Love in LoCo

This past Thursday, August 24, was the first day of school for Loudoun County Public Schools.  I spent a lot of time that day reflecting over the past year and how wonderfully God has moved in my life.  The first day of school last year was straight up HARD.  I cried.  At the time, I was in the throws of raising support to come on staff with FCA, so I had no income and no real idea when I would have enough raised to start my new women’s ministry role.  I was so sure that FCA was something God had called me to, but the enemy had started to sow seeds of doubt and, unfortunately, I had started to listen a bit to those uncertainties.  How crucial it is that we proactively arm ourselves with the Word of God so that in times of trial we have a weapon to combat the doubts that so easily arise.  And according to 2 Timothy 2:13, “If we are faithless, He will remain faithful – for he cannot deny Himself.”  Over and over God brought new donors into my li...

Last week our Northern VA/DC FCA staff once again had the privilege to take a couple of days away for our staff retreat to pray, dream, and plan for this upcoming ministry season.  Before the retreat, I was asked to lead a staff devotion on morning on serving.  Serving is one of FCA's 4 Core Values (along with Integrity, Teamwork, and Excellence).  As I prepared for what I would share, I reflected on the details of Who we serve, why we serve, and how we should go about serving.  Here are some of the thoughts I shared with our group: Why do we serve? -It’s why we were created: Ephesians 2:10 à “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” -Because Jesus did: John 12:25-26 à “ Whoever loves his life will lose it, but whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  If anyone   serves   Me,   he must follow   Me;   and   where ...

Anyone else feel like they’re in a season of anticipation right now?  As someone who has essentially operated on a school year schedule since the age of 5, the transition from July to August has always seemed to be a time of expectant waiting: for a new school year, for my birthday in mid-August, for football season to start back up J …so much to be excited about!  Add to that the fact that I am about to become an aunt for the second time and this sense of anticipation seems almost overwhelming at times.  Although I no longer work as a teacher, my schedule is still very much dependent on the school calendar. So with camp season officially wrapped up for our Loudoun FCA staff, we have all started the process of ministry planning for the upcoming school year.  Here are just a few of the things that we’ve been planning and are excited about for the 2017-2018 school year: 1) New huddles at Mercer Middle School and Brambleton Middle School 2) New female athletes’ Bi...

Last Saturday, July 1, I planned to leave my house by 8am to head down to Richmond for FCA’s University of Richmond multi-sport camp.  My role for this camp, like Watermarks Leadership Camp, was Huddle Leader Coordinator, which meant I was traveling down to Richmond a couple of days before the rest of the staff to train and encourage our huddle leaders for the camp.  I knew I was picking up two huddle leaders along the way, in Manassas and Fredericksburg, and was concerned about 4 th  of July traffic heading South, so when I was ready at 7:40am, I decided to go ahead and leave then.  One problem: I couldn’t find my keys.  Let me clarify by saying this never happens.  I am not one of those people who misplaces her keys all of the time and has to go digging through the trash to find them on occasion.  My keys only ever travel to a few different places: my purse, gym bag, backpack, or dresser.  I knew they had to be in my house somewhere, because ...

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog about God being with us through trials, stemming from a video I’d watched with the huddle at Potomac Falls.  The video was of Mike Donehey, the lead singer or Tenth Avenue North, talking about the inspiration for their new song, “I have This Hope.”  I had no idea at the time that in just a few wee ks I would be clinging to this song and the passage of scripture on which it is based, Isaiah 43:1-4 , for comfort myself. On Friday, June 16 at 5:24pm, I received a phone call that I will never forget.  On the other end was Anna, who was in the high school small group I led for four years.   Anna, whose family had become like my second family here in Loudoun.   Anna, the oldest of four, was telling me I needed to come over because her younger brother was dead.  .  Sam Gustavus’s smile could light up an entire room.  He was so full of life, always on the move, and always making people laugh.  Anyone who has been ...

Where do I even begin?!?    As my Instagram and Facebook posts have shown, this past weekend was our Virginia Leadership Camp down at Watermarks Camp in Scottsville, VA.    As a huddle leader coordinator, I went down early with a few other staff members to greet and train our 19 huddle leaders.    These are college students, most of whom are athletes on their campuses, who willingly gave up their weekends to spend 3 days pouring into middle and high school athletes.    These college kids were rock stars from the start!    There’s a lot of information, spiritual and technical, that goes into pulling off a camp like this, and they all completely blew me away!   The students began arriving late Friday afternoon from parent drop-offs to buses filled to capacity and our huddle leaders stayed enthusiastic from the time the campers arrived on Friday until they left Sunday afternoon.  As a result, the campers had an amazing t...

This past week, our multi-area director emailed the staff asking us to prepare a short PowerPoint presentation with pictures, videos, and highlights from the ministry over the past year.  He specified to include details from September 1 through now, but as I didn’t join the staff until December 1, my ministry year was a bit shorter than everyone else’s.  Still, going back through my pictures and videos from huddles, it was so evident how God has been at work in Eastern Loudoun Schools this year.  I went from only knowing students, teachers, and coaches at one school in Loudoun (Potomac Falls, where I taught for the past several years), to now knowing staff and students at seven other high schools and five middle schools.  With all of these schools to visit, several with overlapping huddle times, I am so incredibly grateful for the teachers, parents, and local youth group leaders who so faithfully serve with our ministry each week.  In anticipation of the ne...