Jerusalem Jackson Greer's Blog, page 12
March 2, 2016
Getting Outside – a Guest Post by Alison Chino
I am on a semi-blogging-sabbatical while I finish my second book (prayers please!!) While I am away some very generous friends have offered to step in and keep this place running. Sometimes it takes a village to run a blog! Today I am happy to share this post from my dear friend Alison. Alison and her family have been living in Scotland for the past few years, while her husband finishes his doctorate. Alison’s stories of her families adventures in the cold and wet world of Scotland, reminds me so much of my years growing up in the wet and cold world of Southeast Alaska. Like Alison, my mother too learned that sometimes you just have to get everyone outside – even if just for a moment.
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“Turn around and walk backwards into the wind!”
I called to my squealing children.
The wind was blowing so hard that the sand off the beach felt like tiny pinpricks on the parts of our faces that weren’t covered by hoods and hats.
We climbed over the sand dunes to get to the beach.
We were out hoping to see the seals that live on this part of the Northeast Coast of Scotland.
“There they are!”
For a moment, everyone forgot the wind to watch the pile of seals across the channel. Like giant rocks piled on the opposite side of the river, we watched them come to life one by one. Sliding in and out of the freezing cold North Sea.
But soon the excitement of seeing the seals was forgotten by the bits of sand flying into eyes.
We wrestled my flannel blanket to the ground a little out-of-the-way of the most fierce gusts of wind.
One of my kids said,
“Whose GREAT idea was it to come have a beach picnic in February?!”
My friend, who had met me and my kids with her four children on this cold school holiday, laughed, “Don’t you find that after living in Scotland for a while that you find you just have to get on with it?” She has also been transplanted to this Northern land from a slightly warmer climate. “You don’t think anything of loading up in jackets and wellies to go to the park because you know that even a short trip outside will make all the difference in your day!”
Yes, I nod. She’s speaking my language. You just have to get kids outside by whatever means you can. And in all kinds of weather.
Otherwise, you go crazy.
“There’s sand in my lunch!!” The youngest member of our party was spitting out her ham and cheese because it was gritty with bits of the beach from which it was impossible to shield our carefully prepared picnic.
We two moms had gotten up early, lovingly chopping up carrots and apples, assembling sandwiches and filling thermoses of tea and hot cocoa for an outing to the beach with our kids. It was the fifth day of a long holiday weekend and we had put this event on the calendar, knowing we would need the joint motivation of meeting someone else to get our stir crazy children out of the house.
Now our carefully prepared picnic was being blown with sand and everyone was too cold to eat.
“Mummy, my toes are FWOZE!” whined a wee one. Tears were forming on her bundled face. This little darling was expressing what we were all feeling after less than an hour on the beach.
“Should we pack it in?” I asked.
It was time to admit defeat.
I handed my big kids the car keys and they gathered up the younger ones and made their way back over the sand dunes while my friend and I packed up our sandy picnic.
Soon, we would all be back inside warm houses. We would have hot baths and drink tea and huddle underneath blankets with books and movies for the rest of the day. Later when the kids were all tucked up into their beds, they would fall asleep hard.
Though the outing had not quite been the day I had hoped for when I had gotten up early to get ready that morning, I knew I would still fall into my own bed that night and feel grateful that we had gotten outside.
Alison Chino lives in Scotland with her family where it rains over 250 days a year. She believes that the magic happens when we are outdoors and that God speaks to us through His creation, so she tries to drag both herself and her family outside regularly, regardless of the weather. You can read more of about Alison’s international and domestic adventures on her blog: AlisonChino.Com
Filed under: Blog, Family Tagged: featured, Guest Post
February 29, 2016
Valentines 2016
I think maybe getting pictures of your Valentines’s Day decorations up on the last day of February, is almost like taking down your Christmas tree in order to put Valentine’s Day decoration’s up. Or something like that.
I am knee-deep in finishing the final chapters for Book 2 (will hopefully have a title in the next month or two!) but while working on the book, I have been looking back through blog post hunting for dates and memories, and during these searches I was struck by two things:
First I realized that I have not been using my good camera enough lately, relying instead on my phone to capture all our moments. That is something I am going to change this spring.
And secondly, and more importantly, I realized how great it is that I have a decade of memories available at my finger tips. Memories that I promise would not have survived if not for this blog.
And so I am posting these few pics of what little V-day decorations I put out this year, their images recording for our little family, that yes, we did decorate a bit in 2016, yes we did get out the tried-and-true mailboxes, leaving love notes for each other through the first two weeks of the month, and yes, that was when I hung the crochet heart on the window screen.
You see, if I don’t put these pictures up, someday I will wonder – did we decorate that year? Were we still using the mailboxes then? And this way I can say yes, yes we did. Wasn’t it lovely?
Filed under: Fete Tagged: featured, Holiday, My Home
February 11, 2016
Farm Based Ministry – A Guest Post by Nurya Love Parish
*I am on a semi-blogging-sabbatical while I finish my second book (prayers please!!) While I am away some very generous friends have offered to step in and keep this place running. Sometimes it takes a village to run a blog! Today I am so excited to share the this beautiful story from my friend Nuyra Love Parish (who has THE coolest name for a priest – Nurya means Fire of God, so that plus Love plus Parish is pretty much perfect!) Today we all have the opportunity to learn from her story of God’s surprising call on her life, and the way her deep gladness is meeting the worlds deep need.
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More than a decade ago God started calling me to start a farm-based ministry.
There were two problems: I wasn’t a farmer; I was a minister. Also, I didn’t know what this farm-based ministry was supposed to look like once it existed.
Talk about a call to the unqualified to go into the unknown!
It was comforting to remember the stories I knew from Scripture. God excels at calling the unqualified to venture into the unknown. Moses asked God to send somebody else, please, who knew what they were doing. The directions Abraham got to the Promised Land were “I’ll show you.”
These stories helped me realize that this call was from God, but they didn’t help me figure out how to start a farm-based ministry.
It took a lot of prayer, a lot of research, and a co-founder who felt called to be a farmer. (Yes, that last part does feel like a miracle.) Plainsong Farm launches this year.
The research that helped me figure out what I was doing turned into the Christian food movement guide. It’s a twenty-seven page listing of organizations, individuals, and resources at the intersection of Christian faith, sustainable agriculture, and hunger relief. (You can download it for free here.)
And just this past October, a new book helped me learn more about what God was doing in my life – and to discover that I had more resources than I ever realized.
Kevin M. Lowe’s Baptized with the Soil: Christian Agrarians and the Crusade for Rural America is a fairly academic tome. It costs a hefty price even though it is only 250 pages. (I asked my husband to give it to me for Christmas.) But for me, it was worth every penny. In its pages, I discovered my ancestors.
It turns out that the Christian food movement is not God doing a new thing. It turns out that the Christian food movement is God renewing an old thing that skipped a generation.
In 1915, Liberty Hyde Bailey published a book called The Holy Earth. In it, he described the earth this way: “If God created the earth, so is the earth hallowed; and if it is hallowed, so must we deal with it devotedly and with care so that we do not despoil it… If the earth is holy, then the things that grow out of it are also holy. They do not belong to man to do with them as he will.”
Liberty Hyde Bailey was a respected horticulturalist who had taught at Cornell, but this book transcended academic fields. Bailey’s ideas were cited for generations by agrarians – proponents of a small-scale rural life devoted to place and stability, and communities built upon that devotion. Bailey appealed to the Christian agrarians especially, whose religious commitments undergirded their devotion to land and neighbor.
Reading this book, I learned that not long ago, there were a bunchof Christian agrarians! Just two generations ago, there were training schools for pastors to learn farming basics so they could better serve their rural congregations. Churches observed Rural Life Sunday and Soil Stewardship Sunday, giving thanks to God in worship for life on the land and remembering their vocation to care for it. There were Bible-based soil conservation pamphlets instructing farmers that care for the earth was a religious obligation. There were Lord’s Acre projects through which rural congregants of all ages set aside the “first fruits” of their harvest and raised funds for ministry through the equivalent of today’s 4-H projects – tending newborn pigs and growing pumpkins.
“What a great boon it would be to our religious experience,” agricultural missioner John Reisner said in 1943, “if we would become conscious of the fact that God’s care for the land is real, that He is watching over it and that we can be keepers with Him of the Holy Earth which He created.” And in 1955 the National Association of Soil Conservation Districts printed the Rev. Walter A. Forred’s words to their annual convention: “Man possesses two vital and related concerns upon which rest not only his well-being but his very destiny. One is his soul – the other his soil. They are inseparably related, and he must use caution that he does not use his soil in such a way as to lose his soul, and thus exclude himself from the Kingdom.” Lowe gives example after example of rural ministry focused on the health of the countryside: both soil and souls.
It turns out that in the early 2000’s, when God began nudging me to create a farm-based ministry, I had a heritage and a people. It turns out that this heritage is not only found in the pages of Scripture but also in recent history. It turns out that if you are also concerned about the place where you live, the community to which you belong, and the land under your feet – because you know all were created by God – you have this heritage too.
I am intensely curious about what God is doing these days. The story of my own life has become quite a page-turner; astonishing things happen regularly. I can only chalk that up to being willing to go where I was sent, though I was unqualified and uncertain of my destination.
Maybe you too are called to farm-based ministry. Maybe you’re called to something similarly unknown. Whatever it is, I encourage you to keep praying, keep trying, and keep going. You never know when you will find the place where you belong – often, right where you already are.
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The Rev. Nurya Love Parish can be found starting up Plainsong Farm, writing for Churchwork, editing Grow Christians, Associate Rectoring at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Grand Rapids, MI, and encouraging me when needed!
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Okay, now I want to add Farming for Jesus to my Bucket List! Love you Nurya!
Lent is now upon us – perhaps this would be a good season to lean in and listen for your own surprising call from God?
Much Love!
J
Filed under: Blog, Faith, Farm Tagged: featured, Guest Post
February 5, 2016
Books for Reflecting
Lent is always a good time to get some reading in. To spend time reflecting with poetry, and prose, art and bread, crayons and finger paints.
Here are a few books that might be just the thing you are looking for to help guide your Lenten practice this year…
The Supper of the Lamb by Robert Farrar Capon
Under the Fig Tree by Roger Hutchison
Wisdom in the Waiting by Phillis Tickle
Out of the House of Bread by Preston Yancey
For Kids and Families:
Winkle in Time Quintet by Madeline L’Engle
Passing It On by Kara Lassen Oliver
Happy Reading!
Filed under: Blog, Faith Tagged: featured, reading
February 3, 2016
Goals Aren’t Scary – Guest Post by Jacqueline Wolven
*I am on a semi-blogging-sabbatical while I finish my second book (prayers please!!) While I am away some very generous friends have offered to step in and keep this place running. Sometimes it takes a village to run a blog! Today I am so excited to share the wisdom of the amazing Jacqueline Wolvern. Jackie knows goals and today we all have the opportunity to learn from her deep gladness!
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When I think about our lives I am reminded how brief they are and how being conscious of our energy and time are so important. We are called to be here for just a blink and what we do with that time is all that matters. We can toss it away with addiction, blame and following someone else’s idea of who and what we should be or we can live a glorious simple life choosing each step carefully with just enough room for adventure and mistakes. It is totally our choice and that is amazing.
What I find is that most people are kind of stuck. They want to do something breathless and amazing, but they don’t understand the structure to make things happen. They either try a bunch of stuff, try nothing, or just think about trying – not really getting anywhere with any of those approaches. What they haven’t figured out is the magic of goal setting.
Why Set Goals?
Life is meant to be lived. You are meant to do things. Sure, you might have to make a living that isn’t exactly in your dream life, but that should stop you from learning to paint, traveling to Romania, or mastering the two step! You can make amazing things happen outside and inside your 9-5 if you learn to set goals. Goals give you the prize a the end. You get to win every time to you achieve one. That level of excitement is inside of you without someone from the outside telling you how, when or what to do. It is especially helpful when you don’t feel like doing anything. We all have those days when motivation left for the beach and we are splayed out on the couch in our yoga pants wondering what we are doing with our lives. Having goals lets you get up, do something and reach a new level in the game of your life. I don’t know about you, but I need that. I need to know that I’m my own Atari set.
How To Set Goals
This year I introduced the #9MagicGoals. It is, by far, the easiest process I know of setting goals for your life and business. It is manageable. It is fun. It will take you somewhere.
Take 9 Post It Notes and as quick as you can write 9 things you want to accomplish this year. Make them real. These aren’t lose 100 pound kinds of goals, but instead they are goals that you know in your heart of hearts that if you applied yourself even just a teeny bit you could make it happen. This is about winning folks not about looking back at a road paved with failure.
Write your 9 goals, one on each Post It, and post those somewhere in your life that you will see them every single day for the year. One of the tricks is to not write them down and forget about them. Instead you make them visible to yourself, your family and your everyday life.
What To Do With Your #9MagicGoals
This is bonus work now. You wrote your goals. (Congratulations, by the way.) Now, take each goal and write three steps on how you can make it happen. Make these specific. Call someone, buy the right tool, stop watching TV on Thursdays and do your thing instead – those kinds of things.
Extra extra bonus? Schedule those in your calendar. Make it happen for yourself. I’m assuming that you keep your other appointments. You go to the doctor, pick up your kids from soccer, get your tires rotated and now you can set appointments with yourself to make your goals happen.
Rewards and Wonder
Did you reach a goal? Amazing. Shut the front door. You did it! Now what? Reward yourself. Really. That feeling of reward, whatever it is, will help solidify the process of reaching your goals. You are further ahead then you were at the beginning when you were first sitting in front of your stack of Post It Notes. You did something. You made your life yours and that is a wonder to behold.
A Secret Confession
I feel I should tell you that I really only do 8 actual tangible goals. The last goal is left blank to allow possibilities to come into my life. Life isn’t just about crossing things off. We have to leave room for things we don’t even know could happen and by leaving that last goal blank I am giving myself permission to be open. You can have that, too.
Want to read more? I write about goals regularly and host three goal workshops online a year. You can keep up with all of that at jacquelinewolven.com You can also follow along on Instagram where I give you peeks into this goal centered life I live. Oh, I’m on Facebook, too.
Filed under: Blog Tagged: featured, Guest Post
Goals Aren’t Scary – Guest Post by Jacqueline Wolvern
*I am on a semi-blogging-sabbatical while I finish my second book (prayers please!!) While I am away some very generous friends have offered to step in and keep this place running. Sometimes it takes a village to run a blog! Today I am so excited to share the wisdom of the amazing Jacqueline Wolvern. Jackie knows goals and today we all have the opportunity to learn from her deep gladness!
***************************************
When I think about our lives I am reminded how brief they are and how being conscious of our energy and time are so important. We are called to be here for just a blink and what we do with that time is all that matters. We can toss it away with addiction, blame and following someone else’s idea of who and what we should be or we can live a glorious simple life choosing each step carefully with just enough room for adventure and mistakes. It is totally our choice and that is amazing.
What I find is that most people are kind of stuck. They want to do something breathless and amazing, but they don’t understand the structure to make things happen. They either try a bunch of stuff, try nothing, or just think about trying – not really getting anywhere with any of those approaches. What they haven’t figured out is the magic of goal setting.
Why Set Goals?
Life is meant to be lived. You are meant to do things. Sure, you might have to make a living that isn’t exactly in your dream life, but that should stop you from learning to paint, traveling to Romania, or mastering the two step! You can make amazing things happen outside and inside your 9-5 if you learn to set goals. Goals give you the prize a the end. You get to win every time to you achieve one. That level of excitement is inside of you without someone from the outside telling you how, when or what to do. It is especially helpful when you don’t feel like doing anything. We all have those days when motivation left for the beach and we are splayed out on the couch in our yoga pants wondering what we are doing with our lives. Having goals lets you get up, do something and reach a new level in the game of your life. I don’t know about you, but I need that. I need to know that I’m my own Atari set.
How To Set Goals
This year I introduced the #9MagicGoals. It is, by far, the easiest process I know of setting goals for your life and business. It is manageable. It is fun. It will take you somewhere.
Take 9 Post It Notes and as quick as you can write 9 things you want to accomplish this year. Make them real. These aren’t lose 100 pound kinds of goals, but instead they are goals that you know in your heart of hearts that if you applied yourself even just a teeny bit you could make it happen. This is about winning folks not about looking back at a road paved with failure.
Write your 9 goals, one on each Post It, and post those somewhere in your life that you will see them every single day for the year. One of the tricks is to not write them down and forget about them. Instead you make them visible to yourself, your family and your everyday life.
What To Do With Your #9MagicGoals
This is bonus work now. You wrote your goals. (Congratulations, by the way.) Now, take each goal and write three steps on how you can make it happen. Make these specific. Call someone, buy the right tool, stop watching TV on Thursdays and do your thing instead – those kinds of things.
Extra extra bonus? Schedule those in your calendar. Make it happen for yourself. I’m assuming that you keep your other appointments. You go to the doctor, pick up your kids from soccer, get your tires rotated and now you can set appointments with yourself to make your goals happen.
Rewards and Wonder
Did you reach a goal? Amazing. Shut the front door. You did it! Now what? Reward yourself. Really. That feeling of reward, whatever it is, will help solidify the process of reaching your goals. You are further ahead then you were at the beginning when you were first sitting in front of your stack of Post It Notes. You did something. You made your life yours and that is a wonder to behold.
A Secret Confession
I feel I should tell you that I really only do 8 actual tangible goals. The last goal is left blank to allow possibilities to come into my life. Life isn’t just about crossing things off. We have to leave room for things we don’t even know could happen and by leaving that last goal blank I am giving myself permission to be open. You can have that, too.
Want to read more? I write about goals regularly and host three goal workshops online a year. You can keep up with all of that at jacquelinewolven.com You can also follow along on Instagram where I give you peeks into this goal centered life I live. Oh, I’m on Facebook, too.
Filed under: Blog Tagged: featured, Guest Post
January 31, 2016
Entering Lent Sample Lesson Plan
Lent is almost here, and for a lot of us we are scrambling to find a way to honor this season – at home and within our churches.
With only a little more than a week to prepare it is time to gathering your supplies and pieces of inspiration…
Well, that is where my book A Homemade Year comes in!
A Homemade Year is great for celebrating faith at home no matter the size of your family, no matter the ages of your kids or grandkids!
But now there is more, there is also A Faith-Made Year, a small eBook that is designed to help churches and groups use A Homemade Year in a larger context! Churches, Homeschool Groups, Book Clubs, Playgroups – these are just some of the groups that can use this book to help bring the ideas and stories from AHY to life in a bigger group!
To help inspire I am giving away the first lesson for this season from A Faith-Made Year, Entering Lent.
Click Here to Download this Sample Lesson
and Click Here to Order the FULL COLOR e-Pub of A Faith-Made Year!
A Faith-Made Year is the intergenerational curriculum based on A Homemade Year: The Blessings of Cooking, Crafting, and Coming Together
This easy-to-use book works for Small Groups * Sunday School * Discipleship Groups * Large Gatherings * Family Events * Homeschool Gatherings and More!
A Faith-Made Year includes:
12 Easy-to-use lesson plans
Printables
Reflection and Discussion Guide with Social Justice Focused Action Plans
Bonus Materials
Have questions about either of the books? Need me to email you the PDF of the free lesson? Send an email to ahomemadeyear@gmail.com with the words Lent Sample in the subject line!
Filed under: Blog, Faith Tagged: A Faith-Made Year, featured
January 25, 2016
#HomespunHappy Updates
Happy Monday everyone!
I thought I would do a little phone dump and fill you in on what is going on around here, and about some projects that are in the works… 
First of all, we had SNOW! The majority of it only hung around Preservation Acres for a day, but we lived it up while we could. Miles is my snow bunny, and he absolutely loves being out in it. It wouldn’t surprise me if he ends up living some place like Colorado or Alaska someday. I would dare say he is at his most content playing outside in the cold and snow.
Way back in the day, when Wylie was little bitty, I made muffins all the time. Weekly. Of course they are just boxed muffins – nothing fancy (anyone have a good muffin recipe?) but they make do. Luckily some sort of forethought struck and I bought two boxes before the snow fell. They were the perfect way to ease into our lazy morning along with a pot of coffee.
Also, they take good pictures.
Now that the wedding is over, and Christmas is over, and winter is here, we are back at what I have now dubbed #PreservationAcresRenovation. And we are beginning by tackling the FIFTEEN flourescent light fixtures we have in this house.
This is the new light fixture in the entryway in progress. Because most of the light fixtures were inset into the sheet rock, we are having to get creative about how we patch the holes. My dream has always been to have a planked or beadboard ceiling BUT because almost our entire main floor is open concept, it is an expensive dream. So instead, we are creating these framed out areas around each light fixture, using leftover beadboard and baseboards. I can’t wait to show you the finished product – it looks as good or better than I had imagined. And I am so grateful for a partner who is more than handy, and who works with me to figure out how to make my crazy ideas a reality.
Another project are these adorable tables and shelf that I snagged this past weekend. I can’t wait to give them a makeover later this Spring. After the manuscript for book 2 is turned in. Working on them will be a sort of reward for finally finishing.
Which brings me to another update: Guest Posting. Because I am now under the two-months-till-deadline mark I am going to have to become super fanatic about getting my writing done. Which will mean even LESS time for the blog. But never fear. My friends have my back. Over the next two months I will be hosting a series of Guest Writers here on the blog – they are going to talk about all sorts of things, primarily around the idea of how they are inspired to #Slowliving practices, or creativity. The post will begin later this week and will carry on through March, with me sticking my head in every other week or three. I will also be pulling heavily from the Archives with some creative ideas as we enter into Lent. So this won’t be a barren blogland, just a slightly different one.
Book writing requires a crazy amount of effort for me, and as always I am learning and re-learning how to set the bumpers up around my time.
Finally, I am off in the wee hours of the dawn for the Forma Conference. I am honored to be one the speakers and workshop leaders for this conference, and I am truly excited about all the wisdom and inspiration that I am sure I will encounter. And I am looking forward to testing some of the new book material out – seeing if it resonates with my peers – and gathering some feedback from my new editor.
So there you have it – some #Homespunhappy updates, a little bit about what has been going on and what is coming up for me… Which begs the question – How goes it with you?
Filed under: Blog, Family, Farm Tagged: featured, speaking
January 18, 2016
Finding Inspiration for the New Year
This past weekend I had the honor of joining the amazing Natalie Freeman (of Natalie Creates,) co-hosting an event called
Flourish: a women’s gathering to inspire in northwest Arkansas
This event was one that I had both been looking forward to and anxious about since it’s in inception, hoping that I would be able to do the women and Natalie’s faith in me justice.
First, I had the delight of staying with Natalie and her sweet husband Luke, at their home – Freckled Hen Farm.
If you follow Natalie then you know how cute her home looks on Instagram and let me tell you, in person it does not disappoint. I came home full of motivation to continue working on my own little farmhouse, inspired by Natalie’s warm, thrifty, and gracious style. Her home is a great mix of vintage, industrial, romantic, and farmhouse style. She is a great eye for design and comfort and she and Luke are wonderful host, making me feel so at ease over the course of our weekend.
Saturday morning, almost seventy women gathered together to celebrate the ways that we can all flourish.
We talked about our calls, our vocations, and our gifts, and how the three can all work together in every part of our lives.
We covered little matchboxes to remind ourselves to not waste our energy trying to do life-like anyone else – like Jen, or Glennon, or Natalie, or Joanna. But to instead to only light the fires that fit us uniquely, the fires that will burn brighter and longer because they are authentic to who we are, not who we wish we were.
And then we made adorable wreathes (I just LOVED seeing what each gal created,) to hang in our homes, inspiring us to flourish right where we are – in our homes, in our jobs, in our families.
I think I can speak for Natalie and say that the event completely exceeded both our expectations – we both were just so amazed by the warmth that the women shared with us, and we had such a blast working together.
After the amazing morning Natalie took me to a local restaurant where I had the BEST sandwich of my life, no lie. We were both so happy and exhausted, that once our bellies were full it was nap time. And boy did I nap.
Sunday morning I had the wonderful privilege of teaching at Vintage Fellowship, sharing about how we can live out our faith at home in relevent ways, making room for our kids questions, and connecting our stories to the stories of those who have come before us.
After the service and a yummy potluck (I love potlucks – especially when there are meatballs involved!) we did some crafting so that the Vintage families would have some tactile items to take home and begin celebrating their faith together.
I just love this faith community and the work they are doing to be an authentic, experimental, creative, giving community. So grateful for time spent in their fold this weekend.
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Friday morning before I went to Fayetteville I was having a good dose of anxiety about both events – not for any rational reason, but because I always wonder what in the world I could possibly have to say that anyone would want to hear. And I used some choice words to tell God just how I felt about being in this situation.
And after my tantrum on the bed (just like a five-year olds,) I put on my big girl panties, took a deep breath and some herbal xanax, and got on with things. And somehow, Saturday when I opened my mouth to speak, some really great things came out. Things I needed to hear for myself. And the same was true on Sunday.
People laughed, people cried, people nodded their heads like they GOT IT. And I was blown away.
And I was inspired. To keep going. To keep traveling this road of speaking and writing, even when I doubt that anyone will care.
Because the truth is, I have things to say. Maybe they aren’t sexy things, or trendy things, or hot-topic things.
But they are the things that are changing my life. And maybe my story can speak some good things into your story. And vice versa.
So here is to 2016. A year of flourishing in my calling, my vocation, and my gifts. To embracing them instead of apologizing for them. And to remembering to take the herbal xanax when needed.
(and huge thank you Natalie and Vintage for reminding me of why I agree to these things in the first place – they bring me such life!)
Filed under: Blog, Faith, Fete Tagged: featured, workshops
January 7, 2016
An Easy Epiphany Celebration for Home or Church
First: A quick explanation for those who are new to the tradition!
With the arrival of Epiphany we end the season of Christmas and begin the new season by celebrating the arrival of the Magi to visit the Christ child. Epiphany is a season of wonder and miracles. The name “Epiphany” comes from the Greek word Epiphania, and means “to show, make known, or reveal.” The liturgy for the season of Epiphany remembers the three miracles that manifest the divinity of Christ. In addition to the arrival of the three Magi, Christ’s baptism in the Jordan River, and his first miracle at the wedding in Cana.
Using these three miracles as our focus, we find our meaning for how we celebrate the season:
We celebrate and explore the ways in which God’s love is made known to us, how the Holy Spirit is revealed in our lives, how Christ grace is shown to us over and over. We also celebrate the ways in which we can make God’s love known everyone, how we can invite the Holy Spirit to reveal the needs of others all around us and guide us in meeting those needs, and how we can show the grace of Christ to everyone we meet.
On January 6, we begin the season with The Feast of Epiphany, celebrating the Magi’s arrival because they embody all of these experiences, and also because their story is the first lesson given in the Gospels that Christ came for all people, that His grace and love is for everyone, not just one specific demographic or region or race or income bracket.
So that is what Epiphany is (from an Episcopal/Protestant stand point anyway! There are always slight variations from faith stream to faith stream,) and below is how we celebrated this fun feast day.
Yesterday was Epiphany, and because it fell on a Wednesday (a night we already hold activities for kids and a service,) we decided to hold a special Epiphany Celebration and service. The activities were simple, fun, and meaningful, and fun was had by all ages!
I thought I would go ahead and post a recap the night with links and ideas, on the chance that some of you might want to host your own Epiphany celebration next year.
Crown Making Craft
Of course! What says Magi/Wise People more than crowns?
I used an Elison Die Cut and 12×12 sheets of colorful cardstock to make the crown cut-outs, and then the kids (and even the teenagers,) decorated them with stickers and markers.
(Need some other DIY crown ideas? I love this post on how to make a variety of whimsical crowns.)
Crown Cake Decorating
King Cakes are associated with Mardi Gras around these parts, so there were none available for our celebration. I didn’t have time to make one (or some of the other traditional breads,) for our feast, so instead we made Crown Cakes.
All you need for Crown Cakes is a series of Bundt Cakes, icing, and “jewel” like candies.
We used Dots, Jelly Beans, and Candied Fruit. I have also seen Rolos, Gum Drops, and Red Hots used.
The kids decorated (with some supervision) the Crown Cakes which was a big hit!
(If however you have time and the inclination to make one of the more traditional cakes or breads you might try this recipe for King Cake: Rosca de Reyes.)
Chalk the Doors
After the cakes and crowns, we walked outside and “chalked” the front door of the church (this is our door at home) as a group and prayed for all who enter our doors.
Chalking the door is a way of “marking our homes, usually at the front or main entrance, with sacred signs and symbols as we ask God’s blessing upon those who live, work, or visit throughout the coming year. In Exodus, the Israelites marked their doors with blood so that the Lord would pass over their homes; but in this service, we mark our doors with chalk as a sign that we have invited God’s presence and blessing into our homes.The numbers at the beginning and end of the inscription that we use for the Epiphany markings simply refer to the current year – in the picture above, 2016. The letters C M B come from the traditional names for the three magi Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar. Some also suggest “Christus Mansionem Benedicat” which means, “May Christ bless this dwelling!” (Which I prefer!)
Bringing Gifts
Just as the Magi first brought gifts, we too wanted to bring something to the altar.
So we gathered diapers, wipes, and baby blankets to be put in our churches food pantry.
The kids carried them in during the processional, and laid them around the manger that was at the foot of the altar, while the congregation sang We Three Kings.
What a sweet moment to see all those diapers piled high around the baby Jesus, and knowing what a difference they will make to our littlest neighbors and their families.
One of the fun surprises of the night was how much fun every one of all ages had!
Which makes me think – you don’t have to have little kids to throw an Epiphany Party next year. This party would work well for: Small Groups, Girlfriends Night-In, Youth Groups, Retirement Homes, Families, Mother’s Day Out, Book Club, MOPS groups, and so many others!
If you want to throw an easy Epiphany Celebration next year (at home or at church) here is what you will need:
Crown Making Supplies
Bundt Cakes, Icing, “Jewel” like candies
Chalk and Prayers (give chalk and printed prayers as party favors to party guest so that they can chalk their own doors.)
Something People Can Bring as Gifts for a Community in Need (canned foods, diapers, socks, blankets..)
So there you have it – a simple and easy celebration!
Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to Thy perfect light
Happy Epiphany friends! May the Lord of love and light continue to lead you with wonder and revelation!
Filed under: Blog, Faith, Fete Tagged: featured, Holiday
