The Pursuit!

The Middle School Retreat (The Pursuit) was this past weekend in Sunset, South Carolina. We ended up taking 39 students and around 12 leaders. Our speaker for the week was one of Mike's good friends; Clint Wyllie. He flew in from Livingston, Texas to join us for the retreat and speak from God's Word. The theme for the weekend was: SPEAK. We learned from Jeremiah that God has formed us, set us aside for a specific purpose, and that God is always with us. What a powerful and relevant message for these kids!

We began the weekend with a 3 hour drive up through the mountains to Camp McCall. After the kids got settled in the dorms (dragging their leapherd printed suitcases up the hill) we had our first session in the chapel. It was a beautiful setting on the top of the mountain and the kids were excited to be there. Our first late night activity was called the "Russian KGB" where the leaders act like they have taken over camp, and the students must find clues to "destroy” them. Even in the middle of pouring down rain, we managed to get them excited about this late night camp adventure!! Leigh and I watched over the tiny innocent 6th grade girls who would scream at any sight of trouble. We had a great time running around camp with them and ended up getting 3rd place – They were very proud of themselves!

Saturday we woke up to a gorgeous day. It was filled with games, worship, 2 messages from Clint, the zipline, the pole climb, the human swingshot, and the high ropes course over the waterfall! The bright leaves were out in all their glory and the fall colors were simply unbelievable. Many of the students had never been in the mountains, and they really appreciated the beauty of the creation around us.

Romans 1:20 says
For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

Saturday evening was a challenging time for our students. Many were faced with the opportunity to make commitments to Lord; whether rededicating their lives or for the firs time. I personally had the privilege to pray with 3 girls who made a first time commitment to Christ. It was incredibly exciting as I watched their child-like faith come alive. I learned big lessons from them that night.

After spending some time in their life groups we had the traditional smore-making, hot chocolate drinking, camp song-singing fun around the camp fire. The night got colder and colder and not too many slept through the frigid night. Many were bundled in sweatshirts and blankets for our last session on Sunday morning and eagerly jumped on the warm bus for the ride home. Despite the conditions, however, I could tell their lives had been touched and that they have hopefully embraced the challenge to SPEAK in their schools and to be intentional about telling their friends about Jesus.

The word of the LORD came to me, saying,

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

"Ah, Sovereign LORD," I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am only a child."

But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD.

JEREMIAH 1:4-8

My beloved

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Beloved:
You're My Beloved
You're My Bride
To sing over you is My delight
Come away with Me My love

You're Beautiful to Me
So beautiful to Me

Under My mercy
Come and wait
Till we are standing face to face
I see no stain on you
My child

You're Beautiful to Me
So Beautiful to Me

I sing over you My song of peace
Cast all your *cares* down at My feet

Come and find your rest in Me

I'll breathe My life inside of you
I'll bear you up on eagle's wings
And hide you in the shadow of My strength
I'll take you to My quiet waters
I'll restore your soul
Come rest in Me and be made whole

You're My beloved
You're My Bride
To sing over you is my delight
Come away with me my love

Anchor of the soul.

“So when God desired to show more convincingly to^A)"> the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope^E)"> set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into^F)"> the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf,^H)"> having become a high priest forever…”

Hebrews 6:17-20

Birthdays!

This past wednesday was Mike's 24th birthday! It was so fun being able to celebrate for him as a married couple... but a little difficult to buy presents with the JOINT CHECKING! ah! It was actually a nightmere trying to be sneaky and had to give up some of my hopes of doing that well.... I gave hjm a new Buckyes Jersey and a brand new pink collared shirt from express. The BIG gift that i really wanted to get for him was a home theater system, but the store I went to only carried them online... I found that out the day before his birthday. SO i told him about it and let him decide something else he might want. He chose an itrip for the car so he can listen to sermons while driving around... and maybe i can borrow that too sometimes!!!

We actually did pull off a pretty decent surprise party for him for his birthday.... It was on the same night as middle school youth group so all the leaders brought him his favorite food and decorated with tons of balloons, which i spent all day blowing up....it was fun :)

My parents came to visit this weekend and it was my mom's birthday as well! We went out to eat in a cute diner downtown and it was a pleasant surprise... the food was AMAZING. :) We will go back! :)

We are looking forward to another crazy weekend coming up -- our middle school fall retreat! We will take lots of pictures, i'm sure! :)

Love, Sarah

Chicago Marathon

An inspiring message from an old professor of mine... Old as in previous, not as in elderly. :) He is an incredibly humble and inspiring man who loves people in a way that I can only hope to one day. He is a beautiful picture of how Christ teaches us to love people who are hurting and desperate. Check out his story:

I finished the Chicago Marathon! Ha! 26.2 miles. Astonishing. No one is more surprised than I that such a thing was possible.

OK, so its not the Nobel Peace Prize. If someone were to say “That’s nice, but come on. Its not that big a deal. 45,000 other people ran it too, right? A lot of people run marathons.” My response would be, “You don’t understand. Yes, a lot of other people ran it… but we are talking about me. We are talking about something becoming a reality for me. “

It is a humbling experience. I didn’t start at the front of the pack with the elite, world - class runners. No one chanted my name. I was way behind from the very beginning. The crowd was so big I didn’t even get across the starting line for 21 minutes . No motorcycles with camera guys riding backwards filmed me with continuous TV commentary. No one interviewed me before or after the race. If you want to be kind to me, remember that in the same way you don’t ask ladies their age, you don’t ask 55 year old men what their time was for a marathon. Its not good manners.

I’ll tell you though. 5 hrs, 30 min. Its not world class. Probably 80% of the field finished in front of me. But I finished.

I did it as a reminder to myself that people stuck poverty and life dominating issues feel as powerless to do anything about their circumstances as the average middle class person feels incapable of running a marathon. The typical middle class person knows other people run marathons. They just can’t imagine that they could do it. They imagine all of the hurdles and good reasons why it would not be possible for them to succeed. They fail before they even get to the starting line.

What they would need to succeed is what I had that enabled me to be a finisher in Chicago: people who believed in me, who worked with me and encouraged me over the long haul, who trained me how to run, who were personal role models, who weren’t judgmental when I was less than perfect but nevertheless held me accountable, who prayed for me. No one could do it for me, but these are the kinds of things that help people succeed, either in life or a marathon.

Its the same kind of support broken people need who are coming out of addictions, prostitution, and other life dominating sins. It’s the kind of support Changing Lives Now gives to folks who are wanting to come off of the street. They are helping losers in life to be winners. You may not see them on TV either, but God takes notice.

Which is the other reason I ran: You understand, of course, that it was not about the race. Not about me. And it certainly wasn’t about my finishing time.

Sunday’s marathon was about helping to raise the visibility of CLN and connecting them with people who believe in what they do so they can be a financial part of a ministry in the trenches that is giving people a hand up… not a hand out.

So – want to give a hand up? www.Changinglivesnow.org.

You can give online. Its tax deductible. They and I will be profoundly grateful.

Beauty.

I was looking through some of my pictures that I have taken over the past year or so to post on my photography site. One popped out at me that I remember taking but never really took the time to appreciate it. The hydrangea is my favorite flower. I love how incredibly tiny each petal is, but all gathered together they form one enormous burst of soft color. My parents tried to buy Mike and I huge arrangements of them for our wedding, but they were just going out of season. Maybe someday we'll just fill our yard with them instead... :)

Lil Green

What do you think? :)

House Hunting (cont)!

We put in several offers on the home that was mentioned a few posts ago, but we decided that it would have been a purchase out of emotion at the top of our budget -- not the best way to start out. So, we have begun again and we are very excited about another property we found. We are going to look at it today...lots of pictures to come!!

Love, Sarah