The day to day stuff

So I'm not sure who all reads this (if anyone!) but I thought I'd drop a note on the little things that have been going on...

Last Sunday I spoke at a Perspectives class at Northpoint Corona. It was a good 45 minutes of challenging the class of roughly 50 adults with an unexpected global issue kids face...half truth. We talked about how half spiritual truths (like God loves me and takes care of me and protects) can easily produce self absorbed half followers of Jesus when not balanced with whole truths (like God loves me so I can extend his love to a lost and broken world. It was well received and many shared how it would now challenge them in their own work with children.

Yesterday I exhibited at the Asian American Ideas Exchange in Santa Ana. We had 5 new magazine sign-ups. Sold over a dozen back issues and got a possible lead to run a children's program for a church retreat labor day weekend.

Tomorrow we begin researching and putting together our May issue on Trinidad and Tobago. Ukraine will be released Thursday.

Living each day in trust, knowing my times are in God's hands...abiding and remaining in his love as I serve faithfully where I've been planted.

Prayer: Big conference in Pasadena is just a few short weeks away. There is much to prepare in terms of the items for our exhibit table and the two large workshops I'll be presenting. Also, I'll be traveling to Arkansas the 17th-21st to meet with our regional mobilization office. Look forward to what unexpected things God will bring from that.

Where Two or More are Gathered....

....He is there.

Last night I drove to Pasadena to visit a great friend who was visiting from out of time. Her and I and her host were blessed with an unexpected 3 hour prayer time. It is true. Where two or more are gathered, He is there.

We spent a vast majority of our time praying for Global Xpress...praying for growth, praying for other at the US Center and aboard to catch the vision, praying that the wall that we seem to keep running into with fiances would come crumbling down.

While we were praying, one of the ladies had a vision of me dressed in costume, playing a consistent character, who worked with teaching kids. And people knew about it and were requesting it. She knew nothing about the work I was already doing as Conductor Courage. :) What confirmation that the Lord is still on the move!

Our time reminded me of just how crucial prayer is, especially in light of this generation, paradigm shifting ministry. Please keep praying for us day after day! Here's some specifics you can pray for:

- that we would bear fruit that will last in the life of each child who uses our materials,

- that kids would understand God's glory and his heart for the nations and desire to live for him,

- for unbounded creativity as we work each month to put together new materials that are age appropriate and effective in teaching and engaging children,

- for financial provision, both for myself as I serve full time and for ministry growth and expenses, including a much needed office in the Inland Empire area,

- for opportunities to mobilize other adults and teachers and we speak and do workshops at upcoming events: Northpoint Corona (March 20), Idea Exchange (March 26), CMTA (April 29-30).

Carissa's Chronicles- February 2011

I was standing outside watching the kids play. I caught Mia, a little girl I have nannied for several years, walking by out of the corner of my eye. Unexpectedly, to both her and myself, I swooped her up in my arms. After hugging her tightly, I whispered in her ear, “Do you want to know a secret?”


“What?” she prodded back, struggling to escape my grasp.

“I love you to pieces!” I replied.

“Well, duh!” She corrected me, “That’s no secret Miss Carissa!”

I laughed as I put her back down. I was caught in a lie and I was okay with that. There was something victorious in learning that this little girl whom I had cared for and discipled for so many years knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that I loved her.

As Global Xpress continues to blossom and grow, I find myself continually pushed outside my comfort zone. Every week I get another call or another email asking me to attend some important strategic meeting or present at a school or conference. Magazine deadlines get harder and harder as my creativity is stretched to its limits. I can easily find myself in a state of fear or discouragement. But then I remember kids like Mia, and I am propelled forward by an unavoidable passion to love and serve them.

My life is the story of one girl who loved one Savior so much that she had to tell one child…and then another, and another, and another. And soon she was telling children in India, and Mexico, and Africa. And now, through Global Xpress, my team and I are telling children all across the United States in hopes that they might fall in love with the Savior, too.

As I sit at my computer, unseen by the world, daily plugging away to create the best tools possible for families and churches, I pray that each child who receives the Global Xpress is able to say that their lives reflect that same story. In all we do, I hope they see Jesus, the Savior of the World, who loves them even more than I do and whose love for them also extends to a great, big hurting world.

I am looking forward to watching the same love that consumes my life begin to consume the lives of children, too. I’ll be there, cheering each one of them on, as they go forth and share God’s love with others in their schools, their neighborhoods, and to the ends of the earth. I hope you will, too.

May your life be directed and driven by the same inescapable love of the Savior of the World.