My First Homemade Pie!

I've done brownies, cookies, and cakes plenty of times, but this weekend I decided it make my first homemade pie with some of the peaches and raspberries from the Farmer's Market. It turned out pretty delicious if you ask me!

Ministry Transitions

In youth ministry, the month of August marks several transitions: some students going off to college for the first time, others returning to college after being home for the summer, 8th graders joining our high school youth group, and new 6th graders entering the youth ministry program for the first time.
Last night, I hung out with some of the incoming 6th grade girls to get to know them and make their transition to youth group a little smoother. I took three girls to paint pottery and out to Rita's Italian Ice (a first for all three of them!) These three girls are hilarious and so full of energy, I had a lot of fun getting to know them better! Now I can't wait for them to join us at middle school youth group!
Here are a few photos from our evening:

Home Sweet Home!

After several weeks of living a nomadic lifestyle, Nolan and I are finally both home together at the same time for a while! We enjoyed housesitting at the McKenna's for a week, especially because they have a pool, air conditioning, laundry and a dishwasher (all of which are luxuries to us!)

It's hard to believe that summer is coming to a close and that all my youth group students are almost back in school! When I came to Mt. Carmel, there was a very large group of high school freshman in the youth group, and now these students are seniors! It has been so exciting to see each of them grow in their faith through their high school years so far and I can't wait to experience their senior year with them!

Soon the craziness of Fall will set in for both Nolan and I. We are very excited for the Pitt Football season since we have season tickets this year!

Mission Week 2010

Last week was our Micah 6:8 Project at Mt. Carmel. Instead of our youth going away on a mission trip, my youth group stayed at the church for the week and worked on three local homes in the community. We did a variety of projects ranging from painting, dry walling, digging trenches, breaking up concrete and building steps. In the evenings, we visited several churches and ministries in the community, and on Wednesday night, we had a fun night out at Panera and to see Despicable Me in 3D.
This was an incredible week for our youth and for our church as a whole. The week ended with a community cookout where we invited people we had met throughout the week, our church members, and most importantly the families whose houses we were working on. We had dinner, worship, and heard lots of stories from the week!
Thanks to everyone who helped make this week possible! I am very grateful for the team of people who worked so hard!