Anthony and Emily

Welcome 2012!

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:52:00 +0000

I suppose I should call this blog post the perfunctory New Years post. Though it may be cliche, there’s really nothing wrong to take the time to reflect on the past and dream about the future. In fact, a good reflection is probably needed more than once a year. We can’t really know where we’re going without knowing where we’ve been or how we got there.

All this to say that 2011 has been a good year for the Parrott household. It’s been a year of travel (Hawaii, Switzerland, Italy, Grand Rapids, Minneapolis, etc). It’s been a year of new experiences (concerts, grad school, church planting, etc). It’s also been a year of settling. We’re coming up on two years as residents of Okoboji, IA, and it’s been a wonderful two years. We now feel very much at home here in this little corner of the Midwest. We’ve adjusted to our jobs, made friends, and probably can’t use the excuse, “we’re new here!” any more.

This idea of settling in has really got me thinking as I’ve been reflecting on the past year. Up until this point in our lives, neither Anthony nor I could really tell you what settling in somewhere meant. We’ve gone from school, to graduating, to getting married, to job hunting, and now are finally here. Up until this point, we hadn’t had a job longer than a year (not a real job, anyways)... we had never lived in a home longer than a year (unless you count growing up with our parents!). So now we find ourselves in this whole new realm of life. We’re past college. Past some of the uncertainties of life. And we’re here. At least for now.

All of this has really made me adjust my prayer life and desires for the next year. I can see how easy it can be to let apathy creep in once one is settled in somewhere. How easy it can be to become comfortable. And how easy it can be to let that comfort dictate our lives. My prayer for this next year is that Anthony and I live intentional lives. That we be intentional with our time, with our love, with our money. My prayer is that we would seek God’s desires above all else and follow them even when it doesn’t make sense. Even when it seems “weird.” Even when (and especially when) it pulls us away from being comfortable. I never want to lose that desire from God that love and grace really can change the world.

So hopefully our lives can reflect this in the year 2012. Hopefully we can continue to learn to hear His voice and let that guide us. That is my prayer for us, and it shall be my prayer for you as well!

Happy New Year!

Autumn for the Parrotts

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 18:01:00 +0000

There's nothing I loathe more than writing a blog entry after it's been dormant for a while. (obviously, this is an exaggeration because there are a lot of things I loathe more than this, but stay with me). I've been thinking about writing something for a couple weeks now, but every time I've moved to write, I freeze up. Do I just ignore the past couple months of silence and pretend like it never happened? Or do I clumsily attempt to fill the reader in on what's been happening and then go ahead and write about what I originally wanted to write about?

Well, I guess the good thing is that I didn't have a specific topic in mind for today, so you get a little of everything!

This fall has been full of work, church, and school for us! Anthony is almost finished with his first semester of grad school. The homework thing has been an adjustment (for both of us), and it's been busy, but he has been doing well and is excited for the semester to be over. Here are some highlights from the past few months:

* In September, we had a wonderful 2 day visit from the Boards, who were in the process of moving back to the States from teaching in South Korea. It happened to fall over my birthday, which made it extra special! We reintroduced them to American culture with the Clay County Fair and lots of fried food :)

* The first weekend in October, I traveled to Michigan City, IN for a girls reunion weekend! There were 8 of us who got together over the course of the weekend, and words can't express how wonderful it was to see my lovely roomies from college.

* Also in October, Anthony I and traveled to Minneapolis with 10 other members of the worship team at Good News for a David Crowder* Band Concert. It was his last tour with the band, and it was a fantastic concert! And with Gungor opening the concert, it's hard to go wrong.

* We celebrated 1,000 days of marriage on October 7th! Gotta love reasons to celebrate!

* Towards the end of October, Anthony and I made a trip up to Minneapolis again. This time to visit with some family! Anthony's sister lives near Minneapolis and his other sister and bro-in-law were in town for a conference. We seized the opportunity to eat at Benihana's and talk the night away. It was a good, though brief, visit.

* This fall we also participated in a Spiritual Retreat in Sioux Falls, SD. This was part of a class that Anthony and I are taking at church. The retreat was just a day long, but oh-so-beneficial. To set aside a day to rest in the Lord was very refreshing and much needed.

* In November, we found our traveling once again to Minneapolis with about a dozen members of the worship team. This time, it was for a Hillsong LIVE concert. Yes, it was 2 concerts in 2 months, but can you really pass up the chance to see David Crowder or Hillsong? I think not. The Hillsong concert was a wonderful night of worship. As Anthony said, it was nice to go to a worship night and not be the one planning it or facilitating it. We both thoroughly enjoyed the concert.

* Sometime this fall, Anthony made the tough decision to change schools. Originally registered at Fuller Theological Seminary, he discovered that their distance program was not what he thought it would be. They offer limited classes online and are limited in the intensives he would need to take at the school. So in January, he will officially be a distance student at Asbury Theological Seminary (based in Kentucky). His classes will transfer, and at Asbury, he will be able to complete a Master's of Divinity in less time than it would have taken him to complete a Master's in Theology. They have a much better program for distance students and have been much better to work with.

* And that brings us to Thanksgiving! Holidays are difficult for us to get away, so this year my parents came here! They were able to make it in time for our Thanksgiving Eve service that we do with the Presbyterian Church. We had a great time of visiting and eating and relaxing. Luckily, the turkey and meal we made turned out well :) I also took advantage of the extra hands and we decorated for Christmas the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We cut down a tree at the local Christmas tree farm, and spent most of Saturday trying to fit it in the tree stand. Word to the wise, don't buy a tree with a crooked stump - it's not worth it!

Well if you've stuck with the blog this far, then BRAVO! You are now up-to-date on our lives! This next month looks to be just as busy: it's advent, we have a wedding in Michigan (yay Brett and Anne!), and Anthony will be taking finals. But we are excited about it all (except for maybe the school work). We will try to be better about writing (don't we always say that?). More to come later. We love you all... thank you for staying with us and supporting us!

Emily

Living Out Your Giftedness

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 20:19:00 +0000

A few days ago I got an email advertising a sermon resource website. For a monthly subscription you would be able to download sermon outlines, media, and even entire sermon texts for you to use on your congregation. Now, I understand the need for resource websites. They’re helpful, they spark ideas, and they can come through for you in a pinch.

But the idea of a monthly subscription to this website just made me sad. It made me think of the many pastors out there who feel obligated to use this website, finding themselves called to ministry and yet not gifted in teaching and preaching. It has to be a scary place to be. And I can’t imagine that it feels very good to head to a sermon resource website each week when you’re probably thinking to yourself, Why am I not able to do this on my own!

So what causes this situation, that we have people called to ministry doing things that they don’t feel equipped for? Have we forced our pastors - and ourselves - into doing things that they’ve never been equipped for (either by natural talent, education, or the gifting of the Holy Spirit) because the rest of us, as the church, are not living out the things that we are equipped for.

I think many of us, way too early on in our lives, get pigeon-holed into a certain role or position we believe we must play. Much of our education system is based on the premise that you must pick one thing to major in and then do that one thing as a career the rest of your life. Can that really be healthy? Should our complex personalities, talents, and gifts we whittled down to a word or two?

Sometimes we get pigeon-holed into things we’re not even good at (like the person called to pastoral counseling, but finds themselves having to preach - and hit up sermon resource websites - 52 times a year). Sometimes we are pigeon-holed into something we are good at (like playing piano) and use it as our safe-place, never venturing to discover whether or not we’re good at anything else.

Is it possible that we have churches filled with folks who are simply unaware of their own giftedness? Many times it’s easy to get frustrated because of a lack of volunteers in a particular ministry. But do we simply live in a culture that constantly affirms this lie that you’re good only at what you’re most familiar with?

Now, don’t get me wrong. We can’t be faux-idealists and sit around only doing what we feel “called” to do. As a good friend of mine has said, “Do something you’re not passionate about.” And he’s right. Too many of us are waiting around for the “perfect” opportunity to get involved in something, but - gee whiz - that perfect opportunity just never seems to find us. So, on the one hand, I want to affirm that it’s okay to be involved not only in things you’re good at, but also in things that are just simply good. You may be uncomfortable changing a baby’s diaper, but sometimes they just need to be changed. Everytime you hear an opportunity to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, or help the poor, you can’t just claim, “I just didn’t feel ‘led.’” In the words of James, “If you know the good you ought to do, and do not do it, to you it is sin” (James 4:17).

But, on the other hand, what would happen in our churches - in our lives - if all of us began to seek out the rest of our giftedness? Could the woman who really doesn’t like children (God forbid) be allowed to leave the nursery and start some coffeehouse evangelism? Or the man who really doesn’t like handywork be allowed to pursue photography?

Most recently, I have been struggling under the weight of feeling unequipped to plant a new congregation. I’m fairly introverted, I’ve only led one person to Christ (and that was because I told him I would let him be my friend if he became a Christian. It was sixth grade), and I’m pretty comfortable doing the whole lead worshiper thing.

And then our denomination had me take a personality/giftedness test based on the “five offices” of Ephesians 4 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd, Teacher). Go figure, it came back saying I was an apostolic evangelist (apostle meaning “sent out”).

Perhaps there’s more to me than I’ve ever considered.

Perhaps there’s more to you than you’ve ever considered.

And maybe - just maybe - if we began to live out all of our calling, we would stop forcing people to do things they were really never meant to do.

The Spiritual Discipline of Worship

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 19:40:00 +0000

Yesterday, I ran slides for church. It’s one of the “perks” of being married to the Worship Director- I automatically get roped into volunteering in nearly every capacity. But I don’t mind this... it allows me to serve the church and be connected with Anthony’s ministry. However, yesterday was an early morning. The typical Wednesday evening rehearsal had been canceled, so the band was meeting extra early on Sunday morning to practice. As I sat behind the computer clicking sides, the sound man Chris made an observation. He said to me, “Do you think we really mean the words we sing about?” At that moment, the band was rehearsing a modern version of the hymn, “Take My Life.” Do we really want God to take control when we sing these lyrics? We mused for a few moments about what it means to truly desire God to take our lives, but then duty called and we were quickly pulled back to our respective jobs.

I found myself, however, mulling over this idea all afternoon. What does it mean to truly worship*? Why don’t more people actually bow down when we sing the lyrics “We fall down, we lay our crowns, at the feet of Jesus?” Why don’t more people lift their hands in worship when we sing “We come and lift up our hands, for the joy of the Lord is our strength?” I realize part of this is due to culture and comfort levels. But I found myself reflecting on my own history with worship. And it dawned on me that it takes me much longer to enter into authentic worship than it used to. So naturally I began to try and analyze why this is so. Back in college, it was easy for me to enter into worship without worrying about what people thought or without evaluating the band or my surroundings. But I think a large contributor to this fact was that I was attending chapel 3 times a week, church twice a week, and worshipping on a regular basis with wonderful communities and an amazing band. It was a constant part of my life.

On a bit of a different track, I have also been thinking a lot lately about spiritual formation and spiritual disciplines. I am working on choosing a book for our church’s women’s ministry small groups to study this fall, and the book I am looking seriously at is all about spiritual formation and discipline. It has been a great reminder that much of our faith is about training ourselves to become more like Christ. We don’t easily and naturally sit down and pray for 5 hours. Well, at least I don’t. But through discipline and training, this can become possible. In some ways, I think the same is true about worship. I believe in order to authentically and genuinely worship, it takes practice. It takes practice to shut out the nagging thoughts about the day’s schedule. It takes practice to turn your thoughts fully on God. And it takes practice to not think about how your voice sounds, how the band sounds, or how your neighbor sounds. Perhaps this is too harsh a way to think about worship. But I think we have to admit that there is a ring of truth to it. If our only time of worship is on Sunday mornings from 9:30-10:00am, then we don’t get much practice, do we? It’s difficult for your heart to be focused on worship. But if it’s a discipline that we focus on throughout the week, we learn to be better and more authentic worshippers. And not just alone, but together in church, in our small groups, at MOPS, wherever we gather. For me, I have been challenged to try and be more disciplined in my worship experiences throughout the week. I want worship to become a natural part of my life and who I am, and not just be a Sunday morning at 9:30 thing.

Do you ever feel out of practice with worship? What are some ways that you incorporate worship throughout the week?

*for the context of this post, worship is referring to singing worship songs. I realize that worship is so much more than song, but for simplicity’s sake I will use the term worship for music.

When in Rome...

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 18:52:00 +0000

Well, we've been there and back again as Bilbo Baggins would say. We managed to journey to Europe and back, and we had an unbelievable time! We've put lots of pictures up on Anthony's facebook account, so be sure to check those out. But I thought it would be a good idea to give a brief recap on the blog for those who are interested :)

Zurich:

Our first destination was Zurich, Switzerland! Why, you ask? Well because Anthony and I wanted to see more than 1 country (and Italy was for sure). We looked at France, Spain, and Switzerland, and Switzerland won out with the cheapest plane tickets! We flew into Zurich and spent much of our two days there recovering from jet lag. We didn't let it slow us down too much, though! Our first day was spent exploring downtown Zurich. We toured some cathedrals, wandered the streets of Old Town, and took a ferry around Lake Zurich. We spent a good portion of our second day hiking Zurich's mountain, Uetliberg. It was a beautiful hike with fantastic views of the city! The best part? Taking a cable car down the mountain!

Corniglia (Cinque Terre):

We could not have asked for a more picturesque location! Corniglia is one of the 5 towns making up the Cinque Terre region of Italy. These small towns are built in the cliffs along the Mediterranean Sea. Words cannot express how beautiful they are or how clear the water was. Try Googling Cinque Terre and look at the images. You'll begin to see what I mean. One cool, but exhausting thing about Corniglia is that the actual town is up on the cliff. Which means a good 400 steps from the train station. And a good 400 steps to get to the water. Beauty comes at a price, I suppose. We enjoyed a relaxing couple of days exploring the towns and swimming. Our last day there, we hiked part of the trail between our town and the next town. What I thought would be a simple, easy hike turned out to be much more intense. But the views made it worth it. And we met some fun people along the way.

Florence:

Florence was beautiful! It's definitely a bigger town, but easily walkable. We were lucky enough to spend some time with Anne Messer who was finishing her month in Florence taking a literature class for college. It was so fun to meet up with someone we knew and who could show us around a little. We visited the Duomo, the Ponte Vecchio, and Piazza Signoria. We also made sure to walk through the Uffizi, one of the biggest museums in Florence. One special thing about Florence is that we happened to be visiting during Music Week. This, of course, meant that orchestra music filled the air every evening from the main square. We LOVED it! And spent some of each evening listening and taking in the sites.

Venice:

This was probably the most magical of the places we visited. Everything about Venice is beautiful. The canals, the bridges, the streets. It all looks just as you would picture old Italy. You just have to block out the thousands of tourists :) I had a love/hate relationship with the streets of Venice. No maps could help us, and we were lost most of our time there (they're just so winding!). This was fine most of the time and allowed us to explore the city. But when we're hauling luggage around trying to find out hotel, it's not so fun! We visited St. Mark's Basilica and the Realto Market (talk about fresh seafood!). Probably our favorite part of Venice was the most unexpected part.... we were there for the Redentore Festival which happens the 3rd Saturday of July. The fesitval celebrates the end of the Bubonic Plague (of course!). We joined the rest of the city on the grand canal to watch fireworks! It by far one of the coolest things I've ever experienced. We got to see how Venetians party, and the fireworks display was the best I've ever seen. Little One, you should put these on your list of firework shows to see in your lifetime.

Rome:

By the time we got to Rome, we were pretty exhausted. Walking all day, every day, in the hot sun really takes it out of you. But we were still determined to see what we could see. We stayed the longest in Rome - 4 days. Our first day (which was really a half day by the time our train arrived), we spent exploring the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, and Piazza Navona (one of the most beautiful squares!). Day 2 was spent at the Vatican. We toured the Vatican Museum and stared at the Sistine Chapel. We explored St. Peter's Basilica as well (so huge!). Day 3 was our historical day... we went to the Colosseum, Palentine Hill, and the Forum. It was one of the time when I wished we had a guide to tell us more about the history. But being there was certainly still amazing. We ended Day 3 with an evening at the theater. Movie theater, that is! We found a movie theater showing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 in English! This is a rare thing indeed (most movies are dubbed in Italy). We simply couldn't wait until we got home to see it, so we gladly watched it in Rome. It was fun to meet other Americans and Brits who came to see the movie. We enjoyed the movie, though left a little sad that it was over. Day 4 was a more relaxed day. Part of the day was spent exploring St. Angelo's Castle (so cool!). We then relaxed in the afternoon in the Borghese region of Rome. It's a big park area with a lagoon. We found a bench and read for a while. It was a much needed break before heading home!

If you've made it this far, you've gotten a brief summary of our trip. We had so much fun, and were so blessed to be able to do it. It was definitely an adventure for the 2 of us. We enjoyed the places we stayed and have already begun dreaming of our next Europe trip (maybe France and England....?). It's good to be home though, and we're ready to take on the fall!

Emily

The March-y-ness of Time

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 03:23:00 +0000

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore
So do our moments hasten to their end.
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 60

Time is ever marching onward and there is nothing (short of experimental time travel) we can do to stop it. Which to some, I suppose, can sound entirely depressing. But when you're still 24 (or only a quarter-century old, such as my splendid wife) time moving quickly is still exciting and breathtaking. One moment you're dancing, the next you're receiving knee-surgery (that would be me); one moment you're office support, the next you're Office Manager (and that would be Emily); one day you're dreaming of traveling to Europe, and the next you're beginning to pack and do laundry for your trip which is only 8 days away (that would be both of us)!

And, of course, blogs have no respect for time. They will continue sitting there unentertainingly as your life moves forward and no one bother to update. But no longer! Today this blogging-strike ends! Today words shall flow like water cascading off of a cliff! Or at least like jello jiggling out of a Tupperware dish. Regardless, here is a brief update on just about everything. About Emily and I. In particular.

1) While dancing a jig in February, I somehow managed to tear my meniscus in my left knee. Many painful, limping weeks later, it was delightfully repaired by a surgeon who apparently I met, but I have no recollection. Ah, the delights of anesthesia.

2) My parents visited Emily and I and the Okoboji region last week (was it only last week?). They were here for 10 days--over two weekends--and we were thrilled. We showed them around town; they were able to hear me lead worship one week and preach the next; we spent a thoroughly therapeutic Thursday on the water (with many "thank yous" to the Steffens); we met up for dinner with my sister Jolee; and we conversed for endless hours, usually long, long after sunset. Emily and I both love to have guests as well as entertain, and it's always a special treat (if not a strange role-reversal) when it's our parents.

3) Some of the most exciting--though aforementioned--news is that Emily and I are heading to Europe! Since the primordial days of our friendship, we have always talked about wanting to go to Europe, and once we became lovers, it became clear to both of us that it was a dream that had to one day come true, or else we might each go crazy in our own little ways. Well, craziness will not overtake us. We came to the conclusion that while we don't have kids, before I start grad school, and while we don't yet have a house to take care of, we should grip this opportune time of our lives by the horns and ride it all the way to Zurich, Cinque Terre, Florence, Venice, and Rome. It will be a trip that will be romantic, adventurous, carefree, educational, and dream-come-true-ing all at once. In a word: stupendous.

Okay. Alright. Enough from me for now. Just as time is unceasing and stubborn, so does this pesky need to sleep at least once a day. I suppose I will succumb to it yet again. G'nite!

Book Review: One Thousand Gifts

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 18:33:00 +0000

Contrary to popular belief, Anthony and I have NOT fallen off the face of the earth. Just the face of the blogging sphere. And though I will try to make a real update come soon, this will have to do for now. A while back, Anthony signed up to receive a free book from Zondervan Publishing with the promise of blogging a review. The book came in the mail and sat there for a while unread (which happens when you have a husband who likes to order tons of books but then doesn't have time to read them.) So one day, with the urging of a friend who was already reading it (thanks Little One!), I decided to pick it up and read it myself. And therefore found myself with the job of reviewing it. So bear with me folks, I don't think I've done a book review since 5th grade. The book, which I'm sure you all are dying to know by now, is One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp.

I will begin by saying it was very difficult for me to get into the book. Some books are able to pull you in right away, and other are so easy to skim through. But Ann uses such a unique voice in her writing that it was near impossible for me to use my well-honed skimming skills. Although this might sound like a negative to the book, I will say that it ended up being one of the most positive things I can say about it. What Ann was able to do was force me to sit and actually read the words she had written. I had to take time and actually think through what she was writing. Not skip ahead and assume that I knew what the author was trying to say. So kudos to Ann Voskamp for her unique writing style that eventually got me in the end. If you happen to pick up this book... give it a chance to get used to her voice and style. It will be well worth it in the end.

Overall, I would say One Thousand Gifts is a refreshing take on what it means to actually live out the Christian life. Ann challenges her readers to live fully and purposefully in everything you do. She shows practically how she moved from being a woman dissatisfied with the mundane to learning to see God working in and through her life. What I appreciated about this book is that it doesn't give the reader "5 easy steps to having more of God in your life." Nor does it sugar coat the growth process. Ann was very real and honest in her struggles with the transformation process, and she readily admits the years it took her to get where she is now. Through story and inner musings, Ann takes the reader on a journey exploring how to live out a life of continual thanks and in grace - a life of eucharisteo. And for her, it all started with a challenge to write a list of 1,000 things she loves. And from there, discovering that perhaps the Greek word eucharisteo really does hold the key to it all.

I won't go into much more detail. I encourage you to read it for yourself and be challenged to live differently. One final note that I will mention: many might see Ann's book as a women's book (especially by looking at the cover), but I would argue that story and lesson transcends gender. I believe men could get just as much out of this book as women. Yes, it's written by a woman and therefore includes details about her life as a wife and mom, but there is so much more depth that should be experience by men and women. I will end by saying that I definitely recommend the book. It was challenging, encouraging, and unlike any book I've read before.

If you're interested in buying it, here's a link to the book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/One-Thousand-Gifts-Fully-Right/dp/0310321913/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1307732338&sr=8-1

Until next time,

Emily

It's Friday (Friday, Friday, Friiiday)

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 18:55:00 +0000

It's Friday!!! For some reason, whenever I say that (or think it or write it), I am always reminded of a song I sang my freshman year of high school in choir. I don't even remember what the name of the song is, but it was a cheesy song about students being excited for Friday. So it starts with "It's Friday! (and the other parts echo: Friday, Friday Friiiiday) Today is Friday-day." It never fails. After all these years, that silly song is still in my head. Just thought you all would enjoy that :)

The sun is shining today with temperatures in the 30's... it's about as warm as it's been since October! I am definitely getting antsy for spring. I thought a trip to Hawaii would cause us to be ok with the rest of winter, but not so! I am ready to be outside again, for people to come back to the area, and for flip flops. But March is here, so hopefully it won't be too much longer!

Nothing too exciting is going on in the Parrott household. Perhaps the most exciting this for us recently is that we got a new couch and chair set! My boss is in the process of building and moving into a new home, and was looking to get rid of her set. It's a million times nicer than our old set (may it rest in peace in the church's youth room) and so comfortable! We were happy. A big thank you to those who helped get it in! It's no easy task to get a huge couch up to a second floor condo unit with only a small winding staircase.

Anthony and I don't have a lot planned for this weekend. Which is a nice thing because this week has felt really long and really busy for some reason (it really wasn't much different than a normal week). Tomorrow (Saturday) night, we are hosting 2 students from St. Olaf College. Their band is coming to play at the Sami Center (our theater/auditorium) and then smaller ensembles will be playing at various churches. A flute ensemble will be at Good News, and 2 of them will be staying with us! It should be a fun adventure.

It's been a while since I've blogged, so I don't think I mentioned the wonderful surprise visit from friends last month. Anthony was in on it, but managed to keep it a secret from me for quite some time. 3 of our best friends from college came and surprised me, and we had such a good time! I was thinking it would be spring or summer before we would see faces from home, and it was a perfect pick-me-up for February (or any time of the year, really). Speaking of visitors, my parents are coming out in a couple of weeks to spend their spring break with us (they both work for the local high school)! I am really excited to see them and spend some time with them. Hopefully some of the restaurants start to open up by then :)

Welp, I think that might be it for today, folks. Sorry for the not-so-deep post, but like I said it's Friday and my mind is not running too deep today :)

Much Love,

Emily

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony) — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 03:03:00 +0000

Nothing like homemade lemonade with a mutantly-long straw.

Big Announcement (no, not a baby)

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 22:08:00 +0000

First off, our friends back in Indiana have this great (read: obnoxious) tendency to assume that whenever we have announcement, it must mean Emily and I are going to announce we're pregnant. Because of this, we will either have to announce any possible pregnancy in the future in some ultra-creative fashion...or just not tell anyone until we show up with a baby in our hands.

Anyway, I do have an announcement. And no, it has nothing to do about placentas, umbilical cords, or gestation.

Instead...I'm going to grad school!

Even before finishing college, I knew that I would soon want to return to school in order to further my studies in Scripture and theology. (Which, by the way, is hilarious to me now, because before college I swore that I would NEVER go to seminary). I just wasn't sure when that time would come. Well, in November I submitted a letter to the elders and pastor of Good News Church, asking if they would consider allowing me to become a distance student in order to achieve a Masters Degree. They said, yes! I applied to two schools, was accepted to both, and choose to attend Fuller Theological Seminary.

I will begin in the fall of this year, working towards a Master of Arts in Theology (MAT). A MAT is typically a two-year program that focuses on systematic and Biblical theology. Because I will doing half of the degree via correspondence and online courses (and the other half through on-campus, two-week intensive courses) it will probably take me closer to three. I will choose to do a Biblical Studies emphasis. This will prepare me for either a Master of Divinity (MDiv), which is a typical pastoral degree; or a PhD program, in order to go into academic work (writing, teaching, and research).

Emily and I both are excited about this next step in my life. I'm excited to continue to learn more about my God and His Scripture and to be able to still serve the church and share what I'm learning.

Please pray that 1) finances will come through; 2) I will able to give my best to my marriage, my role at church, and to my studies; and 3) that God would even now shape my heart into a the place of a humble learner at His feet.

Travelin' Fools

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 19:30:00 +0000

Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope you all had wonderful holidays :) We had a great, but unique Christmas. We spent Christmas here in Okoboji... Christmas Eve we had our service at the church. Afterwards, Anthony and I watched the Santa Clause and cuddled on the couch. Christmas Day, we traveled oh so far to Spirit Lake to join the Skalbeck and Messer family for Christmas dinner. It was so wonderful for them to include us in their family. For one thing, it gave us a chance to hang out with Ben and Jen who were home for Christmas. It was also nice to not be alone. We played games, ate TONS of food (Kathy, you're so good at cooking), and laughed a lot. It was quite enjoyable.

The day after Christmas, we drove a lovely 10 hours back to Indiana! It was a whirlwind of a week. 5 days doesn't give you a whole lot of time with anybody. But nonetheless, we loved the little time we had with everyone. I was so thankful that my parents had the week off work... we got to hang out all day with them. We also got time with a majority of Anthony's siblings and all NINE of our nieces and nephews! Let's just say it was a little more crazy at Anthony's parents than at mine :) Finally, we got to spend New Year's Eve with our dear friends. This was especially special because our friend Chris was in town from Japan where he has been teaching English for the past year and a half. It felt good to be back with the gang.

So now we're back in Okoboji catching up on work, laundry, broken cars, and more. But not for long because in 5 days we leave again for....

HAWAII! Yes, it's true. Be jealous because this time next week, Anthony and I will be living the good life on the island of Kauai. We will be visiting our good friends Matt and Jamie (and their son!), celebrating our anniversary (it will be 2 years on the 10th), and seeing some of Anthony's old haunts from when he lived on the island for an internship in college. Overall, I think it will be amazing. I've always wanted to go to Hawaii and to do it while seeing friends is going to be great! If you think about it, pray for good travel weather. We fly out of Minneapolis to Chicago to LA to Lihue. I really don't want bad weather to hold us up either on our way there or on our way back.

On a more humorous note, Anthony and I have gone tanning a couple times this week. We're trying to prevent complete shock as our pastey-white skin is exposed to the Hawaiian sun. I don't know if it will help or not, but it's actually kind of relaxing to lay in a tanning bed even if it is for only 5 minutes. We'll see how it goes.

Well, I have a lot to do before we leave, so this is probably my last post before we get back. Much love!

Emily

Thanksgiving!

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 23:36:00 +0000

So I know it's a little late to write about Thanksgiving with everyone focused on Christmas and all, but I wanted to give Thanksgiving the time it deserves.

Thanksgiving this year was quite different for us. Instead of trying to figure out how to balance seeing all of our family at the same time, we found ourselves without any family. It was a bittersweet time. I think I took it harder than Anthony (boys always seem to have this annoying habit of compartmentalizing things)... I had a little breakdown the night before Thanksgiving. I guess I was holding out hope that one of our sets of parents would visit, but it didn't end up working out for either one. BUT, Anthony and I decided to cook a turkey anyways and have a traditional Thanksgiving meal. We were invited by quite a few families from the church to join their festivities, but we just felt like doing it ourselves this year. In my humble opinion, I think our turkey/meal turned out great! Check it out:

Over the next week, we found ourselves in a battle with the leftovers. Try as we might to eat it all, the leftovers ended up winning and we were eventually forced to toss some of the food out :( It was still worth it to try our hand at a Thanksgiving meal.

Later that weekend, Anthony and I got out the Christmas stuff and decorated our tiny apartment. I always love decorating for Christmas. Anthony loves that I love decorating, but that's as far as his love goes :) We had fun anyways. We even found a local Christmas tree farm and cut down our own tree. Here's Anthony after fighting with the tree to get it in our stand:

It fits perfectly (if not a little big... we currently don't have use of our dining room table...) Here's an after shot:
P.S. Why is it always so hard to take a good picture of a Christmas tree?

We survived our first Iowa blizzard this weekend! Nasty cold temperatures, horrible wind, and about 6 inches of snow. It didn't stop blowing all day on Saturday. It was so bad they pulled the plows. We spent the weekend locked inside watching movies and reading books. It was actually quite lovely not to have to go anywhere. Church ended up being canceled on Sunday, which in some ways was a blessing. Anthony's been battling a cold, so it was probably for the better that he didn't have to lead worship.

That's about all that's happening here. Tomorrow begins our round of Christmas parties with my office party.

Oh we are for sure coming back to Indiana from December 26th - January 1st. It's kind of short trip and we'll be with family for a lot of it (celebrating Christmas), but we would love to see as many people as we can. Let us know if you want to get together and we can try to work something out!

Much love,
Emily

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony) — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 02:11:00 +0000

An Anniversary
Almost a year ago (December 11-13, to be exact) Emily and I drove 10 hours from Mishawaka, IN to this little podunk town called Okoboji to interview at Good News Community Church. We had so many emotions on that trip. Do you take a job out of desperation? We had always wished to leave Northern Indiana. But when faced with leaving our friends and family, it was actually pretty scary. Not to mention that trading Northern Indiana with (even further north) Northern Iowa wasn't exactly what we had in mind.

But details like this seem small when compared to God's will. And though we couldn't necessarily see all the ways that God was pointing us towards the Iowa Great Lakes a year ago, we can look back and confidently say, "We belong here."

Advent
I love Christmas, but the few weeks before Advent begins can always be scary as a worship leader. Expectations are higher, traditions can accidentally get trampled on, and somehow you have to come up with (yet again) another unique way to present the birth of Jesus.

But fortunately, I remembered I don't lead worship for people, for a congregation. I lead worship for an Audience of One, for God alone. And His expectations are always the same: surrender. Not performance, not checklists, not resumes. Just me allowing Him to love me, change me, shape me.

Wisely, I think, Good News also has intentionally decided to not plan pageants, parties, and extravagances in the name of Christmas. Jesus came to bring peace. Someone named Him the Prince of it, actually. And so, in that spirit, we're trying to make Christmas simpler. More peaceful. Less stressful. We're giving more time to spend with friends and family, brothers and sisters by blood (the plasma, red cell kind) and by blood (the redemption kind).

Trips
In a few weeks we'll be making yet another 10 hour drive back to Indiana. It will be wonderful to celebrate Christmas and the New Year with our friends and family. Though it is always stressful balancing our two families and our friend group all living within the same 30 mile radius, it is always worth it, and we will of course look back longingly as soon as we drive away.

But then a couple of weeks later we'll be heading to Hawaii! We'll be heading to the island where I did my internship, as well as where our friends Matt and Jamie Metzger are pastoring. I am so looking forward to showing Emily all my haunts. Not to mention get a nice respite from the ridiculous Iowa cold.

Update

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 19:11:00 +0000

November is here already, believe it or not. I have been so thankful for the warmer weather this fall. we had some days in the upper 70's in October, and even the past week or so has been in the 60's. I am happy to delay winter as long as possible. They're predicting snow for Saturday, but I am blissfully ignoring that bit of information :)

This past Sunday, Anthony and I were able to go horseback riding with a couple from the church. It was a gorgeous day and it seemed as though we had the park all to ourselves! It felt great to be on a horse again (I used to ride). This time, the horse did not run away with me, so that's always an accomplishment. At one point as we were riding, we even saw a couple of bald eagles flying overhead. Now, this might not seem special to you Iowa folks, but we did not have bald eagles in Indiana, so it's still pretty exciting to me when I see one.

This past Saturday, I had my first opportunity to speak for Cherish Center (the place where I work). A baby bottle campaign was being kicked off at a Catholic Church in Spencer. Our normal speaker was not able to be there, so I filled in. It was a good experience to get to speak about the organization. And it was nice to attend a mass. It's been a while since I've been to a Catholic mass, and I always find things I appreciate about the service.

Good News is gearing up for the holidays. Or at least the staff is. Anthony has been working hard the past week or two planning for Advent. It's coming sooner than I realize! We have no plans for Thanksgiving yet. Not sure if we're going to just celebrate ourselves or if we will join a family from the church. For Christmas, we're hoping to make it home, but we're still working out details.

Currently, I am working on reading through Harry Potter in preparation for the 1st of the last movies coming out next week. My goal was to make it through book 6, but as of now I am in the middle of 3. Not sure it's going to happen in time. Nonetheless, I am thoroughly enjoying myself. I always love rereading those.

I can't think of anything else too exciting going on right now. Mostly life as usual. I will try and be better about updating more often :)

Emily

"The Red Letters Project" Review

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony) — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 16:47:00 +0000

SUMMARY: Ambitious project fails to make music.

As I worship leader, I was excited about the idea behind "The Red Letters Project" (despite, perhaps, the theological mis-step of highlighting certain parts of Scripture and not others, but I digress). I love "Scripture songs" and find that the closer a lyric is to the Biblical text, the more profound that songs tends to be. (For example, check out Psalm 62 by Aaron Keyes). So, if that had been the case thus far in my experience, why not for the “Red Letter Project” as well?

For those of who don’t know, “The Red Letters Project” was a project by Tyndale to take the whole of Jesus’ words in the Gospel of Matthew (NLT) and put them to rock music. Sound like a good idea? Sure, why not. Right? Well, the problem was that there was little to no artistic license with the songs. If the words of Jesus don’t happen to rhyme, neither does the lyric. If the words of Jesus don’t seem to have a particular rhythm to them, neither does the song.

You can begin to see the problem immediately.

What is the purpose of a song that doesn’t rhyme or have lyrical rhythm? I mean, even Eminem understands that! Perhaps this project is a meditation on “Christian art.” Though we may call a certain piece of art “Christian,” it doesn’t automatically make that art good. I mean, here we have the actual words of Jesus, every single one of them, and yet this projects fails to impact, it fails at its grasp for beauty.

Conclusion: I cannot recommend “The Red Letters Project” at all. It is unenjoyable to listen to and tends to be grating rather than graceful.

Zero Stars.

Check out more review of Christian media at http://viralbloggers.com/

Wait? You Mean God Can Refuse to Listen to Me?

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony) — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 19:00:00 +0000

While reading Isaiah today, I came across the very startling Chapter 58. Here we find the nation of Israel asking God why they have fasted and God has not answered, why they have humbled themselves before God, and it doesn't seem that He's noticed.

But then the prophet Isaiah points out that on their days of fasting and worship,

"You do what you want. You exploit your employees. Your worship ends in quarreling and strife and fist fights" (verse 3-4, paraphrased).

And then the really scary part:

"You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high."

Wow.

God - speaking through Isaiah - has just let the Israelites know that they can worship wrongly. So wrong, in fact, that God actually doesn't even pay attention to their prayers. He outright tells them, "Don't even expect your voice to be heard in heaven."

It could be very easy to try to foo-foo this away. "Well, but, God has to listen to me. I'm a sinner, saved by grace, a child of God, so of course God has to listen to whatever I say."

But this is an awfully small view of God. In fact, we make God out to be stupid. Even (responsible) parents realize that we don't raise our children by listening (and presumably obeying) all of their requests. A kid who is throwing a fit in the toy aisle should not be rewarded by an ingratiating parent. Why? Because we're telling the kid by our actions that they're reprehensible behavior is, in fact, effective to get what they want.

God, however, wants us to get beyond the whole "want we want" thing. "Why have we fasted," the Israelites say, "and you have not seen it?" It is the equivalent of putting on sackcloth, covering ourselves in ashes, going on the church stage, and yelling at the top of our lungs, "Look how humble we are!"

Fortunately, God doesn't leave us guessing as to how we are to worship. Verse 6:

"Is not this the kind of fasting [or worship] I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice, and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

"Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter--when you see the naked, clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?"

Worship, it seems, should be focused on others. God, first and foremost ("Love the Lord with all heart, soul, mind, and strength"); our fellow humans second ("And the other is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself").

The point of fasting, the point of gathering together each Sunday, is not to point at ourselves and say "Look how humble we are! Look how worshipful we are!" It is to point to the Lord's glory and by pointing at it, reflecting it. What God has done - breaking chains, untying bonds, setting the oppressed free - is what we are to be doing.

The words "if and "then" are each used five times in Isaiah 58.

IF you do away with the yoke, pointing finger, malicious talk
IF you spend yourself on behalf of the hungry; satisfy the needs of the oppressed
IF you keep the Sabbath
IF you honor the Lord's holy day
IF you walk in God's ways

THEN your light will break forth like the dawn
THEN your righteousness will go before you
THEN you will call and the LORD will answer
THEN your light will rise in the darkness
THEN you will find your joy in the Lord.

What does this mean? That you can refuse to obey all these things and God will NOT answer when you call.

Scary.

Now, of course, none of us have arrived. None of us individually or corporately or have reached perfection in our worship. We are still learning, walking the way of pilgrim, growing, and changing. The majority of the Gospels is the narrative of a perfect Jesus walking with a bunch of imperfect (and, at points, imbecile) disciples. And when they messed up--Jesus kept walking with them.

The Lord is slow to anger and rich in love. But He is calling us to grow, to be reformed and yet reforming; saints already, yet called to be saints (1 Cor. 1:1). So may we never stay at the "look at our humbleness" part of our worship; may we move beyond the "I got so much out of worship" part of our Sunday Gatherings; may we become worshipers that give to God and give to others.

Moving Worship Outside of the Sanctuary

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony) — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 22:55:00 +0000

One of the things I've been thinking about recently is how to help people realize that communal worship (what happens most obviously Sunday morning around 9:30) can happen outside the walls of a church. More and more often, Christian communities are meeting in smaller and smaller spaces. House churches, small groups, like minded people gathering in cafes. Even families are (or at least should be) getting into this. As they should; if our children see us only worship one day a week, what habits can we count on them having? Anyway, these groups usually have the desire to engage in worship of our God in one way or another, but it can be difficult to see ways to do this in such a small setting.

Now, clearly, worship is more than singing (and Scripture reading and praying). Worship involves the whole of our being and of our lives. So I think it should go without saying that these smaller, outside-the-church-building Christian communities should be involved in some of the other actions of worship: community service, fighting for justice in our communities, and of course personal discipleship--study of Scripture, mediation on God and His Word, etc.

But I don't think there's anything wrong with these smaller communities--the dispersed church--wanting to just sing in worship as well.

Two obvious resources come to mind immediately: 1) someone with a guitar; 2) the iWorship DVD's from Integrity Worship.

But what are some other good resources that you are aware of or can think of that can aide in helping small groups, classes, etc. worship? How can we creatively extend worship-by-singing outside of the Sunday morning sanctuary?

The Fantastical Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Anthony) — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:29:00 +0000

In many ways, David Crowder*Band's Fantastical Church Music Conference was not at all what I was expecting. The first thing we realized was that it was smaller than what I thought: only 2,000 attendees. I know that sounds like a lot, but when you consider the venues that these bands and speakers usually are at, you realize that 2,000 is pretty small when next to 20,000 (it's like a whole extra zero or something!).

Anyway, I think in some ways I almost expected the conference to be a bit fluffy and predictable. That the large group gatherings would be kind of "rally style," in that the bands would play songs we all already knew and the speakers would be more inspirational than educational.

But--fortunately, I think--we were wrong. The first session immediately challenged both Emily and I in the fact that we didn't know the songs. We didn't even know the bands. And that takes a lot for me because I know a lot of worship music. It's kind of my job. So, each session had a band and songs that we didn't know, couldn't sing along with, couldn't as--dare I say--thoughtlessly, effortlessly "enter into worship" (whatever that phrase means). And so, just from the songs, we were at least subliminally reminded that worship shouldn't be thoughtless, effortless. Just because we didn't know the songs and could shout them from the top of our lungs didn't mean we couldn't worship.

The speakers were equally as challenging. Francis Chan gave the very difficult message that singing without repentance is worthless. No one likes to hear this. No one likes to be told that God actually can refuse to listen to our prayers. We can pray, sing, and worship wrong. Badly. Poorly. In a fashion that God can say, "Take this noise away from me," (see Malachi 1, Isaiah 58, Isaiah 59). Jesus said that before we give our gift at the altar, lay it down, go reconcile with our brother, and then give our offering. Repentance and confession is important to God and it should be important to us individually and as congregations.

Rob Bell spoke about the importance of words and creativity. In the New Testament, we see the writers (and Paul in particular) engage multiple metaphors about what Christ did on the cross and through resurrection. We see language of sacrifice (religion); adoption (family); slave-redemption (economic); reconciliation (relationships). A very silly question then would be "Which one is the correct one?" Well, obviously, they are all correct. That is the point. The New Testament writers knew that what Jesus did couldn't be summed up in one nice theological word; it had to be explored and shown in many different ways. "It's kinda like this. Oh! You don't understand this metaphor. Then, then it's kinda like this."

So, if Paul felt the liberty to use the world around him to explain Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, shouldn't we be just as creative? The fact of the matter is we don't do a whole lot of blood sacrifice and slave-redemptions anymore. These metaphors are important, perhaps crucial, to understanding Jesus. But they aren't the only metaphors out there. So how can we as worshipers--artists, songwriters, dancers, singers, instrumentalists, technicians, congregants--how can we as worshipers be more creative and more in tune with the culture around us in communicating the message of Jesus Christ.

So, overall the conference left me with a lot more questions than answers. It wasn't a prepackaged experience that explained "And THIS is how worship ministry is done." No, instead it prodded me into thinking of how we can reach more people; think more critically of why we sing; concentrate harder and how we can be better at what we do. Not for our sake, but the sake of Jesus' here-and-coming Kingdom, for the sake of His fame and glory.

Our Trip to Texas

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 18:05:00 +0000

This is going to be a long one folks, so you have been warned!

Anthony and I made it safely back from Texas! We had a lot of fun, and it was a wonderful week. Plus, we got to extend our summer for a little bit :) Here's the story of our week:

Part 1:

We spent the first 3 1/2 days in Huntsville with Anthony's brother and sister-in-law and their family. We arrived at 3:30 am Monday morning partly do to our flight getting in at a late hour and partly because we underestimated the size of Texas. Anyways, we had such a good time with them. Justin, Anthony's brother, works at a big Christian camp in Huntsville, and we were able to spend a bit of time there seeing what he does. We also got to go canoeing! It was my first time, and it was a lot of fun! Most of the first part of our trip was just spent relaxing with their family. We got to know our niece and nephews a little better (ages 3, 1.5, and 7 weeks). We played some cards, ate a lot of food, and played some basketball. I'm so glad we had a chance to visit and spend time with them.

Part 1 1/2:

On our way to part 2 (the conference in Waco), we stopped by College Station where a friend from college lives. We met up for lunch and got to catch up a bit. Thanks Katie for meeting us and showing us around a little! It was good to see you!

Part 2:

We spent Thursday - Saturday in Waco, Texas for the worship conference. I must admit that I am still processing the conference. It was great, but it left us with a lot to think about. Not to mention they had so much packed into 3 days. The speakers were amazing. Rob Bell was by far the most challenging speaker of the event. Though I was given a new respect for Francis Chan, and you really can't go wrong with Louie Giglio. The music was probably the most interesting part of the conference. It was not your typical worship bands playing your typical worship music. David Crowder really wanted to bring in some different bands and different genres of music with the goal of exposing worship leaders to different styles. This was great, but not necessarily the most emotional worship experience, if that makes sense. We heard everything from liturgical to post modern rock. All good stuff though. Oh and of course Hillsong London was there (!!) and David Crowder Band which gave us some of more familiar stuff. We also attended 3 workshops while we were there. Anthony was able to learn a little about sound equipment, and I chose to attend a workshop on hearing God's voice. Then we attended a workshop together about incorporating liturgy into conptemporary worship.

All this to say it was a packed, but wonderful event. It was on the small side (about 2,000 attenders) which gave it a more intimate feel. The end goal of the conference was to get worship leaders to be thinking about key questions such as "Why do we sing?" It might seem simple to answer, but in reality it goes much deeper. The conference didn't necessarily provide the answers, but instead offered a lot of insight and asked more questions. All good stuff.

Oh and it was at Baylor University, so it was fun to explore their campus a little. And do they have a beautiful campus! Plus, they have Chick Fil-a on campus, which Anthony and I took advantage of *cough* twice.

Part 3:

As soon as the conference was over, we hopped in the car and drove down to Austin, Texas where my Aunt Sherry lives. Though we weren't able to spend too much time there (only a day), I still feel as though we got some good visiting in. We were able to have some yummy Texan BBQ and have dinner with my cousins. Then we explored a little of downtown, which included seeing a huge (1.5 million) bat colony emerge from a bridge downtown. Mostly, we were just able to chat and catch up. Sunday morning we packed everything up and drove back to Dallas to catch our plane home.

Conclusion:

It was a whirlwind week. But also a wonderful one. Strangely, it felt relaxing, though we were always moving from place to place. I must say though, it's good to be home. Though it's a little colder here than it was in Texas :)

That's all for now. Maybe if you're lucky Anthony will take some time to blog so you can get his perspective on things.

Love,

Emily

Camping, Texas, and Haircuts

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 03:12:00 +0000

Ahhh! It's been a while since I've posted... I've been a bad blogger. Anthony's not feeling well (he caught a cold), so I'm awake still while he's been snoozing since 8:30. I thought it would be a good time to catch up.

I had a birthday since I last wrote. 25. Quarter of a century. Not too sure how I feel about that, but so far it's been great! Anthony and I went out to lunch together and I got to Skype with my parents. Then we went camping this past weekend and got to celebrate with friends from home. Needless to say, it was a wonderful birthday!

Camping. Ah, camping. It was a blast! Even though it rained quite a bit, I still consider it to be a success. It was so wonderful to see some friends from back home. There's something about being with people who truly know you inside and out. It was truly refreshing and not nearly long enough. Though probably enough to hold us over til Christmas. We also enjoyed some hiking... not nearly enough thanks to the rain... but some nonetheless. I'll be honest... it felt amazing to sleep in a bed when we got home. And shower. Showers are always nice.

Next up... TEXAS! We leave on Sunday afternoon for the state of Texas. We'll spend some time with Anthony's brother and sister-in-law and their family for a few days, then head to Waco for a David Crowder worship leading conference. The whole week should be wonderful. I'm excited to spend time with Anthony's brother and sister who we don't get to see as often.

In the spirit of randomness, I will share a quirk about myself. I got my haircut yesterday. First time in about 5 months and it really needed it! However, for some reason, I really hate getting my haircut (unless it's with you, Little One). I never like spending the money that it can sometimes cost to get a good hair cut. And I ALWAYS feel awkward making conversation with the hairstylist, who is usually much much cooler than I could ever be. I shrink back into my shyness and my mind goes blank for conversation. Then I feel like I can never go back to that stylist because it was so awkward. So I wait forever til I desperately need a hair cut again and the cycle continues. I probably just need to get over myself, but that's my story for you all to know.

Alright, Anthony's stirring in bed. I think my typing might be affecting his subconscious. That's my cue to sign off!

Until next time,

Emily

Septemeber

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:08:00 +0000

September is here! Which means cool, crisp weather, football games, sweatshirts, bon fires, and camping! It also means that my birthday is right around the corner. There are many reasons to love September. Everyone enjoys the cool relief from the muggy, sticky August weather. School starts again (though unfortunately not for Anthony or me). Leaves begin to change (though perhaps September is still a little early for that...). It's just a good time of the year.

This September will be a busy one for me and Anthony (though a fun one as well). Anthony gets to preach on Septemeber 12th... he's already been mulling over his sermon. Good News kicks off their small groups and classes this month (both Anthony and I are leading one of each). My birthday is on the 14th (yay me!)... I'll be 25 (yikes!). We also have a couple of trips planned.

One of those trips is a camping trip with some wonderful college friends. Anthony had this brilliant idea a while back when we were trying to figure out how to ease some of our homesickness. He thought it would be fun to see if our friends wanted to meet us half way for a camping trip this fall. The only problem was that we really only had one weekend available before it got too cold. That weekend happens to be Sept. 17th-19th, and that weekend also happened to work for a lot of our friends! We are so pumped! We didn't know if it would work out or not and it seems to be coming together. We'll meet at a state park along the Mississippi and it should be a joyous time.

Another trip is one that I might have mentioned before: Texas. Anthony and I get to travel down to Texas at the end of the month to attend a worship leading conference hosted by David Crowder. As if that weren't cool enough... we get to take some extra time and visit Anthony's brother and sis-in-law and my aunt! It will be a fun mini-vaca, and a good chance to catch up with some family we don't get to see very often. Not to mention the awesomeness of the conference.

AAAnnnnddd since we are talking about trips, I suppose I should mention that we did something kind of crazy last week... we bought tickets to HAWAII!!! Yeah, I know, be jealous. We had been thinking about it for a while now, and we happened to catch amazing airplane deals, so we had to do it. We have friends out there who just had a baby. Not to mention that this is the island that Anthony interned on (Kauai). Not to mention we'll be going for our anniversary in January. Is it a splurge? Yes. But worth it? Totally. I don't know if we'll ever be able to do this trip this cheaply again, so we might as well take advantage of it while we can!

I think that's about all going on in our lives right now. Or at least all of the exciting stuff. One thing Anthony and I really wanted to be intentional about before we had kids was traveling. It's so exciting to see some of that start to happen :)

Happy Labor Day to everyone!

Em

Reasons to Miss Home

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 20:39:00 +0000

Sometimes homesickness hits more often. It's not that I don't enjoy living here. It's not that we don't have friends. And it's not that anything bad is happening here. Right now homesickness is prevalent because of what's happening at home not because of anything in Okoboji. Here are a few reasons why I've been thinking about home lately:

1. One of my closest friends just had a baby! A beautiful boy! She's really the first one of us to get pregnant, and it makes me sad that I can't be there. Even though her and her husband don't live back at home, it makes me wish we were all still living in the same town. I wish I could visit her and her husband at the hospital and hold their baby boy. But alas... I must keep in touch from Iowa.

2. Another one of our closest friends from college/home are moving to South Korea next week. They will be teaching English just outside of Seoul. I'm sure it will be an amazing opportunity for them! It's hard not being back home right now because we're missing out on our last chances to hang out with them before they leave. It will be especially hard to miss out on their going away party. They were able to come out and visit us over Memorial weekend and we knew it would probably be our last time with them for a while. But now that the time has come when they are leaving, it doesn't make it any easier!

3. My brother was in a serious car accident Wednesday afternoon. He's ok... it's a miracle, but he's ok. He was caught between 2 semis and was thrown into a median on a highway. The car is smashed, but somehow he managed to walk away from it. When my mom called I just wanted to be able to come over and be with my family, but I couldn't :( It helps knowing that nothing serious is wrong, but it's still hard to be 10 hours away.

With all these things running through my head recently, it's been hard not be home. That being said, there have been a lot of exciting things happening here as well. This past Sunday we had a lakeside baptism. 10 people were baptized and about 100 people from the church showed up! It was a great celebration. A lot of us stayed afterwards and enjoyed a meal together. Even though it's hard missing home at times, it sometimes amazes me how quickly we've attached ourselves to this area. Now that we're here, I can't imagine my life without some of these people in it!

Hopefully we'll be able to make a trip home somewhere around the holidays. If not, Skype is helpful and so is the phone :)

No other big updates from the Parrotts. My job is still going well. I can't believe how fast time flies now that I'm working! Anthony is still as busy as ever over at the church. And he's still loving his job. Well, it's almost the start of the weekend, so I should get going!

love,
Emily

Muggy, Muggy Days

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 17:56:00 +0000

It seems as though time is going by rather quickly as of late. Today marks the beginning of my third week at Cherish Center, and I have found that working 4 days out of the week really causes my weeks to fly by. Work is still going well. I feel as though I'm getting the hang of things, and every day I feel more comfortable. It's always hard to start a new job and try to learn everything, but so far I think I've done well. I really like the organization, and I am excited to be a part of it.

This past week was uneventful besides the Bible Conference. Anthony and I both enjoyed attending a handful of services together. Anthony even got a chance to play with the worship band on Saturday night. I was pretty jealous though, because Anthony had the chance to attend the morning "communities" or classes. He was able to go to Dr. John Walton's (from Wheaton) class on Genesis 1. I would have loved to listed to that. Apparently, it was a fantastic class and it started some great discussions between Anthony and some of the other attenders.

It's been really hot, muggy, and buggy here as of late. Typical mid-west August, I suppose. It's actually made me yearn a bit for the crispness of fall. I do love fall (hello! my birthday is in the fall!), but unfortunately it leads to winter. And I know come January I will be wishing for the heat that August brings. Anyways, to fight off some of the heat, Anthony and I went to the beach on Sunday. We took our rafts and just floated in the lake. It was very peaceful and very relaxing.

Other than that, not much going on. Ministry wise, we're gearing up for fall. Both Anthony and I will be leading small groups as well as teaching a Sunday School class, so that will make things even busier. Therefore, we are enjoying this last month of summer.

Mostly Last Week...

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:56:00 +0000

Jogging went much better last week. We actually ran all 3 days! I was impressed with us. Especially since some of last week we stayed up a little too late.

Last week also marked the beginning of my new job. It went well, though it was a little overwhelming. My boss was on vacation for most of last week, so I had to just dive right in. But I think I'm getting the hang of things, and I'm slowly learning the ins and outs of the organization. I think overall, it will be a good fit, and I'm excited to be involved.

Apparently last week was a busy week, now that I think about it. It also marked the leaving of our dear friends, Ben and Jennifer. They've moved out to Baltimore so that he can attend law school, and we will dearly miss them. We met them when we came out for our interview back in December. Since we've moved here, they've been so wonderful and we've really appreciated their friendship. They provided most of our social life, and being that we were the same age we could relate to being in the same stage of life. We also had the privilege to be a part of and attend their wedding back in April. We weren't looking forward to saying goodbyes here in Iowa so soon. In some ways, we're still recovering from all the goodbyes we said in Indiana not so long ago.

On to happier thoughts. Saturday Anthony and I ventured to the lovely town of Mankato, MN to do some shopping. Both of us are bad about spending money on ourselves especially when it comes to clothes. We've been talking for a while about updating our wardrobes and this past Saturday was the day! We had a lot of fun together and got some fantastic deals! And it was nice not to feel guilty about spending the money. Also, the nice thing about shopping in Minnesota is that there isn't any sales tax on clothing. Score! We kind of laughed at the fact that we do most of our shopping in South Dakota or Minnesota. Who would have thought we would be living in small town Iowa where the only reasonable way to shop is to leave the state?

We got back from shopping just in time to catch the beginning of the Okoboji Bible Conference! It's a big deal around here (this is its 76th year), and it pulls in a lot of big names. For example, last year Dallas Willard was the main speaker (oh how I wish we could have been here for that!) and this year we have names like Josh McDowell and John Walton. Anyways, the kick off was a free concert by Selah. They have phenomenal voices, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We were also in awe of how the Tabernacle transformed into a real stage. They did a great job! Anyways, Anthony will be attending some of the morning classes and we will both try and make it to the evening sessions. It's like Bethel's Spiritual Emphasis Week all over again!

Well that's about all that's going on here. We're finally back to 2 cars again after our Sunfire's brakes broke down in every single way possible. $1,000 later and we're driving safely once again. Anyone else hate putting tons of money into a car that's a junker anyways? Sigh, at least $1,000 is cheaper than buying a new one. The joys of life.

Much love to our readers out there. Indiana friends, we miss you and love you!

Until next time,
Emily

Rain

noreply@blogger.com (Emily) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 23:05:00 +0000

Well, Anthony and I recently started a new workout regiment. We've been attempting to jog/walk 3 times a week in the morning before he goes to work. This was working great, but in the midst of all our visitors we fell out of step. Now we're trying to get back on track, but both yesterday morning and this morning we were lazy and slept in. Soooo in order to make up for not running, we decided to bike to small group tonight (about 7 miles there and back). I check the weather to make sure we won't get stuck in any rain (it's been off and on cloudy today) and it assures me that it will be clear. At 5:58, two minutes before we were going to leave it starts pouring rain. And I mean pouring. Out of nowhere! You could still see blue sky!

So now we will be driving which gives me an extra few minutes to blog. This weekend was kind of crazy. On Saturday evening we had some horrible storms hit this area. I knew it might rain, but we heard nothing of storms. Anthony and I were cuddled on the couch watching a movie when all of a sudden the tornado sirens go off. We look confusedly at each other and then run to our front porch. It looked calm and wasn't even raining yet. Without tv, we felt kind of lost, but we eventually found a radio station that declared us under a tornado warning with severe storms and high wind. We live in a 2nd story condo and have no basement. Normally we don't worry about it, but this sounded bad. We debated about leaving or staying. Finally, just as the storm was hitting and the power went out, we decided to run to the church, which at least is on ground level. We were there from about 10:15-12:00am. It definitely made for an eventful night. Really bad lightning and up to 80 MPH winds. We made it back safely and no damage was done to our condo, though there is tons of damage all around us. Trees are down everywhere and power was out all over the place. We were awoken Sunday morning with the news that both the church and the conference grounds were without power. Aka no instruments or mics for music. So Anthony managed to pull off a simple Hymn sing for everybody. The power did end up coming on right before service, so that helped. But man, it was a crazy night and morning.

Sunday afternoon was so pleasant, you would have no idea (except for the fallen trees everywhere) that a storm had passed through the night before. Anthony and I were able to enjoy a boat ride with some friends and then see the movie Inception. Very good movie, by the way. We ended the evening eating pizza and playing games with Ben and Jen and their siblings. We're going to be very sad when they move away next week :(

Alright, well we're off to small group via car.

Emily