about our trip

Like I said yesterday, we are on an INFUSE retreat in Tennessee. It's been a great little getaway so far.

We left Wednesday at noon from RDU. It was cold, and the walk from the parking garage to Terminal 1 is like a mile. Because my husband is the sweetest (and so he wouldn't have to carry both bags all the way since we have yet to purchase wheeling luggage), he dropped me off at the terminal and went to park.

Graeme and I just chilled with all the bags for awhile.

Our flight was right on time, and soon we were up in the air saying goodbye to Raleigh for a couple days.

I was well-prepared with my one dollar bill for my favorite airplane activity.

That's right. Money origami. Here I am with my new froggy friend:

We arrived safely, picked up our rental car, had lunch in downtown Nashville, and then swung over to the Opry Mills Mall. Aaron had a Disney Store gift card that was burning a hole in his pocket. They only had one Vinylmation, so we ended up spending the rest on Graeme. Somehow, out of the three of us, Graeme walked out of the mall with the most stuff. And he's not even technically here yet. We are in for a world of trouble.

We made our way to Murfreesboro after that and checked in to our hotel. The retreat officially started Thursday morning with breakfast at one of the coolest breakfast places I have been to ever. It is called the Pfunky Griddle.

Not only was it awesome because you got to cook your own pancakes, but we happened to be there on Customer Appreciation Day, so the pancakes were free! You just paid for any toppings or sides you wanted, and the pancakes were all-you-can-eat.

So fun. Who wants to open one in Raleigh? Not me, but I would come if there was one.

Aaron spent the rest of the day with his group and I came back to the hotel and worked from bed all day. I am in the midst of editing down all of our curriculum for March and getting other things ready for my maternity leave. I did manage to make it down to the rinky-dink exercise room in our hotel for a bit though.

I met everyone for dinner later, and hung out for the rest of the night.

Aaron and I are finally getting used to the hour time difference just in time to come home tomorrow. Of course.

Today has been a little more laid back, and tomorrow morning we hop on a plane back home.

It's been a relaxing, fun retreat.

nine months later...

I went back and found what I wrote on March 9, 2013...


It was a great week despite being fast-paced. I loved being back at Journey. It's worked out perfectly for me to be working with Aaron again. His workload is increasing quite a bit because our student pastor and his family are leaving for Uganda in a few weeks. They are an amazing family and we are excited for them as they move across the world to fight for their adopted daughter. You can check out more of their story here.

Anyway, until a new student pastor is hired, Aaron will be the interim student pastor. That means, for the next few months or so, he will be leading volunteers working with birth-college.

We are excited for this opportunity, and have prepared ourselves as best we can for a very busy spring and summer.

Our time at home will be very precious, and it will mean cutting back on a lot of extra-curricular activities in the near future.

I am praying a lot of understanding and selflessness over myself.

I know that Aaron will be pulled in a lot of different directions, and I don't want him to feel pulled by me. At least, not in a bad way.

For him, I am praying for wisdom, endurance, strength, peace, guidance, and so much more. I know he will thrive in this season, but I know it will not be without difficulty.

We believe God will not give us more than we can handle and we are excited for this opportunity.

Off we go on another great adventure!

Nine months later, this season of our life is coming to a close. It's been nothing but a blessing, through the good times and not-so-easy-times. I laugh at how what turned into maybe a "few months" was almost a year-long endeavor! But, God's timing is perfect, and he has brought just the right guy to take over Journey Students. We are so excited to welcome our new student pastor, John, and his family.

God answered my prayers that I prayed back in March for sure. I know there were a few nights or days here and there where I was just ready for Aaron to come home and not think about ministry anymore, but I never felt neglected or that he wasn't here enough.

I could not be more proud of how he handled himself through it. He was busy for sure, but when he was home, he was home. And I know his brain didn't always shut off from work, but it was only every so often that I had to call him out for staring off into space. 

I would say, "Whatcha thinkin?" (Even though I knew.)

And he would say, "Sorry. Journey stuff."

And then I would usually remark about whatever the certain situation was and why there was nothing to worry about. And end it with, "It'll all work out. It always does." Because that's what we say around here.

Working with students is way different than working with kids. Way different. It has definitely gotten me out of my comfort zone. I lean towards the preschool age, so older kids and teens make me a little nervous. I didn't get to know a lot of them, but I do like them as a whole a lot more now!

We (well, mainly Aaron) also had an opportunity to deal with some of the tougher issues that you don't get with birth through fifth grade. Being a teenager now is so much different than even 10 years ago when I was in high school. Smart phones, social media, and having constant access to anything and anyone at anytime is the norm now. I can't believe what some kids are looking at and doing and learning about at such a young age now. It scares me to think what it will be like when Graeme is a teenager. He might just never be allowed to have the internet... (kidding, kidding...but you better believe it will be insanely monitored!)

We could not have survived the past nine months without God's help, obviously. But there are also several people that kept Aaron from totally losing his mind. They know who they are. Our Journey Kids/Students part-time staff and volunteers kept the weekly stuff in motion while Aaron stretched himself between the two ministries. I know for me, those people are some of my heroes. He could not have done it without the help that he had.

It has been a long nine months. It's hard for me to even think back to March. But coming out on the other side, it is easy to see how perfect everything was pieced together. When I quit my nanny job last year, we had no idea Aaron would start working "two" jobs. If I had also been working full-time...well, I think that would have been not fun at all. It was orchestrated by God for me to not only get to work part-time, but to work part-time with Aaron. Our pregnancy happened at the perfect time too. God knew that Aaron would phase out of student ministry just in time for this coming March. I could list a lot more, but you get the idea.

This has been a long, rambling post. I am so thankful that we've had this opportunity. I'm glad we didn't miss it. And now, I'm glad it's coming to an end. And all in God's perfect timing. We wouldn't trade it for anything. We are so thankful and trust in Him even more now. He is always faithful. 

about our trip and happy birthday

Hello from Murfreesboro, TN.

Aaron is having a great time at his retreat so far, and I enjoy seeing everyone as well. He is out and about with his INFUSE group most of the time while we are here, but we did have some time to hang out on Wednesday when we arrived in the morning.

We stopped at a coffee shop in downtown Nashville that we love called Fido.

Latte art continues to amuse me.

Beautiful day in Nashville

We drove around downtown for awhile and then went to the Opry Mills Mall and attempted not to spend any money. Aaron did spoil me with a beautiful Cinderella throw blanket that was on clearance at the Disney outlet. 

It was on MAJOR clearance, or we never would have bought it. I can't wait to take it home and put it...somewhere. Not sure where yet.


Yesterday he was gone for most of the day and I joined him for meals.


Today is about the same but I am pretty excited because dinner tonight is at a restaurant that has live Bluegrass music. I don't suppose I love Bluegrass music, but it will be a new experience anyway.

We head back to Raleigh tomorrow and get to see this friendly little monster that we miss terribly:

Lastly, I can't let September 6th go by without saying "Happy Birthday!" to one of my favorite little boys. Happy 2nd Birthday, Keyen! We love you!

about Aaron's busy days

It's been a busy week.

Aaron was asked a few months ago to speak at a local kids' camp by his friend Jeremy. Jeremy is also a children's pastor, and he, along with a few other churches, host a summer camp called Triangle Kids Camp. It's at Louisburg College, which isn't far from where we live.

Aaron agreed, and this week he is speaking to about 75 kids and 30 leaders. 

It started Wednesday evening and will finish up on Saturday morning. I went with him on Wednesday night and then we both came back home. Yesterday, Aaron moved into one of the dorms while I made the trip back and forth. It was the first night in a year that we had been apart I think!

Tonight, my parents are keeping Penny so that I can stay at camp for the last night. I guess I'll get a glimpse of what living in a dorm would have been like.

I'm a proud wife indeed. I love his heart for kids.


I'm sure he'll be ready to crash on Saturday, but only for a couple hours. He's in high demand this week, and he's the DJ/MC at a wedding of some friends on Saturday night. He's excited because he had downloaded some DJ software on his computer when it was free in the App Store or something. You never know when the App of the Week might come in handy I guess...

We have a couple normal days after that, and then he leaves again for camp. This time it's the one and only Camp KidJam with our kiddos from Journey. He's gone Wednesday through Saturday, and Penny and I will be on our own. Thankfully, I get to go see him for the day on Friday.

It's a crazy, busy summer! Especially for Aaron!

about fx:MiNi

Wasn't the set for fx:MiNi so cute?!

We had a great turn out for our first preschool family experience. Our preschool-age director, Robyn, did a fantastic job as the brains behind the whole morning. There were donuts and coffee in the lobby before they came back to the room. Then, there was singing, stories, and activities.

We learned all about how God made us to help others.

That had been their focus for the month of May, so the kids knew all of the songs. They got to teach them to their parents.

Plus, we introduced the new song for June (which I love).

I am definitely looking forward to the next fx:MiNi in August!

And of course my man did a great job telling the Bible story. :)

about the season finale of FX

This past Friday night was our last FX of the season. I am pretty sad they are over for the summer, because they're so much fun. But I know our actors and dancers are excited for a little break!

Friday night we talked about PATIENCE:  waiting until later for what you want now.

I don't know about you, but I don't like being patient. Example: it killed me when the iPhone 5 came out and I was nowhere near my next update. Stupid two year contracts.

Anyway, Friday was our best FX yet. Everyone did such a great job and there was not a single thing that went wrong.

I'm a little biased, but one of the best parts of the night was my crazy husband. He played the role of a Shakespearean actor playing the roles of Jacob and Esau. He was hilarious.

It's always a little strange for me to watch him act because I wasn't part of that phase of his life. There were five years that he was in college and living in Pittsburgh acting that I had no interaction with at all. I know that he's good at it and that he loves it, but he doesn't let me watch many of his shows and I rarely get to see him act on stage. So, I'm always a little taken aback (in a good way) when I see him act. He's really good at it! :)

 

Anyway, FX was so much fun, and I can't wait to kick it back off in October!

about Timothy and our cool job

The other day I was reading Paul's second letter to Timothy in God's Word.

Paul says to Timothy,

"I remember your honest and true faith. It was alive first in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice. And I am certain that it is now alive in you also." (1:5)

And a little later in the same letter Paul says,

"But I want you to continue to follow what you have learned. Don't give up what you are sure of. You know the people you learned it from.  You have known the Holy Scriptures ever since you were a little child. They are able to teach you how to be saved by believing in Christ Jesus." (3:14-15)

Reading these words was an instant reminder of why our job is so cool and why we do what we do. Aaron and I both have a desire for parents to be the spiritual leaders of their kids. God says that faith should be passed down from generation to generation: just like Timothy learned about God from his mom, who learned it from her mom, who learned it from her family, and so on.

When a little child begins to learn about following Jesus at a young age, it will stick with them forever. They might ignore it sometimes, but there's no doubt that those truths are instilled in them. And one day, Lord willing, they will follow Jesus and in turn teach their own children.

At Journey, we exist to be a resource for parents. There's no way we can be the spiritual leaders of everyone's kids. That's not our job. But, we will do anything we can to equip parents to lead their kids to Jesus.

We begin giving parents "parent cues" as soon as they drop off their newborn baby with us, and we continue to partner with parents through high school.

In May, we are offering a brand new class for parents of kids in elementary school called "True Story." It's a class to start parents and their kids on the most important conversation they will ever have: the conversation about God's big rescue story.

I am so excited about this, and I hope we have a good turn out.

Have I mentioned that I love what we get to do?

about April FX

Well, hello.

I'm Whitney, and this is my blog. It's not about anything in particular, but I like to write it. And if you read it, thanks. I appreciate it.

I know this goes without saying, but we had a busy weekend. What else is new? Friday was our Family Experience for elementary kids at Journey. It was a lot of fun and a great time talking about friendship: spending time with someone you trust and enjoy.

Who doesn't love to have friends? Well, maybe some people don't, but they are probably crazy. I think everyone at least has one or two people that they would call friends. After all, God created us to thrive in community.

I am blessed with many friends, but of course there are always a few that are your truly good friends that you trust and enjoy the most.

Anyway, this month in UPTOWN (our elementary area) will be devoted to looking at different aspects of friendship from God's Word.

Friday night was a great kick off!

about my new (old) job

I kind of started working again today. I began "re-training," at least.

Before I was a nanny, I was Aaron's Administrative Assistant at Journey. When we decided I should take a full-time job, I tried to do both for awhile (work 40 hours a week as a nanny and 15 hours a week as his assistant). I was getting it done, but barely. And it meant that I had basically no free time. I would work from 8:30-4:30 every day then head straight to Journey to work another 3 or 4 hours. Plus we would go in on Saturday. It was becoming ridiculous.

So, we decided that it was for the best that I hand off almost all of my responsibilities at Journey and just work my nanny job. Aaron's right and left hands at Journey, Robyn and Lisa, took on what I was doing and kind of divided it between them. And that was that. Except, of course, while I was nannying for the past two years, Journey kids has continued to grow and expand. It is so much bigger than when I left it. In size and in numbers.

When we again decided that it was time to transition from me working full-time, the timing was great in that there was a need for me to come back and work with our Journey Kids team again. Now, we are on the brink of that transition. I am coming back. And all four of us (Aaron, Lisa, Robyn, and me) are going to figure out what it looks like to run this thing together.

So, after taking January off and getting a slow start this month, I went to work today. It's not like I've been entirely away from it for the past two years and am completely out of the loop. But it was still overwhelming. We don't do much differently than when I left. We just do a lot more of it.

Robyn and Lisa are great and answered my millions of questions. And of course going to work with my husband is like the best job ever.

I am excited to get back into the swing of things.

If I can learn how to use our monster of a printer/copier this week at least, I think I'll be off to a good start...

about influence

Two influences speaking the same thing into the life of a person is stronger than just one influence alone.

I probably didn't get that quote quite right. Aaron and our Kids team at Journey say that all of the time in reference to children. That's why we exist as Journey Kids. We are another voice that is here to speak truth to kids. If parents speak truth at home and we speak truth on Sundays, we all have a better chance to influence a child in the way he should go.

Mom and Dad can say one thing over and over again only to have it shoot right out of the other ear. But then Coach says it. Or Small Group Leader says it. Or teacher says it. And it all makes sense.

I think that's true throughout our whole life. We never stop needing community. We never stop needing sound wisdom from others.

Aaron was thinking through something not long ago and kept bringing it up. I kept telling him what I thought of his situation. Yeah, yeah, I know, he'd say.

He then had a phone call with one of his greatest role models, Jim Wideman (Infuse), and got off the phone all excited about what Jim had told him about his situation. He told me what Jim said.

It was the exact same thing I had said. But, hearing it from another trusted source solidified it. And instead of throwing at him that I had been right all along, I just smiled and said Two influences speaking the same thing...

And it proves true again this morning as I sought out advice from a godly friend about a situation. I had talked with Aaron over and over again and could never quite take what he said the right way. You're my husband. You have to say things like that.

But, hearing it from someone else suddenly made everything clear. Oh. Well, now I know the right thing to do.

God Himself said it wasn't good for man to be alone. How important is it then to surround ourselves with community!

about our Orange Meet-up

Tuesday morning, we being Journey Kids, hosted an Orange Meet-up.

Orange is the strategy and curriculum that we use at Journey. But, we sure aren't the only ones. There are many churches in the Raleigh area that use Orange, and we offered our space to get as many together that wanted to come.

This meet-up was a chance to talk about Orange, network with church leaders in our area, ask questions, answer questions, exchange ideas, and partner with each other to reach the families in this city.

We had a great morning of discussing everything from how to train student leaders to how to best partner with parents. 

It's encouraging to know that others are walking alongside of you that have dreams and problems and questions and goals as well. We may do things a little differently here and there, but we all want to see parents and kids know Jesus more.

And, as always, I love watching my husband be an awesome leader and communicator. I never get tired of listening to him talk about Orange. And he talks about it a lot. :)

a catch-up post

Well, the blog has slipped down the priority list these past few days. January isn't over quite yet, but our month of "no plans" is most assuredly over.

I've been a bit hesitant, but it's time to jump back in. There's much to be done and no time to lose.

After being "snowed in" this past weekend, we finally got our butts off the couch on Sunday for a non-stop day of fun.

It was more like "Iced in"

Being back at Journey was wonderful after missing a week, although I failed yet again to make it to a service. You would think with three options it would be easy. Sunday, however, that was not the case. I worshipped with Mini City first and second hour and got to snuggle cute babies during third.

Sunday afternoon we had a rehearsal for February FX, which is coming up on Friday. 

After rehearsal, Aaron and I jumped in the car and drove all the way to Cary for our niece's first birthday party.

Aaron and his brothers being strange...

It was a Minnie Mouse birthday party...we were so proud.

The birthday girl

Us with our nephew, Samuel.

We crashed back at home around 7:00pm Sunday night.

Monday, we woke up and headed straight for the Dollar Store. One of the many jobs of a children's ministry is preparing supplies for each week. We are very intentional about what we do at Journey, and in no way do we just sit around a babysit for four hours every Sunday.

Our curriculum is very age-intentional as well as focused on a particular bottom line each week. We prepare supplies and activities for our kids from 2s all the way through fifth grade.

Each activity is targeted to an appropriate age-level and makes a point with what we are learning that day. We, thankfully, don't have to make up the activities. But, we do supply everything for our teachers.

For example, two-year-olds this month are making stethoscopes one week in February out of headbands, ribbon, and stickers to remind them that Jesus loves them and wants them to love others. One way they can do that is taking care of others when they are sick. We therefore scoured the dollar store for 50 headbands.

Another example would be that elementary kids this month are learning that sometimes you have to get messy to make peace. Fourth and fifth graders are painting with shaving cream on cookie sheets with their noses at one point. That's something that will be hard to forget. It's a great reminder to make peace even when it does get messy. 

So, seeing as we have about 300 kids per Sunday who are all doing activities such as those every week, we buy a lot of supplies. Shopping day is no small feat. We shop for two months at a time. It takes a whole day and three different stores on average. 

I haven't been able to be a part of shopping day in a couple years because I've been working. It was good to be back.

Here was our stop at BJs:

It's hard to see everything. But that big cart is packed with February supplies.

So, Monday was busy with shopping. Tuesday then, was packing day.

After we buy everything for the month, we have to go through the lesson for each group, each week and pack the supplies they need.

This entails:

TheBLOCK (2s):  prep for approx. 50 kids each week

MiNi CiTy (3s-5s):  prep for approx. 90 kids each week

Uptown (K-5th):  prep for approx. 150 kids each week

Every week, each group has between six-eight activities. Not all activities require supplies. Some only require a couple. Some require enough for every kid to make something that they will take home.

You just never know.

Packing day for February actually finished up in three hours. This is basically unheard of.

To end our Tuesday, we headed to our friends Ryan and Aura's house for an impromptu birthday celebration for their daughter, Leah.

It was complete with a fire-breathing ninja rainbow dragon cake.

Yes.

Not your typical five-year-old girl...we love her.

And that's been our week so far.

My sister-in-law asked me on Sunday how I had time to write a blog.

I thought for a minute.

"Well, I don't really have time I guess. I make time."

So, I did. And I will again tomorrow somehow.

about Tennessee day one

We left for Tennessee on Wednesday. Thanks to Aaron looking at the correct email from Southwest, we were on time for our flight. A Whitney almost-fail avoided.

I left work at 11:30, we grabbed lunch on the way to the airport, we went ahead and parked on the 6th floor of the parking garage, and walked the seemingly mile-long walk to Terminal 1.

On the way to the airport

Pulling into RDU

We printed our tickets and checked our baggage (for free-go Southwest). We went through security (my least favorite part). We grabbed a must-needed Starbucks and sat at our gate for about 30 minutes while we waited to board.

Shouldn't lose these...

Our plane arrived 

Passing time

We ran into a friend that was boarding the same flight as us, although he was much earlier in the boarding line. He was kind enough to save us two seats near the front of the plane with him. Score.

Here we go! Also, please don't crash, pretty airplane.

My in-flight entertainment

My moneysaur

We landed safely in Nashville, and got to my next least favorite part of flying: waiting at baggage claim and praying that your luggage comes around the swirly carousel of bags.

Success. Thank God.

After our bags were safely in tow, we came to the small problem of not remembering where our rental car came from. You can read that story in my previous post. Thankfully, we resolved that and were on our way to Murfreesboro.

Our Dodge Avenger 

Our welcome to Tennessee

Our hotel was easy to find, since we had stayed here before. Our hotel is awesome. Especially since they let us switch rooms for the sake of fun and because I'm ridiculous sometimes. 

Popcorn in the lobby. Hampton Inn Murfreesboro-1. All other hotels without popcorn in the lobby-0.

We finished off our first day in Tennessee with a trip to Target for a notebook for Aaron, dinner with half of the INFUSE group, and fun conversations about partnering with parents.

My favorite part of the conversation was being reminded of Luke 2:52- And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.

That verse gives us four main ideas for how we should be helping kids grow:  physically (stature), mentally (wisdom), emotionally (favor with man), and spiritually (favor with God).

I had never thought about that verse like that before. If that's how Jesus grew up, and we want our kids to be like Jesus, there's our formula right there. 

Cool stuff.

Successful day.