Ryleigh Camdyn

We can add a new title to ourselves...  

Aunt Kristin and Uncle Adam.  

Here's pictures of our new niece, Ryleigh Camdyn, born on August 31, 2010.  

She was 7 1/2 lbs and 18 1/2 inches long.  

She's adorable!

Congratulations Kari and Stephen :)

Called to a...Christian Nation?

'But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.' - Acts 1:8

This is a pretty familiar passage - especially when it comes to the idea of missions. It's gives us the idea that we should live a holistic, missional life.


So I am at the gas station partaking in the delightful '.$79 Thirst Buster', and, as I am getting ready to leave, I notice that there is a police officer hanging out in the parking lot. For whatever reason, he caught my attention; but, most importantly, he had God's attention. God speaks to me and tells me that I need to pray for that man. I take a minute to stand still and as I begin praying for him God speaks yet again. He tells me that I need to seek him out, find out how I can be praying for him, and then pray for him. I pay for my drink, get in my car, and head toward him.


As I am driving toward him I feel a sense of...peace. Granted, I am usually not shy around strangers, but approaching a police officer is always a different story. I pull up next to him and the challenge began: answering the call to live a holistic, missional life.


He politely tells the person he's on the phone to hold, turns to me and says, 'what can I do for you sir?' I answer back by saying 'Today is the National Day of Prayer (thank you K-Love!) and I was just wondering how I could be praying for you?'


Then there was just...


Silence.


After a few moments of just gazing at one another, he looks at me and says, 'to be honest, I am not really sure. No one has really asked me that before. Umm...I guess...my safety. That I would be safe.'


'Alright' I said. 'Do you have a wife? A family?'


'No. Well, I mean I did, but not anymore.' 


Did you catch that? There's a lot of pain in that statement. Perhaps he was married but went through a divorce. Or maybe he woke up one day and as he rolled over in bed to say good morning his wife was just...gone. To be honest, I didn't ask him to explain. I felt like I didn't need to.


'Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words.' - Romans 8:26


The Spirit spoke through him. Not only did the Spirit give me something to pray for, He also spoke gently to my heart. This man cannot remember the last time someone asked how they could be praying for him. That breaks my heart. And, to be honest, I hope it breaks yours as well.


My hope and prayer for this blog is to create a passion deep within all of us to see God's Kingdom come here and now. That God would remind all of us that there are people all around us at work, in our neighborhoods, at our local starbucks, serving us at restaurants, cleaning up after us at events, that have a deep hunger for the things that only God can provide them. 


That we are all called to be missionaries; even to a 'Christian Nation'.


Shalom. Come Lord Jesus. 

birthday traditions

I started a birthday tradition I don't know how many years ago of asking the birthday person some questions.  It's a fun way of celebrating the person and recognizing who they are!  Depending on the age you were turning, you had to come up with so many answers to each question.  Some of the questions being:

1.  What are # fond memories of your life?
2.  What are # things you're looking forward to in the future?
3.  What are # characteristics about yourself that you love?

We've been doing this as a youth staff for a long time, and I do it with my friends and the kids I work with too.  Today (being my birthday), I sat down with the CCC Youth Staff prepared to answer the typical questions.  However, we decided to change things up a little bit and I got to answer 6 questions with 5 answers each.  They were:

1.  What are 5 things/pieces of advice you would pass on to your children about your first year of marriage?
2.  What are 5 ways you want to be a better wife to Adam this year?
3.  What are 5 ways you would spend your time differently this year?
4.  What are 5 fun things you're looking forward to this year?
5.  What are 5 things you're asking God to do? (You have not cuz you ask not)
6.  What are 5 ways you hide?

Wow...  all of them were deep questions but that last one was agony.  What better way to really be vulnerable and search yourself then to ask how you hide your true self at times from those around you.  I could only come up with 2 answers at the time, but I made a commitment to myself to really spend some time coming up with the last 3.

I'd love to hear some of your personal answers to those 6 questions... :)

the story i'm writing

I had to give myself permission to post this because I don't want it to be about boasting, but this is my blog... and I can post what I want, right? :)

I received this e-mail from one of my kiddos, who is definitly not a kiddo anymore but becoming a beautiful woman of God!  Thank you, Ashlee.  This couldn't have come at a better time.  Such an encouragement for an insecure woman and a new wife...


"Hmmmm something in my spirit has prompted me to tell you this and it is confusing because I have told you this several times before but I guess I would just like to remind you that I love you and.....



I am honored, I feel flattered, I am blessed to have had and to still have you in my life. I recently read your blog and I remember every step of your dating and engagement and even marriage with Adam. I am proud to say that I was witness to the faithful work that God did in your life. It is in moments when I feel discouraged about what God will do for my love life and my family that I think about his unending love that he so clearly proved to you. I think about your willingness to struggle to become a stronger woman throughout your dating process and how hard it was to transform yourself. And then I remember how you knew that you had to rely on God. The moral of the story is this...
 
I have never been so inspired by one love story in my entire life. I have never even seen a better gushy chick flick in my entire life and I don't think that there has been anyone who has been a better role model in my entire life. So often you challenge me to be a woman of moral character that upholds the standards that Christ expects of me. So thank you for that. What is wierd to me and probably off putting to you is that you do this without consistent or frequent contact. I look at your picture on facebook and I am reminded of this. (I also remember that I broke up with "the love of my life" at the same time you were falling in love with yours. . Ironic huh?) I think that it is your story that blesses me so. So I guess I would encourage you to remember that you are writing a story with your life and that others are reading in and I am directly affected by you. You are the only woman in my life who walks with God and even though I feel like our season together may be transitioning I am ever blessed by your prescence. (tears are for sure sure fallling at this point... lol. )"
 
It feels like God is saying "well done, good and faithful servant" to me through Ashlee. 
(Sigh of relief) :)

it's scary

Something I ran across in a book I'm reading that brought comfort...

"He (God) knows it's scary to be us."

He does not take lightly the circumstances that we find ourselves in.

the bishop

We hosted a multi-campus youth event at our other campus last night for St Patrick's day.  We got there early in the afternoon to start setting up and to decorate, etc.  During the evening as the event was going on, one of my co-workers came up to me and asked to confirm that I had a gray ford focus.  At this point, I got a little nervous.  Did my car get broken into?  Did someone hit my car in the parking lot? 

So I walked into the hallway to where a gentleman was standing holding a piece of paper with the description of my car and had my license plate number written on it.  My heart sunk.  He asked if I was the owner, and I said yes.  And he was so relieved because he had "been looking and asking everyone around the whole church."  And then he promptly asked me to move my car because I was parked in the bishop's parking space.  See, another church was renting out the sanctuary for the night and the leaders of their church park in the front row of the church.

My first reaction was of disbelief but I asked Adam to move my car for me and decided not to make a big deal out of this.

My second reaction was to laugh. 

I got home, and my third reaction was of absolute frustration.  Is this what the Church is about? 

Are we too busy looking for the owners of gray ford focuses and not the lost sheep of the world?

a new grief process

Adam and I were at dinner the other night and he asked me a question about my dad.  I'm not even exactly sure what it was, but we started talking about the last few days with my dad in the hospital.  Adam wondered if my dad could hear us as we spoke words of love over him and said our goodbyes.  And I mentioned that I've heard they can still hear you, it's just that they can't say anything back.  And Adam said, "I've only been married 6 months to you and I can't imagine being in that position and not being able to say 'I love you' back.  Not even for my benefit, but for yours...  so you can hear it.  It must have been hard for your mom who was married to him for over 30 years."

I'm grieving for my dad differently in the past couple of days.  From a wife's perspective, it definitely adds a whole new array of emotions.  Makes me feel deeper for my mom.