Love Brightly

When 800+ college students venture into the inner-city of Ft. Worth, lives are changed, and people notice! Check out the article in the Ft. Worth Star Telegram about our efforts during the Day of Outreach at our annual Winter Conference--held for the first time in downtown Ft. Worth. Because we ministered to refugees, we were not permitted to take any photos during our outreach.  The people to whom we ministered were forced out of their countries and identities and information is kept confidential.  Many did not speak English well, but all felt the love of God's people as we provided them and their children with necessities.  It was a privilege to see their demeanors transform from timid and untrusting , to warm and grateful. "And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me'."  Matthew 25:40

Christmas morning--matching pj's.  First Christmas! (Can't believe she'll turn one in less than a month). First curls.  

Before I describe our failures, let me explain that ever since Hampton Beach Summer Project 2007, we use the word "failure" not in a demeaning manor, not a beat-yourself-up-about-it-way, but just an accurate laugh-at-yourself-way of realizing something didn't go as planned.  This lingo (that morphed on that summer project) is a pretty common phrase around here.  Karl and his good friend Andy sometimes stack on the "failures"... "That was like 15 failures at once!", they'll laugh.  And sometimes they tack on a "bee-sting" at the end..."20 failures and a bee-sting!"  Now, I don't remember what a "bee-sting" is or how you measure when one has occurred, but I think it's a pretty significant blunder.  So maybe a better title for my post would be "Holiday Bee-Stings."  :) First failure = our gifts to others.  We decided to be creative and thrifty this year by ordering trees from the Arbor Foundation. ...

Here's a slideshow that supports our cause.  We'll also post a permanent link at left.

Since our apartment in Orlando provided quite a bit of furniture, when we moved to Texas, we needed to get a master bed, a toddler bed, and seating for two living areas.   My parents generously provided the beds for us, and we planned to buy living room furniture with the money we earned from our garage sale.   I really wanted a couch at IKEA, and our hope was to earn enough to buy that couch and some used pieces from craigslist.   However, our garage sale cash totaled only enough to buy the IKEA couch and nothing else.   A little down-hearted, we resolved to look for all our furniture at bargain places.   After being stood-up from some Craig’s List folks, we decided to shop some Estate Sales one weekend when the girls were at my parents’ house. The third sale we happened upon that morning turned out to be the home of Dr. David McKinley , the associate teaching pastor at our church!   We had never met him, but had just seen him from afar and on the big screen.   It was even a few ...

After a Labor Day morning at the park with friends, we headed to Chick-Fil-A, which gave a free pack of chicken strips to any person wearing apparel that supported their favorite football team.  The baby scored for us an extra pack, and she scored for herself the empty fries carton while we posed for this pic .  Gig'Em Aggies!  Join us for Chipotle "Free Burrito Day" on Halloween. :)

We have returned to the Dallas area after a year at the World Headquarters for Campus Crusade for Christ. We had a wonderful experience on the Lake Hart Stint--the one year program tooled to advance our spiritual, personal, and leadership development, as well as exposing us to the behind-the-scenes duties that keep our ministry running. The perks, such as living in an apartment community with 40 other staff families, having FREE DisneyWorld passes, and learning directly from our national directors, has refueled us for campus ministry. We are energized and ready to jump into the fall semester at a new campus assignment--D/FW Metro. Bigger scope (60+ campuses), bigger challenges, but we're excited about this next phase of ministry that the Lord has prepared for us!