By Cara Taylor, Director of Outreach At this time of year, I look back on all the ways God has moved in my LifeGroup, and I am so thankful. We have walked together through significant challenges of work, family, and health. We also celebrated many joys…especially our kids getting baptized and growing in their faith. […]
Walking in Someone Else’s Shoes
By Cara TaylorDirector of Outreach “She’s running away!” It’s a favorite line of my mom’s amused home video voice-over. She was narrating as my little toddler legs sprinted across the lawn at a public park. Now, as the parents of a high school senior, we are feeling a range of emotions about his journey beyond […]
Can You Imagine?
By Cara TaylorDirector of Outreach We have been talking about love and relationships in January. As if to put it to the test, my entire family will split up next week, but for a great reason! The kids and the parents are on two different global outreach teams in Mexico and Thailand. Wherever you will […]
We Are Not Alone
By Cara Taylor Director of Outreach Blogging is so odd because I hope to connect my experience with yours, but we are separated in time and space. Whether we are engaging publicly online or working from home, our modern reality can lack the genuine connection we need. To affirm the personal, unconditional, extravagant love of God […]
It All Matters!
Do you ever feel discouraged even though you know what you do is important? Your heart is grateful to God and generous toward others, but you doubt it matters or is worth the effort? This week brought such a sweet, surprising reminder that the Spirit is working through us when we all can use encouragement. […]
Belonging Beyond Boundaries
When a mother and her teen daughter magically trade bodies in Freaky Friday, the spring musical opening this weekend at Peninsula High School, audiences will experience a hilarious and very literal lesson in empathy. Who do you find exasperating? Or maybe just hard to figure out? Would you be willing to swap places in order to […]
What makes a Mexico trip life-changing?
When facing a new experience, are you more likely to dive in or dip your toe? “Dive in!” is the theme for our high school global outreach team leaving for Mexico one week from today. We were inspired by God’s promise to Isaiah: Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do […]
How to pray while you shop
One month ago today, a health crisis struck our family. Yet the holiday season still hustles along. Each day, we float in and out of prayer…longing for hurts to heal. For sparks of joy to keep hope burning. For patience with each other and strength to meet our daily responsibilities. For a lifetime’s worth of […]
To see past life’s distractions, pray together
Short people learn to leap over obstacles. Being short all my life (climbing cabinets, projecting my voice and my personality, lifting heavy stuff both literal and figurative), I can attest with Zacchaeus: obstacles are made to be overcome! In our passage from Luke last week, Zacchaeus was seeking to see Jesus, and once Jesus saw […]
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Right where God wants us
Since Jesus isn’t here in person, but we are, the church isn’t our building. The church is the people with his Spirit…and the Spirit blows where it wants! (John 3:8) That makes my job coordinating our Beyond These Walls gifts very exciting. This time of year, we celebrate people like Curtis who stepped into a […]