Time to vote!

It's time to do an Alex plug! He's got three shirts up in a contest on the C28 website. Go there and vote for this one::

this one ::

AND this one::



THANKS!!

rough day.

Today I received some bad news. I won't go into details because it's not my story to tell. I do however know that I have heard this news too many times, and I'm sure this won't be the last. Let's just say that I hope tomorrow will be a much better day.

seriously??

Just when I thought that skinny jeans would hopefully be on the way out...now colored jeans are the "it" thing...

WHY PEOPLE!!??!!

Can I just say...

I am extremely excited about this!!

i hate ANTS!!

Our kitchen has recently become the hang out for the local colony of ants! I decided to jump online to figure out how to get rid of them (right now we have ant baits and Comet working for us...tomorrow we are going to try peppermint oil) and found myself learning more any more about the stupid little creatures...did you know that "Ant societies have division of labour, communication between individuals, and an ability to solve complex problems. These parallels with human societies have long been an inspiration and subject of study."

AND

"Since most ants live on the ground, they use the soil surface to leave pheromone trails that can be followed by other ants. In species that forage in groups, a forager that finds food marks a trail on the way back to the colony; this trail is followed by other ants, these ants then reinforce the trail when they head back with food to the colony. When the food source is exhausted, no new trails are marked by returning ants and the scent slowly dissipates. This behaviour helps ants deal with changes in their environment. For instance, when an established path to a food source is blocked by an obstacle, the foragers leave the path to explore new routes. If an ant is successful, it leaves a new trail marking the shortest route on its return. Successful trails are followed by more ants, reinforcing better routes and gradually finding the best path. Ants use pheromones for more than just making trails. A crushed ant emits an alarm pheromone that sends nearby ants into an attack frenzy and attracts more ants from further away. Several ant species even use "propaganda pheromones" to confuse enemy ants and make them fight among themselves."

Thank you Wikipedia for making me hate ants even more...and for making me more paranoid about the inability to really get rid of them! YUCK!!

fun!

Friday night ended seek with with a Leadership Community/Volunteer Appreciation. It was a very fun night, and there was even a photobooth!

Here we are with Kit and Gina::

would you pray...

...for the country of Bangladesh? I received an email today from the director of Surfing the Nations (That's the organization that I have worked and partnered with in the past. I traveled to Bangladesh two years ago with 4 others from STN.) There is a team there now and Tom sent me this article from Reuters::

DHAKA, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Two children drowned, about 400 fishermen were
missing and thousands of people were marooned after storm-whipped waves from the Bay of Bengal swept Bangladesh's vast coastline, officials said on Wednesday.Sea
water flooded at least three towns -- Patuakhali, Jhalakathi and part of Cox's
Bazar -- forcing many residents to flee as others huddled in their homes braving
strong wind and heavy rain.Weather officials said the sea surge was triggered by
a depression in the northern Bay, likely to persist for a couple of days.They
warned there could be more surge and flooding even though the depression was
likely to cross India's Orissa coast by Wednesday evening.Two children have
drowned in Cox's Bazar beach district, where fishing community leaders said
around 400 fishermen were missing at sea."The Bay has been very rough since
Monday, when dozens of boats managed to return to the shores, but about 400
fishermen in more than 30 boats are still unaccounted for," said Nurul Islam
Nuru, fishing community leader. He hoped all or most of them would come back
alive."Fishermen did return safely even weeks after previous storms," a Cox's
Bazar journalist said.Nurul said the boats went deep into the sea this time
defying storm warnings, lured by hopes of more big catches of the Hilsha fish
swarming in large numbers into the nets in recent weeks.The silvery Hilshas
often sell at high prices and are exported to India.Tidal waves spawned by the
storm have inundated Patuakhali town and dozens of islands along the coast,
officials and weather monitors said.Ports have been asked to hoist distant
warning signals while fishing trawlers and ships were advised to come back or
stay close to shore.The flooding damaged hundreds of homes, crops and fish
farms, local officials said, without estimating losses.The sea waves struck
while much of the country was still reeling under monsoon floods that have
killed at least 20 people in the country's northeastern areas over the past
month.The deluge made thousands homeless and have caused water-borne diseases in the affected areas.Bangladesh, home to more than 140 million people, faces
frequent floods and storms that claim hundreds of lives every year, and leave
millions homeless.In November last year, Cyclone Sidr killed over 3,300 people
and destroyed homes, crops and infrastructure worth billions of dollars across a
vast swathe of coastal area. (Writing by Anis Ahmed; Editing by Jerry
Norton)

Please pray for the town of Cox's Bazar where I have many friends (and the
place where the team is now. )

Seek Week

I've kind of been on a blogging hiatus..possibly because I fasted blogs for a week, and partially because I have been extremely busy :-)

This past week, ROCKHARBOR set aside a week to seek God. This week was different because all staff were asked to keep "normal working" to a minimum. The rest of the time we were freed to pray and seek God on behalf of ROCKHARBOR, our ministries, our families, and ourselves. The week was definitely a journey for me. It was hard to let go of the work. I was expecting it to be hard to break away, especially coming off a weekend with TONS of kiddos (269 preschoolers alone!), and it was! Monday and Tuesday, my attitude was awful, and I could hardly break past that to meet with God. Much to my suprise, many other staff members were having trouble entering in as well. I had an easier time at home than during the prayer gatherings at RH. Alex and I fasted TV, and I fasted blogs and Facebook...it was waaay harder than we thought. The time praying together as a couple was great, I was just not hearing very much on my own.

Wednesday was the day of my breakthrough. It was also the day that was devoted to praying for marriages and families. I turned a corner on this day and that was pretty awesome. The best part of the entire week was Wednesday night. Alex was feeling sick, as was I. We weren't sure if we were going to make it to the prayer gathering, but we mustered up enough energy to go. Before I walked in the building I was thinking that there would be a few families gathered in StudioK, but what I walked in to find was something completely different. There were families everywhere! Families with infants, toddlers, preschoolers, elementary aged kids, middle schoolers, and high schoolers. There were grandparents, and single people of all ages. I was literally stunned. We sat with some of our friends, and near a few families that we know. We worshipped collectively for a while, and it was a beautiful picture of the family of God. We (adults and kids) sang a Hillsong song that our elementary kiddos have hand motions for and there were all kinds of adults doing them too!

The best part of the night was when Michelle (our Family Pastor) came up and led a time of prayer. She walked the parents through a process for blessing their children. She empowered them to look each of their kids in the eyes, call them by name and say "Alex, your father loves you," and then proceed to bless their child, speak scripture over them or say anything they wanted to. She also invited anyone who wasn't a parent to join a family and pray alongside them. Alex and I stood with a family that we see every weekend, and it was so powerful to pray with them.When they were finished, they asked us to pray over their family. It was so touching, I can barely describe it. The night wrapped up with more prayer that was super powerful. It reminded me why I do what I do. Why family ministry is so important, and why I want to be a part of this.

All in all, it was a great week for the pavones (even though I had a minor coronary when I wanted to work but knew I shouldn't!).

sleeeepy

For the past week or so, I have been having trouble staying asleep. I am tossing and turning like never before. Last night I counted 5 times of being awake during the night! I don't know what's different than ever before! I find myself tired all day long! I have no trouble falling asleep at the end of the day, I just need to figure out a way to STAY asleep!