September 2011
1 post
I'm no longer blogging here!
Please join me at my new website christiedrozdowski.com for updates, photos, and more blog posts. This blog will remain for archival purposes. Thank you to everyone who read my posts here and commented. Keep in touch!
March 2011
4 posts
A Slightly Different Home
Well, we have come back on shift this week to the same cottage minus one. We would have had a minus one then plus one, but, turns out, the girl who arrived last Monday (the day we go on/off shift) was not only 5 and a half weeks pregnant, but also defiant, unruly, and someone we couldn’t really help. Crossnore never likes to give up on kids, but when the child won’t comply (and at 17,...
I think it's time to start blogging again.
After a long hiatus from blogging, (on both this site and my personal blog, although, I’ve begun blogging there again) I’ve determined that there is a need for me to start this blog back up again. I’ve given it a new look, and now it’s time to give it some fresh posts.
First, let me catch you up to speed from where I left off. Out of the six girls that went with us on...
July 2010
6 posts
The Soda Pop by Antioxidant →
This is definitely out of context and sort of a throwback to this, but we were telling our girls from the group home today about some of the crazy things we did in our former youth group. I realized I had never posted THE SODA POP on this blog. So, there you go. You need to hear it. Definitely brings back great memories from that night at camp. :)
Just click the link from the title above, and...
Chill Day
So anytime you’re on vacation, I totally subscribe to the idea of having a flat out chill day, meaning DO NOTHING. Today, I slept until around 11am (many thanks to the extra staff here with us enabling me to do so) and have basically lounged around the entire time. Hammocks are wonderful creations.
Here’s the view from the hammock here at the beach house. Fitting for the holiday...
2 tags
“He’s getting all crazy and mad! Just look at his legs go!”
– - one of our girls as she held the sand crab she caught here at the beach
Beach Trip
So how much fun is it to be able to bring our girls down to the beach for some cottage “family” time? I am eternally grateful to the donor who just gave our school this beach house we’re getting to stay in! It’s lovely and refreshing for everyone to get out of our own cottage back home. The girls are loving it.
We are especially happy to have our new...
3 tags
June 2010
6 posts
3 tags
Misty Edwards - Soul Cry
On our last shift, when...
6 tags
“Those foreign soccer guys are soooo cute.”
– Insert girly, giddy giggle here. David (and I) are totally into the World Cup. (So sad our US boys got knocked out today…) So naturally, we’ve had a lot of the matches running on the TV in the background during the day in our cottage. Well, what’s the only thing that’s got...
3 tags
1 tag
Cottage Workouts!
One of my favorite things to do with my girls in my cottage: work out together! I’m really enjoying teaching them how to make healthy choices (as I still learn myself) and put exercise into their weekly routine.
Crossnore has a fitness center complete with workout machines, weights, exercise balls, and the like. It’s really great what they offer to the students right on campus. And...
May 2010
3 posts
A Head Cold, A Blanket, and Rebecca St. James
After the girls went to school this morning, I had the time to just mess around our cottage. I always find new things I didn’t know we had in the closets and drawers. I was also feeling a little under the weather, but I always have the knowledge that God wants me to be whole and fully prepared for my undertakings here. I decided against working out this morning, but just resting, especially...
3 tags
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Living with Teenage Girls
When our ministry as formal youth ministers ended last November, we continued to work at out day jobs as insurance representatives. We kept in touch with several of the kids in our former ministry, and as you may have read, I was still making plans for girls ministry in the same location but just not under any church umbrella.
Just over a month ago, however, we got the opportunity to take life...
April 2010
1 post
March 2010
7 posts
3 tags
Good Conversation; Inspiration
Earlier this week, we were invited to have dinner at the home of a couple who is planting a church in our area, specifically within our downtown culture. They actually went to the same university that we did, but our paths rarely crossed. With tons of mutual friends, I found myself wishing I had had the opportunity to get to know them back then. But what is awesome is that the time we have now is...
1 tag
“I’m not going back
I’m moving ahead
Hear to declare to You
my...”
– Israel Houghton
3 tags
“I love Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee…
For the record-MY all time...”
– stevenfurtick
moonbeamangst:
“‘Who would ever think that so much went on in the soul of a young girl?’ [Anne Frank]”
—
3 tags
“To follow, without halt, one aim: There’s the secret of success.”
– Anna Pavlova Russian ballet dancer (1885 - 1931)
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Fighting Oppression
I did a Google image search for oppression, and it mostly returned images of political oppression through out the world. Yes, that exists. But what I’m speaking of is something I personally deal with. Spiritual oppression. For years, I have felt like the spirits of laziness, apathy, and procrastination have followed me around. This morning, trying to get up for work, I felt their full...
February 2010
8 posts
2 tags
It's Perfect.
Visited Theophilus today - the store I talked about before. It’s going to be awesome if this works out. I am stoked! The owner is apparently a very spiritual person according to two of her employees. :)
“For once you were full of darkness, but now you have Light from the Lord. So...”
– Ephesians 5:8-9, NLT
6 tags
Slow but Moving
Ministry seems slow in this gap period. Perhaps I should clarify. Our fullest dreams and hopes in ministry seem slow in reaching. The ideas are all a’brewin’ but not realized yet. I am happy to have this movement, though, however slow. I am reminded of some mewithoutYou lyrics: “And if they ask you for a sign of the Father, tell them it’s movement, movement, movement...
2 tags
Oh No!
I’m having to cancel (and will reschedule sometime soon) the girls sleepover I had planned for Friday night. The girls have Saturday school because of all the snow we are getting - they’ve missed too many regular school days. It’s almost a shame, but I’m sure they’d rather have Saturday school instead of having days taken from their spring or summer breaks. Oh, the...
2 tags
Change and Release
It’s a shame I haven’t kept this blog updated. I have kept the events of the last few months in this part of my life quiet for a reason. However, I might have at least posted some thoughts…
We have been released from our official position of youth ministers at our former church. In the employment sense of the word, we were asked to resign. In the truest sense of the word, we...
October 2009
1 post
She's Letting Her Light Shine
A few weeks ago, students around the country gathered around their flagpoles on a Wednesday morning before school to pray and worship publically. The Saturday before, a local church hosted a See You At The Pole rally with a band we’ve had a our church a couple times, Mycalvary. My husband, David, was the guest speaker. It was a small group, but we saw several kids give their heart to Jesus.
...
September 2009
5 posts
Tired is not a word teenagers understand. They...
Yet again, I am reminded of this truth.
Friday night, we let twenty-two wired middle schoolers invade the youth room with their enthusiasm and laughter. After a couple hours of introductions, setting rules, eating snacks, and hanging out, we loaded up our church bus and two vehicles and drove out to this amazing place called Fun Depot. It’s just that - a warehouse-like building with...
“But don’t say anything ‘cause, like, in a weird way they both like...”
– Girl from our youth via text message tonight. To me. Wouldn’t you know?
New Beginnings
Starting over is a glorious feeling. Tonight, we launched our first official youth meeting of the new school year. We’ve been regular with our meetings through out the summer, but if you’ve been in youth ministry before, you understand that summer means vacations, sports activities, and a myriad of other things that can distract kids from church. I don’t mind so much, really,...
1 tag
Watch Trailer for the curriculum we’re using currently.
February 2009
2 posts
To Death: You Are Dead
Recently, we’ve encountered a different kind of ministering to one of our youth girl’s than we’ve ever had before. Marie* came home one night, thought nothing of her father not being up at the time, and went to bed. The next morning, she noticed the bathroom door had been shut. She was too afraid to go in, but she knew. Marie’s father died of a heart attack the night...
January 2009
4 posts
“As a victim you were in the dark. As a survivor you see a light at the end of...”
– Holly Wagner in Warrior Chicks: Rising Strong, Beautiful, and Confident (book I’m currently reading)
I think this highlights what Paul meant when he said we were “more than conquerers” in Romans. We don’t just overcome. We help others do so, too. I want to be this for the...
A great resource →
Bluefish TV offers great Bible Studies and video-based resources for our youth meetings. Currently, we’re finishing up the PAUL IN ROME study with David Nassar for our Wednesday evening meeting, and it has helped spark some good conversations among the youth.
Stop the giggling, please.
I hate silencing the sound of happy kids. They are excited, let them be loud a little, is my approach for the most part. But then there comes a time when being loud is rude. It’s rude to giggle during a prayer. Not because it’s disrespecting me,(although that’s true) or because you are always supposed to be extremely quiet with eyes closed during a prayer (even though...
December 2008
2 posts
Dry Spots
Since October, the last time I updated this blog, we’ve done quite a bit with our youth group. I just haven’t taken as many pictures or written down thoughts about what was going on. But what we have done has been mostly internal. When I speak of internal vs. external, it just means that our activities, lessons, etc. are either focussed on just the group itself or the opposite:...