Wintertainment is a week long camp in between Christmas and New Years for high school students.  It is lots of fun with days packed full of activities.  Throughout the days there is lots of tubing, skiing, snowbaording, hanging out playing games, ice skating, broomball, and much more.  In order to make wintertainment run I needed to find 50 college students who wanted to come back to camp for a week over their Christmas break.  Some of them would do anything to be able to work wintertainment.  I could not have run wintertainment without them, so if you are reading this blog and you were here for the week, THANK YOU!!!  Greg Speck was our speaker and he really connected well with the students.  During Wintertainment 2 students accepted Christ for the very first time and many others made some significant decisions in regards to their relationship with Christ.  “Now is the Time…Now is the Time to Live for Christ” was Greg’s theme for the week.  Our prayer is that the students would live for Christ at home and in their schools this year.  Here are just a few pictures from the week.

Thankful for this season, and so thankful for the reason.  (Okay, that sounds way cheesy…..but I really do mean it in a non-cheesy way!)  We were thankful to head to Fondy to spend a brief bit of time with Bry, Lis, Mom, and Dad.  My mom and I then road-tripped to Iowa to see extended family. 

We laughed a lot.

Many have heard of our family tradition of the great annual scavenger hunt where it becomes more about being together than about gifts themselves.  This year entailed multiple GAMES.  It was a good one….

I love the cards and pics that fill our mailbox at Christmas time.

How can I even begin to encapsulate all that dinner theater entailed?  Sure, it was full of rehearsal, writing, set building, tedious painting, menu preparations, puppet construction, sound and light checks, scheduling, serving, ticket sales logistics, car parking, lots of snow moving, human to elf transformations, sound recordings, costume sewing, memorization, linen washing, decorating, table setting, dish washing, and ice sculpture construction.  It was born out of prayer: a prayer that people could step away in the midst of a busy season—-to enjoy great service and food, to laugh, and to ultimately experience deeper aspects of our Savior.  While in the past I have loved being a server, this year I was a part of the cast.  These pictures simply represent a glimpse of it all. 

Act one featured a hilarious depiction of elves in santa’s workshop as one elf uncovered letters from truly hurting kids.  Distraught about this discovery from the letters, the troubled elf demanded to see Mr. Clause certain that santa could bring benevolence over bounty.  Upon meeting the big guy, the elf realized that while he and the other elves diligently worked in santa’s shop, the existence of pain and hurt did indeed exist.  Santa exposed the reality that santa and the elves were NOT real, while the lives of the children were REAL.  Act two unveiled a present day toy shop.  A troubled intruder sought to break into the store to take his own life.  An intense encounter with the toy shop owner left the man to share his personal hurts, which he once wrote to santa in a series of letters.  In moments of cutting dialogue, the toy shop owner shares true hope through Jesus with his intruder.  The drama left viewers laughing, and some wiped tears…ultimately challenging people to think about what the ultimate meaning of Christmas truly is. The offer of LIFE.  The challenge to relinquish our desire for CONTROL.  The admission of FEAR.  Are we putting on a facade “tapping toys” seeking to do something useful on this side of heaven?  What truly matters?  Why?

This Thanksgiving we were again thankful to be able to visit friends and family in PA.  It was sweet to catch up with dear friends and see family again as we try hard to stay in touch between annual visits.  We laughed a lot with friends…shared life over lots of food, cried a few tears, and did the Gobble Wobble Run on Thanksgiving Day and ate our fair share of pumpkin muffins.  Going back reminds us of the people who support us so well from afar and love us despite the distance.  We are so thankful.  We also appreciated time with Larry’s family along with a Hoffert Family game night. 

good times at the gobble wobble run

I love you….I love you “smore” camp shirts….

good times with the girls…

okay, so these are way cool cookies my cousin made….though I didn’t see her, I got to taste the goodness….

“Can we build it?  Yes we can!”  That was the motto of this seasons volleyball team.  Yes we were a young team and everyone expected to walk all over us.  However, we were not going to let that happen easily.  We were not going to go down without a fight.  And fight we did…all the way to the 3rd spot in the conference and a trip to the regional final game, which we sadly lost to our rivals…Prentice.  I absolutely love assisting with the team.  It is a way for me to be connected to the community and be a positive encourager to the girls.  At the end of the season we had the girls over for some grilled pizza and some Wii Dance.  Here’s the team.

When days are long, we can be short with each other—yeah, the picture of us smiling at the lake was only after a much needed hour long paddle to re-hash miscommunications and to escape the to-do lists for a bit.  So pray for us in the midst of what we do.  That we would be honoring to each other…that we would seek HIM to order our days…That we really could laugh.  That we would have realistic, God honoring perspectives on life.