As each year draws to a close and Thanksgiving and Christmas come around once again, I usually take time to reflect on the things God has done in the months that have passed. This year I have been so blessed as God has again surprised me with his faithfulness and love. I have had the opportunity to lead worship for over 30 events around the area, as well as join some of my good friends many times in worship (Courtney, Mila, Aaron, Clay, Georgene and several more)  at not only my home church but various places around the Pacific Northwest. What a blessing and privilege to serve the Lord in this way! I have made new friends in Camas this year, at GracePoint Fellowship--a really awesome community of followers of Jesus as I've had the opportunity to lead them in worship over the past summer and fall. God has blessed me, yet again, with continued ministry at Cannon Beach Conference Center, my 21st year of ministry there. I don't take any of this casually, because I know that as we worship together, God shows up in great ways in our hearts personally as well as in our relationships collectively.  He has changed my heart through the worship of Him, as my eyes get off myself and instead focus on the God that created me and knows me intimately.

Several of my long time voice students graduated this past June and it felt like a little part of my heart went with them as they left for college in various places around the country. But many of my students have continued lessons this fall and many new students have joined the studio. I LOVE my students, they are such a gift to me as we work together to sharpen and develop their musical abilities. I will lose five more beautiful senior students this coming June, but I have no doubt that God will bring more young people into my life.

There have been extremely challenging and difficult times this year. And God has shown up, awesome in power and love, every single time. His timing is not my timing. Sometimes I wonder what He is up to when He doesn't arrive to save the day in the way I think He should. But then His rescue and answer to the dilemma is always better than anything I could've thought up and I am again reminded that He is God, I am not, and His love and plan for my life surpasses anything I could hope for.

As each year ends and I look at the sometimes blank calendar for the year ahead, I wonder what God has in store. And then as the calendar begins to fill up and sometimes gets a little overwhelming, I am amazed at how God seems to always bring new people and opportunites and challenges into my life that continue to grow me up and bless me beyond measure. One of our pastors, Jerrad Lopes, said that blessings aren't always just the good things that come into our lives, but anything that brings us closer to our end goal--my end goal is to know and be more like Jesus. And my life is FULL of blessings.

This next year promises to hold as many blessings as the years that have passed. One look at the world around us reminds us that life is pretty uncertain. But the one thing that is sure is that God IS and longs to walk with me--and you--in the midst of whatever comes. That is an amazing promise and one worth pondering and taking to heart! I hope you will also take time to reflect on your year and your journey. And as you do, I hope you'll also come to realize that there is nothing in this world as amazing or mysterious as our Creator God offering to walk with us through our messed up world and whatever comes as we choose to surrender our lives to Him and allow Him to change us from the inside out.