Tammy Queen’s Blog

Sitting here on my deck eatin Kashi cereal for lunch. My feet propped up on the rails, listening to the birds and the crickets.  Life is good. It’s so peaceful, right now, despite the crazy whirlwind of events that is my life.

Yeah, and to prove that point,  just in the last 1 minute, both of my teenage children have invaded my peace and quite, came out here on the deck to fight over the remote (& their watching the same movie??)

Our annual Leadership Advance, Cori just got her drivers permit, new series at Twentyfour7, finishing a series at Stage20, “my children did WHAT?” 09 planning reports, mandates, Stage20 camping trip, Stage20 bonfire here at my house tonite. [deep breath….] Pastor Appreciation weekend, gotta hear week 2 of Popeye series [week 1 was “beast”], getting ready to go to Wave Conference, teachers conference’s…… i could go on and on.

I wouldn’t trade any of it , i love it all, but for now, i took the remote and muted my children and it’s quite and peaceful out here. [sigh]

see, i already have your attention.

i want to know, who is the marketing genius that thought that fluorescent lights were a good idea in women’s dressing rooms?

seriously, NO ONE looks good in fluorescent lighting. It magnifies flaws that you didn’t know you had. Girls, you know what i’m talking about. You go to try on a swimsuit, in the spring, when your skin hasn’t seen the sun in months and all the dressing rooms have fluorescent lighting! It makes all of us, NOT buy that swim suit.

i was tryin on clothes at the mall with my daughter the other night. the lighting just “washes you out” & i didn’t like anything i tried on.

Sorry guys, watch cartoons in your head, i know this is total chick stuff but it’s the truth.

artificial light= not forgiving, shows all your flaws, unflattering

natural, REAL light= shows the real you, the truth, forgiving

so you want to know what Victoria’s Secret is?

soft lighting in their dressing rooms! Victoria’s a genius. ladies look fabulous all because of the lighting.

I just saw the Pussycat Dolls sing that song “When i grow up” on tv just now. whether you like them or hate them, the song has a really catchy beat.   la! la! la! la!

anyway i was just thinkin, when i was little what did i want to be when i grow up? i remember writing a story in school about what i wanted to be and i remember what i wrote about.  I wanted to be a preacher like Sister Woods. (she was an evangelist that always came and ran revivals when i was growin up)

Me & my cousins played church, i preached and sang into my hairbrush and we put towels on our heads to pretend we had long hair so when we were “praisin the Lord” we could shake our hair, and leggs pantyhose came in plastic eggs and you can guess what we did with the eggs. (if you’ve heard the song, you’ll figure it out)

Now i’m all grown up, well for some who know me that might be a debatable statement but anyway, the song says,  “careful what you wish for, cause you just might get it”  well i’m doing exactly what i wanted.  I’m a Student Pastor at the best church in the world (Living Word), I have the best students and young adults in the world, and i certainly have the best team in the world to work with. Wow.

“Careful what you wish for cause you just might get it, you just might get, you just might get it….”

now the song is stuck in my head

Yea! We have a new magazine here at Living Word. It is really good and it’s not your typical church magazine. It’s all about testimonies and stories of the people that go to LW and how their lives are being changed. This first issue is special to me because it has my little (well he’s 6′2″) brother Jody Hollar’s story in it and all that he has overcome.

I remember him calling me one time before he came back to NC and said, “QUIT PRAYING FOR ME!” because the prayers of the people here at LW were so strong in his life.

It also has a story about on of my students who’s life has been completely transformed this year, Elisa Zayas.

They are looking for your story as well. All of us have a story of how LW has changed our life. What’s yours?

go to www.lwfc.org to leave your story. {forgive me that i’m not blogsmartenough yet to post a link}

fun fun

We had a great weekend at Vision Quest. It’s our yearly “camp” and this year we had it at Myrtle Beach Christian Retreat. Our theme was “The Power of A Changed Life” It was filled with powerful sessions & great praise & worship. Aaron taught the morning sessions (great job, by the way) and I taught the evening sessions. (We even had 5 students receive their prayer language) and I didn’t even teach on it and it wasn’t part of any of our sessions.

Then of course you throw in a 20ft tarp, 15 gallons of chocolate pudding, 4 liters of oil, 4 tubs of ocean water and you got yourself a Vision Quest slip & slide. Then add in a bucket full of frozen t-shirts and a sheet to pull all 5 of your teammates and you have a relay race that made dozens of tourists on the beach turn their chairs around from watching the ocean to watching our challenges.

We had birthday cake for 2 students, rocket balloons, pool parties, sand angels, wet sand fights, and lots of laughing. (roses ice cream

Aaron said it best and i’m coining this quote from him , “As LWFC Student Ministries, we work so hard to play”

And he’s so right but we love it. Thanks Rose, Brent and all the TA’s (trip assistants). And especially Aaron Brown, (the best Events TL & assistant ever) for doing such a great job, planning all the challenges and making it all happen.

Love you all.

Happy 4th of July! (last week) well i was in Costa Rica on the 4th. (fantastic trip) As a matter of fact for alot of the last 8 years I’m usually on a mission trip, out of the country on the 4th. I love missions. I love experiencing other cultures, the people, the food, taking them the gospel. I love it.

I also love America. I appreciate this country so much. What this country was founded on, the freedoms that we have in this country, its amazing. I try not to take for granted anything that i have here in America.

This country is saturated with all avenues of the gospel, we have tv, radio, Christian bookstores everywhere. A Bible in every hotel room & court room. We have several Bibles in our house, in lots of different translations. We really are a blessed nation. America funds about 85% of World Missions, i love this country.

And at the same time, any time i can leave it to go on a mission trip, i want to go. Anywhere, just send me. Missionaries are my heroes. I’m only a short-term missionary. The full-time missionaries are my celebrities.

I was talking to our partner in Costa Rica, Carlos. He and his wife Raisa have been full-time missionaries there for 17 years. Carlos is from Cuba. His dad is upset with him because the steps that Costa Rica is moving towards are the same thing that he escaped from in Cuba. His dad says, “I worked very hard and risked our lives to get you out of Cuba, and you want to go and live in a country that is trying to put you right back in the same situation”

Carlos realizes that what he is doing there means that people are coming to know Jesus and its worth the risk and sacrifice. That’s a true hero!

yeah i know, i haven’t posted in a while. too easy to say i’ve been too busy that would be an excuse.

excuse= the skin of a lie, stuffed with a reason.

so i try not to make excuses for anything, bottom line i haven’t taken the time to blog.

but i’m so excited about this week because if you know me at all, you know that i have two main passions: teenagers & missions and this week i get to take teenagers on a mission trip to COSTA RICA!!!!!

as soon as the weather gets warm and the days get longer, and i see the planes in the sky from RDU, i get the fever. Just put me on a plane and get me on the mission field. I don’t really care where you send me… but here i am! send me!

We are doing drama & personal evangelism in the streets of Heredia, Costa Rica. Our team has worked really hard and we are all still raising the money to go. It’s always tempting to “freak out” a little right before a mission trip when you haven’t gotten all of your funds in but i remind myself of what i always tell the students, “God ALWAYS equips those that He calls, He doesn’t always call those that are equipped” so i just have to trust Him and keep my eye on the goal.

It’s going to be an amazing trip.

This is the name of the sex & dating series that we are doing right now at Twentyfour7.

It’s been a great series so far, we’ve discussed breaking up, things that girls wished guys knew , things that guys wished girls knew and tonight we’re talking about some tough issues . Solo sex, porn, & homosexuality. The church either pretends this stuff doesn’t exist or they condemn so harshly that people are afraid to get help from us to deal with them.

If your a student an you want to leave me a comment on anything that i say tonight or you want me to pray for you concerning any of these things, i promise that i wont publish your comment.

I’m so glad that because of Christ that we can be free from anything that binds us.

wow does my brain hurt. I’ve been drinking from the firehose for the last few days. “Sex Ed”  & Connie Ainsworth has been with us since Wednesday.  Twentfour7, Parent Session, 3LWFC services, leadership session, Stage20, 8 restaurants, 2 malls, shopping with Connie, priceless stories, laughing so hard my sides hurt, great advise on Student Ministry, & on and on and on.

It’s been a great week!