2013 was a hard year for me; So much so that a large part of me just wanted it to be over. 

In contrast with years past, I didn't want to linger there any longer, or to reflect upon it. 

That said, after more than a decade in youth...

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My husband and I spent the week between Christmas and New Year's skiing in the Canadian Rockies. At one point, as we prepared to ski out of Sunshine Village, my husband joked that my backpack made me look like a skier about to head off into the...

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My husband and I were fortunate to have time off during the holidays this year. In addition to connecting with family and friends, traveling, skiing, and relaxing, I enjoyed using some of that time to reflect upon 2013. To that end, today, I'm...

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 Today I'm linking up with Amongst Lovely Things to share some of my favorite posts from 2013. 

Post with the most clicks: Why I Submit,  a post I wrote for Rachel Held Evan's one-to-another link-up. This was a fun post for me to...

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Our American culture does not handle death well. We don’t know how to grieve or how to be with people in their despair. Uncomfortable with silence, we attempt to fill it. When we do, we often say something dumb that only heightens everyone’s...

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I've made several trips to the post office in the past few days, mailing support letters from members of our mission trip team to their family and friends, asking them to support their trip prayerfully and/or financially.

While standard in many...

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I am a big believer in the power of experiential learning. To this end, instead of giving a talk about prayer, I'd much rather create a series of prayer stations designed to give students the opportunity to pray in a variety of ways. 

Over...

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I'm currently knee-deep in mission trip preparations for my team's 2014 trip to Rwanda. As part of this mission trip preparation, I'm working hard to shatter any Messiah complexes my team members might have.

That Messiah complexes exist in teens...

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I spent five years working at a multi-ethnic, multi-site congregation.

There was much I loved about this church and my role there. During my time there, I discovered who I was as a youth worker. More importantly, though, serving in a context...

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On Wednesday, I saw two of the women from my congregation who my students recently visited during my youth ministry’s interviews with the saints. Both spoke enthusiastically about how much they enjoyed their conversation with our young people....

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