Monthly Archives: July 2010

Volunteer at Heaven Fest

5 Songs I am Singing, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think

Click here: http://www.heavenfest.com/involved/volunteers.php through Friday.  Only 168 volunteer spots left!

Our HR team is unbeatable.  Seriously.  They got requests from HF leadership for something like 1800-1900 volunteers to run a festival to welcome 35,000 people to Union Reservoir at Longmont this year.  And they have been out to churches all over the metro area and along the Front Range telling the Heaven Fest story and making the vision plain.  And people are answering the call!  How cool is that?

The volunteer link is only up for a few more days and only 168 positions to fill.

   

Volunteers are already hard at work

Volunteer already, will you?  You’ll help promote a culture of honor, you’ll make the Name of Jesus glorious and you’ll sweat and work hard and get to serve some of the greatest people you’ll ever meet anywhere!  Plus?  Because we didn’t have to pay some one to do what you’re doing?  There will be money for orphans and resources to help end child sex slavery through www.love146.com.  There’ll be offerings for the poor and the homeless and Jesus wells dug in India.  THAT is what YOU volunteering will do.

Kristie Allbritten and Stephanie Morgan?  I am humbled and blown over by you.  Thank you.  thank you.  Thank you.  You leave me speechless…

VOLUNTEER, says Tredessa

WHY HF, Dave Powers explains

A Look Back at The Sacred Assembly

The lightening show was straight from the heavens – not some effect added later.  An incoming storm stopped dead in its tracks and we just had the coolest worship time at the end of the night!  Volunteers help soooooo much!  PRAY ABOUT IT THEN SAY YES!

www.heavenfest.com

How did we get here?

5 Songs I am Singing, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, , , ,

HEAVEN FEST IS IN 12 DAYS!

I got the coolest e-mail (well, I was one of 4 recipients which included DP and Tara and Tredessa):

I’m sitting here reflecting on everything right now. We’re 12 days away. Things are really starting to come together. We have an amazing team we nearly had to kick out last night because it was getting late! We’re on a crash course to have [more than 35,000] people. This year we did better on our vendors, our sponsorships, our donations, our materials, our volunteers. Tickes sales are through the roof and climbing…

I guess I’m just grateful to be in this with you guys. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine getting to this place. Love you guys!

-Luke

The thing is?  Luke painted a picture we could see.  He was a young guy (DP’s lifelong friend) who came weekly to eat leftovers at my kitchen table and would tell us the story of what Heaven Fest could be.  And believe me – getting on board that dream was a defined and specific call of God.  I had no desire to fund and produce a festival for the masses, but somehow there, in those summer days of 2007, we decided to say yes.

Dave, Tara, Luke and I “went public” in September of 2007 (Tredessa joined in the spring) and Heaven Fest was born July 26, 2008.  Oh, but conceived so much earlier.

The 2010 Leadership Team at the final training July 18, 2010.  Crazy visionary, Jesus-loving, self-sacrificing, mission-minded, giving, praying, worshipping, enemy-defeating, gifted, talented, called and appointed people!  Oh, I am in awe! {By the way – do you see how Luke is trying to self-promote  and be seen in this picture?  Yeah.  I didn’t think so.  Because he doesn’t.}

And I never could have imagined what God would do or the people He would send who are just so unbelievably a-ma-zing!  But I feel especially honored to get to work with Luke.  He is one unique individual, a true-hearted, authentic visionary and I am so glad I got to hitch my wagon to his star.  It is a crazy fun ride.

Totally love you back, Luka.

www.heavenfest.com

“Summer Night”

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 9 TV & Movies/Books & Entertainment, Stuff I Actually Think, , , , , ,

SUMMER NIGHT

by: Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)

HOW sleeps the crimson petal, now the white;

Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk;

Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font:

The firefly wakens: waken thou with me.

Now droops the milk-white peacock like a ghost,

And like a ghost she glimmers on to me.

Now lies the Earth all Danaë to the stars,

And all thy heart lies open unto me.

Now slides the silent meteor on, and leaves

A shining furrow, as thy thoughts in me.

Now folds the lily all her sweetness up,

And slips into the bosom of the lake:

So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip

Into my bosom and be lost in me.

Why Tennyson?  Because I was watching Anne of Green Gables (is she not adorable?) and Anne was quoting him.  I read his version of a summer night after recently trying to express my summer night thoughts and I wonder how on earth I shall ever be able to express, or communicate what I wish to say with such dripping clarity, such thought-provoking imagery?  Woe is me.

Quotes from Anne Shirley~

Mrs. Cadbury: Tell me what you know about yourself.

Anne Shirley: Well, it really isn’t worth telling, Mrs. Cadbury… but if you let me tell you what I IMAGINE about myself you’d find it a lot more interesting.

{ Anne Shirley: Tomorrow is always fresh with no mistakes in it. }

Diana Barry: I wish I were rich, and I could spend the whole summer at a hotel, eating ice cream and chicken salad.

Anne Shirley: You know something, Diana? We are rich. We have sixteen years to our credit, and we both have wonderful imaginations. We should be as happy as queens.

[gestures to the setting sun]

Anne Shirley: Look at that. You couldn’t enjoy its loveliness more if you had ropes of diamonds.

Diana Barry: I don’t know about that.

Quick – it’s Sizzling!

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think,

100 degrees is today’s forecast.

Here is what you will need to live through it.

  1. A big bag of ice because no matter how much your little freezer is popping out – you will need more!
  2. Lemonade.  And lots of it!
  3. Vanilla ice cream and root beer.  For floats of course.
  4. Water from a hose (even if the central air went out, we’d all make it with just a cool misting of water).
  5. Some pretty high SPF.
  6. The ability to just stop.  Seriously.  Stop and rest.

She is Here!

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think, , ,

The day arrives.

Today.  is.  Tomato Day.  2010.

And you pick red tomatoes and pop cherries into your mouth.  You gather baby zucchini from the garden while crunching on crispy green beans.  You bring in fresh broccoli and snap peas and lettuce.  You pinch thyme and sage and basil.  You grill just to the point of carmelization and the sweetness of the garden lunch makes all the work heretofore quite worth it.

The reward of my labors?  Today I picked ripe tomatoes.  Can you comprehend the profundity of that?  Dare you?

Good, and I mean really good, times.

NOTE TO MY LONGSUFFERIG READERS:  Last year at just about the exact same time?  Read here!

Summer Nights

4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, Stuff I Actually Think, ,

And the backyard is still, quiet, save for the slight rustling of green  leaves and the sound of the pond, water spilling over rocks.  The heat of the day has evaporated and the solar lights lining the garden paths twinkle as best they can.  Christmas lights in full-leafed trees cast romantic, dancing shadows. 

The backyard is magic tonight, I think to myself.

I am wondering what this absolutely perfect tempertaure is, this moment of complete faultlessness?  The hour is blue*, for the sun is barely dropped.  A cricket crowns the evening with his song for love.  Neighbor’s homes glow softly and the stars appear to bid me well, one by one.

In that moment I miss everyone I love and wish each could share this perfectly ripe moment of utter sublimity with me.  Sigh.  I am a melancholy soul, yes?

A summer night in Brighton, Colorado

Last night was just one of those nights.  Aaaahh, mmm…I love summer.

*L’heure Bleue…I wrote about it here.

Dear Sawyer Joell~

2 Mi Familia, 3 Celebrations & Festive Events, Stuff I Actually Think

I get to do labor and delivery with Wrex and Stef when Sawyer is born.  Stefane gave me a little note-taking book for the Birthing Class we took a few Saturdays back.  I didn’t take many notes (I did have 5 babies myself, you know), but there are some.  And I have decided to use the rest of the pages to write advice and parenting encouragement to Stef and Wrex or little notes to Sawyer for reading someday when she is grown.  Plus there are prayers and blessings and silliness, along with little doodles and baby quotes.  Somedays I write quite neatly and others (like this one), not so much.  I consider it the secret code to a treasure…Sawyer Joell will apply herself to learning about her beginnings someday and will have to decipher my code.  And I hope she will discover how much she was loved and highly anticipated before she was born, by 2 incredible parents-to-be.

PS To Sawyer:  And I feel certain I shall break into song, as well, with great joy at your impending  birth.  I’m like that.

On being a grandparent

2 Mi Familia, Stuff I Actually Think, , , ,

THE MOST AMAZING THING…according to me.

“THE most amazing thing about getting to be a grandparent is that the very kids you made so many mistakes on

(may have-could have damaged irreparably) 

grow up and honor you by trusting you with their babies.  Could there be a greater grace?”

You may quote me on this!  It is true!

 

 

The first five: Guini, Averi, Hunter, Gavin and Gemma. (group shots by Aunt Stormie)

And baby Amelie Belle…soon to have her own plastic weapon.

Half Glass and the Grandbebes

2 Mi Familia, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think

Half full or half empty?

What sort of wee ones surround me?  I know I tend toward “the glass is half empty” but I don’t necessarily think that is a bad way to look at things.  It keeps me pushing for more and zealously pursuing what I actually want to see in the glass.  Yes, I overcompensate, but then I never run out!  How much does it really say, anyway?  It made me ponder my little grandbebes.

Gavin, 7.  The glass is half-full, of course.  Everything will be alright.  There is a way to solve any problem, plenty to go around.  Just look for it.  Keep a good attitude and chin up and all things will work out fine.

Hunter, 5.  It’s not half-full or half-empty.  It is in the middle.  It is what it is.  That is how I wanted it and so that is where it will be.  Not a drop more or less.

Guini, almost 5.  Why is this all I get?  How much did the boys get?  More, please.  The glass seems half empty.  Sensitive to what’s right and true justice, Guini will come back for more until she has had her fill.  Then she will smile with contentment.

Gemma, 3.  The glass is delightfully half full. “Look how much I have!!”   In fact-even just a drop in the bottom of the cup will cause GemGem to twirl with delight and satisfaction, full of gratitude and laughter.

Averi.  I will fill my own glass, thank-you very much.  And I will also sweet-talk you out of some of yours.   Give it!  She is 2.  : )

Amelie, 3 months.  Remains to be seen.  But we currently make sure her glass is full to the brim.

And me, really?  My cup is full.  Overflowing.