This is my good friend Debbie!

This is my great friend, Debbie Mann. I am so blessed by her friendship and her loyalty over the years. I started out just being her husband's assistant, but over the years, we developed a friendship that I have come to love and rely on. Debbie has stuck by me, checked up on me and counseled me as I struggled through a very difficult time. She's the greatest!

Here's what we've gotten to do together: Gone on 2 mission trips together to Monterrey, Mexico; Attended the "Captivating" retreat in Colorado, numerous water parks, chick Nites, and other events with Lifeline; And we put on a Senior girls retreat up at Silver Lake that I know will impact the girls forever.

Debbie is home anxiously awaiting the birth of her second child, a little boy who is due any day now. I can't wait to meet him and hope he hurries up!

Debbie is a blast! We love taking goofy pictures of each other, and believe me, we have a lot of them! I look forward to many more memories and great times together.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given . . . And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”- Isaiah 9:6

How blessed is this day, when earth and heaven are joined and humankind is reconciled to God!
May the light of Jesus shine continually to drive away all darkness. May Christ, the Morning Star who knows no setting, find his light ever burning in our hearts—he who gives his light to all creation, and who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

-- adapted from the Book of Common Prayer -1979, the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America.

Merry Christmas from the Rajski Family!!

This morning was such a beautiful morning for Trent, Cody and I. Cody got up first (of course) and fixed us coffee, started a fire and then tried to wake us up. We were moving slow - until he pulled out the secret weapon . . . The Carpenters Christmas CD. Then I knew it was Christmas and I sprang out of bed!


We all surprised the heck out of each other with great, thoughtful gifts that each of us could use. I wish I could freeze these moments in time . . . OH THAT'S RIGHT - NOW I CAN . . .

With my new digital 10.1 megapixel Canon Digital Rebel XTI!! Yeehaw!! Thank you Jesus! Thank you to my sweetie Trent! Thanks Loretta for helping Trent pick it out!

I had ABSOLUTELY no idea this was going to happen this Christmas. I thought it was something cool for the house, I had no idea what was in the box. When I opened it I stopped breathing for awhile, and then I burst into tears. WOW!

I LOVE photography and I'm constantly saying "Ohhh - that would be such a great shot if I had a good camera"! I can't wait to go out on shooting expeditions and I might even see if I can join the photography team at church.

Cody bought me a gift certificate to Hollister, so that we could go shopping together - isn't that cute? I think it's cool that he thinks his Mom is young enough (at heart) to pull off Hollister. I'm not so sure I can, but if he thinks so, that's cool.

I have the best family ever!

Everybody with their new Christmas toys

This is how we get our presents delivered on the river!

This guy was hilarious this morning. He was buzzing up and down the river waving and ho-ho-ho-ing. Most of us along the river rushed out to get pictures and it was really cool seeing the neighbors out and all of us laughing together. He really made everyone's day.

Merry Christmas Jet-skiing Santa - whoever and wherever you are!

Did you know there was actually 3 Wise Men a Wise Woman?

Two of my bestest friends!

These are 2 of my bestest friends in the world - Tracy Carlstrom and Shelley Arredondo. Aren't they beautiful!

• 6 years ago when I first started going to GCC, Tracy was the first person to reach out to me and has always been there for me no matter what. Tracy and I share the passion of wanting real and authentic connection for ourselves and for other people. Her and her husband Blair are faithful friends and we are so blessed to have them in our lives.
• Shelley and I were in the same small group a few years back, we got to be on staff at GCC together, and then had the amazing opportunity to travel together to India. She is a creative genius and is so much fun to be around. We share the passion of wanting to be with people who are lost and are desperately hurting. The other thing we share in common is that "holier than thou" Christian people drive us crazy! Her and her husband Jesse have also been great friends to Trent and I over the years and I am so thankful to have them in our lives!
  

HILARIOUS Christmas Fun!

This is one of the most hilarious things I've ever seen - You gotta click on these and check it out. See if your name is on here.

Elf Lanette
Elf Trent
Elf Cody
Elf Dad
Elf Ann

Stay tuned . . . there's more to come!

Christmas Dinner with the Girls

This was the most amazing chocolate cake I've ever had - It was so amazing that I ate the entire thing!
The Girls

Jill Ulrich, Angie Henry, Kim Stewart, Debbie Mann, Me

Monday we got together at Yesterdays and had a great time! Lots of laughing, eating, talking and opening presents. Kim made these amazing little shopping purses from old sweaters - they are so cute! Can't wait until the next dinner night out!

I Graduated!!

I am now officially a Life Coach and my practice opens on January 8th!

In February I start my certification process to get my credentials.

Life is good and very, very exciting right now!

For more info on Co-active Coaching, click HERE

Decorating the Christmas Tree (with a middle schooler)

Cody got his letter jacket!

Wow Mom, I can't believe you finally went and picked this thing up - I've been waiting forever

Mom - Could you put the stupid camera away?

Let's see if it fits me

I'm so happy - I finally have my letter jacket!

This is my last weekend of school!

I'm off to Chicago one last time for the last of my "core curriculum" to become a Life Coach. I am so excited to see my friends and spend one last weekend with them learning how to change people's lives and help them create the life they were made for.

At the same time, I'm dreading the end of the weekend because I have to say goodbye to my friends and we have to go our separate ways. They are amazing people and it's going to be sad to say good bye. Hopefully some of us will work on future projects and extended learning classes together.

School has been AWESOME - I have learned so much I can't even believe it. Never in my life have I enjoyed going to school and stuyding, but right now I can't get enough of it. The things that I am learning are seriously life changing and I can't wait to start sharing it with my friends, family and the world!

I'm all better!

Last Thursday I had a miracle - following really is the short version of last week:

• I started chiropractic treatment at Warren Chiropractic on Wednesday and felt a little improvement. They will be treating me for several months because my spine is all messed up and my pelvis is rotated (could be from accidents I've had over the years or from bad posture - probably a combo of both I'm guessing).
• Thursday after treatment I just wasn't feeling well so I went to bed for a couple of hours. (Judy, Loretta and Karen came to pay me a surprise visit - that was nice!) I moved to the couch and soon discovered that I couldn't get up on my own. I really had to pee, but had to wait for Cody to get home.
• Cody came home and tried to move me so I could get to the bathroom and something shifted in my back and I was in terrible, horrible, the most excruciating pain I've ever been in. Cody started dialing 911 because he's never seen me like that before. I told him to hang up and call his Dad and tell him to get home, something was seriously wrong.
• Trent came home, gave me a pain pill and then started calling my doctor, the hospital, and our insurance company because he was going to call the ambulance. My Mom and Dad rushed over.
• At the same time I am literally screaming out to Jesus to please help me and take the pain away - I've never begged Him for anything like that before.
• All of a sudden the pain started subsiding, and within an hour and a half, I was up walking and feeling much, much better. At the time I just thought it was the pain pill.
• The next morning I woke up and slowly got out of bed - there wasn't any pain and my leg was working! I bounded into Dr. Warren's for treatment that a.m. and he agreed that I had a miracle. Dr. Warren then shared with me that he prays over all of his patients for wisdom on how to treat them and that he had been praying about me all week. Isn't that cool?!
• So now Dr. Warren and his staff are my new best friends - they are seriously the kindest people I have ever met and I am so thankful that I went to them for help. I think it's so cool to find a professional that relies on God to help him and prays for his patients.
• It has only been 1 week and I am back to normal except that my lower leg, toes and foot are numb, like it's asleep. Hopefully I'll get to start working out again next week. Tennis has to wait until January now - I'm not rushing it!

Thank you Jesus! Thank you Dr. Warren!

Teaching Moment

So I've had a week now of laying/sitting around to do lots of thinking. I've been asking God, "what do you want me to take away from this", and here's what I know so far:

• I am learning a whole new compassion and patience for people who live in pain. I've always been a little impatient with people who are sick all the time or who are in pain (sorry Mom). I am sure this will help me be a more sympathetic and understanding person.
• When the fear inside me rises and I start thinking about all the "what if's" - what if I have a tumor, what if I never can walk again, what if my nerves are damaged forever, what if I never get to play tennis again . . . It has given me the faith in God to know that I am exactly where I'm supposed to be and that I can handle anything that happens to me as long as I trust Him.
• I have been getting lots of studying done for Life Coaching school and am convinced that this time to relax, reflect and learn is definitely going to help me in my classes and my certification. I have never read or studied so much, and I'm learning a lot!
• I will laugh at the funny things about this, like Trent pushing me around CVS in a wheel chair and the ridiculous way I have to stand like a Flamingo on one leg when I'm up and around.

I believe that EVERY SINGLE THING that happens in our lives can be used to teach us something, so I am going to try to continue to have a positive attitude through this and learn as much as I can.

I'm Down!

This is not fun. I am used to getting up in the a.m. and walking a couple of miles, playing hard tennis several times a week and buzzing around like a crazy woman getting projects done and crossing things off my to do list.

As of right now, I am down either flat on my back or propped up in a chair. I can't stand up for more than a minute at a time and I am really frustrated, in a lot of pain, and really scared. I can feel my muscle tone depleting every second and I have to call tomorrow to quit my tennis league. This is not good and I am not a happy camper - there is Christmas shopping and decorating just waiting to be done!

About 6 months ago I started having some issues off and on with my back and my right leg not working right. About a month ago I went in for an MRI and found out that I have something growing on my lower vertabrae and it's pushing on my spinal nerves and it's affecting my right leg. It's been pretty tolerable and has just been uncomfortable, but something changed last week and now I can't walk. Tomorrow a.m. I am going to see if I can bump up my Dr. appointment at the specialist so I can see what's going on. I'm really nervous. Please pray for me.

On a good note, I'm enjoying being waited on hand and foot. Cody and Trent are being pretty good to me. If I don't get better soon though, watch out, because that means that Trent will be doing the Christmas shopping and baking and I don't think that would be a good thing! Gift cards all around.

I did it!
I finally went surfing!

All of my life I've dreamed of being a "surfer chick" and finally, after 41 years, I got to get on a surf board.

Last week Trent and I went to Vegas for business then rented a convertible and drove to San Diego's Pacific Beach for 3 days. The day that I surfed was a PERFECT day everyone said - there were surfers everywhere and it was so fun being in the water up close and watching them. I even almost got conked in the head by a flying board.

It's really, really, really tiring and hard to do, and I said I would be happy if I just got up once and actually rode a wave. Well, much to my surprise, I got up the first time! I had quite a few good wipe outs though - I even have this cool bruise on my ankle from the board - I wish I could keep it forever, it's better than a tatoo!

Now I can wear my Roxy clothes and carry my Roxy luggage with pride and not feel like a poser!

Here we are heading off to start my lesson - I'm so excited I think I'm going to pee in my wetsuit!

Here's my instructor Meghan showing me how I'm going to simply push my chest up with my arms while at the same time popping my feet underneath my chest and standing up - all in one move in one second while on top of a wave. That is me saying "WHAT?" I don't think my 41 year old body moves that fast anymore!

This is Pacific Beach Surf School where I took my surfing lesson. Meghan was my "surfer chick" teacher and she was AWESOME!

We stayed at The Catamaran Resort on Mission Bay and 2 blocks from Pacific Beach. I HIGHLY recommend this place - it was beautiful, reasonably priced, had a GREAT spa (we got a couples massage) and the people that worked and lived there were wonderful.

I got up early one morning and watched the sunrise over the San Diego Bay with the mountains in the distance - it was amazing. This was the view outside our door. What was especially wonderful about this place was that I could watch the sunrise, then walk 2 blocks over and watch the sunset on Pacific Beach. AMAZING!

Me right before we had to check out on Tuesday afternoon. This was probably the time I was trying to convince Trent to sell everything and move out to a 900 sq. ft. beach house. I actually cried when we had to leave. SOMEDAY I'll actually live by the beach and won't have to leave!

Last week we went to Vegas to a HUGE auto show where people come from all over the world. It actually is so big that it takes up BOTH convention centers in Vegas. We decided to take our nephew Shaun (who works for us at the shop) so that we could help inspire him of all the possibilities that are out there for him.



Here's my baby nephew Shaun (who's 19 now and not a baby anymore) standing next to a Hemi engine that he was drooling over. He is definitely following in his Uncle's footsteps - he is a gear head through and through. He's brilliant when it comes to mechanical things and he wants to build custom offroad vehicles - he's going to be great at it. He's so good you just might see him on a reality TV show someday.

Here's the convertible version of Trent's cuda - same color and everything

Here's the new 4 door jeeps - Trent says he's getting me one in the spring because he likes them so much. I say if he wants to buy me a brand new vehicle, I'm fine with that!

Here's me goofing around on the strip in Vegas - Shaun picked these glasses out for me.

I wore Shaun and Trent out while we were shopping - here they are taking a nap in "The Forum" at Caesar's Palace.

Date Night Wednesday

Last night was date night and we decided we've been on the go too much and we'd rather stay home and watch a movie.

Well, it was my brilliant idea to finally get Nacho Libre, and oh my gosh, what a dumb movie! It was "Napoleon Dynamite" kind of dumb, but it grew on us and actually ended up being good in a weird sort of way.

Here are some of my favorite quotes:

"When you are a man, sometimes you wear stretchy pants in your room. It's for fun. "

"They think I do not know a buttload of crap about the Gospel, but I do!
Precious Father, why have you given me this desire to wrestle and then made me such a stinky warrior? "

"Inside every suit there is a man. And inside every man... there is a nucleus."

Help - I'm frustrated!

I haven't been blogging because I lost my entire side bar page and have no idea why it's not showing up - the picture, my links, archives. etc.

Does anyone know how I can fix it?

HELP!!!

GCC's India October Team

Big stuff is happening in India. Right now the 2nd part of our team, the building team, is in the Southern part of Tamil Nadu building homes for people who are in desperate need of them.

Click here to see what they're up to http://gccindiaoctober2006.blogspot.com/. Please pray for them as they finish up their mission, say goodbye to their new friends, and start the long journey home.

To see pictures of my trip to India in August, click here: http://lanetteonmission.blogspot.com/2006_08_01_lanetteonmission_archive.html

I just got back from school in Chicago over the weekend and it was:

Life changing
Awesome
Insightful
Painful
Enlightening
Motivating
Hard
Out of my comfort zone
Amazing
A Huge Gift

Meant to be . . .


Something big is coming - I can feel it!!!!!

Random Thoughts . . .

There's lots of stuff going on here - it seems like I get up in the a.m. and hit the ground running. I'm really busy, but the difference in my life now is that I am making a lot of time for friends, relationships, and self care that I have not done before. I am learning that BALANCE is good!

Speaking of BALANCE - I go to school all weekend in Chicago for Life Coaching and we will be studying on how to help our clients find BALANCE. I'm really excited - I LOVE school - and can't wait to learn how to help people with this HUGE issue in life!

I took the summer completely off to rest and recuperate from the pace I had been running, so I took off school too. Now I have to pay for it - I'm still going to finish on time, but I have to go 3 times in less than 6 weeks - YIKES! It's all good though, because I'll be done with school the weekend of 12/10. Then after the new year I will start my licensing process - YEA!!!

As of right now, I am planning on starting my practice at the first of the year, and I CAN"T WAIT!!! I am learning so many cool ways to help people and I can't wait to share it all. I'm looking for 5 clients at an extremely reduced rate to "practice" on during licensing, so if you're interested, let me know!

God has really been teaching me some awesome things that are really helping me and making my life so much better and easier. I will share them with you soon!

Cody made high honor roll at school for the first semester of 7th grade, so we're really proud of him. Dad pays him for good grades (we can do that since we only have one kid), and with money he's been saving and his report card money, he has enough to go buy his X Box 360 (or whatever it's called) today - he is so excited he can hardly stand it! I told him he's not allowed to turn into a video game geek!

Trent is happy - he has all 3 of his rental houses at the business rented out and he really likes all of the people that are living there. The house on the East side of his business was a complete nightmare when the people moved out, so he has spend the last 2 months gutting it and remodeling - so it's a big relief to have renters in there again.

Trent and I are leaving next week to go to Vegas and California and we can't wait! The first 4 days in Vegas are for business and our nephew Shaun is going with us for the first time (he's going for the show, not to gamble!). Then the last 3 days we are driving a convertible Mustang to San Diego and staying in a great resort on the bay. The last day we will drive up the coast, visit Venice Beach (Trent wants to see Muscle Beach) and do some other "touristy" things that you have to do when you're in LA - then we fly out of LAX and head home. Trent has never been to CA before, so we're really looking forward to a romantic little get away!

While we're in San Diego we're going to go over the border to Tijuana and do some shopping, have a taco and a real Mexican margarita - CAN'T WAIT!

Do you have a "Things I Want To Do Before I Die" list? I do - and I'm so excited because next week when we're in CA, weather and God permitting, I just might be able to achieve one of those things on my list. Can you guess what it is? SURFING!!! Yes - I have ALWAYS wanted to be a California surfer girl, but that just isn't what God has planned for me (I was born in Indiana) - but right next to our hotel is a surf school with private lessons and I AM THERE! I'll even withstand the cold to get to do it at least once in my life! It'll be a miracle if I get up, but I'm going to give it a shot. I'll listen to some Beach Boys before I go to get me in the mood!

That's about it for now - over and out!

Save me from my religious friend!

This is an article I saw in the South Bend Tribune on 9/24/06 and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it - take a look and give me some feedback on your thoughts:

Save me from my religious friend

I've been friends with "Jenny" for 10 years. We met in our early 20's when we were both newly married. Jenny and her husband moved an hour away five years ago and we don’t see them often, but Jenny and I talk on the phone.

The problem is that Jenny has found Jesus. She goes to church twice a week, listens to religious music and studies the Bible constantly. She hasn’t joined a cult or anything; it’s a mainstream religion. I’m glad she's happy in her faith. But she'll often invite me to bible studies or religious rock concerts. Every time we talk, she'll go on about a lesson from the bible she's studying.

When "The Passion of the Christ" came out, she invited me because her church had told members to "bring an unsaved friend". I resented her thinking of me in those terms.

But I'm more annoyed by her casual approaches to convert me. When she invites me places, she says something like "I've got and extra ticket and thought you might want to come" or "We’re studying Revelation and I thought you might be interested". I’m not interested, but I don"t know how to tell her without hurting her feelings or making her think even more that I'm headed for hell. Plus, I wonder if she thinks of me as a friend anymore or just a soul that needs saving.

Is there any way to get her to stop bugging me without hurting her feelings or ruining our friendship?

Hell of a Friend

Friends, this is someone here in the Michiana area, not in another town. Are they one of my friends, or one of your friends? Is it you? The part that strikes me the most is the part that says she resented being referred to as an "unsaved friend" - I can understand that - I wouldn't like that either.

This article is making me think . . . alot. Hmmmmm . . .

Grissom 7th Grade Football

Tuesday was the last football game of the season, and it's been a GREAT season. Cody has never played a sport before and this is his first time ever playing football or being on a team. It's been fun watching him transform from a skater punk into a jock who goes out jogging when he's frustrated.

By the 2nd game he started playing first string - offensive and defensive tackle - and midway through the season he was playing A team and B team. Now he's talking about playing football at Notre Dame, which is a great dream to have! (We better start saving our money, because he's got the grades to actually do it).

The team had an awesome season - they were undefeated until last week when they lost by only 2 points. This was the playoff for 3rd place and the won 30 - 18!

He did such a great job and Trent and I had such a good time going to all the games - I had a blast being a football Mom and wasn't even scared of him getting hurt! We're so proud of you Cody and can't wait until 8th grade football next year!

We celebrated the end of the football season with a Jimmy John's - Cody's favorite!

I think I'll practice my karate moves while I'm waiting on the side lines - maybe that will impress the coaches

Some of the Grissom fans - Grandma Emma, Hank and Dad

The final score:

Grissom 30 - Wildcats 18

Grissom wins Third place in the 7th grade playoffs!

The Prison Break - Teddy's Mug Shot

So we had an exciting weekend - we went to Silver Lake (gorgeous weather), visited friends in Fremont, MI and then went to the Colt's game.

Teddy can't ride in the car anymore because he's lactose intolerant, so he doesn't get to travel with us anymore. He's happy staying home and sleeping in his little bed, hunting chipmunks, and eating as much food as he wants because we keep the bag open for him.

So we get home and usually he comes when I call him, but no Teddy - which isn't unusual - he spends a lot of times in the woods hunting. I come inside and listen to the messages and there's a message from the vet that says "good news, we found Teddy" - I didn't even know he was missing yet!

Last Spring when Teddy got fixed, I had a chip put in him, much to Trent's objection (he's not a big fan of cats). Thank God I did because somehow he got picked up by the Humane Society and they were able to let us know where he was at. It was sad leaving him there all day on Sunday - I had to wait until they were open on Monday to go bail him out.

I arrived bright and early at the Humane Society with the bail money ($55 - yikes!) and after going through all the cat rooms and not seeing him, we finally found him - I was getting nervous!

So Teddy is back home for now and hopefully he won't get picked up again any time soon.

Happy Birthday Shelley!

Today is my good friend Shelley Arredondo's birthday.

I love hanging out with her, she is always a lot of fun. Shelley has taught me a lot about what it is to have a servant's heart and also about being a good Mom and putting your family first.

I am so blessed to have her in my life! Happy Birthday Shelley!!

The door is wide open!

I've been looking back over the last year of my life and reflecting a lot. The summer of '05 was an amazing time of being so close to God and understanding so much more about Him and my relationship with Him - it was awesome! Then fall came and at the last minute I got to go to that incredible "Captivating" conference with John and Stasi Eldredge, which was life changing. But that's where it all started - that's where God started doing heart surgery on me to remove a bunch of toxic stuff from my heart and my life and it's been a long, hard and dark journey since then. Thank God that He gave me such a great summer close to Him so that I had enough strength to make it through this dark time - He is so great at stuff like that!

So while I was looking back over my blog the past year, I found this post from March 6 and it gave me chills . . .

"From 6 months ago . . .

QUOTE: And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. Anais Nin

. . . something intense and extraordinary has begun to be uncovered in me. I've known for a long time that I've been being pulled to change and risk, but it was more comfortable for me to stay in the "bud" where it feels safe than to believe in myself and risk the pain of failing, being rejected or being criticized for who I am . . . I'm ready to take the risk and LIVE - really live!

I know that I'm at a crossroads right now and HUGE change is going to begin to take place in my life - God has designed so much more for my life and there's so much more He has out there for me. I am not truly being myself - I'm being what everyone else wants me to be and as of this moment, right now, I'm done - I'm truly done. I'M CHOOSING TO BLOSSOM BABY!

I'm choosing to embrace and uncover who God created me to be and I am going to honor him not by DOING, but by BEING . . . just being . . . being myself, being true, being honest, being aware, being in touch with my feelings, and being the beautiful human BEING that he created me to be."

If you would have told me a year ago that I would be out of ministry, not working with high school kids, unemployed and depressed to the point that it was hard to get out of bed in the morning, I would have told you you were crazy! But now I understand that God had to take me there to get me to where He wants me to be (kind of like prying something out of a baby's hand so that you can give it something better that it needs). I realize now that youth ministry was kind of like my "drug of choice" - I used it to numb my own pain and not look at my own stuff that needed to be taken care of, and that was not healthy.

So now my future is wide open and that's pretty exciting! I may end up back in ministry working with kids, but I may not . . . that's the exciting part . . . the door is wide open and there are a million possibilities! I have no idea where He's going to take me, but I know that wherever it is it's going to be amazing - probably not easy - but amazing, and I can't wait!

Here are a few important people I want you to meet . . . This is Esther

This is my friend Esther - isn't she beautiful? She is not just physically beautiful, but she has an incredibly beautiful spirit.

We (Jennifer, Jeanna and I) stayed with Esther during the last part of the trip. We were with her for only 2 days and one night, but it felt like we had known each other forever - like she was family.

Esther pastors a church with her husband (who was out of town at the time) and she has 2 adorable boys - Jose and Joel. We went with her to her church on Sunday and it was while I was there with her that I realized that I could actually live in India and do missions work if I ever had the opportunity. She cooked an amazing meal for us (the best we had while we were in India), she sewed up my sari for me, she taught us how to make tea, and we visited about 20 of her believers and prayed for them. It was amazing all we did with her in such a short time.

Esther has an amazing testimony and I will share it with you when the time is right. She is someone that I would definitely hop on a plane and fly nine thousand miles to see again!

This is Judah

This is Judah - a 21 year old church planter who has an amazing faith and amazing personality. Unfortunately, I didn't get to hang out with her a lot, she was with the other teams, but I did get to ride the train with her for 3 hours and I really enjoyed her!

Here she is on our first day going to the villages - she had 3 or 4 people who were waiting to be baptized once Shelley and her team arrived. This is a beautiful picture of love, compassion and dedication to Christ.

This is Sheela

Sheela was our translator when we went into the second village and stayed with Esther. Sheela was a BLAST! She was so much fun and we LOVED hanging out with her and getting to know her. She definitely made the last part of our trip so much fun!

Sheela is a "city girl" - she is from Bangalore where it is nice and cool all the time. She works for the Bible League in the office and came on this trip with us at the last minute. Sheela has not ever been to the villages we went to or experienced this kind of trip, so it was really a lot of fun seeing the things we saw through her eyes. All of it was just as new to her as it was to us!

What I will remember most about Sheela is the day Esther and her friends and family took us to the beach. Sheela had never been swimming in the ocean before and she went all out and had so much fun - nothing was stopping her from enjoying life and enjoying the moment. I'm sure Jesus was smiling while He was watching us play in the ocean!