D NOW 2008

after approximately 11 hours of sleep, richland creek's 524 student ministry's disciple now 2008 is officially in the past. this year's theme was "No. 119" - a study from Psalm 119 on the importance of God's Word and how to hear, read, study, memorize, and apply it. in case you were wondering, d now is just a weekend "retreat" for students to break up into groups of about 7-8 and stay in "host homes" of various volunteers from the church.

in all honesty, i wasn't exactly looking forward to this weekend. so much has been going on with school and my work with the student ministry and teaching at the pre-school that i was hesitant about what was to take place. last year's d now was incredible. dr. reid (pretty much my second dad) spoke and the focus was on evangelism. honestly, i thought nothing could top that. and with another unspoken element, i was concerned that my focus would be off of the Lord and my girls this weekend. but fortunately, God granted me the strength to "just keep swimming." this weekend was the best weekend i've had in a long time!

here's what happened:

Friday

• in the morning, i filled in for the assistant teacher of the two year old class at the preschool at the creek (the classroom i most likely would have been working in if i had continued with the full-time job process). i love those kids. i've grown quite fond of the infants (peyton, julia, and troy) that i "taught" this past month, but the "twos," as they are called, have a special place in my heart as well. it took them a while to warm up to me...but one beautiful girl, abby, found it difficult to leave my lap after we played on the playground. she had fallen from her chair and hit her head on the table (ouch!). i held her for about 10 minutes while she cried...into my shirt. :) jake was another one that had a hard time leaving my lap; he wanted his mommy real bad! kephas was captivated by the story of david's defeat of goliath and wanted me to read him the story (even though he couldn't really understand the big words) over and over again. before i knew it, it was time to leave :( honestly, i think i regret not following through with becoming a full-time assistant teacher...but that's okay; lesson learned :)


• fast-forward to the actual D Now: after dinner in the fellowship hall, we had our first general session. worship was awesome! josh and tasha via, the brother and sister-in-law of jacob (the communications guy at the creek that looks like chad lister's twin) and jared (my college & career sunday school teacher) led worship and pastor dave preached about desiring the Word of God and how it is vital for the spiritual condition of a follower of Christ.


• after the session, we packed up and drove to our host homes. my group stayed at the kostenberger's house! dr. kostenberger is a prof. at my school and lauren (his daughter) and i have been friends for a while. pause. my girls were: becca (her dad, gary, is the upward basketball director and he went to greece with me this past april), olivia (she was the really tall girl on my upward team last year), avery (also on my upward team), micayla (upward again), stephanie (elizabeth taber's younger sister), miranda (steph's friend), and dre (she's in my small group on wendesday night). i cannot tell you enough about these girls; they are awesome!


• after consuming large quantities of junk food (bad idea #1), we started our first small group session that corresponded with pastor dave's message that night. it was sweet!


• 12 am: elizabeth and i tucked the girls in and told them good night. 2 am: they finally go to sleep :)

Saturday

• i awake at 5 am. it is at this point that i get a small glimpse of what being a mom is going to be like. i wake up the girls to take showers and straighten their hair and to do middle school girl thingsl


• 7:15 am - after my quiet time....i fall back asleep.


• 8:30 am - breakfast and small group session #2.


• 10:30 am - general session #2 about hearing, reading, studying, and memorizing God's Word.


• 12 pm - lunch. i accidently "cut" royce's throat (i unintentionally gave him a paper cut on his neck. don't worry...he's fine. :) haha). he makes me eat grapes dipped in nacho cheese for retribution. it was disguisting haha.


• 1 pm - we drive to jellybeans (the skating rink in wakefield) for afternoon recreation. three of the girls (micayla, becca, and olivia) ride with me. they loved having the sunroof and windows down and turning the music up really loud and singing along haha i love them! i decide not to skate because one of the girls in my small group on wednesday night can't...so i kept her company. this one boy fell right in front of us like three times. it was weird. haha


• 2:30 pm - in need of a break, vicky and i go to wal-mart to get candy for her girls (this was also a bad idea). she was a great encouragement to me as i was quickly fading at this point haha.


• 4 pm - back at the kostenberger's, we sprawl out on the floor in lauren and tahlia's room, unable to do anything but play an intense game of catchphrase.


• 5:30 pm - family dinner with the kostenbergers. we go around the table and introduce ourselves and tell the group our favorite band. dr. kostenberger likes barlowgirl. haha


• 7 pm - last general session on obedience to the Word of God. it was awesome. no, AWESOME! i love that pastor dave is very missions minded. afterall, that's pretty much the point of Christianity...to accept Christ's death on the cross as payment for your sins and to glorify Him with your life and to tell others about Him.


• 9 pm - after snacks (another bad idea), we start our final small group, which was somewhat painful to get through as the girls were really, really tired.


• 12 am - micayla is sick and must go home.


• 12:01 am - sleep!

Sunday

• chocolate again for breakfast (they had other stuff, too haha).


• sunday school & church.

on a side note, dylan became a creeker today! yay!

after church, i came home and slept for about three hours before going back to church to go to overflow for testimonies from d now. i was so totally sad about not being able to go to my biblical counseling class, but overflow was awesome too! then, vicky and i grabbed some starbucks and walked around campus, talking and laughing. i love that girl. a lot!

right now, i'm sitting on my bed, typing this...and, not gonna lie, i'm exhausted (and my hands hurt from typing this)...so, i'm going to bed.

out.