Carnival: the end

Thank you to alumni Louis and Nancy Krelle, Darrick White, Drew McKeown, and Jayson Vincent for volunteering at the carnival today. (And if I missed you, my apologies and let me know!) The event was a definite success, with nearly $4000 raised to support ACTS. It was also a great opportunity for current students, alumni, and church members to meet or catch up, not to mention families to enjoy a Sunday afternoon together. Again, thank you!

Carnival, again

A.J. has requested that alumni who are available and interested come help at the carnival this Sunday, January 24th at McKnight Road Church of Christ. We would love to have at least one game completely run by alumni. This is a great opportunity for those of us who live in St. Louis to support ACTS, as well as form connections with current members and supporters of ACTS. And best of all, it's a really fun event!
Are you in? The carnival will run from 11:30-3:30. Sign up for a 2-hour shift at the beginning or end, or stay for the entire time. My husband Drew and I will be working from 1:30-3:30, and I've heard it on good authority that Louis Krelle will be working the entire time. If you can come, please comment on this post and let us know to expect you.
Hope to see you there!

Carnival

If you are in St. Louis, the ACTS annual carnival is fast approaching - January 24th from 11:30 to 3:30 at McKnight Road Church of Christ. Hope to see you there!

The reason

I have been making an effort this December to keep 'the reason for the season' in mind. For as long as I can remember, I have capital-L Loved Christmas time - the beautiful decorations, the fun music, the presents, the parties, and on and on. But it is often very difficult to remember this whole list is only because the creator of the universe sent His son down so that He could be born only to....die. Because of me and my sins.
It would be easy to start a rant against politically correct, secular culture destroying my Christmas contemplations, but it would not be fair. I am responsible for my own often-wandering focus. So my question is, how do you turn your attention to Jesus, His birth, His love, His life, the miracle of it all during Christmas time? How do you tune out distractions so you can worship?

When I was a child my family had Advent devotionals every night during the four weeks leading up to Christmas. Each day had a particular symbol on the Advent calendar, and each symbol had a specific meaning and Bible verse that went with it. We would go through that day's symbol, sing Christmas carols, and pray. It was a wonderful tradition that did a great job of preparing our hearts for Christmas day.
I have tried to spend more time in prayer, especially giving thanks for the season and what I love about it. Christmas time is a gift from God, and I have tried to tell Him 'thank you' more often.
I am also working to be more mindful of the lyrics to familiar Christmas carols as I sing or listen to them. I have been listening to the same Christmas songs for twenty-five years now and it is very easy to go through a song without giving a second thought to its meaning. I just put my brain and mouth on autopilot and off I go. But, these songs have been sung for decades or even centuries for a reason - they are beautiful, and they are meaningful. When I remember that I have a much more meaningful worship time.
On that note (sorry for the horrible pun), I leave you with this:

O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Savior's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
O'er the world a star is sweetly gleaming,
Now come the wise men from out of the Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our friend.
He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger,
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!

Let's go

I have been having random, inexplicable Internet problems lately which delayed this post even further, but finally, here it is:

So what is this group anyway? A social network? A continuing Bible study for those no longer in college? A support system for the current members of ACTS?
Let's start dreaming.
What do you want? What do you envision this group becoming? Do we want to be primarily focused on our own members or focused on others? We can't do it all, but we can do some of it really well. ACTS equipped us for that.
With all that said, a while back I asked A.J. for his wish list from our group. These are some of the ideas he mentioned, in his words:

We definitely need finances but who doesn't? It would be nice if there was some kind of goal that the group would rally behind.
Ideas:
* Base support for a full-time Intern - $12,000-$15,000 a year
* Student Missions Scholarship Fund - to be used for students going on missions (Panama, Uganda, Honduras or even Southern Christian Childrens Home). Anything would help but setting a $ goal would probably be most effective. Maybe someone would take this and run with it. It would take rallying Alumni around the idea.

* Going to a conference together.

* Returning to St. Louis and meeting Alumni. This could be done during the Carnival in January or the Seniors End of Year Celebration in late April.

* There could also be a special day or weekend such as a Student Spiritual Leadership Development Conference - that could be put on by Alumi.

*On Fridays we do a lot of testimonials now so people could come to that, or something I think would be really cool is to have video testimonials from Alumni. If someone knows how to do that then people wouldn't have to leave home/set aside travel time ect...yet our current students could link to the past and Alumni could share all kinds of things, do funny videos etc... There is no limit to what we could do.

Of course I'd be more than willing to help with any of these things.

Let me know ways in which I can help you make things happen. I'm willing to do anything. Someone suggested that I spend some time traveling and meeting with Alumni from out of town. I'd be willing to do that also if there were interest.


I am not including this as pressure but to make us aware of what the needs of ACTS are. Do we want to work to meet them, or do something else?
Okay, discuss.

You must see this.

Hello friends,
The 'wish list' is coming soon. Promise.
I do not in any way intend for this blog to become my personal soapbox, but I must share this with you. I just returned a few hours ago from a women's retreat through my church. While there I heard about this amazing organization called Advent Conspiracy. I just checked out their website, watched the opening video, and shocked myself by bursting into tears. You know how it feels when you find something that you didn't even realize you were looking for? That's how I feel right now.
Go. Check it out. Now.

Neglectful

Hello everyone,
I have been in the middle of a very busy period and haven't had time to post lately. I apologize for the quiet period.
I have received A.J.'s 'wish list' of ideas for how our group can help the current ACTS group, and I will post it soon. In the meantime, please continue to pray and brainstorm ideas for how we can best serve them. And, send in your profile if you haven't done so already!
More to come soon...have a wonderful weekend everyone.