Sandy's Sayings

Another Caption Contest

My friend Carol sent me this picture.  She is doing a baptism in Africa.  Best caption gets a little something! 

Saying Goodbye

This weekend our church said goodbye to two beloved people.  Bob and Pat Portman have been at CPC forever!  Bob has served as an elder and Pat has been our Pastor of Women's Ministry.  Losing Bob and Pat is a big loss for us.  The way they love, care, and counsel people has been amazing to watch.  I first met Bob at my interview with the Elders before I was hired just about 10 years ago. During my interview I couldn't understand why Bob wasn't speaking?  He wasn't asking any questions and I was getting a little insecure because I was filling the position that his daughter held!  Little did I know that he was not an Elder yet, but what we call an Elderette. To become an elder at our church you go through a long process and during that process you are welcomed to be at all Elder meetings but are not allowed to speak for a length of time. When I learned of this I just laughed.  But more important to me, is how Bob as cared for me.  One of the things I have so appreciated about Bob was his phone calls to check up on me while I was taking on the high school ministry while we were high school pastorless.  Every week or two, Bob would call just to check in on me, making sure I was ok emotionally, spiritually and what not.  He continued to check in for about a year until some help came on the way.  I know many people at our church have been on the receiving end of phone calls from Bob who called just to check in.  Bob has cared and counseled many men and couples and a bunch of teenagers during my time at CPC. Pat has also been a huge part of CPC.  I've had the privilege of serving along side of her on our pastoral staff.  Pat is one of the best teachers of scripture I've listened to and learned from. I've sat along side her as well watching her counsel women, families and teenagers. She is a woman of great faith and of great prayer.  When Pat says she is praying for you, she is! One of my stories I like to tell about Pat was when we were at one of our all church retreats.  We had this big afternoon carnival out on the rec field.  We had this boxing ring set up with those oversized boxing gloves that are as big as a person.  So I challenged Pat to a boxing match!  Pat is fierce competitor, but I didn't know that and in my mind I was thinking, "I'll take it easy on the old broad!" First swing out I knew I was in trouble! Pat came out in full force and caught me totally off gaurd and all I could think of was holy cow, this woman is strong and all I could hear was my mothers voice in my head saying respect your elders! Needless to say, Pat kicked my butt in boxing that day, but it sure was a great laugh!

So Bob and Pat as you retire, know that you are loved and will be missed! God's grace and peace to you both!

Two-Weeks of Craziness is Over!

I'm breathing a sigh of relief as the two weeks of craziness are over. I have a love/hate relationship with the month of May!  I love it because summer is coming!  I hate it because I feel my life is not my own!  The ministry school year is over and our summer program starts in two weeks.  High school graduations and grad parties are over, Jr. High graduations start on Tuesday!  This was our largest senior class we have had, and it sure was fun to see this class graduate!  I'm so excited to see where God will take them.  It was a bittersweet good-bye to our 8th graders!  This was one of those really special classes.  All awesome kids who have been such leaders in our ministry, who love the Lord and one of the few classes who really cared about the younger kids in our ministry. I will miss them in our Jr. High Ministry but look forward to see how they will shape our high school ministry. In all the craziness, our summer intern also started.  I love having are summer interns around.  This is our second summer having interns.  I'm looking forward to spending time with them and doing ministry with them.  We've got a fun week planned with them as we leave on Thursday for Mammoth Base Camp, to go check out this ministry. Four days of mt. biking, rock climbing, hiking and adventure!

Of Wasp Nests and Rattlesnakes at The Wildflower 2009 Part 1

This last weekend was what has become the annual trip to Bradley, Ca for the Wildflower Triathlon.  I've got a bunch of crazy friends who like to see how far they can push their bodies! This was quite a weekend filled with fun and adventure.  My carload of people got there on Thursday evening to save our spot and set up camp.  It was beautiful weather and it was hard to believe the weather reports that it was going to rain. While setting up camp, I kept hearing this loud buzzing noise.  I look up and guess what, a huge wasp nest was hovering above the area where I was planning to set up my tent. Hmmmm, I think I'll move to another area.  After getting settled and having dinner it was time to hit the sleeping bag. I should have believed the weather report, about 3 AM you could hear the rain pitter patting on the top of the tent.  Oh, how I hate camping in the rain.  Friday was raining most of the day and was fairly uneventful until a lovely rattlesnake decided to hang out in our campsite.  Mr. Snakey was hanging out in some tall grass and was discovered when one of our guys almost stepped on him.  Out of all the years we have done this, none of us remember ever seeing rattlesnakes hanging around.  My friend Sarah was not to happy since Mr. Snakey was right outside her tent door!  We got one of the rangers out there with his fancy "snake catcher" to take Mr. Snakey away.  The ranger was a pro. He tapped the snake on the head, Mr. Snakey woke up, not too happy to be disturbed from his sleep and the ranger put the noose around Mr. Snakey head and carried him away.  I'm sure Mr. Snakey ended up on some ones BBQ that night. We could sleep well knowing there would be no snakes slithering into a sleeping bag!  

Twitter, Church and Life

Twitter is all the craze these days.  I've been "twittering" for about a year.  My twitter account is linked to this blog so when I'm done with this post, all my friends on Twitter will know about it. My Twitter account is also linked to my Facebook page and yes you guessed it, it's linked to this blog!  I Twitter more than I go on Facebook these days, due to the fact that my Twitter update also updates my Facebook status.  With Twitter being such the rage, churches have been wondering how to best use it.  Time has an article about Twitter and the Church.  Some great idea's for how some churches are using Twitter. Even though we have a "Please Turn Your Cell Phone Off During Service Policy," you will find me twittering my thoughts during services.  Twitter has become such the craze that you can now get your twitter stats as well as a wordie of your tweets! So find out what everyone is doing in 140 characters or less, get a Twitter account today!!

An Easter To Remember

It's been a very busy week with making Easter preparations at church. Our staff has been praying for a while for this Easter morning and what a morning it was!  On Easter we have three CPC campus': Foster City, Millbrae and our shopping center location, Charter Square.  Our Foster City and Millbrae campus' had live preaching and our Charter Campus was a video venue.  I was in charge of the Charter Campus this morning, making preparations, having a bunch of Jr. Highers helping me, and rocking out to the Never Ending Band as they practiced for the second service.  I took the Jr. Highers to go get a little Starbucks as a thank you for helping and I get a phone call from one of the gals in the band.  "Charters electricity is out", she says.  Of course, I think she is messing with me and told her, "there is an electrician in the band, he can take care of it!"  Then she says, "No the whole shopping center is out." As she is on the phone, our tech guy from the Foster City campus is calling me and whispering on the phone, cause he is in the service, "The electricity is out at the church."  I'm thinking, NO WAY!  I call our church administrator and ask him to get a hold of PG&E to find out the scoop. PG&E tells us there is a small electrical fire that is affecting 1-49 customers, 1 to 49!!!  Electricity will be back on around 12:15 pm.  (the end of our second service)  In the meantime, our teaching pastor is giving an invitation to receive Christ in the pitch black auditorium!  We all gather for a short pow, wow between services to decide what to do. What do you do when you are expecting 1000 people in 30 minutes and have no electricity? Obviously we prayed!  But do you have an Easter service or not.  Our church, bathrooms and other rooms have no windows and it's dark, not to mention the liability issues. Our faith story was on video, lyrics are projected on the screens and how are we supposed to make coffee? I'm glad to tell you our service went on at least at the Foster City Campus!  We had to cancel the Charter Square venue.  We opened all our closet doors and emergency exit doors to have some natural light come in.  One of our guys in the body had a generator, so we hooked up a small speaker, microphone, guitar and 2 flood lights to the generator so we could have a little sound and light.  We had people grabbing flashlights to light up the bathrooms and other rooms, the tech crew was getting things ready just in case the electricity came back on.  People were everywhere, along the walls, sitting in the closets, out in the lobby and courtyard. It was amazing.  Our worship team lead people in singing without words.  Of course this is a hard one for any guests we might have had who might not know the songs.  Our teaching pastor preached it and just as the generator was about to die, the electricity came back on!  What a crazy morning, but God is bigger than any power outage!  He was working in the hearts of people and many came to know Him for the very first time today.  I feel very thankful, in the craziness of the morning, we had so many people serving and working together as a team and going with the flow, or lack there of! For those of you who were guests, thank you for your patience. I hope you do came back and worship with us again.  And for those of you who worked so hard at Charter to have it cancelled, thank you for your wonderful attitudes. For the Foster City Crew, you all are amazing, thank you for your hard work today! And of course I have to thank PG&E for getting the power on 30 minutes before they thought they would have it on.  This morning was a wonderful picture of the body, using their gifts, talents, and treasures and I wouldn't have traded this Easter for anything!

Up Before The Sun

So it's about 3:30 am this morning and I'm wide awake.  I've been trying to sleep all night and I've given up on it.  My brain can't shut off and my heart is heavy. It was a tough day to come back from vacation and hear that one of our Edge students lost her dad.  My heart just breaks for this family and of course I wonder what God is doing?  I also received news today that a good friends mother is waiting to hear the results of a biopsy.  Waiting for that news is so hard and your mind tends to go directly to the worst case scenario.  So a lot on my mind and have spent the good chunk of the night praying. On a more random note, at 3:30 in the morning, there is NOTHING on TV.  So I'm writing and watching Sarah Palin's address on C-SPAN.  A couple more hours and Starbucks will be open.

Birthday Bash!

So on Tuesday I turn the Big 4-0!  A friend of mine threw me a big bash today!  Of course, it turned out to be the hottest day of the summer so far!  We were sweatin' in 100 degree temps!  That is hot for the Peninsula.  But it was so much fun!  It was fun to see all the folks stop buy throughout the afternoon and eat some yummy food, especially the BBQ!  I felt very spoiled!  Thanks to all of you who helped put the party on. I had a great time spending time with you!  After the party, I jumped in the pool and then sat pool side reading all my birthday cards!

Rummy Part 2

This is what I get for card trash talk!  Darc broke my winning streak in Rummy. aaauuuggghhh!  I was ahead until our last game where she busted out the runs and the points!  Great game friend.  I'll get ya next time!

A Beautiful Day on the Lake

It was an incredible day on the lake yesterday!  Cold but beautiful!  I am always amazed at God's workmanship when I visit Lake Tahoe.  Today I pack up and go home only to turn around and fly out to Washington!