back in tulsa...

(Miriam and her flower girls in the bounce house)

It's been quite a while since this blog has seen any action.

Some changes in my life in this past year:

• My hair is longer
• I discovered an inexplicable talent for accounting
• I got new, fashionably modern (and slightly emo) glasses
• I got in my first car accident
• I graduated from The Master's College
• I was a bridesmaid in three weddings of dear friends

The third wedding was this last Saturday in Tulsa. Miriam and Nate's wedding was one of my favorite weddings I've ever been to, but it was also extremely tiring! Since the wedding, Caitlin and Rachel and I have been living together and have basically done nothing but sleep and read in an attempt to recover. We'll be back to the busyness this Thursday when our internship with Springs of Grace Bible Church starts.

One of the things that made the wedding so crazy was the sheer size of the wedding party. Eleven bridesmaids, eleven groomsmen, nine flower girls. The flower girls were Miriam's three youngest sisters, an adopted girl from the church who has Down's, and five girls that we know through Springs of Grace's outreach ministries. None of them had ever seen a wedding before. In fact, when I was picking Makaela up for the rehearsal, her aunt told me that she had never been to a real wedding. It really struck me again how marriage has been so devalued because of sin. Throughout the whole ceremony, Brother Joe repeatedly emphasized the high and holy calling of marriage and the way that it pictures forth Who God is. That was the most beautiful thing about the wedding.

I loved spending time with the flower girls and talking to them about what it meant. I loved Kyra telling me she knew Miriam and Nate were getting married because of the way they looked at each other last summer. I loved teaching them how to walk down the aisle and how to be ladies in their dresses. I loved holding their hands during the humid picture time in the park. But my favorite part was when I drove Kyra home and we talked about the gospel and about how Jesus wants us to live the whole drive.

Talks like that make me excited about this summer's ministry. I can't wait to get involved in the lives of these kids, to go to bed worn out and crying from working to love them like Jesus would, to teach them and give them rides on my back and play ridiculous games all in the hope that they will come to see, to know, and to love Christ.