E-A-G-L-E-S- EAGLES!!!

I got to go to an Eagles game tonight!! It was AWESOME!!! I have ALWAYS wanted to go to an Eagles game, but never thought I would get the chance to actually do it! Granted, it was a pre-season game, but I don't care. I got to see the Eagles live!!!


In case you didn't know, I LOVE football. I especially love going to football games. I never missed a single home game during all of my 4 years at Virginia Tech, and even went to several away games and bowl games. I can't afford Tech tickets, so its been years since I have been to any football game (if I can't afford Tech, I certainly can't afford Eagles tickets!), so tonight was an AMAZING BLESSING!!


My friend Shera got 2 tickets from work and invited me to come along with her. THANK YOU SHERA!!! Not only did I get to see the Eagles play, but I was there with Shera and some of her co-workers and they were really fun! I really enjoyed laughing with all of them. In all, it was just a REALLY REALLY fun night!!!!!!!!!!

Great Things About Being Single, Part 2

1. I can start and finish a book in one day, with no interruptions.

2. My room is a DISASTER. If I close the door, no one knows. :)

3. Other people's kids! (I just spent 2 days completely enjoying the kids of our staff members, but I didn't have to change a single diaper. I also stayed up late at night and slept until we had a meeting in the morning).

4. Do I want to shower today? I make the decision based on the answer to this question: Will I see anyone today that will be offended by the smell?

5. When I want time alone, I don't have to ask; I just take it.

6. Hey Trish, I have tickets to the Eagles pre-season game against the Jets on Thursday, can you drop everything and come with me? YES!!!

7. Hey Trish, we have an emergency and we need a babysitter, can you drop everything and help us out? YES!!!

8. I want ice cream at 2 a.m. I will go get ice cream at 2 a.m. (shhhh...don't tell my dad) :)

9. The toilet paper is under. Not over; under. Its my house.

10. I control the temperature of the house. Too cold? Grab a blanket. :)

Okay, that's all I have for now. I really hope no one is offended by these posts, please let me know if you are. I am not at all, in ANY way, trying to say that being single is better than being married. I am simply trying to enjoy the blessings of the season of life I am in now. I could make a list of the Great Things about Being Married (I know that list is very long), but that just isn't where I am in my life right now. .

I will say, though, that after spending 2 days with several couples that I love, respect and admire, I have an ever greater appreciation for what a blessing marriage truly is. I am very blessed to be surrounded by some great married people that make me excited about the possibility of that being in my future. They don't fool me into thinking marriage is easy, but they show me that it is very worthwhile (which is what I hope to learn to do with singleness).

Nonetheless, I am certainly enjoying my life right now!! In fact, its almost midnight but I haven't watched tonight's Criminal Minds episode yet, so I am off to do that. Tomorrow, I will begin to clean my house. See, told you being single was great! ;)

We're in New York!!

I only have a few minutes to write but I wanted to let you know that we are in the Bronx, NY on our teen mission trip and so far things are going well. There are definite moments of frustration with teens complaining or not wanting to do what we ask, but there are also amazing moments where you know God is here and He is working. So, overall I would say that this trip is going great!

Here is a general break down of our daily schedule:

8:00 a.m.- Breakfast

8:30 a.m.- Quiet Time

9:15 a.m.- Morning prayer and worship together

10:00 a.m.- Head off to our morning ministries. We are split into 3 different groups and each group does something different each day. We have been to a senior center, prayer walking the neighborhood, doing some light construction or simply asking the Lord where to go and then following His lead (that's been my favorite so far)!!

12:00 p.m. Lunch

1:00 VBS prep

2:30 p.m. Head to the park to do VBS- after VBS we usually hang out with the kids and play at the park for a while.

6:00 p.m. Dinner

Each evening has been different. Our first night here we served dinner at a Homeless Shelter. We had an early evening on Monday night, with no ministry scheduled. Last night we went to the Brooklyn Tabernacle for their weekly prayer meeting. It was INCREDIBLE!! Hundreds of people from all walks of life coming together and just praying. The Holy Spirit was there and we all loved it.

Tonight will be another early night with no ministry planned, and tomorrow night we will be having a cookout for the neighborhood we are staying in.

We end every night spending time in small groups and then worshiping together.

Our focus for this week is listening to the Lord, and I have to admit; I was skeptical that the teens would really get it. Some of them still don't get it, but many are hearing from God loud and clear and its AMAZING!!!

The one struggle we continue to have is distractions. We are very unified as a team, which is amazing, but we also get distracted from the ministry and focus on fun a little too much. So, please be praying that the enemy will not be able to distract us from what God wants to do!!

We are heading back to Philly Saturday night. Friday we will spend the morning doing ministry and then Friday afternoon touring the city. Saturday we will clean and pack and then head to the city for a special surprise before we load into the vans and head home.

We're half way through the week...we'll see what God has left for us!

(Sorry there aren't pictures yet, that just takes too long. I will post some when we get back).

Leah

In my quest to search the scripture for what God wants to teach me as a single woman, He certainly isn't easing me in. I was kind of hoping I would start with some good, "The Lord is your husband", "You are beautifully and wonderfully made" kinda stuff. Of course, that is all true, but there are some really hard truths I need to learn as well. God's never been much of a sugar coater, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised He took me straight to Leah; in my opinion one of the saddest stories in the bible, at least at first glance. I'm just beginning my time with Leah, and I'm excited to learn new things. Today, I spent time simply with her story. Here it is, in my words.

We first meet Leah in Genesis 29 and we learn 2 very important things about her. First, she is the oldest daughter of her father (which means she should be the first to be married). Second, she isn't as pretty as her younger sister. In fact, the exact quote is: "Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was lovely in form, and beautiful". Ouch. Not one nice thing said about her. Not how I want to be remembered in the #1 book of all time.

From that statement we move to an amazing love story. Jacob has decided that he is completely in love with Rachel and has to marry her. Rachel's father makes Jacob work for him for 7 years in order to earn his daughter's hand in marriage. Jacob gladly does this. The bible even says, "so Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her". Who wouldn't want to be loved like that?!?

This isn't Leah's story however. After 7 years of working to marry the love of his life, Jacob prepares to marry Rachel. Instead, her father tricks him and gives him Leah. They marry with her under a veil and spend the night together in darkness. It isn't til morning that Jacob realizes that he has married (and slept with) Leah, not the woman he loves. He is understandably upset, but Laban (Leah and Rachel's father) promises to give him Rachel as well, he just had to marry off Leah first. Because of the culture, Leah was a necessary evil so that Jacob could marry the woman he really loved.

What must have been going through Leah's mind on her wedding day? She knew Jacob didn't love her. He didn't even know he was marrying her. As she walked down the aisle and Jacob looked at her with love in his eyes, did she pretend it was for her? Did she pray that Jacob would fall in love with her as they spent an evening of intimacy together? Or was her heart slowly breaking, knowing that way Jacob looked at her on their wedding day would be the last time he would ever look at her like that?

Leah didn't spend her life single, but she certainly understood what its like to feel invisible and wonder if anyone will ever love her.

Soon after Jacob married Leah, he married Rachel (it was very common for men to have multiple wives in the Old Testament). And he loved Rachel. It is recorded in the bible forever that; "he loved Rachel more than Leah".

Sometimes its easy for me to read stories in the bible and forget that they are about real people. Leah was a real person, that lived the life I read about in the bible. She was seen by the world as unattractive. Her father had to trick a man into marrying her. And she spent her life married to a man that didn't love her. And she knew it. Everyone knew it.

So many questions fill my mind as I think about Leah. Could someone else have loved her? In the 7 years that Jacob worked for Laban, waiting to marry Rachel, did Leah pray for someone to come along and want to marry her? If a man had come along in those 7 years, then Leah could have been loved and Jacob could have married Rachel. Why didn't God bring someone along? Why did God allow Leah to live unloved?

Leah didn't give up trying to be loved. She was the first to get pregnant, and after giving birth to her first child, Reuben, she thinks to herself, "now my husband will love me". He doesn't. (But he doesn't stop sleeping with her).

She gets pregnant again (Rachel still has no children), and after giving birth to Simeon is convinced that now her husband will certainly love her. He doesn't.

Then comes the 3rd child (Jacob has no problem sleeping with this woman who he doesn't love), Levi. Leah thinks to herself, "Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons". She still holds out hope that her husband will finally love her. He doesn't.

During all of this time, Rachel is barren. She is not able to have children. For the culture at that time, this would make Rachel worthless as a woman. Her job was to bear children, and she didn't. I am sure this was devastating for Rachel. In the midst of it all, though, Jacob continued to love her. It didn't matter to him whether she had his children or not. He was able to look past her failures and simply love her. He never did that for Leah, though. Leah continued to be unloved.

What was Leah thinking as she continually slept with a man who doesn't love her...over and over again? What were her conversations with God like? Begging to be loved, begging to be noticed...

Leah had borne Jacob 3 sons, and was still unloved. She had tried everything she knew to make Jacob love her, and nothing worked.

Then she got it. Jacob may never truly love her, but that isn't what it was all about. She would never be loved by a man the way her sister was. But, she was loved. The Lord had always been close to her.

She gave birth to her 4th son, and her response was very different this time. Instead of thinking, "now my husband will love me", she says: "This time I will praise the Lord". She had given birth to 3 other sons, and every time her focus had been on her husband. This time, she saw the Lord.

What Leah hadn't realized during all this time was that the Lord had been with her the whole time.

This one line is what hit me hardest: "When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved..."

This line comes before she became pregnant the first time. From the very beginning, she was noticed by someone. He saw her. He noticed her. Though she was unloved by her husband, she was seen by the God of the universe. And He had a plan for her. She gave birth to many sons, who eventually became the 12 tribes of Israel. She played an very integral role in God's plan for His people.

Here is the part I don't like, though. She was never loved on earth. Even after giving Jacob several sons, then giving him her servant who bore him even more sons, the bible never says, "and then Jacob loved Leah". In fact, later on in their lives, Jacob is going out to meet his brother Esau (whom he stole his birthright) and is scared, so he sends Leah out first. In his mind, she is the one that is most expendable.

I don't understand why Jacob never loved Leah. I don't understand why God didn't bring Leah a man who would love her. I don't think I am supposed to understand. In my view of happily ever after, man and woman always fall in love. That's not always God's plan. What I do know, however, is that God was always with Leah. She was never alone, never unnoticed, never unloved. It was a long, hard road for Leah to get to the point where she praised God; but she got there. On her own. She didn't get there by having all her dreams come true or every prayer answered, but something happened in her heart to bring her to the point where she praised the Lord.

The interesting part is that God doesn't tell us what happened in Leah's heart, we just know there was a change. I like that. Through Leah I can see that it is possible to praise God in the midst of shattered dreams and unanswered prayer, yet I have no idea how to get there. I just know I can. No formula to follow, just a King to trust.

There is much more to Leah's story. She may have come to accept that Jacob would never love her, but she falls into jealousy and enters into a ridiculous rivalry with her sister. Again, however, she is redeemed by her God. I'll have to get into more of that later, though, I'm still chewing on the revelations of today.

Leah was never loved on earth, but never went unnoticed by her Lord.

Kinda changes my definition of happily ever after...

Great Things About Being Single: Part 1

I am compiling list of great things about being single as well as difficult things. I am hoping that these lists will be about equal in length by the end, but I am sure there will be times where one is longer than the other (depending on what's going on in my life and heart, haha). Its always better to start with the good stuff, so here are some of the things I have been thinking about for the last few days , most are ridiculous. :)

1) Grapes and green tea. Huh? Well, that's what I have been living on for the last 4 days because I have been too lazy to go to the grocery store...and I'm loving it. I don't think that would fly if I had a family...

2) I control the TiVo. That's right, I watch what I want when I want.

3) I can switch sides of the bed if I'm tired of sleeping on the same side. I like to mix things up. :)

4) Mother Theresa. Pretty sweet role model.

5) Wanna go to a movie at midnight? Sure! Why not? Wanna just get in the car and drive somewhere? Sure! Why not?

That's what I have so far. I'm off to watch the Olympics...probably until the wee hours of the morning. :)

I am Tired

I was filling out my hours sheet for this last week and decided to review my summer hours, and I discovered something very disturbing. Before my last minute trip to NC, I had not taken a single day off since my vacation with the kids in June (and that's assuming that you can count that vacation as a real vacation...if not, then I haven't taken a single day off since May). No wonder I find myself wanting to sit in my living room and watch the Olympics with no one else around.

And that would probably explain why I am not excited at all about the upcoming Cornerstone Mission Trip.

I have led two groups that came to Cornerstone this summer and two more AIM trips, meaning I spent an entire month of the summer leading trips. I definitely enjoy leading trips, but I don't enjoy it that much.

Thanks to the Teen Leadership Camp and the upcoming mission trip, I am set to have over 200 comp hours over the last 3 months (Anything over 50 hours a week is counted as comp hours). I have averaged about 70 hours a week for the summer, and this is again counting my week at the beach as a complete vacation.

Did I mention that I am tired?

I'm kinda frustrated with myself because I didn't even notice all of this until the last few days. I usually am at least a little better about taking care of myself and making sure I get time off.

I think a big factor for me in this is having a roommate. Usually, when I want some time off I will spend time alone in my house (I really like my house). With someone else in the house all the time, its not the same sanctuary it once was, so I keep myself busy instead of relaxing.

This was also my first summer with 2 jobs. While my job at AIM was more flexible, I still averaged over 20 hours a week of AIM work (plus over 60 hours on the weeks that I was leading an AIM trip). I didn't scale back my normal Cornerstone schedule at all, but added more AIM stuff.

I guess I've just kinda been on auto pilot for most of the summer, but its catching up to me. Add to the busy schedule some pretty emotional events (the shooting, the little girl who was molested, the drama of the leadership camp), and I am ready for a break.

But, I still have one more thing to push through...the mission trip. Did I mention that I am the leader of that trip?

There is a lot that still needs to be done to prepare for the trip, and I am really struggling to find the motivation to do those things. This will be the first year that we don't have mission trip t shirts (cause I waited too long to get a design done), and I'm just going to have to be okay with that. Everything else is actually coming together pretty well, but I still have work to do.

The thing is, I really love missions and believe very strongly in the role of short term missions in changing teens' lives. That's why I go on the mission trip every year; I know God will do incredible things. I just didn't expect to be this worn out by the time we got to this one.

Thankfully, I have this week to prepare for the trip as well as rest as much as possible. And, I am spending a lot of time alone. The introvert in me is already about to explode. If I don't get some time alone this week, I don't want to know what I'm going to be like next week sharing a room with 8 girls. I don't know if my roommate quite understands my reclusiveness, but I gotta do what I gotta do. :)

I was actually encouraged by a piece I saw on TV about Michael Phelps (the US swimmer who at age 23 is currently tied for most olympic gold medals of all time...and he could win 5 more. Now that So You Think You Can Dance is over, I have to have a new obsession...). He talked about how he is so motivated in the pool (where he trains 5-8 hours a day) and works hard toward his goal, but when he's at home, he's kinda lazy. And he is the best swimmer in the world. The best swimmer ever.

So, I'm adopting his philosophy for the next week or so. When preparing for the mission trip and doing my job (probably about 5-8 hours a day), I will be motivated and work hard. The rest of the time, I'm gonna be lazy. :)