First Day at Elevate!

Today was our first day serving as youth mentors for the high school youth group at Palm Valley Church! I cannot tell you how excited I was when we got the call from Darius on Friday saying that our background checks had gone through. He said that he had talked to our friends Dave Thorpe, Mark Epperson, and Ryan Worrell and they all had glowing things to say about us. It's nice to know that we have made a good impression on people. =^)

There are 4 different meeting times for the church youth department, some with combined jr. high and high school, and others with just one or the other. We have signed up to attend the 10:00 high school class called 'Elevate'. We figured that way we could hang out with the age group we want to work with for over an hour, and then catch some of the other high schoolers who are waiting around afterward for the 11:30 combined group before heading over to "big church". It's possible that this schedule will change once we start leading our small group because we will want to go at the same time that most of our kids do, even if that's on Saturday night.

When we arrived at the church, we were a bit nervous... As much as we want to be involved in these high schooler's lives, it's very intimidating to walk up to a group of them and try to start a conversation. Luckily, we were not the only new youth mentors there and so - while our interaction with the kids was fairly minimal this week - we got to meet and bond with the other adults we will be working with. I hung out with a young woman named Becca who we first met at the info meeting a few weeks back. We stood by the door and joked about how we blend in a little too much with the other high school girls while trying our best to smile and greet everyone walking in. James met another male youth mentor who happens to be a crew chief for his squadron on base. They had fun talking about planes and complaining about the heat until it was time to start.

This week's program for Elevate was a little unusual. Many of the kids had recently returned from their big summer mission trip up to Nevada, and so - instead of giving a normal Biblical lesson - Darius turned the floor over to them and let them talk about what all they did and share their "God moments" from the trip. I think the timing of our arrival was perfect because we got to listen to many of the kids talk about their faith and it gave us a good feel for their individual personalities and gifts. It would have taken a lot longer to start to get to know them through normal Sunday school meetings. The whole time I was sitting there thinking: "He seems like he'd be able to carry on a great conversation about God. I hope he's in our group!" Or, "She seems really cool, I hope she's in our group." By the end of the day I came to the conclusion that almost all of the kids in this group are amazing and I'd be happy to have any of them. =^)

Of course, sitting through an hour of testimonies about the same trip can get a bit monotonous and so, after each group went, they had a little something for us to do. After the first group, we all hopped up and participated in a fun ice breaker game. Basically, we got the entire room (mentors and all) involved in a giant rock-paper-scissors tournament. Only, it wasn't the traditional version of rock-paper-scissors. Instead, it was the super hero version entitled Batman-Spiderman-Superman, with accompanying arm motions. James and I had a draw because we both chose Spiderman (we really think a little too much alike!) Then we faced off with the girls in front of us and so on. It was a lot of fun. For the second break, the worship band went up on stage and led us in a few songs. They may only be high school kids, but they are incredible musicians. One of their singers is a very small, shy looking boy with long curly hair and glasses. I'll admit I was a bit surprised to see him climbing up there with the rest of the band, but once he started singing, we were blown away by his big, tenor pop voice. Never judge a singer by his stature, I suppose! ;^) The last break was a video slideshow of pictures from the trip, which all of the kids enjoyed. Every time one of their friends came on screen, all the girls would scream their names. It reminded me a lot of being at one of my brother's school concerts...

The whole atmosphere for Elevate is a lot of fun. They meet in the high school drama room, which is set up as a black-box theater with a full track lighting system and sound board. Consequently, it's kind of dark and moody in there, and every time the worship band plays they turn on the colored strobe lights as if you are at a rock concert. Darius also recently had his Jeep painted bright red with the PVCStudents logo on the side. It sits outside the doors, welcoming you to their youth group with Christian music blaring through the giant subwoofer in the open trunk. This church really knows how to make use of current multimedia and technology! In fact, both the youth and adult services for the next month will be focusing on faith lessons we can learn from movies. (How perfect is that?!) I look forward to next week's sermon on avoiding prejudice and loving our neighbors, based on the classic football movie Remember the Titans.

New website!!

Well, after two days of solid work, my website is up and running! Go check it out:

http://www.kzwentzelphotography.com

Enjoy!

Whirlwind Wedding Weekend!

This past weekend, James and I had the pleasure of flying out to San Antonio for our good friends Caleb and Jordan's wedding. Caleb has been a close friend of James' since he started pilot training about 3 years ago and served as an usher in our wedding. Jordan is from San Antonio originally and was introduced to Caleb through a friend at an Air Force party last fall. They fell in love pretty rapidly and, because of AF timing, they had to have the wedding this month or else wait a very, very long time. It all worked out really well, though, and we really like Jordan. She and Caleb are both strong Christians and James and I look forward to spending more time with them after they move here in a couple weeks.

The ceremony didn't start until 6:00 pm, so James and I caught an early flight out of Phoenix Saturday morning and arrived around lunch time. Luckily, a lot of our good friends from Del Rio were in town and agreed to pick us up and cart us around for the rest of the trip. James was asked to be an Usher and serve in the saber arch (a fun staple of Air Force weddings) so we had to be dressed and ready to take pictures at 4:00 pm. We made hotel reservations at the ritzy Sheraton Gunter where the reception to cut down on driving time. However, check in wasn't until 3:00 so we were awfully rushed trying to get settled and dressed for the wedding. Thankfully I'm not a girly girl who requires hours to get ready for an event!

When we arrived at the church, James went off to the holding room for the guys to congratulate Caleb and get ready for pictures. Since I wasn't part of the wedding party I was left to my own devices for two hours. I had all of my camera equipment with me because I was hoping to get some good wedding shots to add to my portfolio, so I asked if it would be OK for me to go up to the bridal room. Thankfully both Jordan and the photographers were very gracious and let me follow them around all night taking candid shots of everything. The only thing that I missed was the private pictures of Jordan and Caleb after the ceremony because James and the guys had to get to the hotel in time to welcome them to the reception with raised sabers.

Both the ceremony and the reception were really fun. Jordan took almost no time in planning this wedding, but you would not know it because of how grand and detailed it all was. The food was tasty, the guys enjoyed the open bar, and the band was great so we had fun dancing and goofing off until late in the night. Our only criticism was how long the reception lasted (6:45 to midnight). But, since they were not only getting married but moving away, I don't blame them at all for partying as long as possible with their friends and family. We were just exhausted because we had to get up at 4:30 am to catch our flight and really wanted to go to sleep. ;^)

The trip home was uneventful the next day, which was nice. The only problem was trying to figure out how to catch the shuttle back to economy parking. Sky Harbor (the primary air port here in Phoenix) is one of the largest in the country and as neither of us had much experience with it, we got a little turned around. Hopefully our next trip through there will be a bit less stressful.

When we got home, I immediately started uploading and editing all of the pictures from the wedding. Turns out I took a grand total of 625!! Only about a third of them really turned out, but that's why I take so many! (It increases the odds of having a lot of good ones.) With all that hard work, I helped realize every bride's dream...an album of 160+ pictures ready to look at less than 24 hours after the wedding. Jordan sent me a face book message from Maui to let me know that she had seen them and "loved, loved, LOVED" them. =^)

I'll admit that I did have a slightly selfish reason for working so hard on these photos. I've been thinking about paying to put together a professional photography website for a long time now, but didn't think I had enough high quality images to really market myself well. But now that I have a full album of wedding photos on top of my collection of portraits and event photos, I think it's time. I spent all day working on putting that together, and after my official URL address processes tomorrow, I'll be able to launch kzwentzelphotography.com!! A part of the website will be a new blog devoted to showing off the best shots from each of my shoots. I've already created that here on blogspot so if you want to see the best shots from the wedding, check out: http://kzwentzelphotography.blogspot.com/

The official blog does not include personal pictures from the wedding, so here are some of the shots of James and myself. I spent a lot of time driving around to local stores trying to put together my outfit. I don't really think we got any pictures that do the dress justice...but you can get the basic idea. It's all very retro, which I love. I bought the extra ribbon for the waist band, and paired it with a pearl necklace my grandmother gave me for my birthday 18 years ago. (I'm pretty sure that's the first time I've worn it out in public since I was a toddler...but I think I've finally grown into them. ;^) Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Above is a picture of me and my friend Alanna Reger. Her husband Chad went to pilot training in Del Rio and went heavies. He's currently flying an AWACS out of Tinker AFB in Oklahoma City.

James and our friend Ryan Worrell enjoying a well deserved drink after the Saber Arch is complete.

James and I didn't want an AF wedding, but you gotta admit that's pretty cool!

James and Mike Leary. I was upset Mike didn't bring his wife Ashley with him to the wedding. It would have been good to see them again after 2 months!

A good candid shot of James as he was waiting for pictures to start.

I'm sad this one didn't turn out...it's of all of the ushers with Caleb.

Here you can see my dress. Isn't it cute?

A good one of the two of us. You can tell we're pretty tired though...

I had to really fight for this picture since there were so many people vying for their attention. Definitely looking forward to them moving out here!

Youth Mentorship

Tuesday night James and I attended an informational meeting about becoming youth mentors for the Jr. and Sr. High ministry at Palm Valley Church. As I told you, I sent an email to the church's youth pastor Darius Sanders introducing ourselves and asking if we could get involved with the high school group. He wrote back saying that he'd love to have us on the team, but couldn't meet with everyone who wanted to volunteer individually, so he invited us to this dessert party/info meeting that he and his wife Nicole were hosting.

Admittedly, James and I were very nervous to just walk into Darius' house since we had never met him or his wife in person. However, they were very warm and welcoming and immediately made us feel at home. While we waited for the other people to arrive, he had us fill out a few forms so that the church would have our information and they could run a background check on us (something they do for anyone who will be working with children.) Then, after we all helped ourselves to cheesecake and cookies, Darius opened us up in prayer and began to share his views about youth ministry and to explain what we would be doing if we chose to go ahead with this rather large commitment.

I've just got to say that, as excited as I was about this whole thing before the meeting, I am SO much more excited now. I have been consistently impressed with the way that all of the leaders at Palm Valley think, and Darius was no exception. He said that the whole point of youth ministry is to build relationships with these young people and let them know that they are loved. Hopefully, once they see that we really care about them, they will care about what we are trying to teach them about God. I think that is the best way to minister to people. Too often well meaning people turn others off to Christianity because they focus so much on preaching that they make their audience feel like a project rather than an individual who is cared for no matter what. People are Priority - that's Darius' mantra.

As mentors, we would have two responsibilities. First, to attend one of their youth services on the weekends. making the kids feel welcome and encouraging them to get plugged in. Second, we will all be paired up with another leader or two so that we can lead a co-ed small group one night a week. This was very exciting because that means James and I will get to work together, and will be assigned our own group of high schoolers to invest in over the next several months!! Of course, since James is going to be very busy with flying and may not be able to make it to every small group, we will have at least one other leader working with us. We are kind of hoping that our friends Caleb and Jordan who are about to get married and move out here will want to step into that role but we'll have to see...

Anyway, what excited me most was that - in addition to being Bible Study leaders and volunteer helpers on Sundays - Darius really wanted to know what gifts or passions we had as individuals and wholeheartedly encouraged us to employ them as we serve these kids. That means that, in addition to building relationships and helping these kids grow in their faith (which is super exciting and fulfilling all on its own) I may have an opportunity to take pictures and make videos for them!! Turns out they are doing a series in July called "Jesus at the Box Office" (!!!) and I was able to give Darius some ideas about current movies that might work well for that.

So, it seems like I'm going to be able to get as involved as I'm able to handle (which is a lot) and I can't wait to get started! Darius told us before we left that, as soon as he read my email, he was excited to have us on the team. That was a huge relief because I know I have a tendency to come off a little too strongly when I am excited about something and wasn't sure how he would react. This isn't the first time a ministry leader has thought, "Wow. Is this girl for real?" But, thankfully, it seems like we all share the same passion so James and I get to run with this and see where it takes us.

I'm particularly excited to see how this helps James' and my faith grow individually and as a couple. It's been a while since he was this involved in church leadership, and by all accounts this is going to be a 24/7 commitment. The Jr. High leaders made sure to warn us that, as soon as these kids get a hold of our cell phone numbers and email addresses, they will be contacting us all the time to ask questions and go spend time with them. But that is something we welcome and are looking forward to (so much so that when I renewed my cell phone contract last week, I made sure we upgraded to unlimited text messages so we won't have to hold back when our group members want to chat).

For the time being, we have to wait until our background and reference checks go through. But after we get the email officially welcoming us to the team, we'll start getting our feet wet by helping out with the Sunday morning youth group meetings. I'm so excited and can't wait to get started!

Giving Back

Yesterday at church we started a series called "One Prayer" which is apparently an annual series that 1000's of churches all over the world are doing at the same time. It focuses on Jesus' prayer in John 17:20-24 for the church to be one. On Sundays we will be hearing from pastors all over the world, discussing the question of who God is. In the meantime, all of the churches will work together to see what can be accomplished on a global scale when we work together. Last year, through one massive, collective donation, they managed to plant more that 660 churches in Cambodia, India, Sudan and China. This year they want to not only plant more churches, but assist with basic needs in those areas, such as giving them clean water and education. Each church also sets a goal for how to help their local community during this time.

This year Palm Valley Church's outreach project is to collect backpacks full of school supplies for over 540 kids in foster care here in the West Valley. When a child is placed in foster care, they often have to leave their possessions behind and a lot of their needed clothes, school supplies and personal items need to be replaced. The State provides families with a small stipend to help with this, but we want to help relieve this financial burden.

As soon as they made the announcement, I knew this was something I really wanted to do. Job or no job, I want this time we're spending in Phoenix to count for something and so every time we are given an opportunity to make a positive impact on someone else's life, I jump on it. (Also, I was one of those weird kids who loved going back to school and thought it would be so much fun to get to go school supply shopping again!!)

So, this afternoon I grabbed the list they gave us and headed out to Walmart. After finally locating where the backpacks are kept (a much more difficult task than you'd imagine) I had a choice to make. We were given two lists - one for K-5th graders, and one for 6-12th graders. What kind of child would I be supporting?? The age was kind of a no-brainer since the older students need about twice as much stuff and I couldn't really afford that. But should I get gender neutral supplies, or make something specifically for a little girl or boy? James thought I should go gender neutral since it's a donation and that would probably be easier for the people organizing it. But that just didn't seem very exciting to me. I remember one year my mom signed up for a program where you pay a flat fee and the school sends you a box of all of the school supplies your child will need. Of course, that was very convenient for the parents because it was cheaper and they didn't have to go fight their way through the crowds at the store in the month leading up to the first day of school. However, I remember feeling very disappointed when we opened our box because everything in there was very plain and I didn't like being one of the only kids in class who didn't get the chance to express herself through her school things. So, I figure if the point of this outreach is to help make these kids feel at home, I should get things that our beneficiary can be proud of. With that in mind, I set out to put together a special package for a little girl.

I had so much fun going through the aisles picking out cute, brightly colored things that will hopefully make her smile. Believe it or not, putting together a more personalized package of supplies really isn't that much more expensive (especially at Walmart). I picked out a two tone blue backpack that has enough space and stability to last for several years, and that is in a subtle, feminine style that will hopefully grow with her. Instead of getting the bare minimum on some of the necessities, I splurged a bit to make sure she'd have some nice things to use. For example, instead of getting the most basic package of 12 colored pencils, I got her a 24 pack...and instead of just getting a package of yellow #2 pencils, I got her some multicolored mechanical pencils with extra lead. (Even when I was in elementary school, I remember that you weren't cool unless you had mechanical pencils!!) The icing on the cake, however, are the folders. That was always my favorite thing to pick out because they have so many different colors and styles that allow you to really make a statement about who you are and what you like. So I got some very colorful, girly ones that are sturdy enough to last a good while. I hope she likes them and knows how much care was put into her gift! It's all about demonstrating the extravagant and personal way that God loves us after all. =^)

Progress Report

I imagine some of you have been thinking: "Well, Kim - you had such high hopes for your time in Phoenix, and now you've been there for over a month but haven't updated us on your progress! What have you been doing?"

You've got me. It's not that I've been avoiding this... I just didn't really have anything to report till now. My plan was to get settled into our house and get a car and some respectable business clothes so I would have everything I needed to go out there and start job hunting. That was taken care of fairly quickly, thanks in part to my sister-in-law Claire who sent me a massive box of her "old" suits as she was packing for their move to Korea. Right around then, we decided to make the trip up to Colorado, so I figured I should wait to start making phone calls until we got homr just incase I was hired and my new employer wouldn't let me have that time off. When we got back to town and finally got settled back into our house, I was faced with the daunting task of trying to make good on all my talk of working and making something of myself. Turns out that's a lot easier said than done.

I have to admit that I am terribly intimidated by job hunting. I've only had two other real "jobs" in my life, and I didn't really have to go out and search for them since they were both directly offered to me. They also only lasted for a couple of months during the summer, and I was able to set my own hours. Even then, I really didn't like having to go to work. I'll gladly pour hours and hours and hours into doing something that I love and believe in (as I did for Intervarsity my senior year), but the feeling that I have to go out and do something just rubs me the wrong way.

So, for a few weeks, I was very frustrated. Not only did I have this internal debate going on about whether or not I actually wanted to get a job, but it seemed like that didn't really matter because, even if I decided that I'm ready to start working like a normal adult, I wasn't going to be able to find a job in this market. I've repeatedly looked through the employment listings for Phoenix and the base, and there's nothing (yet) that would work for me. It wasn't until I started job searching that I realized the downside of living in the West Valley. It's primarily a residential/retirement community and, therefore, there's just not a whole lot going on out here. Especially in this economy, the only people who are hiring are in need of people with a very specific set of skills (like CNA's or bilingual tutors) so I'm not eligible for most all of the jobs that I see listed. The only positions that seem to apply to me are in Scottsdale, Tempe, or Mesa, which are all about an hour away (with traffic). That'd be the equivalent of living in the Springs and commuting to Denver and back every day. Doable for a photography gig or something, but not for a regular job.

My only comfort was the fact that James and I are able to comfortably live on one income, so I didn't need to find a job. However, I am very sick of just sitting around the house every day and want to find something to do, even if I'm not getting paid for it. So I decided to try calling and emailing some local photographers to see if they would be willing to sit down and talk to me for about 30 minutes - hoping, of course, that once we got to talking they would see that I am passionate, intelligent and a hard worker and I'd be able to finagle some sort of internship or paid assistantship out of it. They must have guessed that that's what I was up to because none of them bothered to write or call me back until two days ago. One photographer finally called and we talked for about twenty minutes. I got some good information out of him, but quickly realized that that was all I would get because he doesn't work much anymore, and when he does, he already has an assistant. However, I felt a lot better afterward because he says that, after I get a professional website, I will have all of the tools and know-how to go out and start working. I just have to really work on marketing myself since there are so many other photographers in the area.

That was a moment of clarity and encouragement for me. I had been hesitant to really start advertising because I wasn't sure if I would be able to give my clients what they want due to my lack of knowledge and experience. Turns out I know more than I thought I did and, with a little effort, I could be just as good as many people out there. I just needed some confidence in myself and the courage to get out there and do it!

So, for the time being, I'm going to work hard on promoting my fledgeling business. Right now I'm teaching myself how to make websites using Adobe Dreamweaver (a complicated but very cool computer program I recently purchased), and I'm going to get some much needed portfolio work done on June 20th when we fly back to San Antonio for Caleb and Jordan's wedding. I'm very excited because I got two calls in the last few days about taking pictures for some friends later this summer. It will be interesting to see where this all goes.

In addition to photo work, I've decided to pour myself into volunteering at the church we've been going to. We were waiting to get involved at Palm Valley until after Caleb and Jordan get out here at the beginning of July because we really want to worship with them every week and know there are other churches Jordan's heard of and wants to try out. However, James and I really love this church and realized that if we keep putting off getting involved, we'd never do it. So, after praying about it for a few days, we sent an email to the youth pastor, introducing ourselves and asking if he had a need for any more volunteers. He wrote us back immediately (which was so nice after weeks of waiting for a response from photographers) and said that he would love to have us on the team and invited us to an informational meeting at his house next Tuesday night!! I have no idea what we will be doing, but at least I'll be free to pour myself into Kingdom work the way I did in college. For me, that is so much more fulfilling than earning money. So, we'll keep you updated on how that goes. After I get an idea of how much time I'll be investing in the youth program, I plan to send in an application to be a part of the media team as well. They have a really happening video program at the church and I'd love to get back into doing that kind of thing again. : )

So, that's what's been going on with me. I'm still checking the "help wanted" adds in the newspaper and Craigslist every other day, and I have various projects that help keep me busy. But I have a feeling that the thing that will keep me the most busy and bring me the most joy is going to be getting involved in youth ministry again. This may even help inspire me to start writing again...hmm...

Anniversary Fun

Well, it's official - we have been married for a whole year!! We had our big anniversary celebration a few weeks ago on our way up to Colorado, but figured we should still have some fun the weekend of. So James took me out to see the new Disney Pixar film Up! in 3D on Saturday afternoon, then we came home and got all dressed up and went out for a nice dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. I also had some fun trying to bake a chocolate layer cake the way they do on Ace of Cakes on the Food Network. I think our third 1 year anniversary cake (yes...we already ate both of our official cake tops) turned out quite nicely, don't you?

James and I have been trying to reflect on the last year and what we have learned, but we find it very difficult to articulate something that has come so naturally to us. There haven't been any big shocks or unpleasant surprises because we worked hard to prepare ourselves for this and received a lot of great advice before saying "I do." However, I do think one big thing we worked on was finding that balance between being responsible adults and our normal, goofy, youthful selves. I will admit that I freaked out a little bit in the months leading up to the wedding because I thought that by graduating, getting married, moving into my own place, and starting to work, I would suddenly have to grow up and be a mature adult. It was a pleasant surprise when I realized that, even though our status had changed and we had a little more responsibility on our shoulders, James and I could continue being ourselves. It's been extremely enjoyable and we are very much looking forward to all the years we have to come!!