Seattle and Small Group

2 weekends ago, Miles & I took a wonderful trip to Seattle. We went there so Miles could attend Coffee Fest -- a 3 day convention all about coffee. The church sent him to the convention because he is the lead trainer for our church's coffee stand/cafe. I just went along for the adventure and to get free coffee!! We got to Seattle on Thursday afternoon and that night we went to a Jewel concert. She is a remarkable singer and really showcases her voice during her live concerts. It was a great concert because it was an acoustic concert, so it was just Jewel and her guitar. We had a great time. Friday and Saturday were spent at Coffee Fest all day and then we spent the evenings exploring and playing around the city. We stayed until Monday afternoon so we could get the most out of our time there. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. Even though we live only a 5-hour drive away from Seattle, I've never spent time there so I was very excited about this trip. I definitely want to go back more, but being in a big city again sure made me appreciate our simple little town of Coeur d'Alene. I'm so used to a small town now that even Coeur d'Alene is getting big for me!

This past weekend I had a "girls night" with my new small group girlies. Rychelle & I are going to continue leading a small group. Most of the girls have left for college this fall, but a few of them have stayed locally to attend the community college or work full-time. So instead of 15 girls, we're going to have 6. What a difference! But we're very excited about it because it will give us the opportunity to go deeper and invest more time individually with each of the girls. So Saturday night we had a sleepover to sort of kick off our new group. We also have a new member, so the girls shared their testimonies with each other. It was a wonderful night. These girls are very special to me and such a blessing in my life.

End of an Era

Miles & I have both been serving in youth ministry for over a decade. Recently we have felt God leading us away from that specific ministry and have given our "resignation" to our youth pastor. We don't know yet what God has in store for us next, but will be praying and seeking His direction over the next few months. Miles still volunteers in our church's coffee ministry, Hebrews, and is the lead trainer with that ministry. All of the money raised goes directly to the church's mission fund to send out teams locally and globally. I will also continue to lead my small group that I've been leading for the past 4 years. Most of the girls in the group are now in college or are working full-time and it's such a personal blessing to watch them grow into young, Godly women. This is really my passion -- to do one-on-one or small group discipleship and teaching.

We'll see what God has for us next. We will both continue on with our current ministries -- Hebrews and small group -- but still feel like there is something more that God has in store for us. It's just time for a new season in our lives and a new season of ministry for us. It feels strange to not go to youth group every Sunday night, but we still maintain personal relationships with many of the students and that won't change.

Backyard adventures

So we couldn't get away for Labor Day weekend because Miles had responsibilities at the church. He's the lead barista for the coffee ministry, Hebrews. But we really wanted to go camping, so we compromised and camped in our backyard! It was fun. We just pulled our sleeping bags out on to the grass and laid there and looked at the stars until we fell asleep. With all of the huge pine trees surrounding our yard, it was almost like we were camping!