Shaped by Story

Hello all you wonderful people!!!!

It's Day two in Illinoise, and I am already learning so much. The people I am hanging out with are wonderful....a little quirky, but I think i'm liking it that way.

This morning we went to Church at Highlander COB (Church of the Brethren), and it was Youth Sunday! Yippee! So the high school kids ran the worship centered around a conference theme of "More Than Meets the Eye." It was really cute, and I enjoyed the music a lot. It's been really refreshing to be back in a Brethren environment with hymns and smiling faces. heehee. Not that smiling faces and hymns are not present else where in the world, it's just very comforting and...familiar.

After church we had a bible discussion with Micheal Novelli (who is going to be a father of two tomorrow morning at 9:30am!!! lol....His wife's going in for a C-section. He's really happy to get the opportunity to be a father....again. teehee.) His ministry was youth based for about 15 years and now he's into writing books and helping other youth pastors with teaching methods. Chris is going to get us all a copy of his book... I think he's my new hero.... :0D

He teaches based on story. Not like personal story, but by taking old testament scripture and putting it into story form. He then tells the story to a group of people and asks intentional questions afterward. He told the creation story to us...and new insight came to me through that telling. It was SO COOL. I want to figure out a way to use it this summer. I really connect to that kind of ministry telling.....oh man it was fantastic. :0D

Well kids, that's all for now. We are on a break between the afternoon session and dinner. MAN am I hungry. The time change is brutal...and the best part is....once I get used to it...I fly to PA and then to CA and then back to PA. Three different time zones in a matter of a week. 0_0

oh yeah.... I'm in for it. But I am having a lot of fun so far. It's looking to be an awesome experiance.... and I am also looking forward to food.... so I best depart.

*The picture is of the cover of Micheal's Book.

My love to all you back home, I miss you dearly,


Love
~ME

p.s. I led worship this afternoon, and it actually went really well!!! Even with my busted "e" string. :0D I was super happy. I ended up using Romans 8: 35-39, told a story about my mom (buahahhahaha) and then played then "Your Love is Deep." So far, I got good feedback. :0D