Matt Chandler

Preston and I have been frequenting The Branch in Dallas for church but occasionally make our way over to The Village just to hear Matt Chandler preach. Matt Chandler is the senior pastor of The Village and is one of those people who has an evident gift of public speaking. He graduated from Hardin Simmons in Abilene and used to preach at a Tuesday night devotional called Grace which I attended occasionally while at ACU (after his time). He's funny, smart and simple with his sermons; easy to listen to and easy to understand. In fact, Preston and I will often download his podcasts onto our iPods to listen to on long trips or in the car together.

Last Thanksgiving (2009) Matt was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. He is only 35 years old and has a wife and 2 children, one of whom was born this past summer. It has been heartbreaking to hear his story and watch as he continues doing what he does best in full faith of what God has in store for his life. As horrible as it is for him to have to endure the treatment for this tumor, he is a remarkable example of how faith can remain evident in even the darkest situations. Last week the Associated Press published a story about Matt's condition. The story has already been picked up by several outlets across the country including The New York Times and the Washington Post. I wanted to post the links to his story because I think it is a great witness to those who have suffered, are suffering, will suffer or know someone who suffers with a deadly disease. Matt's example has already been a beacon of peace in my life and I can only imagine how much more of a blessing it would be if I were in a situation similar to his. I hope that you will be blessed by his story because I think that's God's plan. I don't pretend to know how God works, but I have a good feeling he's working hard on this. In one of his first sermons after discovering the tumor, Matt asked that we pray for 5 things: complete physical healing for Matt, wisdom for his doctors, his children's salvation, strength (for everyone) and for the Village Church members as a whole. Please pray for these things for Matt.

Here are the articles...

The New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/31/us/AP-US-REL-The-Pastors-Cancer.html?scp=1&sq=matt%20chandler&st=cse

The full article by the AP: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100131/ap_on_re/us_rel_the_pastor_s_cancer_1

Matt Chandler gives often updates on the status of his treatment via video on The Village Pastor blog which you can access here: http://fm.thevillagechurch.net/blog/pastors/

ACU Gone National

ACU appeared on NBC Nightly News the other night in reference to it's advancement in technology education due to Apple's release of the iPad. We were the ONLY school mentioned in the story...not gonna lie, we're pretty proud! AND Preston's uncle Grant, who works as ACU's public relations director, is the one filming the video of the news story. (You can hear him cheer a little at the end of the clip). Here's the link to ACU's blog post about it: http://blogs.acu.edu/acutoday/ 

and here's the video:

E-Trade Commercial

This commercial is hilarious. Kuddos to you E-Trade though you should have saved it for the Superbowl...

Thanks Santa!

So I asked for some strange things for Christmas this year but I'm sure glad I did. Here are my reviews of some of the gifts Santa brought me.

A friend of mine who works at Starbucks told me they use whipped cream dispensers to make their wonderfully amazing whipped cream and since I LOVE Starbucks' whipped cream, I decided to add it to my Christmas list. I don't think I'm a snob but I would certainly call myself a whipped cream snob. (Oh and an ice cream snob but that's off topic.) Anyway, I just really love this new gadget because it is so easy to use and makes fresh whipped cream much faster than a mixer. Plus, once you make it you just put the dispenser in the fridge and use as needed! Voila!

And now I can make crepes for breakfast whenever I want to!

Another gift I ADORE is my new Roomba. Did you know there are some girls out there who actually love to vacuum?! This astounds me because I am just going to be honest here: I hate it.  HATE it. So I asked for a robot vacuum for Christmas and I don't regret it one bit. Roomba has become part of our family though there is still discussion as to whether it is a boy or a girl. I say it's a boy and since it is MY vacuum I think I should get to pick the gender. Preston says it's a girl since girls do the vacuuming. I say Preston is lucky Roomba is around. Anyway all I have to do is press the "CLEAN" button on Roomba and he proceeds to clean the entire house on his own. Then when he starts to run out of batteries he just goes back to his docking station and charges himself. AND he tells me when he's full! AND he can run over cords/curtains/rug corners and knows NOT to suck them up! He's a genius. I don't know why everyone doesn't have one.

There's also one that that mops your floors called the Scooba. She (Scooba is a she I think) is welcome to join the family when we get a house with hard floors.

And of course I just can't say enough how much I love my new camera. I've already maxed out my memory card twice with it. I have always loved taking good pictures and since I don't have time to figure out how to do that, I love that my camera does it for me. Thank you Canon.

Oh and I also LOVE our new bedspread from Anthropologie. I had originally picked it out because it was pretty but boy is it soft too. Preston even noticed how comfortable it was. We are pretty big on comfortable bedding. This bedspread makes it difficult to get out of bed in the morning.

Thank you Santa! I just love gifts.

We went skiing in Breckenridge last week but I haven't blogged about it yet because my father-in-law is in the process of compiling a video from our trip and I would love to include it in the post so you'll just have to wait. In the meantime please enjoy this hilarious sign we saw in the grocery store in Breckenridge...

And here's a close-up of the bottom of the sign so you can read the captions. This guy should write comic strips. 

The Quill Pen

My cousins Chandra and Aubrey and my aunt Marsha create the most beautiful invitations and paper products you have ever seen and if you received a Christmas card from us, they did that too! Their company is The Quill Pen and they are responsible for the majority of invitations from my wedding. I wanted to post a few pictures of their work because I think they are genius at what they do AND they have a website now where you can browse more of their work!

These were my wedding invitations:

Our save-the-dates:

Our rehearsal dinner invitation:

 

The fans/programs from my wedding:

 

Our Christmas Cards:

Lyndsay and Kyle's shower invitation:

 

The fans/programs used at Chandra's wedding:

If you are interested in having them do your invitations, or any paper products for that matter, go to their website: http://quillpenonline.com/designs.html or email them at emailus@quillpenonline.com

What Difference Do It Make?

If you haven't read Same Kind of Different as Me you should. It will change your life...or it should. At least that's what I would have said when I finished reading it last year. But guess what? It didn't change my life. Sure I made an effort (if you can call it an effort). I found the Union Gospel Mission in Ft. Worth and sent them my resume to become a volunteer. Nothing happened. No one called. And that was that. Then I decided, after passing several homeless people on the streets of Dallas, that I would stock my car full of McDonald's gift cards to hand out whenever I'd see someone begging on the side of the road. It took me about 4 months but I finally bought four $5 gift cards and handed them out in less than a week. And that was that.

This morning I babysat my cousin Ella. I didn't have anything to do today and was delighted to be around my favorite little bundle of joy. While she was playing in Granny's closet I noticed a book on the floor that Granddad had received from my aunt and uncle for Christmas. It was What Difference Do It Make, the sequel to Same Kind of Different as Me. Considering how much I loved the first book and since I didn't have much else to do today while Ella watched Playhouse Disney and Barney, I decided to start it.

I didn't intend on finishing it in the same day.

Same Kind of Difference As Me is the story of a rich white man, his wife, and a homeless black man that develop a friendship as a result of the wife's dedication to helping the homeless. (That is a horrible synopsis but this is just one of those books you just need to read.) What Difference Do It Make is the continued story of Ron (the rich white man) and Denver (the former homeless black man) and the impact the first book had on readers around the nation. What Difference Do It Make made a difference...for me.


My favorite part of the sequel is Denver's take on the homeless and what we are to do about it from a spiritual perspective. His accounts of how homeless people feel about us (the "rich") are enlightening to say the least. I cannot begin to tell you how much I learned from hearing his side of the story. My other favorite part is Ron's 30 day plan, which I have posted below. I think it is a genius idea and that all churches should implement. I intend to look into starting with my own. Here is Ron's explanation of his idea:

After I'd encountered several ten-year plans that were already on year two or three with no real progress, I began to ask two questions..."How many homeless are in this city?" and "How many churches are in this city?" Interestingly, most of the time there are more churches than homeless. And if you count synagogues, temples, mosques, and other communities of faith with a spiritual mandate to care for the poor, the number of cities in which the faithful outnumber the homeless is likely near 100 percent.

After I ask audiences the question about the number of faith communities versus the number of homeless in their city, I present them what I call the Thirty-Day Plan to End Homelessness. It goes like this: How about if your pastor or rabbi or priest or imam motivates his or her own congregation to adopt one chronically homeless person. Each body of believers, whether it's fifty or a thousand strong, would assume collective responsibility for taking in one person and loving that person back into society.

Let's pretend for a moment that this person's name is Joe and the body of believers is the First Baptist Church ("FBC"), a congregation of three hundred people. The first order of business would be, of course, to befriend Joe. Bless him with a few dollars, take him to coffee or maybe a meal here and there--always in pairs, in public, and never in a way that could physically endanger church members, of course. While some members of the church do this work of outreach, others could check Joe's background. In a church of three hundred, there are likely law enforcement and social services personnel who could make sure Joe is not too dangerous a character to take under the church's wing...

[Ron continues to expand on the importance of doing this safely but if you want to read more about that please buy the book.]

...But there's another side to this safety issue--because while FBC is carefully gauging whether Joe is a safe person to be around, Joe is watching to see whether FBC people are safe themselves. Will they catch and release him? Will FBC come on strong at first, then gradually slack off until Joe only sees them on holidays?

Homeless people are used to people who "help" with one hand and hold their noses with the other. They are used to catch-and-release friends, who feel warm and fuzzy and compassionate for a few days or weeks but then abandon their efforts when the going gets tough or when the busyness of their own lives takes over...

...Once the relationship is established, is it possible that FBC could go the next step and get Joe off the streets? Could he stay in a room at the church? Could FBC members chip in twenty dollars a month apiece to rent him a room elsewhere? What about food? Can the FBC woman's ministry--or the men's group--stock the refrigerator wherever Joe is staying?

"Well," you might be saying, "none of this requires Joe to do anything, to accept any responsibility."

Exactly! What FBC is offering Joe is unconditional love. Part of real love is loving a person from dependence to independence. But if that is to come, it will come in time. What the Joes of the world need first is a taste of dignity, someone to love them enough to take a chance on them...

...think of the no-cost resources available in a single church. Doctors who can provide medical care. Licensed counselors who can provide mental-health assistance. Teachers who can help Joe brush up his reading, writing, and math skills or help him study for his driver's license exam. Social Services workers who can help Joe secure the essential documentation he needs and navigate intimidating places like the social-security office, county clerk, and the most terrifying place of all- the Department of Motor Vehicles...

...If one person tried to take on Joe, the task would be daunting, overwhelming, as I can tell you from experience. But many hands make light work. And within each body of believers, there are endless caregiving possibilities that, unlike government programs, can be customized according to need. You see, in this case it really does take a village.

So far I haven't heard of any takers on my thirty-day plan. I chalk that up to two very human factors: excuses and fear...

...Denver says, "You got to stoop down to help a man up." But after the homeless began to bless me much more than I blessed them...I realized that God didn't command us to love only for the sake of others but for our own sakes as well.

I love it. I love this idea. I think it's a good one. Worthy enough to be its own program; its own charity. Of course, I edited out parts of his explanation because this is just a blog and because I insist that you read these books. Between the two books, every excuse I've ever had for not being able to help the homeless (I have to be careful. I'm a girl and it's too dangerous. Bla Bla Bla.) seems ridiculous. There are so many excerpts I would love to put in this blog from the book but I won't because you need to read the whole thing. In fact, here's the link to buy it on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Same-Kind-Different-As-Me/dp/0849900417

I am going to do something about this I just don't know what yet. If I have to march myself through the Union Gospel Mission doors and make them let me help I will. I'm tired of talking about what I should be doing. It's time to DO what I should be doing. That's one reason I am writing this blog. Because if I write it and I publish it I will be held accountable to it.

At one point in the book, Denver talks about Bible studies. He has a conversation with Ron that went like this:

Mr. Ron, all these white folks be invitin us to their Bible studies. How come none of 'em's invitin us to their Bible doins? I ain't sayin it ain't all right to study the Bible. You got to study the Bible to know the rules of life. But I notice a lotta folks is doin more lookin at the Bible than doin what it says. The book a' James says, don't just listen to what God has to say, do what He says. And Jesus said God is gon' seperate us, the sheep from the goats, based on what we did, not on how much we read... ...How anybody gon' know God when all the time folks got their head stuck in a book?

Profound. I am in two Bible studies during the week, one Christian book club and I attend church. That's a lot of learning and a lot less doing. I know the Bible. I know Jesus. It's time for me to show it.

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' Matthew 25:40

Transferring your iTunes Library

After two full 8 hour days of consistent determination I have finally moved my iTunes library to my new computer. You know, Apple normally makes things pretty easy for people, but this was a pain in the you-know-what. I consider myself pretty average, if not slightly above average, when it comes to computer knowledge. I'd say most people out there don't even know (or care) what iTunes is. In fact, earlier this week I was extremely proud of myself for altering the html code (aka computer code) of my blog to look the way I wanted it to. But good grief, if you want to move your iTunes library you might as well be asking for the impossible!
So here's the deal with iTunes. It's a free program by Apple. If you do not currently own an Apple product under the Apple Care Protection Plan (or whatever it's called), Apple customer service will not help you with your iTunes questions. Preston and I own an iPod, two iPhones and a Mac notebook computer...none of which are still under the Apple Care Protection plan, therefore we are not eligible to receive customer service...or so I was told by the Apple customer service representative. This means I had to do this ALL ON MY OWN. The Apple guy was nice enough to tell me what he thought I was doing wrong, but could offer no assistance as to how to do it right. So I turned to Google. That's when I found this lovely article that I would love to share with anyone else who might have trouble moving their iTunes. I didn't dive enough into the article to discover who this guy is or why he wrote it, but without his assistance I'd have been lost. So if you're planning to make the move anytime soon, this article was A LOT of help. Good luck and be sure to clear your schedule.

Transferring your iTunes Library | iLounge Article

Telluride Christmas

We had a wonderful time in Telluride for Christmas AND I got a new camera so of course, I took about 200 pictures. I'm trying something new so these pictures (should) be much bigger than they are normally. I am also going to include a slideshow of ALL the pictures I took if you want to browse the entire album.

Christmas morning in Telluride. The tree was brought in by the management of the house. They apologized that is was a little "Charlie Brownish" but I thought it was wonderful.

Testing the new camera's capabilities.

This was the most adorable video EVER! The Branch, our church in Dallas, played a video of the children telling the Christmas story at their Christmas Eve service so we watched it online Christmas morning.  This is Ella (my almost 2-year-old cousin) NOT wanting to participate. Luckily, they were able to use her anyway. Here's the video:

When we first woke up, we video chatted with the Todd Bonneau family in Dallas. This is truly one of the monumental abilities of technology: the ability to share Christmas morning with families hundreds of miles away.

Preston got golf clubs from Santa!

I got these fantastic Kate Spade high heeled rain boots!

 The damage. It's actually kind of pretty.

In the town of Telluride on our way to ice skate!

 The Watten fam.

 

Last day of skiing! (side note: I did NOT take my new camera skiing with me... this picture was taken with my old camera.)

And now the slideshow. The last 60 or so pictures of this album are of a house that was for sale next to the house we were staying in. It is the most gorgeous home I have ever seen in my life. If you've got $12 million to spare you should buy it and Preston and I will volunteer to be your caretaker. Amenities included ski in/ski out, hot tub, 12 bedrooms, 3 laundry rooms, a guest house, a fire pit...I could go on and on.

Click here to view these pictures larger

We're heading to Breckenridge, CO with the Rampys on Saturday so more skiing pictures to come!!!