Pete and I are sitting across from each other at the dining room table each with a computer in front of us. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, click, click, click, click and whatever the sound the phone makes when one of us texts.
With five straight days of events happening beginning Sunday, our living room is systematically become impassible.
1. Evangelism training Sunday night - every Bible study leader will be trained or refreshed on sharing the Gospel as well as getting to those (sometimes awkward) spiritual conversations. I need to go to Costco to buy water bottles, peanut butter cups and potato chips. You gotta have snacks for training :) I guess I'll keep it in the living room for now.
2. Fall Kick-off at UNCG on Monday midday. We have a moderately sized Plinko game (yes, vint,age Price is Right) that we built and was a huge hit last year. In addition to some sports bags and lanyards with our uncgcru.com website on them, we are giving away over 1000 cookies! These are being baked (probably even as you are reading this) by folks from our church Lawndale Baptist. These delicious cookies will be coming to our house on Sunday to be distributed on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. So besides the boxes of lanyards and sports bags, the snacks for training, add 1000 cookies....in our living room
3. Freshman Welcome Night on Tuesday. We're going to woo freshmen in with free t-shirts (an overstock from last year LOL!) and iTunes gift cards. While they are basking in their free stuff, we'll be getting them excited about weekly meetings, Bible studies, Fall Retreat, etc. So next to the thousand cookies, the lanyards, sports bags and the snacks for training, add several boxes of t-shirts! ...all (temporarily, gratefully) in my living room!
4. Wednesday our friend Nat is cooking out for a few hundred students out on College Ave (the main drag of UNCG). He is bringing the grill, the buns and meat. He has the most of it covered, but we are responsible for a few things...cups for several hundred young people, plates, napkins, chips and coolers for ice....sure, just set it in my living room.
So there you have it, the top four reasons my living room is a mess. It's an exciting time. I'll clean up later in the semester :) Prayer for great conversations, the Truth would be proclaimed and God would be glorified appreciated.
Love, Carra
Friday, August 16, 2013
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Car Crashes into our House
This is a re-post from Carra's personal blog about the Thanksgiving Day crash...
Here's
our living room right now. As you can see in the right side of the
picture, the wall has no longer been merely boarded up, but framed for
becoming a "real wall."
This morning a city of Greensboro inspector came to check over the work. We have been so blessed and impressed with how quickly the city has been to check over work. And Paul Davis Restoration (PDR), our contractor, has been great to work with and accommodating to do the work around our family's needs.
It looks like we will only have to move out of the house one more time (when they refinish the floors) but that will be longer than the original hotel living of six days. I think we may move between two hotels just so we can bother the maximum number of guests and hotel employees! (Just kidding!) But it does look like we will be back in the living room and dining room sometime mid-January. As far as the outside masonry - no idea how long that will be.
Here's
some other photos of our lives right now. This pile of broken pieces
include a cedar chest that has a rug full of glass laying across it. It
was a really nice cedar chest filled with baby blankets made by my mom,
my grandma, my great-aunt and my great grandmother. Those precious
things were the hardest to see amongst the rubble.
But PDR is doing their best to clean them and we will be keeping them (and not using them on future babies just in case of glass embedded somewhere). The white object is a stand we used in our wedding (almost 12 years ago). Neat thing though...the table (it's hard to tell it used to be a table) is also laying halfway on the bottom of the lamp was directly in front of the window. It was (obviously) completely shattered and the items on top of it were thrown across the room. Everything in the corner (from the table to the cedar chest to the globe) were damaged or completely obliterated. ...except...
Here's
a photo of our living room about 10 days before the accident. We had
decorated for Thanksgiving and Gracie wanted to take some photos. Isn't
that awesome? It has definitely helped with the insurance situations.
If you look in the right hand corner, you'll see the globe, lamp, glass
top table and cedar chest that you see the parts of in the above
photo. Notice right behind the lamp, you'll see our wedding picture.
Our wedding picture. It was on the table. It must have been launched
into a pile of baby blankets,the loveseat, into the pile of dirt from the peace
lilies that sailed across the room or some other soft place. It's scratched up but not broken.
I don't know what to say - but it makes me happy to see our wedding picture still in tact. In spite of being in direct harm, God chose to keep it unbroken. It's just a photo. But there is something extra sweet that it was protected.
God protected our family from physical harm. He protected the gentleman in the SUV from injury. He has blessed us with insurance and favor from city officials, contractors. He has poured our blessings, prayers and gifts from neighbors, friends, church family, home school community, family members and fellow Cru staff. We are extremely grateful.
Thank you for your prayers.
Love, Carra
P.S. Next time, I'll try to share how we are making our den into living room and dining room among it's previous roles as home school room, play space, my office area and meeting space.
------------------
So it has been a couple of weeks since Thanksgiving. So far, we have been visited by a structural engineer, two city inspectors, contractors and assessors.
This morning a city of Greensboro inspector came to check over the work. We have been so blessed and impressed with how quickly the city has been to check over work. And Paul Davis Restoration (PDR), our contractor, has been great to work with and accommodating to do the work around our family's needs.
It looks like we will only have to move out of the house one more time (when they refinish the floors) but that will be longer than the original hotel living of six days. I think we may move between two hotels just so we can bother the maximum number of guests and hotel employees! (Just kidding!) But it does look like we will be back in the living room and dining room sometime mid-January. As far as the outside masonry - no idea how long that will be.
But PDR is doing their best to clean them and we will be keeping them (and not using them on future babies just in case of glass embedded somewhere). The white object is a stand we used in our wedding (almost 12 years ago). Neat thing though...the table (it's hard to tell it used to be a table) is also laying halfway on the bottom of the lamp was directly in front of the window. It was (obviously) completely shattered and the items on top of it were thrown across the room. Everything in the corner (from the table to the cedar chest to the globe) were damaged or completely obliterated. ...except...
Our wedding picture. It was on the table. It must have been launched
into a pile of baby blankets,the loveseat, into the pile of dirt from the peace
lilies that sailed across the room or some other soft place. It's scratched up but not broken. I don't know what to say - but it makes me happy to see our wedding picture still in tact. In spite of being in direct harm, God chose to keep it unbroken. It's just a photo. But there is something extra sweet that it was protected.
God protected our family from physical harm. He protected the gentleman in the SUV from injury. He has blessed us with insurance and favor from city officials, contractors. He has poured our blessings, prayers and gifts from neighbors, friends, church family, home school community, family members and fellow Cru staff. We are extremely grateful.
Thank you for your prayers.
Love, Carra
P.S. Next time, I'll try to share how we are making our den into living room and dining room among it's previous roles as home school room, play space, my office area and meeting space.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
A beautiful morning
Over 100 students are spread out across the camp right now (Saturday morning) having time with the Lord. For some, this morning devotional/quiet time/prayer time at Fall Retreat is their first introduction to the concept of time set apart for spending with God.
As Gracie, Faith and I walked back to our cabin just now, we passed this holy scene. The beautiful morning, the lake, the cross in the distance and students scattered across the bank. How grateful I am to have a relationship with Christ. How grateful I am that my children see the devotion and desire of these "cool young people" for the living God. How grateful I am that God has given me the privilege of helping to lead these college students to a closer walk with our Savior.
Love, Carra
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Fall Retreat Tomorrow
Fall Retreat is tomorrow through SundayRight now we have 112 students registered a close to 1/3 are freshmen!!
Getting freshmen plugged in and connected to community is a critical piece in having a movement of Christ over time.
It is super-encouraging to the see the number of students that are coming to this weekend.
- Speaker (Mark Valentine from Appalachian State) will challenge students in their walks with Christ.
- Community to develop (students from four different campuses)
- Students will seriously consider spending their spring breaks on mission trips.
- Safety (paintball and a photo scavenger hunt in the dark will be involved)
- Great weather (the forecast looks great so far)
- The Christ would be glorified!!!
What are they looking forward to the most?
Going to Costco to buy snacks (who doesn't love Costco?)
Saturday night dance party (the theme is hippies and hipsters but I think the girls are going as a purple ballerina-Faith and Joan of Arc-Gracie)
Faith exclaimed tonight she couldn't wait to live in a real cabin.
They love students, and the students love them. Sometimes I can hardly believe the blessed life God has given us in this ministry. Thank you for your love, support and prayers!
Love, Carra
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Cru introduces Study Abroad!
This is a pioneer program where students can get get college credit at the same time as they provide "workers for the harvest" with a team of local and short term international missionaries with Cru. Pray for this to be an effective tool for bringing more laborers to the critical harvest of the colleges of the world!
Pass this on to students you think would consider applying. cruabroad.com/
Love, Pete and Carra
Friday, June 15, 2012
Over 80,000 praying - join us?
http://prayeurope.com/
As we wrote earlier this week - we have a unique opportunity to under gird the Olympians and the Campus Crusade for Christ/Athletes in Action staff with prayer.
In addition to the Olympics, there are some very exciting prayer opportunities and an interactive way to connect to those. When you visit the site (http://prayeurope.com/prayer-projects/), you can see what current prayer needs are in Europe and Russia. You can chose to pause right there and pray for one of the initiatives or opportunities. Then you can click "I prayed."
Explore the site to see other prayer requests and a ongoing list of answered prayers.
For His glory,
Pete and Carra
As we wrote earlier this week - we have a unique opportunity to under gird the Olympians and the Campus Crusade for Christ/Athletes in Action staff with prayer.
In addition to the Olympics, there are some very exciting prayer opportunities and an interactive way to connect to those. When you visit the site (http://prayeurope.com/prayer-projects/), you can see what current prayer needs are in Europe and Russia. You can chose to pause right there and pray for one of the initiatives or opportunities. Then you can click "I prayed."
Explore the site to see other prayer requests and a ongoing list of answered prayers.
For His glory,
Pete and Carra
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Olympic Sized Prayer
I love being a part of Campus Crusade for Christ! One reason is the ability and the drive that Cru has to reach all people - going to remote areas of the world but also to some of the most crowded. What an opportunity God has opened up for Athletes in Action (the sports ministry component of Cru) to be a part of the Olympics! As chaplains for the Olympics, CCC/AIA staff have a wonderful opportunity to develop relationships with athletes from all over the world.
While the International Olympic Committee forbids proselytizing, Carl (Campus Crusade for Christ Athletes in Action staff member) says there are plenty of opportunities to have spiritual conversations. Sometimes the hard realities of the Olympic competition lead athletes to seek out
answers with chaplains.“We’re mainly in a service position, but we can answer any questions they ask.” Pray for divine appointments with non-believing athletes from around the globe.
Much prayer, preparation, planning and resources go into making Athletes in Action’s outreach efforts at the Olympic Games a smooth success, and the 2012 project in London will require no less. Regardless of what shape it takes, the work of the official chaplains as well as the 160-plus additional staff who will be working in London all boils down to one goal: spreading the gospel of Jesus
Christ to the world.
Want to be a part of this? Join in with prayer!
3000 people are needed to pray for 3 to 4 athletes who will be competing this summer. Wouldn't be awesome to be a part of a team of people who will cover every single Olympian in prayer? Here's where you can learn more (http://olympics.athletesinaction.org/prayer-strategy/)
For His glory,
Pete and Carra
While the International Olympic Committee forbids proselytizing, Carl (Campus Crusade for Christ Athletes in Action staff member) says there are plenty of opportunities to have spiritual conversations. Sometimes the hard realities of the Olympic competition lead athletes to seek out
answers with chaplains.“We’re mainly in a service position, but we can answer any questions they ask.” Pray for divine appointments with non-believing athletes from around the globe.
Much prayer, preparation, planning and resources go into making Athletes in Action’s outreach efforts at the Olympic Games a smooth success, and the 2012 project in London will require no less. Regardless of what shape it takes, the work of the official chaplains as well as the 160-plus additional staff who will be working in London all boils down to one goal: spreading the gospel of Jesus
Christ to the world.
Want to be a part of this? Join in with prayer!
3000 people are needed to pray for 3 to 4 athletes who will be competing this summer. Wouldn't be awesome to be a part of a team of people who will cover every single Olympian in prayer? Here's where you can learn more (http://olympics.athletesinaction.org/prayer-strategy/)
For His glory,
Pete and Carra
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