Jane's book

Well yesterday I finished Jane Els' book "Journey to the Kingdom of God". I loved it! It's all about mission and where she's been. She's been to Guatemala and formed relationships there between her church, several Dallas churches and the Norte presbytery. She also has done a lot of PDA work - Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. She's been to places hit by hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Ike. Little did I know she was a camp manager and such.

Jane and I met at Synod and I met her in 2007. My friend Sharla was in Jane's small group, Jane was the SGL or small group leader. This year Jane coordinated our mission projects for about 350 people in Tulsa. I wish I had more time to talk with Jane - she's a neat lady!

Anyway, I encourage you to buy the book. She's mission-oriented and Presbyterian! And an ordained elder. Anyway, I like her take on life, people, and doing God's work. I laughed and cried throughout the book. I could relate to some situations and often wondered about others.

Excellent book - now I just need to figure out what I'm going to do...

SLY Mission Trip 2010 video

Tonight we got to see Kary's video of the mission trip. She had 2 hours of video documenting the whole trip and it was great! It was so nice to see all of the kids talking about their roles in the week and what they were getting from this trip. Of course it's hard to talk about this particular trip without thinking about Susan (see blog "Susan's House). Kary dedicated the video to Susan's memory. Also it was decided to take up a memorial for the church in Leadville in Susan's memory.

This trip was totally amazing! I've written about it from what the kids do but truly it is such a blessing to see and experience what we had that week this summer. The kids have transformed so much over the past few years and as Pastor Jim says even this past year the kids have grown. I've watched kids who used to have no friends sitting at lunch by themselves grow into small group leaders, energizer leaders, and so on.

We hope to have the video or parts of it on YouTube and possibly Godspace. Anyway, our fundraiser for the mission trips sponsored by the mission committee will be September 12 after church. What an amazing lunch it will be!