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.

A few reasons California is lovely. Or, Yes I was in California a month ago, I'm a terrible blogger.

lovely sister/cousin time


sweet friends get married



there's nothing better than my fam at disneyland


frenchies come to visit

dear jet lag, why do you hate me? or, because i have absolutely nothing else to do at 4am.

dear jet lag,

it is 4:37am and i am awake. i have been since 3:53am. this is not ok. why won't you let me sleep, jet lag? why do you insist on keeping my brain whirring with countless thoughts of all the things i need to be doing now that i am in california? are you trying to be helpful, jet lag? make sure i get everything done that needs to get done and don't forget the slightest little task?

and if you are trying to be helpful, oh jet lag, why do you make me so unproductive? why must i spend all day stumbling about in a hazy blur? don't you want me to spend time with my family and catch up with friends? or are you entertained when i say silly things and answer questions with ridiculous and nonsensical replies?

have you grown since you were last with me, jet lag? did you have a growth spurt? you seemed so much smaller last year, slightly annoying and inconvenient, but manageable. this year you are a force to be reckoned with. why are you trying to incapacitate me, jet lag?

i know you will be gone soon. i wish i could say i'll miss you.

dear fall, you have been lovely. or, why my blog has been silent for months.

i'm more than just a little embarrassed that my last post is dated august. i can't believe it's already december. the fall rushed by in a blur...

it's been a blur of laughter. of new friendships. of discovering old friends in new ways. of meals shared. of reunions. of goodbyes. of tiny cups of coffee and big mugs of tea. of countless hours spent digging into the Word with sweet friends. of cozy kitchens crammed with people. of screaming vikings. of runs in the park. of big events and tiny gatherings. of making music. of worship. of heated debates over glasses of wine. of tears. of new life. of honest conversation. of growth. of life shared in community.

i'm thankful.

August in France. Or, Why my brain is not yet back from holiday.

august in france is weird. the government must have socialized vacation as well as health care, because it seems like it's interdit to work during the month of august in france. the inhabitants of aix have fled the city and been replaced by hoards of tourists. i can't walk down the cours mirabeau without dodging a pack of japanese tourists trailing behind a woman holding an umbrella high in the air. so even though aix is crowded with people, the city has gone on vacation mode, so it feels like a ghost town. one of those ghost towns where tourists flock to take pictures of old buildings and imagine what the town was like in the days of yore, and vendors sell overpriced souvenirs and bottles of water marked up 300%.

i had a wonderful summer. it was exciting and action-packed, relaxing and refreshing, encouraging and inspiring. after two incredible weeks of camp, an iccp staff retreat to the alps, staff conference in hungary, and a vacation with friends in madrid, summer is winding down, and i'm ready. i'm ready to start planning and dreaming for the upcoming year. i'm ready for people to be around and things to be going on. i'm ready to embrace my new roles and job responsibilities. i'm ready to connect with people and be a part of their lives. i'm ready to grow and be stretched. i'm ready to see God work in big ways this year.

the only problem is that france is not ready. france will not be ready until september 1, the official date of "la rentrée" when everyone will return to work and school and normal life. and my brain, it seems, is so culturally adapted that it will not return to work mode until august is over. i'm ready to reengage, but my brain is still on vacation. so i'm not sure what to do: somehow trick my brain into thinking it's september and time to get movin', or just give in and let my brain have it's way with lazy mornings and afternoon naps?

Blast from the past. Or, I guess we've got a little Turtle Power here in our apartment.

Do you guys remember Pogs? They were a favorite of mine, and I think of every kid growing up in the late 80s/early 90s. Everyone would bring their Pog collection to school and every recess was spent playing and trading Pogs. Well, my cat just walked into the kitchen carrying a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pog in his mouth. Where on EARTH did that come from?!?!

A picture is worth a thousand words. Or, 2008: A Photo Essay.

i've finally uploaded a bunch of new pictures to my picasa album. you can now go see for yourself all the things i've been up to. photos include (but are not limited to) my band weatherbeat's concerts, the wedding of my teammate dominic and my former roommate hilary, easter festivities, and 2 weeks in the netherlands for training. click here to check it out!

tonight

Learning to put down roots. Or, Happy Anniversary apartment!

it's been exactly 1 year since i moved into my fantastic apartment on rue de l'opera. i realized that this is the longest i've lived in any one home since i moved out of my parents' house at 17. yes, the last 8 years have been divided between aix en provence, santa barbara, and thousand oaks, but i've been moving around within or between the three the entire time. i hadn't realized that my life was so transient.

it feels good to think that i'm finally starting to put down roots and settle down somewhere. but where i'm really settling down isn't necessarily aix en provence. i'm learning to settle down into God's will, learning to move with Him and plant my roots deeper into Him. it's a good place to be. it means that one year from now, i could be celebrating anniversary #2 in this apartment, or i could be anywhere else in the world. sure, i have plans and dreams about what i'll do, and where and when. but i love knowing that ultimately, my only plan is to serve my Lord, and i'll let Him determine exactly what that looks like. i'm part of a story that is so much bigger than myself. right now, at least, that means that the near and distant futures are more or less unknown, and i could end up, well, anywhere. right now, i really like it that way.

oh lovely day. or, teambuilding + rock and roll = best tuesday ever.

yesterday was one of those fabulous, near-perfect days. one of those days where the glow stays with you for the remainder of the week.

my team spent the day getting out of town and our busy routines to have a team building day. it was so wonderful to be together with no agenda but building our relationships with each other. i adore my teammates! we spent the day at la fontaine de vaucluse, which is incredibly beautiful. pictures coming soon.

last night i got to be a rockstar, and it might have been the best night i've had in france. my band, weatherbeat, played a show at ipn, a club here in aix, and it was amazing! we rocked so hard and we packed the place out. i've still got the after-concert glow. check back on the blog very soon for lots of pictures, stories, and video clips from the show. for now, i'll leave you with our band photo (which was plastered on posters all over town for a week). i'm a proud mama, and this band is my baby.



i'm blogging right now from the balcony of my hotel room, overlooking the rooftops of aix and the rotonde fountain. no, i don't usually stay in hotels in my hometown just for the fun of it. but this weekend is my flatmate hilary's wedding, and the caterer (a friend from amsterdam) is staying in our apartment all week so she can do all the food prep. which means andrea and i get a little vacation in our hometown. we're enjoying it so much! and yes, getting ready for my big concert in the hotel last night made me feel even more like a rockstar :)

Back from the Netherlands. Or, Home is where my guitar is.

my two week sejour in the netherlands is over and i am safely home in aix en provence. it was truly a wonderful time. hopefully i'll post some pictures soon. or even a photo essay, perchance?

the best part of the field orientation, hands down, was the daily "soul care" sessions with hud. (even better than sprinkles for breakfast, you ask? yes, i reply, even better! wisdom from hud is like heavenly sprinkles for the soul). hud is the psychologist/pastor on staff with christian associates, and each morning at fo he led us in thinking through what it means to truly develop in a relationship with Christ, peeling back all the layers of the soul and going deep, that we may be transformed. i think i get so much from hud because he is all about bringing together psychology and spirituality (my two favorite things!) in order that a person may find wholeness and experience the freedom that Christ as for each of us. hud shared a lot of really fascinating and important things with us, and i'd really like to post some of it here eventually, along with some things i've been processing.

fo1 and fo2 were both really wonderful experiences. i am so thankful that my organization values the spiritual health and personal development of it's staff above all else. even though there was a large amount of (great) input and it was emotionally, spiritually, and intellectually intense, fo was such a peaceful and refreshing time spent with my church planting brothers and sisters.

i returned to france (complete with suitcase, this time) late friday night, and proceeded to jump right back into life here. one day later i threw a bridal shower for my darling flatmate hilary, who will wed my wonderful teammate dominic in less than 2 weeks! the shower kicked off the whole two weeks of wedding festivities. i also have a couple things coming up soon that i'm over-the-top excited about (i'll just leave you in suspense for now...) so i'll be pretty busy for the next couple weeks. but it's the very best kind of busy.

Life in the Netherlands, or, Holland is lekker, Part Three.

As un-French as you can get
the other day amy and i were enjoying some bagel sandwiches for lunch at my new favorite cafe in the hague. we were sitting at a four top, because it had been the only free table when we came in. we're halfway through our meal when a group of 5 comes in, and the waitress asks us if we'll move to a recently vacated 2 person table. we didn't mind, of course, but as i carried my lunch across the room, i was struck with the thought of how different holland is from france. in france, mealtime is a sacred event, and a waiter would never commit the cardinal sin of interrupting your meal and asking you to move tables.

Sprinkles for breakfast
i used to think that the only people who would legitimately eat chocolate sprinkles for breakfast every day would be young children slightly lacking in parental discipline. however, along with being every sugar-crazed child's delight, sprinkles are an acceptable and even typical dutch breakfast food. they are called hagel slaag and the dutch eat them on sliced bread every morning. you heard me right, people: sprinkles on bread = normal adult breakfast. in defense of the dutch, though, hagel slaag is chocolately amazingness and if i was allowed to eat it for breakfast every morning without judgement, i might do it too. it is pretty lekker sprinkled on a slice of peanut butter toast.

Life in the Netherlands, or, Holland is lekker, Part Two.

Holland has the coolest pubs
the oude mol

Life in the Netherlands, or, Holland is lekker, Part One.

hello all. i am in the netherlands right now. i'm right in the middle of my 2 week stay- i've been here since tuesday and i'm still here until friday. i'm here, along with 3 of my teammates as well as some other cool church planters from elsewhere in europe, for part two of christian associates' field orientation (you'll recall i did part one in october).

here are just a few musings from the lands of nether:

Monasteries are like college
ca puts us up in a monastery for our 2 weeks of field orientation. that may seem weird, but it's actually not bad- we all get our own room, it's right in the center of town, and there's no curfew. i really really love living in community with my dear fellow church planters for a few weeks. and it feels like we're all living in the dorms at college- right now i'm staying up late, wasting time on the internet and emailing with my teammate who is in a room right down the hall.

Luggage is optional
since we're staying in a monastery, i decided to go with the simple living theme and go without all my luggage for a few days. actually, the choice for me to be without my stuff was not my own, but klm's, when they left my suitcase on the runway in marseille. oh, they quickly realized their mistake, of course, and put it on another flight so it would catch up to me that day, but they accidentally put it on a plane headed in the opposite direction. it all worked out well in the end, though. i got my suitcase delivered for me, right to my door. and i learned that i can go without clothes and everything for 2 whole days.
(interesting side story- my teammate teal's bag was also left behind. when we arrived in the hague, i told him we should probably go to the store to pick up a few essentials, since we may be without luggage for a few days. i bought a toothbrush and deodorant. teal bought a six-pack of beer. i guess men and women really do have different priorities.)

i have many more dutch musings to share with you, but my (tiny monastery) bed is calling my name. i'll post a few more over the next few days. goedenacht.