Stars and Stripes

Thursdays are always our deadline day for getting the bulletin finished and sent to the print shop. I thought I would share the finished product from this week with you, because it's a fun 4th of July theme and I did all the art work! If you want to see a larger version, double click on the photo. I had fun with it :)

weekly highlights

Hello family and friends,

I gotta say, this past week has been pretty fun. Here’s some quick highlights:

οοο On Saturday I rode down to the San Diego area with Matt, Kelli, and Jorge where we were able to go to a Switchfoot concert on the beach. It was fun getting to take a little road trip with them, spend the day on the beach, and enjoy some good music.

οοο Tuesday was a bit of a crazy day. It started with me getting kicked out of my hotel room, frantically trying to gather everything I own and thrown into my car in an hour, all the while on the phone making calls trying to figure out where I might be staying that night (haha) and ended with a peaceful drive down to Laguna Beach. There was a little bit of a situation in regards to my transition period from living at the hotel to when I can move into the sublet next Monday. My friends here were so thoughtful and generous though and went out of their way to make sure I would be taken care of for these few transition days. I’m currently staying with my friend Kelli. Her family was so kind to take me in and it’s been wonderful getting some home cooked meals! Tuesday evening Kelli and I took a drive down to Laguna and got out and walked along the beach. I’ve started a photo album on facebook with pictures from this summer, which you can find here:
California Summer



οοο Another highlight of my week (and every week) has just been getting to go out for lunch with the other interns. It always seems to be a different group of us (just depending on who’s around the office each day), but it’s always the best part of my work day!

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Here's a list of things I'm excited about::

1. I get to see part of my family in 2 weeks! My parents and brother are taking a vacation to come stay with me for a few days so that will be lots of fun.

2. My dearest friend Jana has her flight booked for the end of the summer when she'll be coming out in order to be my road trip companion for the journey back home. (I'm sure I'll have bittersweet feelings toward that.)
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Okay, apparently I've only got two things on the list for now haha.


Well, tonight we’re heading to Crave and then who knows what the rest of the week will bring! Hope you all are doing well.

Love & blessings,
-Lindsay

modeling debut

As promised, here it is folks - the curriculum cover for Kay's Bible study aka my modeling debut haha



"Joy and sorrow are two parallel tracks that are always present throughout our lives, it is never all joy or all sorrow" - Kay Warren

Happy Fathers Day! ♥

oh, just another week :)

Hello family and friends!

Hope you all are doing well! Everything here with me has been going smoothly.. Every day is a gift.

I went through a bit of a funk earlier this week, just kind of being bored with work and a bit of a longing to be home.. not that I was feeling discontent with life here, but just feeling that I was missing out on some good things back home as well.

Yesterday I came out of that funk though - haha. It was a busy day at work, with deadlines to finish the weekend bulletins and get those sent to the print shop, as well as a few other random jobs I've been working on finishing up. One thing I'm working on right now is a banner for the community PEACE ministry. >Here's a fun fact for you:: Guess who I've gotten to work with on this project? Matt Bruce, husband of my former Huntington University resident hall director! It's a small world I tell ya.< PEACE is one of the larger ministries here at Saddleback. "PEACE" stands for: P.romote reconciliate, E.quip servant leaders, A.ssist the poor, C.are for the sick, E.ducate the next generation. Their ministry is all about assisting and providing solutions for the global giants found in our world (Spiritual Emptiness - Self-Serving Leadership - Extreme Poverty - Pandemic Disease - Illiteracy). I've really enjoyed getting to learn about different ministries while serving at Saddleback. It's been neat to not only get experience in my field of work but also to get this insider's look at so many other areas of service.

Every week I've been getting to know more people and make more friends, so that's been a great blessing. A few highlights from my week - On Sunday, my friend Michelle (an intern) and I were able to go to the morning service together and grab lunch and hang out at the room a little afterwards so that was great. That evening I went to my small group and then I went with Kelli and a few others to an evening service at a church in Costa Mesa called Rock Harbor (about a half hour from here). It was a neat service that appealed to a younger (20s/30s) demographic. On Monday I got to go out for lunch with a new friend, Lisa. She and I met through our staff group that meets once a week. Lisa works for Crave (the college ministry) and she's just great :) On Wednesday evening I got to go hang out at "The Ranch" with some of the interns that live there. "The Ranch" (Rancho Capistrano) is a Saddleback Regional campus but they also have housing for some interns in separate programs as well. (Laura - The Ranch reminds me of Escuela El Sembrador where we stayed in Honduras! So I like that about it) I think it's really pretty out there.. (as if everything in this area isn't - haha.)


So yeah, on Wednesday night I went out to the ranch to help my new friend Justin design a flyer for their 'Night of Worship' event that is coming up. We're pretty proud of our work...


Tonight I've got plans to go see a movie with Kelli, Matt, and Jorge (and whoever else may come.) Then the rest of this weekend I plan to work on the Huntington University Volleyball media guide that I'm designing for their upcoming season. (Well, okay mostly I'm just updating the one I had made for my senior project last year.) Next week I've been given a design job I'm looking forward to. I get to design the background or the "skin" for the bulletin that will be used forth of July weekend. I'm thinkin something Patriotic haha. It'll be a fun creative project.

Love you all. Have a great weekend!

Oh! P.S. Happy birthday to (Aunt) Melissa and (Cousin) Evan today!! Yay birthdays!

independently dependent on God

Family & Friends... hello!
How are you all?

Before I say anything else, happy belated birthday to the coolest guy I know!


I've been been wanting to update you all for a couple days now, but I've been keeping busy and haven't gotten around to it until tonight. I hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive me. :)

Well, nothing too extraordinary has happened in the past week, but every day brings something new! Sunday night I was able to try out a small group through the church of college students. A group of about 25 met at our leader's house. The group is going through a Bible study on the gifts of the Holy Spirit - wisdom, understanding, discernment, knowledge, speaking in tongues, interpretation, and prophesy... (there's some I forgot I'm sure.) So we had a really interesting discussion on a couple of those. I was able to make some connections with a few of the girls in the group that night, and then some of us were able to hang out the following two nights. Monday night we went to a community pool, and last night we went to this place called Sky High Sports, which is a gym with different areas each with trampoline floors and walls. In one area you could play dodgeball, another area you could do flips into a pile of foam, in another area they had a trampoline aerobics class going on, and in the last area it was just a free jump around zone. It was so fun, but my body is so sore from it today!


Do we have anywhere like this in Indiana? If so, you should probably look into going. I kept thinking of some of my younger cousins while I was there, and could see them having a blast in a place like that!


I decided Wednesdays are my favorite days because we have our intern meetings in the morning, and then since everyone is around there's always someone to go to lunch with. Now I'm not just saying this to be nice... but all the other interns are so great! I enjoy them more every day I'm around them. Today was also special for me because I had the opportunity to share with everyone at the beginning of our intern meeting. Kyle had asked several weeks ago if I would share a little about how God worked everything out for me to have the opportunity to serve at Saddleback this summer, and I was glad to do it. Some of the other interns will have an opportunity to share their stories in the following weeks I believe, so I look forward to hearing from them as well.

In preparation for any kind of public speaking, no matter how casual, I always like to write out what I want to say to kind of organize my thoughts. As I was writing out my story last night, I was reflecting on what God taught me through that season of uncertainty this past spring while I was waiting for answers and plans to come together. I wanted to share with you some of what God taught me during those months and what He continues to show me every day, so allow me to skip ahead through my story (which most of you are already familiar with) and fast forward to my implications.

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If I can encourage you with anything from my story it would just be to not back down out of seemingly impossible circumstances, but to allow God to journey through your desires with you. And I don’t mean to say that if God’s on your side then you’ll always get your way. We all know that's not true. I mean for years I've been dreaming of adventuring out on my own and learning how to be independently dependent on God, and yet every summer up until now I’ve ended up working on the family farm back home -haha. But as I held onto this desire, I just told God “Hey, maybe now isn’t the right time, but when it is can you please address this desire and maybe use it for your glory somehow? Or if not just rid me of this desire altogether.”

The other thing I learned from going through this time was the value of having prayer partners in your life. I’ve always felt blessed to have parents who have prayed over my life, but when it came down to such a specific thing and when I felt like my voice wasn’t enough, it really gave me strength to know I had them backing me in prayer when it became too frustrating to even pray for myself.

After getting plans secured and coming out here and everything, there’s definitely even been days where I’ve doubted that this is where I’m supposed to be. There are days I feel so burdened with guilt, questioning why I let my parents make such an investment in supporting me for yet another 3 months, as if 22 years hasn’t made a big enough dent in their pockets. But God is so faithful in giving me reassurance. On the road trip out here it was often through a song that would come up on my ipod, usually something with lyrics about packing up and moving to California - haha. But He would use those songs to remind me of my desire and assure me that he started this in my heart a long time ago and it was part of his plan. Other times it’s through one of my new friends stopping by the office to talk to me or giving me a hug, and by those gestures giving me assurance that even if I travel over 2000 miles away from everyone I know and all that is comfortable, He will still put people in my every day life to love me and to make me feel comfortable and part of a family. Learning how to be independently dependent on God… that’s how I looked at my calling for this summer and our Lord has been shaping me so much through that.
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After I shared at the start of our meeting, the chief of staff spoke to us and he made the point, in reference to my story, that so often God doesn't use our successes to teach us, but instead uses our failures, and periods of waiting, and times of no clear answers to shape our character. And ultimately God is much more concerned towards our character development than our circumstances.

New photos!

Thought I'd send some photos your way today :)

Well... Here's where I've been living::





Pretty nice... everything I need and more in the kitchen area, good size bathroom and closet, and a nice desk to work on.


And here's a glimpse of the beautiful Saddleback campus::
My Saddleback Facebook Album

let the modeling career begin

Well, I've decided to drop everything and become a model.

Just kidding :) But I did get a unique opportunity at work today to do a little modeling. The graphic team is working on some designs to go along with a month long Bible study with Kay Warren (Rick's wife) that will go through the month of July at the church. The series is called 'Choose Joy'. So today they brought in two photographers and Gabby (our other graphic intern), Julie (our senior designer working on the 'Choose Joy' designs), and myself were taken to a site off campus to shoot some photos. They wanted two models to have options to choose from so Gabby and I alternated posing for them. We went to a railroad and had to balance on the rail walking away from the camera, carrying a bag, as if we were walking into the unknown future of our life journey if you will. This was actually pretty challenging and I've decided I need to start doing some yoga to work on my balance. I'm actually uncertain as to what these photos are being used for, but I get the impression it's for the cover design of a book that will be used for the group study. That'd be really neat to say I was on the cover of a book! haha but I can't promise that. The photographers joked with Gabby and I at the end of our photo shoot, "Well, I bet you didn't know this was part of your job description when you signed up."

This reminds me.....
Back in my high school volleyball days I would always bang up my legs, earning some impressive battle wounds one way or another doing a conditioning drill. I think one time I slipped while jumping on a box, massively scrapping my shin, and another time I probably just tripped over something and came away with some ugly bruises. Each time Fin (our volleyball coach) would joke "There goes your leg modeling career Bowman." Well good news everyone, my leg modeling career may stand a chance afterall!

This gives you an idea of what the cover will look like. But imagine the photo used here to have either Gabby or I standing on one of the side rails. Oh, and without the big "art is FPO" printed in the middle. This is merely a style sheet for now, not a finished design. Looks good, huh? Julie is great.

I was able to meet Katrina tonight, the lady whom I will be subletting from later this summer. I met her at her home, where I will be temporarily living in about a month. She introduced me to some neighbors and showed me around her place. She was so nice and all of the neighbors/friends I met were equally as kind and welcoming. Her one neighbor and friend who was over has a daughter, Terry, that I was also able to meet who is 19. Katrina had Terry and I exchange numbers, so hopefully we'll be able to spend some time together once I move in. When I told Terry I had graduated with a graphic design degree, she exclaimed "Oh, you are my new best friend! You have no idea!" Turns out she is doing a marketing internship and is expected to be able to meet some of their design needs as well so she's been taking a couple design classes and looking to get some extra instruction. I look forward to being able to connect more with her later this summer.

Well, I think I'm going to head to the (later time) Crave service now, since I missed the first service tonight.
I've been thinking about all of you back home a lot and I pray you're all doing well.
And thanks to my new friends who have discovered my blog and stopped by. You're great people.

Love and Blessings.

want some wheatgrass?

Hello family and friends!

Well, I hear you all (in Indiana at least) had a hotter day yesterday than we did! I think the weather has been one of my favorite things about being out here. It's been consistently perfect... none of those Indiana "high of 100, low of 50, chance of rain, chance of snow, good luck figuring out how to dress for the day" kind of forecasts. Actually it was funny because on Sunday it was a little more chilly here than usual. I of course didn't think anything of it and went to church wearing a sundress, but was totally comfortable. When I got there I had at least 3 people make comments to me along the lines of "Aww.. you must have forgotten your sweater today..." or "Aren't you freezing???"

The past couple nights I've been able to spend with Kelli and the gang. Last night we went over to one of the guys' house. His name is Brad and he was an intern last summer with them and they all go to APU together. So it was us three, Matt (another intern) and then two of their other friends. We made chocolate covered gummy bears (which taste better than you'd imagine), played some board games and card games, and enjoyed some hot tub and pool time. They like to play all of these trivia and word games which I always lose at and they make me feel very uneducated, but maybe I'll come back smarter! haha

Today at the office is was just one meeting after the next! We had our intern meeting in the morning. For our intern meetings we have a speaker come in to share with us. Today they brought in a pastor from the church. He talked with us and did some exercises to kind of give clarity to who we are as individuals in Christ and figuring out where our strengths and passions meet. There were four questions that he walked us through. 1)What do I love doing? 2)Who do I love impacting? 3)What needs do I love meeting? 4)How do I love impacting them? We had two volunteers that he talked through the questions with and then together they choose two words that more or less give clarity to their calling. He described the words as being a short phrase to where they should ignite your soul enough to get a conversation going with someone and allow for you to paint a picture of what God is doing through your life. To give an example, my friend Kelli was one of the volunteers who went today and her two words were "Restore connections." The other guy who went came out with the phrase "Inspire hope." I thought it was a great reflective exercise and our speaker invited us all to send him an email if we wanted to meet him later and go through it ourselves. I may just do that. If I do, I'll be sure to let you know what my two words are :)

My next meeting today was a lunch date with Kelli. It was nice being able to get to talk to her one-on-one. She's just great :)

Third meeting was staff meeting. We were assigned to new staff groups today which are just groups of about 6 to 8 people with staff and interns from all different departments within the church. Today our group leader read through a devotional on leadership and then we went around and shared praises and prayer requests. Side note: people keep asking me where I'm staying. When I tell them I'm living in a hotel they get really sad for me and all start questioning why the church wasn't able to provide me some form of housing. Great question haha. But I assure them all that it's not bad.

My final meeting of the day was interesting.. haha. A guy from the web department stopped into our office area and announced for all of us to go to the creative room because "It's time to have some fun." I had no idea what to expect... I thought maybe it was someone's birthday and we were going to have cupcakes? Wrong. They had these tiny little cups filled with wheatgrass, and also cups filled with apple juice. There were probably 20 of us in there and they made us all go around the table and take a drink of the wheatgrass and then follow it up with a drink of the apple juice.

...It tastes just as bad as it looks. But, they were right.. it was fun :)