A Uganda update, at last! Or, Watch this video, you won't regret it.

Hello friends! I apologize that it has been so many months since I have blogged. Life has been busy and full, in the very best way.

Not a day has gone by since I returned from my trip to Uganda in May that I have not thought about Uganda and my time there. Memories, faces, smells, stories are constantly popping in to my mind, my short stay in Uganda has left a deep impression on my soul.

I realized today, as a Uganda memory suddenly popped into my head, that I have not shared about my incredible experience with you, my friends. Over the next few weeks I will be blogging stories of how God moved during our trip to Uganda, and of the lives we encountered there. But for now, please watch this video we made of our trip. It will give you a small taste of my time there.

FranceToUganda 2009 from France Uganda on Vimeo.

Thank you so much, dear friends, for all your prayers for our trip. God moved in big ways, in my heart, in my team, and in the community we shared life with in Uganda.

i'm off to uganda!

i'm leaving in just a few short hours for uganda. my amazing uganda team is gathering in my apartment right now, organizing huge suitcases full of clothes and shoes we're taking to bless juna amagara. we just looked out the window and there is the most incredible rainbow i've ever seen right outside. words can't describe it. it feels like a promise, just for us, as we head out.

i am so excited for this trip!!! i am so excited to see the ways that God is going to work in us and through us. please pray, my friends, that God will use this trip to do amazing things in our hearts and in the country of Uganda.

if you haven't checked it out yet, go to www.francetouganda.com to learn more about our trip.

goodbye for now. i love you.

sing and run. or, if you sing but then don't run, you could make some money.

on friday i met up with heather, loni, and hilary to practice a song we were going to sing on sunday morning at iccp's easter gathering. after practicing, the four of us were walking through town, enjoying a few moments of sunshine and conversation before we rushed off in four different directions to get on with our hectic lives. we were chatting in the hotel de ville square, surrounded by french people leisurly sipping at cafes, when one of the girls (and i won't tell you which one) had the brilliant idea that we stand in the middle of this busy french square and sing the song we had just practiced. the other three of us looked at her like she had lost her mind. but before we could stop her she had pressed play on her ipod speakers, and we had no choice but to sing.

and so we sang. we filled that square with 4-part harmonies and jazzy riffs, and as we sang, all our awkwardness and embarrassment at what we were doing disappeared. we just enjoyed the music, and forgot about the fact that what we were doing could be potentially humiliating. we forgot, that is, until the song ended, and we realized several hundred people were staring at us, and the crowd that had gathered was waiting expectantly for us to sing another song. we didn't have another song, so without a word, the four of us grabbed our bags and bolted. we barely had time to register the confused looks on our fans' faces as we took off. we song-ambushed 200 people, and then disappeared into the crowd.

during our supremely bizarre exit, we did hear some applause, and through the cloud of awkwardness we remembered looks of genuine enjoyment on people's faces as they listened to us sing. we decided that our jazzy quartet was something that french people seemed to be in to, and we were going to use that to our advantage. the next day, while the streets were crowded with saturday shoppers, the four of us spent about 3 hours standing in different squares and singing. we put up a sign and laid a hat on the sidewalk, and let passersby know that any money they donated would go straight to the FranceToUganda trip and would support AIDS orphans in uganda. we thought that, even if we just raised a few euros for uganda, it would be worth it. we had no idea we would actually make a good amount of money. we made more money singing on the street for 3 hours than our entire team of 10 combined could have made working at minimum wage jobs for 3 hous.

the moral of the story: sometimes you have to get over yourself, take a risk, and sing on the street. also, sometimes you have to take your awkward moments and turn them in to ways to make money for the kiddos in uganda!


p.s. even if you didn't get to hear us sing, you can still support our uganda trip! it's really good stuff! learn all about it here: www.francetouganda.com

i love paris, i love love.

i will never, never, ever get over the fact that i can hop on a train and, in 3 short hours, be in paris. i have vowed to take advantage of this fact as much as time and finances will possibly allow. i had that privilege this weekend. dominic had encouraged me to get away for a few days as i've been so busy lately, and i knew in my heart it was time for a trip to the best city in the world. highlights include:

**reconnecting with the darling katy, who lived in aix a while back and is now living and working in paris.
**vintage shopping in the marais
**quality time with three of my favorite aix ladies: heather, loni, and rebecca
**hole-in-the-wall vietnamese restaurants where the walls are lined with books, big bowls of noodles are 5 euros and pints of Leffe are 2, and friendships are deepened
**coffee with jeff, my hilarious friend on staff with ca in paris
**the european museum of photography
**listening to the rain pounding on the roof from within the cozy warmth of shakespeare and co.
**enjoying the sunshine in the luxembourg gardens
**conversations of jesus, life, and the church on katy's mini balcony
**one of the most incredible meals i've ever eaten. i highly recommend l'affriolé, a tiny fabulous restaurant in the 7ème, if you're ever in paris

yep. no matter how many times i visit, i'll never, never, ever get over paris.

while having a coffee with jeff, he was telling me a bit about the rhythm of vintage, the ca community in paris. it struck me that, though iccp and vintage have similar dna as they are both a part of the ca family, the rhythm of these two church communities are extremely different. listening to jeff, i realized how much i love the rhythm of life and worship at iccp. we're a community of people in process, and sometimes that looks messy, and we have a lot of growing to do as a church, and we're in transition, and we have ups and downs. but i find myself nothing but thankful that i get to do life with this community where jesus is the center, where grace is received and grace is extended.

as much as i love spending time in paris, this realization made me eager to get on the train sunday morning and head back to aix for iccp's gathering sunday evening. we worshipped together, we prayed together, together we experienced and were overwhelmed by the incredible truth of God's love. the presence of God in our community is beautiful.

i led our community in this song, and i haven't been able to get it out of my head. there's nothing as powerful as the love of our God, who became flesh and dwelt among us.

how about you, my friends? in what ways are you experiencing love and receiving grace in community? i'm praying that you are.


we are his portion and he is our prize
drawn to redemption by the grace in his eyes
if grace is an ocean we're all sinking
so heaven meats earth like a sloppy wet kiss
and my heart burns violently inside of my chest
i don't have time to maintain these regrets
when i think about the way
he loves us, oh how he loves us
oh how he loves us, oh how he loves

Uganda

you may or may not have heard by now about this little trip i'm taking to uganda. now that the trip is just 3 weeks away, i at times have trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that i'm actually going. but at the same time, i'm beyond excited! i would really love it if you, faithful blog reader, would take a few minutes to read on and learn more about this incredible opportunity i have.

in 2007, iccp sent a team to uganda to work with juna amagara ministries, a very cool organization founded by some very cool ugandan nationals with a heart for their country. over 1.5 million children have lost their parents to the hiv/aids epidemic in uganda, and juna amagara exists to provide education, housing, and support to some of these children. iccp is so blessed to have a relationship with this organization, and this trip is a chance to further that relationship.

i am leading a team of 10 university students who are a part of the iccp community to uganda, to spend their 2 week spring break serving at juna amagara. we'll be doing construction on juna amagara's learning center, as well as working with the children, and doing all we can to bless juna amagara.

please visit our website www.francetouganda.com and learn a whole lot more about our trip, juna amagara ministries, and the need in uganda.

i am excited for the chance to encourage and support these incredible brothers and sisters at juna amagara, to learn from them as we serve alongside them. it is such a privilege to actively participate in the family of God in this way, to join in what God is doing in uganda. i'm sure God is going to challenge me and grow me in ways i can't even anticipate.

i'm also really excited to be leading a team of amazing university students on this trip. i've been working with these students all year, and it's been a privilege to share life with them, to encourage their growth in Christ as they are being challenged by their abroad experience. i can't wait to see the ways that God will use this trip to uganda to further shape and grow them.

this trip encompasses, in so many ways, my passion, and the reasons i am doing what i am doing here in france: seeing people experience God's grace in the iccp community, and then in turn going out and extending that grace to others; seeing university students encounter the radical love of God while abroad and, as a result, be changed forever; getting to partner with the church around the world; getting to serve and bless those in need.

friends, i would love for you to join with me in this. please please pray. and please think about supporting us financially. i'm proud of the ways our team has been working to raise money for this trip here in france, but we still need to raise more in order to go and bless juna amagara. all money raised will go directly to the children’s home, paying for building materials, lodging, food, and books for their new library. even a $10 gift will go a long way in uganda.

you can easily give a financial contribution on our website. you can also go there for updates on how to pray.

thanks for reading all this, my friends. and thanks for your friendship.

Stories from camp. Or, why I love youth camp even more now that I'm an adult.

I love camp. I seriously think I love youth camp more now that I'm an adult than I did when I was actually a youth. I spent last week in the Alpes with a whole bunch of middle schoolers for iccp's second youth winter camp. Last year we had 10 students go to camp with us, this year we took 31. That's right, we tripled our camp this year. Triple the number of kids learning about Jesus for a week, triple the exhaustion for us leaders, and triple the awesomeness.

I love all the friendships and fun and laughter that happen at camp. And I really love watching God work in the lives of these kids while we're together for a week. I love watching them grow and watching them navigate difficult situations. I love seeing how God can take someone's inner-garbage and turn it into a growing experience and a chance to receive His grace.

Let me tell you one story of how God worked this week. One girl came to camp with a very hard exterior, and we watched as God gently peeled away that hard shell over the course of the week. One day she had an emotional breakdown, and confessed to me how little everyone thinks of her and how unloved she feels. God gave me the opportunity to speak Truth into her. As I told her that she was a daughter of God, that she was unconditionally loved, that she has value because God says she has value, that she was specially made, that she was bought with a price, I watched her heart soak up Truth. I watched her experience God's real love in that moment and over the last few days of camp, and she was a different girl when we left camp at the end of the week.

This is one story, one life. There are 30 more lives that experienced the love of Christ that week. 31 lives that are in process, like we all are. 31 people that are desperately loved by our God.

Thanks for praying, friends. Let's keep praying for these 31 precious lives.


There are lots of amazing pictures from camp. Check them out here.

An Ode to Joe. Or, If they had Trader Joe's in France I might never leave.

i'm not sure why i enjoyed this so much, except for the fact that trader joe's is the greatest store on earth. and the fact that this "commercial" captures that ineffable california culture that i miss terribly and am so glad to be free from at the same time.