confessions of a homebody

For the past 3 or 4 years, March has been crazy for this little Rae family.  This coming month is no exception. We are leading retreats in Florida, Ohio, and Ecuador, leaving us at home together for a total of 5 days the entire month!

 

Though I am a homebody, I am very excited for these trips – I will have the opportunity to lead Lectio Divina prayer sessions, set up multiple “worship experience” sessions, be a counselor, write devotionals for morning quiet times, and help where needed.

While away, I will inevitably go through my “I just wanna go home” emotional freak-out (Homebodies, you know what I mean!)  This will probably hit me about ½ way through Ecuador, as it always does.  I think the distance is a huge factor, plus it’s just a long time to be gone (2 weeks).

 

I think it may be different this year, though.  Lately, life has been a training ground for dependence on Christ.  I have felt so stripped – so bare, so emptied… with nothing left to offer.  I have discovered how it feels to have nothing to cling to except my dependence upon His mercy and grace.

Through His kindness and patience I am beginning to grasp how He provides, prepares, softens, loves, cares, gives… I group this all into the idea of His “goodness.”  This goodness is deep, solid, and truth.  It is not necessarily happy, but it is so deeply good.

I find myself compulsively trusting this deeply good God, striving after Him, seeking His face and heart…

I pray that He will help me to depend only on Him, even with the smaller things in life – like homesickness in Ecuador.

 

Much love, Court

To all the Marionettes

Court and I were asked to lead a retreat at Water’s Edge student ministries in Orlando, Florida. A good friend of mine named Ken is one of the youth pastors there. The retreat is for junior high students and will take place in March. I was asked to help come up with a title for the retreat. Ken shared that he wanted the retreat to focus on “being the church” instead of just “going to church.” I thought long and hard and the thought that kept resurfacing was a line from an old Thousand Foot Krutch song called “Puppet.”

“Wake me, c’mon and wake me up now I
Want to cut off my strings and break

Loose of your control of me,
Cut your strings and be free with me,

Everybody, shake your body,
Lift your hands, stop frontin’,
You’re just a puppet”

That led me to call the retreat “Quit frontin’ you’re just a puppet.” I pitched the idea to Ken and he shortened it to “Quit frontin’.” I’m pretty stoked. I sent Ken this image to promote the retreat. It may be a bit much for 7th and 8th graders but it works.

I have a lunch meeting today with Dr. Smith from The Chapel. I’m pretty stoked to get caught up on life with him. He seriously is one the most creative speakers I have ever heard/seen. Feel free to visit his blog “Incoherence” and check out what he spoke on December 30th of 2007. He actually has two entries on his blog regarding this sermon:

Happy New Year

Teaching Tool (peace of mind)

A full version of Dave’s message is available on iTunes for free (if you do not have iTunes you must download it. It’s a free application). Search “The Chapel, Akron, Ohio” in the iTunes search engine. This will prompt you to pick from Akron, Green, or Illuminate. Choose “Illuminate” and download their podcasts. Dave’s is entitled “Yoke” and was delivered on December 30th.

Word. A-Rae

constantly amazed…

 

Every day Aaron shows me his love in new ways.  

This was his latest…

 

 

 

I came home to candles, roses, and my favorite tea waiting in the living room.  

I worked on homework while he finished getting dinner ready…

 

Appetizer: soup (from scratch) & crusty bread

Main Course: crusted steak, glazed chicken, steamed asparagus and snow peas, grilled yellow squash and grilled tomatoes

Dessert: tiramisu (he even made the cream from scratch!)

 

I just wanted to brag on my man!

 

 

much love, Court 

his Barney t-shirt broke my heart…

Aaron & I were at a Compassion International sponsorship table at the Alive Festival.  We wanted to do something, actually do something, instead of just talking about making a difference.  We decided to sponsor a child, desiring to find one in a country that we might be able to visit one day (such as Guatemala).

 

We came across Rony’s picture and actually laughed out loud – he had captivated our hearts.  His face conveyed a rock-start attitude, with his little “scowl” and furrowed brow.  He might have pulled off his tough-guy attitude if he hadn’t been wearing a cute, happy Barney t-shirt…

Rony’s picture hangs on our fridge, and day after day we have been reminded to pray for him.  We write letters and often try to send stickers and coloring pages his way.  When Rony writes, he always sends us a picture that is “drawn with love” for us.

 

His scowl and adorable t-shirt have been replaced by a young man who is growing up before our eyes.

 

Rony, may the Lord bless you and keep you.  May he make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.  (Numbers 6:24-26)

 

Much love, Aaron & Court

Neighbor?

“The world is desperately in need of people who will break themselves open and pour themselves out for the reconciliation of all things – that’s what the world needs” 

I came across this quote today while in a bookstore at Legacy village called Joseph-beth. It caught my attention and made me ask a serious question. Am I truly willing to pour into a new community – To be broken and used however God chooses? We should be willing and daring enough to ask ourselves this question and to love our neighbors as ourselves. I know that the immediate question most people ask is “Who is my neighbor?” We quickly look for an easy definition to try to get out of the hard call to love. My challenge this week is to pray through these thoughts.

 

On a fun note, I was able to go to a concert Tuesday night with Court, Gatti, and Brumfield. Third Eye Blind is a band I had always wanted to see live but never had. A good friend of mine works at Kent State and we were able to snag tickets for $10. The show was great and they played some of my favorites. I was a little bit disappointed that they didn’t play “God of Wine.” All things considered, though, they were great live. 

After the concert, we braved the elements and made our way to the vehicle. I would like to start by saying that there are certain rules that accompany traffic patterns post event. For example… everyone knows that it is common courtesy to let every other car go when there is an intersection in a parking lot. This brings us to the situation at hand. I made my way to an intersection where I politely waited to enter in said line. I let the car to my right go and it should have been my turn to go, yes? Anyway, a lady that I will refer to as “Grumpy Pants” went out of turn instead of allowing me to go. Some nerve, right? I rolled my window down and explained to her how concert/event traffic is supposed to work. She didn’t respond. Maybe it was because I laid on the horn for a good 20 seconds before I rolled down the window. All that to say that after I read that quote this afternoon it made me realize that i had not been a good neighbor to Grumpy Pants. (Did I mention the band was great?)

 

Wednesday evening Court and I headed over to the Smith’s house to hang with Dave and Jen. We began the night with Market Spice tea and the ladies stayed in the kitchen talking while Dave and I entered the online battle known as Halo III. It was a great evening. If you have some free time, check out Dave’s blog which is linked to his picture.

 

Word. A-Rae

 

yep, that’s my man!

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This is the Aaron that I know – silly, fun, my best friend…

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Uganda

I’m copying Bunns on this, because I’m hooked on Ragamuffin Soul’s blog, too…

There’s a blog over there on the right called Ragamuffin Soul. It’s written by the Service Programming Director at Buckhead Church, Carlos Whitaker. Carlos has one of the most popular blogs in the Christian realm and is read by almost 2000 people a day. He’s got some great insight and a great blog.

He’s been invited to go to Uganda by Compassion with other big bloggers to write about their experiences there. I’m so excited that Compassion is taking advantage of this new media.

So, I encourage you to travel to Uganda (with Carlos and friends):

Los and others are traveling & blogging  to “spread the good love that Compassion International is doing in Uganda.  The BIG point of this trip is to get children sponsored.”

Check it out. 

 

Much love,  Courtney

Altered Mesh loves me

I had the privilege of leading worship at Grace Bible Church this past Wednesday night. Joel, one of my best friends, is the youth pastor there. I do believe he has two of the sweetest names that I’ve ever heard for his junior and senior high ministry: ‘PopJoy’ is their junior high ministry and ‘Altered Mesh’ is their senior high ministry. This was the final week in their series discussing “Trust and Doubt.” Joel spoke and I led worship on acoustic. I played the following songs:

King of Love – Lovelite
Beautiful the Blood – Steve Fee
Mighty to Save – Hillsong
‘Til I See You – Hillsong United
From the Inside Out – Hillsong United

After the service Court and I rocked out some Weezer on Guitar Hero and she won. I know, I know, don’t give me any grief about it. Then I was able to partake in some Doritos (original nacho flavor, of course) and Pepsi with the students. Joel, being the most excellent host that he always is, treated us to Applebee’s afterwards as a “thank you” for leading worship.

This is Joel hard at work making some mochas for his students:

The past two days I’ve been pent up in Panera with Jeff. We’ve been working on several different things for Vision. Multiple phone calls were made in the hopes of finding a place where our church can meet come September. The options are slim but I think we might have found a few possibilities. If you think about it, pray that God will lead us to the right place.

Word. A-Rae.

Chuck E., Superbowl, Tea.

The past few days have been great here at Vision. We were able to get a ton of work done for our March 22nd outreach at Chuck E. Cheese. We drove up to Mayfield Heights on Friday to meet with the General Manager. He was so welcoming and accommodating. He’s giving us floor space to set up all the things necessary to pull off the event, as well as providing us with Chuck E Cheese all day for pictures with students. Seriously, this event is coming together incredibly well!

This past week there was a ton of talk in the sports world about the Patriots’ undefeated season. They were constantly being compared to the ’72 Dolphins (the only team to have an undefeated season and win the Superbowl). I was able to watch the game with friends and saw one of the best Superbowl games ever. In the end though, the Giants were victorious. Hats off to Eli Manning and his MVP performance. Long live the underdog!

 

This morning I’m enjoying a cup of Market Spice tea. Years ago, a good friend of mine, “Graphic Scott,” introduced me to it. I’m now officially hooked. If you are a tea person, I would highly suggest giving it a try.

I hope this finds you doing well.

Word. A-Rae