Happy 2013!

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and were able to spend time making special memories with your families and friends.

As much as I love the holidays, I always look forward to the month of January and the fresh start of a new year that it brings. One of my favorite verses about this is Isaiah 43:18-19:

“Forget the former things;
    do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
    and streams in the wasteland."

I love that our God is a God of fresh starts and new life. No matter what we have had to face in this past year, there is always hope for God to do something new in our lives. This verse is a great reminder this time of year. Reading Isaiah 43:18-19 always brings me to a place of hope and excitement, waiting to see what God is going to do in our lives this year, how His path will unfold in the wilderness and what streams he will use to water the areas of our life that may have feel a little dry right now.

We have a lot of great events and plans for our youth ministry this year and we are so excited to see what God is going to do in the lives of our students in 2013. It was a blessing to spend the whole past year with your students and you as their families and I know God will continue to bless us as we get to spend another great year seeing God work in all of our lives together.

On a personal note, Nick and I are are also thrilled to be expecting our first child, a daughter, this year and we are so looking forward to learning the ropes as new parents. We are so blessed that our church family has been so supportive and encouraging through our pregnancy so far and look forward to all of you being a part of our growing family in 2013!