Summer Pen Pals

Everyone should have a pen pal!  Do you have one?

Snail mail is such a lost art.  I would like Gary Chapman to invent a new love language.  It should be titled "snail mail" and should include sending and being sent things like long letters, tales of the Lord's faithfulness captured on fun paper, snapshots of summer adventures, repurposed envelopes, vintage stamps, and brown paper packages tied up with string.

Someday soon I think I will post templates to use to make your own envelopes out of bits of would-be garbage.  Wouldn't that be fun?  

My dear friend and summer pen pal, Sara, took the cake when she made an envelope out of a vintage dress pattern!  Cutest idea ever...

FIND A PEN PAL!  I promise that it will bring SO much joy to your life (and your pen pal's life!), it will be a simple pleasure, a type of therapy, and be well worth your time!

Oh, hello, Zorbaz!

Oh, hello, Zorbaz!

It was so nice to finally meet you after hearing so many wonderful things about you from my friends.  

The whole "z" thing is a little annoying and overdone (since when are misspellings ever cute or good for marketing?), but your food is great...especially the Reuben Pizza.  Holy moly.  I don't think I'll be able to sleep until I find a way to recreate your recipe.  Watch out, because I think I almost have it down...

Thanks for your hospitality.  You are the perfect summer destination.

Sincerely,
Liza Jane DeYounge

Catch up!

I know, I know.  I've been terrible at blogging lately.  Here's a quick catch up post.

May...

• Beginning a "vegetable subscription" at a local organic farm.  They bring us whatever's ripe each week!
• Mother's Day and Memorial Day with Mark's fam.
• Several rounds of golf, hours at the driving range and a kayaking adventure with Mark.
• Beginning a ladies' summer bible study.
• Doing large amounts of laundry to get ready for Mark's summer assignment.
• Attending EPIC amounts of graduation parties.  

June...

• Getting bombarded with Etsy orders!  Hooray!
• Driving 1700 miles back and forth to Young Life's Castaway Camp and my job in Sioux Center...all in the month of June.
• Flying an additional 600 miles to Castaway with my parents.  
• Celebrating my sister, Micah's, birthday.
• Mark and I doing music at Young Life club with Jake Ousley!  Check out his tunes HERE!
• Spending time with my besties, Alisha and Shannon, on a girls' weekend.

July...

• A mini-vaca on the Mississippi River with my family.
• Praying through and finally making one of the biggest and hardest decisions in Mark and I's marriage so far.  Stay tuned for more details.
• Celebrating my father-in-law's, nephew's, brother-in-law's, and Shannon's birthday.
• An 18 hour trek with 70 friends to Young Life's Timberwolf Lake Camp.  Please stay tuned for a blog post entitled, "How to Follow a Charter Bus and Drive a 12 Passenger Van Through the Night Without Falling Asleep"...
• Working from my laptop in a seedy hotel in Michigan for a week.
• Seeing MANY of our Young Life friends commit their lives to Jesus!!

AND, these are only the things I can think of now.  Holy smokes, our lives are busy...  It's good to be home!  Hoping for things to slow down soon...

Timberwolf & Thanks!

We're at Timberwolf!  A group of 70-something of us piled in this charter bus and two big vans on Tuesday night.  18 hours later, we ended up in Michigan at Timberwolf Lake Young Life Camp.  The week reached it's climax tonight!  We are praying that many of these students encountered Jesus in a powerful way.  We have 2 more days of fellowship and fun, so pray for endurance, joy, vulnerability and for the Lord to keep on a-workin'.

Special thanks to so many of you who crafted "for a cause" in donating pretty things to be sold for our campership fund!  Also, thanks to so many of you who bought these pretty things...AND to those that just-plain-donated!  You are a big blessing!

EXODUS 33

Here's the "personal" version of our ladies' bible study on Exodus 33 (minus large and small group discussion).  Use the outline and questions below to engage the Lord and the scripture on your own time.  

EXODUS 33

BEFORE you read the scripture...

Prepare your heart to hear from God. Try listening to the video/song below. As you listen, prayerfully breathe OUT all the crap and baggage you are holding on to. Breath IN God and His Spirit. Focus on the lyrics, pray the lyrics. Relax, "dial" or "tune" in. Seek God and PRAY that He’d speak to you as you read today!  

Show Me Your Glory by Jesus Culture & Kim Walker

Ask God to speak to you today as you read.  Consider using this scripture to pray for understanding:  Ephesians 3  - I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have the power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.  God, give me the power to know Your love, to understand the fullness of what You have for me in Your Word today!

READ the scripture...

Find Exodus 33 in your Bible or favorite bible translation.  As you read, journal or take notes and prayerfully ask the Lord these questions.  (If you like ambient music to listen to AS you read, try this playlist:  Ambient Bible Study Playlist 7.3.12)

1. God, what part of this scripture are you highlighting for me today?
2. What do you want to say to me through this? In regard to my life? In regard to who You are or what You're doing?
3. Now that You have spoke, how do you want this to change the way I live? How can I apply this to my life, God?
4. Write down any questions that you have in regard to scripture.

MOVING FORWARD Ideas & Questions:

• Read through this passage for a week, at least once per day.  Continue to journal your thoughts, your prayers, your questions, etc.
• If you were able to speak to God face-to-face, what sorts of things would you want to say?  What sorts of things do you imagine He’d say?  
• How/When have you seen God’s glory?  Actively look for and be mindful of His glory throughout the week.  Be bold in asking Him to show His glory more!
• Research any questions that you have about this passage.  Google it!  Ask a trusted friend or seek out a commentary. :)

MORE RESOURCES...

This Pinterest board is a compilation of fun things (art, prints, music, translations, commentaries, quotes, prayers, etc.) relating to Exodus 33.  Click HERE or on the Pinterest picture to snoop around.

If you are in the Sioux Falls area, available on Tuesday nights, and wanting to JOIN us at bible study, please leave a comment below with your email address.  I'll be in touch!

Etsy SALE & Closeout! FREE Stuff if you support camp!

Young Life Camp is coming SOON.  In just a couple of weeks, over 70 high school students will be jumping into a bus headed to Timberwolf Lake Camp near Lake City, Michigan.  A week at Young Life camp will likely be the best week of these high school students' lives!  They'll have a ton of fun, build relationships with caring adults from Sioux Falls, and most importantly, they'll be pointed to Jesus and having a deep relationship with Him.  In such a crazy culture, this will be a week of undistracted and set apart time for kids to focus on the Lord and get to know Him better.

As I write this post, Mark is on the phone calling kids to see where they're at in regard to attending camp.  Several are just waiting on the funds to be able to go.  A handful of people have already chipped in to help make it possible for more students to have this meaningful experience.  Do you want to chip in, too?

Some of my lovely, crafty friends have donated some of their creations to be sold in my Etsy shop.  ALL the proceeds of these handmade items will go straight towards the Young Life campership fund.  If you choose to purchase anything, you'll be getting something pretty for yourself AND helping a high school student get to camp in a couple of weeks.

BETTER YET...  All of the Camp Fund items' prices have been slashed!  Cute stuff is even more affordable!  Check out the "Support Young Life Camp" category of my Etsy shop for fun sales.

ALSO, when you buy anything in this category, I'll throw in one of my lyric or scripture art prints for free (they are usually $5 in my shop)!  Choose from:

Show Me Your Glory | You Know Me | Remain in Me | Every Captive Free | The Lord Gives & Takes Away | Reason to Sing

Just let me know which one you want in your 'message to seller' at checkout.