Like A Fire In My Bones

Hello everyone!
For those of you who are unaware, I am a teacher at Christian high school. I teach four different subjects at VCS; The Life of Christ According to the Gospel of John, Chapel Leadership (Worship band for chapel), Choir, and Drama. This is right in line with what I studied in school, and since I spend so many years in youth ministry before going back to college, it really is the perfect job for me. Every single day is a true adventure.

Yesterday I took a survey in my bible classes to find out where they were at with Chapel and how they thought it could be better. It broke my heart. While they did come up with some really good objective things that we could change, and we came to a resolution to make chapel better, my students said they felt condemned, not redeemed. I have have never felt that way about Chapel, but it was clear that they were hearing something different than what I was hearing. One student actually said "The God you talk about in class and the God in they talk about in Chapel are not the same. The God in Chapel just sounds so angry." 

Oh my precious students. This is not how God feels about you.

I couldn't and cannot shake the words from my heart. And while it made me sad to hear the frustration of my students, it also gave me an overwhelming sense of purpose and protectiveness (if that's even a word). It reminded me what my job truly is. Not as a teacher, but as a Christian.  

The God in chapel and the God in Bible 10, and the God at my church are all the same God. The entire Bible being about Jesus from cover to cover means that God is about forgiveness, The Word is to point us to Hope! The Word points out that Jesus has come so that we don't have to live up to the pressure of perfection. The Word points to grace! The Word is love. The Word IS Jesus. 

you can't start a fire without a spark

Hello everyone! Happy Monday morning to you! I hope your day is going great, mine is going...weird. Last night at around 9pm my husband, who was at the Gym, called me and said, "Hey, I need you to come to the gym, the car's on fire."

WHAT!!!!

That;s right, my very beloved carolla. The Car whose praises I would sing unrelentingly, burst into flames. While my husband was in the car!! I'm trying not to think about how close I was losing the love of my life, because was ON HIS WAY TO THE GAS STATION! Thankfully, he never made it out of the parking lot of the gym. The Lord totally had this whole situation under control. Here's why:

1) The car stopped in a part of the parking lot where no one was around

2) Nathan had plenty of time to get out of the car and get to safety

3) It caught fire in the parking lot, and not while we were driving on the Freeway from Stockton!

This picture is extremely difficult to see, but I took it with my cheap-o cell phone. The front of the car is totally burnt out and melted. The Hood had to be cut open for the fire department to put out the fire. The car is completely totalled. I spent about 30 minutes on the phone this morning with my dad getting the claim together. Good greif. What a mess.


Anyways, what happens after this is pretty vague at this point. Luckily, this will probably be covered by my insurance as a "total", and we'll get a check for the value of the car. What the value of a 1998 Toyota Carolla LE is, I'm not overly sure, either way, the Lord is taking care of all of this. The real bummer is... My dad just washed it!

Anyways, thats about it for me today! If you're thinking about, I start work in literally 6 days, and I'm going to need a vehicle, because I have to commute. If you could pray for Nathan and I that something works out quickly, that would be awesome. Adventure is always chasing us! See you soon!

Something I Never Saw Coming

Hi Everyone!! So, I know I've been promising you outfit posts, but everytime I get something new or cute, something comes up that I think is way more fun, and I have to tell you about it! I got called to work on the most random thing I could have every imagined: a forest fire. You read that right. For the past few days, I've been working at the base camp for the US forest service as the firefighters work on the massively huge fire in the Mendocino National Forest. No, I'm not suiting up and wielding a fire-hose. My job is much less dangerous. I make copies and print important documents, and make fun signs for the camp. I got the job through the family that I babysit for. The Ruscicas...I've told you about them right? Well, if I haven't, then you're missing out, because you'll be a better person for having known them. They are wonderful. I got the call at 8:30 am, and by noon that day I was driving to a rodeo grounds in the teeny tiny town of Stony Ford, CA. Our base camp isn't anywhere near the beauties of Mendocino, CA, but Stony Ford is beautiful in it's own way. Here are few pictures of the fire! Next post I'll show you what I actually do :)

This is not cloud cover. It's smoke! It was so thick when I first got there. It turned everything orange-y. It was really surreal. Ash was everywhere. There is a  Slip Skate Shop sticker on the back window of my car, but you would never know it now!

More smoke. Look at the mountains way in the back, aren't they beautiful? We are stationed right where the fire trucks get fueled up before they go out to the fire. It's really crazy seeing how many trucks get sent out.

 This little circle is the sun! I wish the picture would have taken better, but it was bright red! Talk about apocalyptic! It was nuts!
 This the view from our sleeping trailer. Those are the rodeo grandstands. We work 16 hour shifts, and then sleep for 8 hours. My shift last week was 11am-3am. I know it sounds grueling, but there's down time where we can just sit and relax.

This is the view of the fire from the grandstands. It its CRAZY! I could see the flames!! When I asked Gail how close to the fire we were and she replied "You don't want to know....Dont tell your husband!" hahahaha! She really super funny. In fact, everyone that I've met has been wonderful. I'll say it over and over, it's not really the actual job that makes this fun, it's all the nice people you meet who make this fun! 

Well, those are my pictures for now. I will definitely be taking and posting more, but thats what I got for the time being. There are two downsides: 1) I'm away from Nathan for a few days, and I hate that. 2) I miss out on the Bachelorette. But everything else is great! I'm excited to go back and see how things have changed :) If you're curious, you can go to this website on the Mill Fire in the Mendocino National Forest and check it out. It's crazy!