Grace Children's Home

This Saturday is our final youth trip with our Seniors. We'll be flying down to San Diego and then driving across the Mexican boarder near Rosarito where we were last year. This year we'll be working at an orphanage with 20-30 children doing a VBS. I've added their blog link to my page "Grace Children's Home." From what I/we know right now there is a Senior center close by that is connected relationally to the orphanage. The Seniors in assisted living situations volunteer their time to help at the orphanage and build relationships with the children there that have no family. I love that idea and am looking foward to seeing how it all works.

We had our final trip/prep meeting last night at the Howell's where everyone had a chance to meet and practice their Bible lessons. There are 14 students going and four leaders this year. In our "off" time we are lodging at a beach house nearby where we'll have a relational group time. The students will get to share their testimonies with each other and high lights from the past serveral years and the leaders will do various devotions focusing on "not drifting" as they head into this next chapter...adulthood! Some of the topics include dating, Christian campus ministry, accountability and Christian friends and mentors. I'm looking forward to sharing about "mentoring" and how my mentors impacted me in college and beyond. Thanks Merry and Karen!

goin' short...

I've been debating cutting my hair short again this past month and took the plunge Friday. I went in and had Aimy cut and color my hair. Color you ask? I've never been a dye, highlight, lowlight, uplight, downlight, frost and whatever else you can do to hair but since my gray is becoming much more prominent I've decided to give it a try. She did a great job. I am really happy with it and love having it short again! Thanks Aim!

Bible reading...

Last summer on our Mexico trip we were challenged as a group to read through the Bible in a year. A handful of girls made a committment then to read through their Bibles in a year and three of them, Emily, Elizabeth and Sammy have stuck with it and will be completing their goal this July. I have enjoyed reading with them and being challenged by their questions. The experience has reminded me how little I know about the Bible and how much I have to learn! As a reward I took them up to a B & B near Hatcher Pass a couple weeks ago to hang out and have girl time.

We started by getting settled into our little cozy cabin in the "woods" (sort of woods) and then headed up to Hatchers to hike in the sleet (spring was not in full bloom yet!). I took them to dinner at the A frame where we had hot soup and played... yes, the bean game! Later that night we made smores in a fire pit, talked, did nails, watched a chick flick...great girl bonding stuff! I am PROUD of the three of you for sticking to your committment and making Bible reading a priority in your busy schedules! Way to go ladies!

Valdez

Last week my college roommate from MN and her housemate came up to AK to visit for a week. Kari has been 2x before but it was Danita's first time up. We decided to take a trek to Valdez b/c it's somewhere new for me too. The weather turned out perfect! The drive, 270 + miles was beautiful. I have yet to go somewhere in AK that is NOT beautiful. Alaska is an incredible state if you enjoy wilderness and outdoors.

We did a Stan Stephen's boat tour one day and saw a variety of wild life, humpback whales, porpoises (porpie as I call them), otter, sea lion, black bear, mountain goats and a variety of birds. We hiked a couple times, once up to a dam in the mountains near the pipeline terminal. Thompson Pass was AMAZING on the way out of town. There are also some pretty spectacular waterfalls in the area. We were blessed to have gorgeous weather! They also got their fill of glaciers between the drive down, the boat tour and then a flight Sunday night with Dale Tumey over Prince William Sound. Thank you Lord for your AWESOME CREATION!!!

more graduation!

Graduations!!

Here are some pictures from Colony's graduation (Tuesday night) and IDEA (homeschool) graduation tonight. I was taking company to the airport Wedensday night and missed Wasilla's graduation or they would be on here too!

Girls that graduated from CHS were Johanna, Miranda, Hannah, Emily, Elizabeth, Natalie, and Erin. Girls that graduated from IDEA were Diana, Tabitha, Arianna, Becky, and Cathy. Diana sang a solo "Legacy" by Nicole Nordaman. Ya, my eyes were a little damp during that and when Cathy walked across the stage to hug her mom and dad. We (Amanda and I) have truly phenomenal young women in our group.

Enjoy the pics!

...the end of a chapter

May has been a crazy busy month, this year more so than in years past. I've had fun company from out of state visit (Carrie and then Kari and Danita), finished another season of coaching track, competed in my 3rd Gold Nugget Triathlon, watched my senior girls graduate from high school and wrapped up 5 years of speech pathology in the school district. It's been a bit of a blur and full of emotion to say the least.

It's a little surreal to think that so much is going to be changing in the next two months. My girls will head off to various places to start college for the first time. I will be heading to the deep south to go back to school myself. It's a bitter sweet time in life. I'm excited to see where all my girls go and how God will use them to bless others. I'm also excited to know what he has in store for me.

I remember writing in my journal at the end of grad school 5 years ago about a chapter ending as I prepared to head back to Alaska. I had no idea then what these past five years had in store. I would have never guessed I'd get involved in youth ministry and that a group of teenage girls would have such a profound impact on my life. MY GIRLS have stirred a deep passion in me for ministry. MY GIRLS are part of the reason I am leaving this fall to pursue seminiary and ministry full time. I am forever thankful to God that he brought me back here and allowed my life to become so intertwined wih theirs. I can only imagine what HE has in store next! I have been blessed EXCEEDINGLY ABUNDANTY beyond what I ever hoped or imagined these past five years!

headin' down south...

I have some exciting long awaited news to share. I am going to be going to Columbia International Seminary this fall! YES, I will be living SOUTH and in the HEAT and HUMIDITY!! After much prayer and feedback...or lack of feedback from schools God has made it abundantly clear that this is the direction to head. I've been accepted to their two year program, MA in Intercultural Studies. I'll be getting in touch with my advisor, housing, etc. in the coming days. Columbia was initially recommended to me by a TEAM staff at a missions workshop I attended two years ago now. After going to seminars at Urbana led by Columbia staff and emailing staff over the past few weeks I am impressed with their focus on the Bible and Missions. I'll share more as things get worked out, but wanted to give you the latest breaking news in that realm of my life. I am bummed Sarah and Ashley will be moving back to AK this summer!! For those who have been praying for me in this regard, THANK YOU!!

more prom!

A few more shots to show the detail of the girl's dresses. :) Erin is in orange, Emily is in green, Hannah, Miranda and Stacey are the trio picture.

Captain Cook

So Sarah and I tried to be somewhat incognito as we walked around the perimeter of the dance floor. Some of our guy students were not overly excited to see their youth leaders at prom. We told them their parents were paying us big money to supervise and take notes. They didn't think we were so funny. Ha! We DID however get shots of all our youth kids there that night and they look AWESOME!! We're tempted now to do this for Wasilla's prom at the end of the month. Being school district employees pays off! Their prom was at the Captain Cook, a hotel in down town Anchorage. I recall having both my proms in our school gym. Interesting thing this year, Wasilla's is in the gym again but costs more than Colony's at the Captain Cook. Hmmmm, go figure! It was fun just to see the variety of dresses there. Seems to be the going fashion right now is sleek, form fitting, low/open backs. There were a few princess, big foof dresses, but the 80s hasn't made a full come back yet!

In all the CHS students there were, Dave Crozier, Nate VanNorwick, Jeremy Burris, Xiavier, Emily, Johanna, Erin, Elizabeth, Natalie, Stacey, Miranda and Hannah.

Picture explanation, the couple is Natalie and her boyfriend Xavier. To the right is Elizabeth and the group shot from left to right is me, Emily, Erin, Johanna, Miranda, Hannah, Stacey and Elizabeth.

Bacon bits!

While we were immersed in prom primping, the "Bacon bits," were great at entertaining themselves. When Morgan got tired of playing "sincess" with all her dolls she dove into wrestling with Drew and Gavin...taking off her "sincess" dress, tira, and shoes so she could be like the boys...shirtless. Really dresses just get in the way of flipping over couches and tackling brothers. She cracked me up!

Dan and Bri's wedding

Dan and Brianna (both junior youth leaders) were married Saturday afternoon. Their junior guys were the ushers. Cathy and Anna Winter were two of the bridesmaids along with Bri's cousins Jenny Lynn and Laura Beth and her older sister. Cathy was the first bridesmaid to enter and Amanda and I both did a double take. She looked absolutly stunning! Cathy is an all 'round amazing woman of character. She blows me away with her constant kindness, generosity, positive attitude and perseverence. For those who don't know her, you're missing out! This is was a big day for her in many ways.

Dan and Bri are two of the happiest people on the planet right now. They are a perfect match!

prom!

Saturday night was Colony's Jr/Sr. prom so Amanda did another beauty day at her house. Johanna, Erin and Elizabeth all came out to her house to get their hair and make-up done. Amanda is FANTASTIC at doing hair! She did all the "primping" and I brought the food to hold us over and of course take pictures!

That afternoon we went to another youth leader's wedding, Dan and Brianna, and then Sarah Novak and I drove in to Anchorage to the Captain Cook to get prom pics of our junior and senior girls and guys. We had a blast! They all looked BEAUTIFUL!!

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!)