Category: sacred romance

adventure, faith, kingdom living, leadership, sacred romance

What Size is Your Story?

Natalie

I love movies.  It’s one of my favorite things to do with my family on the weekend.  Many of my children do as well, and since the youngest is heading into his tween years, we’ve been slowly introducing him to some of the great movies we’ve seen over the years.  Last night it was The Matrix.  He loved it.  I loved it for the fourth or fifth time.

We actually watched two movies yesterday, my youngest son and I.  He wanted to see Thor: Ragnarok again. That movie makes me smile because Thor seems much more human in it.

This morning on my facebook timeline, I noticed that someone posted a beautiful sunset/sunrise and then referenced yet another of my favorite movies, The Last of the Mohicans.

I love movies for the same reason I loved books as a child.  I wanted a world bigger than my own. A world that’s not so mundane, where everything is hanging in the balance, and where there is epic love and epic friendship and epic battles.

In our couple’s group tonight, we’re discussing Chapter 4 of The Sacred Romance by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge.  This chapter is called A Story Big Enough to Live In.  Like my son and me, these two authors love movies.  The authors contend that “if we’re going to find the answer to the riddle of the earth — and of our own existence — we’ll find it in story.” (p. 40) They go on to say that we “create our own storylines to bring some meaning to our experiences,” but they claim that we lose ourselves in the smallest kinds of stories.  You’ll have to pick up the book for more (I promise it’s worth the read).

I am 100% sure that my youngest son would say that his storyline involves some superhuman abilities and epic battles to save the world.

I know I created my own storyline as well as a child, also with superhuman abilities and epic battles.  Unfortunately, my story began to shrink throughout my life.  But I am dreaming again of my childhood storyline and smiling, and as I do, I find it’s getting bigger and bigger.

How about you?  What size is your storyline? Is it epic, or the smallest kind?

 

adventure, faith, kingdom living, sacred romance

A Good Friend Comes to Stay

Natalie

We’re blessed to have one of my close friends and her daughter join us here at OLTCH. TJ and Anna came this afternoon, just in time for a tour and then dinner. I have been anxious to share this place with her because of her love for fatherless children.

After dinner, I asked her what her impressions of this place were so far. She responded, I’m overwhelmed.

It’s a great thing to be able to share a place that has stolen your heart…. and OLTCH stole mine the minute I walked through the gate.

I invite you to learn more about their ministry here. Like them on Facebook at OLTCH for a ton of pictures. You can also visit their website to catch their vision for the new property called “Isaiah’s Grove”, 13 acres of property right on the beach. We are blessed to have the aid of Samaritan’s Purse and EFCA and numerous donors to build a wall, grade a road and the land and build a well.

Our hope is that Isaiah’s Grove will be a light to Leogane and the surrounding area.

Please add the orphanage to your prayer list. There is always a lot of opposition in Haiti and we need to raise up the canopy of prayer of this place and the new property.

Thank you to all of you who have faithfully praying for us.

adventure, Bible Study, kingdom living, sacred romance

A Memory of What I Am Called To Be

Natalie

My husband and I are leading a growth group at our church and we are studying John Eldredge’s amazing book, The Sacred Romance. This is not a book on marriage as it’s title suggests, instead it is a book on “drawing closer to the heart of God”. It’s a book about discovering who and what you were made for. And the sacred romance is about the love God has for you.

We’re studying the second chapter and one of the assignments in the workbook is to write about one of your best memories from childhood, so I decided to share it with all of you.

Every summer at least from first grade on, my parents made the sacrifice of sending both my sister and I away to summer camp for a week with the Camp Fire Girls. By sacrifice, I mean it couldn’t have been cheap. We went to Camp Sealth on Vashon Island in the middle of Puget Sound and we had to ride a boat to get there. This is the place where I first remember hearing a call to a grand adventure.

I remember standing on the dock with suitcase and sleeping bag nearby. The air was salty and warm and the sun was out. I’d give Mom and Dad a hug and board the ship for the 45 min ride to the camp. The first time I went, I probably cried the whole way, but every year thereafter, it was like I was sailing off on my own adventure. As we docked at the camp and hefted our stuff to our cabins, the smell of Douglas fir and the crunch of the needles under foot accompanied us. My first cabin was on Blueberry Hill.

Camp Sealth was a magical place. Each year, I learned a different adventuring skill. One year it was how to ride horses, another was a week-long canoe trip, and another where I learned archery. I loved being under the canopy of trees where sunlight would reach down in shafts to kiss the ground, where the carpet I walked on was fir needles and where at night we sang songs about adventures we would have.

The roundhouse was our dining hall and it was the first place I learned that there are fairies on the edge of the table, so don’t squish them with your elbows. That Mr. Pepper was married to Mrs. Salt and so we always passed them together. I remember it’s warm, varnished cedar interior.

After dinner we would gather near the shore for campfire. One of my favorite songs was “Barges” and I sang it over and over again in my childhood, always at night and always with a longing for the lapping of waves on my barge as I went sailing along.

Barges, I would like to go with you, I would like to sail the ocean blue. Barges, are there treasures in your hold, Do you fight with pirates, brave and bold?

The Ship – The name was a promise!

Camp Sealth – View from the water

One of the Blueberry Hill cabins – nestled up under the trees.

The Roundhouse

The Campfire Setting

Where were you when you first remember hearing a call to a grand adventure?

P.S. – Many thanks to my parents for all the wonderful memories!! I love you!