Blessed Mourning

One of Jesus' teachings to a large crowd is recorded in Matthew 5. Verse 4 reads, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." I don't think I have really mourned a thing in my life before this week; at least not in a significant way.

Today is Christmas, and four days ago my mother-in-law passed away in an ICU hospital room after fighting a disease called Graft vs. Host. After being diagnosed with Leukemia in March of last year, she started chemo. right away and was even able to get a bone marrow/stem cell transplant in July. She did great through all of this and it seemed like things were going in a good direction. It was a long road, but we were hopeful of her recovery. If you want to learn more and be blessed by reading of her faith and character through this process you can visit her Caring Bridge site here.

We discovered just weeks ago that the transplant she received was not successful, as only 2-5% of her cells belonged to the donor. This was difficult news to take in. We didn't know what it would mean, but we were told we could get through the holidays and pursue next steps in January. This changed when Chris was admitted to the ICU upon check in for a visit with a pulmonary specialist on Wednesday the 14th.

That Friday Ben and I met his siblings in IL to drive into the city for the international-themed weekend his parents planned for us. Originally, they planned a trip to Europe, but this was cancelled after Chris was diagnosed. Instead, we would to go the German Christmas Markets in Chicago (very authentic to the ones we would have visited in Nuremberg, Germany), sleep and dine at the Intercontinental Hotel, and have lunch at a Swedish restaurant on Saturday. The hospital she was in was just blocks from the hotel. This allowed us to still do some of the planned activities and visit her afterwards. It was hard to be there without her, but we knew she would want us to enjoy ourselves. It was a very surreal experience, going from enjoying activities to seeing her in the hospital in such a weakened state and wanting her to join us.

The day we planned to leave, it seemed like her health was getting worse. We all came back the next day, not realizing it would be one of the last times we would be able to talk with her. Her breathing was short so she was required to be on an oxygen mask that prevented her from communicating verbally with us. My parents came to be with me and to see her. Her parents and some of her brothers came. We were there every day and I barely thought about anything else all week. I drove to my parents' house not far from the city to spend the night. Ben joined me one of those times, never wanting to leave the hospital room.

When Chris passed away on Wednesday, a week after being admitted to the ICU, we had already been grieving for days. My heart was sad just to see her state, and it broke for Ben and his family as they helplessly watched their mom and wife look less and less like the vibrant, classy woman that she was. I couldn't understand how things had progressed so quickly. It didn't seem to make sense at all. The past few days have been a combination of feeling sadness and missing her, yet remembering that she is in heaven now, and there is no better place than the presence of Christ.

Right now this side of my family is learning how to mourn, and it is not easy. Sometimes we just want to cry...a lot. Other times we feel like we should be crying more. There was joy in celebrating Christmas together today, but her presence was missed, and this causes sadness. In our sadness we have cried together, lifted one another up, and acted as a team. Through this bonding and true love displayed, I have been blessed.

Christine Newton was an amazing woman, admired for her godly and authentic character, and I could not have asked for a better mother-in-law. I am so sad not to have years ahead to share with her, but I can't wait to see her in heaven and celebrate with her there!

Here are some pictures from this weekend, that were possible because of she and Bud's generosity and love for life.

Latest DIY

Before: Crowded dresser top and too many necklaces in too many places [The shadowbox used to hold some necklaces but was limiting, so I swapped them for the earrings]






The Solution: Hang the chunky and long ones on the wall. I bought this 5" 4 hook mount and had Ben add the three additional knobs. (Sadly Home Depot didn't have colorful ones like Pier 1-but I didn't want to spend that much either)





The result: One less thing on the dresser and a pretty, untangled necklace display.

Sugar Sugar

It is officially the holiday season, as evidenced by the cookie dough lunch I had Wednesday (I was making sugar cookies!). For our wedding we received a year's worth of cookie cutters, which I haven't made much use of. This week I broke out the leaves for a fall treat.


The last 24 hours alone have been filled with other sweet treats.

-Cupcakes, seven layer bars, and brownies for a girl's night
-Starbucks peppermint hot cocoa, chocolate chip cookie, & cake pops (all before 10am)



The Starbucks treats were compliments of the Johnson Controls hospitality tent, where our friend Adam works. We stocked up on goodies and enjoyed the Milwaukee Holiday Parade on Kilbourn Ave.



Through the morning vendors with carts filled with balloons, toys, and cotton candy rolled by, yelling things like "Cheap plastic, high prices!" I don't think they got much business :) It was a fun way to start the day and enjoy the upcoming holidays!

Pumpkin Carving

I decided that I should really be better about starting seasonal and holiday traditions. Need proof? Ben and I have been married for over two years, and this will be our first Christmas putting up a tree. We travel a lot, so we have allowed ourselves to use that excuse for not getting it up thus far. Last year we did actually bring it up from storage, there just wasn't enough room in our apartment for it. Not that our apartment magically increased in size since then...

Here are some pictures of our pumpkins, which we carved on Halloween. Since we procrastinated the carving, they lasted about two days before getting moldy :(

The stems were so dry they came out when we tried to pull the tops out!

I'm Pinterested

Today Ben and I had four of our sort-of-long-distant (hailing from Madison and St. Cloud, MN) friends visit for the day. We took them to the Public Market to enjoy the array of foods available, toured the Miller Brewery-something we have wanted to do since driving by it so many times-and realized we had six people around our table for dinner the first time! I think. It sure felt that way.

James took some great pictures and I'll hope to post those once I see them on Facebook. It was a great day, and such a treat to hang out somewhere other than a hotel in Minneapolis, where we congregate for conferences several times a year. We will have to visit their homes soon.

While here, the girls introduced me to a site called Pinterest.com. Apparently they had tried to invite me to this earlier, but I mistook it for an invite to a social networking site and deleted it. Now I'm checking it out, and I can see why they wanted to share it! It's so fun, and right up my alley.

Check it out: www.pinterest.com

It's an online way to organize ideas you love and be inspired by others. This will probably work better than my binder of ripped out magazine articles and pictures I've been keeping [although I will never love looking at anything on the computer more than on real pages].

You can find everything from awesome images like this (#Edward_Horsford Photography/water balloon bursting at high speed) :

to craft ideas I never would have thought of on my own, like this:

Now I'll just need to make sure I don't spend TOO much time on this site!

Ghana Student Video

Capturing Summer

My favorite season is officially over. Here are some photos to capture a sweet summer.


We had our first garage sale! It was a lot of fun, thanks to help from our friends, and we made a good chunk of change. We packed up a car full of things that didn't sell, but that just requires a short trip to Iowa City to one of our favorite consignment shops.







We finally went to Jazz in the Park downtown and caught up with Jason and Stef on a fun double date.









Seeing the kids in the family grow up!















Our friends Adam and Pam
introduced us to Sil's, a drive thru
cafe in Milwaukee that makes fresh, hot
cinnamon sugar and powdered doughnuts that melt in your mouth. Thanks guys!






Visiting Meg and Tyler for a week in Washington. It was my first time in the state and I loved it.

Being a bridesmaid in Mahera's wedding with Megan.

Chip and Lisa stopped through Tosa on their way to the staff conference and we got to spend the whole day with them. Our hearts were refreshed to share company with these dear friends.

And of course, there was Ghana. Richard was a great man to work with and we miss him and his country a ton!

A New Name for Campus Crusade for Christ

While I am not sitting with the 5,000 other staff and volunteers in Moby Arena in Fort Collins, I have been watching and listening to live sessions of the biennial staff conference. I knew this would be a big year to miss, as it marks the 60th anniversary of Campus Crusade for Christ, and brings with it a big change for the future of the U.S. ministries: a new name.

Changing names is a big deal. When I got married, I was a little sad to give up the last name that had been with me through my entire life, and it's not that I didn't want to take on my husband's last name-it's just that I had such a history with my old name. I think this is what is also difficult about moving on from the name "Campus Crusade for Christ." There is so much history and influence associated with that name. It is a name that boldly says who we are about serving, but as our scope has grown past universities, doesn't best articulate who we want to reach.

During the extensive renaming process, researchers found that 9 percent of Christians, and 20 percent of non-Christians, were turned off by the original name. This is obviously a barrier to our mission as well. A total of 1,600 alternatives were considered, and "cru" was the best option.

The past few days have been filled with questions about this decision, and what it means for our ministry. To help answer some of these questions, I have included links to videos from the President, Vice President, and Co-founder of CCC. Through this time, I have been really impressed with the humble attitudes our leaders have shown as they have sought God and handled backlash from disagreeing people, and I am honored to work with such godly people.

Though our name is changing, our mission & vision remain the same, and I think that is what's most important to remember as we undergo this transition."cru" may have no meaning now, but will one day have a rich heritage and be full of stories of lives transformed by the gospel, just like "Campus Crusade for Christ."

My prayer right now is that this change doesn't stir up dissension within the body of Christ, but unifies us in such a way that the gospel will be more attractive and more real in the lives of those looking in.

See also: Steve Sellers, VP of CCC was interviewed on fox & friends.

Uncles For a Week

Maybe some of them are uncles every day, but they were ours for just one week in Accra. Andy, Derrick, Jamie, Dale, and Jon flew over from Minneapolis to encourage us halfway through our trip, and get a taste of Ghana for themselves. They came with us on campus to meet students and share how God has worked in their lives-some of them for the first time. They met with local executives and professors to talk about partnering together to strengthen the ministry in Ghana. They brought us M&Ms and Starbucks instant coffee! They challenged our students to take what they had learned in Ghana and use those skills for a lifetime-maybe even in Ghana next year. They were a refreshing part of our trip and we are so glad they joined us. Thanks for giving your time to come to Ghana for a week!

"No Hawking"

When people walk up to the window of your taxi or tro tro to sell whatever goods they have it's called "hawking". This happened everywhere we went. Sometimes we would buy bananas or phone credit, which we needed to buy often, but most of the time we would just say "no thanks" and watch with amazement as women balanced all sorts of large loads on their heads. It was a tie for the most impressive, between a rack of sunglasses and a huge silver tub filled with firewood.

Neman: A New Man

There were several times this summer in Ghana where I (Ben) was thinking, “Man, I have the coolest job in the world.” Getting to talk to people about Jesus all the time is amazing. Yet,there are times when it is hard and can seem redundant. But I am frequently amazed at God’s grace and am humbled at how He uses messed up people like myself to bring the message of reconciliation to people. I would love to share about one such experience.

It was a Monday, and we were planning on doing a Jesus Film showing in a nearby village after our time on campus. As a result, we were going to cut our time sharing Christ on campus short at 4:00 so we could grab dinner and change before being picked up. The showing ended up being cancelled, so I rallied the troops (39 of us), and shared that we weren’t going to stop for the day, but persevere for another hour and a half before heading back to our hostel.

This was our “Killing the Giants” week of Summer Project. Basically, the heart behind this was to come up with a faith-stretching, yet attainable goal for how many people we wanted to share Christ with that week. As a result, the students and staff were motivated to initiate more conversations and reach more people. The week before, we shared the gospel a lot and finished with 119 gospel conversations. This week, we came up with a collective goal of 688! (Just to ease the suspense, we ended the week having shared the message of Christ 694 times!)

I went with a student named Eli to meet people, and we stumbled upon a man named Neman sitting on a bench. We talked with him for about 45 minutes, and learned right away that he did not consider himself a Christian, had never before heard the gospel clearly, and had justifiable complaints against what he say from Christians at the church he attended. He had to leave before we were able to dig deeper, but I set up an appointment to meet him at 1:00 the following day.

That next day, one of our National Directors Derrick and his son JP joined me in meeting up with Neman. They had flown to Ghana for a week, along with several businessman and friends to get a glimpse of what God is doing through our partnership with Ghana. As we met Neman, he could recount word for word things that Eli and I had mentioned the previous day. We talked more about the gospel, and just had an amazing conversation. Neman was studying to be a lawyer, and the questions he asked and the evidence from Scripture to back up what we were telling him was vital. I don't think I have ever seen a more genuine and real transformation of someone understanding the gospel for the first time. He got excited as we continued, saying things like, “I have never heard this before! This makes sense to me for the first time. I have never understood what people meant when they claimed to be Christian.”

That afternoon, Neman prayed to receive Christ and started a personal relationship with God. We took some pictures together afterwards, and he invited us to come to dinner at his house to share with the rest of his family. We weren't able to due to our schedule, but encouraged him to let God use him to reach the people around him. Romans 10:14 says, “How then will they call on in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” Neman left excited to share the best news in the world, that we didn’t have to and couldn’t work ourselves into a relationship with Christ by “being good”, but rather that Jesus was “good on our behalf”. Placing our faith in Him and His finished work on the cross literally transfers our identity to being hidden with Him and being forever right with God.

This is why we want to reach college students; because they are the next leaders of the world. Neman really is the kind of guy that can change families, villages, countries, and the world for Christ. Of all the conversations I had during our 5 weeks in Ghana, talking with Neman was the highlight.

Reminiscing

"Indulge in enjoyable recollection of past events."

Just over a week ago we left Ghana and landed in Washington D.C. People talk about reverse culture shock happening when you get back from another country, but there was no such thing for us. Everything is so familiar and so normal. It is easy to enjoy being in our own home, walking on clean floors (if I am a good housekeeper that day), and eating whatever we want, whenever we want. And while being home is great, there are so many stories and memories I want to capture before I forget details and peoples' faces are forgotten. Many are scribbled down in my journal-some barely legible from bumpy dirt roads-but they need to be shared. The people we met and experiences we had are too sacred to remain tucked away in a book I may not open again once it's finished. Each post this week will capture the people and events that touched us most in Ghana. Today, I will share about the Art Market.

It's technically called the Art Center, but we started calling it the Art Market so that's what I'll call it. We made two visits here near the end of our trip, and that was still not enough time to get through the whole market. Here we are inside one of the many shops that sells wood carvings:
This is where we did most of our shopping, though I spent my fair share of time inside trying to find the perfect dress (no luck). Ben loved going in each shop and bargaining for the best price. I was happy to let him have that job! After a while they all look the same to me, though each vendor claimed their items were uniquely handmade. If you would so much as look at an item, the vendor would do whatever he could to sell it to you, and if we walked out of there empty-handed, he would walk ahead of us and tell his friends what we were looking at so they could offer us similar items. It was quite exciting!

Here is a drum shop that actually did sell hand made drums by the store owner. We brought one back with us. It was priced right, at about $30 USD, when they sell for much more in the states.

One of the shops was called "God's Time Is Best Music Shop". There were many businesses that had very Christian names, which we found amusing.

Visit To The Volta Region

After spending our first few days in Accra, we had a unique opportunity to travel to a different region and join with a summer project of 20 Ghanaian students from various schools in Ghana. We worked together to bless the people there by helping them understand how they can be assured of their salvation. We visited a nursing school two of the days, and a polytechnic school two days, meeting students and talking with them about the gospel. Ghana is very Christianized, so it is really easy to just go up to someone and say, “I’m from America and I’m in Ghana to talk with people about the gospel.” We were welcomed into many dorm rooms and had some great conversations. At first it felt strange sharing the gospel with so many Christians-they already knew how to be rightly connected to God through faith in Jesus, and they seemed to be really well-versed in Scripture. Even so, each time I asked someone about the certainty that they would be in heaven after they die, no one could say 100%. It was fun to walk through 1 John 5:11-13 with them and help them understand that if they know Jesus, they don’t have to fear where they will end up when they die.

Here is a picture of Ben and David, who has been a missionary in Ghana this year, with Robert, Cephas, and their friend at the Polytechnic campus in Ho. Robert and Cephas trusted Christ as their Savior this day!

That same day, we went into a couple of villages to invite people to a showing of The Jesus Film. Ben was able to share the gospel with a local woman named Bridget who wanted to receive Christ with him. Here she is!

Our time in Volta was very fruitful. Over 800 people heard the gospel through personal conversations or from seeing The Jesus Film, and over 300 indicated that they want to or did start a relationship with Christ that week.

Here are a few pictures from the villages we visited...

Lunch at the Market

Buying food, or pretty much anything, at the market is the way to go in Ghana. Things are cheaper, you can bargain, and it’s what the locals do! There is a market we pass each day in between our hostel and campus, less than a ten minute walk down the road. At night it’s called the “night market”, and you can buy anything from toiletries, to food, accessories, and phone credit. When we first arrived we were advised to only get fruit with thick skins, like bananas or mangos, and to stay away from the meat. Here’s a picture of us with our first market purchases the night we arrived.

Today I am planning for tomorrow’s women’s time, so instead of going to campus with everyone else, I am staying at the hostel to work. However, I needed to eat lunch and the market is the closest place to go. So I set off on my adventure of market shopping by myself for the first time. Immediately I purchased a large slice of watermelon which the vendor placed in one of the small, black plastic bags that identify you as a market shopper. I heard there is a shop that sells meat pies (think hot pocket with flaky crust-yum!) so I asked around to find the vendor. When I found her, she informed me that there was one meat pie, and it was tuna. After debating if this was a wise decision or not, since fish can be a questionable option, I decided to go for it. We have been here over two weeks and I felt I could handle the challenge. I made sure it was fresh, though it wouldn’t be warm, and I ordered that with some plantains. (The plantains are amazing! Similar to bananas, they come fried and are soft with a slight crisp to them. I eat them almost every day, and sometimes they are my meal if I don’t like the main dish). The cost for my lunch was: watermelon= one cedi, 50 pesewas; meat pie and plantains=one cedi, totaling less than $2 US dollars. I thought to myself, “I’m coming to the market for lunch everyday!” You can easily get by on 5 cedi a day if you eat at the cafeteria and the market. I confidently walked back to the hostel, digging into my watermelon, and anticipated eating the tuna pie.

When I sat down to eat and opened the container, I was surprised to see it full of plantains, and no meat pie! I guess that’s why it was extra cheap. So today lunch consisted of watermelon, leftover Coke from last night, and really crispy, way too spicy plantains that I couldn’t finish because my mouth was on fire. I’m still planning to get more food at the market, but next time I’ll have to make sure the vendor and I are on the same page and that I get my entire meal! It is fun to be learning the ins and outs of a new culture, even when mistakes like this happen. Yesterday I bought my first bag of water, which was quite the load to carry back to our hostel. Until yesterday, one of our staff had been going out every day to buy enough water for our whole team, which took more of his time and taxi money than we wanted, so we decided that now everyone is responsible for their own. We can either drink bottled water or sachet water, which we just call “bag water”. One bottle is one cedi, and one bag of about 20 small bags is the same price, so we just buy these and either drink right from the bag or fill our water bottles with it. Here is Ben biting his bag to get it open:

Overall we have been able to try a pretty wide range of foods since being here. The first week we had chicken and rice for almost every meal, I think because the servers see our white skin and assume we will only like a limited portion of the menu, or not want to wait for certain foods to be prepared. Last week in the Volta Region I planned the meals at our hotel, so we were able to incorporate macaroni & cheese (which I helped prepare!), spaghetti, which is actually common here, and boiled vegetables. We also discovered the mall nearby which has VERY delicious American food! It’s funny to think of our rustic eating the first week, not knowing the mall had such options so close by. It’s actually very strange to walk through the mall, which feels just like an American one, and then get on campus and have such limited restroom and food options. It’s sort of like when we visited the villages last week that were very simple, very rustic and rural, but a lot of families had cell phones and electricity. I’ll have to write more on that next time.