The News...

So by now, we're assuming that most people have heard the news...but just in case we thought we'd fill everyone in here as well.  We are having a baby!  Baby Schwarze is due September 12.  We are incredibly excited!  We found out on January 2nd and we have been dying to tell everyone for 2 months!  Toward the end though I was enjoying just sharing this "secret" with our close family and friends.  I was willing to hold off a bit longer to tell everyone, but I don't think Sean would've liked that!  Well...yesterday we finally started telling people and it is wonderful to share the joy with those around us.  We told our youth at the end of Bible study and it was really fun to hear their reactions.  At first we got a lot of blank stares which was quite funny, but once it settled in what we had told them, they were excited and gave us hugs!  Today we had to go to the store to pick some stuff up for church and we walked through the baby section and looked at all of the cute clothes!  It was nice to not have to be so secretive about it all.  Whenever we've gone to the store to get anything pregnancy related we've had to be really sneaky because we almost always run into someone that we know.  We would appreciate your prayers for a healthy pregnancy.  We had a check up at 11 weeks and everything seemed to be very healthy and we even got to hear the heartbeat!      

little BIG youth video!

Here is our youth video from last Friday.  Enjoy :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ODT1owqqJg&feature=youtu.be

Busy, Busy!

As of last week, all of our ministries have officially started!  XLR8 (our afternoon children's program) started up and went really well for our first week back.  We made these really neat T-shirts for the kids and they loved them!  The first day was just a "get to know you" day and this week we will start getting into our lessons.  We will be studying Heroes of the Bible and looking at different Bible characters who trusted God despite some crazy circumstances! 

XLR8 shirt 

As I mentioned before, our church is now a training center for people to take Christian ministries classes.  Sean and I decided to audit a class called Theology and Practice of Worship.  The class will meet for 8 weeks on Saturday mornings.  This past Saturday was our first class and we loved it!!  There are 13 people in the class altogether, 11 of which are from our church.  Our young adult Bible study is also doing one of the classes called Personal Discipleship.  We are not auditing this one, but we sit in on all of the meetings.  Our church is so hungry to learn more about God and it is neat to see so many people involved in these studies!  

Youth is going really well.  We've had quite a few new kids coming and the last 2 weeks have been awesome!  Here is a link to our youth video from last week.  Our theme was "Breaking the Ice" and we did all initiative games.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBDBBAznY60&feature=youtu.be

Yesterday, we also kicked off our night services.  We put the services on hold over the holidays.  Previously the services were held twice a month, but next month we will start having them every Sunday night.  The service is a bit more contemporary than the morning service and is a more laid-back feel.  Usually someone gives a testimony, then another person gives a message.  It was a great first night back last week and we are really looking forward to what God has in store for us this year :)  

Night Service

Overall, things are going wonderfully.  We are a bit tired because everything has picked back up, but we are enjoying it!!  Tomorrow we are going to enjoy our day off and go on a little date for Valentine's Day :)  Hope you are all doing well!!

Youth Video!

One of our youth leaders is awesome with techy stuff and he made us this video after youth last week!  Check out the video!  I hope you enjoy it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YechcL11k0o&feature=youtu.be

We are having a competition right now to name our youth group, so that's why is says "unnamed."

Collide

Our theme for youth this year is "Collide: When two worlds collide, change is inevitable."  Our idea behind this is that when we meet with God we have to make a decision.  We can't choose to live for the Lord and for the world.  It's one or the other and change is bound to happen.

Every few weeks we are studying a different mini-series on topics that we think are important for our youth.  Our first mini-series is "Life Has a Purpose."  We had our first night at youth on Friday and dove into our subject more this Wednesday at Bible study.  It was so great to have all of our youth back.  We are really excited to see what the Lord has in store for us this year!!

We are starting to take videos at youth, I will try to post some soon!

Back Into the Swing of Things

The water slide at the Rock Pools.  Sean is going
down the slide with other leaders.  It was a pretty
crazy slide!

We haven't been very good about blogging lately because things have been so crazy!  Over the holidays we worked really hard to plan ahead which was really helpful!  Almost all of our ministries are back full swing this week.  We are really excited to get everything up and going again.  We forgot how busy we were though!  Sean is playing a little bit of a bigger role in the worship ministry which he is really enjoying.  Youth started back up last Saturday with our beginning of the year kick off at a water park.  We had a great time being with the youth again and getting to know some new kids.  We had a meeting with our youth leaders last week and we are really excited about what the Lord has in store for us this year!

As of last week, I am co-leading our children's program called XLR8 with another lady from the church.  XLR8 was up in the air for a bit because we weren't sure who was going to lead it.  The church is very hesitant to give too much to us because the more they give us, the more they have to replace next year.  After a lot of prayer, we decided the best way to do XLR8 is for me to co-lead with someone.  We've had a few meetings already and I'm very excited about what God has for this ministry.  We are switching things up a bit in order to make the program more effective for the children that come.  I have been quite busy trying to get things ready for XLR8 but we are looking forward to starting up next week.

I've also started leading a young adult girls Bible study on Monday nights.  We are doing the Beth Moore study of Esther.  I've really enjoyed doing Beth Moore studies over the past year and I invited some girls to join expecting only a few but we have 12 girls.  We had our first meeting this past Monday and it went so well!  I'm really excited to get to know these girls better and grow with them!

Our church is taking a big step and we are partnering with a training center about 5 hours south of here to provide Christian ministries training.  Classes will be held at the church via skype a few days a week.  There will also be a one week long intensive courses held at the church at various times.  Sean and I have been helping get things organized for these courses and we are looking forward to auditing some of the classes.

Overall, life has been a bit crazy over the last few weeks, but we really are looking forward to what the Lord has in store for us this year!  Please pray for energy and endurance as everything picks up again!  Also pray that we would keep the Lord the center of all that we do and that he would guide all the decisions that we make.

Australia Day

Last week we got to celebrate Australia Day!!  The best way that we would describe would be that it's pretty similar to the US celebrating the 4th of July.  Our town puts on a big event on the beach front which kicks of at 8am and ends with a big fireworks display at night.  The beach front is full of markets, art, crafts, beach games and live entertainment.  It is quite the day!   Sean and I decided that we'd walk down for a bit and see what it's all about.  It was such a HOT day and was super crowded that we only stayed for about 20 minutes!  There were people dressed in Australia flags with their faces painted everywhere!  Cars were driving by with flags flying off the back.  We went back later in the evening to the fireworks.  It was neat to be able to see and celebrate a holiday that is unique to Australia.  

We tried to be sneaky and take a picture of the car with the flag!