Interrupting Life...

Have you or your teens seen or heard the TV and radio commercials for Groundwire?

From MTV to Popular Hip Hop Stations, Groundwire Interrupts Teens with Answers to Life

Teens today can be overwhelmed searching for meaning amidst depressing hopelessness, negative self-image, and the pressure to be perfect. To meet the needs of hurting teenagers across the country, Groundwire, a current and innovative outreach, has become a ministry where teens find comfort, guidance, and answers delivered through multi-media communication.

Groundwire leverages media and technology to meet teens exactly where they are — viewing, listening, texting, or chatting — and to invite them to voice their questions and struggles so they can find answers in the message of the Gospel. With a raw and real approach, the ministry builds its burgeoning impact through broadcasting that strategically places television and radio spots on secular stations. Teens listening to popular radio broadcasts or viewing favorite shows on networks like MTV, VH1, Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming, and Comedy Central are interrupted by direct spots. These spots catch their attention, resonating with where they are today. Groundwire’s targeted, authentic, and well-produced commercials are grabbing the attention of teens by the millions. Teens responding to the broadcast messages are invited to visit Groundwire’s website where they can chat with a live spiritual coach available day and night, as well as find a collection of resources such as podcasts by Groundwire’s founder and executive director, Sean Dunn, and daily devotionals.

Relevant topics, cutting-edge communication, the dynamic speaking and content of founder Sean Dunn, and powerful truths have made Groundwire a growing ministry. “Eighty-six percent of teens today believe in God, but don’t believe God is loving,” explains Dunn. “Even fewer believe that they are lovable. What would happen if those teens truly understood God’s purpose for their lives and the hope and meaning he offers each one?”

What began on radio over seven years ago has now expanded to also include television broadcasts in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, San Diego, Phoenix, Tampa, Denver, Little Rock, and Spokane. Groundwire is experiencing growth as the ministry cuts right to the heart of the issues teens are wrestling with today and invites them to a safe and honest conversation where they can find answers in the truths of God’s word and in his love. Life-changing stories are received from teens of different backgrounds across the nation.

“I was struggling with a lot of things—cutting, not eating, depression, and suicidal attempts. I was angry and wanted to talk to someone. I felt that I would be judged or shunned if I talked to anyone I knew about such sensitive subjects. I heard an ad on the radio for Groundwire and decided to check it out. I logged on one evening, and since that night my life has changed in a lot of ways. The people at Groundwire chatted, prayed, and encouraged me. I could log on at pretty much anytime of the day and there would be someone to chat and/or pray with me. Since then, I’ve come a long way with their help, and most of all, God’s.”

“We are committed to expanding our reach even further in the coming year. We plan to grow our radio reach from 14 to 20 million listeners each week and our television audience from 20% to 40% of households in the US, and to even replicate our message into other languages,” says Sean Dunn. Groundwire has captured a unique opportunity to use mainstream media to “go into all the world” and reach an entire generation right where they are with the hope of the Gospel.

There are several ways you can help Groundwire reach their goals for 2011!
Post about Groundwire and spread the word about what they are doing.
(check out their website below to get the HTML to post a video)
Pray for them!
Learn how to become a coach.
Let your church know about Groundwire.
They are looking for partner churches to point young people to.
Financial support to aid in getting the spots to air in your area.

For more information, visit http://www.groundwire.net/ and http://www.broadcasthope.com/

My Debut as a Band Mom

Hannah had her first band concert the other night. Here's an excerpt. Unfortunately, you can't see her most of the time because the director is in the way. But if you get a glimpse of half a head with a big bow...that's her!!!

(PS - my dad, the criminal defense attorney, posted this to YouTube. His username is Mr. Soddi, which stands for "some other dude did it". Hee hee. Guess he hears that alot.) :]

What Does It Mean To Be Healthy?

The health care system may be a mess—

but you don’t have to be

Your health and wellness belong to you—and you alone. While it’s true that doctors and the health care system play a role in your care, they’re only one part of true wellness. If you’re ready to venture into real health, read this book.

Dr. Scott Morris, founder of the church Health Center in Memphis, TN—the largest faith-based clinic of its kind in the United States—shows how your physical health is being affected by your spiritual well being.

In Health Care You Can Live With, Dr. Morris explains how
• health care went wrong
• the church offers real answers
• you can take charge of your own wellness


Showing that healing—both physical and spiritual—is a key aspect of the Christian faith, Health Care You Can Live With provides an understandable framework for wellness and the encouraging real-life stories of those who found a better life within the overarching love of God.

With twenty years as a family practice physician serving a diverse population in Memphis, the nation’s poorest major city, Morris is uniquely experienced in the challenges of our health care system today and Health Care You Can Live With offers a surprising behind-the-scenes visit into the troubles we are currently facing around the issues of health care and health care reform. With a thoughtful yet candid approach, Morris invites the reader to question what we really know about health care. Who does our health care system serve, and what does it do or not do for others? Do we even know what medical research is really accomplishing? With clarity, Morris informs the reader, drawing from history, current research, and personal stories taken from the thousands of patients he has cared for, and equips the reader with both practical and valuable knowledge.

Health Care You Can Live With:

Discover Wholeness in Body and Spirit

by Dr. G. Scott Morris

Barbour Publishing/January 2011

ISBN: 978-1-61626-247-1

http://www.healthcareyoucanlivewith.com/

Listen to an interview with Dr. Morris on uReadBooks!

Would you like to review this book on your blog?

Email Audra at The B&B Media Group to find out how!

The Cabbage and the Cat (by Kaylie)

Here is a story Kaylie wrote in computer lab last week.  Not sure what the assignment was or how focused she was when she wrote it.  Thought you might find it interesting, though.  (If you know Kaylie, you can hear her telling you this story as you read it.) 

There was a cabbage and a cat in Arizona, on the rough desert sands.  The cabbage was rough too, in texture.  The chair they played on was sometimes pulled by the wind.  One day, the cat, whose name was Ashley, had a flag.  It was not a cute flag, but a crude one.  The rough cabbage didn't do anything, because, well, cabbages are not alive.  Ashley told the cabbage that the flag was from King Arthur's court!  Again the cabbage did not do anything,  Ashley and the cabbage, okay, the cabbage is called Rico, Ashley and Rico went off for King Arthur's court.  When they got there the cabbage finally did something!  He gave King Arthur the flag.  Then he started doing nothing again and they went home.  The End.

It's No Secret

(Tricia here:  I wasn't too sure about this book at first, but I am glad to say I was pleasantly surprised.  It was an enjoyable read, with some lovely nuggets to take away.  It would make a good group study, too.)

ARE YOU TIRED OF LIFE AS USUAL ?

Done with feeling exhausted—or worse, bored? Ready to trade your issues and hang-ups for greater intimacy and fulfillment? Then it’s time you did some digging for biblical “bling” and discovered the shining secrets to life in God’s kingdom. Rachel’s writing is lighthearted and fun, but she’s serious about helping you uncover biblical secrets that can make your life shine. This book will help you:

o Overcome the comparisons and competitive urges that leave you lonely
o Accept help from others
o Discover God’s surprising source of spiritual beauty and strength
o Embrace your need for rest
o Find adventure as you yield wholeheartedly to God

o Dig into the Bible for yourself and understand what you find there

Grab your Bible and a girlfriend, and come discover twelve secrets the world doesn’t know.

About the Author:
Rachel Olsen is a writer, editor, and speaker on staff with Proverbs 31 Ministries. She writes for and serves as senior editor of their popular online devotions, “Encouragement for Today,” with a readership of more than 300,000. She also writes for and serves on the editorial board of the P31 Woman magazine. Olsen is a national women’s speaker and enjoys interacting with audiences at women’s retreats and conferences from coast to coast.

Watch Your Words

This is what I posted on my SparkPeople blog today after having one conversation almost ruin the perfect day I'd been having.

Just want to remind everyone of the profound effect our words can have.


I have a big mouth (it has to be for my foot to fit in it so much), so I totally include myself in this. Our words have the power to do so much. They can encourage, comfort, enrich, inform, embrace, uplift, entertain. Or they can discourage, deter, tear down, crush, defeat.

What have your words done today? What have you done to counteract the negative words of those around you? What have you done to encourage yourself and those around you to use words in a positive way?

(I am making a choice not to let some discouraging words get me down today. Going out for a run to regroup and refresh and perk up a bit. Who would have thunk I'd be running to improve my mood instead of noshing on milkshakes??)

SMILE!!!

Hungry?

Check out this video tour of our three Ghyslain locations!

Reaching Out to Older Adults (and Robin Roberts interview)

(Even if you don't read this whole post, please scroll down and click on the link below to watch Missy's interview with Robin Roberts (of GMA) and Robin's mom.)

I would like to introduce you to Missy Buchanan, an author and advocate for senior adults.


Missy was born into a family that treated their elder adults with love and respect. Her own grandparents lived in her home when she was a child, so it only came natural for her to care for her parents as they aged. Even though they chose to live in a retirement facility, Buchanan visited them regularly to help provide for their physical needs. But it wasn’t until her mom mentioned how long it had been since she had been served communion that Buchanan began to realize that their needs were far more than physical.

And so began her journey as a writer and an advocate for senior adults. When Buchanan visited a bookstore to learn how few resources were available, she began writing devotions for her parents. But soon word spread in their community, and others wanted to read her devotions also. And it spiraled from there into books to minister to aging adults.

Q&A with Missy Buchanan

Even when age creeps up on the body and mind, and life changes from what it once was, is it still possible to have a purpose in life? When it is no longer possible to venture out and do the things you once loved, can you still find a reason to look forward to each day? Missy Buchanan, a leading expert and advocate for senior adults, believes that you can. Buchanan wants to encourage older adults to find their purpose, share their stories, and make an impact on those around them.

Q: What made you decide to start ministering to and writing books for older adults?
Well, as a middle-aged adult, I never had any intention of becoming an author of books for older adults. But because of the journey that my own aging parents were on, I realized how they had become disconnected from their church as their lives changed. They started off as active older adults and then that circle got smaller as they had more needs and physical limitations. As I would visit them at their retirement community, I would also see so many others that were just like them. They needed spiritual encouragement. And so that’s why I got started. The first book began as a project just for my own parents. I wrote devotions and kept them in a loose-leaf notebook. But others started asking for them and things just spiraled from there.

Q: What do you think children need to know about their aging parents?
What I realized personally was that I had been so caught up in my parents’ physical needs that I had neglected their spiritual needs. They were no longer connected to their church, at least in regular worship attendance, and that had been such a huge part of their lives. I almost made that mistake of just totally missing that, and that was the point where I began to write. I looked and there were other books written about older adults but not very many that were written to them and for them. So the first thing I would tell their children is to pay attention not only to their physical needs but also to their spiritual needs.

Q: What is your opinion about role reversal with children and their aging parents?
I hear the whole idea of role reversal where the older parent becomes a child and the grown children become the parent, and I understand what they are talking about because my own parents became more dependent on me. But I think that when we refer to it as a role reversal, and we begin to think of our aging parents as children, we strip away their dignity. We rob them of respect and we overlook the fact that they are not children. They have had a lifetime of experiences that a child has not had. And I think that is an important difference that grown children need to think about and pay attention to. It’s more of a role shift in responsibilities and not a role reversal. I know how much it hurts an aging parent to feel like they are being treated like a baby or like a child.

Q: Other than aging adults, who else has benefited from your writing?
A friend of mine in an assisted living facility asked me to bring some books for one of her tablemates. Her tablemate explained that these books were for her adult children. “They don’t understand what it feels like to grow old, and I can’t seem to make them understand, but your books say it better than I ever could.” My books are all written in the first person as if an older adult is speaking directly to God. There are a lot of adult children that are buying them for themselves and older adults buying them for their grown children.

And I’ve heard of different youth groups that have been reading my books in order to better understand what it’s like to grow old. Instead of just mocking their older peers, they are learning that they share a lot of the same feelings—feelings of insecurity, feelings of fear. As a result of reading the books, one youth group in Tennessee has even adopted the residents of the senior living center across from their church.

Q: How can faith change our idea of growing older?
So many see aging as a punishment, and they dread it so much. But even though it is difficult to be limited by an aging body, they need to look at it as a gift that God has given them. They still have so much to give. They have great wisdom to share and stories to share. I always tell my older friends that their story is not yet over.

Missy Buchanan is the author of Talking with God in Old Age: Meditations and Psalms and Living with Purpose in a Worn-Out Body: Spiritual Encouragement for Older Adults (Upper Room Books).

Click here to watch Missy Buchanan’s recent interview with Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts and Roberts’ 86-year-old mother. (Note from Tricia: this is a cool interview, please take a moment to watch!)

Visit Missy Buchanan’s website, http://www.missybuchanan.com/, and blog, http://missybu.wordpress.com/.


Talking with God in Old Age: Meditations and Psalms
In Talking with God in Old Age, Missy Buchanan sensitively address the worries, fears, and frustrations of older adults and extends hope, encouraging them to maintain an open dialogue with God. Each reading features:
· A candid conversation with God
· A related passage from Psalms
· Easy-to-read print

Seniors grappling with the aging process will readily identify with these reflections and will find reassurance of God’s Presence. Caregivers, family members, and others seeking to understand aging loved ones will gain insight into the thoughts and emotions of the elderly frail.

Living with Purpose in a Worn-Out Body: Spiritual Encouragement for Older Adults
Birthed out of real-life experience, Living with Purpose in a Worn-out Body is a big does of authentic spiritual encouragement for frail elderly who struggle to find purpose a the end of their lives. These devotionals addressed to God raise in prayer the many concerns of the frail elderly and provide opportunities to reminisce and reflect on their blessings.

Each devotional offers the following:
· Easy-to-read print
· Reader-friendly format
· Comfortable, nonacademic language
· A first-person address to God
· Brief supporting scriptures from the New and Old Testaments

Just who you callin' strange?

Video illustrating the need to not just sit back and listen to the Word but be doers as well.  It co-stars a man who, just two short days ago, actually inferred that I am weird.

Hello, Pot, it's your ole pal, Kettle.


Workout from Traders Point Christian Church on Vimeo.

PS: best part is cameo at the end.
PPS: by way of explanation if you happen to be viewing this and are not a member/attender or past member/attender of TPCC - the first man is our lead minister, the second is our senior high minister, and the third is our former lead minister and now Pastor Emeritus.

Slip Slidin Away!

Safely made it through week 2, run #1. But feel like I barely made it. Y'all know how much I love running in the snow, but today it was REALLY slick and so I was pretty busy trying not to fall the whole time and just wanted to get home in one piece as quickly as I could. Definitely need to get those Yak Trax!! (Actually, my hubby got me some for Christmas, but they were the walker ones, not the running ones. I was afraid to try to use them because someone on the Spark People message board said to be sure to get the running ones. But thinking should have gone ahead and used them anyway because that would have been better than nothing!! Maybe can get them exchanged later this week.)

ANYWAY, had a really slow time today, but made it home without falling (despite slipping alot). AND, I haven't missed a training run/walk yet! (Which is really good for me)

Only 15 more weeks of training to go!!

TPCC History Video

So proud to be part of a church that is over 175 years old!   And very, very grateful for the pioneers who laid the foundation for the church I have called home for over 25 years.   So many changes, but God still remains Lord over all.

TPCC History from Traders Point Christian Church on Vimeo.

I've Got the Music in Me

Had a pretty good training run today. It was crazy cold (did the whole "dress like it is 20 degrees warmer" thing and it was NOT working for me today) - BUT I had my tunes to keep me warm and motivated! (Plus it was snowing and even though it was little pellets instead of fluffy snowflakes, snow always makes me happy.)   UPDATE: the pellets have changed from pellets to beautiful big fluffy snowflakes and it is all I can do not to go back out - I LOVE to run when it is snowing!


I finally sat down and put together a play list to run to. I spent so much time on it this morning that I almost made the same error I did the other day and waited TOO long after I ate to run. But a quick snack cured all that. Plus it was worth the time and effort - the play list was a success!!

My current training schedule is run 3, walk 2, so I loaded my mp3 with a bunch of 2ish and 3ish minute songs and alternated them. Using the music to know when to switch was so much more fun that looking at my watch and I had a great time running with my tunes!! I know I am not supposed to increase my running time too much, but I did run a little longer because I got back home before my songs were done, so I added another quick loop.

So, what did I listen to? The list includes:
It's My Life - Bon Jovi (one of my faves, plus it reminds me of good times)
Movin' - Group 1 Crew
Holding Out for a Hero - Bonnie Tyler (which is actually like 5:41, but it makes you feel like Rocky (or Kevin Bacon) so how can you not include it?)
Shine - The Newsboys
Respect - Aretha Franklin
Believe - Amy Grant
Get Down - Audio Adrenaline

And a few other random ones, including some by The Lads, a Christian band from New Zealand that is actually geared toward kids and tweens, but that means their music is fun and great to dance to (read: jump up and down to).  And a Beatles tune which has got to go, but for now, it fits the length requirement.

Two things I noticed that I need to watch for:
1. Pushing my pace too fast to go with the song
2. Busting out the dance moves (don't want the neighbors to think I've gotten into the liquor)

Now I am ready to face the day with a smile on my face, a song in my heart, and some warmer socks!

MMT, WK1 D4

Not much to report today.  Didn't sleep very much at all last night and had very, very, very little energy today at Zumba class.  My body was not gonna "join the party" no matter what.  Can't believe how little energy I had...

Going to use medicinal assistance tonight to ensure I get my 40 winks and then hopefully have a productive rest day tomorrow.

Tah-tah for now!

Training Tales.....

Happy Monday!!!


I am going to try to regularly post about my Mini-Marathon run/walk training. (I officially started on 1/1, using a run/walk training schedule someone gave me years ago when I was training to walk the mini - this time the goal is to run at least half the time and significantly beat my walking time from 8 years ago)  Hopefully this will help me blog regularly, train regularly, and give y'all license to keep me accountable if I suddenly seem to have fallen off the face of the earth. Even if nobody reads it, this is something I want to do for me.  Not usually one to share my ups and downs like this, so hopefully this doesn't blow up in my face.

So...............all that to say, here's the latest:

Sunday: lesson reinforced: don't let yourself get hungry! Came home from church yesterday afternoon and I was STARVING. Thus I proceeded to eat everything in the kitchen that was readily available, not nailed down, and edible. Basically a bunch of cookies, candy, and cheese, with some carrot sticks thrown in for good measure. Once I get that hungry, the floodgates open and all hope of sticking to plan is dashed. Especially since yesterday I had a really bad migraine, so all I wanted to do was crawl in bed and have someone chop off my head. So, aside from church, I ate, drugged up, and slept. Good thing it was a planned rest day. Need to start planning ahead better in these situations so it doesn't get that far.

Monday: you would think today is close enough to yesterday that I would not have already forgotten the "don't get hungry" lesson, but.....not so much. I got up, ate a light breakfast, got distracted for about 2 hours, then finally got around to heading out the door for today's run. By that time I was hungry again, but I was too stubborn to stop and eat before I ran - and also too afraid that if I waited much longer I would keep finding reasons to delay my run and would never get it in. So I headed out the door and about 37 seconds into it, I was SO TIRED. No energy at all. I finished the planned run, but I was much tired-er than Saturday. Although, I had an almost greater sense of pride because I did not give up even though sometimes I felt I was going so slow I was almost running backwards. Also was very pleased to find that I was still running pretty strong at the end. Need to listen to body better and give it the fuel it needs to function better.

Tomorrow: cross-training, Zumba style!