Spring Break in Chicago!

Spring Break has come and gone for the last time in my college career. That's a sobering thought. But what I did for spring break is anything but sobering! Each year as spring break comes around, my friends and I have tried to get trips together but it never seems to work out. Someone always has a doctor's appointment or plans with other people, so usually I just go home or to my grandparents. Well this year was different! My friend Kim and I had talked about going somewhere in early February. She has family all over the States, so we figured we could just go crash with them and enjoy a roadtrip. We sort of left plans at that and due to stressful school didn't plan anything for a while. As spring break drew nearer, we realized that we should probably plan something, and Kim realized that depending on where she was going to grad (or possibly med) school, she might need to visit there. After a    l   o   n   g   decision process, she decided on grad school at Wheaton College in Illinois.  So for spring break, we were headed to Chicago!

Our other former roommate, Leasha, couldn't make it up to Arkansas until Sunday so we had a few days to relax around Arkadelphia. It was wonderful! It felt like the summer I stayed in town all over again. Nate and Sean were around, we went to the lake and watched movies. It was lovely! That Friday, we saw our friend (Last semester's suitemate), Alyssa, married off, and I made her wedding cake (A lemon cake with raspberry filling and lemon icing. So tasty!) It turned out wonderfully!

After our relaxing, celebratory weekend, Leasha, Kim and I loaded up too early and hit the road.
We stayed in the town of Wheaton and went into Chicago all day Wednesday. Our main goal was to find K/L a place to live, so we looked at many apartments.

We had the opportunity to shop. A lot. Which is very uncharacteristic of us, but we found that we enjoyed it.
Our day in downtown Chicago was a blast! We saw every major attraction except Wrigley Field, and we were ok with that. Here's a few pictures of our trip. They probably explain things better than I can! (:

Chicago from the John Hancock
Building on the 96th floor.

"The Bean" at night. We had a lot of fun here.

More from the 96th floor

Kim and the Wardrobe from the Narnia movie.
Wheaton has a C.S. Lewis museum
that we caught just as it was closing.

C.S. Lewis head with the battle mask from
Narnia 2 in the background.

Wheaton College

C.S. Lewis' desk, where he wrote part of the Narnia books!

J.R.R. Tolkien's desk where Lord of the Rings was written!

A dinner of Thai food!

Picnic in John Q. Adams Park where
John Adams once lived. Neat!

We met this sweet puppy on the train.

Her name was Gracie. She had to get
off right after this because apparently
you're not allowed to have dogs on trains.

Our train ticket into Chicago

We met the Cake Boss!! Buddy was filming part of his
show and we got to take a picture with him.
(and we might be on his show! So, watch out
for the one where's he's in Chicago!)

Navy Pier

Chicago from Navy Pier

One of our favorite moments: Exploring the American
Girl Doll Store!
It was so cool! I'm sure the people around us
thought we were crazies.
Oh well! It was a blast.

It was good to be away from school for a while, but I still learned so much while I was in Chicago. We had the opportunity to spend time with many intelligent people.  It gave me a new appreciation for learning.
I also learned how thankful I am not to be moving to a city where I know no one and searching for a place to live, work, and getting acquainted with new culture.
Hope your spring break was as relaxing and fun as mine! (:

This Girls Minister's Dilemma

  Well, it's late and I cannot sleep.  My roommate slumbers away while I toss and turn, my mind wild with ideas.  I decided instead of fighting sleep, which may partly be due to the iced coffee this afternoon, I would be productive.  I have many thoughts and I wish to document them for future use, as well as to share them with you.

  I suppose I should update you on big changes coming from "Tales in Arkadelphia".  In a few short months, shorter than I care to count, this small town college girl will be a college graduate bound for the large suburbs once again.  I plan to pursue graduate school, but most importantly (at least to me...) I have the most fortunate position of starting a girls minister position at a church in Frisco.  (I do not think the position is public yet, hence why I leave details out.)  This excites me to no end!  The youth pastor and I have been praying about this possible opportunity since this last summer, and God is faithful and the position is coming to fruition! The closer May comes the more excited I am about it.  I suppose I will need a new name for this sporadically kept blog. Suggestions are certainly welcome. 

  My thoughts tonight resonate with a conversation that I have been having with myself for the past few weeks and which climaxed tonight during a phone call from my dad.  How encouraging and wonderful to have a father who is so supportive of my future plans! I cannot express how full my heart is because of this.  Despite how difficult this semester has been due to challenging classes and other life things, my days seem increasingly filled with girls ministry happenings here in Arkansas.  We are beginning to plan girls retreat and I cannot wait for the weekend to get here!  The conversation, due to this "all-things-girls-ministry" mindset, that has arisen has been "What is girls ministry??"

  I have begun to realize in the four years that I have been a part of the youth ministry at Park Hill and as I seek to define my future ministry that there are not many resources in the world for girls ministry.  This is a relatively new field, which means scarce resources.  There are plenty of ministries that travel around and host girls retreats[1], but what I seek is for full-time girls ministers.  I applaud the ministries that exist, however these ministries come in for a weekend and preach good truth to girls and then leave.  The Sunday school teachers and ministers are the ones who do life with the girls.  I want with such zeal for young women to know the love of Christ and what it truly means to be women of the Word, after God's heart, sanctified for Him.  There are so many things that I want to share with teenage ladies, but I'm not sure exactly how to go about it.  Thus, I am on a quest!

  I have begun to search for other girls ministers (because they are out there) and to see how they are doing ministry.  What I have mostly found is that girls ministry seems to be a subset of the overarching youth ministry.  In a sense it should be.  However, I propose that there is more.  I have found that the department of girls ministry has grown more in the past few years because ministers are realizing that girls are different from boys. Whoa, I know that may have just blown your mind, but hang with me.  Most youth ministries are led by men.  Which is great for many reasons, but I think that men are realizing that they cannot adequately minister to girls because they are different.  A 35 year old male cannot possibly know what it is like to be a middle school girl that is insecure of her figure, how well she fits in, or trying to find out who she is.  Boys go through adolescence on a different degree scale.  God made us this way, and it is good, because He made it so.  And because of these differences girls ministers are being hired, but what is our purpose?

  I have read many godly women's blogs[2] about how they are doing girls ministries and I am so thankful to be surrounded by saints with a heart that echoes my own for young women.  But what I have found is that girls ministry, for many, looks exactly like youth ministry except only girls are coming, and there is a lot more nail polish and fewer footballs.  I have seen as a common theme that on a large scale, girls ministry consists of a girls retreat in the spring, maybe some events just for fun, and some Bible studies that only ladies come to.  All of these things are good.[3] However, as I have been thinking and talking with my dad, my girls ministry needs to be something more than an extension of youth ministry.  It should not replace youth ministry, but there is a specific purpose for this.  I think that it should make ministers of our students[4], it should include mentorship-both for girls and by girls, it should be a year round program, it should be biblical, and should make women out of girls.  I'm not fully sure of what this means specifically yet, and I think that it will be a continual quest.

  So, as I jealously seek to know how to best minister to the ladies that have been and will be entrusted to me, and as I seek to redirect this blog, I plan to spend the next few weeks hashing out what I find to be girls ministry.  Any advice is welcomed, and all prayers are craved as I search Scripture and try to find God's heart for us as women.

 InJoy,

Brittany

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[1] http://www.sageministries.org/, http://idministries.com/, http://revolvetour.com/ are just a few.

[2] See http://blog.lproof.org/, http://radiantgirlministries.blogspot.com/, and http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/girlsministry/

[3] Well, I must say that I have a problem with the word events, but I think that is a different topic. I see too often that youth ministers fill their time with events and miss the point of making disciples and building relationships. I can literally set myself on fire and call it an event and attract 200 students, but what good does that do for the gospel? How have students left knowing what it looks like to live as God commands us? The word event in my mind suggests a onetime deal, a spiritual high, and leaving people on their own to figure out life. As a rule, I try to stay away from just an event.  I digress.

[4] For a full expansion of this idea, see Greg Ogden’s book, Unfinished Business: Returning the Ministryto the People of God.