Currently Listening How Great Is Our God By Passion Worship Band It Is Well see related

i continue to be encouraged to keep my blog up to date.  so here i go!

yesterday was my 26th birthday.  i had a great day!  after going to a baby shower for melanie (on my staff team) i spent about three hours at starbucks with jesus.  on my birthday, i love to take time to process my past year and set goals for the year to come.  it's both encouraging as i'm able to thank God for all He has done and also visionary as i think of all the coming year holds. 

then paula planned a party for me, and many of my friends were able to have dinner and cake & ice cream with me.  my sister juli and brother matt came up from toledo, martha and amy came in from detroit, abe & andy & aaron even drove in from chicago!  i felt so cared for and encouraged by everyone's efforts to stop by, call or email!  it was definitely a birthday worth remembering!

staff planning continues in the morning at 9am at the nieman's.  we are taking a day to do the meyers-briggs personality profiles as a team.  i'm on a mission to convince my team of my temperment...any guesses on what i am?  there is an ongoing debate between all of us as to whether i am an extrovert or an intravert.  cast your vote if you want to get in on the debate.

in other news, my mom was out of the hospital for a day or two but is now back in with a viral infection.    we take it a day at a time to see how her health contiues to go.  please keep praying both for her physical health and for the salvation of my family!

Currently Reading Enjoying Intimacy With God By J. Oswald Sanders see related

i've been told by many people that I need to update my blog.  so here's my best effort.

my last post was in march, just the day after my family found out my mom has cancer.  it's been quite the roller coaster ride since then.  we found out in june that the type of leukemia she has is such that the only possibility of a cure is with a stem cell transplant (like a bone marrow transplant in many ways).  so just last week she had the transplant and now we wait over the next three months to see if it is effective.  she's been in and out of the hospital more times than i can count and had in total four rounds of chemo.  the transplant can only be done at certain hospitals, so she is currently in detroit at the karmanos cancer institute.  i've been so grateful for everyone's prayers during this difficult time, and would appreciate continued prayer for the following:

*the salvation of my mom, dad, and siblings.  they have all shown some signs of spiritual openness during this time but seem to still be far from embracing Christ.

*for my mom's health, especially in these next critical months.  pray against infection and against side effects from the dozens of medicines she is taking.  pray that the transplant would be successful and be what God uses to cure her of this disease.  her long term chances right now are about 50/50.

*for me, as the past five months have been the most difficult of my life so far.  it's hard for me to balance everything going on in my life right now, and to process my many emotions concerning all these things.  pray that i would walk with God and depend on Him and believe wholeheartedly in His sovereignty and goodness.

apart from everything with my mom, i had a great summer in colorado.  i went through the leadership track, an interactive class designed to ground staff in the specific distinctives of campus crusade's ministry philosophies and to generally develop us to lead well.  i loved my training and God used it to really refresh and encourage me.  it's motivating me to be excited for the fall and trust the Lord for even bigger things this year.

maybe this fall i'll be more diligent in writing in my blog.  if i'm not, mookie keeps threatening to log in as me and post an entry on my behalf.  that would be interesting!  so if anything ever shows up here that does not sound like me, don't believe it and blame mookie! 

You all know I'm not the most consistent blogger, but in light of the past 24 hours I wanted to post an entry so you all can be praying for my family.  Below is an email my friend Paula sent out to inform people of what all is going on.  Please be praying for my family!

Hey staff and friends of Jenny,

Jenny wanted me to pass along an update on her mom.  She is in Toledo with her family and the kind of leukemia that her mom has is called acute myelogenus leukemia, (AML)  which is a fast acting cancer which doesn't spread like other cancers, but unfortunately she has had it for awhile.  30% of people with this leukemia die through the chemo or through complications related to it and 70% go into remission, but only 25% of those people stay in remission.

She will be admitted to the hospital tomorrow and they will start the chemo on Thursday or Friday.  She will be in the hospital and do the treatment for a week and then have three weeks off, and then have two more rounds of treatment.  After the first round they will do a bone marrow biopsy and they will know a lot more then.

As you know, neither of her parents, her sister Julie, and her brothers Andy and Matt, know the Lord.  What Jenny desires most from you is to pray that God would use this whole process to bring them to faith in Christ.  Her main concern is their salvation, yet it would be great to see the Lord save her family and still heal her mom, so please pray to that end. 

You may remeber Jenny telling us that she prayed that God would have her mom have leukemia if that is what it took to bring them to the Lord.  She is struggling now with that prayer and so please pray that God would give her peace and strength in the midst of this.

One encouraging thing that happened was that when they met this evening as a family her mom asked Jenny to pray.  Jenny was really encouraged by this because she has never offered anything like that before. 

If you would like to contact her directly she is taking calls and you can try her cell.  If that doesn't work then you can try her at her parents home.  That phone number is (419)531-2463.

She told me to tell you that she welcomes your calls, even if they are work related, because that will bring her a sense of normalcy, so don't hesitate to call her.

I'll kepp you posted as I learn more.

Paula

Currently Playing Clean By Shane & Shane see related

Chad made me do this...in fact he is typing this.  After which, he is going home and I am going to pick up the Zents from the airport.  He decided to not to go with me, even though I invited him to go.  Shows how much he values our friendship.

Verse of the day:

"Jesus is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His nature and upholds all things by the word of His power.  When he had made purification of sins he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high."  -Hebrews 1:3

On Sunday night I am making dinner for Kurt and Mookie, because Mookie wrote in his blog that I would...Hmm, maybe Chad should set up a blog and write the same thing...I need some guy approved recipes...any suggestions?  Okay, that's all.

Jenny   

btw...Shane and Shane are great.