triathlons are fun...really

so, i finished my first triathlon. i trained, i worked i prepared (ish) and now it is over. its always weird for me when things that you look forward to for a long time and prepare for are over.

distance: swim - 300m, bike - 11miles, run - 2miles

time: 1hr, 18 min

luke's time: 1hr, 7min

i lost to luke with his no training, no spandex, 1985 bicycle self.

i also lost to some 12 year-olds but it happens.


it was a very fun weekend, we left saturday afternoon and made the drive to new braunfels where the triathlon was held. we had to hustle to austin to be there in time to pick up our packets before the bike shop handing them out closed. after we had our packets we just enjoyed the road trip. we stopped so the dog could play, we ate dinner and enjoyed the wonderful summer day.

here we are loaded, gassed up and ready to go.

we had dinner at an italian restuarant in whole foods. it was delicous and a good source of needed carbs for he upcoming day.

after that we made our way to my friend tasha's mother's house who graciously allowed us to stay with her to crash out. at 5am on sunday morning my alarm went off and i found myself surprisingly waking up from a deep sleep. i had anticipated nervous sleep but instead had good rest. but immediately sunday morning my nerves we intact and active. i woke luke and ashley up and we began to ready for the day. after arriving at texas ski ranch we realized we had to park in the rear parking and walk about 1/3mile to the race area. about halfway through our walk luke and i realized we didnt have our helmets (which are required)for the bike race. luke walked back and got them and i began to feel rushed. but luke returned and we pressed on. first we went to rack our bikes in the transition area and get marked up. while laying out my towel and shoes i realized i didnt have my shoes. thankfully ashley walked back to the care and got them for me while i got my timing chip and finished setting up. after ashley returned with my shoes i finished getting all my stuff ready and started stretching.

here is luke and i before the race, marked up and ready to go.

luke and ashley before the race.

after all that feeling rushed i had plenty of time to get ready. after hanging for a few minutes i jumped in the lake to get a feel for it and have a quick warm up swim. that is when i discovered that the water at the texas ski lake was the grossest water in the united states. it smelled like poop, was black (also like some poop) and left a residue on your skin (like poop probably would if you swam in it). i was disgusting.

there were 1,000 people in this triathlon so we had to take off in waves. the 1st wave took off at 8:00am, luke's wave took off at 8:03am. he is the one on the right side of this picture in the yellow swim cap.

luke is in the water and in the race!

luke is out of the water and headed to the transition area to get on his bike. i am still on the beach waiting to start.

luke was the only male in his entire age division not in spandex and he was pretty proud of that.

here i am in the water waiting to start. i am in the red swim cap.

my start time was 8:18am.

and im off!

just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming

out of the water, complete with 5 o'clock shadow from the poop water and headed to my bike.



the transition area.


luke is done riding his bike and starting his run.

when i finished my bike ride i could see that luke was already finished, in my defense he got a 15min head start.

i could see the finish line and i was ready to be there.

the conquerers

i repped my "just kidding" tye dye uniform in honor of my ultimate frisbee team.

all in all it was a very fun weekend.

on another note, i am done with seminary for the summer and grateful for a break and am loving the extra time to play outside.

friends

lately i have been thinking a lot about friends, my friends, friendships and all that goes with it. right now is a time in my life where i feel like i have the coolest friends. i feel like i have always been blessed with great people in my life and i am so thankful for that. it is a gift i don't deserve and now is no different. i am surrounded by some wonderful people who i constantly learn from, am challenged by and laugh at a lot.

first of all there are all my friends at seminary, these people are so much fun and we have a blast together. i love that we can be quoting the last office episode we watched together or discussing our ultimate frisbee strategy and then seconds later be in solid theological conversation. basically, very cool people that i am thankful to get to spend time with.

in our ultimate frisbee tournament we lost in the second round but during the championship game we stole the winners t-shirts and took pictures like we won, but we didn't. our team name is "just kidding" so it seemed appropriate.

and then there are these girls, they are the coolest.

this family has me over for dinner just about every wednesday for the last year. they are a wonderful family and i have been so blessed by them and their friendship. Angela (the mom) feeds me, listens to me talk about my life and encourages me when i cry. she is a wonderful friend and i have learned so much from her. she puts so much thought into what she does as a mom and i am constantly learning from her.

all this friendship gush has come about because i just got home from seeing driving ms. daisy at the casa manana theater in ft. worth. i went with my friend tasha to this play that was so great. and allow me this disclaimer: i am not one of those super cool, artsy, deep people who always learns from every little thing. however tonight, God really taught me through this play. the friendship between daisy (played by the awesome sandy duncan who i love and was amazing in the play) and her driver, hoke, is one of circumstances. their friendship was an unlikely one and it grew out of a common respect for one another. as tasha and i discussed it afterward we noticed that there were never really any nice moments between them or great things that brought them together but that they expressed so much gratefulness for the things they did for one another.

i thought about how different my friendships are. some are full of great moments, conversations that change my thoughts about things, and a large amounts of expressed gratitude. others are more purposeful but without as much emotion. i don't know if any of this is making sense but i love that God knows what i need more than i do and He gives me this wonderful gift of friends. i had such a good time with tasha, she is so compassionate toward the lost and it makes me love them more too.

enough friendship gush, basically i am grateful for the people in my life and aware that they are a gift i am not deserving of.

also if you are one of my friends not mentioned in this post, know that it is not because i am not grateful for your friendship, just too sleepy to mention everyone.

happy birthday to you

happy birthday to you

happy birthday to you

happy birthday dear ashley

happy birthday to you

friend,

i love you so much! i hope you had a wonderful Korean birthday. know that today you were thought of, prayed for and missed.

inadequate words

so here it is…finally a report.

new mexico was amazing. it was my favorite trip of all my trips in my time here as student ministry intern/ministry to girls.

basically every morning we worked with a group called LOVE INC. or LOVE IN THE NAME OF CHRIST. they have a warehouse on route 66 and they collect donated items and then distribute them to churches and families in need. we helped with some cleaning an organizing of the warehouse. and because some people think its cool to donate couches that they have previously used as dog beds and are now drenched in dog hair, spit and pee so much so that it is no longer good enough for their dog that it must be perfect for people in need because they don’t deserve nice stuff, we helped throw things away as well. we got some solid work done and i was really proud of our kids. they worked really hard while we were there and there were only a few of them that i wanted to slap upside the head with sharp objects. but even those were completely overshadowed by the students who were truly grateful to serve.

in the afternoon we headed back to the church to put on a block party. the church has a large parking lot across the street, perfect conditions for a block party.

we had a bounce house (essential block party item), cotton candy, hotdogs, popcorn, snow cones and all for free. people from the surrounding neighborhoods wandered over either with their kids but usually looking for their kids. once they were there we were able to talk to them, tell them about the church and most importantly about our Savior. the teenagers set up a face painting table and someone had the idea to have them make those bracelets that tell the gospel story.

black = our sin
red = Christ blood shed for our sin
blue = our sins are washed away

white = we are now cleansed from our sin and pure in Christ

green = the new life we have in Him
yellow = the hope of a next world, the streets of gold we will one day walk on

this really helped the teenagers share their faith because they could talk about the beads as they made the bracelet with the kids. one day while sharing with a little girl, julie (one of my favorites even though i am probably not supposed to have favorites) asked the little girl what she thought about everything she had told her. the little girl was amazed that Jesus loved her and confessed that she loved Jesus too. julie shared with her that she could be a follower of Christ by believing in Him and following Him all of her life. The little girl prayed to become a Christian and said that she loved Jesus and wanted Him in her life. (fun stuff right?!?) well when julie and the little girl had finished talking julie correctly figured that she should probably find this girls parents and tell them about what happened. she also wanted one of our adults to go with her and be there if she needed help. someone suggested todd harris, one of our super-awesome adult volunteers, julie began to look for todd but could not find him. she could not find him because he was already inside the church with the little girl’s parents, where the father of the little girl had also JUST PRAYED TO RECEIVE CHRIST!

if you don’t think that is a fun story you need to get a new definition of fun in your life.

please pray for this family. pray that these new seeds will fall on good soil, grow into strong trees that bear so much fruit.

this is julie and little girl….too precious

and as for me, i had such a sweet time with so many of the girls in my group. i mean i just loved it. i was so encouraged to see how many high school girls are trading the things the world tells them to desire to run after their savior. it was a precious, precious thing to me to get to see them not be satisfied with simply claiming Christianity but striving, longing and crying out for Jesus. they are neat girls and it is a joy to work with them…for the most part.

one girl made me cry because she is trading (in my opinion) obedience for a boyfriend which makes me sad.

she told me she liked him. i asked her, “do you think he could lead you spiritually?”

she said, “no.”

i asked, “do you think being in a relationship with him is going to help you grow in the Lord? do you think your walk with the Lord will be stronger because of his encouragement and guidance?”

she said, “no.”

before the trip was over and after our conversation she had confessed her feelings to this boy in which they were reciprocated, held his hand, and made me cry.

our last day of our trip was one of my favorites. we went to the isaleta pueblo (a native american reservation). our first and only stop was the catholic church at the pueblo. the pastor of the church we worked with told us about how for the people of the pueblo their religion was a combination of a, forced upon them catholicism and the original religion of their people which is the worship of creations like the sun, moon, stars, etc.

we walked into the church, most kids were in and out in a few minutes but some lingered and I stayed with the lingerers. as i looked around the church i noticed how many pictures and statues there were of Jesus on the cross. now I am not in any way trying to neglect the cross or its worth or meaning to us as believers.

however, the cross is not were it ended for Jesus.

three days later, three days after Jesus died on the cross He rose! He did not stay in the tomb but the stone of the tomb was rolled away because our Lord had risen. He conquered death and it no longer has a sting or a victory because it has been beaten by Jesus Christ and that man that conquered death is our Lord!

this truth just washed over me while i was in this church and was so wonderful. i just let the tears fall down my face and praised the Lord for His greatness, more greatness than I am aware of or capable of comprehending.

but it didn’t end there…

with a face damp of my own tears i cried out in prayer to my Father for the freedom of the people of this church. that they would no longer be captive to the enemy, slaves of the evil one that have them here believing lies and worshiping false gods when another truth began to sink in.

i deserve that.

(more tears)

i deserve to be enslaved to that same enemy, captivated by the same lies. if left to my own works, will and desires i would be worshiping false gods, walking in this world, chains around my ankles, believing those lies and without hope of a future kingdom.

that is a scary thought.

but again, this is not where this story ends.

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved-and raised up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is NOT OF YOUR OWN DOING; it is the GIFT OF GOD, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Ephesians 2:4-9

this is amazing stuff. something i am sure i still do not understand in fullness.

that me, a sinner, wretched, lousy creature

who was perfectly content to stay that way

was taken out of darkness…

set in marvelous light

and given a hope

without ever doing one thing to deserve it.

(even more tears)

last Sunday my pastor was praying and he said that our words are just inadequate when we attempt to praise our Father and give Him the glory due His name.

they are inadequate when attempting to give thanks as well

i'm missing laura

laura this post is entirely for you...

i thought since pictures of my new chacos would make your life complete then we might as well do a little chaco photo shoot. i hope you enjoy...

my chacos are on the left, then amy and our new friend julie on the right.

also, i miss you.

for other readers, cool stories and fun lessons from spring break in new mexico are coming.

new mexico...

i'm currently in new mexico on a mission trip with the youth group that i work with. we just had a surprisingly fun day of traveling and i am glad to be in a hotel room for the night. we have returned to work with the same church we served with last spring and i am really excited to be back. last year was an amazing time and i am looking forward to see what the Lord has in store for us this week. tomorrow we start a week of block parties that the surrounding community will be invited to share in free food and games. we are hoping this will be a wonderful time of outreach for this church.

if you would like to pray for us please pray

-that our group will be unified and focused on our goal

-that the Lord will be merciful with the people of this town

-that it will be a time of growth for this church

if you want to keep up with me i will be on twitter...just kidding, i can't imagine ever twittering.

one wonderful weekend...

the weekend was wonderful, we talked, laughed, played games and went on a walk. it was so nice to catch up with my precious friends and hear about their lives, kids and husbands. i am so grateful for these women in my life that are so wise that i get to be around and learn from.

so many times i almost took a picture for my blog readers (the two of you) but the moments were just too good and perfect. instead of taking a picture and possibly disrupting one of those wonderful times of honest sharing or gut wrenching laughter i would just sit back and watch my beautiful friends and think about the wonderful gifts the Lord gives us.

i slept probably a total of four hours the entire weekend but it was too much fun to spend time sleeping.

i did make it away with this picture of tasha. we were playing a game about cowgirls telling the truth or something like that. it had a lot of questions that you had to answer truthfully. for friends i thought i knew pretty well i definitely learned some new things and revealed some secrets myself. good stuff

also i thought it would be fun to jump in the lake and try out my new triathlon uniform. i was right, it was fun but also very cold.

and my new chacos are awesome!! very light and awesome!