the last two mornings have been early ones! but, they have been excellent and definitely worth the lost shut-eye. wednesday morning i met brad, robert, lindsey, and april downtown for some prayer time at a church that has had a labyrinth set up for a few weeks. the labyrinth was a new prayer excercise for me and very valuable. it was great to make that space in my day for prayer and reflection and it was a blessing to do it in community with some of my favorite people.

this morning i picked up aubrey, jasmine, and katie for breakfast at ihop. i really love that place. if you don't know these girls, you should. they are great fun and very colorful! i'm looking forward to getting to know them better.

today i spent some time on the dave crowder band website and had a great time. not only do they make great, creative, fresh tunes and not only are they passionate about God and worshipping him and not only do they have a new cd coming out next month (i'll tell you about that in a minute), but they are so stinkin' funny! do yourself a favor and read some of the articles in their news archives. there is also some great stuff under each bandmember.

ok, now about their new cd. i've heard a few of the songs that are going to be on it and they are great. but, there is even better news - you can pre-order the new cd and help me get a new guitar at the same time!! they are running a contest right now and the person who pre-orders the most cds wins a guitar. if you haven't seen my $75-thrift store guitar, just trust me when i say, i could use a new guitar. anyway, rather than personally purchasing multiple copies i was thinking i could encourage you to pre-order a cd. when you do, there is a place for you to put in your "guitar giveaway id" which is where you would put MY phone number. don't worry. this is not cheating and/or illegal. they are encouraging people to do this. so, now with a clean conscience you can immediately link to the dcb website(i linked it above) and increase my chances of winning a guitar.

peace

yesterday was a pretty good day. i met glenn and victor linscomb for some vietnamese soup and some time talking about student ministry. it is always encouraging to talk to those two because their love for students comes out so clearly!

i started a new book yesterday called Life of the Beloved by henri nouwen. i have really connected with it so far. i've been working on putting some things together for the girls' ministry here at garnett and this book hits on the very things i want my girls to understand about how precious and treasured and beloved by God they are - regardless of what the world tells them.

another interesting person i've been "spending time with" who has some great perspective on this is lauryn hill. she has some incredible insight as far as the truth of being human. she doesn't try to say that things can be perfect or we can be perfect, but she has this way of embracing who she is with all her brokenness and just depending on God in that. her website is being updated, but if you are interested, i would definitely recommend picking up her unplugged cd.

anyway, i also had a great talk last night with my friend dustin from juneau. it is really nice to talk to old friends. dustin and i have been friends since we worked at the same camp in alabama in 1995. we have really different backgrounds and stories and perspectives, but that has made our friendship lots of fun. he is a cool friend!

last night i also went to kickboxing. my teacher is so hard core! i am having a tough time getting back into the workouts - it is still very painful. but, i'm going to stick it out. and kickboxing is an excellent way to deal with stress and frustrations. tonight i'm going to abs class and a step class. let me tell you, step might look easy (or ridiculous), but those classes are pretty tough. i can do it though! peace.

it's official... i am now in my late twenties. saturday was my 27th birthday. i had a pretty good day. i attended a couple of meetings and then met up with some of my girls - april, lindsey, mandii, jennifer, and tiffany. they took me to dinner at texas roadhouse and then we went to see pirates of the caribbean. it was my second time to see it, but it was still great. if you haven't seen it, i highly recommend it!

today i finally got my new backpack! this was a pretty big buy for me. i wanted to make a responsible purchase, so i tried to read and do a lot of research. anyway, i ordered it last week and it got here today. yea! now, i just need somewhere to go. my dad and i are trying to get a short trip in this fall. next year we are planning to go to montana. it should be pretty exciting.

i'm still working on getting all the details together for my trip in october. i'm hoping that the fares to london will go down a little bit. i'm trying to decide right now if i'm going to go on sunday instead of monday. i just started thinking about the jetlag and how tired i would be by the time i got to barcelona. i know one night's sleep won't make a huge difference, but it might help a little. plus, it is a little bit cheaper. i'm pretty pumped about my time in london at the end of my trip because i've come across a lot of websites and other info lately about some really cool ministries going on in and around london. one of them is the boiler room which is a ministry that centers around prayer. i hope i'll get to visit some of these ministries on my trip.

if you've been to london or barcelona and have some traveler tips for me, let me know! peace.