shopping is so much fun!  we bought katelyn some new shoes today.  BabriesRus had some shoes on sale, 2 pairs for $12.  that's better than walmart!!  then we found a really cute outfit there for $10 bucks.  they have a lot of inexpensive clothes there.  more than i thought.  I finally got another pair of jeans from walmart that are really cute.  went to target and found some more cute clothes for katelyn (having a kid can be expensive the first two years because of all the clothing sizes they go through!).  thankfully we've been saving up money specifically for clothes.  oh yeah.  even have some money left over! 

well, i better get going.  dan and i need to start packing some stuff up.  only have two more weeks until we leave!  might as well get some of the small stuff together that we don't need on an everday basis.  :)  talk to you guys later!!

-Esther

SO EXCITED!!

for those of you who don't know, dan and i (and of course Katelyn) will be moving back to Toledo, OH the first weekend of October!  in case you wonder why i'm putting it on xanga instead of myspace...i'll tell you.  the youth kids don't use xanga, and we aren't telling them until next wednesday night. 

i'm just way too excited to keep it in any longer!!!  so, please comment on here and not on myspace until you see a bulletin or something from me.  THANK YOU!!!

oh yeah!  you might be wondering why we're moving back....it all has to do with God.  We are just not "fitting in" with the church we're currently at, and have been praying and talking to family about our situation, and have decided to move back to Ohio to help out with Solid Rock in Oregon.  and no, pastor keith DID NOT ask us to come up, we volunteered with the leading of the Holy Spirit.  my mom did talk to Pastor keith after we decided to come up, and he seemed excited about it.  in fact, pastor keith and dan had a chance to talk the other day...and things are just feeling good.  :)  we both pretty much got our jobs back at McD's (oh yeah baby!) and that alone is a blessing!!

God is just doing some incredible and confusing things in our lives, but it's all worth it!  anything is worth staying in God's will for our lives.  so...just please be praying that things continue to go smoothly in this transition for us.

oh yes!  i also changed my colors to Chicago Bears colors!!  ROCK ON!!!  they didn't win their first season game against the chargers, but they sure did beat the chiefs this past sunday!  :)  i'm excited to see how they'll do this year. 

that's about it.  i will talk to you guys later!!!  love you guys!

-Esther

so, things are going more smoothly once again.  with our situation i last posted about, we ended up having a meeting with the parents of the teens involved, and the senior pastor.  THANK YOU JESUS!  it turned out to be a lot of "she said/he said" and a parent believing it instead of coming to us about it.  ANYWAY.  it is now over.  for the most part.  it's never completely over when working with people (not just teens, adults can be far worse at times!). 

so, we had this awesome band come and play at our youth last night.  THEY ARE GOOD!  they are called "The Timothy Ryan Project" until they can come up with a better name (so said the lead guy).  they played for free, which is always nice, and the kids really seemed to enjoy it.  Dan preached a good sermon about "who's holding the hammer" and it was about nailing other people to a cross when you go behind their back or not submitting to a parent and all that good stuff.  it was very good.  we even had a big cross and a hammer!  oh yeah.  :)

katelyn is doing really good.  she is learning, however, to throw fits.  and i mean the kind where she throws herself on the floor and screams.  eh.  it doesn't work though.  i just pick her up, put her in her crib, and let her scream in there with the door closed until she calms down.  she will not run me.  :) 

well, i need to get going.  i take a friend's daughter to and from school because of her work schedule, and we need to leave in about one minute.  love you guys!

-Esther

so, i'm really frustrated right now, and this is the only place i can write about it where the people it's about won't read because they don't have xanga.

why are people so immature?  why are people so unwilling to trust?  why are people so willing to just quit at the hint of any trouble??  i've been told that all these kids need is a lot of love, even when it comes to disciplining them...they need love.  the former youth pastors have all given them love.  so why aren't they different?  why are they still walking around not participating?  not passionate about a Savior who died for them?  they only hear what they want to hear.  if the word "change" is in the sentence, they block it out.  change?  why change?  because GOD DEMANDS IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   if you're going to blame your walk with God, or the lack thereof, on a pastor, friend or whoever, that means you WEREN"T SERIOUS ABOUT JESUS IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!  so grow up.  if you don't want to change because of what Jesus did for you, then you should just forget it and go to hell.   because that's where you're telling God you'd rather be.  "You're not worth the change."  "You're not worth my time to pray and read the Bible."  "I don't want to look stupid in front of my friends."  "yeah, Your Son died for me, but i'm just going to go as far as i need to to get into heaven.  anything beyond that, forget it." THEN LEAVE THE CHURCH AND LIVE LIFE SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!  don't take up space in the church where someone else who cares about having a personal relationship with Jesus could be.  someone who's willing to change because they love a God who died for them.  don't talk to me anymore if all you're going to do is take it out of context and tell everyone what your version of what i said.  I WANT NOTHNG TO DO WITH YOU!   it's people like that make people leave the church.  that make being in the ministry a waste of time.  SO QUIT WASTING MINE!!!!

i think that does it for now.  bye.