Not qualified, but here I am.

{Originally published on Be Still Waiting Heart}

It’s funny how God puts you right where you need to be, even when you’re completely unqualified to be there.

At camp this summer, the program staff is implementing a worship night where campers will rotate to different “stations,” with a devotion and activity at each station focused on a specific aspect of the Christian life, such as forgiveness, identity, thankfulness, etc. Various staff members were asked to lead the different stations.

Brett and I were asked to lead the station focused on prayer. 

Now I know it sounds bad to say “I’m not good at prayer…” but it’s kind of true. Neither of us are super comfortable in or great at praying aloud. We’re certainly no experts on the subject. I know, personally, that my prayer life has been suffering recently, as I struggle to make daily alone time with God.

Let’s just say, we both feel pretty unqualified to lead a devotion on prayer. 

And yet… that’s where the Lord placed us.

So tonight, we led this thing for the counselors and summer staff, as they’re going through their Orientation this week. They were divided into 3 groups for the rotations, and with each of the 3 times we went through the devotion and focused prayer time tonight,

the truth of the words sank a little deeper into my heart.

I became a little more convinced of the words I was saying.

And the Spirit of the Lord in that room grew a little sweeter. 

Though I feel like the totally wrong person for the job, I look forward to continuing to lead campers and counselors in prayer for the rest of the summer. God knew this was where we needed to be, not only to teach others, but just as much or more, for our own prayer lives.

Not qualified. But here I am. Ready to learn.

Bachelorette Party Photo Scavenger Hunt

 It’s getting to be that time of year — wedding season!

And with weddings, come bridesmaids… and bachelorette parties!

Whether you’re the bride, the maid of honor, or a bridesmaid, don’t let the idea of a bachelorette party scare you. Often, these celebrations are associated with strippers, lots of alcohol, inappropriate games, and the bride’s “last big hurrah” before settling down to married life.

It doesn’t have to be like that.

A bachelorette party can be clean and fun. 

If you Google “Christian bachelorette party,” you’ll get a pretty good mix of ideas — some fun and some super cheesy — from spa days to slumber parties to movie nights to camping trips, and more.

My glamorous sister!

When my sister got married a few years ago, I was her maid of honor and in charge of planning her bachelorette night. After lots of research and thought, we decided to go with a photo scavenger hunt!

Wanna know how we did it?

Okay. Here we go.

Who gets invited?

This is really up to the bride! My sister included her bridesmaids, a couple of other good friends who would be serving cake and punch at the reception, and the wife of her fiance’s best man (they had traveled in from out of town for the wedding). If you’re the planner, ask the bride who she wants at her special night.

Add the extra bling

Bachelorette parties seem to have this obligatory thing where the bride has to be wearing a fake veil, a tiara, a sash that says “BRIDE” in rhinestones, etc. It’s kind of obnoxious… but also kind of fun. If you think your bride is up for it (ie, not completely mortified), I say go with it. It’s her once-in-a-lifetime bachelorette party, right?!

Schedule for the evening

We started with supper at about 5 or 6 pm. To ease the budget a bit but still have a nice meal, we ate at Ruby Tuesday’s, where we happened to have several “buy one get one” entree coupons.

In front of the restaurant where they went on their first date

After supper, we designated one person to be our driver and all piled into one vehicle together, then we were off on our photo scavenger hunt all over town!

Once we had completed all the items on the scavenger hunt list (see below), we went back to the bride’s apartment, where we had snacks and played Catchphrase for a while.

It turned out to be a really fun evening, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves!

The Photo Scavenger Hunt List

Here is the list we used for our bachelorette scavenger hunt. I gleaned ideas from several different lists I found online, and combined them to make my own unique scavenger hunt. We had so much fun that I’ll share it here, so you can use it too, if you like!

1. 

   Searching for “sexy” lipstick names

   1. a coin from bride’s birth year

   2. lipstick with sexiest name
   3. the bride wearing bling-y sunglasses
   4. one team member modeling a wedding dress
   5. the whole team sharing one soda, with separatestraws
   6. visiting the location of the couple’s first date
   7. one team member kissing a mannequin
   8. the whole team with a really cute guy
   9. the whole team in one bathroom stall
   10. something purple [or their wedding color]
   11. video the bride asking a couple married 25+ years for their advice for a successful marriage