The end of January I began taking guitar lessons from Dan Bingham. I'm still going! I probably could be further along, but even so I've come really far. I started out using my mom's classical but quickly switched to my brother's acoustic. I'm very grateful for the available guitars to borrow but look forward to finally purchasing one of my own soon!
I spent Valentine's Day with some single friends of mine. We enjoyed a home cooked meal and watched "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" What fun!
In March, we said goodbye to the Acres. Jason spent a couple months overseeing the Stream and was set to take the position of young adults pastor but God had other plans. Jason accepted a job offer back in Elgin, IL. It was difficult to say goodbye, but I have hopes of visiting come 2010.
In March we also met the men who would become our young adults and high school pastors. Matt Vorhees and Martyn Gross.
April was the month of weddings. Paul and Jill got married April 4th and Rob married Beth a week later on April 11th. Add Easter the day after that and you've got one crazy week! It was such a blast and I had great fun celebrating with all my friends.
The pastoral staff plus a few other leaders went to the Catalyst Conference at the end of April. The conference wasn't anything I expected but it was a great learning experience. It was great getting to know our new pastors Ken Alvis and Martyn Gross as well as all the other pastoral staff.
Matt started as young adults pastor in May and my little brother graduated from high school! To celebrate, our family went on a spur of the moment trip to Disneyland and California Adventure.
In June, my high school friend, Megan got married to John. It was so exciting to share that day with her, having been friends since we were sophomores. The ladies of the Stream went through Crazy Love during the summer. It was a really special time. Every week seemed to peel back the layers as each of us took turns opening up.
(c)Kandid Camera Photography
July brought the Stream gals weekend getaway to Pismo beach. Such fun! It was a very special time with some great vulnerable moments. The end of July meant Spirit West Coast. Several of us from the Stream volunteered for Hope Christian Store in exchange for lodging, food, and entry to the festival. It's not a vacation; but the payoff is probably a lot more fun than a paycheck. I got to see David Crowder Band, Matthew West, Toby Mac, and (my personal highlight) Family Force 5!!!! It was the second time I'd seen FF5 and it was a BLAST!
In September, it was time for another wedding celebration. This time for Chris and Kate. It was a such a beautiful wedding. I had a lot of fun hanging out with two sets of Downses, the Binghams, and the Leveys.
In October, my schedule began to snowball quite a bit. Things were getting crazy but not too bad to have a little fun. Several of us went to see David Crowder play in LA. It was an incredible show. As a beginning musician I just wanted to be able to be front row and stare at them play. Their musicianship amazed me. As a believer in Jesus Christ, I just soaked in the beautiful sound they made with those instruments (and computers!). It was such a worshipful time for me as I contemplated how much more creative my God can be! I also had the wonderful opportunity to attend the 2009 Women's Retreat with RiverLakes. It was an incredible weekend. I arrived with zero expectations and left deeper in love with my Jesus. He really met me there and we did some business that was long overdue.
November continued to remain pretty crazy for me in my schedule. Between work, guitar lessons, accountability group, missional community group, and all the other random stuff, it was kind of crazy. But, believe it or not, December slowed things down. The Stream tweaked things a bit. We changed how we approached missional communities and we decided to move our gathering to Saturday nights (coming in 2010!). Between that and taking a much needed break from RiverLakes Women Bible Study, my schedule is much more manageable. I feel I have breathing room. I'm very much looking forward to next year and where we're headed now. Very quickly it was the holiday season. It was a pretty low key Thanksgiving and Christmas but it was good, nonetheless.
I was blessed to have a lot of housesitting jobs this year which allowed me to pay off my civic a few weeks ago! I'm thrilled not to have a car payment anymore and I'm already looking ahead to start saving for a new guitar of my own. 2009 was a good one; hello 2010!
