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4.26.2012

peanuts & crackerjacks.

People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do.
I stare out the window and wait for spring.
-- Roger Hornsby


A hotdog at the ballgame beats roast beef at the Ritz.
-- Humphrey Bogart

last night i went to my first baseball game of the season! finally! i just love baseball. i'm so glad it's back. hopefully we can make it down to see my beloved texas rangers soon, but for now, the sooners will suffice. 

4.16.2012

hello tornado.

when chris and i were considering moving to norman, oklahoma, my #1 concern was tornado season -- seriously. was i worried about moving to a new place? sure. was i worried about not knowing anyone and having to make all new friends? absolutely. was i worried about us not having a paycheck from a church but having to find random jobs in order to do church work? of course. but seriously, more than anything else, the biggest con on my pro/con list was tornado season. i mean, why would you choose to move to a place located right smack dab in the middle of tornado alley??? but we did... and here we are in norman.

the funny thing about norman is that every single (not an exaggeration) normanite i've talked to claims that tornadoes don't hit norman. supposedly there's a legend that an indian spoke a blessing over the river that runs to the west of norman, so tornadoes don't cross the river -- they always turn north and hit moore, oklahoma city, etc. -- people actually believe this. well, as i'm sure you know, a tornado crossed the river on friday and hit norman. thanks for the false confidence, silly normanites.

here's a video we found from friday. please note that this is directly over our little apartment -- where i was -- by myself -- completely miserable.


fortunately, although the video shows it forming over our apartment, it didn't actually touch down until it moved a little further east of us, so this was the extent of our damage:



it was supposed to be worse on saturday night, so we planned ahead -- i wasn't about to be surprised again and stuck in our apartment. we spent the night with some new friends, the mosiers. so why the slumber party, you ask?
  1. matt mosier works for the national weather service here in norman -- read: inside scoop.
  2. their neighbor has an underground storm shelter -- necessity.
  3. matt had to work the night shift, so clearly we didn't want erin to be by herself -- this is how i sold chris on it -- i had to convince him he was being a hero.
  4. they have two adorable boys -- the 11 month old obviously had no idea what was going on, but the 3 year old kept saying, "i'm scared of funder cause i'm still wittle." (um, i am too and i'm 25. oops.)
  5. we've only known them for about a month and a half -- they're even newer to norman than we are! -- so why have them over for dinner when you can have a slumber party with them? i've decided this should be our new get-to-know-you plan.
thankfully, the storm that came in the middle of the night on saturday night was just a severe storm -- lots of scary "funder," lightning, and crazy strong wind -- but no tornado. on sunday morning, we decided we should all celebrate our first oklahoma storm survival with some yummy donuts! (although, personally, i feel like i deserve a gold medal or certificate or something... i seriously feel so accomplished!)

4.11.2012

what is a missional church?

it's funny how you can spend three years studying something and still have a hard time describing it. my concentration in seminary was "missions and world christianity," so i literally spent three years talking about mission. i even took a class called "the missional church" (which was my favorite class in seminary), but now that i'm out of the classroom and actually trying to build and be a part of a "missional church," it's kinda hard to figure out what it's supposed to look like.

in the english language, the word "love" has become quasi-meaningless. for example, i love my husband, but i also love cookie cake -- same word, very different meaning. if a word means everything, it essentially means nothing. the same thing has happened with the word "missional" in christian circles. in fact, i was at a conference a couple weeks ago when steve timmis stood up and said, "missional has become a crap word. we just need to throw it in the garbage." (now go back and read that in a british accent like his -- i've never heard the word "crap" sound so intellectual.)

i recently stumbled upon a couple of videos that i think are helpful in describing what it means to be a missional church. they're not perfect, obviously, but i love how simple and concise the first one is, and i love how brilliant and matter-of-fact alan hirsch is in the second one (it's a clip from his talk at the verge conference in february).



i want to highlight EVERYTHING he says, but these are my favorite:
"damned if we're not all sent! every christian is a sent one."
"a missional church allows missiology to determine ecclesiology."
"it's not so much that the church has a mission, it's that the mission of God has a church."

i realize i'm not so much offering an answer, just more voices in the conversation, but hey, at least it's a start at sorting through the "missional" jargon.

4.10.2012

national siblings day.

happy national siblings day to the best siblings ever!!!

(i realize this is more of a family pic than a siblings pic, but i couldn't pass up the hot pink polos...
i mean, unbelievable.)

i seriously have the best brothers (read: best friends) in the entire world -- and thanks to luke, i have pretty great sister-in-law, too!! (let's be honest, she's the best member of our family.)

i absolutely could not be more thankful for them.

4.09.2012

staycation and celebration.

have you ever had a staycation? i totally recommend it. my mom and brother came up for a few days, and instead of staying in norman and doing the usual thing, she decided we needed a staycation, so she got us a couple rooms at a hotel in downtown okc for the weekend. what a fun idea! i loved feeling like we were "hosting" people in our city -- but at the same time feeling like we got to have a little getaway too -- and who knew okc could be so fun?! from downtown to bricktown, the okc memorial and pops, we had such a good time.

(sidenote: i just realized i need to take more pictures of people and less pictures of things. oops.)

i always love being with my family for easter weekend. even if we don't talk about it or make a big deal about it, it's good for us to remember together that death is not the end. death does not have the final word. even though it has dramatically changed our lives in a very unexpected and unwelcome way, we don't have to grieve as others do who have no hope (1 thessalonians 4.13). we have hope. jesus has conquered death and the grave. DEATH is swallowed up in VICTORY (1 corinthians 15.55).

on that note, the highlight of the weekend for me was our good friday service. our church in norman -- providence road -- joined together with 5 other acts 29 churches in the okc area for a time of worship on friday night. it was so simple and so beautiful. it was just a series of scripture readings, prayers, and songs -- nothing crazy or super innovative -- just enough to focus our hearts on the cross. it was perfect. my heart was so moved by the gospel -- much needed refreshment.

chris and i kept the kiddos sunday night at church. at first, i was kinda bummed that i was having to miss worship on easter sunday -- but how selfish is that?! my attitude quickly changed as i realized what a gift it was to these parents that we could watch their kids and give them the opportunity to worship and celebrate without worrying about babies crying and toddlers not knowing how to share (who knew that was such a hard concept?!). so maybe it wasn't the typical way to worship on easter sunday, but we loved it. (and it didn't hurt that the kids were SUPER cute decked out in their easter attire -- i mean, ADORABLE! i wish i had pictures for you.)

okay and last but not least, speaking of adorable children in easter clothes, my brother sent me a picture of my nephew, whit, on easter. CAN YOU EVEN HANDLE IT?! he's just the absolute cutest. i can't wait to see him again.

hope you had a great easter weekend! HE IS RISEN!!!