It doesn't happen the way you hoped

The first day of Transformer (for me and) after March break was this past Tuesday and it was also storming. So my long awaited return to youth group has been postponed a week.

I was so sad when I got the message that Transformers was cancelled due to the storm. Although it was a good decision because the roads were messy and there was so much snow. But still, I really had wanted to get back to spending my Tuesday nights with the middle school group from my church.

I feel like through this storm and youth group cancellation and through some other current events in my life, God is teaching me that he is in control.

Even though I really wanted to start back at youth group, I had no control of the weather; I couldn't stop the snow from coming.

Also happening in my life this week, my grandmother had a triple bypass done yesterday. As she awaited her surgery I had asked her if she was scared - it would make sense if she was, she's 81 years old and it's a major surgery. She told me she wasn't scared because there was really nothing she could do about it. She had faith that God was in control and whatever was going to happen was his will.

Wow, what a lesson she taught me through her bravery and her faith.

The storm was a little reinforcement of the lesson. God is in control, whatever happens is his will.

I didn't get to youth group like I had hoped this past Tuesday, but here's hoping that the snow is done, there won't be anymore storms, and I will get to return to Transformers this coming Tuesday!

Jumping back into it

Other than one weekend when I was home in February, last Sunday was my first week (physically - thank God for livestream) back at my home church.

One of my favourite parts about moving home is that I get to go back to my home church.

As soon as the service was over on Sunday I looked for Matt to confirm my coming back to Transformers. We talked for a bit and I'm good to go for this coming Tuesday. I can't wait!!

Matt and I also talked about some exciting upcoming opportunities that I could possibly get involved in - Journey to the Cross (a really cool interactive Good Friday, family experience), and the One Conference were a few of the things we talked about.

One of the things Matt said was "I don't want you to think that I'm like Oh Emily's back lets get her to do this, this, this, and this, but if you want to get plugged in again, let me know I have lots of ideas." So I'm excited to get plugged in again. I definitely will be cautious to not take more on my plate than I can handle, but I will definitely be getting involved as much as I can.

I'm excited to be back, I'm excited to be getting plugged in, and I'm SO excited to go to Transformers on Tuesday night.

That's all for now!
Until next time,
Emily

two weeks til Transformers

After a long two months of a crazy busy schedule of classes and school work it is time to take a break, relax, and refresh before I jump back into teaching.

With teaching, I'm moving home and I'm starting back at youth group again.

I'm so excited to get back to my regular routine of Tuesday night youth group. I miss the hype and excitement that comes from playing games and learning about Jesus with middle schoolers.

As I'm preparing to head home and take my reading week break, I'm also preparing my heart for youth leadership. It has been almost three months (two while in school and a little less then one for Christmas break) and I have not led a devo or small group of middle school students.

As much as I love youth leadership, whenever I take some time off and then start back into it I'm always nervous for the first week back. Nervous that the youth will forget who I am, nervous that they will question why I am there, and nervous that they won't like me anymore. I know I'm over thinking but those thoughts will run through my head at least once between now and my first week back.

So I'm trying to prepare my heart. I'm prayerfully asking the Lord to prepare me to serve him through serving youth. I ask God to use me as an example for these young people. I ask that he will make my love for him evident through my actions. I ask that he will give me the energy and enthusiasm to keep up with the business that comes with middle schoolers.

I'm so excited to get back to youth group, it gives my heart so much joy to see young souls learning and loving Jesus. I cannot wait! Most posts to come about youth group very soon.

Until next time,
Em

Faith and Friends

There is a girl who goes to youth group. She doesn't seem really loud, but she does have friends in the group. She's not someone I knew before two weeks ago. She isn't one of the girls who grew up going to the church, she just comes to youth group. Her older brother had gone to youth group when he was in middle school and high school because a friend had invited him and he told his sister about it so now she goes.

Last week I wrote about how I want to build relationships with the kids who go to youth group. I want to be a role model for them and I want to be a friend for them.

So this week I started working towards that goal. At the beginning of youth group the kids have free time and I saw this girl sitting by herself instead of playing soccer with some of the other kids so I went over to sit by her. We talked for a little bit and I got to know some more about her school and some of the projects she's working on for class.

It's super cool talking to some of the youth group kids because they are so much younger than me, but not only that, their experience in middle school is so different but yet so similar to my own experience. Some things they talk about I can relate to and remember from when I was in middle school, but other things go right over my head and I have no idea what they are talking about. It's definitely an interesting experience.

This week for Alpha our topic was all about faith. The video and questions brought about some really good conversations, I was with the middle school girls for small group time and there was one girl who kept amazing me with her answers. She seemed so mature in her answers it was so cool!

One of the questions after the video was asking us which character we would be if a relationship with God was the pool. The courage the girls had to tell us that they were just dipping their toes in or that they were the girl with the towel who was scared made me admire them so much. To be honest, when I was in middle school, I probably would have said what everyone else was saying, but these girls were not afraid to say where they were at in their faith.

Pool photo from Alpha "If a relationship with God was the pool, which person would you be?"

Going to youth group every Tuesday really fills my heart. I love spending time with very active young people and I love learning with them and leading them closer to Jesus Christ!

Thanks for reading,

Em

the time has come

So I'm finally home for my teaching practicum and I'm so excited!

Being home also means that I can (finally) start leading at youth group!

So Tuesday night I made the very familiar drive to my home church and prepared myself to jump back into the youth leading game. It was both awesome and a little weird being back. It was awesome because I love youth - especially middle schoolers - and I'm so happy to be back. It was a little weird because all of a sudden these kids who I have known since they were babies are now in middle school going to youth group every week.

The middle school youth group is called Transformers, because it is a place for middle schoolers to go to have their lives transformed by Jesus.

The schedule of the night is a bit different from when I used to help out at Transformers 4 years ago.

Transformers nights in a nutshell: The students come in, mingle and hang out for a while. Then they have a warm up game, we played human tic-tac-toe. After the game there is snack. Following snack we split up into small groups for devo time. We are currently doing Alpha which is super cool because I have always heard of Alpha but I have never done it before. After devo we head back into the gym for big group games - we played life size hungry hungry hippos this week. Finally the night is over and it's time to go home.

If you can't already tell I'm so excited to be back at youth group. Seeing young people on fire for Christ fills my heart and inspires me to draw closer to Him.

Since I have finally started my time at youth group I figure it would be a good idea to make a goal for my time here. My biggest goal for the next few weeks is to get to know the kids. I want to really build strong relationships with the kids at youth group, I want to be someone they can trust and come to if they have any problems or questions. So over the next few weeks I am really going to focus on talking to each of the kids. First I'll start by asking them how their day was or how school is going. I'm going to start small and build up from there.

I can't wait to tell you more next week.

Thanks for reading,
Em

Getting Excited

I am starting to get excited. 

November 5th I head home and I start my teaching practicum on November 6th. Being home means that I will be back at my home church regularly and being back at my home church regularly means that I will be able to get involved with one of my favourite groups: YOUTH! 

I really cannot wait to start leading some youth at RiverCross. I love ministering to youth both middle school and high school alike. I think my favourite thing about the youth at RiverCross is their hearts for Jesus. There seriously are some kids on fire for Christ and they just inspire me to be like that too. 

For the past few years I have been in and out with the RiverCross youth, mainly because I haven't been in Saint John full time since 2015. But I have still been around in the summers and for the odd winter camp and youth event. Getting back to being a leader weekly will hopefully be like going back to family. I'm excited to get updated on the lives of the youth I already know and I'm excited to meet and get to know new youth that I do not already know. 

I really have no expectations and that is one of my favourite parts. 

Two weeks ago I was home and I was able to snag a ticket to a concert that the high schoolers and young adults were going to. On the way there I was able to talk to Matt about the next month when I would be home to start helping out. We are not exactly which group I'll be going to, but to be honest I will be happy anywhere. 

I know this post is completely opposite from last weeks dark and dreary post, but the Lord has been stirring this excitement in my heart and I cannot wait to update you about it as I continue on this journey. 

Thanks for reading, 

Em

And We're Back

I'm back to the blogging scene and so much has changed since my last post. 

I graduated my undergrad (Bachelor of Arts), I started my third degree (Bachelor of Education) and I'm still in progress with my second degree (Bachelor of Theology). 

In the past few months, life has been really good at some times, life has been really bad at other times, but mostly life has been really busy at all times. 

Here's a little recap: 

Let's start in May. I went to Cuba with my family on vacation. It was an amazing time to relax and refresh and spend quality time with my parents and my sister. We arrived home from Cuba early Saturday morning (3:30am). This was the same Saturday of my graduation from Crandall. So we went back to my apartment for a few hours of sleep before getting up again to get ready for the big day. 

Graduation came and went, and then my summer job began. As soon as I started working the summer just kind of blurs together. The days went by quick and the weeks went by even quicker. By day I was working, by night I was on the field practicing rugby and the weekends was a combination of playing rugby, trying to get to my trailer for family time, and going to/working at the church. I can't tell you what happened on any specific day because, as I said, it went by in a blur and every day was blended together. 

I did get to preach one Sunday though! And I must say, that was definitely one of the highlights of my summer. 

It's funny because when I think of this past summer, I can easily think of three bad things that happened and it's harder to think of the good things. Of course being back playing rugby was AMAZING and as I said, preaching was awesome, but this summer - or at least the end of it was pretty hard. 

The brutal end to the summer along with the business - not really getting a summer vacation, and jumping into a university varsity sport and an EXTREMELY demanding Education program has put me on a slow start. 

I'm not trying to make excuses or anything, I'm just giving an update on my very hectic and chaotic life. 

So we're midway through August. My sister, dad, and I are in Fredericton for a rugby game when, just as the game was ending, my mom called us. My uncle, aunt, and little (14 years old) cousin were in a terrible accident. Their trailer blew up while the three of them were in it. They all received bad burns and two of the three of them were in the ICU. Now (Oct.) all three are alive and recovering - my little cousin, the last of the three, just got out of the hospital last week, but at the time it was scary for them, for family, and for friends. You can read a little more about their accident here. So that's number one. 

Number two, about a week later, my grandmother, who is 80 (and the mother of my uncle who was in the accident), calls my house, asking for my parents to take her to the hospital because she is feeling so sick and she is in a lot of pain. My parents go over to her house and call an ambulance while my sister and I stay home scared and wondering what is going to happen. It turns out that it was mostly from stress and exhaustion, and we are able to bring her back to my house that night to watch her and help her recover. This happened the night before my sermon. It is kind of interesting because the topic I was preaching on was worry, so there was a moment that night where I said "Emily, how can you preach about giving your worries to God if you are not willing to do that yourself?" so I prayed and instantly felt better because I knew my God was in control of the situation. 

Number three, my dog, who was my first and only dog, was about 12. We all loved her to death. She had slowed down a bit over the years, but she really didn't change that much. Until we noticed, near the end of August, that she was having trouble breathing. My dad took her to the vet for x-rays and it turns out her lungs were pushed up in her chest. The vet gave us steroids for her to take to see if it was fluid that was pushing on her lungs. So we started giving her steroids and her breathing got better, but she stopped eating. Meanwhile, my sister and I had to leave for Fredericton (two days after finishing our summer jobs) for rugby training camp. I went home to visit about a week later to see that my dog had lost so much weight. She was merely skin and bones. She held on for a little while longer for my sister and I to say goodbye, but then my parents made the difficult decision to put her down.

On top of all that I'm taking 9 courses a week, I have one 10 hour day, a 12 hour day, and three 6 hour days. Oh and I'm playing rugby for STU so the few hours spent on rugby and my devotional time before bed (which I only started back doing in the past few weeks - more on this in a later post), is the only time I really have to take a breath. 

Of course, I do not regret anything, every experience this summer and this semester is helping me to grow and learn more on God. I know that there is absolutely no way I can accomplish this and reach my goals without trusting Him. 

I am however, so looking forward to Christmas break when I will have three weeks of no school, relaxation, and family and friend time. 

Now to the ministry stuff. I am currently in classes at STU for my Ed degree. In November, I move back home to start my practicum (I can't wait!) and when I do that I will also be starting youth group (I also can't wait for that!). This past week I was super lucky to get my hands on an extra ticket to see my favourite worship band: Rend Collective. I went with my church - some of the youth and young adults. While on the way I was able to talk to Matt, my home church's NextGen Pastor about youth group. See I'm not picky, I just love working with youth. I'm happy with middle school (Transformers) or high school (J-Walkers) so he said he will be looking into where I'm needed most and will let me know, but most likely I'll be with the middle school group. 

I'm super excited to be getting back into leading youth group, it definitely is a joy that fills my heart! I will be updating this blog with more ministry and general life stuff as the year goes on. 

Thanks for reading and joining me on this wild ride.

Many blessings, 

Em