other highlights of my summer

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My sister and her family finally moved to the Northwest. They've got an awesome house in Portland, only 2 hours from where I live. This is amazing! I've already gotten to spend lots of time with the babies this summer and am planning to make trips down to see them in Portland a couple times a month. This is GOOD NEWS.

We love Taylor to pieces.

Teaching Chloe how to make silly faces. She's a quick study.

They really enjoy the self-portraits, especially because my mom's camera has a flip out screen that you can turn towards you so that you can see yourself while you take the picture. Ace!

Ahhhhh

Coby is almost one! We only ever call him "Handsome" so I don't think he knows his real name yet.

Chloe did this to herself.

Taylor is really happy about her new house.

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My friend Hamish from New Zealand was in the Northwest for a wedding and holiday with some friends, so he came to visit me. We had fun times in Seattle, Olympia, and Oregon. And another Kiwi fell in love with America.

Hanging out with my fam in Oregon

Haim with two of his friends from New Zealand, Bevan and Nick, at Alki Beach in Seattle.

Eating yummy seafood in Seattle.

Pikes Place Market. It doesn't look like much at this angle, but it's one of the best spots in Seattle.

Really happy to be in Pikes Place.

I like to pet dogs everywhere I go. Sometimes I take pictures with them, even if I don't know them. It's totally normal.

Go Team Kiwerica!

If you've never taken a jumping shot, you're really missing out.

Dave & Erin's Wedding

The highlight of my summer was most certainly David and Erin Gwynne's wedding. David was the first Scottish person to welcome me when I arrived in Aberdeen. He actually came over to my flat the day I moved in because he lived right across from me. I was immensely blessed to have him as a friend, neighbor, and personal life assistant. He showed me which bus to ride, how to count the currency, where to buy good coffee, and many other life essentials for living abroad. Not to mention the fact that he let me come to his flat and steal wireless internet from his neighbors the first three months I was in Scotland. Priceless!

Dave met Erin when she came to Scotland on a mission trip (that's how all these Scottish-American couples meet. I'm just wondering why it didn't work out so nicely for me?). The wedding was in Chicago so I was able to attend. Not only that, but Linda, Mike, and Alastair came from Scotland for the wedding so I got to see them as well! It was a weekend full of reminiscing, catching up, and full-on banter. Anyone that knows me at all knows that seeing these precious people meant more to me that I could possibly articulate. It was my best weekend since I've been back from Scotland! To see all my pictures from the wedding, clicky here.

Lovely

The wedding party.

Dave, Alastair, myself, Mike, and Erin's brother.

Alastair, Linda, and Mike.

There's a good looking bunch. I do love kilts!

Erin's mom blowing bubbles.

One of the reasons this weekend was so awesome was because of the little lady 2nd from the right -- my best friend Emily. She took the bus down from Detroit, MI to spend the weekend with me. It was so special that my friends from Scotland got to meet the most precious bb of my life! Needless to say, they adored each other.

Mr. and Mrs Gwynne

And of course there was a lot of good dancing!

Decorating the car was a new experience for Alastair and Mike.
Umm, yeah! Why wouldn't we?

Love the Lord With All Your Heart

This post is waaaaay long over due, but it's a story I've been meaning to share. Better late than never. The first week of May we had Spiritual Emphasis Week here at the school where I'm chaplain. During Spiritual Emphasis Week we have all-school chapels every morning. I felt God wanted me to preach on Mark 12:30.

"Love the Lord your God

with all your heart,

with all your soul,

with all your mind,

and with all your strength."

I liked the way this verse was easy to break up into five concise chapels. Monday was an introduction, Tuesday I talked about loving God with all your heart, Wednesday was about loving God with all your soul, and so on. The more I studied this passage of scripture, the more amazed I was by the things I was discovering about God's command to love Him with our entire being.

When the scribe asked Jesus, "What is the greatest commandment", he was really asking "What must I do to be good in God's sight?" The religious leaders of that day were obsessed with the laws, commands, and ceremonial boundaries that they felt would earn them righteous standing before God. However, doing right flows out of being right, not the other way around. When asked "what do I need to do", Jesus responded with "Love Me with everything you are -- heart, soul, mind, and strength."

It all begins with our heart because our heart is the center of who we are physically and spiritually. The Hebrew word for heart is lebab, which means: to be enclosed -- as the interior or the center. In the Greek, the word is kardia. It means: the seat in the center of man's inward life -- the place of human depravity or the sphere of divine influence. Both meanings point to that which gives man "life". Our physical heart controls our life by pumping blood through our veins, which travel all throughout our entire body. In the same way, our "spiritual" heart is the very center of who we are -- it controls what we are passionate about and what motivates us. Your heart is where you'll find your purpose in life. It's that "thing" that drives you. Whatever we are most devoted to is what will have that #1 place in our hearts. Loving God with all your heart really has nothing to do with emotions. It has to do with choosing to make Christ your treasure and giving Him the place of honor He alone deserves. The emotions and right actions flow out of a heart that wholly loves God.

I always struggle to find ways to communicate these deep spiritual truths the K-8th grade students at my school. The young ones are especially a challenge to teach. They're hungry to learn, but I constantly have to check and recheck my style of teaching to make sure I'm explaining it in a way that they can understand. For this sermon I made a huge heart out of red paper and set it up at the front of the chapel. Directly in front of it I placed a fancy blue chair that resembled a throne. While I was teaching I kept coming back to this chair and referring to it as the "number one place in our hearts that only God should have", the throne of our hearts.

The kindergartners (5 and 6 yr old) sit on the front row of chapel so they always have an up close view of the action. A couple days after I preached this sermon, one of the kindergarten teachers stopped me in the hall to share with me what a parent had told her. This parent asked her son (who is about 6 yrs old) what he thought about chapel that week. When he started to talk he burst into tears. So she asked him what was wrong, probably thinking I'd preached a fire and brimstone message that had scared him half to death! But between the sobs he managed to explain: "I.....just.....love God.... with all my heart. And I love Pastor Anna because she is teaching me how to love God with all my heart.....I just love God...." It still makes me cry to think about this months later.

When I heard this, I immediately thought of Philippians 2:13 where Paul says that "God works in us, both to will and to do for His good pleasure." I am humbled that God would use me to teach students about who He is and why it matters, but I am fully aware that without the work of His Holy Spirit and grace, my efforts are all in vain. This story is a perfect example of this. I can study and think and plan and use every ounce of my creative energy to produce sermons that will communicate God's Word in a way that can be understood and applied to life......but I cannot give a 6 year old a revelation about what it means to love God with all of his heart. I know that he didn't grasp that concept to the dept that the older students or teachers could have, but I also know that God graciously worked though my feeble efforts and gave that little boy an understanding that overwhelmed him to tears. That is amazing to me! It just reminds me of how dependent I am on God. There is no way I could have made that happen.

Quote of the Day

"Hey Pastor Anna, my American Girl doll had to go to the hospital because I broke her head off. But she's better now so I put a new outfit on her today."

-- Maddie, 5 years old

Love

I was looking through some sermon notes from when I was in Scotland and I found this quote. It was shared by Sarah, one of the missionaries I worked with, during a sermon on loving others. I thought it was a really great reminder of how selfless love is. Although it can obviously be applied to marriage, this kind of love is necessary in all relationships.

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"It’s a wise groom who has to be dragged to the altar. He knows what love is. It’s death. If lovers don’t know this, they are headed for trouble. Never will you have your way again. You can’t be happy if this other person isn’t. No matter who wins the argument, you lose. Always. The sooner you learn this the better off you will be. Love is an exercise in frustration. You leave the window up when you want it down. You watch someone else’s favorite TV program. You kiss when you have a headache. You turn the music down when you like it loud. You learn to be patient without sighing or sulking. Love’s doing things for the other person. In marriage two become one but the one isn’t you. It’s the other person. You love this person more than you love yourself. This means that you love this person as she or he is. Acceptance. We ask ourselves frankly what that impulse is that makes us want to redesign a person. It isn’t love. We want the other person to be normal like us. But is that loving the other person or ourselves? Love brings out the best in people. They can be themselves without artificiality. People who know they are loved glow with beauty and charm. Let this person talk. Create the assurance that any idea, any suggestion, any feeling can be expressed and will be respected. Allow the other person to star once in a while. A wife’s joke doesn’t have to be topped. Don’t interrupt your husband in the middle of his story. Cultivate kind ways of speaking. It can be as simple as asking them instead of telling them to do things. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Married life is full of crazy mirrors to see ourselves. How stubborn, how immature we really are. You may be waiting for your wife to finish because you never lift a finger to help her. Love is funny. Its growth doesn’t depend on what someone does for you. It’s in direct proportion to what you do for him or her. The country is swarming with people who have never learned this. So are divorce courts."

-- Taken from the book Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.

Well Hello There

I have officially entered the realm of pathetic and neglectful bloggers. I am not sure what the problem is, but I think it has something to do with the fact that I work A LOT and my job is emotionally and spiritually exhausting. At the end of the day I usually don't feel much like reflecting and writing. I've also lost some motivation to blog since I got back from Scotland because I started this blog to update everyone back home on my missionary work there. Coming back to this blog reminds me of the life and people I left in Scotland when my 9 month missionary assignment ended, and that makes me very sad. Plus, my life is far less interesting now and I'm not sure that anyone still wants to read about it....? The things that are interesting in my life are either too complicated or too personal to write about here, or I simply haven't had the energy and discipline to keep up with writing. However, several of you (my friends!) have mentioned that you miss reading about what's going on in my life, so I guess this blog can more or less serve as a way to keep in touch :o)

So here's the what's been going on the past 4 months. I've been able to see my sister and her three adorable babies twice! In February she came out here for a visit, then I spent a week out there in April. And they'll be here again for the last three weeks of May! Yessss!

My job is going well. Only 6 weeks left of the school year and every one is jam-packed. I try not to think about all the chapels and big events I still have left to plan and execute in this short amount of time so that I don't get overwhelmed. One day at a time, I guess. :o) I'm excited to say writing sermons is actually getting easier -- something I never thought would happen!

Although my pastoral responsibilities all fall under my duties as Chaplain of our K-8th grade school, I am technically an associate pastor on staff at the church. Therefore, I don't have the summer "off" like the rest of the staff and teachers at the school. However, I'm looking forward to the 10 weeks I'll have to plan and prepare for next year. Everyone keeps telling me that the first year is always the hardest so I'm thrilled to have one year of experience under my belt. Next year will definitely flow a lot more smoothly and be less stressful.

One of the challenging but incredibly rewarding opportunities I get as Chaplain is teaching elective classes for the Jr. High students. The first sememster I only taught one class -- a spiritual formation class where I taught the students about spiritual disciplines and how they can incoorperate them into their lives, the attributes and character of God, and some other significant points of Christian doctrine. This semester I'm teaching spiritual formation and a worship team class. "Anna, I didn't know you were musical!" You knew right -- I most definitely am not. For the first half of this sememster I had the help of a musician who volunteered his time to come in once or twice a week and teach these 12 eager Jr. High students. He ended up getting a great job opporutnity in another city and moving 1 1/2 hours away. But he did lay a solid foundation for the team and by the grace of God I've some how managed to keep it together. I've found a few other people who come in periodically as guest teachers and that has really helped the students develop. The team continues to grow in their skills and maturity and they've been a major blessing to the rest of the school by leading worship in our weekly chapel services. Next year I'll probably be teaching both of these classes as well as a student leadership class.

Proposal

Tuesday was the last day of school before Christmas break, so of course nothing academic happened at all whatsoever. However, there were a lot of parties, sweets, christmas cards, and gifts being handed out. About halfway through the day a boy in 4th grade burst through the door of my classroom with a Christmas card and ornament in hand. I don't know this particular student very well, but I did run into him at Goodwill (a place I frequently shop) several weeks back and we had a lengthy discussion about remote control airplanes. That must have really made an impression on him because after he handed me the gift and said, "Here you go, Pastor Anna. I got this for you. Merry Christmas!", he proceeded to ask me if I would marry him! I just laughed and told him I was a little too old for him. He replied, "Aw,but come on -- you're so cute!"

Just precious!