A Call to Prayer*Local Event By Christian Covenant Church

prayer 
|pre(ə)r|noun
a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God

We've been invited to pray for the broken hearted, for our nation.
And we've been invited to have our hearts broken, for our nation.
In the days of the Civil Rights Movement, I'm sure people had their hearts broken.  Millions were treated unjustly because of the color of their skin.  People prayed and, though painful, God answered those prayers. Again, and now, millions of tiny unborn innocents are being hated.  In this event,  JOEL 2 SOLEMN ASSEMBLY by Christian Covenant Church, we are invited to examine on-going habits in society today; habits which hurt us, not help us.

Won't you join us?

When:  Saturday, Jan. 21, at 6 - 9 pmWhere:  Christian Covenant Church is on County Road 616 (New Zion Rd.) off County Road 750 (Piney Grove/Landfill Rd.)
for GPS: 120 C. R. 616  Athens, TN 37303

"Joel 2:14-16  Who knoweth if he (GOD) will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; ... Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children."

For more information, RSVP and invite others, click here.

http://www.christiancovenantchurch.com/



Soli Deo Gloria! ~K. De La Cruz

The Joy of Juicing, The Joy of Doughnuts!

We took the first drink...  My family and I made the Mean Green juice recipe today!  I LOVED the aroma of green apples, lemon, fresh ginger, celery and so on.  I found myself excited at the idea of opening a fresh-juice kitchen or to garden as a lifestyle.  It was that wonderful!  I'm very thankful for a husband who presses me to try life-giving endeavors like this!
We prepared the kids, boys, ages 7 & 9 by watching the documentary Dying to Have Known.  Similar to Fat Sick & Nearly Dead in that it shows the benies of eating "green" as well as all the other colors of the rainbow, but, is different in that the premise is to prove or disprove the Gerson Method for curing cancer.  This had the nine-year-old's attention.  He tried the apple-lemonade and loved it!  Not-so-much for the seven-year-old  "I only eat (fill-in-the-blank-on-any-given-day)" kid.  "To each his own" and "Rome wasn't built in a day!"
Then came the trip to the new Dunkin' Doughnuts.  We live in a very small town, one that just opened a Dunkin Doughnuts.  No Starbucks for 30 miles in any direction.  (Now you know I'm on a mission from God, right?!  I've proven that a citified woman can live without Starbucks.  For heaven's sake, even my language has assimilated to the culture! "Citified!") 
Ahem, feeling so good after my fresh juice, I headed to Dunkin Doughnuts to get some research accomplished.  Dear friends and owners of a national engineering firm have asked me to do some writing for their website!  My mind is aflutter with quippy-quips!  "What goes up, must come down" Naaaahhh.  NOT for a civil-structural engineer's website!  As soon as I sat down I met the nicest older couple and low-and-behold, the husband was a chemist and patent attorney for Dow Chemical, among other nameable companies, in the 60's.  He shared a remarkable story of working conditions in a lab where the scientists had liver problems and were dying.  (Remember the movie Erin Brokovich?!) ...How when he walked outside his place of work, the pollution in the air was so thick it burned his eyes...And how "the men in suits would walk in and out of the lab very quickly."
As we drank our free coffee and yes, even ate doughnuts as we visited I could not help but question what happens to those who cannot choose a different career, those who cannot go back to college?  That makes me thankful to oversee my kids' education.  But ultimately, my hope is not in what I teach, or eat, or not.  My hope, if built on the foundation of my efforts, will be like a ball in the air.  What goes up must come down.  I pray that my hope will be in a sovereign God, in his plans and purposes that exceed my ideals and my life span.  Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End.  Ora et Labora.  Work and Pray!
Or eat wisely and pray?  Love graciously and pray.  Think about the goodness of God all around and in new friends at a coffee shop.  God is calling.  Let us be found listening!

The Book of John, Chapter 1, verses 1 through 4
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men."

Soli Deo Gloria! ~K. De La Cruz

Join Me! Extreme Home Makeover in Knoxville!

UPDATE:

Extreme Makeover Home Edition - Shift Notification for Katie- Day 10, Thursday 1/19 - 8:00 am - 2:00 pm

From a previous post:
I just love Extreme Makeover Home Edition!  And in just a week or so, they will be in Knoxville, needing volunteers!  If you've ever wanted to be involved in the show or in doing something really awesome for someone else, check out this link: 


Click below to volunteer!
http://www.joinextreme.com/tnvolunteer
If you apply, let me know!  We'd love to hear about your experience!

Soli Deo Gloria! ~K. De La Cruz

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Link: http://www.joinextreme.com/tnvolunteer

Soli Deo Gloria! ~K. De La Cruz

Rachel Wrote a Song About Joy and I LOVE IT! *Album release today!

One of my favorite authors, Francis Chan, has five kids.  Francis writes about God's crazy outpouring of love for people.  So when his daughter Rachel wrote a song about the unconditional joy through Jesus Christ,   I wanted to hear it!
(For Rachel's song, EVEN HERE, go to 24:00.)

Francis' preaching is full of hope and awe.  Many preach, but few love God.  Francis loves God and I want what he has in his relationship with God!  Rachel's song helps bring it home to my heart...
Rachel's website
Her album just happens to release today, January 10, 2012!  If you download it or pick it up, let me know what you think!  Or read more about Rachel, her family and her music here.
Thanks and Happy New Year :)
Soli Deo Gloria! ~K. De La Cruz

20 Questions and Answers: Why I'm a Blonde

On my personal FB page, many have asked questions about my recent change of style.  ...I was tempted to say, "well, I'm playing the part of a Russian spy," or "yes, my stylist and I frequently brainstorm style ideas and decided PLATINUM,"  which is partially true as I am the stylist...  The following article is, perhaps TMI.  However, this is what I settled on...  (Haircut by Debbie Davis at Walmart in Athens.)


The problem with hair is that it grows really, really fast!  Then, one who has colored or dyed their hair has "roots."  I am tired of thinking about roots.  My hair started going gray when I was eleven.  I've been in a vicious cycle of "to-color-or-not-to color" ever since.
As I drove to the discount store where a shopper never knows which color will be available, I prayed.  I prayed, "please, two boxes of the same hair color  OR hair-color remover."  (Don't judge!  Someone you know, probably you, have done the same thing. Ok, maybe not.)  I was so excited to be free of coloring my hair!  Anyway, with one box of hair-color remover (no two-boxes of the same color dye) and with my husband's support, I committed to the process of removing hair color and started at the front of my hair line.  Only, there wasn't enough color remover in the bottle to cover my entire head!  I had been swept up in the decision of leaving my brunette hair behind and I did not realize I didn't have enough "supplies" on hand to finish the transition.  Saying something indiscernible to my husband and children, I acted to remedy the situation.  I have managed to get my hair to an almost-white color...  (It was various shades of Mountain Dew and Orange Crush for a while...) Thankfully, it is quickly growing back out.  It's not like I think blondes have more fun or that I wanted a new look.  Really, I was just frustrated with roots.  Since then, I have made a point to ask ladies where ever I go, if they too are growing out roots, why they are doing so.  When I see roots, I know there's a story there.  All creation is awaiting the Great Redemption.  All us ladies with roots are no exception.
An idea I struggle with is what if everyone stopped coloring their hair and instead used that money to END world-poverty...  It could happen!  Have you heard of "58?"  It's a movement to end poverty world-wide, in our generation!  Here's a link!  :  http://live58.org/thefilm/  But that's another blog topic!
I am wrestling, too, with why I should spend so much time and money on my hair when it won't last?  It has no eternal value.  Of course, I felt like an idiot when I had an interview for a gig and had to go with this very bright hair do.  I wanted to dye it dark again, but I'm ready for a break from the every-two-weeks tradition of hair-coloring...  
In any case, God cannot love us more than he already does and he will not love us less.  Whatever we do, may it be an act of faith expressing itself in love.  Something as simple as trusting the almighty sovereign God over the natural color of my hair is not natural to me.  But still, he loves me and promises to complete the good work he started in my heart.  Somehow, this hair-coloring adventure is part, however small a part,  of his plan to make my heart more like his heart.  
While doing research for this post, I met a lady who's son-in-law has cancer. Please pray for their family and for his healing.
  Thanks for reading.  I appreciate your time and welcome your responses.  
God cannot love you more and he will not love you less!
 ~K. De La Cruz

Reason #278, Why I Live In The South by Brad Mizer

I fostered a deep thought today. I gave it room to grow and this is what I came up with. The majority of TN residents are from the south. I didn't grow up helping my father put snow chains on the tires of the family car and shovel the driveway in the winter. When I learned to drive it was 85 degrees in October, thus no snow. I have driven in snow all of 10 times in my life. I enjoy a good 3 inches of snow when everything shuts down and no one goes to work. It is ironic to me that people from the north make fun of us southerners for not wanting to strap into a 2000 pound, rear wheel drive, steel car and drive on summer tires through an inch of snow that we obviously have not been taught to drive in. Who are the real dummies? Is it wise for a bunch of unlearned snow drivers to take to the icey streets all at once just because you did it in northern Ohio or Maryland all the time? Take the day off work, eat a frozen pizza with some hot chocolate and watch Lifetime with your wife. I am proud to be a terrible snow driver. I hate cold weather. That is reason #278 that I live in the south.

Thanks, Brad, for the chuckle and for allowing me to share your Facebook post here!  Brad and his family are the owners of East West Media, a billboard advertising company in East Tennessee.  Their office is filled with amazing advertising artwork spanning a multi-decade time period...  My kids and I loved visiting the Mizers at their office!  P.S.  This is not a paid endorsement of East West Media. 

Soli Deo Gloria!
Latin,  "To God Be The Glory."  Jean Kim of The Cambridge School in San Diego taught me this phrase. ~K. De La Cruz

Stirring the Kettle of Creativity and Peace

Christmas cooking in the kitchen has given my mind time to wander.  It's stirred my passion for writing, bubbling up memories of reading things of high worth!  God's awakening my soul to his ideas by using some of these writers...

Marsha,  a fabulous and fabulously adopted young woman; the glorious art and personal style of Sarah Hazel; the transparency and truth of Jason Wallis;  and Francis Chan and his wife Lisa have to say about family and mission...

Brian, my husband, is on a Francis Chan "kick,"   listening online before everyone gets up and after everyone goes to bed.  Actually, Brian's been able to share hope with our worrying son through Chan's videos, books, and talks online.  Francis is all about reading the Bible as if you've never read it before.  For Brian, who remembers everything he hears verbatim, listening to Chan on youtube or podcasts helps him soak in what the Good Book says!  It's a blessing, bringing more peace to me, too.

Soli Deo Gloria! ~K. De La Cruz