Happy New Year!

I'm in the middle of a "Smallville" marathon, but I wanted to stop and wish y'all a Happy New Year! Make it a good one.

Celebrating the Holy Night

I haven't felt like writing much lately. But right now I am bored and often when I am bored I find myself writing...

Christmas was Joyous. I have had many good times with family and friends. Thursday afternoon I met up with Karla and Aaron. We wandered around our favorite spots in Sioux Center...Walmart, the mall, Casey's Bakery, and Dordt where we talked a few professors. Kyle and I went to S.F. at night and finished up our Christmas shopping. I'm so lucky to have such an awesome brother. Friday night was spent with my mom's family, Saturday with our immediate family, and Sunday with my dad's family. Throw some food and a few games of Settlers in between and life is peachy. Today I scrapbooked, watched movies, and sat around a lot. A rare treasure of a day. I'm here for another six days, so I'm sure there will be more fun times to come.

The weekend was filled family parties and presents galore. I got a tent and a new sleeping bag so I don't have to freeze the next time I go camping in the mountains! My mom also made me something that brought tears to my eyes. I think pictures are one of the greatests ways that we keep people near when they are gone or far away. Mom spent hours upon hours filling two photo albums for me with family history and photos of my great-grandparents, grandparents and parents growing up. They are really special. I haven't been able to read all of the history yet. But I have been reminded of where I come from...the one thing my parents won't let me forget and the one thing I tried to deny for half of my college years and am still dealing with today.

My ancesters believed in God. They believed in the Reformed/Christian Reformed. I have always said that the one person I can't wait to meet in heaven is my Great Grandpa Moget, my mom's grandpa. He was a Catholic and eventually was led to become a minister in the Reformed church. If we can know people in heaven, I envision myself having long talks with him. He's always been such a mystery to me. Somehow I've always felt like he'd understand a part of me that not everyone does...the part of me that loves being a "minister" in my field and a "missionary" in a land I never would have come to by choice. Other cool family history? Generations ago a relative is believed to be one of the translators of the first English Bible. I love history!

My family has been celebrating Jesus' birth for generations. Generations ago my great-grandparents and maybe even great-great-grandparents prayed that I would love the Lord and that I would believe in God as they did. Sometimes I struggle with church. But it is through the struggle that I have come to understand that I serve a real God. I believe in the Reformed faith even if that does not fit into a neatly wrapped package. I pray for continued strength for my family (and not just my blood family but my family here in Iowa, my family in Denver, my family in the U.S. and my family across the world) to fight for faith in a land that often rejects Jesus. The battle has only begun. As a part of today's generation, we must do whatever we can to carry that tradition on. I am a part of God's awesome story and it isn't over yet!

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Stopping to Smell the Flowers

I really am stopping to smell my BEAUTIFUL bouquet of flowers from my students. It is positively the most gorgeous and largest boquet I have ever gotten in my entire life!

There are some perks to being a teacher. Like celebrating your half birthday. I was delivered Starbucks in the morning, a cake at snack time, and Chipotle (good burritos!) for lunch too. Yes, tomorrow I am officially 23 and 1/2 years old. Happy 1/2 Birthday to me!! I told my students that I was 47, but apparently a couple of them have googled me and found out how old I really am. Ha ha...

School is over for the week. :) And what a frazzled week it was! The kids are all ready for break and as hyper as ever. I think I'm going to head out and go to Mardel's on the way home (my Colorado Christian bookstore) and do a little Christmas shopping. Then I'm going to take a nap before going downtown to the laser light show. I'm also trying something new tonight...SUSHI! Right now sushi doesn't really sound appealing...why would I chose to eat RAW FISH?! But I'm willing to try most anything once!

Side Note: One thing I've noticed about myself lately is how random my friendship circles are out here. I've always kind of been that way, I guess. I have my "teacher friends" and my "youth ministry friends" and my "roomate friends" and my "church friends"...I'm not really sure how to classify tonight's group though. One thing is for sure, it will be a lot of fun.

Last night at Bible Study I was challenged to practice an attitude ot thankfulness. Today I am thankful for birthdays, the smell of flowers, long lunch breaks, weekends, the DC staff, and for tonight's opportunity to hang out with Jamie, Lee, David, Jenn, Tiffany, Julia and whoever else shows up.

The Sweetest Praise

I just have to say "Thank You, Lord!"

We had our K-5 Christmas program last night. It was completely amazing. Amazing that it went so well considering that fact that our program director had to pull out at the last minute. It was perhaps the sweetest program I have ever seen a K-5 group do. It was especially neat to see so many of my kids acting, saying Bible verses, dancing, and doing so many other neat parts such as dressing as sheep or playing Bing Crosby. The character "Grandpa Eddie" really touched me as well. He is a sweet, sort-of gruff man in his sixties and the janitor at our school. The kids love him. The parents love him. The teachers love him. I didn't know he was such an actor...no one knew...which made it so neat to see the unlikely in front of the crowd in such a sweet way.

I am convinced that sometimes the sweetest praise comes from the lips of children. Often times children don't even know what they are saying or how to verbalize the questions they are wondering about. Sometimes I get frustrated because everything is so "surface". Last night was a reminder again of why I've been put on this earth...to touch His kids. Surface-level thinking is okay. That is where these kids are supposed to be. If there is no surface, faith will never be able to sink from the intellect to the heart.

Nothing Much to Say...

I have nothing of importance to say. Sure, I could tell you about all of these zany thoughts running around in my head. I could tell you how I'm stressing because I'm going home in a week and I have no idea how I am going to get everything done. I could tell you that I hate putting in so many random hours at school. Or that I have a craving for some Iowa pizza with pepperoni, green peppers, garlic and extra cheese...yum! But would any of that really matter? How many of the thoughts that come out of the human head really matter? Why do I spend so much time thinking? It is odd...God gave me this brain with all kinds of functions and sometimes I use it only to get lost in the sea of randomness...woe is me!

Christmas In Denver

Hmmm...What happened this week?

A lot actually. I went to a couple of early Chrismtas parties. I also spent some time hanging out at my new apartment, staying inside from the near zero degree temperatures (cold for Denver!), and catching some zzz's on the living room floor. Next week I can actually start unpacking my things (when roommate #4 moves out). My air mattress is comfy, but I still haven't exactly been getting enough sleep. In fact I caught myself a nice head cold. I had to stay home from a few of my commitments this week, but it hasn't slowed me down too much. I hate backing out of commitments but sometimes you just gotta take care of yourself, ya know?

This has been a very hard lesson for me to learn:

No sleep + Too Many Commitments = Tiredness = Sickness!!!

Pretty simple equation, you would think. Easy to figure out? Not for me! There is always so much to do here and so many people to hang out with...AND never enough hours in the day. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have one of those "normal" jobs that didn't require more than 40 hours a week. But then, I probably wouldn't be sharing Jesus with youth and then I wouldn't be happy. That would be worse than being too busy. So, I have just argued myself out of my complaint.

What else? Oh yes, last night I went to a Christmas program at church with my roomies and then out to eat at the Olive Garden. Kristina and I also went for a walk and to Old Navy where I purchased some great steals. (Yes, I am Dutch and I will always be proud of myself for buying things I need on sale!) Today for lunch I met up with Jenn at Chili's. Now I am at school trying to get some work done. Tonight David and Aimee and I are going to go see "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe". I've been waiting for MONTHS for this movie to come out and am quite excited.

Wishing you a meaningful Christmas season!

JB

In a Funke

Do you ever feel like life is happening so fast that you aren't even awake to it?

I am in a funke...and I just had a three day break last week!!

Part of the reason I am in a funke is because I've been busy packing and moving for the past couple of weeks. Hence, neglecting the rest of life. Last night I finally moved everything out of my old apartment, cleaned, and said goodbye. Having roommates again kinda makes me feel like I'm back in college. It will be a lot of fun. I think we will get along great. (Oh yeah, did I tell you that I just saved $380 writing my rent check?) Pamela and I already hooked my TV and DVD player in the bedroom and bonded over Keith Urban and our love for coffee. Kim and I both teach at Denver Christian. In fact we both overslept this morning, something I've only done a handful of times in my life...whoops! Thankfully, I still made it to school well on time. Kristina will also be a great roommate for the next few weeks until she moves to Michigan...What is it with Colorado? I've made even more Michigan and Iowa friends since I have been out here. It's like bees and honey. So many people end up in Colorado. We flock together but no one really knows why.

Perhaps the energy is drained out of me because I did such a great job impersonating Vanna White at Young Life last night. I wasn't really feeling the energy before I got up in front of the group, I've been so tired this week. But, I love acting stupid in front of kids. Scott, our director, asked me to fill in as a leader at Wyldlife camp this weekend. He has two high school girls leading but was having trouble finding a female adult leader to help lead discussion. How could I pass up a weekend at camp in the mountains??? Quite honestly, I shouldn't be going. I can't remember the last time I was this far behind on school work. But, Scott said I could bring stuff to work on so hopefully I become a quick pro at doing two things at once.

Yes, I need to get to work. I need to finish my last lesson for Bible study tonight. I also need to go to Target and wander the aisles and put togehter a Christmas list. I love Target! Oh yeah...school! Yes, I should work on stuff for that too. Best be going...Ta ta for now!