In case anyone still checks this...

In a picture, here is what life is basically all about now

Baby Shortridge is due September 16th, 2008!

If you want to know more about my life, ask to be my friend on Facebook. I spend most of my time there!

7 Random Things

I was on a random blog search tonight and saw someone posted 7 random things about themself. Thought it was cute. Feel free to post something similar yourself! If you do, let me know, so I can find out more about you!

7. I watch the Disney Channel for fun, not just for work. Hannah Montana is not just for kids!

6. I'm absolutely addicted to patterned paper for scrapbooking. I have way more than I'll ever use!

5. I have watched Guiding Light ever since I was a little kid, but am more into now than ever. I love that you can watch it online now (sorry writers! I love that it's free!).

4. I love getting gifts, no matter how small or inexpensive. Ask me sometime about the gifts Luke used to give me in high school.

3. My least favorite thing to do is hang up/fold laundry. I don't mind separating it, pulling it out of the washer and dryer, but putting it away is like torture to me! If I had it my way, it would sit in the laundry basket til it needs to be washed again.

2. My secret desire is be a pilot, as in airline pilot. There is something magical to me about planes and flying..

1. When I was a child, I wanted to be called Grover. If people met me and tried to call me Sara or anything else, I would correct them and ask them to call me Grover. My hero was Super Grover on Sesame Street....and still is!

too old for concerts!

Luke and I went to see Dashboard Confessional Friday night. I love Dashboard concerts...we've been to 4 or 5 of them together. It was in a really cool place for a concert: Clutch Cargos in Pontiac, MI. It's an old church converted into a club/concert venue. It's not much bigger than a school gymnasium, with a small balcony on the 2nd floor.

Now for the too old part.....

Reason 1 - Dashboard is a pretty mellow concert scene. His music isn't really hard or fast, so the crowd isn't a mosh pit or anything. Which is good for me. But, crowds of any kind are overwhelming to me! I hate being bumped into and funky smells, and cigarette smoke blowing in my face.

Reason 2 - There were 2 opening bands....so DC didn't come on stage until pretty late. And I'm not what you would call a "night person".

Reason 3 - When DC did come on , there were so many people moving around, and lots of tall guys right in front of us. I couldn't see Chris at all! And the people right next to us and behind us were apparently not huge fans, because they were having there own conversations. I was so irritated.

I guess those are the only reasons.....it was just funny to see the difference between Luke and I. He loves the night hours, he loves crowds, he didn't really care about conversations or tall people! :) He's so mellow....

Overall, the concert was great. DC took the chance to do an acoustic concert...old school style. It was so cool for him to play the first 4 songs off of the first 2 CD's. Took me back to a time of life when things were so simple. It's really nostalgic for me......now if only I can petition for every concert venue to have assigned seating, with enough room in between people for our individual "bubbles" of personal space!

So, at our church, we are a week away from what we call the Big Push. It is a time when we launch a ton of advertising and make the ask of our congregation to invite as many people as they can. The purpose is to have our entire church super focused on evangelism and outreach...the ultimate purpose being lost people coming to church and hearing the gospel, perhaps for the first time.

Anyways...every time the Big Push comes around, I tend to look at it first through the "ministry" lens. I think of how I can make KidVentures a cool place, and put cool invitations in the hands of our kids so that inviting their friends is fun and easy. I start thinking of a cool topic or theme for our series during those three weeks and what needs to be done in our space so that it is an inviting and safe place for families.

The one thing that I always put on the back burner is my own personal outreach and evangelism. Asking God to give me a mission field...or at least to open my eyes to the one I may already have. Taking leaps of faith to invite people to church. Even someone I may have only talked to once or twice before.

It's so much easier for me to focus on my job and forget that God wants ME to invite my friends, too! Not that what I do with the kids isn't valuable to the Kingdom, because it is! But, there are so many others out there who have no clue about the life God offers. Even my neighbors, who can be irritating, rude, and often loud & obnoxious...God sent His Son for them, too! And He has a plan for their lives. And they have no idea.

So, tonight our KidVentures volunteers came to my house and we wrapped candy bars for the kids to give to their friends and invite them to church......and it has me thinking.......

Who should I give my "candy bars" to? Maybe it means a walk around the neighborhood with Daisy, and instead of ignoring the people I pass by, I ask their name and tell them mine. And maybe they'll ask where I work, and I can tell them about the church that I love...and the cool series coming up that they might really enjoy. Or maybe it means asking my sister, once again, to just try CedarCreek once...no strings attached. I don't know exactly how it will look, but I want to really be serious about this Big Push. And not just because my boss will probably ask who I'm going to invite....but because I believe in a God who desires to redeem everyone....a God who offers a life of freedom and joy.

Too many things to write about....so instead of writing a novel, I'll try to make this short...

• Marriage - is good! Lately, Luke started back to school for his LAST semester!! Woohoo! That means that (at least until he decides to go through the doctorate program) no more school in this household. And that means soon children can be added to the equation. That is a scary and exciting thought all at the same time!
• Work - has been a roller coaster. I am pretty sure I'm going to be switching my job to working at our next satellite location in Toledo. If it goes through, I'll be working in the kids' ministry...probably both elementary AND preschool stuff because they can't hire too many people. The building is going to be 4 minutes from our house! That's amazing. I don't think I've ever been that close to my place of employment before!
• Work Part 2 - We are in the middle of a HUGE office shuffle right now at the Perrysburg campus. Our Whitehouse staff just moved back and we need to move around so there's room for everyone. The Family Ministries staff was thus exiled to a classroom outside of the office space. There was a lot of drama surrounding our first paint colors, but now it's semi-normal. The space is being shared by myself, Andy Fortney (the guy I work with in KidVentures), Lauren Snyder (WeeVentures), Sam Melden (Jr High) and Sarah Arquette (admin for KV). However, also frequently joining us has been Ben Snyder (High School) and Steve Whitlow (random jobs in the church). It is a mad house at times. Especially because we don't use desks, we just share a conference table since we all work from laptops. I'm going to have to invest in a nice pair of headphones so I can actually concentrate.
• Work Part 3 - This summer we challenged the kids to invite their friends and keep our numbers UP instead of going down. A few weeks ago, they came really close to their goal #, so they got what we called Summer Slam. Basically it meant Andy and I got slammed with a bunch of gross stuff. Pictures can be viewed at my facebook. That's pretty much the site I use most of the time now.
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• Daisy - is still cute and tiny! She weighs a whopping 3.4 pounds full grown! If you're interested in pictures, you can visit my facebook. But, here's one to entice you!
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• What's God been teaching me? - Well, this summer has been a little crazy. I ran VBS and it was super challenging. I was basically forced to dive into a major leadership role. I haven't really been the main leader of anything in a long time. Because of that, I doubted myself a TON. I know it's not warranted, but I had convinced myself that I wasn't a leader and that VBS would probably fail. The day before VBS was to begin, it's like God had been screaming for my attention and I finally listened.  He told me that I needed to stop doubting myself. And even if I couldn't get myself to believe I CAN lead, I needed to give it all to Him. That this ministry and week long even was HIS, not mine. And that, for good or for bad, I was doing it for Him. Needless to say, VBS went extremely well. The kids enjoyed themselves and we heard tons of compliments. It was like God said "See? I did create you to lead!" Shortly after, I went to Michindoh to help lead worship for Jr. High camp. Funny, because all the message were written for J-hi students. The music was picked for the students. The week was designed for them. But, I felt like the week spoke directly to me! God was still trying to get my attention and get me to put my priorities in order. To remember what it was like to live life willing to take risks for God. To be uncomfortable if that's what it takes to follow God where He leads.
• So how has this changed my life lately? - Well, it all led me to take a step of faith and follow where I believed God to be calling me. To offer myself and my job to the Toledo site. It's all a bit scary, and will definitely bring challenges along with it, but I really feel like this is where God wants me. In a place of uncertainty with my job description, but certain that God is in control. And that I am simply His servant!
• House - After all that heavy stuff!! Our house is in organization, cleaning mode this week. I have spent the past couple days getting one room at a time into the shape I want it to be. Cleaned out, organized, decorated. There are a bunch of KV volunteers coming over next week, which has me motivated to get my house in ship-shape! Tiring, but rewarding.

I guess that's all for tonight. Hopefully, I'll update more often so that my posts aren't this long all the time!