One major difference between the University of Illinois and other campuses we have been on- is the school spirit and insane amount of things going on on-campus.  There is always far more events/activities/ concerts/sports/etc. than you could ever keep track of!

As you can see here, even the grocery stores get into the Fighting Illini spirit!  Anything they can do to make things a little more orange!

How does that affect us?  

Well, as a ministry, we have found that students are often very involved on campus in a variety of RSOs (RSO= Registered Student Organization).  Between all of the RSOs socials, the Big Ten sports, the concerts and shows on campus, etc.  students aren't looking to have as many NAVS socials.  They have plenty of things to do without us filling their calendar with social events. 

This means that we (as staff) try to focus on three or four big events per semester, and leave the rest up to students. This fall we are having two Welcome Back socials on back-to-back weekends.

Would you pray that these socials would prove fruitful in building relationships between students and welcoming new freshmen to The Navigators?  We try to cultivate a "family atmosphere" in our ministry, where people feel really welcomed and loved.  We think it goes a long way in advancing the gospel and maturing people in Christ.

Fall Launch continues!  Thanks for standing with us!

-Noah and Katie

One thing I absolutely love about college ministry is meeting freshmen.  I always joke that during my first few weeks on campus, you could have knocked on my door and asked me to come pick up trash with you, and I would have done it! Because I was desperately looking for direction, friends, and someone to follow! 

Our pastor gave a great sermon this Sunday entitled, "Invitation."  He clearly articulated what it feels like to be a freshman, and have all sorts of people telling you "follow me, follow me"  As a freshman, it's easy to respond to anyone's call as we are all following someone or something.

We are praying that many freshmen will listen to Jesus' call to "Follow Me." Whether they have been walking with God for a long time, or are curious about who Jesus is. 

Please be praying for us as we start a 4 week Freshmen Connection where we invite all Freshmen to learn more about The Navigators, experience teaching and discussion from the Bible, meet the small-group bible study leaders, and get to know other like-minded freshmen. 

He died, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who for their sake died and was raised...Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal [to the world] through us.  
--2 Corinthians 5:15, 20


Today marks the beginning of our Fall Launch, an exciting and significant part of our ministry year.  In an hour I'll be joining several of our student leaders for lunch, vision-casting, and training in preparation for evangelism and disciplemaking work we'll be doing on campus this semester.  Please pray that our students would boldly proclaim Christ on campus...during our fall launch and throughout the semester.

 Tonight, we'll head out on campus to meet and build relationships with freshmen, who are just moving in today.  Pray for God's grace in these interactions, that for many, they would be life-changing!

Thank you for standing with us!

-Noah

On my way to campus this morning I called my mom and admitted feeling really rusty.  I was on my way to meet with an incoming freshman,  (an international student from Singapore) and her mom.   As I was driving I just froze up.... thinking...  "I don't have a plan, I haven't thought about the questions I want to ask her, When's the last time I've met with a new student on campus? Is it seriously August? What if I don't know how to get to the building she wants to go to?"

3 days until Freshmen arrive on campus
3 days until we begin our "Fall Launch" training with returning IlliniNavs students
3 months until our due date

Not to mention 3 days ago was our 5th Anniversary :)

Life is full, and we are blessed!

I know Noah is eager to update you all with everything that is going on on campus... it's a very busy couple of weeks for us (especially him as he is directing the ministry this year).  We appreciate your prayers!! 

-Katie

As a child when people asked me if I liked to read, I'd usually respond "no"  because compared to my sister, I hardly knew what a book was (she has always been an avid reader!)  But no wasn't the right answer as I have always enjoyed reading compared to most of the world, just maybe not compared to my sister :) (She's now an English teacher ;))

I grew up in a home where we took advantage of everything the library had to offer.  From summer reading programs to lunch bunch - the library was the place to be! Our library even had things such as Easter egg decorating, Christmas thank-you writing, and a variety of other fun programs throughout the year.  The library was walking/biking distance from our house and it had a/c (our house did not!) Needless to say, we knew the librarians by name!

 When Ellie was born the library gave us a free book and kids cd in the hospital and a coupon for another free book (if we went to the library).  Free stuff + library being less than a 10 minute walk away + having a baby to read to = I'm there!

Since Ellie has been born I've been really loving the library! So much so that my New Years Resolution was to take her to storytime as often as we are able.  

On top of this, our library is excellent and has lots of reading programs throughout the year.  Ellie has done 2 of them.  In the spring, her name was drawn to win a prize book, and this summer each child who participated got a free book and a sippy cup! How awesome is that- a library sippy cup?! ha!

All this to say, I've been loving the library lately. But tonight officially confirmed my love of the library.  

I heard about the adult summer reading program really late, but signed up anyway.  All you had to do was update your online account with short reviews of the books you read.  I only got 4 books entered, but as my luck would have it (my family teases me for having ridiculously good luck in random drawings throughout my life) I won one of the grand prizes!  Tonight I went and picked it up-  a $10 gift card to one of my favorite stores in Champaign! Woohoo!!

Now if this doesn't convince you, I don't know what will--- go get involved in your local library!

Both Noah's parents and my parents celebrated their 30th anniversary this year.  In March we took Noah's parents out for dinner in honor of this big celebration!  I made Ellie a little onesie to wear just for fun.  :) After a whole summer of trying to get my whole family together, we had to settle for 9/10 of us together at Family Camp last week.  I made little shirts for my nieces Claire & Rachel to match Ellie's shirts.  They were super simple, but I thought worth posting :) I'm crafty but lacking patience/talent to actually sew or complete worthwhile projects... so here's proof I actually completed something :)

Grateful to both of our parents and their wonderful example of marriage!

Here's Ellie with Grandma & Grandpa Haas in March

Here is (almost) our whole family last week.  We were able to take a family boat ride, it was very special! Just missing my brother-in-law Paul.  Hard to get 3 girls to cooperate in one picture. Especially when they are 0, 1 & 2.  Just wait until we had a 4th to the mix! :)

Just had to throw these in here.  Ellie looks so tired, but it's too cute. Claire is SUCH a great cousin to her :)

I'm 26 years old
I'm 26 weeks pregnant
I spend most of my days carrying around my beautiful 26 lbs daughter.


Just thought that was worth blogging about.  I feel like I should be saying I'm going to be running a 26.2 mile marathon or something, but no worries. I would never do such a crazy thing!

Instead, I'll share 26 random things I haven't gotten to blog about.... bear with me if you're interested!  I'm breaking it up into list form and keeping them all short...  no order!

1.  This pregnancy is FLYING. With Ellie, the days couldn't go fast enough, now I feel like I can't keep up!
2.  Speaking of time flying- so is summer, YIKES!  Students move in next week.
3.  We *may* have decided on a name for our baby girl.  I'm so hesitant to commit, and not sure if I'll be able to keep it a secret til November, but we shall see.
4.  I got up at 4:40 am this morning to start our trek back to Champaign. It was a LONG day, but such a great trip.  If only we didn't live SO far away from family!
5.  Noah and I celebrate our 5th anniversary on Friday. How did that happen already? It's hard to believe we had only been married 1 1/2 years when we moved to IL.  This has been the most challenging and most rewarding season of my life.  Our life is SO rich!
6.  I haven't talked a lot about this- but it has been a challenging time for my heart.  Ellie is 15 1/2 months and taking her time in her gross motor development.  She just started crawling in the last week or two and is not yet walking.  I've had the same conversation a million times this summer, "How old is she?"  <insert age here, depending on when I got asked> "Is she walking?''  <nope, not yet> "Oh, she's just enjoying crawling" <nope, she's not crawling yet either>  "Oh, I'm sure she's fine"  <silence>  It hurts my heart for me to feel the need to defend her.  I appreciate others interest, but am tired of having to explain!  
7.  At the end of June we decided to get her evaluated as she wasn't really moving around much, and had yet to pull herself to standing.  Of course, as soon as we made that decision, she's progressed steadily ever since!
8.  Long story short, it seems that part of all of this is she is just so content, but part of it is a delay.  She does qualify for Physical Therapy services, and so we start those this week.
9.  We learned she has "weak muscle tone"  she is still in the normal range, but it seems that she needs some help strengthening her muscles.
10.  We also bought her some Stride Rite tennis shoes per the Physical Therapists recommendation.  It breaks my heart that my 1 year old needs arched tennis shoes and can't wear all of her adorable sandals, but it's best for her, and a very MINOR problem in the scope of life.
11. I've just always had major foot issues... so I feel her pain, literally!
12.  Ellie is getting more verbal every day, I can't keep up! She fell in love with Noah's parents puppy this weekend.  When we got home tonight she noticed (for the first time) her puppy stuffed animal. She could not stop saying 'puh, puh, puh,puh'
13. Then she proceeded to wave goodnight to her puppy, and practically everything else in her room. I think she's glad to be home!
14. One of Ellie's favorite things is to get the mail... I took her out with me once to get it and she learned how to open and close the mail box and pull out the mail.  It's so adorable! It's one of the highlights of the day (sometimes we even do it multiple times per day, as she doesn't care what's in the box!)
15.  Noah's sister got married this weekend- it was a beautiful wedding and Ellie got to wear a beautiful dress! Noah and I were both in the wedding, so it made for a wild weekend, but we're so grateful my parents were along to help us out!
16.  Chels & Matt had a bubble receiving line.... Ellie fell in love with bubbles and learned another new word, pretty similar to "puppy" but instead it's "buh, buh, buh, buh" :)
17. Ellie has always been a great eater- not picky at all. Until the last month and a half. She's started refusing just about everything we eat.  She'll always eat cheese, any sort of fruit except canteloupe, tortilla shells, bread, pb& j, yogurt, applesauce or crackers. Other than that, you just never know!
18. I'm realizing that Ellie spends most of her life around adults, and very little time around other kids.  It's like I'm always taking her places and non-verbally saying "be good" :) She is very well behaved, but I'm starting to realize how hard it is on her to be around adults and expecting to just be good all the time...
19.  We are SO excited for this school year.  The students who will be seniors were our first class of freshmen when we moved here. They are very near and dear to our hearts.  It will be a very special year!
20. Two of my good college friends are getting married this month- pretty exciting! Sad I only got to go to one of them, but very happy for them both! 
21. We had 10 weddings this summer- YIKES! I guess that's what you get when you work with college students :)  We didn't make it to all of them, but were honored to be invited!
22.  I go back and forth between feeling very on top of things to feeling so dis-organized.  I guess that's what being a mom is like!
23.  Ellie brings us more joy than we could ever express.  She's been able to say 'mama' for a long time, but is finally choosing to say it.  Unlike a month ago when I said "Ellie, say mama" and Ellie said "dada"   I replied, "HA HA HA" to which Ellie responded "ha ha ha"  What a goof!
24.  Ellie's hair is getting so long and curly- I hope she gets my curls someday!!
25.  There are 25+ things I should be doing instead of blogging-including unpacking everything from the last 2 weeks, but oh well. I just needed some time to sit!
26.  Way to go if you stuck with this! What's something random on your mind? :)

:)  Here's to the number 26!

Here's my wonderful family.  So blessed!! :)