Hello!

So it’s been 8 months since my last update. Things have been busy to say the least.

What brings on this sudden jump back into blogging?? Four letters…

NYWC!

Yes, the blog is back and conveniently in time for The National Youth Workers Convention. This year, we, The Bridge Youth Ministries, are driving all the way to Cincinnati, Ohio (Crazy to make a 10-12 hour drive? Yes, I know). Instead of flying this year, we are saving money by taking a bonding adventure from NJ to OH. Sad to say that many of the veterans from last year will not be accompanying us this time, such as: Samantha, Sully, Jefferson, Armando, Jenn, Sarah, Kevin, Elliott, and possibly Romulo. For those of you who met us last year, here are a few reasons why some of them are not returning: Samantha is finally a school teacher and just got engaged a few days ago, Sarah and Kevin had their first baby girl, Sydney; Elliott is also a school teacher this year, and Jenn is now the principal of a K-8 gifted and talented school. Veterans returning this year are: me (of course), Carlos (our youth pastor), Billy, Jesu, Manny, and hopefully Ali. We also have some newbies attending this year: Michael, Jenifer, Raul, Alex, and hopefully Sonia. So as of now, 9 definites with 2 possibilities will be making the long trek 1/4 across the country. Pray that we grow together, laugh together, catch some shut-eye, and not make each other crazy on the journey. :)

As for other updates, I’m still a preschool teacher in the same school, still happily single, still going through the rollercoaster ups and downs of life, mentored Jenn - a young youth pastor, through Tim Schmoyer’s free YM Mentorship program, started piano lessons, enrolled into Light University for biblical counseling, went to the WorshipGod conference in MD, and led worship for a week at T.I.M.S. thanks to Brian Ford for the invite (had a blast, met new people and learned a new game called Swat!), and just recently joined our young adult church’s (The Connection) worship team.

My roles in youth ministry have expanded. Last time I blogged, I was currently the worship director for our youth band, emerging worship station coordinator, small group leader for an all-girls group, and minute taker for leadership meetings. Last year (August08 - July09), I also took time off from being deeply involved in our youth groups unless they needed me for ratio purposes.
This year, while I am still working as a “full-time” unpaid volunteer, I was hired by my youth pastor as “part-time” to be his administrative assistant. As for my “full-time” volunteer responsibilities? I’m still the worship director for the youth band, but now have an assistant worship director to help lighten the load. I am still the emerging worship station coordinator but no longer doing “worship stations” every single month, but every 3-4 months, for our youth church, The Sanctuary. I am no longer a small group leader for the all-girls group because after 3 and a half years of being together, my girls have graduated from HS and moved off to dorm at college for a year. They intend on moving back for the remainder of their education so they can also be leaders-in-training for the youth ministry. Our last adventure was a trip for piercings (ears, nose, and eyebrow) followed by a rainy trip to the beach. So much crazy fun lol. New roles include being the stage manager for our youth church and young adult church services and being the head admin for the YouthTracker system (I’ll blog about that another time since my Twitter friend, Todd Porter, asked me about it via Facebook). So it’s been pretty busy since September.

As for youth group, I went from being “on-call” like last year to “I’ll come twice a month” to “I’ll be here every week”. We have 10 youth groups now: 5 Bridge Jr groups and 5 Bridge Sr groups. I’ll blog about that another time as well since my Twitter friend, Chris Day, was asking me why we do this instead of focusing on one youth group. We finally have an official I.D. system up and running within our youth ministry. The youth love the ID’s because it gives them a sense of belonging within their youth group, it gives us the opportunity to keep learning their names when they show us their ID card at the door, it gives the youth fun discounts on our events or at the “Bridge&Noble” store, and we’re working with the community to give us store discounts on pizzarias, coffee shops, etc. around the neighborhoods.

Eventually, I will have to discuss the accomplishments and failments of my New Years Resolutions I posted earlier this year.

Until next time, I hope you enjoyed my blog comeback of amazing updates (lol). Time to continue tackling my pyogenic bacterial conjunctivitis (pinkeye).

PS: thank you, Patti Gibbons, for your “like” on my “Janelle is blogging” Facebook status. ;)

So this is my first post of ‘09.

It came on a quiet night this year. Alone at midnight, i raised my champagne glass of bubbly Pepsi and rang in the new year with a pirate-esque photo of myself which i uploaded onto Facebook. Cheers to the new year.

Before then, i was busy writing my New Year Resolutions. They are as follows:

1. Start over. *For me, it means not giving up. And sometimes you just need to “start over” even if its not physically literally starting over. This resolution goes with my last resolution.

2. Be more… patient . kind . slow to anger . quick to listen . encouraging . thankful . compassionate . understanding . loving . joy-giving . supportive . self-less . trustworthy . serving . humble . courageous . fearless . merciful . … *That’s pretty much self-explanatory. The triple dots mean there are more to be added.

3. Drink at least one glass of water everyday; no Pepsi allowed unless I drink a glass of water first. This goes for home, work, restaurants, anywhere. *I am so serious about this and have been doing great (except today…but i still have time right?)

4. Wear my seatbelt every time I am in the car. *Now this seems like common sense, but ever since my first car - a ‘93 Saturn SL1 with the lovely automatic seatbelts, i forget very often (almost all the time) to now manually put on my seatbelt in my ‘98 Nissan Altima GXE. i know, tis a shame.

5. Learn the piano and take voice lessons: set aside one evening a week (Tuesdays) to school myself. Practice on other days where time permitted. *I was supposed to start these (at home) classes today, but today was a crazy stressful day, so i postponed my “schooling” for next week.

6. Meet with Grace and have “No Pressure, No Diamonds” recorded in the studio. *For those of you who know me, actually writing and performing a song of my own (which can be seen on my Facebook) was a BIG deal. I am not very confident or extroverted. It took me 10 years (since i first started writing lyrics) before I ever finally did an entire song of my own. And i have to say “entire song” because I did write and record the hook for one of our youth pastor’s rap albums (The Quickening). It’s a song called “Complete”. So it’s going to be another push to actually get into my dad’s studio and record it.

7. Set aside one day every month to watch a web-seminar on worship leading. *This is pretty awesome actually. I found this website called The Worship Teleseminar and it’s free worship leading and worship ministry training. They ask you to register (it’s free) and once you login, you are able to access online replays of each session and download the mp3’s and handouts. This is part of my personal dedication in growing to become a better worship leader/director.

8. Look for a graphics art course to take and learn more about designing. *This will come after my piano and vocal classes. I will either look for something to take online, attend a graphics art course at the local community college, or ask one of my friends to teach me. In due time.

9. Write and perform more original songs. *Easier said than done, but I need to push myself more.

10. Organize my worship stations and post them available on my blog for other churches to use, oh yeah, and blog more. *One of these days i’ll get them all together and you’ll be able to find them under “Refuel Your Creativity” as well as regularly update this here blog o’ mines.

11. Stay within my budget. Take out money from each paycheck and put within savings. Save more money by not purchasing what I don’t need. Pay off credit cards/get out of debt.  *I am well on my way towards paying off my credit card debt (for the past 2 years) since i have not touched a credit card since i began this quest. As for taking out money from each paycheck? I have been little by little. Of course, it helped that when i needed emergency money for stuff, I was able to dive into that a bit. Still, paying off my credit card debt is the most important.

12. Take a multi-vitamin daily. *I need to keep healthy and this is one way to achieve success in this area. Call me crazy, but i love Centrum orange-flavored chewables. They remind me of those awesome Flintstone chewable vitamins that we used to eat as kids! No “horse-pills” (and aptly nicknamed by their grande size) to force myself to swallow and it doesn’t leave that odd vitamin after-taste. 

13. Trust God… in all areas of my life. Spend more time with Him. Read the Bible. Listen to podcasts. (ex: teachings from Mars Hill Bible Church) *Okay, okay, so i classified all the Christiany stuff in one resolution. But i think we can all relate to this. And as for podcasts, Mars Hill Bible Church is so far my favorite to listen to. If anyone has any suggestions on new ones i can subscribe to on iTunes and give it a whirl, let me know. 

14. Pursue… Healing . Restoration . Trust . Hope . Personal forgiveness . Peace . Rest … *These are collectively self-explanatory like resolution #2 as well as personal. I’m sure i’m not alone.

15. Take every positive moment in life. Take only the growth and lesson from every negative moment in life. Leave the past behind. Move on.  *This last resolution goes with my first resolution.

Keep smiling . be love . emunah . ahavah . speak life . dream . live

There you have it. I hope maybe I have inspired some of you. 

If not, it’s all good. (:

until next time, peace out girl scout ;)

keep smilng.be love