Rwanda

This Saturday my friend Whitney Schraw is heading to Rwanda Africa with a team of women from Mars Hill. She has already posted lots of great articles and team prayer requests on HER BLOG and will be posting stories and pictures when she gets back.

We'll be praying for you Whit!

Ironic

Why is it that I always try to find a parking spot close to the front door when I go to the Y...to work out? I am always disappointed when I have to walk really far to the door...eventhough I am about to walk for 5 minutes on a treadmill for my warmup?

80's Volunteer Appreciation

Check out this video that River Valley Church in Minnesota made to show how much they appreciate thier volunteers. I LOVE THIS! They truly captured the glory that was the 80's...Especially the shirtless drummer.

Thanks for finding this Dan!

Tide - Loads of Hope

I saw this yesterday and thought it was such a cool idea! I guess that in the aftermath of Katrina, Tide had a "mobile laudrymat" that drove around helping people get a "clean start" Now, they are partnering with another organization to help build 10 houses for 10 more families in need.

• The Tide CleanStart mobile laundry facility
  • Contains 32 high-efficiency washers and dryers
  • Can wash and dry approximately 10,000 free loads of laundry over a four week period
  • Can do about 300 wash and dry cycles a day — equal to one year's worth of laundry for a single family

How you can help:

Tide wants to help. So we've teamed up with The St. Bernard Project, a grassroots organization in the area, to help rebuild 10 houses for 10 families in New Orleans. To help fund this exciting effort, we've created Tide special-edition vintage tees - so you can contribute, too! For only $10, you can give "Loads of Hope" to these families.

The Tide special-edition vintage tees sport the traditional Tide bull's-eye on the front, with soft cotton fabric and a retro look. "Loads of Hope" is printed on the back, so you can keep the meaning of this shirt with you. To join this building effort, you can order online today. And stay tuned for more news on Tide's progress in St. Bernard Parish. Together we can help rebuild a neighborhood in need.

Ashlee's Baby Shower

We had a great time this weekend in Chicago. When we got to Bryan and Michelle's house on Friday night they were still without power, but ComEd told them it was going to be back on by 11pm. So we sat around playing cards by candlelight until 11:06. Bryan called ComEd and found out that they couldn't get the power back on until MONDAY!!

Saturday morning we got up, took some REALLY COLD showers and headed out to Naperville to Ashlee's uncle's house for the baby shower. There was power in Naperville, so we were happy. Ryan went golfing with his friends Aaron and Bryan and I got to hang out with my friends Michelle, Meg and Ashlee at Ashlee's baby shower.

Check out the fruity stroller that Michelle made! INCREDIBLE!

Late Saturday night the power came back on! Whew! Sunday we got to walk around our old stomping grounds in Riverside. The Desplaines river was seriously flooded during the storms on Thursday. Ashlee and Aaron's basement flooded with anonymous sewage (which I think is worse than when you know whose it is) There was a family canoeing in the park where Ryan and I used to lay on a blanket in the grass while he studied.

We had a great time with our friends - even without electricity!

Miss South Carolina

Really?

Chicago + Storms = Adventure

Ryan is awake after his post-call catch-up nap and we're on our way to Chicago for my friend Ashlee's baby shower! Apparenly 80/94 through Indiana is closed down due to flooding so we'll have to take an alternate route. Ashlee & Aaron's basement is flooded and there is no electricity at Bryan & Michelle's (where we are staying). To top it off, they're under some sort of "boil your water" ordinance. Should be quite an adventure! We'll be playing cards by candlelight.

You can't take it with you...

During my job search today, I came across this cool promotion that Zondervan is doing and got a kick out of it, so I thought I'd share it with you.

They're sending this car on a tour across the country to promote John Ortberg's just released book When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box. Nice.

More Info HERE

Why Not??

Food, Family, & Fanfare

Ryan has a few favorite things in his life, and it just so happened that two of those most favorite things collided on a single night, which will go down in history as one of Ryan's favorite nights of his life.

The Common Grill in Chelsea, MI has long been Ryan's absolute favorite restaurant. He wanted to go there to celebrate his graduation from Med School, but we weren't sure on how to get all 17 of us from Chicago to Chelsea for the event in the time allotted, so we celebrated his graduation at the Chew Chew Cafe, which was his 2nd all time favorite restaurant. It was wonderful, but this weekend while Ryan and I were at the Cottage with his parents, they treated us to dinner at the Common Grill.
While we were enjoying our dinner, a "living legend" walked through the door and sat down at the table beside ours. Being the Wolverine Fan that he is, Ryan nearly choked on his food when Lloyd Carr, the coach at UofM came near. I stood to my feet, pumped my fist in the air and loudly chanted "IRISH! IRISH! IRISH!"



...okay, I didn't do that...but I did get a great picture of Ryan's parents with Lloyd in the background.
Here's a closer look...for those of you sceptics in the viewing audience

The Office

Granger just started a new Series called "The Office" including a website where people are posting their office secrets and some great new billboards around town. These are just three of the eight designs.

P.S You have to watch the "My Cubicle" video that they showed at this weekend's services!

New Buffalo

Saturday morning Ryan and I met up with Michelle and Bryan in New Buffalo! Believe it or not, we had not seen them since they day they helped us move in! INSANITY! Needless to say, spending the day with them made us feel like everything was right with the world. Unknowingly, we showed up to discover that a festival was going on and that everyone and their brother was there. After grabbing a bite to eat at the Stray Dog, we went down to the beach and walked past the crowds all the way to the line on the beach where the private property began.
A few hours later the police began moving everyone from our 2/3rds of the beach into the last 1/3rd so they could "set up for fireworks." We walked back down the beach past the 2nd lifeguard chair and tried to find a spot of sand big enough for our towells. The mass of humanity was unbelievable. My feet were in the shade of the person's umbrella in front of us and my arm was nearly touching the blanket of the family beside us.

Michelle and I had quite an entertaining time watching Ryan and Bryan standing out in the water off the beach surrounded by people...gazing over at the mile of empty beach and water that was "off limits" for them.

We finished up the day with a glorious sunset - and then dinner at Redamak's...which is never good food, but you have to go...because Redamak's is "The Hamburger that made New Buffalo Famous"

Lunch with the Fam

Uncle Matt, Aunt Linda, My cousin Lauren, my cousin Phil and his girlfriend...also named Lauren came up for the Leadership Summit. These are some random shots from a rushed lunch we grabbed with Angela & John Boy during one of the breaks.

Lion Chaser @ New Community

Mark Batterson came to Granger on Thursday night to speak at the New Community Service. I think Mark is great, I've read his book (In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day) and I've heard him speak at a a couple of other conferences in the past...so I knew he would do a super job inspiring and challenging the Thursday night crowd.

Mark did not disappoint!

God is the Author - He is telling HIS stories through us! Are you living your life in a way that is worth telling stories about??

You can listen to Mark's Message from Thursday night HERE and read the Lion Chaser Manifesto below:

Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Keep seeking God. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences. Consider the lilies. Enjoy the journey. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Live like today is the first day and last day of your life. Don't let what's wrong with you keep you from worshipping what's right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze a new trail. Criticize by creating. Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks. Don't try to be who you're not. Be yourself. Laugh at yourself. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Quit running away. Chase the lion!

Marcus Buckingham - STRENGTH MOVEMENT

Maybe it's my lifestage, maybe it's the fact that I am looking for a job right now, maybe because I am trying to figure out how to be a world-changer and a wife, maybe because I want to spend my time doing things that matter...whatever the reason, Marcus Buckingham is one of my all time favorite speakers on the planet. He looks at everything differently, but doesn't complicate the shifts in thinking he is trying to help society make.

My friend Butch Whitmire took some AWESOME NOTES during this session, so I won't bother typing them all out. I'll just give you one thought:

I want to tilt my world so that I am one of the 12% of people who spend most of their days playing to their strengths. I am going to read this book, I am going to take the personality profile at www.strengthfinder.com and I am going to find myself a job in one of my top three strength areas. (I'm not exactly sure what my strengths are right now...which is why I am going to work on figuring that out.)

Leadership Summit - Carly Fiorina

To be completely honest, I had not heard of Carly Fiorina until now. She was the President and CEO of Hewlett-Packard until 2005 when she was "fired" for reasons that were not explained to her. They tried to get her to say the move was her idea, to make it look better for the media, but she wouldn't do it. I bought her book "Touch Choices" and will be posting more when I finish reading.

Favorite Quote: "Sometimes knowing the answer is less important than asking the right question."

COREY'S NOTES
BOBBY GRUENEWALD'S NOTES

My Friends Brooke & Ruby

Last week two fo my favorite friends came up to GR for a visit.
Brooke Curry is what some people would call a "SPARKLER" not only because she's got "bling" but also because she litterally sparkles with the love of Jesus to everyone she meets.
Ruby Moyer is leaving in a couple of days to serve in Mexico as a teacher for the next 10 months. Back2Back Ministries is the organization that she will be working with - and you can check out HER BLOG for updates from Mexico while she is away.

We hung out by Reeds Lake for the afternoon, had some lunch at Rose's and then headed over to Steve & Barry's to get BITTEN. (If you haven't been BITTEN yet, you need to get over there because Sarah Jessica Parker's new clothing line is quite fashionable, colorful and the best part is that everything is under $20!

Leadership Summit

Woo-Hoo! I'm on my way to Granger for the Leadership Summit! What an awesome event.
You can expect more blogging later this weekend.

Porn Debate

Last night I attended the Porn Debate in Grand Rapids with a bunch of my friends. There has been a lot of buzz surrounding this debate between Craig Gross who many refer to as the "porn pastor" from xxxchurch.com and Ron Jeremy, "King of Porn" who has been in the industry for 29 years. (He has multiple degrees, including a masters to teach special education.)

I wanted to be there to see it for myself, because I knew that it would not be an easy event to describe to someone who wasn't there...which I will try my best to do for you in this post.

The venue was PACKED! The line was out the door and down the street when we arrived. I couldn't tell by the crowd who was on the "pro porn" side and who was "anti" other than some guys with vulgar t-shirts and some others with "Jesus Loves Porn Stars" t-shirts it was hard to tell.
Once we got inside it was really dark, round tables, and standing room only in the back. The moderator introduced Craig and Ron (who was wearing a hawaiian shirt and some adidas pants) and the debate began. I was amazed by a few things.

1. Ron and Craig have an obvious mutual respect for one another, and a few times during the Q & A time they stood up for one another. (apparently they backed eachother up on Mancow a couple of mornings ago as well)


2. The crowd was invited to text their questions to the moderator during the debate. He would then read some of them aloud for Ron or Craig to answer.


3. The crowd seemed pretty close to equally divided and dozens of people stood, gave their names, and asked questions in front of everyone - I think that shows how important this topic is, and how people are seeking for truth. There were dozens more who still had their hands raised with questions at the end. I think we could have been there for a few more hours if the venue would have allowed.


4. The crowd also raised their hands when Ron would ask something like, "Who here has seen the porno __ ___ ____?" a bunch of people would rise their hands, then Craig would respond, "Who saw it before they were 18 years old?" and about half of the people who responded to the first question raised their hands again, then Ron would say they had bad parenting or something of that nature and everyone would laugh...


5. Ron and Craig are living on the bus together during this tour, which I think is pretty cool considering they could have two busses and just show up for the debates, but right now, these two guys are doing life together and I think Jesus would have done the same thing.


6. I was also amazed by the line of people wanting Ron Jeremy to autograph their videos and pictures afterward. The line was out the door.

So, there are 4 more cities where you can attend this debate live. You can also go on the website and subit your questions or follow along with the questions that are being texted in during the next 4 debates.

I am so impressed by the way God is working through and shining through Craig Gross. He was so wise with the words that he spoke, so thoughtful, so honest and real and transparent. Craig has committed his life to gtiving people a way out of the industry and out of the cycle of pornography. He needs prayers, he is right smack dab in the middle of serious warfare.

Awakening

Switchfoot's new video features Tony Hale, (Buster from Arrested Development) Pretty cool I'd say! Check it out!

We're Official!

Today we went to the license branch and made our Michigander Status official! I was AMAZED at how smoothly everything went...because going to the License Branch in Chicago was pretty much one of the biggest nightmares of my entire existance!

Ryan had the morning off, which worked out perfectly! Our vehicles are now sporting the beautiful "Spectactular Peninsula" plates.

We can live, drive, vote, and even donate our organs now! Yippee!!

Grill Out Reunion

This Thursday I had more people in out little apartment than ever before! A bunch of our friends from HOPE were in town for a wedding, so we had a little reunion grill-out! Noel got some golf-lessons before dinner.

Faye made some of her famous pies.

All in all it was so much fun to see everyone and for Ryan to get to hang out with the guys that he lived with in college. We have been blessed by incredible friendships!

LOVED IT!