Here is the information to sign-up online for the 2011 Illinois Marathon Hydration Station @ mile 19.1 and below are a few details on what will happen race day. Volunteers receive a t-shirt, a string bag and a chance to serve our community and visitors from all over the country.
It’s quick and easy, just click this link: Illinois Marathon Volunteer Sign-up, select “Grace Community Church” for the Group Name, and enter the password: findinggrace11
You will be asked to fill out a form, including shirt size, and that’s it! You will receive a confirmation e-mail after signing up. Everyone needs to sign up individually, this lets the marathon organizers know that our Hydration Station will be fully staffed and makes sure you get a t-shirt in the correct size : )
Some details…
The Illinois Marathon is Saturday April 30th, 2011. Grace Community Church volunteers set up and work the Hydration Station at mile 19.1. Our job is to hand out cups of Gatorade, bottled water and cheer and encourage the runners - as loud as we can! We are at the same site as last year, the northwest corner of the Kirby & Duncan intersection. The full marathon starts a half hour earlier than last year. We should see our first runner at 8:40-8:45 and the last one somewhere around 11:45. The crazy busy time will be about 9:15-10:45 and we should be cleaned up and done by 12:30. If your schedule is tight and you are able to help during the busy time (9:15-10:45), that would be great. We will need some people to come early to setup (scaffolding, sound system, tables, mix Gatorade, etc), so let me know if you can do this (~7:30am).
If you have any questions, let me know. That’s about it. Sign-up, it will be a blast!!
Yesterday, Grace Community Church began a 21 day fast. As a church, and as the individuals that make up the church, we want to seek God whole-heartedly to start off 2011. It has been so encouraging to see so many people in our church making that commitment to spend 21 days praying and fasting. There are some who are doing the Daniel Fast, others are fasting from Technology, and even others are fasting from the things in their life that divide their heart from God. Even those who are not participating in the fast are examining their lives and making changes to seek God. This is a HUGE deal!
God we ask that You would move in our lives, our church, our community in big and mighty ways. God we seek You first and ask that Your glory would shine all around us. Bless us with Your presence…
Join us at Grace Community to begin the year seeking God and His vision for 2011. Click the link for our 21 Day Fast Facebook event to join the conversation and follow us on our journey.
Or maybe I should say, “I believe in St. Nicholas.”
Last night my children and I watched the Veggie Tales movie “Saint Nicholas”, the story of the patron saint of sailors who is credited as the inspiration for the Western tradition of Santa Claus. In the show they gave an account of his life and his belief in giving in secret. It was interesting to watch my kids trying to process what they were watching with what they believe about Santa. I could see their minds going. My oldest asked me “But Santa is real, right?” and I answered him by saying that St. Nicholas was a real man who lived a long time ago, but after Christ. And left it at that.
I love to give. I love to especially give gifts that are thought out and unexpected and that fill a need. No, not all the gifts I give are necessarily “practical”. At some point during the Veggie Tales show I said, “it sure looks like fun to give in secret”. Hum, another thing for my three to think about!
God has made me with a servant’s heart and a big part of that is gifting others with the time and talents that I was born with. I think that may be why I identify with Santa so much. I want to live my life showing God’s love for others through giving and gifting what I can, but I don’t want any recognition for it, I’d love to have a sleigh and 8 magical reindeer to take be from house to house each night of the year to deliver food, clothing, money, toys, notes of encouragement, water purifiers, compliments, oh, and chocolate!
But since I have not found those reindeer, I will just do what I can where I am. And I try to be open about giving with my kids. Sometimes by very carefully explaining to them what I am doing or more often than not, taking them with me and not saying anything until a question is asked like, “I’m hungry mom, why are we taking them dinner?” My kids are learning and observing everything. One day they will understand that there really is not a man living at the North Pole, but hopefully by then, they will understand more the joy of giving as demonstrated by their heavenly father so many Christmases ago.
May you all bring a little St. Nick to those in need of love. I pray for a warm and healthy Christmas for you all! Merry Christmas!
This has been a great Christmas season for me as we’ve been engaging in the Advent Conspiracy. It has been refreshing for me to regain focus on the magnitude of what it means for God to come to earth as a human so that we could be redeemed and have connection with him. That amazing love changes everything about how I love my family, my friends, and everyone around me. It changes how I give and how I receive. I pray that we would all be overwhelmed this Christmas as we see God’s love that came for us so long ago and continues to pour over us today. I pray that same love will flow out of us to the hurting around us and change everything.
Next Sunday marks the beginning of Advent. I am particularly excited about Advent this year because at Grace we will be observing advent through the lens of Advent Conspiracy.
Christmas is a time when we celebrate when Jesus came into the world. God sent Jesus to earth…and everything changed. At Grace we are partnering with Advent Conspiracy because we believe that Christmas can still change the world. Taking part in Advent Conspiracy is making choices to celebrate Christmas by spending less, giving more, worshipping fully and loving all.
Christmas is my favorite time of the year. I look forward to it (and am already enjoying Christmas music and those cheesy movies on the Hallmark channel) all year long. Despite my love for this season, the last several years it has become more and more about giving/receiving and less and less about celebrating God’s Son who was sent to this earth as a baby to give us hope and abundant life. My goal this year is to make small changes that will make a big impact. I want to live like Jesus and love like Jesus this holiday season. The key word that I am using is, “Intentional.” Gift giving will be intentional. Less about presents and more about presence. How can I give my time/talent/resources? How can God use me in the life of a neighbor/friend/co-worker? It has been an eye-opening experience to begin paying attention to the needs of those around me. Maybe the biggest gift in someone’s life is not that hat they will never wear, but a cup of coffee and conversation? I am sure that I will buy a couple of gifts for people this year, but when I do…I want to be intentional.
Advent Conspiracy is bigger than just saving money! Our lives have been forever changed by a baby in a manger. During this Holiday season, we should be living in a way that reflects that change.
What does God want to show us this Christmas? What if this Christmas our family traditions helped change the world?
The last two days as I’ve opened my browser a very intriguing thing has been happening. Yesterday a site that normally has lots of various information had a simple full page white background and the line “Tomorrow is just another day” faded in with simple black letters followed by another line fading in saying “you’ll never forget.” That was it. I was excited but I didn’t know why. Something was going to happen the next day that I would never forget and I should be excited about it! As I opened my browser this morning the same simple white background had a black and white photo of four very famous rockstars and the announcement in that same simple text “The Beatles. Now on iTunes.” BAM! (I added the bam) You were struck by the simple statement presented as a plain fact that your world has changed because you could now purchase music through iTunes made by this band.
I have nothing against the “Fab 4″ and enjoy a lot of their music but I don’t know if I could call myself a Beatlemaniac. However, I was side-tracked before I could navigate away from that page and the longer those four stood there staring at me, telling me how excited I should be, I got a little giddy, even texted a couple of friends about the announcement. How amazing is it that a simple message like this would change my behavior with such seemingly little effort. This lead me to wonder, how many messages do I change for every day and don’t even realize?
Proverbs 5:1-6 shows a warning of a parent to their child to “observe discretion” because “the lips of an adulteress drip honey and smoother than oil is her speech; but in the end she is bitter as wormwood”. Couldn’t the same be said about the world today? We have so many smooth and sweet messages that seem so right, but in the end don’t really fulfill us at all and in fact sometimes can lead us to very harmful decisions. So what do we do? Proverbs would say to seek wisdom, gain understanding, and guard our hearts. The great thing about messages is that when we listen to the right source, we find life. I love the picture in Isaiah 30:21 as the prophet tells the people, “Your ears will hear a word behind you saying, ‘this is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right or to the left.”
Advent. According to Merriam-Webster ‘Advent is the period beginning four Sundays before Christmas and observed by some Christians as a season of prayer’. To me Advent is a time of preparation for the celebration of Christ’s birth.
I have always loved Advent ever since I was a small child and my father introduced my brother and I to the Advent calendar. My Dad always had one for us (ok, probably my Mom was the one to bring it home from the store) and it always had the biblical verses on the inside of those tiny little doors. I remember the excitement and anticipation I always felt running into the kitchen each morning hoping it was my turn to open the day’s door. For anyone who may not be familure with what an Advent calendar is, the easiest definition is a count-down calendar to Christmas. With fun doors to open each day. According to Ace Collins in his book, “Stories Behind The Great Traditions of Christmas”, Germans are to be credited with starting the idea of the Advent calendar. Collins writes in his book that over 2 centuries ago one could find in many German homes and Advent wreath, or a simple wreath made of pine boughs, and from it would be 24 little bags with some sort of sweet in it. One to open and eat each day until Christmas. This evolved and by 1908 a man named Gerhard Lang, who happened to be a partner in a printing firm, started to print calendars with little windows or doors to be opened each day until Christmas. This was an expanded version of a calendar his mother had made where she prenumbered a board and hung a piece of candy for each day. Mothers have some great ideas, don’t we?
Today you can find them with almost anything behind the door, from winter pictures to chocolates, Legos to My Little Ponies. But each year I try to check in with my Dad to make sure that he has one with the bible verses. I try to make sure he has it in time for December first to roll around. This year I have been making Advent calendars for family members and friends. And yes, the one for my Dad has the bible verses *and some surprise chocolate*. The calendar is not hard to make. If you are interested in making one for your family just respond to this post and I’ll get you some directions! I hope you’ll consider making this a holiday tradition for your family.
This week as I have been thinking of all the things I am thankful for, among them I am very thankful that my parents started this tradition in our family. Thanks Mom & Dad!
I’m so blessed to have such a wonderful wife who encourages me and builds my faith. As we’ve been really seeking God’s wisdom and direction in our life I asked her to pray for me that I would not feel overwhelmed and that God would give us clarity and vision. She shared this verse with me and I want to share it with you as an encouragement to your faith that God has not left us without hope or guidance but has given us His spirit as a source of strength, faith, and direction.
2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear - Isaiah 11:2-3
Whatever you are facing in life now, I pray that you would find encouragement, faith, wisdom, and boldness to live from the Spirit of the Lord.
There has been a spirit of fear in our house. Our kids have not been able to explain to us what they are fearful of but neither of our older children ever want to go down to our lower level by themselves. My husband and I believe that this developed after our lower level flooded. Twice. In 11 months. The stress of this time and the uncertainty of weather or not it will happen again may have something to do with the timidity they both have about being alone down there. We have had several conversations about it being ok to be down there alone, they know where the light switches are and they are not alone because there are other people in the house. I don’t like knowing my kids harbor this fear. And with another incident calling out this fear this evening I decided I’d had enough and we needed to equip our kids with the knowledge that they don’t need to fear.
So I turned to 2 Timothy 1:7 “ For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, of love and of self‑discipline. ” The boys and I repeated this verse a few times and discussed what it meant and how each of us can carry this verse to help us when we are fearful. I wrote out the verse on index cards for each boy and one for my husband and I to have hanging in the kitchen. Tomorrow we are going to have each boy write on the back what the verse means to them and start a book of the verses that they are memorizing for Life Kids and ones that I have been assigning them to help us through life events.
As I think about this verse I can imagine it coming up again at other times when my family may hold fear closer than the spirit of power and self-discipline that God has given us. In fact, I am sure I will need to repeat it a lot during their teen years!
All week I have been planning on how to implant the boys’ memory verse into their minds and hearts. I had great intentions. So last night I brought the subject up with my 8 yr old and the conversation went something like this: Me- “Do you remember any of your memory verse from church?” Him - “no” Me - “you know it starts with ‘Though one…” Him - nothing, as in radio silence, no utterance or obvious realization that I was still talking to him. Ok, that is not how I pictured this going, how am I going to get his attention? I had no idea, until this morning. I got up a bit earlier then everyone else and sat thinking and praying on the couch and God whispered to me “make good on your good intentions”. When my 8 yr old came out and sat down on the couch by my feet I asked him if he remembered the verse and again he said no. But this time in the quiet I was able to capture that moment and not only help him realize that he did indeed remember it and praise him for doing so, but I got to then go on and talk with him about how to apply the verse to his every day life. In the time we were talking my 6 yr old got up and when my older son and I couldn’t remember a part of the verse we asked my younger son if he remembered and then praise him for his help and great memory. All three of us discussed how we can apply the verse to our lives. What a blessed way to start the day!
Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. Ecclesiastes 4:12
