insta-friday 2012.

first full week of 2012. i couldn't imagine spending it any other way...

we were so blessed to take almost 200 students from bama to the passion conference in the georgia dome in atlanta. completely unreal to be surrounded by 44,000 believers worshipping our Lord. an experience i will not forget.

so thankful for these students who are desiring to grow in the Lord and make Him known on our campus!

we left straight from the conference in atl to denver for training with cru. i passed out on the flight...i wasn't even comfortable, but somehow managed to sleep the majority of the flight. score.

major plus for our flight. satellite tv.

apparently i am excited by old technology though...

here we are in downtown denver. really love this place, can't wait to spend some of our free time exploring the city.

linking up:

exciting news: elizabeth at act fast chef is featuring one of my recipes as a yummy find! 

click over and check out my recipe and two other fantastic ones as well.

miami

last week we flew down to miami 4 days of training. we spent 6 weeks during the summer of 2010 and we are very fond of the city so we were looking forward to going back...didn't hurt that their version of fall weather is anything but chilly.

can't beat being greeted by the famous doubletree warm chocolate chip cookies.

our schedule was packed but we had a great time with friends and co-workers from around the southeast. of course we found time to dine at our favorite restaurant, fratelli la bufala...amazing authentic italian pizza.

night time view from our hotel room.

we love our job with campus crusade for Christ and are thankful we have opportunities to take time and to grow in reaching this generation of students for Christ.

fall retreat

this past weekend we were so blessed to have over 250 students at our annual fall retreat. this is one of my favorite things we do: bring students away from the busyness of their semester to spend a weekend learning more about God and growing in their relationship with Him.

how beautiful is this place??

what's a saturday in the fall without a little bit of college football...

saturday night ended with a massive dance party. 

seriously so much fun even though i spent the majority of the time snapping pictures.

this weekend was such a great reminder of how God is working and changing lives. 

i am so thankful for our job with college students at alabama!

national staff conference.

the main reason we went out to colorado was our biannual staff conference with Campus Crusade for Christ.

during our trip we got to hear from our leadership on various topics, mainly CCC's name change. if you haven't heard, Campus Crusade for Christ is going to be re-named "Cru" in the US. justin and i are both truly excited about this new name as Campus Crusade had negative connotations and no longer accurately described the ministry...we have ministries for families, military, professionals and many other contexts around the nation.

as i mentioned before, we were also blessed to hear from francis chan, david platt and other Christian leaders. if you are interested you can watch some of the videos on the US Staff Conference website.
Campus Crusade celebrated it's 60th anniversary while we were out there, it was truly a blessing to see how God has used the ministry during those years.

there is something special to be surrounded by 5000 people that have the same mission as you, to bring glory to God and introduce others to Jesus in their ministry focus.

during the conference we had a few sessions with everyone who does campus ministry, including professors, college ministry [like justin and i] as well as high school ministry. one segment was dedicated to real stories, ones that were tough and hurt to tell. justin did a great job sharing about our story and what God has brought us through these past three months.

[sorry the picture isn't the best, i still haven't mastered my camera...]

we loved our time in colorado and are excited to get everything started back up in the fall!

packing up & moving out

we have spent the past couple of days packing up our belongings....it is tough to see how little we have, but so thankful all the sentimental things we saved.

tomorrow morning we begin our journey to visit family and friends in georgia then head out to colorado for a conference with campus crusade for Christ. we are so excited for the bi-annual conference held in fort collins,co  for all the US staff. justin and i spent our first 2 months of marriage in fort collins, such a precious time for the both of us. we are pumped to be reunited with friends who are on staff across the nation and colorado is absolutely breathtaking.

here are a few pictures from summer 2009 in colorado.

view from our dorm at colorado state.

when we got our assignment to alabama.

look at us babies...

we spent a couple days in denver.

at the conference. a little bit overwhelming.

excited to hear from campus crusade leadership as well as francis chan, david platt and others.

atlanta christmas conference

yesterday, we reported to a conference that the southeast region puts on every year for college students from georgia, florida, alabama and mississippi. we absolutely love this conference, justin and i both came multiple times as students and this is our second time working the conference as staff.

i would love for you to join us in praying for the 2010 atlanta christmas conference.

the theme of the conference is light of the world. pray that we would be the light of Christ during and after this conference.

another staff, hannah and i, are in charge of women's time. please pray for our speaker as she shares about the idols we worship and settle for instead of the Lord.

i will be in and out over the next couple of days. ...we have a big birthday tomorrow!! justin is turning 24. woo-hoo!!