"I feel like a real church!" exclaimed my dear friend Katrina, as she and I dove into our heaping plates of potluck food and our friends, the Kranmer Kids, provided bluegrass music for the evening.

You see, we're all rather young yet. And indeed, we looked like a real, grownup church while hosting an organized festivity outside.

One thing I really appreciated is the way we refer to our Sunday worship as services, not church. To me, it implies that we are the Church body every day of the week and we gather on Sundays for a worship service. A weird distinction maybe, to some, but important to me.

One highlight of the potluck was when the band played "Wagon Wheel" and all of our friends from the July camping trip jumped up to join in singing. Jake did that little side-to-side dance where you hold your hands like a train--and I loved it.

(PS: Thanks Swicegood, for the pictures!)

This is all to witness, that when you do the Lord's work,

you have a target on your back.

After my laptop was stolen,

I quickly wrote and designed a new version of the overdue prayer letter that I owe to those who have committed to pray for our work with InterVarsity.

I quickly remade a power point and three-fold pamphlet for presentations.

I updated my major database.

All on Jake's laptop,

which crashed the second I finished work today.

It doesn't matter if you are getting paid to be a missionary, or not,

you have a target on your back. And you know why things go bad

at the most inopportune times. And you know Who is in control.

This is all to witness, that when you do the Lord's work,

you are in great company.

I could not continue on without my coworkers, diligent ministers themselves, with their own battles. I could not do this without my teammate, my husband.

This is all to witness, that when you realize how desperately you need God, you are not ashamed to sing loud praises or pray in Jesus' name in public.

"By your endurance you will gain your souls."

Luke 21:19

I can't believe this was almost one year ago. I really adore this picture.

Just look at all of those darling faces. (And the lucky stranger in the back.)

We've arrived at late summer, my dears.

And we're all boggled, I'm sure.

I long deeply for fall.
I am an old house, creeking as I settle.
I crave some peace and maturity,
crisp air and romatic candles.

If my summer was a Picasso,
I want autumn to be a Rembrandt.

All that, and still ... let it not pass to soon.

I had dreams of drowning in summer,

and I've got some vitality in me, yet.

I'm not going to light a spiced candle for

another three weeks.

And in these three weeks, I plan to:
drink iced tea, go swimming every week,

have three picnics, take evening walks,

play Mungo Jerry, and see the sun rise.

via

What last bits of summer will you pursue in the coming weeks?

Well friends, my laptop was stolen from me last night.

I'm sorry to share that bad news, but I feel it pertinent to my story.

I'm not going to say anything else about last night,

but I am sure I'll be processing the incident for a long time.

I feel violated. I want justice.

But here's the thing,

next week I start full-time missionary work like I never have before.

And something inside of me believes this robbery was an act of

our adversary, who is trying his best to derail God's plans.

And that simply won't happen.

I am praying my guts out for forgiveness,

Forgive us, oh Lord, our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass us.

I'm fearful of the anger that quickly sent

a poisonous root through my heart.

Is there such thing as a weed killer for the heart?

Pray for me friends, if you will, please.

We all need forgiveness.

There were three post-its on the bottom

of my laptop, I wrote on them in blue pencil,

"Give praise"

"Give glory"

"Give thanks".

I hope those words mean something

to whoever has my computer now.

I hope to hold on to those words still.

oh, california, why do you have to be so magical?
why did i have to leave you when i was 9,
before the age when i could realize that nowhere is perfect?
because now you remain in my mind,
the place where my childhood memories of perfect days are anchored.

memories of sun, bright yellow and moody gray.
memories of three tiny, redhead sisters who played well together.
california, you've enchanted us,
we've all gone back ... and back ... and back.
but it will never be quite like it was.

photo of my darling babiest sis at the beach in the winter.

Speaking of wonderful memories, I'll never forget meeting Archbishop Duncan this summer. The Anglican Church in North America is a somewhat new church in a very old line of tradition and history.

I fall more in love with its theology and its people every day.

I know there is no perfect church, but I'm always so blessed to see our church expressed in truly charismatic, evangelical and liturgical worship. Meeting the leadership of this forming church was amazing, surprising, fun and affirming.

I think we have 7 churches in Chicago and the suburbs. And while we're all committed to our own local congregations, we're also committed to our entire Chicago family and, beyond that, our world family. (Archbishop Duncan leads all of North America!) So with that, I'd like to share a stunning video made by our Anglican brothers and sisters in Canada.

I reaaaally love the music:

ps: you'll never guess which people group the archbishop said he'd most like to reach ... undergraduates!

"Stay with it to the end. You won't be sorry, you will be saved."

"In your patience, possess ye your souls."

"By your endurance, you will gain your lives."

Luke 21:19

I have to admit something.

This summer has been hard. Very hard.

Make-me-angry-and-depressed hard.

And that's because, as they say, "the rain falls on the good and the bad."

And as my friends say, "to think we can really do something to manipulate our lives is not faith, it's superstition."

You know, I'm not afraid of hard things.

I'm afraid of bad memories.

I'm afraid of waking up next year, miserable at the thought of last year.

But in Luke 21 Jesus said,

"By your endurance, you will gain your souls."

And endurance is not brief. Endurance is waking up in the morning day after day when you'd rather not. Endurance is not panicking or being lazy. Endurance is steady and faithful until the end.

Besides, I do have some remarkable memories from this summer!

I dare not overlook them or God's abundant and surprising provision in other manners. It may be a little miserable, I may need to shape up, but God has been with me. I have no doubt about that.

Some of those fine memories include this Monday with Rickie & Carlos, kind friends we do not see often enough:

And then with Prince William (my own David Sedaris and the most recent Chicago transplant):

Blessed is the life.

Today, I am feeling very young. I feel green, twiggy, wick.

There are so many older women whom I look up to, but perhaps looking up for too long made me dizzy. Because I look back down and am sometimes confused to find that I am not 29, I am not a mother, I'm just starting my career, I'm not 25, I'm not even 22.

Inspired by a brainstorming session at work yesterday, I came home brimming with excitement at the though of seeing Jake mature as a godly man.

He already is such a role model to me, he is profoundly thoughtful and he is diligent in prayer. But he is still so young! And for now, it's perfect.

Today, being young and having so far to go is perfect!

The sight of adventures and growing pains is endearing. Recently, I've been far too afraid to face those adventures. And who can be both worrisome and productive at once? Not I.

So today, I resolve to enjoy life's hardships (and joys) as I grow up along side the love of my life. Now is our time. I will rejoice in our youth.

7:01 am - a rush of rain (and maybe even hail) comes flying through our windows. i look at the clock.

7:01:15 am - i'm out of bed, running the perimeter of our home to close all of the windows.

7:02 am - Jake asks, "what's going on?" i respond, "so much rain, wild isn't it?"

7:02 am - i proceed to the bathroom to close the window and notice it's already closed. i ask, "Jake, did you just close this window?" he answers, "yeah, what's going on?" i respond, "so much rain." and think to myself, silly man.

7:03 am - we both lie back in bed, hold hands, and smile at the booming thunder.

7:04 am - from the look of our windows, it appears our building is going through a car wash. i pretend that is what's happening for a moment, until another shout of thunder shakes our floor.

i drove by myself Saturday.

through 30 miles of corn.

and i loved feeling comfortable behind the wheel.

over the hills. tail of dust.

and i wondered about this world grain.

i wondered where it would end up.

in your cereal bowl?

sweetening your cola?

feeding your will-be hamburger?

the opportunities are endless, really.

and inspired by such opportunity,

i turned on the local country music station.

yes, yes i did.