Ehhhh, just because.

I just really like these pictures of friends, and my name. It's been such a good year thus far for me here in Maui...seeing as I'm on my 2nd year of being here. Wow. It totally amazes me to see that when I thought I'd be here for a year, has turned into a second year. I'm always telling God that if I forget how blessed I am at any moment, he has my permission to slap me in the face.

I'm getting pretty dang excited about the holiday season, and here is why: When I was fifteen, and just discovered the goodness that is Starbucks, I bought a Charlie Brown Christmas CD. I love this CD. Seriously. It is the most played on my iTunes. I play it year round---it is just my happy place.

With the holiday seasons around, i feel less of a loser for listening to it. I really like the little boy voices of the choir, as well as the instrumental rendition of that crazy cartoon boy we call Charlie Brown and his rag-tag gang.

I also really like the ready availability of candy corn.

My goal for this holiday season is to see someone famous, too. Perhaps me and that famous person will sit down at the shops of Wailea, listen to my Charlie Brown Christmas music, and eat some candy corn.

Now THAT would be a Holiday dream come true.

Preggers, air pollution, shark attacks, and MTV shows

First of all, I am not pregnant. Neither are any of my junior highers. The only person I know who is preggers at the moment is my sister Jackie. Kate Ann is holding on to her premie self and waiting for December to get here so that she can blow that popsicle joint she calls home (aka Jackie's womb) and opt for the world of air pollution, shark attacks, and retarded MTV shows. I promise to protect her from all three.

First of all, last night I was having some delicious chocolate milk with my dear friend and sister in the faith Rio at Denny's (our "serious convo" hotspot of sweet nourishment). I was waiting outside for Rio to come upstairs to Denny's (yes, our Denny's in Maui is on the second story) and I was reading this book Dateable, which, by the way, is the stupidest Christian teen dating book I've ever read. Kate Ann WILL NOT read this...

So I'm sitting on story 2 waiting for Rio, when I get this gross waft of weed in my nostrils. Mind you, I never knew what weed smelt like until I came to Maui, but now I know...aka Maui Wowie. My nostrils began to burn, I had to cough, and I realized that if I inhale, my breath will probably be so rancid, I would have to down a good 4 cups of chocolate milk to even feel remotely comfortable with the stench in my mouth. I was very upset at this invasion of my breath-privacy. I strongly believe only I should have the right to dictate how I want my breath to smell...do i want people to talk to me? I'll have an altoid. Do I want to kill the whole western world? I won't brush my teeth that morning. I have a dream, that one day, all people will be free to choose the flavor of their breath.

KATE ANN, I WILL FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO CLEAN AIR.

On to number two of what I vow to protect Kate Ann from: shark attacks.

You see, here on Maui this past Monday, my favorite surf spot had sighted a shark. An old paddleboarder man, i believe, was biten by a shark at 6amish in the morning. The scary thing is, I was surfing there the night before.

Sharks like to feed a dawn, dusk, and night. However, my momma says that sharks don't care what time of day it is, they will eat you at any time. Momma, you grew up in Indiana, i do not take heed of anything you say regarding oceans and sharks. (I say respectfully and in love).

Yesterday, two days after the shark attack, i went surfing at that very spot again...and I SAW THE SHARK!

OK, i lie. No shark spotting, but it was super adrenaline rush surfing there, keeping a weary eye out for a shark. there were others, too, and I made sure they were further out than me.

KATE ANN, I VOW TO KEEP YOU AWAY FROM SHARKS. YOU WILL NOT DIE A DEATH FROM SHARK-EATING.

Now on to what I really want to talk about, and this will all come full circle. I don't have problems with preggo people. In fact, although I do not want to become a preggo person, I admire preggers with the utmost respect. The very idea of something living inside of me kinda freaks me out. But I will say that the miracle of birth has me entrigued, enchanted, and willing to research and observe at the appropriate distance.

God is incredible...we are so complex and babies are soooooooo little. Like, woah.

However, I do have problems with present day media re-enforcing and exploiting the "coolness" and "frequency", and, dare I say, the "acceptability" of being pregnant as a teen...

We get into the age-old question of: does media reflect or influence society? It's both...good, glad that's settled....

I really have a problem with MTV's show "16 and pregnant" and, most importantly, "Secret Life of an American Teenager". Yes, I understand that more and more of today's youth are refusing to follow God's perfect plan of abstitence and purity until marriage and instead walking in disobedience. Yes, I understand we "live in a fallen world", "it's only to get worse from here", and "times have changed"....but God's truth doesn't. While we let children go around having children, we are not LOVING those children who are become mommas. If we loved them, we would show them the fullness of life God has for them....

In the meantime, these shows show, not only that it happens all the time, but that it is "cool" to have children at a young age. Especially Secret Life, which shows that even though she has a baby, she can still do everyday things...no consequences...keep having sex, doing the school thing, living as if nothing has changed...

Grace, the token "christian girl" on the show, even goes as far to make a pledge of abstience, but then breaks it with her boyfriend, and then teaches a church class on abstience again, making light of it all.

KATE ANN, YOU WILL NOT WATCH MTV OR SECRET LIFE OF THE AMERICAN TEENAGER. YOU WILL ONLY WATCH TBN AND PBS AND MAYBE, IF YOU ARE LUCKY, AN EPISODE OF THE BACHELORETTE, JUST SO I CAN SHOW YOU HOW SHALLOW PEOPLE ARE.

Thanks, Jacks, for letting me use you and Kate Ann as my muse for this post. I'll send you the royality check later...or maybe a Charley's pancake.

Listening

My junior high babies have gotten me so excited to share my faith.

Not just with junior highers...because I work with them. But with people my own age.

You see, it's easy for me to share my faith to twelve and thirteen year olds. I'm cool. I'm 22. They're lame. They're twelve. See my point?

But recently, I've been desiring deep convos with people my age, people fresh out of college, struggling to figure out life and reality and all that goes on with it. People like me. I want to tell them about the love of God, how deep and rich it is. I want to bring others aboard the lifesaving ship of Jesus.

Maybe I got a little bit over excited there and over dramatic, but my point still stands. I want to share Christ with others.

I've been reading this book called Letters from a Skeptic. It's by this guy named Greg Boyd who works at Bethel School of Ministry in Cali. Anyways, he and his dad began this letter correspondence in 1988 with open dialogue about God, Jesus, the bible, and Christians. His dad didn't believe in the whole "faith thing" and Greg was open with wanting to answer his questions.

I've been a growing believer my whole life and I've never seen the love of God presented in such a way. Things I've always just taken to be took on meaning. Things like the fairness of God, or how the bible is the "word of God". I'm all vamped up.

But the most intriguing part of the book was that Greg never preached at his dad. He never went off on a tangent or talked about how ridiculous is was to NOT believe in God. Instead, he listened to the questions of a man confused by the world's view, and answered them according to God's view.

Listening.

I can't do that. I'm too good at talking. I'm too good at defending. I'm too good at making up the next funny joke or clever come-back. Listening?

I'm not going to give away the end of the book...whatever, you won't really read it, but Greg's dad becomes a believer 2 years later. And the letters were published in a book. And skeptics have been coming to know the love of God since then.

Because a son LISTENED to the questions of his dad.

I read another article today, similar to the Letters from a Skeptic. This article was called, "Lessons from Pete" (https://www.cpyu.org/Page.aspx?id=77249).

Pete was this guy that the author sat by on a plane for 2 hours, and for 2 hours, the author just listened to Pete talk about his life and his obstacles to believing in Jesus. By the end of the conversation, Pete said it was the most meaningful conversation he had ever had.

The author quotes this guy named Francis Shaeffer. Shaeffer said that if he was given one hour with a person who he didn't know and who didn't know Christ, he would spend the first 55 minutes concentrating on listening and the last 5 minutes giving the person a biblical truth that somehow applied to what he had heard during the first 55 minutes.

Do I do that? Nope. As previously mentioned, I am the last finisher in the race of listeners. I tune out and peace out mentally.

So that's something for me to work on listening...if I want to share the gospel, maybe it's not about verbally giving. Maybe its about being. Being there to listen. Being there to care. Just being there like Christ was there.

And it's the love of God, the "being there", that draws people into a relationship with the Creator of the Universe.

All that to say, pray for me, that I may have opportunities to listen to a hurting and dying world.

A Revived Passion

I've developed a new passion for researching our culture.

I've normally gotten very involved in the culture and media of the day, but as I've drawn closer to the Lord these past months, I've realized that what I need to do is "research" this culture, and not truly get involved.

I'm trying to teach this to my junior highers. Check out that blog to see more:

http://rootedjuniorhai.blogspot.com

Hume Lake 2009

I did it and i survived. I took 20 junior highers to California for Hume Lake last week.

My rockstar 7th graders using their free time to practice on their guitars.

All my Maui Babies!

It was freezing. Check out Maile's shaka! We so repped maui!

On the way to Paintball!

Noa on the high ropes.

Check out kayla's face. My all time favorite picture. Kayla wanted to kill me for putting her and Noa together for the crab walk.

My boss is the best boss! This is Marla's 13th year at Hume...and her last!

Joshua with Noa and Tristan

My gorgeous girls.

Duh. We had to take a jumping pic.

Vini's first time on the mainland. He loved being a clown.

Oh my gosh i love my boys.

Chandler green as a clown.

Girls in a canoe. Go Maui!

Notes on my Desk from People...

"Not Cool, Whitney, Not Cool..." on my Miley Cyrus Got Milk poster

"Fact: .0004 percent of jr. high relationships end in marriage"

"Bringing Awkward Back. Jr. High Ministry Smells"

"Whitney, you smell" -Daniel Mauck on my "Whitney, you're a star" poster. "weeeeeeeeeeeeeee" written on an orange sticky note

Dear Pomergrante person: yo thanks a bunches 4 da cutie holder and glasses I heart them! TTYL love you lots like cheeze Kayla


"Whitney...you suck"

You are beautiful just the way you are

Fact: 4:1 is the ratio of cologne squirts to exposed square inch of a junior high kid.

And lastly:

Whitney, you are the most beautiful woman in the world. I love you. Love always, your secret admirer (Puff...shhhhhhh!)

My desk looks like a kindergartener decorated it. But when can i say? I keep EVERYTHING! I'll post more, and maybe even some pics!

When your Ipod battery dies...

Were you ever in a situation where you were by yourself and to make yourself look cool, you'd pretend to be talking on the phone, when really, you were just holding a cell phone to your ear without anyone on the other end?

I did. Multiple times. And sadly, I still do. Only on desperate occasions.

Today, I did it. Except, it was with an ipod.

I was at Starbucks this morning, doing the Christian thing: drinking a coffee and having quiet time. I was listening to some Robbie Seay on my ipod, totally in the groove, when, ALL OF A SUDDEN, the ipod turned off. That can only mean one thing:

I ran out of batteries.

No longer was I cozy and snug in my insulated ipod earbud world. I was suddenly aware of the music, the talking, the beeping of microwaves, the mixing of blenders, and the opening of doors...

But i didn't want to join just yet...

so yes. I sat with the ipod earbuds in my ear for a long time without music.

Just thought I'd share.