jersey

it is very tricky for me to update both this blog and my work blog. i’m sure i’ve whined about this before. just reiterating.

so. the rescue was un.be.lieve.able. holy smokes. i attended the rescue in cincinnati, and we were rescued by bengals player, chinedum ndukwe. pretty sweet. then i stayed connected by following the live feed from the invisible children offices in san diego (and made some new friends — cameron and marcus) and got so excited, i decided to drive out to chicago, the last city standing. hundreds of people were there, i got to meet bobby bailey, one of the founders (!! i thought i was going to wet my pants!), and then sadly had to return to winona because of work. chicago was finally rescued, one week after camping out, by none other than oprah. they sang and danced to get her attention (who doesn’t love a musical?? watch the video here) and she brought them on her show LIVE!

incredible. we were making history. i love that i got to be a part of it. mmm.

in other news, since that time i’ve been in philadelphia, massachusetts, connecticut, and now new jersey. tomorrow i go home to start vacay before another glorious summer of operation barnabas starts.

i’ve been thinking a lot about mary  (the mother of Jesus)… i’m reading luke now, and i wonder how much she really understood when she was pregnant and as Jesus was growing up. i’m thinking and praying through these stories i’ve known since i was a little girl in a whole new way — i want them to be more than stories. i want the people to come alive, to be real people, to try to understand more of their thoughts and emotions… it’s very interesting. i don’t really have any insights into how she felt. just thinking.

fences.

“Good messages have good fences.”

Been thinking through this lately. Read more here.

we tweet

oh yeah, we’re both on twitter. check us out:

sarah or  stacie

don’t know what twitter is? well, get with the times!

new england continues

Last night we had dinner with the Skowronek family. Chris Skowronek is the pastor of Centerpoint Community Church up here in Connecticut (hmm, so many C’s…) We had a BLAST with their family last night, talking about how the church has grown and changed over the last several years, and about the vision that Chris and Lisa (his wife) have for the church. They are very community oriented and do all kinds of creative things to build relationships with the people of the town. 

Stacie & I both walked away from dinner feeling so encouraged and refreshed. Chris and his family are committed here for the long-haul: their area is predominately Catholic, and overcoming those barriers takes years and years. But they are willing to be faithful to these people, no matter how long it takes, all for the cause of Christ.

Tonight we go back to their house for some grilling out & trampoline action, and then we are meeting with the girls from their youth group. 

This New England tour has been more than we expected… we’re loving it. 

b.o.s.t.o.n.

So Stacie & I have been in New England for the last 3 days. We spent some time with Jack Brown (North Shore Bible Church, Essex, Massachusetts) talking about their church and how they are reaching people. I think my favorite part was going to lunch with him– he took us to a little sub shop in the same business complex as his church. He has obviously frequented this place: as soon as we walked in the door, Jack started talking and joking with every member of the staff. They talked and laughed for a few minutes, and it became evident that Jack has shared the gospel with these people on more than one occasion. 

It is so sweet to see ‘ministry people’ living what they teach. Seems like it should be obvious. Unfortunately, with lots of people, it’s not.

Thanks, Jack, for sharing the love of Jesus with the people around you.

(then we drove down to Boston and wandered the city. I saw where Paul Revere lived. We also offered to buy dinner for a homeless lady, who said yes, then mysteriously got angry and turned us down. It was very confusing. Always an adventure…)

oh the delay

sometimes i think ‘if the only performance indicator for my job was this blog, i’d be fired.’

sorry.

the highlight of the last few weeks has honestly been all the times we’ve spent with adults. youth staffs (is that a word?), parents, pastors, adults who really care … we’ve had a number of opportunities to lead discussions about discipleship with adults.

it’s.been.great.

we often say that you can get youth excited about anything. i’ll be honest, i’ve been a little cynical about the ‘older’ generation. i’ve wanted them to step up, to recognize the need for discipleship, and to make things happen. i just wasn’t sure if that would happen.

and i’m here to say: my mind is changing. i’m super excited about the conversations we’ve had. adults all over the place are echoing our very thoughts on discipleship, are asking good questions about discipleship, are wanting to understand it better so that they can disciple despite the fact that many of them have never been discipled.

maybe this is old news to you.

maybe now you think i’m just ‘one of those young people with a baditude about the old generation’.

i’m totally sincere — i am so refreshed and so encouraged. 

i believe God has something AMAZING in store. 

are you ready?