The CRUX

Hello darlings - Wow... God could not have blessed us with a more beautiful day in Western PA! It's so funny how once the sun comes out (since we soooo rarely see it) we jump up and down and talk about how much we want to get done. Well, today has been one of those days for me - praise the LORD!

Speaking of praising the LORD - I have a huge praise to lift up, and it is for our Student Leadership Team - The CRUX. They are a group of 14 students who are on fire for the LORD and want grow in their leadership ability while serving our community. These students are just inspiring to me! To be a part of The CRUX team, they had to fill out a 9 page application, get 3 references, and go through a face-to-face interview with JD, Chance, and myself. And after all that... they are now working hard to become the best God honoring leaders they can be. I was laughing at myself the other day as I thought about how much this team is like a baby to me! I want to nuture them and help them grow in any and every way possible.

Anywho, last Thursday we went to Shirley Teck's house (a woman from our congregation) and we helped to clean up her yard and mulch around her house. Shirley is an awesome woman and we were just as blessed by her pepperoni puffs (which she so generously served us after we were done working), as she was blessed by the students' hard work! You can see (to the left, above and below) are just a few pictures of the students working hard to make Shirley's house look beautiful!

Here are two of the girl's (Jenna and Molly) trying to spread out the mulch perfectly. The funny thing about that mulch was how it left both of your hands a nice stained-red color!

After we finished mulching, weeding, etc. we headed inside and did a short leadership training will the team, where we talked about an idea called "The Hollywood Effect". In short, The Hollywood Effect says that it is a lot easier act your way into a feeling, than feel your way into an action. For example, there might be someone in thier life that they don't respect and are even annoyed by... but if they act (with the right heart-attitude behind that action) as if they like that person for long enough, they will eventually start to feel that way. Often times when we follow our emotions, we are drawn off course by satan because he works his way into our emotions. Anyhow, I must get going... but here is one last picture of the whole crew at Shirley's house:

Love You!

~Susan Elaine