Last Night--My Version

It was a great night of friends and fellowship. Watching everyone having so much fun and being a part of it was exciting. And there were so many different ones to watch, those that laughed hilariously, those that seemed nervous to try something new, and even those who were a pro at it. It was a great time of reaching out to those in our neighborhood and letting them see what our church is all about. And if by now you are thinking "I didn't see Greta at the auction." your are quite right. I wasn't there. So where was I, you wonder ...

What do starry nights, snow covered hills, 90+ leaders and neighborhood kids, and a rushing wind all have in common? An extremely fun night sledding at Pando. I have never been there and I had more fun watching and participating in a great event. Those hills at Pando are an adventure in thrills, spills, and chills. The first time I went down, going by myself, I ended up going backwards. I screamed the whole way. It was so much fun! Oops, near the bottom of the hill I ran into a middle school age child (not from our group) and helplessly watched him go flying. A very scary moment when I finally stopped and looked back to see him/her (it's hard to tell when it is dark and they are bundled up) lying in the middle of the run. I started walking back up the run to check on him/her, when the child just got up and started walking back to the starting point. Whewww, what a relief they weren't hurt! And thank God.

As I was going up the towrope to the top of the hill I was able to lie back on my tube and look into the darkened sky. Wow, the stars you can see when there are no street lights to illuminate the area. God has created a beautiful palette of contrasting color-OK, close your eyes, put on a cd of soft nature sounds and envision this scenario; a very black backdrop with a large scattering of diamonds thrown across it. Surrounding the very edges are the tiptop bare white branches of the nearby trees. Poking through every once in a while is a dot of red-a satellite or a planet. Now open your eyes and thank God that you have a mind to be able to envision that, because that is what it was like riding to the top of the hill.

Going down the hill, at who knows what speed, feeling the rush of very cold air in your face was exhilarating. The need for speed, of the safest kind, fulfilled. The laughter and screams as people took tumbles, flew over the bumps, or just plain had fun was just what I needed. The cold air; nipping at our noses, and painting our cheeks a rosy red, reminding me to be thankful for warm clothes, cars, and houses.

After two and a half hours of sledding we came back to the church; tired, a little sore, and ready to go to bed. We weren't finished yet-at church we had a time of worship, a couple of crazy contests and heard Wally (from The Deep) share his story of connecting to God and becoming salt in an unsalted world.

Great times, great words, a very great night.

My 'bucket list'

This past weekend Jim and I went to see the movie "The Bucket List". I enjoyed the movie and it really made me think about what I would put on my 'bucket list. For those of you who haven't seen the movie yet, the title comes from the saying "kick the bucket" pertaining to their death. It is about two gentlemen, of different social, ethnic and economic status, lying in their hospital beds, who have each been given their diagnosis and approximate length of time before they die. While mulling over what they have been told they realized that they have two things in common: to spend what time they have left doing everything they ever wanted to do before they 'kicked the bucket' and to come to terms with who they are. Carter Chambers (played by Morgan Freeman) starts to make a list of things he wants to do before he passes away but get frustrated, crinkles it up and throws it on the floor. Edward Cole (played by Jack Nicholas) finds it and takes a look at it. Together they decide to go on a massive 'road trip' and tackle this list. Needless to say what they do and see, with no thought to money, is any man(woman)s' dream.


There is one part in the movie that Edward and Carter are sitting on the top of a pyramid in Egypt and having this conversation about death that goes something like this; "You know, the ancient Egyptians had a beautiful belief about death. When their souls got to the entrance to heaven, the guards asked two questions. Their answers determined whether they were able to enter or not. 'Have you found joy in your life?' and 'Has your life brought joy to others?'" This, to me, was a profound statement. How many of us can say that we have found joy in our life? I know that for me this is something that is hard to understand much less to have found. Life seems to be filled more with discouragement than joy and other than the joy that Jesus provides how does one find 'joy' in their life. Is it in the little things, like the sun shining on a snowy day, the daffodils blooming in the early spring, or does it consist of something much bigger. The other question, of bringing joy to others, can be just as difficult to understand. How do you determine whether you have brought joy to someone?


The other part of this movie is the whole concept of 'making a list' of what you want to do before you die. Brent Dongell, a young man who interned with SLWC, has created several 'bucket lists' on his blog. You can check his list, and his blog, by clicking on his name in my profile. This has prompted me to begin a list of my own. So this is what I have on my 'bucket list' at this point:

• to visit the birthplace of my grandparents in Netherlands,


• to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island,


• to visit each of the states in our country,


• to learn to fly an airplane,


• to read 52 books in one year,


• to read the Bible completely through in one year,


• to go back to school for more education


• to learn to dance


• to play the piano with both hands


• take a hot air balloon ride


• be on 'Wheel of Fortune'


• go see an 'Oprah' show


• see the Seven Wonders of the World

I will probably add to this in another post, but this is it for now.

Happy New Year everyone! I hope and pray that this year will be a good one for all of you. I don't know how you spent your New Year but I spent it in the most unusual way for me. Usually my husband and I spend it with three other couples from the Grand Rapids area, but this year I spent it on a charter bus with about 54 other adults and teens coming home from Florida. In fact we all celebrated twice as we traveled through two different time zones. It was a very loud and noisy celebration as one can only imagine with a bus full of mainly teenagers.

What was I doing in Florida? I was attending the Wesleyan Youth Convention, called 'SET APART', with four teens and four other adults from Spring Lake Wesleyan Church. The convention was held at the Orange County Convention Center located in Orlando. This is a huge convention center and easily held the over 7000 teens and adults that attended. This was an international event and there were groups from many different areas, mainly in the USA but there were some from other areas. It was a fantastic time of praise and worship, seminars, and main speakers. An event well worth sleepless nights, fast food, and lots of walking.

The main speaker on Friday night was Efrem Smith (Minneapolis, MN) who spoke on Jeremiah 2. He gave us five (5) I's that this passage spoke about. They were

• Intimacy-(Not the sexual kind) but the kind that speaks to the deepest part of our being. A daily relationship with God.
• Identity-to know who you really are in God. He wants to give this to us.
• Issue-believing what God says about you
• Invitation-to see the world as God sees it and to love it the way He loves it. A transformation of the way we look at things.
• Instruction-God given ways to impact the world
  
• Integrity-to be a person of honesty, truth, etc.

Efrem also closed out the convention on Sunday evening. He was a very charismatic and energizing speaker. The other main event speakers were Marilyn Laszlo-speaking on her work in Papua, NG among the Sepik Iwam people group, Kevin Myers-spoke about 'Getting Over It' using David (the shepherd boy) as the example, and we also heard from Shaun and Theresa Blakeney-speaking on purity and abstinence.

The worship leader throughout the event was Steve Fee. We learned some new songs and sang many familiar songs. He helped us look at how we sang and why we sang the words that we sang. Made the songs very personal and reverent. I have no doubt that God was being praised and that it was a 'good' thing.

As is normal at a youth convention there were break-out seminars that the students were to attend. There were many great speakers and I would have liked to hear all of them but only had time to go to two of them. We (those from SLWC) went to hear Josh Buck speak about 'Why God allows bad things to happen' and how his life was changed since his accident. Very inspiring and standing room only. What amazed me was the fact that this convention was being planned over the past two years, while Josh was still walking, and God had such a special reason to allow what happened to Josh to happen. God sure does work in amazing ways. After hearing Josh we went to hear Dave Ward speak on TxT MSG. Dave spoke about being consumed with longing, looking around, and begging for understanding. He also compared the person reading the Bible to an animal. This was interesting and somewhat funny but amazingly realistic. The animals that he used were:

• Early Bird--goes after the worm wiggling just under the surface of the ground. This person starts the day early reading God's word in small portions. This person gets the most out of short passages such as Proverbs, Psalms, etc.
• Ant-Eater--goes after its favorite food and only eats that kind of bug . This person usually chooses a word or topic that they are struggling with and then journals about it.
• Bat--eats by using sonar to find its food before finding it. This person likes to talk about what they are reading and usually enjoys weekly reading groups.
• Python--eats a massive meal and then digests it over time. This person loves to read a book over the period of a month and enjoys spending time alone with God.
• Cow--eats a meal and then regurgitates it to eat it again. This person likes to chew (meditate) on what s/he has read and usually likes a verse a day.
  

We enjoyed this and tried to figure out what kind of animal we were. I figured that I was predominately a Bat with a little bit of the others. I love talking with others about what I have read or am reading. I get the most out of discussing the topic and bouncing the subject around with others.

Well, now I have shared how I spent the end of last year and the beginning of this. I hope that I can use what I have heard and learned to experience more of Him this year.