Chocolate Fair...One Week To Go

Get ready to save some room for chocolate confections of all kinds. The 2nd Annual St. Peter's Chocolate Fair is happening next Saturday, February 7 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Our address is 18001 Detroit Avenue, Lakewood, Ohio 44107 and you can find parking in the back of the church (entrance off West Clifton) or along the street. There will be signage to direct you downstairs to the Fair. There is no fee to enter the fair, but each station at the fair (including a chocolate fountain, hot chocolate, cookie decorating, and bake sale) will have their separate charges.

Funds raised will benefit the Cleveland Food Bank.

We hope to see you there!

Prayer Requests

You may have noticed a new section on the left column of our blog...it's an opportunity to let send us your prayer requests for yourself or someone else. Please see the Prayer Request section at the left for more information. Also, this is where we will be posting an outline of the current prayer requests. If you do send us a request, please provide us with updates as the situation changes so we can let those praying know. We hope this will provide you with a greater opportunity to feel connected to God and the body of Christ. :)

40 Day Bible Feast

It is exactly one month until Ash Wednesday...the first day of Lent, so it seems fitting to post about the Feast on this day.

What is the Feast? This year, our family is going to take on the challenge of reading only the Bible for the 40 days of Lent. That’s right…no newspapers, magazines, novels and other books, devotionals, etc. which take up our recreational reading time. We are inviting you to join us in this adventure not only for some much needed encouragement, support and accountability but also because we know God will richly bless our time spent with Him in His Word. (This also is a type of fast, since we're fasting from non-Biblical reading material, but I'd rather focus on what we're filling ourselves up with instead of what we're "denying" ourselves).

Intrigued? If you would like to take on this challenge, please sign up by leaving a comment with your name and email. By signing up, we can encourage one another in conversation and prayer through the 40 days and discuss how God is transforming our minds as we feast on the Bible. We will try to journal as much as possible about this experience on the blog, so even if you aren’t participating in the 40 Day Bible Feast, please check out how we’re doing through the blog’s entries. We also encourage you to share your experience as you go through the Feast or even your thoughts as you read about ours.

We'll post more details about what the Feast will entail closer to February 25...so stay tuned. In the meantime, spend some quiet time with God in prayer on whether this is something you'd like to take on and to prepare your heart, body and mind for this journey (for the enemy will try to dissuade us from fulfilling the 40 days).

Love in Christ,
David & Andrea

Chocolate Fair...mmmmm...chocolate!

If you like chocolate (and I imagine you do :) ), and you're in our area, mark your calendar for our Chocolate Fair on February 7 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. There will be signage to direct you downstairs to the Fair. Parking is in the back of the church (entrance off West Clifton) or along the street. Spread the word! Funds raised will benefit the Cleveland Food Bank.

Organizing Idea

January seems to be a month where people take stock of what they'd like to change/do better/get rid of, maybe it's the whole New Year's resolution thing. In fact, January is designated as "Get Organized" month.


Though making New Year's resolutions has never been a big thing for me, organizing is just part of my nature. And, taking down the Christmas decorations and decluttering the house seems to invite a fresh perspective on how to simplify life and tighten the organization belt.


With three small children and increasing commitments, keeping a family calendar in a high traffic area of the house was something we needed greatly. In the past, I attempted to do this but the calendar I created to go on the fridge was more of a pain to maintain and went from being a few weeks, to a month or more behind, so I abandoned it.


Though paper calendars may work for many people, I wanted to come up with a solution that didn't cost me money each year and saved some trees...I like to be as green as can be. Plus, it had to meet my requirements of being somewhat safe from the hands-on curiosity of our kids, easy to maintain, look good and fit within the limited wallspace of our kitchen (a high traffic zone), and be inexpensive.


Here's what I came up with:

• I found a picture frame in our house which wasn't being used.
• After measuring the dimensions of the viewable area, I measured seven columns (for the days of the week) and six rows (for the weeks in one month) on white pieces of paper, drew lines with a pencil and traced over the pencil lines in black marker. Note: I made the top row a little narrower than the rest of the rows since this would be used just for writing in the current month.
• Then, I inserted the paper into the picture frame (behind the glass).
• Voila, instant customizable calendar.
• I use dry erase markers to write in the dates and activities and all it takes to wipe it off is a little water and some paper towel. So easy!
• The best thing (for me) is that is cost nothing because I had all the materials on hand.
• The great thing (for everyone) is that you can adapt this idea by choosing a picture frame size which accomodates your family's needs (bigger families would probably need a larger frame), and the choice of colors in dry erase markers can make it easier to distinguish who is doing what.

I applied a similar idea for a message board which hangs above our phone. Here's a picture of what that looks like, so you'll have an idea of how the calendar looks:

For this project, all I needed to do was print out "Messages" on an 8 1/2 x 11" paper, cut it to fit the frame and insert it behind the glass. I love this because you can customize the look of the font and, because I love Scripture, I added a verse which seemed to fit the "theme" of this project. As with the calendar, it provided something which is highly visible, re-purposed items in our home, is easy to maintain and looks classier than many memo board options.

If you have any questions about these projects or have some organization ideas of your own that you'd like to share, please leave a comment with this post.

Andrea

Editors Wanted

Since the the thing which makes a blog appealing and attracts readers is frequent posts (at minimum once per week, though once every other day or more is ideal). Since this is a huge job for one person and because we desire the blog to be diverse and about community, we are searching for 3-4 additional blog editors to submit regular contributions to the blog and provide creative input as to what the blog will contain. Each editor would be responsible for a minimum of one contribution for one week each month (if we get 4-5 editors on board). The contribution could be written or it may even be a photograph of your original work if photography is something God has gifted you with.

If you are interested in contributing to the blog as an editor, please leave a comment to this post with your email info.

Check This Out...

I was on Beth Moore's blog the other day (she's one of my favorite Bible study teachers) and she felt led to memorize two Scripture verses each month (on the first and fifteenth) for this year. Knowing it's better to have accountability in endeavors such as this, she thought to post it on her blog and see if others would like to join her. Memorizing Scripture is a great way to enhance your connection to God and it's helped me in my prayers and overcoming thoughts that are clearly from the enemy. Check out her blog at http://livingproofministries.blogspot.com/ if you're interested. It's not too late to sign up. Look at the December 27 and 31 posts for details and to comment if you're on board.

Love in Christ,
Andrea

Ringing It In...

Though I've never made a big deal out of New Year's or make resolutions, there is something about reflecting on the works God has wrought in the year past while anticipating (with excitement or fear) what will come in the next year. Often we remember the big things like a great vacation, some feat overcome, weddings, deaths, births, new jobs, losing a job, moving. But these are rarer occurances when we think what usually takes place for the majority of the 365/366 days of the year...

If you have a few moments and a calculator handy, work out the following (take an average number for one day of the year and multiply it my 366 since 2008 was a leap year). For 2008, estimate the number of hours you:

• slept
• spent eating
• spent in the car
• did chores
• watched TV
• were on the computer
• took to get ready for the day
• read
• read the Bible
• prayed

For me that would be:

• 2928 hours sleeping
• 732 hours eating
• 1098 hours in the car
• 732 hours doing routine chores
• 5 hours watching TV (does not include movie watching)
• 549 hours on the computer
• 183 hours getting ready for the day
• 274.5 hours reading
• of those reading hours, about 183 were spent reading the Bible
• 183 hours praying

If you're really into the numbers thing (I'm not but this is kind of interesting and revealing), use those hours to calculate how many days in the year those activities added up to.

For me, that would be:

• 122 days sleeping (can anyone say, Rip Van Wrinkle?)
• 30.5 days eating
• 45.75 days in the car (are we there yet?!)
• 30.5 days doing chores
• less than one day watching TV
• 23 days on the computer
• 7.5 days getting ready for the day
• 11.5 days reading
• of those 11.5 days, 7.5 were spent reading the Bible
• 7.5 days praying

Well this is a major revelation! Take a moment and look at your numbers. Meditate on what they mean. Looking at these numbers, brings a few questions to mind:

What would life be like if I daily spent more time praying and in the Word than in the car?

What would God say to me if I was more awake to His presence?

Are my times spent eating, sleeping, doing chores an act of worship or something which fades in the daily background of the mundane?

What has this exercise and time of reflection brought to mind for you? Any insights or thoughts on how this might shape your living the next year? What hopes do you have for what God will do in your life? How did He speak into your life last year? Please share your thoughts in the comment section to this post and may the God of Wonders fill you with His mighty presence this year and in the years to come.

Regardless of what this exercise has stirred within you, "[Do] not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day." (2 Peter 3:8 NIV)

The Editor