4th Fun with Family

We had a great time with Joel's side of the family over the 4th of July Holiday! We went to the Indiana Dunes State Park and camped for about 3 days. We climbed lots of sand, played at the beach, and even went to the water park there! It was just a blast. 3 of our 5 nieces were there (the other 2 are in Japan-we are going to see them in July--YEAH!) and we had a great time with them. The loved playing with the dogs and I think that is probably the most fun Hireq and Patah have ever had. They even got to experience the beach for the first time. Patah didn't much like it, but Hireq did and probably would have gone in further-but she's just so darn small! It's always fun to get away and just relax for awhile and we love doing that with family. Please keep the Delp side of the family in your prayers as Joel's dad just lost his mother last week. It was expected, but I know that still makes it hard.
Thank you Delp's and O'Dell's for a great time! We love you all.
What did the rest of you do for the 4th?

Puppy Love

Here is a recent picture of the pups! They just turned 2 on the 25th! We love our puppies and they bring us so much happiness. Aren't they so cute?

Decisions, Decisions...

So, just an update regarding the merger decision for our church...

Well, it didn't go as well as we would have hoped, to say the least. The other church we were thinking of merging with voted 73% in favor of the merge. Our church had a majority vote in favor for the vote, but it was not enough of a majority for it to pass. So, we figured out from that vote that there are some people who are not happy with how things are in the church. It has been such an extremely hard week and a half for our pastor and Joel has been trying to be there as a support and encouragement to him, but sometimes to hear all the negative comments from people is very trying. If you think of it, please continue to pray and know that we continue to covet and appreciate those prayers. I know a lot of you are in ministry and I continue to realize how much strength God gives to those in ministry. He doesn't promise it will be easy, I know that, but I know He won't leave us either-what an encouragement. Thanks for your continue support!
Be STRONG and COURAGEOUS. Do not be terrified, do not be discouraged, for the Lord OUR God is with you wherever you go! Joshua 1:9! AMEN!

Family Ties

A couple of weeks ago I was able to go up to the Twin Cities to see some of my extended family! It was so fun to see them-some I hadn't see in almost 4 years! We couldn't have planned it any better. There were about 20 of us that got together at an Italian resturant (used to be a mob hang out!). We had so much fun and it was so great to be able to catch up with family that I don't get to see very often. It was fun to see my nephew Cody get to spend time with his cousin who he hasn't seen in a lot of years! I think everyone had a great time! So-here's to family! I love and miss you all!

Please Pray

I just wanted to send a shout out to you all to ask for prayer for today...well, almost today. On Sunday our church is going to be voting on merging with another church. As many of you know who are working or have worked among the intricate parts of the church, you can just imagine that this would be the cause of much concern. There are concerns for people no matter which way the vote goes. There are some who will say they will leave the church if the vote goes one way, some if it goes the other. There are some saying those who vote one way are not obeying the will of God...etc, etc, etc. This decision has weighed SO heavy on us this week. Our most important prayer is for unity-regardless of how the vote turns out. I will keep you all posted. However, if you think about us on Sunday, please pray. The vote it at 6:30PM. We appreciate and covet your prayers...

Church

Church is...?
This is an interesting statement. Sometimes I wish I was a kid again. To have such an innocent and pure view of everything. You never realilze at the time-only when you start 'growing' up how much you should look at life like a little child. It is no different with the church. In Sunday school as a child you sing songs praising Jesus-you don't care about who is watching-you just dance, lift your hands, jump up and down-it doesn't matter. It's interesting how church changes as you grow up. It's interesting how it changes when you start getting more involved in the inter-workings of the church. How obvious it is that the church is run by sinners. I like that. I like knowing that I don't have to be perfect to come to church. I'm as much of a sinner as anyone there.
Church is hard though. Because it is full of sinners-it's hard.
Why a post about church?
We had a meeting at our church this week. Our final meeting before we will make a congretional vote to merge with a neighboring church. It's interesting what comes out during these meetings-things that are said. THings that can hurtful. Things that make you think and that make your heart heavy.
I am praying so hard this week for all of us to realize that church is not about us!!!!
Church is not about our preferences...it's not about our likes and dislikes. Church is about our worship to our God.
One final thought...
Sometimes in the business of life, I forget about heaven,I'll be honest. I don't think about what it will be like or when I will go. I just sometimes get too busy...I'm human. However 2 weeks ago in a service, we were talking about Acts 2-when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. What an awesome chapter! Anyway during this discussion, there were probably 10 people who got up and said in different languages the Lord's Prayer. I couldn't help letting the tears flow. To imagine that that is just a small glimpse of what heaven could be like! WOW! We serve such a powerful and mighty God! Praise HIm in this day!

Newest purchase

Since I graduated from nursing school (over 2 years ago now) I have wanted to get a pair of these 'perfect' shoes! They are expensive, plus there were MANY other things that were mor important to spend our money on than these shoes. Actually, there still is and my apologies for even blogging about something so vain-however, I truly think these are the perfect shoes!
Not only are they extremely fashionable, but they are SOOOO comfy. I also found a great deal on them and that is the sole reason that I got them. Pathetic thing to blog about-but my feet are so excited to be in them and so I just had to share.

Alaska Post #1

Some of you may know, but for those of you that don't, Joel and I are planning a trip to Alaska this summer with our church for a mission trip. We are totally pumped about this trip. You may be thinking..."A mission trip to Alaska?" "Yeah right!" Well, we kind of thought that too, but have found out in the last couple months that Alaska is a huge mission field, I mean huge!!

Our trip is set for July 29th through August 8th. We are going to a TINY city of 313 people called Elim. WOW, I thought Upland was small, but 313 people!! We found out that this town has no roads (as most towns in Alaska don't). This part of Alaska is called 'Bush' Alaska. We have to fly in and fly out since the only road is out the 'fish camp'. This is what the people will be doing the days they are there. They go to 'fish camp' and catch most of their fish for the year at this time. Our basic reason for going is to just bring encouragement and support to these people. We are also going to be working on the pastor's house as it needs a lot of work.
The statistics in 'bush' Alaska are absolutely out of this world.

The suicide rate of those in Alaska is 8 times the national average.

Alaskan natives make up 19% of the state's population, but 41% of the states suicides.

This obviously is just a huge problem. Some kids within the churches we have there have been making suicide packs and 3 kids have already died.

I will save more stats for a different post, but just wanted to keep you updated on what some of our plans are for the summer. Stay tuned for post #2!

PS-on the map of Alaska, Elim is located very close (a little East) of NOME.

Happy 4th Anniversary!

Technically, our anniversary isn't until tomorrow, however, we won't be around tomorrow to post, so I thought I would post today. It has been a fun, challenging, and exciting 4 years of marriage to Joel! It's been so cool to see our lives and our marriage develop over these last 4 years and I have enjoyed every
minute.


We have both graduated with a degree and continued on with another degree!
We have been to 4 countires together.
We have moved twice.
We have watched God move in amazing ways-knowing full well that it was nothing other than Him who has moved.
It is so great to explain to people when they ask how we met and our whole story to truly see the HAND of God in it. We both were called to overseas missions with different visions and God has woven them together to create one giant vision for His kingdom. We look forward to seeing all of our visions and our dreams, together with Jesus be fulfilled and to see the new visions He creates for us. Happy Anniversary Joel! I can't wait to see what the next 4 years have in store!

UMMMM? Just thinkin...

Have you ever thought about what kind of legacy you want to leave? Maybe not too much, but lately I guess I have. I see a lot of people around me having children, knowing one day that this is probably where we will be someday too. Even not thinking about having kids, I think about what I want to leave behind once I am not here. Do I want to be the next Billy Graham? Maybe someone who gives elequent speeches like Martin Luther King Jr, maybe someone who changes a generation of Christians like Martin Luther. Maybe I could do great research in nursing and be a new Florence Nightengale.
You know what? I don't want to be 'like' other people. I am pretty happy so far with who God has created ME to be. I know God has plans for myself and for Joel. We have a pretty big vision on our plate right now. I don't want to leave the legacy that someone else has already left. I want to leave a 'new' legacy, the legacy Jesus has given to me to leave. I look forward to seeing what that is. Anyway, I was just thinkin...

Happy Birthday to my MOM!

So, it is a couple days late, but I just wanted to dedicate a post to my mom! I know I have posted one of these pictures before, but I love it! My mom is one of the best women you will ever meet. She is fabulous! I am so proud and blessed to call her my mom and I am so very thankful for her. So this is for you mom! Happy 20th Birthday!!!!!
Love you very much!

Taylor Tragedy

It was released today that 4 Taylor Students and one Taylor employee from Hartford City were killed in the accident on Wednesday night. This tragedy made the news-even in Chicago on TV as well as in the Chicago Tribune. Please continue to pray for the families of these individuals and for the community as a whole. It is said that this is the worst accident in the area in years-possibly ever. Monica Felver is the woman killed in the crash and is relation to police officers in Grant COunty as well as Hartford city. For more info-go to:
http://www.chronicle-tribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage
Thank you for your continued prayers.

Thoughts and Prayers

Joel just heard on the news that there was an accident involving 5 kids from Taylor-they were killed. They aren't releasing many details yet, but just thought I would let you all know to keep these families in your prayers and thoughts during this time. It is a terrible tragedy. All I know is that a Taylor van was on their way home from Ft. Wayne and crashed on I 69. If you want to find out more info go the the CHronicle Tribune website (yes they have a website...)
It's http://www.chronicle-tribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

I'll keep you updated...

Spring is here!

I always can tell when Spring is here because I see a lot more stuff being done outside. One of my favorites...SOFTBALL! 2 of our nieces, Brianne and Bailey are playing for a travel team in INdiana, and we finally got some time today to go watch them play. Growing up playing softball of course makes me appreciate this and makes me wish there was something like that when I was growing up. Anyway, I am so shocked at how good these girls are. The pitcher on their team throws 50mph and she is only in 4th grade!!!

It was a ton of fun for us and got me back into the mode of playing ball again. I can't wait for our season to start. We play 16 inch, CHICAGO style softball here. It's a little different, but lots of fun.

We can't leave Braedyn out. Our 2nd youngest niece isn't quite big enough to play with the big girls yet, but she cheers loud for her sisters. We had fun in the stands today.

THis ends my ode to softball. O yes, the girls won and are playing in a tourny tomorrow! We are proud of them. Brianne got a triple tonight, it was actually a home run on an error, but it sounds good. Bailey (the smallest one on the team and the youngest) got a couple of great hits. She hits better than most of the rest of the girls on her team! We are proud of you girls!

A Time Away

As much as it may seem that we have been MIA, we have actually just been out of Chicago. We had a great (although shot time) visiting with both Joel's and my side of the family. We left on Easter after the service to and went for Easter dinner to Joel's parents. It was a great meal and so fun to see MOSt of our nieces as well as Joel's sister and brother-in-law. Our niece Braedyn REALLY likes jello as you can see. We spent lots of time with fam and loved hearing Braedyn say our names for the first time. Previously we were Uncle "Dole" and Aunt "Tim". It was so fun for us to have her be working on our names and say them. She was very excited too! We also enjoyed watching the bluebirds at their house. Joel's mom keeps them around and even had a nest of babies. Since it is Spring, we saw tons of beautiful flowers and trees in bloom. It made me miss the country.
We then went and stayed in a small town called Porter, IN and met my parents there. We stayed in a little INN and enjoyed all the flowers as well and got to catch up on our lives. It was great to see them and also have relaxing time together as well. Our pups enjoyed the trip too and have just been sleeping since we have gotten home. 3 nieces, grandparents, and 2 other puppies to play with would wear ANY dogs out!
We did come back from our little vacation to feeling overwhelmed with all that we have to do-that is another blog in itself. I will save that.
I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and truly remembered Jesus's gift to us all!
HE IS RISEN!!
Hallelujah!

A Day Out with the Delp's

We had a welcomed surpise this week. Joel's parents called and said that they wondered if we had any ideas of a place where they could go for a day. We said to come to Chicago!! We had plans to go to the Art institute, go up the John Hancock, etc...then we found out the Cleveland Indians were playing the White Sox. We quickly changed our minds and went to the game instead. We picked a great game too-it went into extra innings and the Indians pulled out a win to top the Sox in this series 2-1! WOO HOO--go TRIBE!
Well, you can imagine what it's like to go to an 'Indians' game in SOX territory (since they did win the World Series last year). Mix some alcohol with 95% of the people at the game and you can imagine what happens. Well, us Indians fans do cheer (although not as loudly as the Sox) and we endure many slanderess comments as we walked out-EVEN AFTER WINNING! Well, as one of the pictures show, there was a fight between 2 guys that captured the attention of most of the stadium about inning 101/2! It took about 10 security guys to try to get the fight under control. I heard one person say "They must have been CUBS fans!" I thought that was an interesting comment since both of the guys had Sox clothes on from head to toe. Anyway, all this to say it was a great day to spend with the Delp's! We even ventured to try new food--Mediterranean-and it wasn't JUST Hummus that we tried! So if anyone ever wants to catch a Baseball game in CHI-TOWN just come on over! We'd love to have you. Thanks Ruthie and Earl for makin the drive out here even in crazy Chicago traffic. It was a blast!

Signs of SPRING!

How do you know Spring is coming? Well, I noticed a lot of ways today. The flowers are finally starting to bloom-even after it was 32 degrees last night. People are out walking, running, blading, skateboarding, etc. I have walked the dogs TWICE today-long walks too, just to be outside. It's awesome! I LOVE SPRING! I even saw someone mowing their lawn today! I am so glad we don't have that job to do. One of the perks of renting...
Well, one way that WE are celebrating spring is that we got BOTH dogs shaved yesterday. Usually this is such a traumatic event for Hireq (the brown dog) becuase she has no idea where Patah (the white dog) is going for 3 hours. Well, yesterday they got to be together. You always have to wonder what is going through their minds during this time-this is once I wish they could talk to tell me what it's like.
So what are some ways YOU are noticing SPRING?
I love this time too because Easter is coming. I watched the Passion of the Christ last week and although it is such a hard movie to watch, I believe that it is good to be reminded of what our Savior went through...for US!
Let me know what you think!

Girls Day Out!

So I had emailed my mom a few days ago and talked about how crazy hectic things were here and how it has been a bit lonely since I don't really have a whole lot of friends or time to hang out with the friends I do have. I told her I missed being so close where I could just call her up and we could meet for lunch or go shopping, etc...
Well she emailed a couple days ago and said lets meet in Merrillville (about an hour from Chicago) for a GIRLS DAY OUT! Well, today was our day. We met about 11AM and ate at IHOP and ended up talking there for 2 or 3 hours. We decided we should at least walk around the mall-we did that and talked more and of course-hit our fav Bath and Body Works to stock up on some new stuff. Then we went back out to eat at Red Lobster and talked more! We had such a fun day. It was so wonderful to be able to just relax and talk and catch up on life. I miss my mom lots-she's my best friend and its hard being away. I know I am only in Chicago-what happens when we move to the mission field? Well, I know God will sustain me once we cross that bridge. For now, I am so thankful for GIRLS Day out and so thankful that God has blessed me with such a great mom. I couldn't ask for a better mom or a better best friend!

Chicago...

We have lived in Chicago for almost four years now. Not much has changed except for where the road construction is on the major highways. We have really enjoyed our time here so far and it has been quite a change from living in a small town. Here are some of great reasons to live in Chicago...
-Whatever corner you are standing on in the city, you can't be too far away from a coffee shop!
-There are tons of museums to go to and with a library card you can get in FREE!
-You can go see Blue Man Group for free if you do 15 minutes of ushering before the show!
-You never struggle to find something to do.
-Lake Michigan-although I wouldn't swim in it, it gives you a feeling like you are close to the ocean.
-There are no corn fields for miles (don't get me wrong, I like corn, but growing up in the middle of a corn field gets kind of old!)
-At any given point in the day, you can walk down the street and hear 5 different languages.
-You will never be wanting for food-Mexican, Japanese, Burgers, it doesn't matter, it is all right around the corner.
-Chicago Style Pizza-need I say more!!!
-Navy Pier
-The lakefront bike path-we ride this a lot during the summer. It's about 10 miles to ride from our apartment to downtown. It's great!
-Michigan avenue...not much more to say about that.
-Oprah's here!
-'Da Bears! No matter how bad they are any given year-you still watch them just because they're 'DA BEARS!
-The cheesecake factory!
-IKEA
As much as I love living in the city, there are many times I miss small town Indiana. I love going home. Indiana has a significant smell (not just the cow smell), and there are not too many places that have a sunset in the country in summer like Indiana. I love the city and I am happy we are here, but don't worry, I haven't forgotten my roots!

I PASSED!!!!

I finally got the results back from the Pathophysiology test I took on Wed and I passed with flying colors! I am so excited and SOOOO relieved. Thank you to all who prayed for me and encouraged me to keep going. Thanks. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This is so great!

I totally feel this way today. I have a BIG final test tomorrow in my Pathophysiology class that I must pass and do well on. If my pups knew how to pray I would have them praying too!

Patches the Horse

http://gprime.net/video.php/patchesthehorse

Another video for your viewing pleasure. It starts out a little slow, but towards the end gets funnier. Hopefully it adds some laughter to your life! Happy Saturday. It's sunny and warm here! YEAH! No snow, no rain...just sun. It's beautiful.

Stress, Stress, and more Stress

I know we all have stress, some people more than others. Some stress is brought on by the person and some people I guess are just put in stressful situations. Well, this week has been pretty stressful. I know being a nurse how bad stress is for a person. Some stress is good-but I think how much I am having right now...NOT so good!
I will spare everyone all the details of my week, and just hit highlights. If you get nothing out of this post, please just keep me in your prayers.
Well, I was scheduled to work 4 hour night shifts this week (you can count how many hours that is) as well as having a big Pathophysiology test on Wednesday. Because of the amount of time I worked (luckily I ended up working only 3, 12 hour shifts), I was not able to study very much, not much at all. Now, I did this a lot in undergrad and tests usually came out ok-I obviously did pretty well in undergrad and I think I am a pretty good nurse. However, I failed this test with a capital F! I know I am not a stupid person-but it has really made me think..."What was I thinking going back to get a master's?" I feel pretty confident in the direction God is leading both Joel and I. I even know He is in control. I really feel like this is what I am supposed to do-but it makes me feel pretty stupid!!! I don't like that feeling. OK, so that was alot of details. The other thing that happened was at work, let's just say they changed a policy where instead of having a transportation person take people to the "place where people go when they die in a hospital" WE now take them there. I will definetly spare you those details and just tell you that it was the most traumatic thing I have ever done in my life!
I apologize for this blog. I do not want to be depressing or sad, and I do not want to be offensive in how I word things. Again, I just ask for your prayers as well as ANY advice you have to combat stress.