Spurred on...

There's something special about being in Colorado every other summer with our job. I love rubbing shoulders with FUN people that LOVE Jesus and want everyone to know about Him. We meet in a HUGE gym. I think there are close to 3500 of us in there. I love looking around the room-- here are some of the people I see:



This is Josh and Liz! They are getting married in November. They are wonderful together. In January they will move to New Zealand and share life and Christ with college students there. inspiring.



This is Jayson and Carrie. They were our dear roommates this summer. They moved to DC a couple years ago to live among the people there and share the love of Christ.



This is Maria and Jason(and their baby Hannah). They rule. They want every student in Pittsburgh to know and treasure Christ. I'm constantly encouraged by them.



This is Mike & Jessie. They just got married in April. Jessie was such a sweet surprise in my summer. We had several coffee/Jamba dates. Her heart is awesome. Their passion is to reach cadets! Isn't that great. In the next few months they will head to Virginia Tech to build relationships with the cadets there.




This is John and Sandy. They have a huge heart for Asian Americans students to know Christ- They live near Penn State and live life with the students there. They are a delight. Sandy inspires me in so many ways!



This is Corey. Sadly his wife Christina and daughter Cora couldn't be out here for conference. Brian and I are always always encouraged by him. They both LOVEEEE people with such a genuine and sincere love. We always feel cared for and prayed for by them. WE praise God for them always. They have given their lives to share Christ with WVU students. WVU is one lucky place:) (side note: Corey asked us to take this picture of him to send to Christina for their anniversary-which was yesterday. Along with this picture he sent(overnight)a plate of Christina's favorite Noodles dish on dry ice.) HOW CUTE!

I could go on and on and on about all the people that have really spurred me on this summer. I love the people I work alongside.

Sunday Summer Tarts with Carrie!

Tonight Carrie and I made these amazing tarts! They are very easy to make and are so pretty!


Here is the recipe:

All American Summer Tarts

Ingredients:
1 recipe basic pie dough
4 c. chopped ripe strawberries
1 c. fresh ripe blackberries
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp lime zest
1 Tbsp orange juice
1 Tbsp butter
1 egg, beaten

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment.
-In large bowl, combine strawberries, blackberries, sugar, lime zest,
orange juice.
-Toss to combine and set aside.
-Divide dough into 6 equal pieces.
-Roll each piece into 7-8 inch circles.
-Place each circle onto a lined baking sheet.
-Place 1/6 of berry mixture into center of dough.
-Fold up sides of dough around filling.
-Repeat with remaining dough rounds and filling.
-Cut butter into very small pieces and place three small pieces on top
of each tart’s filling.
-Brush sides of pastry with beaten egg and place baking sheets into oven.
-Bake until sides are golden brown and filling is bubbling, about 30 minutes.
-Remove from oven and let cool completely.
-If making ahead, store in airtight container up to 24 hours in advance.
-Serve with scoop of ice cream.

Serves 6

Note: We added peaches and blueberries plus orange zest.

Here are a couple more pics of the process:)

53 hours and a Toyota Corolla

On June 15th, Brian and I headed out on our first ever road trip. We travelled from Virginia to Colorado! It was super fun and it only started feeling long when we got to Kansas. Kansas was really long!



Highlights from the road:
We got to catch up with our dear friends: Beth and Wes! It was super fun. They were so kind and hospitable.


This is beautiful Beth in the sunset. We were touring Wes's seminary- Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Great campus.


I woke up at 4am in Louisville, KY and felt like glass had been shattered in my eye. I could hardly open it- intense pain. After pretending to fall back asleep and act like it wasn't happening I decided to wake up Brian. He immediately took me to the ER. Turns out I had torn my cornea in my sleep somehow. For the next 3 days of the road trip I couldn't see out of my right eye. For a day and a half, of the 3 days, I wore an eye patch. It was one of those times when you are super glad you are in the middle of no where and there is no chance of running into anyone you know. Discharge coming out of your eye plus an eye patch with glasses over the eye patch so I can see out of the left eye = quite the sight.



While in Louisville we got to do a little taunting:



We also went to the St. Louis Arch museum- this qoute was in the museum and I thought it was perfect for our journey to the CO:


We made it!



And to Brian's JOY the Pittsburgh Pirates were playing in Denver the evening we arrived in Colorado. The Pirates lost- but we expected that. Still a grand evening.




1500 miles in a car with Brian was so fun! We are looking forward to the 1500 miles back in 2 weeks.

I'm starting a BLOG. I can't even believe it. But, the other night I stumbled across an excerpt from Donald Miller's new book(It will be out in September- you can read the 1st couple chapters on his blog). His book is called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. I just read the 1st few pages and it made me want to start documenting daily life--Here is what I read:

"The saddest thing about life is you don’t remember half of it. You don’t even remember half of half of it. Not even a tiny percentage, if you want to know the truth. I’ve got this friend Bob who writes down everything he remembers. If he remembers dropping an ice cream cone on his lap when he was seven, he’ll write it down. The last time I talked to Bob, he had written more than five hundred pages of memories. He’s the only guy I know who remembers his life. He said he captures memories because if he forgets them it’s as though they didn’t happen, it’s as though he hadn’t lived the parts he doesn’t remember.

I thought about that when he said it and I tried to remember something and I remembered getting a merit badge in Cub Scouts when I was seven, but that’s all I could remember. I got it for helping a neighbor cut down a tree. I’ll tell that to God when He asks what I did with my life. I’ll tell Him I cut down a tree and got a badge for it. He’ll most likely want to see the merit badge, but I lost it years ago and so when I’m done with my story God will probably sit there looking at me wondering what to talk about next. God and Bob will probably talk for days."

So, now the documenting begins! I don't want to miss the small & big things that God is doing in the every days of life.