It's Over?!?

While this has felt like the longest summer of my 28 years, one thing has seemed to fly by; Reading Rocks. I haven't written much about Reading Rocks (mainly because there has been SO much other stuff going on), but its been one thing that has constantly brought me joy throughout the summer. And now its over. :(

This has been, by far, the best summer we have had with Reading Rocks. I really believe that is because this summer we had a team of people that all worked hard and worked together very well. Thanks to Carisa's leadership, Shannon's hard work (and incredible shopping abilities), and Laurie's consistency and willingness to do whatever was needed, we had an INCREDIBLE summer!!

If you are curious as to how we run Reading Rocks, Carisa has posted all about the program on her blog, so definitely check them out: Reading Rocks~How it works Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4 and Part 5.

So, after 5 weeks of a lot of fun and hard work (on the kids part, haha) we had our finale party on Thursday; and it was so much fun!! The kids had to earn at least 75 points to be invited to the party (which ends up being less than 4 books), and we had 51 kids reach that goal!! Here is how the party went:

The kids arrived at 6:30 and came in for a meal and a slide show dvd playing of photos from Reading Rocks.

After eating, we went to the next room where the kids were presented with their Certificates of Achievement showing how many points they had earned. Here is an example:

This year, for the first time, we also gave out special awards to kids who we felt had consistently displayed the fruit of the Spirit throughout the summer. Several kids were chosen in each category: Joyful, Like Christ, Patient and Helpful, Gentle and Quiet, Neat and Organized, and Great Focus. And I am VERY proud to announce (and I had NOTHING to do with this decision), that this beautiful little girl won the special award for being Patient and Helpful all summer:

Bonita!!!!

I don't know why, but I have been feeling very nostalgic lately and during the party I found myself just staring at Bonita and Linda (who was not able to participate this summer because she is now a teen, but was one of only 6 teenagers to earn a backpack because of her consistent help this summer). I knew they were special when I met them 6 years ago, but (though they are certainly not perfect), they are becoming even more incredible and beautiful than I ever thought they would be.

Okay, back to Reading Rocks...after receiving awards the kids went outside to play on the playground and were called downstairs a few at a time (in order of the points they earned at RR) to choose their new backpack, school supplies, socks, undies and uniform shirts.

Shannon and her family were AMAZING this year, buying all the supplies, packing them up for the kids and even transporting them to the church with no help from us. THANK YOU!! Here is what all the school supplies looked like while they were being organized:

And here is what each child received in their backpacks:

1 plastic binder, 6 2-pocket folders, 2 spiral bound notebooks, 1 pack notebook paper, 1 composition book, 1 Crayola Broad markers, 1 Crayola Fine Line markers, 1 Crayola Colored pencils, 1 8ct. pencils, 1 pencil box, 1 pack index cards, 1 24 ct. Crayola crayons, 1 2ct. pink eraser, 1 scissors, 1 2ct. glue stick, 1 ruler, 1 pencil sharpener, 10 pencil top erasers!!!

Carisa took all the pictures at the party, so I only have what I could steal from hers and Shannon's blog, but I am sure she will post ALL of the final pictures soon, so check them out here!!

And this picture is for my mom because she thinks Ky is just as cute as I do:

(Kyler is Carisa's youngest son, and he got a backpack this year..and was thrilled!!! And to think I was worried he wasn't going to be as cool as Paxton...)

Okay, so here is the final group shot of all the kids who were at the party:

How much fun is that?!?

After the group shot, it was time for everyone to head home. Parents and kids alike were very excited about everything and it was so much fun to see the kids so proud of themselves.

I didn't get any pictures of my kids at the party, but I am sure Carisa did, so I will post them as soon as I can. Pedro and Miguel weren't able to participate this summer (they were in Lancaster with their parents), but I did get backpacks for them after all the other kids had chosen theirs. Thankfully, they still got the exact ones they wanted. Linda, Bonita, Tasha and Monique all also got exactly what they wanted. We are all going uniform shopping in a few weeks. I can't believe school is almost here again!!

Although I don't have any pictures of my kids from this Reading Rocks, I did find this pic from 3 summers ago...




Just look at their portraits at the top of this blog...they are growing up so fast!!!!

A Very Full Week

SO much has happened this week! I am absolutely exhausted and so excited to get to bed tonight, but I wanted to update on everything before I sleep. Here are the highlights:


First, I co-led an AIM trip this week. I was dreading it and wasn't sure if I would be able to really pour into the teams the way that I wanted to. As it turns out, it was an amazing week!! I even got to do a talk one night with the girls on both teams about being a woman of God. We had a lot of questions about dress code throughout the week and one of the leaders heard about God's Girls and asked if I would talk to his girls about the beauty and modesty part. I was extremely nervous about it, but it went AMAZINGLY!!! After the talk I had several girls come and tell me that they had never heard what I was telling them and they were so excited. All of the girls from one team immediately made plans to go shopping together to buy modest clothing! One girl and I had a great conversation about being beautiful and she confessed struggling with an eating disorder. We talked and prayed together and it was awesome!!! One of teams was an from an inner city in Toronto and the teens reminded me so much of my teens at Cornerstone. I really enjoyed working with them and their leaders were amazing. I am praying about the possibility of taking Cornerstone teens to their church in Canada next year!!


This week we also had the Reading Rocks party! We had over 50 kids participate this year, and most of them came to the party (several were out of town or forgot). The party was a bit of chaos, but overall it was really fun and the kids had a blast!! Each kid got a brand new book bag FILLED with school supplies (because Shannon is incredible and made money multiply through sales like I have never seen before), a school uniform and even new underwear and socks!!! We also played games where the kids won different prizes. Every kid went home very happy. I am VERY proud to say that Bonita was the second highest points earner with 373 points!! I think she could have been first but she was at camp for the entire last week of the program. I am still so proud of her!! Linda earned almost 100 points and got a backpack as well. Pedro and Miguel are still out of town but will get their backpacks when they come home. (Miguel was gone all summer but he absolutely would have participated and earned a ton of points if he had the chance. Pedro was only around for a little bit, but earned enough points to be invited to the party).

Of course, this week was also God's Girls and I can't believe we have finished our 3rd year!! This year was very different, Carisa and I both went into it a lot more scattered than we have in the past, but it all still went VERY well. The entire week was amazing and it all culminated in the annual God's Girls sleepover last night. We had 8 girls participate this year, and of course I LOVED having Bonita there (she was pretty excited about it as well). I feel really good about how everything went, but I have to honestly say that I am relieved it is over. This week tends to be the hardest week of the year for me spiritually, but that wasn't the case this year...Praise God!! I made the conscious choice to ignore the lies of the enemy this year, and it seems to have worked. Whenever I had thoughts come to mind that I knew were not from God, I just ignored them...I didn't try to fight them, I just moved on. I ended the week very tired, but still feeling really good about all that God has done. That's awesome to me!

There were only 2 real hiccups with God's Girls this year. First, last night around 10:30 Frank called Carisa is intense pain from a kidney stone. Carisa had to immediately leave to take him to the emergency room which left me with the girls to finish up the night. We had not finished all of the teaching yet, but thankfully the stuff that was left was mostly my part to teach anyway. (I am SO thankful that Carisa was around for the "sex" talk, I am not ready to give that one any time soon!). We finished the night well and while we definitely missed Carisa (me probably more than anyone), we were fine without her. It took a while to get the girls to sleep, but that's to be expected at a sleepover. :) Carisa finally got back around 6 a.m. and helped get the girls up and home this morning. It was a crazy night! (You can check out the God's Girls Blog and read all about it as well as see great pictures!! The web address is: http://www.godsgirls2007.blogspot.com/)


The only other difficult part of God's Girls this year is probably only known to me and Carisa (and Carisa only because she knows and loves me so much). Every year we have at least 2 amazing Christian guys come and speak to the girls about what a Christian man is looking for in a woman. Our goal with this is to show the girls that Carisa and I aren't the only ones trying to live as godly women, and that good men are seeking godly women. Every year it is a fun time as the guys share and the girls get to ask them questions. This year things were going great until the question was asked, "How old do you want to be when you get married?" Both of these guys are 23 (one is 22 but about to turn 23), so they are still very young, and obviously younger than me (I'm 27). Both of them immediately responded that they wanted to get married and have children before they were 28. One even went as far as to explain that his reasoning was that he didn't want to be too old when he had children.


I was devastated. There is a VERY small possibility that I will be married by 28, but it is very doubtful...and I will certainly not have children by that time. The reason I was devastated was not that I am desperate to get married or that I have any regrets about being single at my age. I was upset because they in effect told these girls, "We just don't want to end up like Trish". They basically just made my ministry 100 times more difficult than it already is. Each year at God's Girls (and honestly with the teen girls as well) I place myself in front of these girls and do my best to show them that the life God has chosen for me is a beautiful one. It is an amazing life full of incredible blessings and above all, it is a life full of Him. I absolutely want to get married someday, but more than that I want God's plan for my life...so I will wait for His timing for my wedding day. I live an extremely uncommon life around here and am often pitied, looked down upon and even made fun of. But, I know I am following God in the choices that I have made, so I make no apologies and have no regrets. However, it is extremely difficult to convince young women that being single at my age is not the end of the world. Those guys just made that even harder.


God is the redeemer and my prayer is that my life will consistently show that. I was telling a friend earlier this week that my prayer is not that I would be proven right, but that God would use my life to prove Himself right. I want my life to be a constant example of His beauty, mercy and love. My prayer is that when I die there will be no discussion about how old I was when I got married, if I even marry at all. My prayer is that my life will be a celebration of His goodness and faithfulness and that someday people will look at me not with pity, but with a stronger desire to know Him, no matter what the cost.


Finally, Cornerstone has a new website with all of our pictures, so you really want to check it out!! You can see tons of pictures from God's Girls, Reading Rocks, Kids Club...pretty much everything! I added the link to the right, so check them all out!! :)

Reading Really Does Rock!

Reading Rocks has been going really well all summer. In fact, its been going so much better than we ever thought it would! We have over 50 kids on the roster and haven't had any less than 20 kids come on a given day. Sometimes we have close to 30!

One of the best parts about Reading Rocks is that Carisa and I do it together. When I first came on staff with Cornerstone the plan was for me and Carisa to work together on almost everything. Because of many different things it hasn't really worked out that way. The result is not exactly what I expected, but its still great! Nonetheless, I always enjoy the things that Carisa and I do get to do together. I learn so much from her and really enjoy working with her. We work really well together.

I was pretty nervous about this week, though, because Carisa is out of town. In fact, she will be out of town for 2 weeks, which means I am running Reading Rocks alone. Well, not really alone...we actually have a lot of help from the teens...but I'm always nervous about running things without Carisa around.

Thankfully, I am very happy to report that Reading Rocks has been wonderful this week!!! Kids area earning points like crazy and I am amazed at how much they love the program and are growing in their reading skills. Wednesday was my favorite day so far.

On Wednesdays we do special reading events at the church instead of the normal read and earn points. This week we did a "Pastor Reading Time" and it was AWESOME!! Pastor Bill read the kids some of his favorite poems and they loved them. He did funny voices and was very animated, and wonderful. The teens really enjoyed his story time as well! He even kept little A's attention the entire time, which I don't think has ever been done before! :) Pastor Andy read an amazing book with great parallels to Christ and the kids really enjoyed figuring out what each character in the story represented. It was so great to watch the light bulbs go off as they realized that they were like some of the characters in the story and that God had a special message for them. It was GREAT!!!

The only really hard part has been all the questions I am getting from kids about after-school. Reading Rocks reminds them of after-school and they keep asking when it will start up again. I don't have the heart yet to explain to them that it isn't going to happen so I just keep telling them we will have to just wait and see what happens.

Another plus is that for the first time in 3 years of the program, Bonita and Linda are fully participating. In the past they have come once or twice but that's it. Now Bonita is on contention to be the top points earner and Linda isn't far behind (she would be even closer to Bonita if she didn't sit with M every day...they tend to distract each other). :)