Life with Lindsey

The Great Land

Just home from a quick trip to Alaska, where I met with supporters, spent time with family and preached in some of my supporting churches. Even though everyone up there feels a bit jipped (seems summer has sort of passed them by, the last few months have been marked by cold days and rain, not a typical Alaskan summer), it was still so refreshing to see old friends and be with my family.

My grandmother was up visiting from Colorado, it was fun to spend time with her, playing cards and looking for wildlife. That pic of the 2 of us showcases some of my mom’s blooming Alaska wildflowers. Gram was a real trooper, as my week long trip included more than 24 hours in the car, traveling around the state to places like Kenai and Fairbanks to visit churches. We shared stories and laughed a lot.

One of the highlights of the trip was preaching at my home church, Muldoon Community Assembly, in Anchorage. One of my favorite people, Fay Niemann, was being celebrated for 20 years of service as a pastor in that congregation and I got to preach the morning message in her honor. She has been in my life for most of those 20 years, including being my children’s pastor when I was little and eventually, giving me my first job as a college pastor 3 years ago. She’s a mentor and special friend in my life and it was fun to celebrate with her family. (The pic below is with Fay last summer at a pastor’s meeting in Indianapolis.)

My brother was up in Alaska too, he’s living at home these days and when he’s not working, his hobby is fixing up his racecar. He came in 2nd in a national quaifying race last weekend. Here’s a shot of he and I with our folks on the day before I left:

I almost missed the plane last night, the airports were packed with people who’ve been stranded because of ash clouds from spewing volcanoes, but I’m back at home this afternoon, getting ready for summer Chi Alpha tonight. We’ve still got 6 weeks until classes start in the fall, I’m praying that they will be fruitful for preparation, prayer, and study.

Thanks for staying tuned in, I’m thankful for you!

1 comment August 12th, 2008

Ahhhh… Summer

I heart the summer time!

My life has slowed down a lot since graduation. I’m working on my ordination classes–2 down 6 to go–and helping lead summer Chi Alpha. We’ve got around 15 folks here this summer and we’re studying the book of Isaiah, which has been really interesting. But I’m also enjoying sunshine and flowers and fresh fruit and visitors on vacation. There’s so much to look forward to!

That’s me last week, enjoying a beautiful July day in California with my friend Emma. Emma is a Chi Alpha missionary in the Netherlands, we were roommates during our year of ministry training in Washington. It was so refreshing to spend time with a friend like her.

Following her visit, Jacob and Audry came to visit from Oregon. Audry was in the frist Bible study I ever led as a Chi Alpha pastor. She became a Christian that year and we’ve remained friends. She and Jacob get married in September and have asked me to officiate the ceremony. It was fun to meet him and get to hear about what’s going on in their lives; they are both recent college grads.

Next month I’m expecting more visitors and times with special folks. Plus I get to head to Alasks for a week to visit family and preach at some of my supporting churches. For now, I’m off to the kitchen to cook for our Chi Alpha potluck tonight. And tomorrow I’m headed to the beach to talk with youth pastors and high schoolers at their summer camp about Chi Alpha. The beach!

Ahhhh… Summer!

Add comment July 15th, 2008

Grad Banquet

The above photo features 9 of our 10 2008 Chi Alpha graduates at our Grad Banquet last week. I cooked dinner for 40 and we ate and celebrated together. After a time of worship and prayer, the graduates took turns sharing scriptures, songs and words of advice with the younger students. It was a meaningful but tearful night, we are really going to miss this bunch, they are headed all over the world to go to grad school and work in various fields. Stay tuned–I look forward to updating you on how these students start to change the world.

This weekend is graduation, honors ceremonies begin Friday night, with events on Saturday and offical commencement on Sunday. I’m looking forward to meeting student’s families and being a part of their celebrations. After that–it’s officially summer! This summer I have 4 main priorities:

1) study - I’m taking classes at the seminary and toward ordination.

2) faciliate summer Chi Alpha - We’ll have weekly worship gatherings and I’ll be involved in ongoing discipleship meetings.

3) itinerate - I’ll be doing some traveling to meet with supporters and give updates on our ministry.

4) rest - The pace will slow down from what it is during ths school year, which will be a blessing!

Thanks for continuing to pray and support us in this season–I’m so thankful for an awesome support team like you!

1 comment June 9th, 2008

Tea Parties and Taco Dinners

That’s me with my friend (and Stanford grad student) Hilary last weekend at a tea party in Madera. Madera Ranchos Assembly of God, one of my favorite supporting churches, had their annual community ladies event and invited me to be the guest speaker. Hilary, one of our Chi Alpha students, came with me and we had such a good time with all those wonderful women. We stayed through the weekend and I led worship and preached Sunday morning and night at MRAG.

Back on campus, we’re halfway through spring quarter. Graduation is just six weeks away-hard to beleive it’s that time again! We’ve just elected our Chi Alpha officers for next year and we’ve got a fantastic group of leaders. I’m continuing to lead a Thursday night dinner group called Food For Thought, where we’re discussing important figures in church history over meals together. And our Wednesday night meetings continue to grow as we’ve begun a new sermon series on the book of Ecclesiastes. It’s a fun season of serving God on campus.

Add comment May 5th, 2008

Life Together

Life Together is a book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an Christian theologlian and activist in the Nazi resistance, which I am studying with some of my Chi Alpha gals this quarter. It also feels like the theme of these last weeks.

Right after spring quarter began last week, we had a visit from Ria, a Stanford Chi Alpha alum from the island of Trinidad who’s completing the Ford Fellowship in New York City before finishing her Master’s at Cambridge next year. As if that wasn’t enough–she’s also getting married this summer in Ghana! Paula, my co-missionary, and I hosted a bridal shower for her at my home. It was a special time of honoring her and gathering together.

In addition to the shower, we also had two birthdays to celebrate on campus last week, which we did with balloons and cake and lots of laughter. Add to that a breakfast meeting with the worship team, an evening dinner discussion about the book of Acts, a mid-week service celebrating the Holy Spirit, a girl’s Bible study on the book of Exodus and all of the “together-ness” starts to add up.

But that’s not an accident! In fact, I will be speaking at Chi Alpha tomorrow night on why real community is so important. After the Day of Pentecost in the book of Acts, chapter 2, this incredible thing happens:

And still today we’re challenged by the way those early beleivers in Jesus lived life together.

I close with an African proverb which gives me pause, in the midst of my everyday busy-ness:

1 comment April 8th, 2008