all work and no play

A while back my friend Tory posted an email about getting to jump rope at work. I to have had that experience. All the girls laughed at my because I couldn't do it. But yesterday we showed up at work to help dig/move some dirt out in the front lawn. We took out part of our parking lot to make for more lawn play area. Some people are coming back to finish the project this weekend but we needed to clean up a little. We were marking tools to be used this weekend and we went in the basement of the Lazarus House (which is now being affectionately called 'The Department Store' because we have so much stored... many old old bikes, a variety of old broken or out dated unhook up able appliances... some were collected by Ron and are worth money and other things donated). I must rant for a moment totally off subject. Why do people feel they can donate broken and very out dated items to ministries. We are supposed to be giving out first fruit to God not our beat up worthless broken crap. This has been bothering me lately. I am not saying don't donate or only donate new things but please don't donate clearly crap things please take them to the dump yourself.

Just as I got distracted by my thoughts yesterday we got distracted by some scooters we found. There were 4 of them and there were 4 of us at work yesterday. Who gets scooter around their place of business and around the block. I do, I do! Here are some pictures for your enjoyment...
Don't be jealous because I have the coolest job ever!
The Boss and his wife (Ron and Donna)


Ron Scootering

culture shock

Every once and awhile I am struck again with culture shock. I have not traveled 1000 miles away but I have been sucked into the christian world and when I come too I have culture shock. This may seem odd as I work in the inner city and one would think that I am cultured enough. The temptation to live in a bubble is so attractive to me and be naive to this world is so comfortable.

I will share with you a couple of instances in this past week that have caused me much shock...

The first was last Wednesday evening. I was at Outback doing my one shift a week and a guy about my age made a horribly crass sexual joke to his girlfriend (both employees). He then proceeded to follow it by a hand motion he laughed and walked away as if it was nothing. She did too in a sense. The male wants to be a manager he has gone through some training for it. Throughout the course of the night he sat around and watched others working as if he was too good to do a particular job. Both of us managers who were on duty wrote comments in the book. But I was caught off guard that this is the world I live in were crude and crass joking is simply okay, where laziness is a part of life and entitlement is a given (I don't have to do x or y because I am above that).

The following day Thursday last week there was a shooting about 3 blocks from where I work and about a 1/2 mile form my house. Not only was there this murder at 6:45pm on a Thursday in late Oct. But there were about 6 or 7 other reports prior to the murder of gun shots both on the north and south side of Racine and a fire. There was so much activity we had to call in surrounding communities to help with police enforcement, even the state patrol. The fact that the shooting was so early in the evening on a Thursday night means that the fighting is not over and causes red flags. Most crimes like this happen later and on the weekends and summer is a hot time because it is warmer. This shooting has affected the community we work with because we all got comfortable because things were starting to get better and now we must be on guard again. We do not even know the ramifications of this murder yet. We are doing wRap Kidz this week because of teachers convention and people don't feel safe so kids may not be allowed to come.

Then yesterday I was watching Oprah, as I do once and awhile, she had amazing moms on the show the contrast between the women was jaw dropping. They were women form all over the world, one was from Alaska were the milk she buys is $7.49 a gallon because it has to be flown in daily. The cost of living is so high because of there location. Another women in Norway gets a year off for maturity leave and can be spilt between husband and wife, free health care for the child for the first 7 years, and 10 days each (husband and wife) paid to use if there child is sick a year. And spanking is illegal. Norway is rated the best place to live to raise a family. Then we moved to Africa on woman had 10 children and worked as a transporter she carried things for people she carried 2 item the day they followed her and she made 65 cents. And she carried 100 pounds of beans a couple miles and a mattress piece about 2 miles. She fed 10 children on her makings for the day. She has also managed to put her 4 oldest children through primary school about 25 cents a day! The contrast is more than I can comprehend.

I feel like there was another story or incident that had grabbed my attention over the last week but I can not think of it. It is not that I think these issues don't exist or am naive to what is going on. When there are so many different circumstances happening in such a short time, my heart began to feel so heavy. I just want to fly away some days...take me know Lord. But I know that He has sent us into this world to be a light in the darkness and a voice for the injustice for His glory alone.

I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. John 17:14-23

(good)Will's

I went to Wills this weekend. I found 2 pair of pants and 2 tops. Over all it was a good experience. I am still getting over the feeling of grossness about the clothing but I am getting there. Thanks for all who were an encouragement to me about going.

I really have not much else to say. On the ministry front, we have 2 groups coming in that is keeping me quite busy. I am coordinating them and the schedules and getting ready for what kind of training we need to do with them. I am also making much progress on the curriculum front, it is a lot of fun. Who knew writing curriculum would be fun, I feel like God is bringing together many experiences in 2 different camps and doing Jr. high. Some times in those places you are like what am I doing here and now I am like, "ah, I didn't realize I learned this at camp, but it is so useful now."

P.s. Sorry to those of you who had a heartattack from my last blog, as I was writing I couldn't help myself it was prefect.

found it!

Well I have found it, the place I am getting married. The place is a glass house in Plane, IL. Probably only in my dreams but that is where I am going to live for a moment.

So the story goes like this...
For my birthday a couple months ago Marks parents gave me $50. This money was to do something nice for Mark and I. I kind of forgot about it and a couple weeks later Mark says to me "where is that money from my parents?" "In the bank about to be spent on bills." I replied. We then got in the car and withdrew the money because he was like that money is for us. Then he told me he had a plan for the cash. I was like okay, I kind of wanted to get my hair done or something to be honest. But I was kind of excited about a surprise from my boyfriend.

He told me it had to do with fall leaves changing and it was 2.5 hours away, so it would be a day trip. Alright, we began to try to fit it into our schedules (this month is CRAZY), it was not working so we were going to let it go and if it worked it worked and if not, we have a lifetime to do this thing. Thursday Mark had a very bad day, He said I need a break maybe we could spend our $50 tomorrow. It was about 1:30pm in the afternoon and you needed to pre-register for tickets. He took care of all the details and it was a go.

He told he wanted 10 guess of where we were going. I had not clue, I couldn't even guess. In the morning he called and told me that we would be outside a little and inside a little and that my shoes would be on and off and he still wanted guess'. My only guess with the shoe clue was a special kind of Chuckie Cheese (because you take you shoes off to play). This is how clueless I was. I am okay with surprises Mark doesn't think so, but I like them they make me feel wonderful, special, and warm and fuzzy inside.

So we are off it is 8:50am Friday morning. Mark got directions and we still had to turn around a couple of times because when there are corn fields as far as you can see in all four directions, my internal compass is broken. We made it on time for our 12 noon tour. We pulled into a visitor center that looks like a white barnesk building, I still had no clue. I knew the name now but it didn't ring a bell, The Farnsworth House. We looked at books in the gift shop and I now knew the building we were going to tour and I was excited and Mark was ecstatic.

We walked along a path in the woods for about 6 minuets and then came to a clearing and there stood the most beautiful house ever!


A glass house! Oh my word it was so amazing. It stand 5'3'' off the ground because it is on a flood plane. There is a river right behind where this picture is taken. The grounds are beautiful as well. I had seen a picture of this house and thought it looked cool, but in person it is breath taking. Our tour guide was really good as well. We like to tour homes, most tour guides (docents) are kind of arrogant and stuffy. This guy was very casual and real and he acknowledged us, which is a first because we are usually the youngest by about 20+ years so no one talks to us. The house was designed by Mies van der Rohe for a single women. It was a weekend home very minimalistic. It is floor to ceiling glass walls, 22 panes in all. They are connected by white steal beams. As we are on the tour he is telling us about the house and different things and then he says and people can rent it out for weddings! My heart sank and I was like yup that's me, this is the place. And then Mark got down on... Just kidding!

It was a great day. We had a good time together. The house is breath taking. And the fall leaves make it even more remarkable.

This is a view from the back. It was a wonderful day.

One more detail, on the way home we still had $10 left from the day and we had a pumpkin carving bonfire to go to last night. So we stopped along the side of the road at this little pumpkin place and picked our own pumpkins. They were really nice ones too. We each got 2 pumpkins for $10. I will get more pictures up when we get them developed. Mark took a bunch of pictures of the house too. For more pictures of the house or information about it you can go to: http://www.farnsworthhouse.org/


pictures are from flickr.com

warfare

Today there were reports of N. Korea testing nuclear warfare. This weekend we as a staff experienced spiritual warfare. This is not the first time for this experience and it was not the worst but it made us take a look at it again. It was a good reminder that what we are doing is so much bigger than we are and that we are up against a spiritual battle.

We had a wRap Kidz buddiez event this weekend, our first of this season. We had a handful of buddiez there and the kids that came had a blast and had a ton of one on one attention which is amazing. We will not call this event a failure because of the warfare we experienced. We communicated to our buddiez the importance of their commitment and the details for this event. We were faced on Saturday hours before the event with questions of where we were meeting and some buddiez failed to bring lunch for their kids which was asked of them.

As we talked on Saturday and have had Sunday to cool down and think about our frustrations I know that some of what we experienced is because of the age of some buddiez, the result of volunteers, and some spiritual warfare. We realize that some of our buddiez are too young and the responsibility and the drama of high school can get in the way. We do also see the spiritual aspect of this being much greater. In this mentor program we see some troubled kids blossom and calm down and other kids become really serious about Christ. This is the way lives will be changed, we know that wRap Kidz is effective in reaching kids and turning the soil and planting seeds but it is in the one on one relationships that can only come from relationships like these that will truly cause the lives of these kids and eventually the community to change. This is the same with church activities and youth leaders pouring into kids or small groups.

Satan attacked in so many ways, we felt defeated as a staff (which we soon realized and were victorious in Christ), our buddiez were defeated through failed commitments, life distractions and circumstances, and the kids lost out big time. We again came back and concluded that we need to pray more. We communicated clearly and did as much as we could without holding hands, but we failed to pray enough for our volunteers and the kids.

We have groups coming in to serve in a few weeks we are so excited about them. One is a junior high group who has never been here before and are going to get there feet wet and the other is veteran senior high group who encourages us so much each time they come. We need to cover them in prayer for their hearts and the ways they will be serving. We can only be victorious in Christ and His power.

I guess as many of you ask how you can pray for me and us as a staff, this is how. We need prayer to not be defeated in the things God is asking us too and that the people God wants to serve and give to this ministry are not defeated in the things God is asking them to do.

You saved $9.20

These are my most favorite words to hear these days. Many adjustments have been made since living on my own. The best piece of mail I receive each week is the Pick n Save flyer. I love the 10 for $10 not that I ever would need 250 freezie pops but 25 are only a $1. Or 10 boxes of microwave popcorn, not that I wouldn’t love that. Mark has joked about getting the Sunday paper simply for the coupons. He has saved over the cost of the Sunday Journal Times when he has used coupons. Secretly I want it, too! And Wednesday are double coupons days at Pick n Save. $$$ Other deals at Pick n Save are pretty swell too, lots of BOGO’s on good things. My Shopping list for the most part is made up of BOGO’s or 10 for 10 deals.

I love this, lest you think I am suffering for having to work so diligently to save money. I don’t feel as if I am penny pinching, I am simply being practical and I feel wise with the money God blesses me with. I have made a commitment every time God blesses me with money I get something special for myself, something I wouldn’t normally buy. One time I got Claussen Pickles (these are my favorite) and this past week, after anonymously receiving $100 from someone, I purchased frozen single serve Cinnamon Rolls ready to eat in 60 seconds. I am excited about these.

My latest and greatest deal thus far was yesterday. In the weekly advertisement was 32oz. Tres`eme Shampoo for $1.89 each. What a steal! I got 2 shampoos and 2 conditioners for $7.95, I saved $9.20. Amazing. Earlier this summer in an attempt to save I went to Sam’s and got big bottles for $6 each, I thought I was saving. Yesterday I got twice as much for $4 cheaper. Jackpot!

I know these things seem silly and could maybe give me an ulcer, but I love it I feel so rich and privileged. I have said before that “I feel as if I live in a condo on the lake.” I don’t, but I love my apartment and truly feel it is a gift from God. I still sit in awe at how cheap it is for me and how beautiful and nice it is. You may not feel that way when you walk in my door, but I love it, love it, love it!

I have been praying lately that God would help me be okay with Goodwill and Rummage sales. Not that everything I wear or own should or will come from these places. It is not that I want to shop at Pottery Barn or Macy’s but I kind of think they are gross to be honest. I used to feel like it was like wearing someone else’s underwear. I have no idea what that is like but I can imagine it is GROSS. God is helping me be content with it being gross and He is helping me to be content with those means of getting clothing and ‘things’. I was always jealous of people who could say, “Goodwill $3.00” or “Rummage 50 cents”, and it was a nice leather jacket or cute pair of jeans. I know that God desires for me to treat myself once and a while, He is not into pity parties by any means. But being thrifty is being wise, too.

I asked my friend Michelle to go with me next time I have a little money and help me find the good things at Wills (aka Goodwill). I am getting excited about this adventure and I am still praying God would help me get over my grossness fetish.