Sandy's Sayings

You Won't Want To Miss This Book

I'm so excited for my friend Wanda! We were sitting around the table at our staff meeting when our lead pastor pulls out this new children's book called Christmas Is A Birthday Story by Wanda Roane.  I was like NO WAY!!  Wanda is a fantastic woman of God and an incredible writer and poet.  So I'm going to shamelessly plug her first children's book!  Go over to Amazon and pre-order it!  You won't be disappointed! Congrats Wanda!

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!

Summer Designs

May and September are the craziest times in student ministry for me.  In May we are winding down the school year, yet gearing up for summer. For instance, this weekend holds a play, writing all of our jr. high/high school graduates, our usual Sunday AM and our Student Ministry Family BBQ. The week holds end of year meetings, 09-10 calendar planning so I can finish up the 09-10 budget as well as getting ready to teach and work on my summer sermons and get ready for our summer interns.  Weekend after that is the overwhelming job of fitting as many graduations that you can, in a span of 2 days as well as all the parties that I get invited too! June 1 I plop down on my couch and breath a sigh of relief until June 11 when it's time to fit as many Jr. High graduations in, in the span of 4 days.  Then summer kicks in. I love summer in youth ministry.  It's not a vacation but it is a lot of fun.  The kids aren't stressed, you get to see a glimpse of their real selves.  It's pure hang out time with jr. highers with a few fun activities thrown in as well as "seriously ridiculous" summer study.  As I sat and designed all of our summer calendars this week, I was wishing I could just snap my fingers and skip the next 3 weeks and dive right into summer!  The weather this weekend in the Bay is going to be hot, which will really make me wish I could just skip to June 16 and start summer!

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!!

My Favorite Posts of 2008

Usually around Christmas time I click through all my blog posts for the year to see what has happened as well as choose 11 of my favorite posts!  Here they are:

11. A Little Christmas Gift for Our Staff

10. Winter Camp Memories

9. Psalms From The Wildside 1 and 2

8. The Meaning of Life

7. Dirty Viruses

6. Alright Cara, I Give

5. Quote Of The Week

4. I Was Humbled

3. Finishing

2. After 43 Years

1. Operation Christmas Child Part Duex

Yes, I'm Alive

Many of you have asked where I've been and have missed reading this blog.  The last 6 weeks have been some tough ministry weeks and to be honest, I've had nothing extra to give when it came to writing.  I've been learning a lot of lessons these last few weeks and hope to write about them sometime soon.  I feel like I've been picked up and dusted off and am ready to write again.  Thanks for your concern and I hope to have some good posts for you to read!  In the mean time this is one of my favorite pics that was taken in the last 6 weeks with a very spunky little girl in our church who brings a smile on my face every time I see her!

Michael Phelps in Foster City

I can't believe I forgot to blog about this on Thursday!  So I took our paid youth staff out on Thursday morning for Jamba Juice.  We have some new folks on staff and thought it would be great for all of us to get to know each other. Across the street from Jamba Juice in Foster City is the world headquarters for Visa.  Their lawn area was all fenced off with big tents and big screen TV's set up as well as music playing. Our team was wondering what was going on.  I had mentioned that Facebook Status' were all lit up with some of kids claiming Michael Phelps was going to be at Visa.  So our team started wondering if Michael Phelps was going to walk out on this stage that was all set up.  Just as we said that, the Olympic Music Theme starting playing and guess who walked out on stage: Michael Phelps.  So a few of us ran across the street to get a better view.  Of course security was everywhere, so they wouldn't let us in, but our very tall high school pastor snapped this picture for me on my phone!

Remembering

Last Christmas my Aunt Marilyn had sent me a box of old family pictures.  In that box were a few of my Grandpa Hughes.  He served as a Seabee's in World War II.  So on this Memorial Day I thought I'd write just a few words about him.  The picture posted is when he was overseas somewhere in the Pacific Islands.  He was a gentle, strong man who loved his country and his family!  Like many men from his generation, he didn't talk much about the war.  I couldn't even get him to tell me a story or two for a class project.  It wasn't until he passed away, that I learned he served with distinction and had received many medals for his bravery.  So thank you to all the men and women who have fought for our great nation so we can enjoy the freedoms we have today.

Boy Plans to Skate under 100 cars

Check this kid out!

Person of the Week

I haven't honored a person of the week since I left on sabbatical which was back in July. I wanted to take a moment to honor one of our jr. high students. Two weekends ago I moved from my little cottage to a spacious town house and one of our jr. high boys came over to help me move. I wanted to thank Nathaniel and tell you a little bit about this young man. I've know Nathaniel for a long time now and I don't think I've ever met a student this young with such a servants heart. His parents are wonderful servants too, and they have tried to instill that in their children. But here is a young man hungry to serve God and people. Whatever the task, Nathaniel is willing to help whether it's serving the poor, moving boxes and furniture, lending a helping hand with the set crew at his school or working in the sound booth at church, Nathaniel is there eager to serve. Nathaniel, God has gifted you with a wonderful spiritual gift and as your pastor, it's so exciting to watch you use the gift God has given you! Thanks for your wonderful heart and your service to the body at CPC! Keep up the great work my friend.