So, this is what's going on...

Well, it has been an exciting couple days, that's for sure! I thought that this weekend was going to be busy, but it turns out that I had NO idea what I was in for.

On Saturday I spent the afternoon at a graduate Voice Recital for one of the girls in our GAP (graduates and professionals) church group. Even though I know nothing about opera, I thought it was beautiful! She did a great job! (way to go, Sarah - if you read this!) My husband picked me up from there and we went straight to a football game that our church's school was having. They put up a good fight, but they lost. It was a great game, though!

On Sunday we did went to church like usual, however, after church I got to hang out with my good friend Holly McCarty and my friend Sherice Davis (Canty). She was in town visiting for the week and we had SO much fun together! I felt like we were 18 again! :) We went out for lunch on Sunday and then got pedicures. It was nice!

On the way back from our "Girls Day Out" we kept noticing the smoke from some fires that were burning a long ways away. We were taking tons of pictures and joking about church being cancelled that night. Little did we know...

After I got home, all afternoon I kept hearing helicopters going overhead. It seemed like there was one every five minutes. When we stepped outside to go to church we realized that there was smoke rising from the hill across from us.

We went to church and noticed that tons of people were stading outside of the church pointing up to the sky. We got out to see what they were looking at and realized that from our church property (which is about 3 miles away from us) we could see HUGE flames spreading across Canyon Country. The wind was blowing in the opposite direction from where we live, so we weren't too worried. However, there were many people that had to leave church halfway through, or didn't even come to church because they had to evacuate their homes. Many people slept at our church last night.

We went to someone's house after church for dinner and had a good time of fellowship, while still keeping the news on and keeping tabs of where the fire was. At around 9:30 pm we heard that the road that we lived off of was closed because of the fire. We hadn't heard anything at all before that time to indicate that the fire was anywhere near us, so we left right away to see if we could get home and grab a few belongings.

Let me tell you something, what I saw when we came to the intersection that was as far as we could drive was one of the most terrifying things I have ever seen in my life. The hillside that is facing our apartment building was engulfed in flames (the fire was about 500 yards from where we live). I've never seen anything like it. (I have to say that I might have freaked out just a smidge) :) Dave and I parked the car and then went on foot about 2 miles til we reached our apartment building. When we got there we packed important documents and pictures just in case our apartment building was affected. We talked to our apartment manager, and he felt that we would be safe because there were strike teams at the bottom of the hill making sure that the fire didn't jump the road. We decided to take our bag of possessions with us (just in case), walk back to get our car, and take the backroads to get our car back to our apartment building. We decided that we wouldn't leave until we heard from the authorities of a mandatory evacuation. Dave didn't want to leave me at the apartment building alone, and I didn't want him walking that 2 miles by himself, so we ended up both heading out to get the car together. It was quite an adventure. We passed several newspeople reporting about the fire, and several firetrucks. We inhaled alot of smoke (poor Dave has a sore throat this morning from the smoke). But we made it, drove the backroads to our aparment (so we'd have a car in case of emergency), and tried to sleep. It wasn't a very restful night! :)

Thankfully, this morning the wind had blown the fire away from us (so far). I am at work (I'm the only secretary that's here), though, and I keep getting phone calls about families from church being evacuated from their homes. Of the 12 fires that are going on in California right now, the one in our town has been given #1 priority. Please keep us in your prayers. There are alot of people that are being affected by this fire, and because the wind is so high it's making the fire move quite fast. Thanks for your prayers, and I will keep you all updated.

"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas..."

I can't believe that I'm posting twice in one day, but I was just thinking about this, so I thought that I would post. :) Why not?!

Of course, living in southern California, I can only dream of a white Christmas, because I'm not really going to get one. *sigh* But I was wondering, from all two of you that read my blog, what are some Christmas traditions that you do every year?

This will be our third Christmas together, and to be honest, we haven't really started our own traditions yet. It's sad, I know. One thing, though, that we've determined to become a tradition is having a Fondue Night on Christmas Eve. We started that tradition with Josh and Holly McCarty (Fluth) last year and are determined to keep that one. Other than that, we tossed around the idea of watching Elf and It's a Wonderful Life together every Christmas. As you can see, we are in desperate need of ideas.

Ideas anyone?!

Great Quote...

I just read a great quote this morning from a book entitled Found Faithful by Elizabeth Skoglund. It is a combination of stories from the lives of great men and women of the faith.

This quote is from Andrew Murray (1829-1917). I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

First, He brought me here, it is by His will I am in this strait place; in that fact I will rest.
Next, He will keep me here in His love, and give me grace to behave as His child.
Then, He will make the trial a blessing, teaching me the lessons He intends me to learn, and working in me the grace He means to bestow.
Last, in His good time he can bring me out again - how and when He knows.

Let me say I am here
By God's appointment,
In His keeping,
Under his training,
For His time.

Have a great day in the Lord!

Sadness...

Life has been interesting the past couple weeks in the Trepanier household. Some of you may already know that our new home church out here in California has been having difficulties. Let me rewind and give you the background of things...

When we first moved out to California, we attended a great church is Pasadena. The plan was to be mentored by the wonderful pastor that was there and work at the church to get through seminary. About a month after we moved out here, the pastor decided that God was moving him along and he left the church. That pretty much left us high and dry, but we just simply trusted that God would work out the details.

Before the pastor left, he introduced us to a asst. pastor in Santa Clarita, CA whose name is Jon Duncan. When we met Pastor Jon, we knew that our hearts and minds were on the same page as far as ministry. We were so excited to work with him at Santa Clarita Baptist Church. Because of that, we relocated to Canyon Country, we moved out here about 2 miles from the church and got jobs out here so that we could be close to our new church.

About 4 months after we moved out here, the senior pastor, Pete Mothershead resigned. We were sad, but excited about the prospect of Pastor Jon to be moving into the position of senior pastor.

We have spent the last 7 months in close ministry with Pastor Jon and his wife Marlene while he has held the position of interim pastor. Not only do we get along in the ministry, but also on a deep personal level we consider them to be close friends.

About two weeks ago, the pulpit committee/deacon board of our church decided that they would not be pursuing Pastor Jon for the senior pastor position at our church. To say that we were stunned would be an understatement. Most of the church was stunned, and the church body was in upheaval. To make a very long story short, in order to prevent more hurt and division, Pastor Jon announced from the pulpit today that he would be no longer pursuing the senior pastor position (because there was talk that the deacons might change their minds and ask him). He announced that they would be pursuing other senior pastorate positions.

We spent last night with Pastor Jon and Marlene and were just encouraged by their friendship and their humility. The way that they have handled this whole awkward situation has just been a testimony to their godly character.

Please pray for our church, Santa Clarita Baptist Church. There are a lot of hurting and confused people. There is potential for many members of the church to be leaving because of this decision. Right now, Dave and I feel like the Lord would have us to stay and try to minister to this church as best as we can. We are sad about Pastor Jon and Marlene leaving, but we know that God is in control, and that life is good because God is. We don't always understand His ways, but we trust that He is in control.

Pea...

I always wondered when I'd get discovered for a modeling career after we moved out to LA. I mean, I knew that it would happen, it was just a matter of when... Well, it finally happened. I've been discovered. Dreams are beginning to come true...
Those of you that know me should know that last paragragh was completely untrue. :) My very good friends Chris and Janelle have a little company called Conduct Happiness. (check it out at http://www.conducthappiness.com/) I got a call on Tuesday morning saying that they needed some people to "model" their line of "Pea" shirts. I was a little hesitant, but when they said that I would get a "Pea" shirt out of it, I was ALL over it! So, Dave and I headed over on our lunch break and joined some other people from our church in getting our pics taken.
These shirts are seriously too cute. I got to wear the "Pea in the Wind" shirt and Dave got to wear the "Pea Standing Up" shirt. If you're having a hard time understanding why these shirts are so cute and so funny, let me tell you some of the names of the other shirts. There's: Pea Sitting Down (for girls), Pea in the Pool, Pea in the Tub, Pea in the Snow, Pea on the Fire Hydrant, Pea in a Diaper (for little ones), etc... Are you noticing a trend? :) It's pretty much the cutest thing ever.

Anyways, the best part is I got to walk away with one of my very favorite "Pea" shirts. Pea in the bed...

My VBS video...

This is a link to a video that I put on You Tube of my little VBS kiddos. They are NOT as cute as they look! :) Just kidding! Hope you enjoy it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Epzk8qVbfmM

My terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day...

Ok, so I should post a picture of these "angels" that I teach for VBS. To look at their sweet little innocent cherub faces, you would never know that inside of them lurks an evil, sinful, depraved soul...

This Sunday was the last week of regular VBS. Next week is the much dreaded (by me) concert. I thought that I would surprise them by bringing a movie to VBS. "What a nice break," I thought foolishly to myself, "they will love me forever for bringing them a movie to watch on the last day of VBS. We will have such a joyous time watching this movie together as a class. I am sure they will shower me with hugs and affection for being such a great, thoughtful teacher." So, I brought the movie, "Stanley the Stinkbug Goes to Camp." The name alone of that movie just makes me laugh. :)

Anyways, unbeknownst to me, some of my kiddos had heard that the "older" kids were getting to play a water game. Thinking that they got to play too, they came armed to VBS in their swimsuits and with their big beach towels (they all looked SO cute). Unfortunately, not all the kiddos had brought water gear - so even if we could have played the water game, not everyone could have played. And that's just no fair. So, we get in the classroom, turn the lights off, and start the movie. And the complaining begins.

"Where's the popcorn? If we were at a real movie theater we'd get popcorn."
"I've seen this movie like a thousand times before." "I want my mom." "I'd rather be in big people church." "I wanna go on the playground." And the list goes on and on... One child was actually rolling around on the floor repeating like a mantra, "I'm hungry; I'm thirsty," over and over...

The worst part was, I had told my helper that she could leave. I belive my exact words were, "They're just watching a movie tonight. It'll be a cinch." Famous last words.

It got so bad that I actually had to call Dave on his cell phone to get him out of "Big People Church" to help me. Thankfully Dave terrified the children. Something about his deep, stern voice just petrified them. It was great. From the second that Dave walked into the classroom they were little cowering angels.

Anyways, I was sad that my last day of VBS with the children had to be such a disaster, but hopefully they got it out of their system before the concert this Sunday. I'll keep you posted on how that goes...