Pumpkins Galore

Sarah left early this morning. It was such a blessing to have her here, do life together again for a bit and have some fun. She spoke into my life as she often does and I hope I was some form of encouragement as she makes a decision as to where she feels lead to land…either NOLA, or London.

Believe it or not, this was when it was much better!

Later that day when I woke up (like 11am!) I found my left eye had swollen for no particular reason. Determined to not let it bother me, I ventured out with Chad to Whole Foods to pick up some pumpkins to carve with the kiddos that day. We all had a good time picking out what we were going to do and then executing it. I have carved pumpkins since a wee child, so I know what it takes and I always like to challenge myself. Most of the kids knew what they wanted to do. Logan and I sat at the computer contemplating which ones. He kept trying to get me to print off something I knew Mike wouldn’t want him doing, this is our conversation.
Logan…How about the RIP
Me…Go ask your dad
Logan…Ummm, ok, then how about….what’s a banshee? Oooo, I like the skull!
Me…Go ask your dad Logan!
Logan…Aaahhh, ok, either the alien or the bat…or the owl.
Me…Ok, you can only pick from those three
Logan…Let me see them all again….the bat…now the owl again, ummm I guess the bat. Yeah, the bat sounds good…don’t you think?!
I, of course, affirmed in the positive, printed out the bat and he was off. My decision came a bit later, but I decided on Captain Hook. It was a process let me tell you. Just outlining the pumpkin took ages. Then the tedious process of carving it out with all the little spots and holes and very, very thin pieces of pumpkin holding it all together. By the time I started this part everyone else had finished and I was the lone ranger outside, keeping an eye on the boys as they played in the yard. Not even married and already multi-tasking with the kids! ☺ Hours, and I do mean hours, later I finished. I had endured mocking from Mike saying it had become an obsession (and it kinda had), leg and backaches, on and off light showers and a swollen eye to come out with my masterpiece. All in all it was a great day, reminding me of my childhood memories and my family. I thank God that I am with people who are like my own family. I hunkered down in bed dreaming happily of my pumpkin attempting to defeat any Peter Pan pumpkins that were keen to invade my island (the front yard of the Brantley’s). Thankfully, I have Logan’s bat to ward off any other flying creature and Jordan’s pirate to be my first mate and army against the forces of the Lost Boys!

Mila

I have a job!!! YAY! I have just started work at Mila, a brand new restaurant opening up in the Pere Marquette Renaissance hotel in the CBD (Central Business District). The chef’s are amazing, young, vibrant and have worked in NY and had their own restaurant open just after Katrina hit. They decided to move into NOLA to open a Contemporary French Cuisine restaurant that is named after their home States Mi (Mississippi) and La (Louisiana). Slade and Allison have won great awards already, she won the James Beard (the culinary Oscar) award at a place in NY. So as we begin this journey of a new restaurant, I look forward to sharing my expertise and putting a little bit of my heart in this place. I know that this is the place God wants me through so many circumstances and I can rest that good things will come. I started training today and afterwards Sarah and I took a little trip to a Jazz and Blues festival to listen to some amazing music and hang in town. We later hooked up with the families and headed back into the Quarter to go to Café Du Monde (CDM) and trek around the streets for a bit. A busy day and I was tired!

R.A.K.

Random (or not so random) Acts of Kindness. Logan Brantley's teacher Miss Rona is this amazing lady who survived all the Katrina bestowed on her and her home. Miss Rona is one of our new friends and people we are journeying with. Her home was devastated in the storm and she was living in a FEMA trailer until about 3 weeks ago when a team from Adulum in Colorado came out to repair leaks in her roof. This was just one thing they did and just one thing that stopped water from pouring into her house, but to Rona, it was life changing. It meant she could move out of her trailer, start making her home well, home again. Last week while Sarah was in town Mike, Cindy, Sarah, Chad, myself and even Nicholas helped put together some furniture for her home. Snack time!

As she is a teacher, Miss Rona doesn't have much time and I daresay energy (either physical or emotional) to really work on her house. This is a way we can really love on her; open our hearts to who we are and allow her to be open with us as we are with her. She has already told us that we have been a blessing and angels. What a joy to know that simple things that we do to decorate our house could be so life giving. I love Rona, she is strong, spirited, passionate and loves to cook, we get along great! I'm sure I'll share more about her as our lives meld together.
You can still see the water line on the glass where the water rested in her home

Make new friends, but keep the old ones

My good friend Sarah Lloyd is here in New Orleans to visit, check us out and see me! Well, not just me, but it is fun and a bit of a bonus. I first met Sarah in Glasgow when we were participants in NieuCommunities together from '04 to '05 We've had a good time catching up, sharing our hearts and seeing what God has next for her. She has been living in the UK for the past three years and would love to continue to live there and do ministry there (she's been at a Prayer and Healing school this year) in the form of training and teaching. So as we journey with her while she is in our community, we welcome who she is, her wisdom and fun spirit. I love this girl and she has been a soul friend ever since my time in Glasgow. We've been through the French Quarter (but have more to um...experience there! No worries, mainly Cafe Du Monde and Jackson Square, no Girls Gone Wild here!) A little celebration of being back together again, we got some wine and went to my favorite cheese shop on Prytania and had a lovely cheese plate created by our new friend Eric. Sarah and I sat on the patio and watched the cars go by, enjoyed the slight down pour, nibbled on the cheese and sipped the vino. We also went shopping (she LOVES American grocery stores) and found grits which our friend Chris McKenzie loves...so we took a picture to send to him, cause we're goofballs. Good times. As she continues her time here and we have those heart to hearts, I am so grateful for this blessed friend. I think back to the time that we didn't know each other, hm...it's odd to think there was a point she wasn't in my life. I know she feels the same...she actually blogged about this very thing just about a year ago! More pictures to come of us and our time here and thoughts, but for now this is it.

California Girl

The past two weeks I have been on vacation in S. and N. California. I visited my Nana and Papa in Reseda (the Valley) and had a great time. I started reading the Harry Potter series (my Papa has thousands of books, I'm so serious) and we celebrated my birthday by going to our favorite pastry shop. We cooked paella and had a great time together. I headed down to the OC and met up with my good friends Ian and Megan. I celebrated my 28th birthday on Friday the 5th, went out to brunch, got to chill at Laguna Canyon beach and had a family BBQ at Megan's. Ian and Megan got married on Oct 6th in Santa Ana at this wonderful place called the Hacienda. I left the next day for San Francisco and met up with my parents (who flew in from Chicago) to visit my Uncle Bob and Jane in Jenner, where the Russian River meets the Ocean. It was amazing to see the rolling golden hills, the glimmering ocean, huge rocks out in the water, breath taking cliffs and all sorts of nature.

My parents and I took a drive up the PCH with the top down on their car, stopped at this amazing place for lunch right on the ocean and hung out on the beach and read. We then headed down to Sonoma but on the way stopped by the place where we lived until I was 7. That was crazy and a bit fun to remember times at that house. Of course we went to a winery on the way to Sonoma to visit my Aunt Katharine, went to another in Sonoma and then headed out to Napa for dinner at Bistro Jeanty, a quaint little French place (and had more wine!) Hey when you're in the wine country do as the Romans do right?! :) Mom and dad left the next day and Katharine and I hung out more in Napa and Sonoma.
We went to Opus One a beautiful winery with fabulous (and expensive) wine and only tasted...the price for the bottle was too rich even for my high-class tastes!
It was then off to San Fran to hang with my cousins (Franz and Michelle) in the Mission District. Good times there and I LOVE that area, loads of coffee shops, amazing places to eat, cool clothing shops, vintage stores and great Latin culture. I tooled around the city, went to SF Museum of Modern Art, had lunch at an amazing Cuban cafe and road the bus home...all in the rain! My other cousin Ben and his girlfriend Carla drove up from Santa Cruz to meet me there and we ate at Range, a great restaurant in San Fran that Michelle works at as the head pastry chef (she's amazing and one of the best in the city). Down south we went that night into the mountains near Santa Cruz to a little town in the redwood forest.
Ben has this great house on the top of this hill/mountain/thing surrounded by forest and nothing else. Ah, peace and quiet once again. I got to relive my childhood memories of Santa Cruz and the boardwalk the next day. This is another town I could see myself in...cool, crazy, tatted up, funky people. We headed to the pier and then to the boardwalk and rode on the 4th oldest wooden rollercoaster. Ah, I felt like a kid again. I finished the night off with dinner at a great crepe place (I had Alexander the Crepe!) I have a thing for cheesy names like that. After 3 hours of playing the wii late into the night (and getting my rear kicked) I headed to bed for a short stint, then up to go to the airport and head home. I had a flight delay in LAX, which made my long layover even longer so I got to spend nearly six hours in the United terminal...oh, joy! It was a blessing to finally be back in my bed in my home on Octavia street. I call this home now and it feels like home. So now to venture on into life here in NOLA and whatever comes next.

Life in Nawlins

It's official. I now live in New Orleans, NOLA, Nawlins, the Crescent City, Mardi Gras central...and it goes on. I've been in this blessed city for a month now and still adjusting to life down here. I must say that the speed is much more my style, very slow and relaxing in comparison to Chicago and the busy pace of life. I love this city for so many reasons, mostly because of the people. Those that have come back to rebuild this city LOVE their home and their lives. So many people have asked me, "Why rebuild, it's just going to happen again." It could happen again, but it doesn't matter to those who this is all they know and it's been that way for generations.
The history in this city is so rich and deep. Mind you, it's not always pleasant, but it is what it is and that's why the city is that way. I'm here to rebuild...emotionally, physically, spiritually and in any other way I can be of help. I cannot do it alone and thus I have two other fabulous families journeying with me. As we make our way into the heart of this city, we desire to move and change and be moved and changed to reflect the light that is deep within our souls. So look forward for more to come, big events, little miniscule things of daily life, but those almost always bring the most joy. So glad to be back here and can't wait to hear what you think. Blessings!!!

Long time a comin'

I know that my life is crazy when I have no time to do anything, yet I have all the time in the world to do stuff. Ah, details...my nemesis! If only I had the ability to do all that I want to do AND remember to do all the things I wrote down to do. Does that make sense to anyone else? Most likely not, and that's ok. So here is my commitment to really starting to blog again and keeping all my followers (HA!) updated with news and life events. My thoughts will be shared, my soul laid bare and most likely my desire to be more detail oriented will begin!

Finally an update

Me at Loyola University

Hello everyone...I know it's been ages and I apologize. Lots of things have been going on. This is my letter I've sent out to people. I'll begin to update more once again. Thank you for your understanding. Blessings!

This year has been one of the most difficult and challenging times of my life. My life’s journey has taken a path into the unexpected, akin to that of Frodo Baggins in Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings. Although an often used analogy, I honestly feel that I have traveled from the Shire, to unknown lands, and finally to the dark recesses of Mordor. Yet, there is always hope, things have and will change!

You may recall that last year I had planned on working in New Zealand with TSCF (a campus ministry like Intervarsity). Through various circumstances, I came to realize that New Zealand was not where I was meant to be at this time. This change has been a hard thing to accept since I was so sure that TSCF was what was “next” for me. So what is “next” for me?
This coming Summer I will be moving to New Orleans to work with a mission organization called Church Resource Ministries (CRM). In October, I had the opportunity to visit New Orleans and stay with Mike and Susanne Brantley, who I had met in New Zealand in 2005, through mutual friends from NieuCommunities (a branch of CRM). Last year, the Brantley’s moved from New Zealand to New Orleans to begin a new ministry called Communitas, of which I have been invited to join.

There is a reality today that a 65-85% of people in Western cultures have no desire or context for conventional church. The core of Communitas is to innovate models of mission and church by being a relevant and authentic community of people, who love and display Jesus to those beyond the reach of church. We desire to live sacrificial lives, loving the world into the Kingdom of Jesus, and creating a genuine place for people to come and talk about God and spirituality.
Jackson Square

New Orleans is still a place that is in pain even nearly two years after hurricane Katrina and is “a place Jesus would go”. I want to be a part of the healing emotionally, spiritually and physically, bringing hope in real ways to hurting individuals. I am dedicated to birth a church so Biblical, but in form is culturally relevant that I along with my team (Brantley’s & Chad and Cindy Carlson) can demonstrate a holistic Gospel that those people can “see”, “understand” and engage in real relationships.

When I was in New Orleans, I saw the desperate need for developing the next generation of leaders and creating a safe place for students to talk about God and spiritual issues. My vision is to work with young leaders, being a spiritual catalyst, journeying together, empowering them, developing their love for Christ through the Word, Prayer, Community and Mission, so that they might go out and make Jesus known.

Burbon Street and Touchdown Jesus

I invite you to be a part of this crucial ministry with me and to share in its blessings by either supporting me with your prayers, letters, calls, personal visits, and/or financial gifts. I need to raise monthly support of $3700 before I leave in August. This would cover my stipend, housing, ministry expenses, health insurance and continued ministry education. While this seems a lot, it is merely 37 people at $100/month, 53 people at $70/month, 72 people at $50/month, etc. (Go to www.crmleaders.org and hit Support link) Thank you so much for journeying along with me through the good and hard times and for your support as I head to New Orleans.
Beth :)