Hellos and goodbyes. Or, my attempt to summarize Connect, Vienna, and saying farewell to Andi.

It's been a rather eventful couple of weeks since I last blogged. Since my last post, I have traveled to 2 countries I had never before been to, reunited with a few hundred of my favorite people, celebrated the engagement of 2 dear friends, said farewell to one of my dearest friends, and finally finished unpacking since moving into my apartment 3 months ago.

I had a wonderful week at CA's staff conference (newly named Connect) in Hungary! It was a week so packed full of great stuff that I could probably write a novel, so I'll try to give a few highlights:
--reuniting with so many cool CA people that are serving Jesus all over Europe. It was so great to spend an entire week hanging out and hearing their stories and laughing and learning about how God is moving in all these little corners of the world.
--worshipworshipworshipworshipworship. In a related note, Kendall Payne is awesome.
--The concert of prayer (which was completely organized by Andi, Teal, Darrin, and Julie- way to go friends!). It was an incredibly powerful time, all of us joining together and pray that God would move powerfully in Europe.
--the women's lunch. After a delicious Laina-catered picnic, we broke into small groups. Praying, crying, sharing our hearts, and spending time in the presence of Jesus with the women of the Aix team was one of my week's highlights.
--late nights outside on the patio. (and that memorable late night life-size chess game).
--a refreshing reminder that God is not finished with Europe!

After Connect, the Aix team spent a few days in Vienna for a little team bonding. We've been apart all summer, with half the team in the States, so it was so wonderful to reconnect and spend a few days just playing together. Highlight: the first night in Vienna, my teammate Dominic and my flatmate Hilary got engaged!!! So we had an awesome two-day engagement celebration. (By the way, I am in love with Vienna. I think it's one of my new favorite European cities.)

I've been back from Vienna for a week now, and it has been simultaneously an extremely fun and horribly sad week. This week was Andi's last week here in Aix. For those who don't know, Andi is one of the original Aix team members, and after four years of serving at ICCP, is moving to Portland to continue her education. So we've been doing lots of fun activities this week to wish her farewell. Andi has been a significant part of my life ever since I moved to Aix for the first time in 2003, and words cannot express how important she is in my life and how hard it is to see her go. She has been my friend, roommate, confidant, discipler, teammate, and so much more. And she has had an enormous impact on the lives of so many people in Aix over the past four years. It is so hard to say goodbye, but God is very clearly calling her to spread her wings and move to the next adventure. She will be dearly missed.

As jam packed as the past 2 weeks have been, it's only going to get more crazy from here on out. It's still August now, but as soon as September rolls around, everything starts up. I'm super excited about everything we'll be doing this year, especially a few brand new shiny ministry opportunities I have this year. So hold on tight, there's much more to come...

I'm off to staff conference! Or, Connect, Connectfrence, Connect Four...

today i leave for CAI's annual staff conference. this year, we church planters from all over europe will gather in sopron, hungary for a week of encouragement, connection, prayer, dreaming, and refreshment. i'm so excited! i'm excited for the obvious reasons, like getting to spend a week with all the super super cool CAI people. but i'm really excited that this year we've traded a conference center in amsterdam for a sweet four-star hotel in hungary. and that the aix team is spending a few extra days at the end of the conference to play in vienna. hooray!

youth camp was

extraordinary. God moved. in big ways.

i've written many words lately about the youth camp experience, but right now, it seems next to impossible to put into words just how amazing it was to see God at work in the lives of these 20 jr. high and high schoolers (and us 6 staff, too). a long, wordy blog about youth camp will probably find it's way up here eventually, but for now, maybe pictures can capture what i can't quite manage to put into words right now. go have a look! i've posted a bunch (though not nearly all) of them here.

my television debut. OR, why fabian should pay me to promote pasta cosy. OR, how i became bff with rachael ray.

so the other day, my family (who was here visiting) and i were walking through the big outdoor market in aix when we noticed a camera crew filming someone who was strolling through the market. we look closer, and suddenly my sister yells out "it's rachael ray! it's rachael ray!" (my sis is a big fan of 30-minute meals). we figured she was in my wonderful town of aix-en-provence filming an episode of her show, tasty travels. the fam and i had just eaten a fabulous meal the night before at pasta cosy, our favorite restaurant in town owned by our friend fabian. thinking about the phenomenal white truffle ravioli we'd eaten the night before, lauren said, "let's go recommend pasta cosy to rachael ray!" she's heading away from her camera crew at this point, so lauren and i head over, and lauren says "rachael! she lives here, we want to recommend a restaurant to you." rachael looks at me and says "sure! can we film it?" so before i even know what is happening, there's a camera in my face and i'm talking to rachael ray about why she should go eat at pasta cosy. true story people. rachael even said at the end that next time she's in provence, she'll come cook in my kitchen. ye-ah! so i'm thinking, if i actually get pasta cosy mentioned on the food network, fabian is gonna owe me free desserts for the rest of my life. i'm talking unlimited chocolate springrolls, yeah?