Up in the air...

Its been a while! I guess because I haven't really known what to write...everything is so up in the air right now and it is taking everything within me to be patient!

So as most of you know, I have gotten accepted to Ohio State and University of Cincinnati so far. I am still waiting to hear from Vanderbilt. OSU and Vandy are tied for my #1 choice, (Vandy might be pulling in the lead slightly because of location), and I let Cincy know yesterday that I wouldn't be going there. The main dilemma right now is that I have to let OSU know by Feb. 28th if I am going or not, and Vanderbilt promises to have letters out "by the end of the month" which doesn't give me much hope. I am trying to avoid asking for an extension from OSU, but it might come to that. I hope not though!

{disclaimer for the next few paragraphs: Candice, Kim, Melissa and Amy...I apologize that you will hear this twice. Its a lot less typing! :)}

Another factor that is weighing into where we're going to live happened last week too. Background: We really felt that God wanted us to move to Nashville, but in the past 8 months that we've been here, we have really started to feel discouraged and have started to question if He really had a purpose for us down here. Well, you all know that Jay was a youth pastor in MA, and he misses it SO much...moving here has definitely shown him that. I mean, all he talks about is the teens...he facebook messages them all the time, (has anyone seen his youth book scrapbook? Jeesh...) and he just really misses youth ministry. His problem has always been that he is great at the relational aspect, but doesn't feel like he has the theology background, since he didn't grow up in the church. It has made him struggle with the call he felt, and made him lack self-confidence that he would be a good youth pastor, no matter what I tell him!

Anyways, Lauren Capozzi's old youth pastor started this program that is called the center for youth ministry training. Its about 20 minutes away from us and is basically a certificate program designed to give people the tools they need to live out God's call on their lives toward youth ministry. It is a 2 year program, and they put you in a church, and you have a youth ministry "coach" that works with you those two years, and they also work with the church you're in to help them develop a withstanding, good youth ministry program. In the meantime, you take classes from different places, including the Divinity school at Vanderbilt, and a few classes from Princeton, and a few from the directors of the center. The classes give you the basic foundations for theology while giving you real hands-on experience and training in youth ministry. Its the only program like it in the country.

So we met with Deech (the guy who runs it) last Thursday. It was great. He explained about the program, but also told us that HIS call was to help others who feel a call to ministry find their place, whether it is in his program or not. He said that no matter what happens, he really wants to help Jay find where God wants him to be, because he can see that he really has a heart for youth ministry. After that meeting, I have never felt God's presence more in my life. For the first time, I realized that THIS is why we were in Nashville. Not even necessarily for Jay to absolutely go to this place, but it was for him to meet Deech- someone to help him open his eyes to God's call on his life, and to help him get the tools to say "yes" to it. He has just been so miserable in his other jobs, and said that youth ministry was the only thing that fulfills him. I am so excited to have someone down here who will work with him to help him articulate his call and find connections and where God wants him. I hate seing him miserable, and am so excited that he might finally be able to live out his passion in life. He's SO good at it...

WOW, so long story short, this is a crazy turn of events that we never expected. Check out the website of this place...its pretty cool: www.cymt.org

Obviously...if I don't get into Vanderbilt, we have some thinking and praying to do. Everyone knows how excited I am to go to school, but I really feel encouraged that no matter how things fall into place, God will use us. Even if I do get into Vanderbilt, there's obviously financial things to think about as well....if we are both in school, etc. So in the next couple of months we are going to have a LOT of decisions to make. So if you'd keep us in your prayers, that would be great! Its so hard to trust right now because EVERYTHING seems so up in the air.

I've been trying not to play my favorite game....entitled "lets talk through scenarios A thru G" because I want to wait and see what happens. Again, God is teaching me patience, and complete trust in Him and His timing.