Lost, But Holding Hands

Grace. It's a word we hear a lot. Most of us use it from time to time. It comes up in every imaginable situation: from credit payments to work deadlines. Speeding tickets to deposit refunds. I bet even most of us mean the same thing when we use it. Giving grace means we're going to cut someone some slack. Show a little understanding. Give someone a little more time. Maybe a re-do. It's true, all of those things. At least superficially. I think most of us even, if pushed, would include the caveat that grace has to be given freely and without resentment. I mean, if you cut someone slack but then hold it over their head can you really call that grace? Is it any degree of mercy worth mentioning? Ok, so we're going to cut someone some slack and try not to hold a grudge about it. No guilt trips after the fact. This is pretty easy to do if the person has shown in some way that they "deserve" grace. They were late, but they called to let you know they had a flat t...

/well, we survived our week at camp! it was everything we hoped it would be and more. as we packed for camp galilee , we didn't know exactly what to expect. lucky for us we were pleasantly surprised. we arrived sunday afternoon and met all the other adults we would be counseling with. some people we recognized, many we didn't. we've been members at grace  for a couple of years now, but have evaded much genuine connection to individuals outside of sunday mornings. that was about to change. awkward introductions led into an awkward dinner which connected to an awkward first night in our cabins with just our co-counselor and ourselves: the kids would arrive the following day. what had we gotten ourselves into? lucky for us, the last bit of remaining awkwardness evaporated the moment the kids got to camp. from the moment they arrived camp came alive . we had 15 elementary campers in grades 4-6. kelly had 6 girls and tyler had 9 boys. (jr and sr high was ...

[kell and i are lucky to belong to an awesome church family. we've belonged to grace united methodist for a couple of years now and have seen first hand how gracious and full of love a church can be. it would be impossible to list all the kind things we've witnessed church members do in the three or so years since we've been there. needless to say, grace is a great example of what it means to walk in the dust of christ. this week our youth is headed down to camp. each year we take our elementary, jr, and sr high kids to camp galilee in el dorado springs. the last couple of years we've been asked to go, but have always had commitments with our jobs that didn't let us go. it seemed like pd meetings or my graduate school always stood in our way. this year, though, the timing was perfect and we jumped at the chance to go. kell and i will be the counselors for the elementary boys and girls and we're excited to help our campers take a week out of their summer break ...