BIBLE IN 90 DAYS SCRIPTURE LIST...COME JOIN ME.

So I already have a couple of you that are joining me in this journey. My mom, Ashley Cunningham, and Brittany. If any one else is doing this let me know.
I've talked to a couple of you and we are already a little behind. I'm having to do a little catch up...but I am learning a ton. There's just something different about reading the pages so closely together. Like the other day I thought I had skipped some pages backwards because I knew I had just read what I was reading and I discovered that Abraham and then Abraham's son Isaac had repeated the same incident in their own lives with their wives. There is something to be said about what we learn from our parents...not that we don't have the opportunity to make different choices then them but it's often hard not to end up copying some of what our parents teach us. Sometimes that's good. Other times, like in the case of Isaac...it was bad.

Anyways, there's a lot to be read still. IF you are wanting to start joining me, I have included a downloadable bookmark that has all the days and how far you are to go on each day. Enjoy!biblein90daysbookmark.pdf

I'm at the Brentwood academy retreat

DIA DE "WALKING" or is that DIA DE "Limping"?

After 6 weeks of being on crutches many will be glad to know that I was permitted to be off of the crutches officially at 5pm today. So to my co-workers who have enjoyed the load rhythmic clinking of my crutches as I go by their offices...it is over. No more.
YAY. Thanks for the ribbing. Thanks for the encouragement. And a big thank you to my best friend...and husband....for serving me without a single complaint for 6 weeks!
So glad to be back on my feet and I look forward to figuring how to walk again :)

An inside look into an emerging generations meeting

Jay leads our team to look at how we intentionally impact birth-
college with spiritual formation content.

The Bible in 90 days...the commitment begins.

“When I study the Bible, I prepare myself to talk to others. When I read the Bible, God talks to me.”—D. L. Moody

I'm getting ready to go on a sabbatical for 5 weeks and then it collides with 2 weeks vacation so I'm trying to prepare myself for what God may want to speak into my life during that time. I find that I respond well to "bootcamps" if you will so I'm going to put myself through a Bible bootcamp and commit to read the bible cover to cover in 90 days. Sounds like a huge challenge but I found that Darrel had purchased a bible already packaged for such a commitment. It is called "the bible in 90 days". It's tagline is...cover to cover in 12 pages a day. Now, I'm not blogging about this to show-off. I just really have felt called to read through God's story cover to cover before I go on sabbatical, because I want to be disciplined and I want to have a refreshed heart as I go and ask Him "to help me discover what He is doing in and through His church around the world". I have a unique opportunity that I am thankful to the church I serve with that allows me to take time away to refresh and recharge. I am thankful that I will be traveling to churches around the world to listen to stories and ask questions of what God is doing where they are.
So with this journey ahead in November, I realize the journey begins before that with my heart and mind engaging intentionally in God's story. And so I know I need accountability to finish this challenge that I feel called to. So whether you join me in the journey or not, I'm blogging so that you will check in with me to make sure I'm still doing it. Just like when I was in YMCA bootcamp and I knew that if I didn't get up to go that my friend Brianne would be there alone or that I would get ribbed by my bootcamp peers...I need community to challenge me to keep going. SO...
I begin today, I will finish in the middle of my sabbatical. It's 14 weeks.
If you are interested in joining me...c'mon. Just let me know you are doing this with me and we can be accountability to keep at it. I've already started today so if you want to come along on this journey, here is the plan for the week:
DAY 1: Genesis 1:1-Genesis 16:16
Day 2: Genesis 17:1-Genesis 28:19
DAY 3: Genesis 28:20-Genesis 40:11
DAY 4: Genesis 40:12-Genesis 50:26
DAY 5: Exodus 1:1-Exodus 15:18
DAY 6: Exodus 15:19-Exodus 28:43
DAY 7: Exodus 29:1-Exodus 40:39

The journey begins.

Jesus is a friend of mine...SONSEED VIDEO

My friend Heather Proctor found this treasure and I have to say it has made me laugh and now because I have laughed the song is caught in my head. Oh there are no words that can be created to describe this. Thanks for finding this retro video Heather.

EMAIL RESPONSE TIMES...a change to how I approach the inbox.

What is your response time to an email that you receive?
This is something I am trying to determine for myself. Typically I have allowed an email to sit in my inbox without a response for no longer than 48 hours and I'm ashamed to say that for awhile I have responded as quickly as 1 minute from receiving an email.
I have no longer found this to be acceptable and instead of allowing the "ding" of the "You've got mail" to startle me from my work...and become my to-do list for that moment, I have decided to turn off my email through out the day and determine when i will be checking my email. This has some consequences, some helpful and some temporarily challenging:

1. COMMUNICATION ASSUMPTIONS CAN CAUSE TENSION WHEN REPLIES DON'T OCCUR AS THEY HAVE: I have found that contacts expect me to respond to their emails quickly as a courtesy and to utilize email almost like a text message or Instant message. It only makes sense that they would expect this type of communication from me if I have participated in this type of communication previously. SO I have to communicate that my sudden decision to not respond immediately is not personal to them but personal to me in order to make me more efficient and less stressed and more creative.

2. PRODUCTIVITY INCREASES: have found that it allows me to be more productive as I have email "sections" of my day and project "sections" of my day and appointment "sections" of my day. When those all merge into 1...then I just have a day that has no boundaries and doesn't allow me to be present and focused on anything for very long.

So while this is just my personal opinion and my personal experiment, I do have some interesting research that I would like to submit to those who are contemplating changing their email habits:

---it takes an average of 64 seconds to recover your train of thought after interruption by email. This means that people who check their email every five minutes waste a whole working day - or 8.5 hours a week - figuring out what they were doing moments before.

That sounds to me like pre-mature dementia and I don't want to insert that into my life at this point. So things are changing for me. What about you?

Harper comes to visit my office.

Found the old picture folder on Darrel's computer...

We had loaded some old pictures and I'm on darrel's computer while I wait for some DVD's to burn for tomorrow's preteen orientation...I thought I would load a pic of the brother and I when we were super cute.

My fave backpack gets a new "latch"...

I absolutely love my Targus Sport deluxe product TSB312 backpack. I got it when I worked FUGE in 2002 and it has gone all over the world with me. However, it has a problem. It's main latch has broken. In fact when I was in Chicago probably all 81 of my team members at one point tried to sneak up and relatch it for me only to find out it was broken. But what was I to do?
Not even duct tape could help in this situation. I did figure out a makeshift way to use a caribiner but still...not the same. But I refused to stop using it because I loved it.
Well Darrel just put on display one more indication of how amazing of a husband he is. He came up without me even having mention it and has taken it upon himself to send it to the company to have it "re-made". In fact he said it is a lifetime guarantee and they should replace it. WOW! I'm so excited. But more than that...how many of you are jealous aren't married to Darrel?
I know. He's awesome. Thanks Darrel!