What North Dakota, Memphis, Chicago, Horseback riding lessons, soccer, and basketball all have in common

the answer?
my summer vacation!!!!
I am so incredibly excited about the few months off of school. after finishing..i will be returning to michigan may 14, i will be home for about one week..looking forward to family time, friends time, reading, watching movies, taking walks in the woods...all that good stuff.
the next week i am going to visit one of the most amazing people i know-a good friend from North Dakota (Heidi B.) and spend an entire week with her! we were able to find an incredible deal on plane tickets, and the timing worked out wonderfully.
following that, i will again be home for a few weeks, teaching some riding lessons, once again hanging out with the fam, friends, and if anyone needs a babysitter...let me know.
then, from june 23-aug 5 I am doing a 6 week internship here in the city again. the first week of the internship will be in memphis tennessee where our team will get to know each other, and where we will help out with a local ministry. we will come back to chicago, helping out with a soccer camp, a basketball camp (which i have been told will have nba b-ball players helping out at), and just learning more about this city, what ministry is like here-learning how to get past stereotypes, eating dinner at various ministry's leaders homes...it is also a paid internship-which will be needed to help out with next semester.

following that internship i will be coming home for a few weeks until aug. 22, when i come back to school for the fall semester.
I am so excited about this summer, and i know that i will be stretched in new ways. God is so good-just in how opportunities have been falling into my lap..he is our Provider!

he must become greater...i must become less

"it is often thus, that when we begin with good intentions in the eyes of God, a secret tagalong yen for the praise of our fellow men comes along, taking hold of our intentions from the side of the road. we take food, for example, out of necessity, but while we are eating, a gluttonous spirit creeps in and we begin to take delight in the eating for its own sake; so often it happens that what began as nourishment to protect our health ends by becoming a pretext for our pleasures. we must admit therefore that our intention, which seek to please God alone, is sometimes treacherously accompanied by a less-righteous intention that seeks to please other men by exploiting the gifts of God."
-Pope Gregory I


"Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, poured water into a basin. then he began to wash the disciples feet, drying them with the towel"
John 13:3-5

"You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges, he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tounge confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."