It's Open!

Went here today...Loved it!! Ya gotta try the "White Christmas"...

Incorporate

Had the opportunity to meet this corporate attorney professionally recently. He incorporates businesses and told me he would love to help me do just that...HMMM...

Tweekin it...

Can't seem to figure out how to get this with white or light blue background...anyone?

New Name?

Ideas I'm Kickin Around...

Different things are flying at me and I know the best thing to do is to sit at my laptop and write and let the Holy Spirit use me as a tool- as a conduit of sorts...and so I've been writing, dreaming, and praying.

Here are some ideas so far:

Cool Coffee Creations...

Enter Contest To Win Items for the Cafe

I found this interesting piece of info today at:

http://judyskitchen.blogspot.com/2010/07/7000-giveaway.html

CSN has $70.00 for one lucky winner to spend at their dining room website. While the prize does not include shipping, many of the items are offered with free shipping. And, yes, you can find items within the $70.00 range, so you don’t have to spend more if you don’t want to or can’t. Personally, I would love to have some cedar grilling planks, since I love to grill fish on wood planks. But then I wouldn’t mind having a wireless talking thermometer for oven or grill. Hmmm, I might even go for a new grill cover. I could easily spend a day searching CSN’s website, drooling over the neat stuff they have.

I could have kept the prize for myself. CSN offered it to me. And I really wanted some of their great merchandise. But, no, I decided to give it away to one lucky reader. That may be you. Don’t pass up this opportunity.

To enter this contest, do the following:

1. Mandatory entry: Leave a comment with contact information and be sure to tell me what prize you want . You can just copy and paste the name from the website with the item #. Easy peasy.

2. For extra entries, pick more prizes. For instance, leave a comment that says, “My second choice prize is………..” “My third choice prize is…….” etc. Be sure to copy and paste the item name and # from the website each time.


3. How to get a triple entry (your name will be entered 3 times): Just visit another blog and leave a comment giving my contest info and linking to my site. Come back to my site and leave a comment telling me what you did (name of site you told about the contest and a link to that site).

There is no limit to the number of entries you can have. But everyone must begin with the mandatory entry. The extra entries are entirely optional. You do not need to have a website or blog to enter, but you must live in the US or Canada if you pick an item with free shipping. If you are paying the shipping costs, then it doesn't matter where you live.

The deadline for this contest is Sunday, July 25, Midnight. Your time starts now.

I encourage you to do this, and to state that you want this item:Metal Bistro tables- On sale: $141. with free s/h http://www.diningroomsdirect.com/Oakland-Living-AL-4T-WT-OAA1513.html?IsReturn=1
SKU #: OAA1513

If we all enter multiple times, who knows, maybe we'll win...

Tracy

Third Places and Thin Places

Eugene Peterson said: “The way of Jesus is always local and ordinary.” While I agree with this thought in the sense that Jesus exemplified a life characterized by living with, learning about, and loving people wherever He was (i.e. locally), I would add a caveat that in reality, NOTHING Jesus ever does is ordinary...

Such were the events at Sanctuary Church as they unfolded on Sunday evening, July 11, 2010: local, yet very EXTRAordinary. As we sat in the Upper Room at Troy and Paige Hamby's house (yes, we can actually claim that we were in an upper room), we were all overcome by a sense of unity of purpose and mission as we realized our individual dreams were one and the same. One by one, we admitted to each other our individual dreams of opening a coffee-shop/cafe that would be a third place- a safe place for people to convene and experience authentic community-a place that would become a community hub-a center for community restoration. We even had a name (thanks to Troy): Grace Harbor Cafe! We all sat there mystified and amazed as the reality individually, yet collectively, hit us. Each one of us had been the recipient of the same whispered "In-Spirit-ation"! Then Troy broke the stunned silence and said, "You can't create this kind of thing...It is only created by the Holy Spirit."

As we discussed our dreams about creating a "Third Place," I felt a keen sense of being in a "thin place." (There's a Celtic belief that heaven and earth are only three feet apart, but in the “thin places”- that distance is even smaller. A thin place is where the veil that separates heaven and earth because of sin seems to be briefly lifted and one is able to receive a more perfect glimpse of the glory of God.) By the look on the faces of the others, I suspect they felt it also.

I know Troy did, because he said something that resonated with me: "I believe that this day is a day we will all remember as the date of a major event in the life of this church. I believe that we are embarking on an venture that is so big it's bound to fail without God." Those words stuck in my head, because they are the title of a song by John Waller that I love and listened to a lot the Summer of 2006 when I entered seminary. You can listen to it below.

And so, it was with this very palpable sense of the Holy Spirit's presence, guidance, and peace that I left church that evening. On the way home, I decided to take a small detour off of Route 40 and drive by the sites on Washington Street and St. John Street in Havre de Grace that we were thinking and praying about.

When I pulled up to (what I think is) 317 St. John, I noticed Erica and Stephen Chaney, also from Sanctuary, standing out front and taking pictures. "It wasn't my imagination," I thought to myself, "it wasn't just me that felt the 'click.' Yes!" We walked around the property together, again in awe of how God is working out this "God thing" in our lives.

I drove home buoyed by hope, amazed by God's abounding grace that seems to be washing over my life in waves...grace upon grace upon grace...

How 'bout you?

Something So Big...It's Destined to Fail Without You, Lord!