Snow and a Season of Waiting

Today I woke up at 6 to finish this Advent Devotional Book for the kids I work with. I was really exhausted and stressed to get it finished. Yet when I walked outside this morning it was a Winter Wonderland outside:) As you can see from the pictures we had about 3 inches and we are supposed to get another 1-3 tonight. I put on my MP3 player and listened to Christmas music as I trekked across the snow to work so I could print and make copies of the devotional books. On my venture across the snow I fell twice, I really can't stand on anything and then add snow!

The kids really loved the devotionals, especially because they got a CD along with it. In my group today I taught about Advent and how it is a season of waiting, but we must actively wait for the coming of Christ. Below is the devotional for today that I wrote, some of you might have already read this. But if you haven't here you go...

November 30th

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent means coming or arrival. For Christians Advent is a time when we patiently prepare for the coming of Jesus. During Advent we remember how people watched and waited for God to come to earth as Jesus. Also we watch and wait for God to come and work in our world and in our lives.

The Advent wreath is a symbol some Christians use during this season to help prepare for Jesus to come. Each Sunday a different candle is lit to represent the coming of Christ.

Today we light the first Advent candle, prepare your heart by reading this:

We light the first candle of the Advent wreath to remind ourselves to stay awake and watch for signs of God at work in our world. This is a season of actively waiting, so God please help me to find ways I can prepare myself for this season of Advent.

I could use a little help

If you have already read my e-mail, then you can ignore my blog post. If not PLEASE READ!!!

I am in desperate need of help from ANY of you that can spare a few minutes of your time to do something for me. I am attempting to write my own little Advent devotional book for our kids here at Cunningham Children's Home. It's amazing how hard it is to find curriculum and devotionals that work for our kids. But I had this idea today as I was planning my lesson for sunday on Advent. The ONE thing they ALL love is MUSIC!!! So I decided that I am going to make them a mixed CD of all kinds of Christmas songs, a mixture of hymns and other songs about Christmas. I want to emphasize that Advent is a season of waiting, and not passive waiting but ACTIVE waiting. So I wanted to make a devotional that goes along with the CD...and that is where I need your help. I would love to have little notes from people throughout talking about how you celebrate Advent and how you prepare your hearts for the coming of Jesus each year. You can do this through writing about your favorite christmas song, a tradition you have during Advent, what you need to work on this year during advent, or how music adds to your advent season. This does not need to be long...just a paragraph or 2. Here are some of the hymns and songs I know I am using so far:

O Holy Night
O Come O Come Emmanuel
Emmanuel by Alathea
Breath of Heaven by Amy Grant
Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
O Come All Ye Faithful
The First Noel
O Little Town of Bethlehem
Glorious by Melissa Etheridge
Silent Night
Light of the Stable by Emmylou Harris

You can use any other songs too! If you could get this to me BEFORE Sunday Nov. 30th that would be AMAZING. If you can't get it by then I will still take it up to the 5th of Dec. But I REALLY could use as many as I can before sunday. I know this is like the worst time ever to be asking for something but if ANY of you get a few minutes this would be SOOO helpful to me and I know my kids will appreciate it sooo much! Heck I'll even send you a copy! I love you all!

God Bless and Happy Thanksgiving!!!

A reflective walk...

Last night at my grad bible study we spent time in prayer and walked a labyrinth. I must admit that all day yesterday I was kind of dreading it. It was freezing outside and I had to ride the bus down to the church + I was completely exhausted because I didn't really sleep the night before. Yet once I got there I realized I really needed that time last night to reflect. So here is sort of a re-cap of what when through my head as I walked the Labyrinth:

I set off putting one foot in front of the other saying, "peace with each new step", this is something Suzanne had taught us at US-2 training and I thought it would be a good way to get focused. After a little bit I started saying, "listen, listen, listen to my heartsong, listen listen listen to my heartsong, I will never forget you I will never forake you..." also a chant we learned at training. I started to realize that the last time I had walked a labyrinth with a group was when I was at US-2 Training in NYC. We were in Queens on the hottest day of the summer in the lovely humidity of NYC (a little bit different weather situation than last night). It was before my journey here in Urbana even began. From there my mind just started flowing with considering my journey over the last few months since arriving in Urbana.

I thought back to that day in Queens, and as the sweat was dripping down my face, I looked up and saw all my fellow US-2's, my wonderful friends, my beloved community. They were walking right beside me on that same journey, even though our journeys were slightly different. As I drifted back into the present, I started to pray for each one of my US-2's...I prayed for Sarah out in Utah as she saves the world by helping fight for injustices with the homeless and poor, I prayed for Fawn in Alaska as she braves the fridgid temps and shares her love with the natives there, I prayed for Bonnie in Alabama as she works in nature to give food to people whom so desperately need it, I prayed for Elyse down in Atlanta as she works with the homeless and struggles through making sense of it all, I prayed for Carolyn up in Wisconsin as she works with women in transition and children and I can relate so much to how hard that can be, I prayed for Meg in Chicago as she works to help make people aware of workers rights and the injustices that go along with working, I prayed for Krista in Detroit as she works with the homeless and congregations to bring them together and have churches support her ministry, I prayed for Greg in Baltimore as he works throughout the community to spread love and build community. I prayed that each US-2 will feel the connection of our community, as we did on that hot day in Queens. That even though we are so far apart now, that we can somehow feel each others presence.

I opened my eyes and even for just a brief second I kinda saw each one of my US-2 family around that labyrinth and felt their presence. As their images faded away I saw new images, they were of my new friends here in Urbana. I prayed for Erin, Anthony, Josh, Kristen and Imy, and then I prayed for the ones that were not there, for Laura, Caci, Alan, Michael, Eric, and Anne. I thanked God for blessing me with all of these wonderful people in my life.

As I entered into the center of the labyrinth I sat down and I prayed over and over again, Thank you Lord for your Blessings. As I left the center and headed towards the exit path of the labyrinth I thought about how wonderful it is to be in this new place and how exciting the future can be, instead of being fearful. I asked God to bless me on the journey that is to come, thanked him for the journey that has already taken place, and asked him to keep everyone safe on their future journey.

It was a much needed time of reflection.

New Books & thoughts...

Here are 2 new books I am reading, thanks to my dad for giving them to me! One is, Jesus wants to Save the Christians: A Manifesto for The Church in Exile by Rob Bell and the second one is, Becoming the Answer to our Prayers - Prayer for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove. I am reading both of them at the same time because I couldn't decide when one I wanted to read first. The prayer one helped me decide on a lesson for the kids today on prayer, and we focused on the scripture where Jesus teaches the disciples how to pray. I really liked this excerpt from the book:

"But the most important thing about the prayer Jesus teaches may be that it invite us into new option. We don't have to give into greed or work as if everything depends on us. When the option are "get rich" or "save the world" we can respond with I want to become part of the people who ask for God' kingdom to come in their life together." We can find out identity not in our work or our causes, but in "Our Father in heaven."

The Rob Bell book I am just now getting into but I really like it so far. I love the titles he has for his chapters it cracks me up. Here is what the back cover of this book says,

"It's a book about faith and fear, wealth and war, poverty, power, safety, terror, Bibles, bombs, and homeland insecurity; it's about empty empires and the truth that everybody's priest, it's about oppression, occupation, and what happens when Christians support, animate, and participate in the very things Jesus came to set people free from. It's about what it means to be apart of the church of Jesus in a world where ome people fly planes into building while others pick up groceries in Hummers."

Gracious what a book...So I will try to write some posts on my feelings on these books as I read them.

Lego Plane + Silly String + Water Guns = Ending the War in Iraq Cunningham Kids Style

I wanted to share a story with you. On the night before the historic election I was reading to the kids the other night and after reading a book about the Election, called "Duck for President", one of our kids informed me of something...So here is how 2 kids at Cunningham are going to End the War in Iraq!

After reading the book, L, said,
"Brooke, I just don't think John McCain or Barack Obama have a good plan to end the war in Iraq",

I replied with, "Well I don't really think they do either, but no one seems to be giving any better ideas, sadly"

L said, "Actually, R and I have a wonderful plan to end the war, do you want to hear it?"

Excitedly I said, "Of course I do, please tell me!"

L went on to say, "Well, first off we have been building this Lego plane, and so our plan is to invent a laser that will super-size the plane and allow us to fly it over Iraq. Once we are there people will look up into the air and be so amazed to see a plane made out of Lego's that they will not shoot us down. Then, we will drop cans of Silly String from the sky, and it will fall at such a fast rate that when they hit the ground, they will explode all over the people and homes. Everyone will begin to laugh and smile, because everyone loves silly string, and it just makes you silly. After that everyone will need to be cleaned off because there will be so much silly string. So we will then drop water guns from our Lego plane and everyone will shoot each other with water guns instead of real guns. Everyone, both Iraqi and American will laugh so much that they forget there is a war and there will finally be peace throughout the land. So that is how I will end the war in Iraq when I L, become President of the United States of America and my running mate, R, will be the Vice President...but we have to wait until I am 35."

I was in complete amazement and filled with so much joy from his story, I said, "L that was wonderful, I really think that is much better than any other plan I have heard! You should become president!"

He then said, "Well maybe we should write our Congressmen or President first"

So that is how 2 creative kids at Cunningham are going to End the War in Iraq. I am so glad I work with these kids each day.

New Colors in our Chapel

I will post more tomorrow, I am working on a long entry but I promised my mom I would post these pictures of our new wall-hangings in our Chapel. They are mandala's and celtic knots that the kids made. The explanation is in a previous post. They bring so much color into the Chapel and it excites me to see new colors. Our board loved them at the annual meeting this past week. Enjoy! And I will write tomorrow:)

Out of Many We Are One

"Out of many we are ONE."

Thank you Barack Obama, our next President of the United States, for reminding us of just that. I am very proud of my country right now.

If you disagree and are angry with the election, I am sorry, but I am going to bask in this historical moment for awhile.

My friend Meg is in Grant Park right now and I am very jealous. I will be at the inauguration, mark my word!