Blog Archives

Spring Retreat + slideshow

2/25/2011

Hey friends.

Thank you for praying for our Spring Retreat last weekend. We took 35 students to a retreat center an hour away, and the Lord came with us! Students were challenged to know how much God loves them, and to love Him in return, specifically in the context of relationships.

Our staff team really has the sense that the weekend was significant in several ways. Students have told us of many different applications they came away with. Many grew in their understand of God's love. Many appreciated the Scriptural teaching and practical advice on cultivating healthy friendships and dating relationships that will be honoring to the Lord. We watched our group bond together in a very cool way, and are excited to see what fruit will come in the coming months (and years!) as we learn to love and encourage each other better.

Please pray that the lessons learned and convictions developed at the retreat will continue to bear fruit!

We put together a short highlight video/slideshow for our students after the retreat. You can find it on the Photos page.

God is responding to your prayers. Please keep them coming!

-Noah

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Something Crafty for my daughter's room!

2/16/2011

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I've been wanting to wait to post this until I got it hung
up on the wall, but that might be awhile.... So here it is.

My latest craft project! Thanks to my sister for the idea and her and my mom's help in picking out fabric and getting started.

I love crafty things but usually don't go beyond paper, markers, and stickers. So it felt good to do something that is more lasting. I'm really pleased with how it turned out :) It's kind of hard to see in the picture, so I guess you'll just have to come visit and see it for yourself :)

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Happy Valentines Day & 30 Weeks!

2/15/2011

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For Valentines Day this year, Noah and I decided to do something more low key-- make dinner together!! It was really fun (not to mention, DELICIOUS!)!!

Broiled salmon with a homemade sweet and sour sauce, rice, steamed asparagus, and bread with dipping spices and oil. Oh yeah, and sparkling grape juice :) With mousse and mint chocolate cookies for dessert.

It was really fun to take our time and ENJOY the process of preparing (as well as eating!) a delicious meal together!

Noah had lots of little surprises throughout the day, not too mention one really AWESOME gift! (After telling me a few weeks ago that we weren't going to exchange gifts this year).

This awesome picture is now hanging up in our bedroom!! It is the same picture that was used for our Christmas picture last year. I'm so thankful for Noah's great idea and for our amazing friends Matthew & Jen who made it reality! (Matthew actually made this-- printed the pictures and attached each frame to foam board! while Jen had me over Sunday afternoon so the guys could hang it up on the wall and surprise me!)

Isn't it awesome??

Happy Valentines Day love Noah, myself and our baby girl! She has been kicking so much more the past few days and it is SO fun! Makes us both all the more excited for her to be here!!!

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made the news...

2/11/2011

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The Daily Illini (The U of I's daily campus newspaper) called Noah yesterday wanting to ask him a few questions for a story they were doing. His quote in the paper is nothing special, but the awesome thing is that it was about The Navigators relationship with another campus organization, the ISSA (Illini Secular Student Alliance) formerly known as AAF (Atheists, Agnostics and Freethinkers). It's neat to have such a positive relationship with the ISSA and some of the students involved in the group.

If you want to read the article, go here.

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Oh, and in case you were wondering...

2/7/2011

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YES we were excited to see the Packers win the Super Bowl!!!!!! Wished we could have watched the game with other PACKERS fans, but it was a great win nonetheless!

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Baby Update

2/7/2011

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Noah realized this morning that as of this coming Saturday I will be at 30 weeks. That may have made him a tiny bit nervous, but overall we are very excited!! We had a doctor appointment last week and will now start to have appointments every two weeks (instead of every four.) I passed my glucose test in case you were wondering, YEAH!

Noah is actually taking a baby class Wednesday night (our first!). It is "For Dads Only." He will get some practice caring for a little one (using a doll!) We've heard it's the baby class with the best snacks?! ha! Makes sense since it will be all guys. Hope he has a good time and learns a lot!

We got a crib and a changing table and so now our baby room looks like a baby room!!! I'm working on some crafty things to put on the walls so the walls aren't decorated yet, but thought I'd show you some pictures of the room as is :)

I'm so thankful to be feeling good! I'm noticing that I am a bit more tired than I have been the past few weeks, and my appetite is finally picking up. I have some significant back pain, but other than that I'm feeling great. I'm sleeping very well (I wake up a lot to go to the bathroom but thankfully can fall asleep very quickly!!) I told someone the other day that I think getting up in the middle of the night interrupts Noah's sleep more than it does mine. :/

29 Weeks :)

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a quarter of a century?!!

2/7/2011

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That's right, I just celebrated my birthday and am now 25! Hard to believe!!! My mom reminded me last night that I was born in Wisconsin in 1986- the year the Bears won the Super Bowl. Now 25 years later, our daughter will be born in Illinois -- the year the Packers won the Super Bowl. A fun random fact :)

I had a great birthday.. and got to spread out my celebrations over a few days! Thought you might enjoy a few pictures...

I woke up to breakfast and bed and then a picture in my card sent me on a scavenger hunt around our house. Noah had taken pictures of 15 different objects (more like parts/textures of objects) that eventually led me to my gift. Notice how this picture is posed… I was against the idea of pictures when I rolled out of bed ... :)

My gifts! Noah got me an ipod dock that we can connect to the Bose and a gift card for a massage. YEAH!! (Oh and a pink deck of cards and my favorite candy :))

In front of the birthday banner I made! We got a small laminating machine for Christmas and I wanted a project. I decided to make a birthday banner that we can use over and over for everyone's birthday. I LOVE it!!

After our dinner at Houlihans, yum! They have the best mushroom appetizer EVER!!

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Life on campus...

2/7/2011

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This semester is off to a really great start!! Noah and I are both leading students through an inductive study of the book of 1 Thessalonians! It is really exciting to watch our students really dig into the word together.

Now that school has been in session for a few weeks, we have gotten into a "routine" of sorts for the week. It's a big blessing for me especially to have a basic pattern of what goes on throughout the week. It is great to be meeting with students, planning Nav Nights, leading Bible Studies, etc. etc.

It is amazing to see students start taking initiative/ have leadership roles in some of these things as well. Up until this semester almost everything in our ministry has been staff led. Last week was the first week since we have moved here that neither Noah nor Norm (our boss) was a part of the Nav Night worship team. This means that a student LED the worship team and we have students to be ON the worship team! It may seem small, but this is huge! Noah is also training some people to do sound/tech stuff at Navs which will ease his Thursday night load. We even have a team of students helping plan our upcoming retreat (did I mention how THRILLED we are to have student help/input?!?!) We are eally enjoying EVERYTHING this semester (which makes for long days and busy weeks, but we are really grateful!)

Two big things that are coming up are:

1) Navs "Spring" Retreat:: Noah and I are planning (along with a team of students) a retreat for the U of I Navs group. This is the first time we have done something like this where we have a co-ed retreat that is just our Navs group (Our fall conference is a regional conference with Nav groups from multiple campuses coming together.) The retreat is just about 10 days away! (It is Fri-Sun February 18-20) If you want to see the great promo videos Noah made to promote the conference to our students, go here: http://www.illininavs.org/retreat.html
The retreat is about loving God in singleness, dating and marriage. We really want to encourage students to love God first and foremost! Please be praying for all the preparations that go into planning a retreat!

2) An Evening with the Illini Navigators. This is also a first for our ministry. In just about a month we are holding a fundraising banquet. The intent is threefold: (a) It is an opportunity for students to invite their parents, relatives, friends, mentors, etc to come and find out more about the ministry. A variety of students will be sharing testimonies about how God is using them at the U of I, Norm will give a short message, and we will be showing a video about The Navigator Collegiate work. (b) We as a ministry will have a chance to serve together! We will be decorating, doing valet parking, preparing and serving food, doing childcare, etc etc. It should be a great bonding event! (c) We will be raising money for the Navigator ministry here at the U of I (Things like conference scholarships and subsidies, weekly Nav Night expenses, food for socials, etc. ) If you interested in knowing more about the banquet (or if you want to come!) go here: http://evening.illininavs.org/

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2nd Annual Navs Soup & Pie

2/7/2011

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The first event of the semester was a soup& pie social. Students are asked to bring a soup and/or a pie and we have a delicious potluck together! This year it was held on a VERY cold day, so the soup tasted extra delicious!!

Why try just one soup when you could sample 24 different kinds?? :)

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Trip to Chicago!

2/7/2011

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A few weeks ago we spent the night in Chicago and visited my brother at Moody Bible Institute! It is hard to believe my little brother is all grown up and knows his way around Chicago!!!! We had a great time seeing the campus, attending church, eating in Moody cafeteria, seeing Matt's dorm, getting our picture taken in front of the bean, exploring on Michigan Avenue and eating real Chicago deep dish pizza! It was VERY cold outside, but very worth it!!