Halloween Memories

Sitting at home after another fun Trunk or Treat and watching Sunday Night Football.  Having flashbacks to a Monday Night Football game played on Halloween many, many moons ago.  Memorable because the Colts won.  Big time.  Did I mention this was back in the day when any Colts win was huge, let alone a prime time TV domination???  Good memories, good memories.

Here is how the Chicago Tribune remembers it...(I know, how random is that?  But it was the only article I could find online about the game.  Ok, I didn't really search very hard.)

Last Halloween Monday Night Game No Treat
October 31, 1994
By Don Pierson.The last Monday night Halloween football game was a frightful affair in Indianapolis when the Colts beat the Denver Broncos 55-23 in 1988. It was so out of character that the Colts haven't scored nearly that many points in any game since. In two subsequent Monday night appearances, they have scored a total of only one touchdown.

The night even featured players dressed in unfamiliar costumes. It was Eric Dickerson's first Monday night game for the Colts after his 1987 trade from the Rams. Dickerson celebrated by scoring four touchdowns in the game's first 19 minutes, his last great game on a national stage.

Denver's running back was Tony Dorsett, playing his only season in a Broncos uniform after a Hall of Fame career with the Cowboys.

The Colts had a 45-10 halftime lead, eliminating suspense early enough to leave viewers plenty of time to trick-or-treat. Denver thought the ball was a pumpkin, losing 4 fumbles.


Go Colts and Happy Halloween!!!

The Mark of Love (GIVEAWAY!)

The Mark of Love

The Mend Mark tells a powerful story in two words

Have you been “Marked?” The Mend Mark is a mission, a movement, an entire revolution. It is a bracelet meant to remind its wearers of Christ’s love and sacrifice, and its message is the passion of its creator, Hunter Harrison.

The Mend Mark is an innovative and distinctive bracelet that is designed to reflect the scars and nail holes of Jesus. When worn, the band resembles the deep holes of the nail driven into the wrists of Jesus during his crucifixion. By bringing the story of Jesus’ life and death to constant awareness by wearing a bracelet, Mend Mark is meant to powerfully remind wearers of the ultimate act of love Jesus made for all of humankind.

Harrison’s mission is to remind all to remember Christ’s love in both his life and death. But more than only a poignant recollection, the Mend Mark is meant to inspire and motivate wearers to live a life of service. Harrison strives to bring people together around the simplicity and power of love as lived by Jesus. But this is no example of passive love. The Mend Mark calls individuals in all walks of life to love with a profound sincerity and commitment great enough to change a neighborhood, a community, a world.

Harrison leads this call to love and sacrifice by example and joins hands with each Mend Mark bracelet purchaser to take the first step in global change. A portion of each bracelet sold goes to support Living Water International, an organization combating the clean water crisis victimizing over one billion people worldwide. Each $5,000 given will result in one well drilled, providing a community with clean water.

But wearers should be prepared to be seen. Unique in its design, the Mend Mark is sure to be noticed and gives wearers an opportunity to share the story of the profound love of Jesus for each and every person. “It was important to me that the design was simple and generic enough that the observer had to ask about it to know what it meant. But I also wanted it to appear distinctive enough that it sparked curiosity,” reveals creator Hunter Harrison. “I wanted it to require the wearer of the product to engage in conversation about the love of Christ (and hopefully show that love to others) instead of just letting the product talk for them.”

Launched in late 2009 after a year and a half of packaging, material, and design development by Harrison, the bracelet has been sold across the United States, Canada, and the UK and has been featured in retail stores as well. The Mend Mark bracelet movement has grown to further fame after being worn during performances by American Idol winner Lee Dewyze, Idol runner up Siobhan Magnus, Decifer Down, Israel Houghton & New Breed, Pillar, and Finding Favour, to name a few. Says Harrison, “I want it to be more than just another bracelet; I want it to represent a movement.” Based on the way things are going, a movement is exactly what it is becoming.

Order online for $9.99 at http://www.mendmark.com/.

GIVEAWAY!  Leave a comment on this blog post by the end of the day Saturday, November 6 and I will enter you in a drawing for your very own Mend Mark bracelet!!  (Be sure to include your email address so I can contact you if you win!)

Brotherly Love

I love my brother, but I don't think I'd let him sleep on me.



Nicaragua? Okay...

How do I communicate this without getting too long-winded?  Here goes: As you may know, my daughter Kaylie has Asperger's Syndrome.  She has participated in the special needs ministry program at our church since she was around three years old.  Like she does at school, at church she participates in the mainstream classroom, but when she was younger she had a "buddy" who accompanied her to class.

In 2005, our church began partnering with Nicaragua Resource Network to serve special needs kids in the Managua area (the capital of Nicaragua).  In this culture, special needs children are often hidden away by their families and not afforded the same opportunities as other children.  A special needs classroom was created to bridge this gap and this Agape Program continues to be supported with finances and mission teams from our church.

A recent team pictured with some of the "Agape kids"

While I have known about this program and the girls have helped with service projects geared to benefit this school and these kids, I never really felt called to go serve on-site.  I think I have been in general avoidance mode because I feel inadequate as the mother of a special needs child.  I am not near the advocate that I should be and come up severly lacking when measured against my fellow special needs moms.

But now there is an opportunity for the whole family to go serve and we feel God is telling us to go.  Kaylie, with her loving, generous heart, wants to know if it is time to start packing yet.  She is beyond ready to go (I am excited to see what plan God has for her as she becomes an adult.  I am convinced He has big plans for her servant's heart.)  Hannah, for now, is most excited about the airplane ride.  Jim wonders how we will pay for the trip, but he, like Kaylie, is always ready and willing to serve.  And then there is me.  (Somewhat) reluctantly going along for the ride because I am convinced God is ordering me out of my comfort zone and to face head-on what He has given to our family.  If I am going to serve other special needs moms, I better learn how to be a better special needs mom so I can set a better example.  And I better learn fast and save fast, as the trip is in January.  (That's a lot of betters, so you see why I am overwhelmed!)

This trip does not excite me the way going to Austria did, or serving in the inner-city has, and I have not anticipated it the way I do one day getting to go to Haiti, or Africa, or China.  But I am excited because I know God's hand is in it and I think sending special needs kids to serve other special needs kids is a beautiful idea and will be a marvelous little glimpse of heaven.

Pray for us, please, as we prepare to serve that God would continue to put all the pieces in place.

To learn more about this work in Nicaragua, please visit the Nicaragua Resource Network and the TPCC Short-term Missions Blog.  Thanks!  If you would like to sponsor our team financially the address to send donations to can be found here.

Foliage and Falling

Are you into foliage?  I don't think I even knew the word existed until I moved to New England and some friends invited me to go north to look at the foliage.  Beautiful.  Gorgeous.  Wish you were here.  Who knew?  How I got that far in life liking fall that much without learning such vital terminology, I have no idea. 

Have foliage on the brain because A) it's fall and the leaves are, in fact, changing and 2) it's my anniversary!!!  Fifteen years ago this week we were married and had a lovely fall honeymoon.  To Vermont and Williamsburg.  Foliage, USA.  Exotic, no; beautiful, yes.  (Plus that was a horrible hurricane season, so it actually worked out in our favor to NOT be Bermuda-bound.) 

All of the most memorable things to happen in my adult life have happened in the fall: my wedding, the birth of my children, my daughter getting baptized.  Which pretty much cements fall as my ab-fab time of year.

Random recent fall photos:

Zoo Boo 2009

Pre-Anniversary trip to Mackinac Island to celebrate our 15th!

Clowning around at my cousin's fall wedding in very un-October-ish weather.

Do you fall for fall too?

Be Available

The official word:

Timeless Wisdom from the Pastor’s Pastor

Dr. Warren Wiersbe’s BE series offers simple but not simplistic knowledge

The Old Testament contains vast riches of spiritual knowledge, and Dr. Warren Wiersbe mines the depths of that wisdom with straightforward clarity in David C Cook’s latest updates to the “BE” commentary series. Wiersbe carefully examines many aspects of the Old Testament and makes spiritual applications as Christians explore the lives of the Jewish people. The lives of God’s chosen people paint a picture of courage and bravery, despite their tendency to disobey, and the rulers and prophets of this time played a vital role in bringing God’s message to His people. Throughout these commentaries, God’s faithfulness to respond to cries of repentance provides strong examples of how He continues to lovingly lead His people.

Dr. Warren Wiersbe has devoted his life to the deep examination of God’s Word. He is an internationally known Bible teacher, former pastor of The Moody Church in Chicago, and the author of more than 150 books. The “BE” series is comprised of fifty titles and, with more than four million copies in print, has helped countless numbers of readers to better understand and apply God’s Word to their daily lives. Dr. Wiersbe’s commentaries combine historical explanations and thought-provoking questions with the unchanging truth of Scripture in such a way that Christians can easily grasp the relevance of the Old Testament.

· Be Available: Accepting the Challenge to Confront the Enemy—This is a study of the book of Judges and encourages people to be available, no matter how dark the day. Be available to trust God’s Word, yield to His Spirit, and do His bidding. (September 2010/ISBN: 978-1-4347-0048-3/199 pages)


Tricia's Take: 
I loved this book from the get-go, as it started with the premise that God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things - one of my favorite biblical truths.  This book was more than just a study on a book of the Bible, it included life application as well. (Something we don't always get in Old Testament bible studies.)  Dr. Wiersbe, as always, has wonderful insight and does not shy away from the tougher portions of the book, but attacks them head on and helps us to understand a little better. I love how he pulls out the theme of "Be Available" from the stories of these fallen men and women who agreed to serve God and who He then used to do powerful things.



It was a very dark time in the life of Israel.  As is repeated often in the book - there was no king at that time and everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes.  Rather than hide or isolate themselves, the judges chose to answer God's call to serve Him and His kingdom, even in dark and overwhelming circumstances.  What an example for us to follow today - to not be discouraged, but to bodly stand up and make a change.  (Thank you, as always, to the publisher for providing me with a review copy.)

Yum!

(DEEELICIOUS hand-painted chocolates!)

I've been working at Ghyslain Bistro at The Sanctuary (Nancy Noel's art gallery) for about 6 weeks.  Very excited to see us in the food section of the paper last week.  Check it out!

Click here to view the article

Pierced Ears!

(Ugh!  So far behind on the blogging.  Need to get focused....)

Hannah has been begging for pierced ears for some time now.  I kept putting her off, but planned all along to let her get them pierced around the age she is now.  Unbeknown to her, I bought earrings for her at the Swarovski store when I was in Austria and was holding them for her birthday.  On Hannah's birthday my cousin Kacia came over to surprise Hannah and pierce her ears.  We told Hannah we needed to run an errand and Hannah said, "Can't I just stay home?"  I told her sure, but she might change her mind after she opened her present (the earrings).  She was SO surprised and excited.  Until it was time to actually do the piercing.

Suddenly not quite so sure about this...

"Wait, I'm not ready."  I was so sure she was going to hit Kacia's hand and Kacia's finger would get pierced.

Success!!!