sting rays!

Cathy's sting spot, we had to monitor her foot and leg color that evening

One evening the junior group came over to our beach house for a huge dinner and worship time together...in addition to some much appreciated beach time for the juniors. Alaina Wright and Cathy Winter both had a run in that night with sting rays. Luckily or providentially Josue and Esaul were both there that night from our sister church in Rosarito and they knew immediately what had happened. Josue told them they needed to go the hospital. They were both given shots and antibiotics to clear the poison out of their systems and make sure they didn't have any bad side effects.

The rest of the trip we (the girls) stuck to the neighborhood pool for our "beach side" needs but the boys continued to make good use of the ocean and there were no more inicidents after. Another awesome thing about this beach was the number of porpoises we saw. Almost every evening and occassionally in the morning we'd see pods of porpoises swimming down the coast. It was fun to watch!

serving and bonding

Xavier giving advice on how to find a "novio," they kept asking how he met up with Natalie


Johanna and Emily husking corn from a huge food pick up...talk about GROCERIES!


Becky...a shoulder to sleep on


Alan playing on the jungle gym with kids


Jeremy and Nate carrying in ceramic floor tiles

a growing family

Francis, Isaac, Jacobo

Our third day at GCH three new children, a sister and two brothers, joined the family. Stacey met them at the entrance to welcome them in. Shortly after they were met by a handful of other children and shown around the home. After being given the full tour they were fitted with clothes and shown to their own rooms.

The older sister, Francis was 8 years old and warmed up rather quickly. Her younger brothers Isaac (6) and Jacobo (5) had a harder time and were anxious for awhile. Stacey shared that the children that come to the orphanage have to be in VERY dire circumstances to be placed there.

What a refuge and place of growth and opportunity for those who DO come! They go from intense situations and pain to a huge loving home where they are fed, clothed, loved on, schooled, and greater yet taught about the LOVE of God. I'm thankful we got to be a part of that day and process of seeing their family grow.

family

George, Stacey and Markus Palau

There is one key family that oversees the ministry and day to day life at Grace Children's Home, George and Stacey. They are from Southern California and moved down to GCH two years ago as full time missionaries. They have two adopted boys from Mexico George and Eric and one biological son, Markus as their immediate family. Their extended but VERY close family consists of 20+ (growing in numbers) Mexican children.

As I watched Stacey in particular day to day I commented to her that they have been given a true gift and ability. While they do have help and daily assistance (2 house moms, cooks/maids, interns, other families on occassion) they oversee day to day life with amazing patience, flexibility, godliness and love. It was a blessing to work along side them and be able to learn more about opportunities to serve and general info and reality of how an orphanage works.

Ministry at Grace Children's Home

We're back from Rosarito and there is much to share! Thank YOU for those who were covering us in prayer, God answered in many ways. The group was unified, flexible (a definite must in Mexico), and always ready and willing to step up and help out at the orphanage AND back at our beach house.

The intent of this trip was two fold. One to be service oriented which was definitely fulfilled through our time at the orphanage, Grace Children's Home. The other intent was to be relational, to have time as a group to share, reflect and bond before they head off to college and begin a new chapter in their lives. This was also fulfilled during our times together at our house. It was the perfect fit for this group and the perfect trip. I will share more stories and pictures in the next couple days but here is a quick snapshot of what we did while we were at GCH. We started our days there about 11:30 hanging out with kids, eating lunch with them, helping with homework (older kids) and playing with the younger kids. The guys helped out too during that time with building projects for the education center they are in the midst of building. The last couple hours was spent doing a more "structured" time with a VBS we prepared. Cathy and Diana would kick us off with some fun worship songs in Spanish and English then a pair of seniors would do a Bible lesson, we'd have a craft, game time and snack time following.



Erin and Xavier's Bible lesson interpreted by Mayerly



Craft Time with Amanda and Becky



Rec' Time with Cody and company, we did a waterballoon toss game that day and it was a hit!

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?