Yeah...it's been a while huh?

It's been over three months since I wrote a blog entry...I think that might be a record for me!

Lame, Laura-that was LAME!

But without further bashing of myself and no more ado, here we go.

Just before I went into hibernation.

I am home in Michigan...if you didn't know that...yikes, it's worse than I thought! haha

This is officially the weirdest season of my life so far.  

I have a job.  

That alone is a first of sorts for me...the last time I had a job was the summer after I graduated from high school, and it didn't last long.  I'm working at a Biggby Coffee shop that a couple from my church opened a couple weeks after I got home.  They have an incredible intentionality with their new business as an avenue into the community, which grabbed my attention the first time I heard about the new coffee shop.  I always hear stories of missionaries using coffee shops as entry points into overseas communities, but I'd never applied the concept to my own hometown.  God is doing something crazy in my heart, giving me compassion for the people I grew up around and a conviction of their desperate need for Truth.  So, I make espresso, lattes and brew a bazillion pots of coffee, while making friends and holding out the Gospel along with my fellow believers in the business!  Woohoo!  Plus I have a paycheck to stick away in the bank and let pile up towards the ominous set up budget looming in my future. :)

My lovely siblings on Christmas morning!

Another weird thing is that I am home, but my brother and sister are both in college.  Saying goodbye to both of them after Christmas but staying here was...yeah, weird.  I've always been the one running around the world and barely slowing down to be with my family, but for now I'm sticking around.  I am SO thankful for godly parents who welcomed me into their home so I can save money for the field, who don't suffocate me with overdue parental concern or control, and who love me so well that I WANT to serve them and help them while I can.  They're awesome, even when they flirt and I wish I had a sibling around to scream with and say "Oh my gosh, we're RIGHT HERE!"  :)

The whole family up north.

I think the most uncomfortable aspect of this season, the part that makes life so strange, is that I know it won't be like this for long.  In less than a year from now, I'll be in a very different place, sweating and praying the electricity will stay on long enough for me to skype my mom.  The constant knowledge of what is coming changes the way I live now.  A grilled cheese sandwich is so much more significant when you remember what it tastes like in Kenya!  A trip to the YMCA to swim laps and work out is a privilege, not a chore.  Young Adult Bible Study...there are other young adults who want to study the Bible?!  

Frozen lighthouse in Northern MI.

But like everything in life, the freshness wears off and it's easy to forget that all of this is a gift for the season.  Despite knowing it won't last forever, things lose their brilliance and they subtly shift to things I am entitled to rather than gifts.  That's scary.  I don't want to get sucked in, but the pull of a self-centered, consumer lifestyle is so strong.  Everything in our culture is drenched with ME...it's easy to get off center and start living for myself instead of my King.  I want to enjoy the gifts he has given me for this season of my life without becoming so attached to them that I can't let go when the time comes.  "I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do everything through him who gives me strength." (Philippians 4:11-13)  I want to learn the secret that Paul learned...contentment.  

Abby always gets stuck modeling for me  :)

So life is weird, it will probably only get weirder as the months go on, but whoever said life would be normal right?  Thanks for reading!