On Spring Break, Memories I Did Make

April has been an exciting month so far! I started the month with my Spring Break week. It was definitely a blessing to take a break from lesson planning and grading and spend some extra time with people I love! I began my break by meeting up with two of my friends in Mansfield for a couple of days. Katie and Courtney are childhood friends from my church growing up. We've been able to take a trip together every year since my freshman year of high school. The past few years have been camping trips with our husbands, so we decided it was time for a girls' weekend. After Mansfield, I headed to Findlay to meet up with two college friends, Steph and Elissa. It was just what I needed on my spring break as we spent two days hanging out and relaxing together.

The rest of my Spring Break was spent at home hanging out with Josh, attending Goss' Holy Week services, doing some spring cleaning, and getting caught up on some school work. Our church also has a sunrise Easter service that the youth are in charge of, so we made a movie with several students from our youth group and Josh preached the sermon for the service. We celebrated Easter with Josh's family on Friday, and headed to West Jeff to celebrate Easter with my family after church on Sunday. And we were able to spend some extra time with our niece and nephew too! We wish we were able to see them more often! It seems like they change every time we see them.


Josh and I also spent this past weekend in Pittsburgh. On Friday we went to see Michael Jackson's Cirque du Soleil show! It was amazing! When we arrived at the show, we realized our seats were in the fourth to the last row. Then right before the show, an usher came and asked us if we would like to change seats. He moved us to the second row! On Saturday we walked around a part of Pittsburgh called Squirrel Hill, made an Ikea run, and stopped to see some friends in Youngstown.



It is hard to believe that the middle of April is already here! Our summer adventures are quickly approaching. We will be participating in Project Shine (a week-long mission trip to Akron), taking a Caribbean cruise, hiking in Hocking Hills, and going on a mission trip to Haiti! It will be a full, exciting summer!

For our Haiti trip, we must equip!

We are so grateful to announce that we are almost fully funded for our short term mission trip to Haiti this summer. We are humbled by the support that we have received from our family and friends, many of whom we do not get to see very often. It is our goal to keep you involved with this journey through our blog, photos online, and conversations. Your prayers and financial support cause you to be a part of this journey with us.

Although at times it is difficult for me to prepare my mind and my heart for this trip, I know that it will be here soon. One beautiful thing about working in full time ministry is that this trip will essentially be an extension of what I am already doing and not something completely outside of the ordinary. Don't get me wrong, I am sure that Haiti is much different from Akron, Ohio, but I think living missionally is something that I am slowly learning.

Adventures in Missions provides lessons and discussions for our team as we meet to prepare for the trip. One lesson that has stood out to me so far focused on the idea of living IN the destination, not living FOR the destination. In other words, we shouldn't be living one way, and then turn on a switch when we get to Haiti and live a different way. Do I have as much concern for the lost, hurting, and desperate around me right now? Do I seek out opportunities to encourage believers and nonbelievers right now? Or do I try to safely package my duties of evangelism and service into structured weeks only?

In 112 days, we will be serving missionally in Haiti. I hope that our hearts and actions would be of little difference during that week than they are now.

Thank you for your generosity and love.

SYMC 2012 reflections

I find myself back at my desk after 4 days of the Simply Youth Ministry Conference shuffling through my stack of papers and notes, doing my best to reflect on the weekend. As a first time SYMC attender, I came away from the conference both refreshed and overwhelmed. Refreshed to have been with so many people in similar situations as I am in, and overwhelmed with God's sovereignty and love for us.

With this blog post, I am going to share a few quotes from some of the speakers that I want to remember down the road. My hope is that the words of the speakers will help mold and shape me as I continue on my journey as a Youth Worker.

(These quotes are loose, but I believe reflect the point the speakers were making.)

Derwin L. Grey (From general and half-track sessions)

- Are our students completely enamored with Jesus when the graduate? THAT should be our Youth Group's mission!

- Do our students know their identity, mission, and source of power?

- Your identity determines your function.

- You are not what you once were. You are not yet who you will be.

- If you feel woefully inadequate, that is a good place to be.

- God didn’t create us because he was lonely.

- You will be criticized when you try to do something awesome for God.

- We can not give away what we do not possess.

- God is looking for more than morality, He is looking for worship.

- Worship leads to discipleship, and discipleship leads to evangelism. You don’t start with evangelism, you start with worship.

- You were not born to be a student minister. You were born to worship and adore Jesus.

- Jesus don't need your help, he rose from the dead! You're smokin' narcissism.

- If Jesus is not the hero of the message it's not the gospel.

- When we refuse to forgive ourselves, we are calling Jesus a liar.

- If you and I aren’t careful we can allow working for God to destroy the work of God in us.


Jon Acuff

- Why do we allow one negative comment to ruin 1,000 complements?

- The Christian F word is FINE. I am fine.

- Never compare your beginning to someone else’s middle.

- God is not surprised or disappointed by the size of your ministry.


Francis Chan

- We shouldn’t think of ourselves as more important than we are. Do we honestly think God isn’t in control of our ministries when we are gone?

- If everyone in this entire room died (speaking to 3,000 Youth Workers), the Kingdom of God would be fine.

- I thought to myself, God needs Francis Chan out there doing ministry! I mean, he needs his heavy hitters, I can’t be sick with the flu!

- My Youth Pastor just always believed in discipleship, and he eventually got fired because of it.

- There are so many things in paid ministry that distract us from the very thing that will make us effective.


Stephanie Caro

- The average Youth Group is 8 students.

- Volunteerism in America is at an all time high. Volunteerism in the Church is at an all time low.

- Small churches can’t do it all. Figure out the 3 things you can do, and do them well.


An 'Air Time' speaker (Did not catch his name)

- Discouragement is from the pit of hell. Discouragement is not from God.


Now for the challenging part. What are the two or three main things I want to focus on now that I am back? How does this all apply to the ministry context that I find myself in? Hopefully this week will provide some time for me to unpack everything Kristi and I were able to experience.

-Josh

The Millers are Haiti-bound

As many of you probably have heard, we will be participating in a week long mission trip to Port-au-Prince Haiti this summer. We will be traveling with a group from our Church through the Adventures in Missions organization.

This was actually an easy decision for us. At times it has felt too easy, knowing that several people in our church were struggling with the decision. Although it is a big decision, it just seemed like a no brainer to us. Several factors probably led to the decision being easy. One, is we are simply available. With ministry being my job and Kristi having the summers off, our employments allow us to do this. Two, we don't have kids to worry about. Three, short term missions have had a great impact on our lives in the past, and this experience fits well with our adventurous spirits. And four, a few teenagers from our church will be traveling with us. What a joy it will be to travel with these youth on this cross-cultural experience.

We are approaching this experience knowing that it will not be a bed of roses. Parts of Haiti are still devastated by the 2010 Earthquake. Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. To be honest, ignorance is bliss. It is easier for us to only experience life in our white, middle class lives. It is comfortable. But we must intentionally expose ourselves to other cultures, as we seek a greater understanding of the world, and ultimately of God's love.

Our trip to Haiti is simply an extension of our faith in Jesus Christ. We WANT to serve Him. Although it doesn't take a short term mission trip to do that, there is something special that can happen when we get outside of our comfort and routine and devote all of our efforts toward serving, loving, and ministering.

We intend on being more intentional with this blog as we prepare for our trip. We would love for you to be a part of this chapter of our journey by reading our blog and praying for us and our team.

In Christ,
Josh and Kristi

Top 11 things from 2011

Here are 11 of my favorite (random) things from 2011.

1) Favorite Album:
Josh Garrels Love & War & The Sea In Between
p.s. - It is free. Go download it. Seriously, you are foolish if you don't get it.

2) Favorite Vacation:
Acadia National Park, Boston, and NYC







3) Favorite TV Commercial:



4) Favorite Blogger:
http://www.tylerstanton.com/

5) Favorite Nature Moment:

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

6) Favorite Board Game:
Ticket to Ride Germany

7) Favorite Amazing Thing:



8) Favorite Additions to the Family

Ava Thompson, Kenzie Miller, & Lily Ruffner!





9) Favorite Comedy Bit



10) Favorite Prank



11) Favorite Personal Accomplishment

Running the Indy Mini, my first half-marathon, at 01:57:52, coming in 6,985th out of 35,000.