got here. Do they have other churches? How can we get those kids plugged in with kids' church each week? I'll continue to ponder that and let you know what I figure out.

This week has been absolutely beautiful weather. Another 70 degree day today. Ellen invited me to go down to the beach with their family, so I joined them for the afternoon. Steph and I made it our personal mission to race the waves in and out while trying to collect the shells on the bottom. Occasionally, we'd find something random: a bouncy ball, half a pair of glasses, until Steph spotted the most random thing yet. A CAMERA! It took us a few minutes to get it, because the waves were tossing it around, but sure enough, a Canon digital camera was floating in the water. The memory card was still inside, sand inside the LCD screen, and tar on the outside. If only the memory card would come out, it'd be interesting to see what kind of pictures are on there. Rarely do I go down to the beach without going surfing. I could see the waves forming nicely all day long, and I seriously wanted to go back home and grab my gear. Pretty soon we'll be surfing in just swimsuits. With the water temperature around 50 degrees, I'd say we're a long way from that right now.

I wore a hat, and spf 50 today to try and keep the sun off my face. It worked. But I didn't put any sunscreen on the rest on the rest of me. That didn't work out so well. I keep thinking the March sunshine isn't that powerful.

The Luhmann's invited me over for enchiladas and entertainment. When I walked in, I noticed a new toy was stationed in the dining area: a gazelle. We each took turns getting our workout in after supper. The poses are endless. Then I created a wii mii and we played wii bowling, boxing, baseball, and laughed our butts off while getting beat up by flying balls! It's 9:30, and I'm shot.

i feel pretty

Sorry I've been so absent from blogging lately. Easter is right around the corner. The work is piling up and right now there's no end in site. The Mexico mission trip is next weekend already, then Holy Week (preaching Maundy Thursday), singing and dancing on Easter Sunday, and materials ready to teach on the confirmation retreat. As if that's not enough, I'm working on getting a photography website up and running, and that's been taking up most of my free time lately. I know so little about website stuff, so I just decided to make a blog and add pictures to it. This new blog site doesn't let me customize things like this blog does, so but I'm grateful the information is up for people to see. If you want to check it out in its beginning stages, feel free by clicking here.

Today I decided to practice what I've been preaching and take a true sabbath. No work what-so-ever. Well, no Good Shepherd work that is. I ended up cleaning my room up a bit, getting laundry where it belonged, had a web cam date with Kevin and finally at 2:00 hopped in the shower. I love lazy days. I dried my hair, put on make-up and a dress then realized I had absolutely no where to go and nothing to do. My nose is finally getting back to normal. I put on sunscreen and took advantage of the beautiful 75 degree (no humidity) day by taking pictures outside. I was all dolled up, so I decided to just take pictures of me. You have no idea how desperate I am for some business right about now. I have this new addiction to putting flowers in my hair, so I picked more of Jane's front yard and went to town. She also has a bush of gerber daisies in her backyard and they smell so fragrant and heavenly.

I figured it would be cool to have some up to date photos on this new website, so I took some with that in mind. Here are a few of the ones I took. Evidence of zero productivity today!

Ever since talking to Kevin today, this thought has been running through my head, so who better to ask about it than those who faithfully read my blog. Please write me a comment and respond to this question when you have a second: If you were hearing a stewardship sermon from the pastor at your church and she/he within the message told you the exact amount of money they give each year as a way to show the congregation that they're being a true stewardship model, how would you receive that?

baptismal birthday

After such a great surf session last week, I was eager to get out again this morning and see how many waves I could catch. None. It wasn't a good morning. Besides the fact that it was freaking freezing in the water and my chapped/raw face was burning from the salt water, the sea life got a little too close for comfort...again! First it was the dolphins. Seriously, I was starting to like them after all my interactions with them, but after my two month surfing hiatus, they suddenly freak me out again. When the water is glassy, you can see them coming a mile away. My toes curl up, I start splashing to make myself obvious, yet they still come right up by me. Then, at one point, what looked like the head of a chocolate lab popped out of the water and I yelled, "What the heck is that?" I thought someone was letting their dog fetch in the ocean. Not quite. It was a really strange looking sea lion without whiskers. He just kept his head above water and swam around for a while. By that point I had had it. It's been seven months and I'm still as scared as ever. When the sun came up over the tops of the houses, I knew I had to get out. My face is still in recovery mode and I'm afraid any more sun exposure might make my poor nose fall off. It's covered in brown leathery skin right now and peeling fast. It gives 'brown-noser' a whole new meaning! In case you don't believe just how bad it is, here's a photo Ellen took of Steph and I from Abalone Cove. This was the second day of windburn. Yikes!I was reading my Bible today and flipped to the inside cover and realized that today is my 26th baptismal birthday! Only 12 days after I was born I got baptized. Most people I told today said they couldn't believe my mom took me out of the house after only 12 days. I'm glad she did. Makes it easy to remember. March 12 & March 24. Good days.

The Easter Egg-Extravaganza is this Saturday so my time has been spent working on the skit, cutting out jelly bean words, coloring, making signs, and gluing. Ellen caught me in the action today and snapped a picture of the craft fun! :)

I've been thinking a lot about prayer lately. Really, about the necessity for verbal prayers with other people. I have a lot of close people in my life who are 'words of affirmation' folks in the love languages, and they're the kind who love verbal prayer. I think it's because often they get affirmed in my prayers when I thank God for them. Is prayer a means of filling the head of the other up with praise or are we praising God for them?

amber angle

I got to help with my first baptism this morning. I didn't actually baptize the child, but I did get to light the candle and read the Matthew 5 Jesus light shining thingy verse, and then prayed for the child. It was exciting! There was a family member snapping flash photographs of the whole thing, and a few people video taping. I forgot how big of a deal this is for families. As I prayed, I was thinking, "Oh gosh, don't say something stupid. They're taping it." Sometimes when I lead prayer extemporaneously the words don't come out as poetic as I'd like them to. I did my best and was thrilled to be part of such a special day for that family.

The Focus Finders and I survived the brutal wind today and had a blast at Abalone Cove. My face is so incredibly chapped from snowboarding, that this really just added insult to injury. I wore a hat and glasses to try to help, but I'm afraid the bucking wind still got to me. Standing there in 25-30 mph winds, trying to hold a camera steady, and not fall into the tide pools was a trip! This may have been one of the best FF events so far. There's just so much to take photos of. I saw the ocean today like I've never seen it. Whitecaps for as far as the eye could see. It was incredible. The shoreline looked like a blizzard as hundreds of waves were breaking onto the beach at the same time.

We found a good amount of starfish, sea cucumbers, crabs, abalone, and even a glimpse of a purple octopus. When it was pointed out to me, I shouted to the rest of the group, "OCTOPUS!" and they all came running over the rocks as fast as they could. Just about broke their legs getting there, but a few managed to catch a glimpse of one arm before it got away from us. I didn't bring a tripod down, so borrowed Ed's tripod as we set up and took our group photo on the rocks. His tripod is about 3 pounds lighter than mine. The timer was set, I ran to get in the picture, and all of a sudden a strong gust of wind came and started tipping my camera over. I could see it going, so I began running as fast as possible, but didn't catch it. It took a nose dive into the sand. The best part (if there can be a good part with a camera falling) was that because it was set on the timer, it took a picture when the timer went off. This shows you how much I love my camera and how much my camera loves me. 3/4 sand, 1/4 me running to save it. The 'Amber angle,' and my desperate attempt to rescue it. It fell onto the sand, so luckily, I don't think there's anything wrong with it. But I learned my lesson about using my own tripod verses one that's not as heavy.

Scott Kebschull and his wife Laura invited us over to their house to eat snacks and view the photos on a huge television. It was so fun to see what others saw at the cove and ooh and ahh at the compositions. Of course, I got poked fun at for my 'Amber angle' on things. I don't like photos to be perfectly parallel to the ground, and others find amusement in that. My personal flavor, I guess. I love this group of people. We all find such joy in seeking the greatest beauty of God's creation and are amazed at the marvel each person finds.

All the photography today made think about when Jesus comes back. Can you imagine what the paparazzi will be like on that day? I wonder if I'll have my camera handy. Do you think Jesus will be signing autographs and posing for pictures? There probably won't be time for pictures, he'll be too busy welcoming people into the greatest life they'll ever experience.

ocean to mountains

In the last twenty four hours I've been surfing in the Pacific Ocean and snowboarding in the mountains of California. It's a beautiful thing, really. Yesterday morning we went surfing. I caught two decent waves. Paddled left and cut right. Apparently this is a big deal. Just thought you should know.

I enjoyed a Friday of Sabbath and didn't do a dang thing. One trip to Goodwill, and a stop at the grocery store exhausted me, so I lounged most of the day. I did find an adorable red coach bag with metallic gold "C's" all over it. The perfect little party bag. $5. Pastor Bob and Pam invited me over for supper at their house last night. BBQ ribs, salad, corn on the cob, corn bread, and even some taco dip made by yours truly! Some late night Mexican Train, brownies, and the fun had been had.

This morning we were suited up and stepping onto our snowboards and skis less than 24 hours after surfing. Love it! Bob, Pam, Bobby, and I went up to Mountain High in Wrightwood, CA. My third and final trip there this year, so I had to pull out all the stops. Toeside, heelside, inside, outside, I've got 'em down! I even got so confident, I tried going over a jump. The first two times I didn't get enough speed, so I didn't make it to the top of the jump. I crawled my way up and boarded down the back side. Third time is a charm. God as my witness, I went over the jump. Mind you, I didn't catch any air, but it was still a thrill. Bob and Bobby are quite the little dare devils. I saw them both do some serious aerial maneuvers. The only aerial maneuver I did was when I fell getting off the chairlift and about dislocated my shoulder on my way down. This happened twice. It's gonna hurt tomorrow. Speaking of hurt, my face got so fried from the sun and chapped from the wind, I look like a raccoon. I guess that's what I get for not wearing any sunscreen. Oops. The temperature on the mountain had to have been fifty degrees and sunny, so the snow was complete mush by late morning. The loose snow caused more wipe outs than my inexperience did.

7 hours of snowboarding. I slept on the way home. No rest, time to get ready for the young adult game night. Take a quick shower, run to grocery store, set up for the event. We had a fantastic time. Slack-lining in the patio area between trees...shh...don't tell anyone, Risk kept the guys busy all night, and of course Rockband and Scattergories entertained us all. These nights are so low key and enjoyable. Chill time with friends fills me up. I left before everyone else so I could get a few things ready for worship tomorrow. This helped reassure me that once I'm gone, this group will be just fine. They don't need me to bring the fun. They're the ones who make these gatherings such a blessing!

you don't know me

Today was good practice for more unscripted leading in worship. By leading a little 10 minute sermon, I felt much more able to wing it than I would on a regular Sunday morning sermon. This is good practice for me. And who really cares if I say things less poetically than if I were to script it all out. It's more personal that way, right?

I spent all day at church today. I really think I could to a 3 day workweek and put in my hours. 13 hours x 3 days just about does it. As I was getting ready for worship tonight, one of our welcome ladies called me over to introduce me to a new guy who just walked in for worship. He said he was eating across the street and just felt this tug to come to worship tonight. I said, "Around here, we believe that's the Holy Spirit working through you." :) Maybe a little much for a newcomer, I realize. I explained a little about how our Wednesday evening worship services work, how they're much different than Sunday worship, but still cool. I hooked him up with Steve, one of our prayer ministers, and told him I'd answer any questions he had about worship. After it was over, he said, "I'll definitely see you on Sunday!" Thank God for working through him tonight. Hope to see him Sunday!

It's fun leading worship and interacting with people in the message. It helps me to get to know people and their personalities. Sometimes that interaction can make people think they know you better than they really do. There are a few people at church who I hardly know at all, but because they see me leading on Sunday morning, they think they know me really well, and that they can say anything to me. One guy came up to me tonight, and without even saying hello, he said, "You need to get your pants hemmed." I hardly know this guy. But since he said such a bold statement, I figured I'd be bold back and said, "You know, I've lost 15 pounds and these are too big for me now. I can't keep them up where they belong. Maybe you should buy me a smaller pair!" He laughed. Probably not the best thing to say, but c'mon people! Be nice! Again, small paper cuts.

birthday month

Monday Monday. Na na na na na na. So good to me. Na na na na na na.

I slept in this morning. Sunday tired me out. Maybe my day off should be on Monday. Meetings most of the afternoon, and supper with the girls to look forward to got me through my day.

Alicia, Kelly, & Amy took me out to P.F. Chang's for my birthday supper tonight. We got complimentary lettuce wraps (so good), so I ordered it for my meal as well. It was a wonderful time to be with friends and celebrate. We continued the celebration at Penguin's after with froyo. I'm slowly being recharged. Thanks to my dear friends for helping me with that.

FYI, let's celebrate birthday months. That way it doesn't go by so quickly. Any takers?

end on a good note

Yesterday was such a long day at Disney, I didn't have time to reserve the date to blog, so these next two days will be mushed together. I'm glad we got a chance to go back to Disneyland after our first day. There was so much we didn't get a chance to see. We bought park hopper tickets which allow you to go from Disney's California Adventure to Disneyland on the same day. So, we started with DCA. As we were walking up with our tickets Presley said, "Are these good tickets? I don't want you to cry again, Auntie." She's so thoughtful. I had no doubt they were good considering they came from one of the most trustworthy gal I know!

We decided to work the FastPass magic today and ran to get tickets to Soaring over California first, then Hollywood tower of Terror, a trip through A Bugs' Life, Cars characters, and a Mickey's Clubhouse show! Presley was jumping, clapping, singing, and enjoying during the whole performance. Finally it was time to cash in our FastPasses at SOC. What a ride! You sit in a chair with your feet hanging and literally fly over the major sights of California. All while feeling breeze, smelling the ocean, oranges, wow...props to the inventor of that one! Two tasty treats for the day. Cotton candy of course, and the latest thing: a moon shaped rice krispy bar! YUM!

Early in the afternoon we made our way back over to Disneyland. Kevin & Jason got out the maps and tried to figure out a plan of attack. The first item on the agenda, was to go inside Sleeping Beauty's Castle and look around. Presley loved it. Presley went on Pirates of the Caribbean last night while Holly and Madison waited. So, we went on it again with the whole family. Presley was telling Holly all the details so she wouldn't get scared. "Now mommy, they're gonna shoot guns, but don't worry mommy, they're not shooting at you." There are two small roller coaster-like drops on this ride. Madison didn't dig them to well, or the guns, or the darkness. Ah well, she's gotta toughen up sometime! :)

I'd say the coolest part of the day was watching the Fantasmic show at the end of the night. A few thousand people crowded around to watch it, and since we got there late, we stood no chance of seeing it, so we went and rode a few rides. I tell you, riding a roller coaster while two sets of fireworks are going off is pretty awesome. We went and nabbed front row seats for the later show, we had to wait 45 minutes for it to start, but the good seats were worth it. Live acting, a pirate ship, princesses dancing on boats, a cruise ship filled with every Disney character imaginable, and lots and lots of fireworks. It was awesome. Presley and Madison slept through the whole thing, because they were so tired. Presley would open her eyes for a second, but immediately zonked back out. All the princesses in one place and she missed it! Grr! By the time we got out of the Disneyland parking lot, it was midnight. What a day! We definitely got our monies worth there, but with a 5:00 wake up call to get them to the Burbank airport in time, it made for a short night.

I dropped them off in Burbank at 8:30 a.m. and rushed home so I could lead a growth group at 9:30. Their plane was scheduled to leave at 10. At 10:40 I got a text from Kevin, "Still sitting on the tarmac, engine trouble." When my group was done at 11:20, I called him. They were still sitting there. By noon, they let them off the plane and because Burbank is such a small airport, had to try to figure out another means to get them to MSP. There were none. So they shuttled them to LAX late in the afternoon and put them on the red-eye flight out of LAX. Lucky for me, I got to drive up (thanks to Linda Luhmann for the short notice use of her SUV) and get them and spend a few more hours with the whole crew! They weren't too excited about the long night of travel ahead of them, but I was sure glad to get to spend 6 more hours with them! Poor Kevin still hadn't completed his sermon, so he worked on it for about an hour, and said he'd have to finish it in the morning.

26 years

Today was the best and worst day all in one. My birthday is always a fun day in my opinion! Apparently, Kevin stayed up late last night making me mint chocolate chip brownies (since he couldn't get me an ice cream cake) and surprised me with it this morning. It said, "We love Auntie Amber" and had a cool Batman candle on it! Kevin has some mean cake decorating abilities! So thoughtful! I got to open my presents and cards this morning from my family. Not that it was necessary, considering I told them their plane trip out here was present enough. I got gift certificates to Rascal's, to Von's, and a few other trinkets.

Our agenda for today consisted of one thing: DISNEYLAND! By the time we drove there, got our car parked, rode the trolley, and got to the gate it was about 11:00. Maybe you're wondering why it was also my worst day today: when we went to scan the tickets I bought off of Craigslist, they had already been used. They were no good. I immediately started bawling. $240 up in smoke just like that. The Disneyland employee asked me where I had gotten them from, so I told her from Craigslist. She just shook her head. By that time, I was too hysterical to know what was going on. She called over a manager who asked me the same question and went on to tell me that ten to twelve families each day get scammed when they buy tickets from people on Craigslist. Holly explained that I bought them for my family, and that it was my birthday, so the lady did an amazing thing: she let us in anyway. Bless her! She said they typically cannot let people in, or else they'd be doing it all the time, but because it was my birthday, she'd make an exception. Thank you Disneyland! The tickets I bought online were for two days at Disneyland. Now we'd have to fork over more dough for our second day at Disney. Luckily, my friend Alicia works for Raytheon and was able to get us tickets at a little bit of a discount. She dropped them off tonight after we got home and enjoyed birthday brownies with all of us. What a gal.

Anyway, back to the more enjoyable part of the day. I got in free, and received a cool Birthday Ticket and button so all the world would know it was my day. There were hundreds of other people with the same button. This whole birthday promotion must really be working for them this year! Today was probably the highlight of Presley's year. She loved every minute of it. When she saw the castle for the first time, her jaw dropped. She started jumping up and down at random moments, and couldn't wait to ride all the rides. Madison didn't give a rip where we were. She didn't sleep well last night, so she was owly the entire day. She got on a few rides though too. We rode Dumbo, the Teacups, Peter Pan, and Small World. Presley was a maniac in the tea cups and wanted to spin as fast as possible. It took us 40 minutes to meet Tinkerbell and her friend Fawn. Luckily, the Barker's met us in line and helped keep us company while we waited. We stood in line for an hour and a half to see 3 of the Disney Princesses (two really, because Pocahontas doesn't count if you ask me). Presley put on her Snow White dress and hugged Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Pocahontas. She even got a little autograph book and had them all sign it. Her level of pride was hysterical. We got to meet: Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Pluto, the princesses, and Tink of course. Lots of autographs and smiles.

The flowers, buildings, people, and setting of Disneyland is immaculate. Nothing was out of place. If you dropped a piece of garbage on the ground, there was someone there with a broom within seconds. I bet 20 employees throughout the day saw my button and wished me a Happy Birthday. Kevin bought me a pair of Minnie Mouse ears as part of my gift. Disneyland has this long standing tradition of embroidering names for free on the back of any Mickey/Minnie ear purchase. I had them put "Amber." Boring, I know. I wore them proudly all day, and listened to Kevin try to get Presley to call me "Auntie Mouse." It didn't work. We wound down quickly toward the end of the night and stayed long enough to watch the fireworks show over the Castle, and saw a real person flying in the air on a string as Tinkerbell. It was pretty awesome. I want that job! Really, I'd be any Disney Character. By the time we arrived back in Torrance, the girls were zonked in the car, and we were all ready for bed. Luckily, we get to go back and do it all again tomorrow! After mint brownies with whipped cream, it's time for be. What a day!