The Blog is Reborn... (Because This Occasion is Worth it!)

The thawing of winter (or that one cold day we had in December, anyway), always makes me think of new life and rebirth.  We are in a season of new life as a family as we are expecting our third child this summer and I just left my job of eleven (eleven!) years. While our world is opening up to brand new opportunities and transitions at every turn,  "newness" is always an interesting experience for me. It's in those days when I feel most unprepared- yet so overwhelmingly blessed to have even another day, let alone a whole new season of life to live.

Eleven years seems like only moments in a way- after graduating college, a lot of my peers embarked on grand adventures around the world or early little families with bouncing babies.  I rolled right out of college into the first and only job I've ever had- at The Hills Church of Christ where Chris Hatchett hired me with very little knowledge of who I was... and I spent eleven years working as a youth minister there. 

I can't imagine a better way I could have spent that decade (+).  The innumerable ways God blessed me through that ministry have shaped my heart and my life in a way I could have never dreamed. I not only fell in love with a generation of students and families, but also fell more in love with the Lord and the way that He works in his children.

It has been an incredible honor to serve at the Hills, to be associated in any way with a family of faith that loves so effortlessly and listening so wholeheartedly to the Spirit.  The staff and the shepherds can make me weep in an instant with their sincerity and dedication to God and His people- and I can't believe I got to witness the beauty of those hearts in action for so many years.

To the hundreds of students, staff, families, mentors, and volunteers: thank you for loving me, for humbly following my lead even when I clearly had no idea what I was doing, for trusting me to listen to your heartaches, and for letting me work along side you in the often messy, tough business of ministry.  It's been an amazing journey and I can't wait to see what's next.