Community 4:12

Happy Retirement, Mom!!

One of the big reasons for coming to Minnesota this month was to help Scott's mom celebrate her retirement from 3M after 26 years of incredible service.  She's the beautiful one in red in the middle of this picture at W.A. Frost in St. Paul.  Thanks for the limo ride, Dad, and for a great evening together.  Mom, we love you and are so excited that you get to spend more time with us in Chicago!!!  We'll miss all that free tape you used to get us for the Christmas Event from 3M, but it will be much more fun to have you be able to come and serve with us at that event next year! 

Off to Minnesota

We're heading off to Minnesota to ring in the New Year with Scott's family.  It will be about 80 degrees colder than it was in this picture, but the cousins will have just as much fun playing in the snow as they did making kites with Gramma.

Any CCC attenders reading this may remember Shelly Gebhard--worship leader extraordinaire from a few years ago.  Well, she married Scott's brother, Tony, and they also live in Minneapolis, so if we're lucky, maybe she'll lead us in some singing on New Year's Eve!

I'm looking forward to a great start to a great new year!

No More Excuses

I can't tell you how many times over the past year I have said, "I wish I could speak Spanish!"  Well, my mom got tired of hearing me say that, so she got me Rosetta Stone for Christmas.  You can design your program to focus on reading or writing or speaking or listening or any combination.  I am starting out at level 3, because I've had years of the background grammar and basics and really now just need to build my vocabulary, learn how to understand when people talk so fast, and practice speaking, so I have built my program around listening and speaking. I spent about an hour doing it yesterday, and it is definitely a challenge, but I am much more impressed with this program than I have been with the umpteen other computer based programs I've tried.  Now if I can just carve out time each day to actually do it, maybe I will finally be able to stop whining.  Probably not, but maybe I'll whine a little less!

Holiday Fun

Same tradition, new friends to share it with.  Ever since the boys were very little, a highlight of the holiday season has been making a gingerbread house.  This year we invited one of our new friends to join in the fun with us.  She'd never even decorated Christmas cookies, so we had a blast showing her the American custom of decorating a little, eating a lot, decorating a little, and eating a lot more.  We told her next time it is her turn to show us how to make something.  Tamales anyone?  I am learning that the tradition that many families around here practice is spending Christmas Eve day making tamales and lots of food and then eating a feast leading up to midnight when all the gifts get opened.  Christmas Day is spent mostly sleeping.  My boys really liked that idea . . .  staying up until midnight and opening all the gifts on Christmas Eve?!  But when does Santa come?

I Love Doing Life With These Folks!

Had a blast at our Small Group Christmas party tonight!  I love doing life with these people.  If you aren't in a small group, you don't know what you are missing.  We've walked with each other through some real highs and real lows, and I can't imagine not having the support of these people.  I love you Ron & Kathy, Jorge & Kristen, Moe, Francisco, Jen, Shannon, Gabriela, and Aymette! 

Merry Christmas, Aurora!

5,435 toys.

260 volunteers setting up on Friday night.

600 volunteers at the event--at least half of whom were first time Community 4:12 volunteers.

Approximately 3,000 community members attended (the picture shows people lined up around the school to get in).

$9,562 raised for Brady and Bardwell Schools.

Smiles galore.  Lines for the prayer rooms (offered for the first time this year by Family and Faith Christian Center).  Many unchurched volunteers asking for more information about CCC and service times.  More groundwork layed for the planting of our East Aurora Campus to HPFTWBTG!

If you attended, leave a comment or send me an email with a story or feedback from the day! 

And The Winner Is . . .

And the final count came in tonight at 5,435---exactly 20 more than last year, and a very respectable amount of toys!  And we are trusting that it is just the amount God knows we need.

That means Tricia will be going to Starbucks on me!

What's Your Prediction?

On Sunday we had collected about 3,200 toys.  Our goal is 6,000.  I'm hoping we get to at least 5,000.  We've had lots of people step up in the past few days and we have another day before we set up the mart.  So, what's your prediction?  How many do you think we'll end up with?  We always ask the team of planners for the event (which is 40 people this year) to make their prediction and then we give the person who is closest a funny toy that Event Planner extraordinaire, Beth, so creatively picks out every year.  So, let's have our own little competition here.  Post your prediction in a comment.  Given that Starbucks is donating coffee and snacks for 550 volunteers on Saturday and providing a team of volunteers to help that day, I"ll support them by sending a Starbucks gift card to the person who comes closest to the actual number--which we will know on Friday night.   

2,800 To Go!

Good News:  The weather held out for our East Aurora Toy Collectioin this weekend!

Good News: With toy and cash donations, we are up to about 3,200 toys.

Bad News:  We still need 2,800 more in order to meet our goal of 6,000.

GREAT NEWS:  You can still bring your money or toys to the Naperville Yellow Box until Wednesday!

Mountains Moved

Every year in January, I write down 3 - 4 Mountain Moving Prayers.  Some of them are prayers I have been praying for years, others are new for the year.  This year, as of Dec.1st, 3 of my 4 Mountain Prayers had been answered.  And this weekend, the 4th has been answered.  And this is a prayer I have been praying for 7 years.  And the answer came in a video.  Click here and click on the video version of the Dec. 8/9th message from CCC.  What a God-size journey we are starting!