seminary update

Several people have been asking lately how my plans are coming with seminary. Things are actually a little interesting right now. In January I applied to Moody. I don't usually put all my eggs in one basket, but decided at that time to only apply there and wait to see what their response would be b/c I had my heart set on Moody for several reasons.

The end of February I got an email from them saying they had my entire packet minus one letter of recommendation and they would be in touch with me as soon as it was complete. After spring break, mid March, I decided to call and check on the progress and they had NO record of me in their system anywhere. Hmmmm. They checked all week, I called all that following week and NO record of me ANYWHERE. My check cleared, they had it at one point, but now, nothing. Prior to this I had been praying that God would make it very clear by closing and opening doors as to where to go to school this fall. After this week of phone tag and no paperwork coming up I feel like this may be God's way of closing a door.

This past week I applied to two other schools I had been looking at and one that prior to Urbana wasn't even on my radar. The two I had been considering are Wheaton, just outside Chicago, and Columbia in South Carolina. Columbia is HEAVILY missions minded and is a big draw to me. The third place I applied is Southern Baptist Theological in Kentucky, the seminary my dad and grandfather graduated from...dad 30 years ago and my grandpa 60 years ago.

A little story being Southern. I stopped by their booth at Urbana to get a magnet for my dad as a little alumni souveniere. Of course I got talking with them about my association with the school so I signed their follow up sheet giving them my address and email. Since the conference in December I've gotten 2 phone calls, 4 emails from different departments and 3 letters from various departments following up and asking if I'd be interested in coming to visit. Grant it all schools follow up differently, some more than others, but I found it almost humorous that they have been SO persistent. I even tried to email a response back to one department and it was sent back to me as "undeliverable." Evidently "no" is not the answer for now. SO, I went ahead and applied to their program "Missiology." One of the things I am attracted to about Southern is they have various missions degrees one focusing on the exact things I want to know more about, "Missiology."

Nut shell summary, new schools are in the works and I am excited to see how it will all turn out. I was approved for my year leave of absence from work so I don't have a job for the coming school year. One of those, God knows I just have to step out, be patient and have faith that it will all work out just as he deems best. The south would definitely be a change of pace for a girl who's always lived in COLD places (AK, ND, MN). I'd love your prayers too as I continue to wait!

spanakopita

So I put my culinary skills, or lack there of, to the test again. Tonight was my home group and our food theme was "Greek." A home group is a small-ish group of families from my church that get together regularly, ours is once a month, to fellowship and pray together. I say small-ish b/c our group consists of about 12 families and their children...not so small, but very fun. We meet out at Snyders. Anywhoo, so the theme was Greek tonight and I volunteered to bring spanakopita.

I've never made spanakopita before but I watched Diane and Angelo do it dozens of times when I worked at Evangelos and figured it couldn't be that hard. I called Diana earlier this week to get her authentic Greek recipe and in true Lambernakis fashion she not only gave me her recipe she provided over half the ingredients for me b/c they buy everything cheaper in bulk for the restaurant. Surprisingly I succeeded in making a nice golden brown pan that was completely consumed. For those who are who don't know what spanakopita is it's a spinach pie made with filo pastry dough, fetta, and some other things to spice it up. It was fun to learn a new recipe and have it turn out to be a success! Indian, Greek, maybe I'll move to Japanese next. Got any good easy to whip up recipes Carrie?

a time to celebrate...

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb...My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

Psalm 139:13,15-16

This week has been a week of celebrations. Wasilla boys and girls won the state b-ball tournament this past weekend. Today was my 29th birthday but even more exciting today Marc and Abby Spear met their Chinese daughter Malea for the first time. I could try to recap their blog entry but you should check it out for yourself and hear first hand about their experience (Spear link). It reminds me of my trip back from China a few years ago where 10-12 families were flying back to the U.S. with their new little girls. A sea of joy and mixed emotion. A life changing and life giving experience. Amazing and awesome! I am EXCITED for you Marc and Abby! Blessings on your growing family!

Reading their blog reminded me of God's adoption of US as children of a HEAVENLY FATHER. Malea's adoption, as awesome and life changing as it is is only a drop in the bucket to what we will experience being adopted into heaven to experience ETERNAL life with a God who is crazy unconditionally in LOVE us! We cannot grasp in our finite bodies the depths of his love for us or all that he has in store for us. Psalm 139 came to mind so I added a tid bit above as a reminder of his hand on our lives.

A little less eventful but fun was my birthday celebrated over a period of 3 days. Saturday I had lunch at Evangelos with a bunch of girlfriends. Last night I had dinner, Cold Stone icecream cake, and a couple rounds of "Bohnanza" (thanks again Kari!) with my family. Today I spent the evening with my youth girls out at VanWingerden's cabin having a senior photo shoot. We had a blast! Thanks for giving us your time and talent Marie! Can't wait to see the photos!!

puppies...

This past Friday Martin Boozer, long time Iditorod runner and former champ came to my school to do an assembly on mushing. I met him before hand briefly and was asked to help with part of the "presentation." The admin. secretary and I had the awesome responsibility of bringing in one of his dogs and her 5 puppies half way through his talk. Talk about obedient and kind dogs! No surprise for a man who has made mushing his livelihood. He has anywhere from 70-90 dogs at a time. Right now he's got 87. He trains Alaskan Huskies b/c they are the "Nascar" version of racing dog. Siberian Huskies I learned, are more for show...beautiful but slow-er. This year was his 24th Iditorod! I don't remember how many times he's won, 4 or more but he's always a a top finisher.

We got to sneak a picture at the end before all the kids left the gym and swarmed us! Talk about melt your heart!! What a great way to end the week!

On another note, the highlight of the week/school year was Satuday night. I went to Anchorage with my family...parents and bro (rare occassion) to watch history in the making. Wasilla High girls AND boys won the state basketball championship!! First time in the history of WHS the boys have won and the girls last win was 25 years ago. Sarah Palin, our new Governor, was on the team the year they won, she was at Saturday night's game too to cheer them on. GO WARRIORS!!!

Iditorod

I haven't been to an Iditorod restart in years so I decided to check it out again this year. Marie Lambing and I drove out to Bruce and Rose's cabin on the Deshka to our own little dug out snow spot at mile 6 to watch the teams pass by. I'm not a die hard dog racing fan, but it really is pretty impressive to watch. We cheered on 50 or so of the 88 mushers before heading out...saw some of the big names like Dee Dee, Jeff King, Martin Buser and Doug Swinley.

For those unfamiliar with the Iditorod it's a 1,100 mile dog sled race that goes from Willow (south central AK) up to Nome (northwest AK). Top finishers complete it in just over a week with one mandatory 24 hr. break and two 8 hr. breaks. They start with a team of 18 dogs and usually drop some off to be flown home along the trail. Some teams are down to 12 dogs now.

Part way through Bruce took me out on his snow machine to a cliff overlook spot where we watched them race in the canyon of frozen rivers. The picture is taken right where the Deshka and Su rivers meet. Crazy to think that we boat and fish that in the summer!

All in all it's been a tough year running. Over 19 competetors have scratched with major injuries. Sounds like the trail has been worse than they've seen in years. Hats off to 'em!

problem solved

Good news from the home front, the ice issue has been resolved! Friday afternoon a neighbor, friend and original builder of the home came over with a plumber to fix the pipe. After chipping the ice away with an ax, they found the root of the problem, the summer hose hook up had been left on and at some point came loose enough to allow water flow again. This caused it the big freeze up. Thankfully the first couple inches of pipe were frozen but not cracked. In about a total of 40 minutes they replaced the inner pipe, the handle on the faucet and stuck it all back in the wall...amazing what plumbers can do! So all is well and there should be no flooding at this point!

ice escapade

I've been house sitting a place since October and have gone this entire job without any significant quirks...with the exception of a snowmachine running over the mail box splitting the post and smashing the box in half. The mail box was laid to rest and will have to be replaced when the owners come home. To my relief this has happened before, easy target for speeding snowmachines coming around the corner I guess. The perk for me has been no junk mail.

Anyway, this past Sunday I came upon a rather unusual growth on the side of the house. On the basement level back side of the house as I opened the blinds to let the sun in, I saw an unidentifiable growth sticking out from the wall. I went outside to get a better view and found that somehow the water spigot (hose hook up) had gotten turned on and froze about a foot in width onto and out from the house.

It looks rather specatcular actually, a mini water fall that a midget could ice climb on. The problem is the pipe is likely frozen and will flood the basement come spring. We're currently experience 20 below wind chill so there is no threat of thawing soon, however, I am turning off the well water pump in the morning when I leave for work as a precaution if/when it does thaw. The owners are due back middle of this month so hopefully it will stay frozen for now. They thought the pictures were pretty spectacular too, I'm glad they are easy going!

When life gives you frozen waterfalls...make snow cones! (or turn off your water pump!)