Joel, Tommy, Jen, Ellie
*UPDATED WITH JEN'S RESPONSES*
We have a new member of our Team. Let's give Jen a warm welcome!
Jen is a dear friend of mine from Hume Lake...I will update this post when she shares a bit about herself with me via email. She is way better with articulating through written word than I, so be on the look out so we can get to know our sister better.
Jen~
Quick summary of life now: I am married to Joel and have the privilege of being a stay-at-home mom to my two precious children, Ellie Mae (4) and Tommy (2). We live at Hume Lake Christian Camps where we have been blessed to serve the Lord for just about nine years (as someone once said of this place and in fact who lived in the house that I now live in, when you wake up in the morning and look at the view, it's hard to imagine that they actually pay us to live here!). I desire to follow the Lord with my whole heart and serve Him passionately, but the reality is that I am a definite work in progress and can just try to daily seek Him and live as He desires, knowing that I live in His very real, completely undeserved, overwhelming grace.
Defining moment in my life: There have probably been many defining moments in my life, but the one that I go back to again and again started (for me) early in the morning of March 1, 1999. I was a senior in college and received a call at 6:00 in the morning from my Dad's best friend to tell me that my dad (my hero) had been in a skiing accident the day before that left him a C-5 quadriplegic. My dad was rarely able to take vacations, but he received a generous Christmas gift from one of his insurance clients that year and went to Utah to snow ski with some friends. On the last run of the last day, my cautious dad took a fall that, through a series of events, led to him slamming head first into a tree. I received the call the next day because he did not want his only child to worry while he was in surgery, and instead instructed his best friend to call me after the surgery was over, when it would be known if he had made it alive. I thought that I was a Christian at the time, but was very definitely living a double lifestyle. Dad's accident left me stuck in "sad," crying for hours after every visit. It's a weird sort of heartache to deal with because on the one hand, he did not die, and for that I was very thankful, especially after fearing that very thing for months, and even the night of his accident in church, though I wouldn't find out for another 12 hours (I had a Christian mentor helping me to try to give up that fear to the Lord, and in hindsight, I believe that the Lord went before me to prepare my heart for the worst so that I could be thankful for anything less). But on the other hand, part of my dad did die in a sense, and a lot of hopes and dreams along with the accident. I felt desperate to get right with the Lord, so to speak, and had no idea how to go about doing that, other than to follow my best friend to Hume Lake for the summer. Miraculously (in all seriousness), I was hired, came up here and I think truly met the Lord for the first time that made a difference in who I actually was and how I lived. I haven't looked back since that summer in terms of pursuing Him and trying to live a life that honors Him. I continue to work through issues surrounding my dad's accident, especially the sadness of my husband not knowing all of who he was and my children not being able to have the fulness of their grandpa (my dad would have visited us all the time if he was able, and he would have been a very hands-on grandpa...I know that they will love being with him more and more as they grow, but at young ages, physical abilities make a huge impact on the ability to connect). Spiritually, I have one remaining hurdle that I continue to work through...I can only point to a couple of times when I know for certain that the Lord was speaking directly to me, and one of those times was during that first summer at Hume when I heard God speak into my heart clear as day, "I will heal your father when you believe that I will." I absolutely believe that God can, but to believe that he *will* has been a struggle...I always want to leave the back door open in case He chooses not to for other purposes, I think so that I won't be disappointed. I made myself believe (or as close to it as I could) that God would heal Dad in time to walk me down the aisle on my wedding day, and I remember so clearly the moment after my maid of honor walked through the doors and it was just me left, and I knew that it wouldn't happen in time. I later figured out that clearly, I was not looking to His timing at all! Anyhow, since that time, I think I just haven't been nearly as fervent in believing the Lord as He told me to (or at least trying), and I recently felt convicted to revisit this lack of faith. Even if He never heals my father, I want to be in a place in my relationship with Him that I have absolute faith in believing Him when He speaks and unshakable trust in Him. I also know that there are far worse tragedies that so many are dealing with, and hardships beyond comprehension...this just happens to be the place where the Lord has met me the most powerfully in my life.
Things that make you laugh: So many things make me laugh! I love that God provides laughter and joy through it! My children make me laugh so often with the things that they say and do...it's great! I love to laugh with my husband and friends (so many of my friends make me laugh), and I think memories might be the biggest source of laughter within these relationships. My own failures often make me laugh, too (I think it's probably a good thing to be able to laugh at yourself, right?!)! Just the other day, God's sense of humor really gave me a good chuckle as I looked at my calendar and realized that it was the first day of spring...in the middle of an enormous snow storm! Okay, so really just about anything will make me laugh!
Reason for memorizing Scripture: I am part of a covenant group, and the other girls wisely decided that Scripture memorization was something we should incorporate. Memorizing is not something that I am naturally inclined toward doing well, so I have been lazy about the effort that it takes during most seasons of my life, though I have been aware of the need to change this in my life. I am thankful that God surrounds us with wise people to spur us on toward Him!
