Advent

Whether you are a church-goer, a Christ-follower, both or neither, you cannot deny that the Christmas season is here! Tony and I were talking a few weeks ago about what Christmas was like for us as kids. He remembered looking through the Toys R Us catalog and folding pages and circling all of the things he wanted. I remembered the year I got the red cable-knit sweater I’d been daydreaming of. Besides discovering that we had very different childhoods, we agreed that there were two prevailing questions around Christmas time…

Santa asks, "What do you want?"


Your friends ask, "What did you get?"


It occurred to me that Claire, having no idea what Christmas is, might be confused if these are the first things she learns about this special holiday. Both of these questions imply that Christmas is about “me”. It startled me to think that we could raise Claire to be self-absorbed and materialistic without even realizing it. It startled me even more to think of how hard I have to try each year to really remember what Christmas is about and not to get caught up in shopping and parties. So, Tony and I talked some more and dreamed up what we would want Christmas to look like for our family as Claire grows up. We want her to know Jesus. We want her to know why He came. We want to spend it as a family. We need our own traditions. We came up with our own plan to reflect and rejoice together, just the three of us.

Advent

In the traditional church calendar, Advent is the season to reflect and prepare our hearts for the coming King. I read what I could find about it and came across the Advent Wreath. I loved the idea, but didn’t care so much for the way it looked and couldn’t imagine having this green wreath with pink and purple candles sitting on a table in my home. I know, picky picky! But, hey, if we’re making our own traditions, I want something I can really live with. So, I designed my own.


Each bud vase is filled about half-way with sand to stabilize the candle then wrapped with red ribbon and a tag which tells us which word of the season to reflect on following the traditional Advent Calendar.


Inside our Advent Box, a recycled cigar box, are envelopes with a card inside telling us what we’ll read and which Christmas song relating to the word Tony will sing and play for us on the acoustic guitar.


So, each Sunday evening leading up to Christmas, we’ve incorporated our new tradition into Claire’s bedtime routine. We get our pajamas on, come out into the living room, and she watches while we light the candle. I'll share a short reading, Tony plays a song, we pray and then carry her off to bed.


Above is a close up of the book canvas I made to hang over our Advent display. Inspired by this blog, I chose books I've read that would reflect the heart of the season; My Utmost for His Highest, The Sacred Romance, a Bible and a Hymnal.

This how we've decided to reflect on each week of this Advent Season…
Week 1, Sunday, November 28th
We light the Hope Candle, traditionally the Prophets Candle
We read about the name Immanuel, God with us, and the promise foretold centuries before Christ was born.
We sing O Come O Come Emmanuel. Our current favorite version of this song is by Sufjan Stevens

Week 2, Sunday, December 5th
We light the Love Candle, traditionally the Bethlehem Candle
We read about Jesus as a Child, born in a manger.
We sing O Little Town of Bethlehem. Our current favorite version of this song is by Sarah McLachlan.

Week 3, Sunday, December 12th
We light the Joy Candle, traditionally the Shepherds Candle
We read about the shepherds from Luke 2:8-20.
We sing O Come all Ye Faithful. Our current favorite version of this song is by Chris Tomlin.


Week 4, Sunday, December 19th
We’ll light the Peace Candle, traditionally the Angels Candle
We’ll read about Jesus as the Prince of Peace, as the Angels declared in Luke 2:14, “Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth and good will toward men.”
We’ll sing O Holy Night. Our current favorite version of this song is by Michael Crawford.

Christmas Eve, Friday, December 24th
We’ll light the Noel Candle, traditionally the Christ Candle
We’ll read about Mary and the birth of Jesus from Luke 1:26 – 2:20
We’ll sing Silent Night. Our current favorite version of this song is by Phil Wickham (Thanks, Tyler!).

Our hope is that as she gets older we can add crafts and fun activities or maybe even a special meal each week that will help build these memories for us. This way we’ll have weeks of reflection before the glorious morning when she wakes us up at 5am, like we did to our parents, to open up all of the presents under the tree.



We'd love to hear the wonderful ways you've made this holiday special with your families!

Merry Christmas!

Sick of it!

Can't Do It All, Part 3

I don’t know if it’s flu season or cold season or why there needs to be an entire season where it is normal to be sick – but I’m sick of it! Tony pinched a nerve in his back at the beginning of October that was so bad, the only way he could participate in our weekly staff meeting was to lie down flat in the middle of the floor. Then, both Tony and Claire had the nastiest stomach flu just a week later. Watching a baby projectile vomit has to be up there with the saddest and scariest things ever! Poor little thing was so confused and so weak, it was awful! Now there’s the constant coughing and runny noses between the two of them, thank God for the women that invented Boogie Wipes. It’s hard to remember a time when we all felt healthy.


One thing that has become clear in these past couple of months is that I am not a nurse! I can take a day, maybe two days, of constantly caring for the people I love the most in the world before I feel completely spent and exhausted myself. I can’t begin to understand how people do this as a profession, day in and day out, for near strangers. That takes more patience and more compassion than I think I will ever be capable of. It is a disappointing new discovery about myself, but if I’m honest, I know I do not have what it takes to be the mom Claire needs or the wife Tony needs when they need it most.


If it weren’t for the blessing of true and compassionate friends, I might have run away from home at some point in the last month. In fact, I can point to the exact moments where I felt refreshed enough to do another load of laundry and change the crib sheets for the third time in a day.



Prayer & Care

I am fortunate enough to have friends that I can be transparent with. When they ask me how I am, I have the freedom to say, “Exhausted! Everyone in my house is sick!” I can’t tell you what it’s meant to me to have people pray for me and encourage me by relating. The other overwhelming blessing is the tangible ways people have cared for me and my family during this time. One afternoon, my friend Holly came over just to be with Claire for a few hours while I escaped and finally took advantage of a gift certificate I’d received for a facial months earlier. I felt so cared for and so relieved, I might have cried… maybe. Then there was the morning my friend Brenda called to check on me and then offered to bring me a few essentials from the store so I wouldn’t have to pack up my sick baby and make the errand run myself. Or the afternoon that Tony encouraged me to lie down and take a nap and when I awoke the kitchen was clean and the baby was happily playing. It was in these moments and others like them that I was able to escape the loneliness that comes with being a care taker and remember that, in fact, I am not alone.

What they really did was remind me how much God cares for me. They reminded me that the Holy Spirit Himself is praying for me…

And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God's own will. – Romans 8:26 & 27

It has also reminded me that, if I didn’t have these times of weakness, I might become prideful and forget my true need for Him, that strength comes from Him…

"My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness." So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. – 2 Corinthians 12:9

And, with God’s help, I hope to become the caring and compassionate mother and wife that Claire and Tony need. Because, I’m sure, this isn’t the last time we’ll experience the dreaded cold and flu season in our house.



P.S. If you know someone who needs a little TLC, this is a great website that can help make it easier on a community of friends who want to care for someone: http://www.takethemameal.com/

Book Reports

We blog, on average, once per month. We were just about to bring that average down, and then I looked at the calendar. This is why I’ve always been bad at keeping a journal and why my “journal” is a combination of checklists, meeting notes, prayers and ideas… a more true reflection of my day-to-day life.

I got to thinking that if I disappeared (let’s not say died) and all that was left was my journal, what would people know of me? Fortunately there’s Facebook and my mess of a closet to give more clues, but that still wouldn’t be the entire picture, would it?

I read Margaret Feinberg’s The Organic God earlier this summer. One of my favorite things she said was this:

“The gift of a book is a tangible effort to take the relationship to a new intensity – so it becomes deeper, richer, and broader than ever before.”

Ahh… so much good stuff in just one sentence! It resonates with me as I think of books people have given me and the impact they have made on my life and in my relationships with them.

Long before I attended church regularly, I got together with some girlfriends to read What’s So Amazing About Grace by Philip Yancey. Changed my life – helped me better understand that, not only was I forgiven, I had a responsibility to forgive and that grace I had received would give me the strength and courage to do it.

Then came The Sacred Romance and Captivating, teaching me about a God who loved me – not just in the “For God so loved the world…” kind of way, but in the “I love you, Michelle” kind of way. Revolutionary! I caught a glimpse of the privilege it is to have been created a woman, the strength and beauty that comes with femininity, the image of God I hope to reflect, the relationship with Him that I have the honor of living in. Such good books.

Meanwhile, Proverbs taught me practical wisdom, and 1st and 2nd Samuel taught me about true friendship, dependence on and devotion to God, including failures of character and seemingly hopeless situations. 1st and 2nd Timothy along with Galatians and Ephesians taught me about living in community with other believers, what it is to lead and what it is to follow.

I’ve read more books this summer than I read during all of high school, and I’m not the only book worm in the house. Just last night, I came home from hanging out with some girlfriends expecting to see Tony playing video games or working on his computer. Instead, he was on the couch finishing The Hobbit, excited to tell me it had a great ending! Ahh… books.



I recently finished Mark Driscoll’s On Church Leadership and On the Old Testament and then read Rob Bell’s Sex God. From what I hear, those two authors don’t exactly see eye-to-eye, but what do I care? Seems to me they both love Jesus, and we all know how much trouble God’s children have with unity as evidenced by the hundreds of denominations of churches in this country alone. Besides, I don’t necessarily read to agree with the author, I read to ask questions and see new perspectives. I read hoping that God will show me more of who he is and who I am in this world. I read hoping I'll catch a thought like one of these... and let it sink in...

“The person who sees the difficulties so clearly that he does not discern the possibilities cannot inspire a vision in others.” - J. Oswald Sanders

“In prayer, Jesus slows us down, teaches us to count how few days we have, and gifts us with wisdom. He reveals to us that we are so caught up in what is urgent that we have overlooked what is essential.” - Brennan Manning

“If a man's wife believes in him, he can conquer the world - or at least his corner of it.” - Shaunti Feldhahn

“Often freedom is seen as the ability to do whatever you want. But freedom isn't being able to have whatever we crave. Freedom is going without whatever we crave and being fine with it.” - Rob Bell

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” - Jesus, son of David

These books really are gifts. Of course some were given to me by friends and family, and some I purchased for myself, but they are all gifts nonetheless. They are gifts from the authors who wrote them and the editors who edited and publishers who published. True gifts, revealing humanity, unveiling inner thoughts.



Ms. Feinberg’s words bring me back to the greatest gift of a book I own, my Bible. Even as I write that sentence, I’m fighting against the critic inside that would roll her eyes and say, “Oh, how trite! How cliché! Of course, ‘the Bible’…” But I mean it! What a gift that in all of the ways of creation that God has revealed Himself to us and continues to reveal himself, that he would give us a book! Like a diary, a journal, his thoughts and narratives and poetry and lyrics. A way that we can take our relationship with Him to a new intensity – so it becomes deeper, richer, and broader than ever before. I think about the miracle it is that we even have access to it – thanks in part to people like Johannes Gutenberg and Martin Luther and Zondervan… I treasure it.

So we read every day, for ourselves and for Claire. It really doesn’t seem to matter to her which book we choose. As soon as either of us takes her in our lap in the rocking chair and pulls a book in front of her, she kicks her feet with excitement, smiles, and “helps” to turn the pages. She loves the touch and feel books, running her fingers over the soft bunny fur or the feather down on the yellow chick. We love it! Now that I think of it, I don't ever remember seeing my own mom without a book. I hope Claire has those memories of Tony and I as she gets older.



So here are some of the Peterson Faves…
Tony:
Screwtape Letters
Purpose Driven Life
Heart of the Artist
Harry Potter – pick one
Currently reading: Fellowship of the Ring

Michelle:
Spiritual Leadership
Crazy Love
The Speed of Trust
Sheet Music
Currently reading: How People Grow

Claire:
Mr. Brown can Moo! Can You?
The Going to Bed Book
Baby Bunny
My Shoes Take Me Where I Want To Go
Currently reading: Brown Bear Brown Bear, What do you see?

What are you reading?

My Claire, 3 months

My baby girl is three months old! I never thought of myself as an "attached" personality type, but I love to be around her. She smiles when I smile... we talk about things (mostly I ask her what she's saying, and she just repeats "Ay ay ay")... she's grabbing my face... she loves to play rambunctious games with me.



It's crazy to watch her grow so fast. She's out of 0 - 3 month clothes already and fitting into her 3 - 6 month clothes very nicely. When I'm feeding her from a bottle, she's eating between 7 & 8 oz. and we've had to move the straps on her car seat twice already.



She enjoys being out. We'll go on our regular Target or Sams Club trip and she behaves pretty much the whole time. We have to be creative about when to go out however... it needs to be far enough from a feeding that she's not going to spit-up all over herself, but soon enough before her next feeding so she doesn't get grumpy while we're out. Mostly, she just looks around or stares at us as we push her in her cart... a pleasure I never knew I would have... just watching her be content is a joy to me.



I never was a kid person. I was one of those types that shy'd away from little people like they were going to explode if I got too close. And babies... that's a whole different kind of fear. It became a bit of a joke trying to get me to hold a baby.



I remember the first time Michelle forced me into holding a baby x 2. We were just hanging out with our friends the Denham's back in Kirkland WA. I was relaxing in the recliner when all of a sudden, a pair of twins were dropped on my lap from behind. Michelle thought this was great... I thought I was stuck. She called Heidi (their mother) over and of course she thought it was great to. Ignoring my plea for them to remove the tiny people from my space, they went and grabbed the camera and solidified the memory.

I wanted a boy. I have had my boy's name picked out for most of my life, so I was ready for him. When I learned it was a girl (a week before Michelle knew), I had some thinking to do. As it turns out, to overcome my fear of babies, I think God knew that only a girl would do this for me. You see, if I had a boy first, I imagine myself being one of those rough dads... one of those "hey tiger" and punch him in the arm type of dads... even as a baby I think I would have found ways to be rough and non-affectionate with him... that's just me. But Claire changed me. She's so beautiful and small and sweet, I know I can't rough her up, or get her dirty, or call her "tiger". With Claire I have to kiss on her, and hold her close, and buy her ponies, and treat her like a princess... that's a 180 from what I instinctively want to do around babies.

I think having a boy first would have cemented in me my tendency to be distant and cold. Imagine being second born girl to that daddy. I thank God for Claire and I thank Claire for changing my heart. I hear her in the next room wrapping up a feeding, so now it's my turn to go and love on her.

Claire

Did you think we had abandoned this blog? In a sense, I thought so myself. This is definitely the longest we've gone without posting, so I thank you for your patience with us as we adjust to life as new parents.

Since I can't come up with a better way to fill you in, you get bullet points for this post. Here are some highlights of the last couple of months:

• Claire Elaine Peterson* was born on January 22nd, 2010 at 2:28am... two weeks after her due date.
  
  
• Katy (Pratt) Wogsland arrived just in time from Seattle to help us at home for the first 10 days. THANK GOD!
  
  
• We were blessed beyond belief with countless meals and notes for Claire's first 3 weeks at home. Don't know how we would have survived (or eaten) otherwise.
  
  
• Tony finished designing another mailer for Great Lakes Church, inviting 70,000 families in the area to come check us out.
  
  
• We launched another season of Growth Groups with an incredible number of sign ups, and our weekend attendance at GLC grew to just over 1,000.
  
  
• We had just over 60 people at our most recent 101 Class make a commitment to partner with GLC as members! Love welcoming more people into this family of faith!
  
  
• We baptized just over 40 people at our most recent Worship Night! (That same night, I left Claire with the provided childcare for the first time. She did great! I was a nervous wreck!)
  
  
• Because of the incredible amount of people (and KIDS) we are seeing at GLC, we brought on another staff member, Matt Stennett. Matt, along with his wife Crystal and their little son, Jace, moved across the country from Seattle (although both of their families live here in the Chicago area) a couple of weeks ago. Great additions to the team!
  
  
• Tony and I made the tough decision for me to "stay home" and quit my job in Racine. This means the three of us are now home together full time. I'm excited for this opportunity and my new job as Claire's mom. Definitely eating crow, as I told many many friends before I had her that staying at home with her was just not something I'd ever be interested in. What the heck did I know?
  
  
• Claire is really good at being a baby, growing every day, sleeping more than I'm comfortable sharing with other new moms, smiling, and "talking" to us.

And now, for our feature presentation, Claire!

Claire Elaine Peterson from Tony Peterson on Vimeo.

*We named our sweet girl, Claire, after the song Clair de Lune by Debussy. This is a song Tony introduced me to when we first began dating 6 years ago... said it reminded him of me. He insisted I walk down the aisle at our wedding to this song, it meant so much to us both. It is the song playing in the background of this video. Her middle name, Elaine, is my middle name and a family name on both sides. We pray she knows how much we cherish her.

Out with 2009, In with 2010

We hope you've all had a great Christmas. Ours was very relaxed, just the two of us plus one cat-nipped kitty until the afternoon. Then we headed over to the Grays who hosted a homemade pizza dinner & games.

We started our Christmas fun a couple of days before. Four families (the Grays, Winnetts, Nelsons, & Petersons) all trekked out to Lake Geneva to see an incredible outdoor light display and indoor gingerbread house contest. It was snowing out and the drive was treacherous, which made it much more fun. We ended Christmas Eve-Eve with a White Elephant Gift Exchange. I came home with a fantastic wall mountable cd holder and Tony scored an outdoor thermometer. I think it's safe to say the company was better than the presents :) Here are a few photos from our trek to the Grand Geneva...












We look back fondly on 2009, it was definitely a big year for us. Below is Tony's latest video project, I'm very proud of the work he put into this. It's also a great way to share with you the journey we've been on with Great Lakes Church. Enjoy...

Anticipation

...From Michelle...
Pregnancy
As the excitement and anticipation grows for this little girl to be a part of our lives, so do the aches & pains of being pregnant. Let’s tell the truth… I’m starting to feel whiny.




Getting out of a chair or off the couch is a chore I think about long and hard before I actually do it. The swelling in my hands and feet have me slipping off my wedding ring and slipping off my shoes as often as I can. The heartburn is constant and I thank God for these little pink pills called “Acid Reducers” that Natalie (who recently had a little girl of her own) introduced me to. My bladder seems to only be able to hold about a Dixie cup’s worth of liquid. So, at night, I try to stay asleep while I get up 3 or 4 times to go to the bathroom. I’ve got a pain in my butt… literally, the right side, and down my leg that the doctor says is likely a touch of sciatica. I have trouble breathing, so I find myself gasping for air at random moments, and when I’m walking down a hall or up a flight of stairs I can picture myself waddling as this belly in front of me takes my body weight from side to side. I am forgetful, which makes me anxious, which makes me insecure… wait… What were we talking about? When sweet, considerate people ask me how I’m feeling or how I’m doing, I try my best to reply, “Great! How are you?” because the last thing I want to be is a downer. And I am realizing… this is hard work!

Still, somehow I can’t get away from the sense that I should be thinking past my aches and pains to what my Heavenly Father thinks of all of this and to what women who have birthed all of the generations before me have thought. I wonder now how I might be connected to life and legacy and to the hopes and dreams that are not my own. I wonder about my mother-in-law’s pregnancy with Tony, and my own mother’s pregnancy with me. I wonder about our grandmothers and theirs. I wonder about the questions they asked of their mothers, girlfriends, and doctors - the advice that came their way. I wonder about the beauty of life and the fragility of creation. I wonder about the need we have always had for a savior – and that He would come to us, growing and developing inside of a womb, birthed through pain, as a vulnerable baby.

As any pregnant woman or father-to-be knows, the gift that is most often offered is advice. One of those gifts was this: It will all be worth it when you see and hold your baby for the first time. I have to believe them, and yet I can’t begin to imagine it. It does make me think of lyrics from “Oh Holy Night”, my very favorite Christmas song…

Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till he appeared and the soul felt it’s worth
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices…

We’ve got about five more weeks of weariness before we meet our own hope face-to-face. In the mean time, here’s what we’ve been up to…

...From Tony...
With Gratitude
Last Wednesday, a group of us (all from Wednesday night growth groups) got together for our service project. We decided to send Christmas Care Packages to 20 different soldiers overseas. All the soldiers we sent packages to are from the state of Wisconsin. Between the 18 of us that showed up to participate in this, we were able to ship them things like snacks, books, hygiene products, playing cards, games, DVD’s, and a ton more stuff. It was really cool to come together to pull off something like that… not because we know them, or because our motive is to get them to come to our church or even preach the gospel, but rather because they are serving our country, and we simply want to serve them back… no strings attached.


Last Thursday was Thanksgiving. I don’t know where the phrase got started, but we’re calling it Orphan Turkey Dinner… it was all those that have moved from out of state to help with Great Lakes Church coming together at the Gray’s house for Thanksgiving dinner. In attendance: the Petersons, the Grays, the Sweeneys, the Winnetts, and Ms. Daniels. Karen Ann flew in and stayed with the Sweeneys… it’s always so good to see our Seattle friends. The feast consisted of turkey, cranberry sauce, yams, lumpia, green bean casserole, cheesy potatoes, stuffing (which we had to constantly remind ourselves to call “dressing” since it wasn’t cooked in the bird), apple pie, pumpkin pie, and I’m sure I’m missing a few things. I was in charge of the turkey, but I sign-up to do the turkey every year anyway… I love cooking the turkey.




Preparing for Baby
We decided, even though it’s an apartment and we’ll have to paint it back, to paint the baby’s room. We’ve noticed that we like being in a room a lot more after we’ve decorated in there. We went to Menards (that’s M’Nards not Meh’Nerds for you Seattle folk) to pick our paint and found a light yellow we liked. We already had most of the supplies from the previous paint job (we painted the office in the old house to be the same color as Michael Scott’s office), so all we needed was the paint, the tray, and an edger. With white walls and a light color paint, it only needed one coat, and took me about 2 hours to finish.

Also, thanks to all our friends, we now have our stroller/car-seat and my (Tony) favorite new gadget… our baby monitor. It’s pretty cool… it’s a color screen and a really sensitive mic, but even cooler is the ability to remote drive the camera. From a different room we can pan and zoom around the room. Now, I know that our newborn isn’t going to be exploring and getting into trouble in all the corners of the room… but we’ll have this monitor when she gets a little older and is playing in her room alone. The motor on the unit is really quiet, so if we’re using the camera to look around while she’s sleeping, it won’t wake her.





This past Monday, Michelle and I went on our regular doctor checkup for the baby. All is well. The heart rate is right where it’s supposed to be (138), Michelle’s blood pressure and weight are excellent, and we were able to take a tour of the Family Birthing Center while we were there. The labor and delivery room is huge… they are all singles so we don’t have to share… each one has a big hot-tub-spa-bath-thingy, and the nurse who showed us around was very helpful and knowledgeable. Really, anything we want, we can have. They are very flexible about interventions, and have modern and traditional ways of doing things. After seeing the rooms and asking our questions, we both feel really good about this hospital and know that we and our baby will be taken care of.




We hope you’re all enjoying the start of December. As we write to you, we are watching the first real snow fall in our own neighborhood!

In Our New Place

We've been in Kenosha Wisconsin for over a year now. When we first moved here, we wanted to rent a house. We thought it would be a good idea financially to have a roommate, and it was (thanks Tyler). We also really liked the idea of having a place for people to gather, maybe for meetings or Growth Groups. What we didn't plan for, was having a 60-foot driveway to shovel in -30 degree blizzards at 6am. Also, we didn't really take into consideration that neither Michelle or myself are green thumb types, and both dislike to be either A) pushing a lawnmower around or B) on our hands and knees in the dirt pulling up plants that look like they're not supposed to be there.

So, after a year of that, we made the decision and the move back to apartment living... and guess what... we really like it. Our new place is on the top floor and in the corner (so my office has a ton of light and a sudo-view). We had to downsize our kitchen a bit, but we gained a room out of the move too. Now we have a room just for Baby P and a room just for Daddy P and a bedroom with a huge closet for Mommy P. My office has hardwood floors and a built in desk (which I don't use, but it's nice to put printers and scanners on).

When the snow hits, which it's a bit late compared to last year, we'll not have to shovel one bit. We have underground heated parking, so Michelle doesn't have to expose her prego belly to the cold. All in all, it was a good move for us.

What else is going on... well, Michelle and I are leading a Growth Group at Dave's parents house... we're reading The Shack. It's a pretty big group, 16 on a regular basis. There is a lot of great discussion happening in the group. If you haven't already looked into it, I suggest reading The Shack by William P. Young. I've read it twice now, and think you'll enjoy it whether you're a long time Christian or not a Christian at all. A lot of really good questions get asked, and some interesting point of views are suggested. It's not scripture, so don't read it with anger about the inaccuracies of what you believe to be truth. Instead, just read it as a good story and one man's interesting perspective on what God might say about tough issues.



In other news, Michelle is eight months pregnant. She's about to pop, so I don't tickle her like I used to, in fear of bursting that belly like a water balloon. We have a crib now... given to us by our friends the George's. We also have a changing table (really it's a dresser from Ikea with a changing pad on top) and a ton of little baby-needs. The dresser was kind of a fun project. We're going for a wimsical bird and tree theme, and we found these great knobs from Anthropology... so we got the yellow dresser from Ikea and put different knobs on all the drawers. A few of the ladies from church threw Michelle a shower and had a great idea... anyone who brought a pack of diapers got their name in a raffle... so guess what, we got diapers. Pretty cool cuz they're all different types, so now we can try them out and see which we like best.




I still have to get the car seat and the rocking chair and the baby monitor, but it feels like Baby P's room is getting more and more complete by the week.

I'm excited.

Celebrating!

I turned 30 yesterday.

Actually, yes, it does feel a little different. Not sure how exactly, but I do find myself taking stock of where I'm at in life and whether or not I'm good with it. I'm pretty sure I am. We have a lot going on and a lot to be thankful for.

I have an incredible husband who loves God and loves me. He is someone I admire and am in awe of all of the time, incredibly talented and incredibly fun to be around.

I live in a place I never thought I would, Wisconsin, and am surprised all the time by how much adventure there is for us here.

We've been a part of launching the most fun church around, meeting great people, learning new ways to serve God.

I'm pregnant, which is an adventure in itself.

Yes, at 30, I love my life and have a lot to be thankful for.

I shared my birthday this year with some new beginnings for Great Lakes Church. We had a grand opening for our new "Video Venue" where we made more room for many new guests. We launched a brand new series called Q&A where Pastor Dave is taking questions both live via text message and via email throughout the week. There was this really fun sense of unpredictability and still we were able to walk away hearing a great message about God's love. We also released our Fall Growth Group Catalog. If you'd like to know how I feel about Growth Groups and how much I love them, please take a look at some of our past entries. It was a great Sunday, lots of energy and lots of new faces and families. In the end, we had over 600 people with us! Incredible!

Here are a couple of Tony's latest video creations that were shown during service yesterday, just to help you feel like you were there...

For my birthday, Tony planned a small dinner at our place with a few friends. He had an incredible spread of tapas... marinated pork skewers, parmesan & sweet pea risotto, lemon & pine nut green beans, cheese plates... Getting hungry? It was nice and relaxed and I loved looking around the table to see faces I have grown to love after being here nearly a year. Hard to believe we've made such good friends already.

My big birthday present was finding out what kind of baby we're having. We are excited to announce...


Tony has known since our ultrasound last week and has been carrying around this little secret ever since. I was honestly very surprised. He did a great job keeping his lips sealed and sending me off the trail to figuring it out on my own. Now we have the task of deciding on a name!

We hope you all are well and that you sense God's love in your own lives and are celebrating in your own ways.

20 Weeks!

In pregnancy talk, 20 weeks is very significant. It means I am at the half-way mark already! I'm past the first trimester and into the second. At about 14 weeks I was all done spending every day, nearly all day, nauseous and grossed out by everything under the sun. Now I only get pukey about once every 2 weeks or so, which is much much better. I had many more food aversions than cravings. Let's list:

Aversions:
Coffee (so sad!)
Beef, except in spaghetti sauce
Chicken, except the McDonald's Southern Chicken Sandwhich
Asparagus
Garlic
Anything that smelled like anything else

Cravings:
Fried egg sandwich

Yup, just one craving, and it only came on strong one time. Other than that, my diet consisted of yogurt, cheese, apples, peanut butter, & cereal. I'm recently getting my appetite back, much to Tony's disappointment since he was eating everything off of my plate that I couldn't finish. At this rate, our baby bellies might be growing at the same proportion :) I am also back to enjoying coffee, but not nearly as much as I used to. I wonder if I'll have to wait until post-pregnancy to get back to my java loving self?

A couple of weeks ago, we got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the very first time. Well, Tony and the doctor heard it and were satisfied with what they heard. I, on the other hand, asked for a Do-Over and then I heard that little heart go! It was beating at a healthy 144 BPM, which some of my friends say means it's a boy in there. We'll see :) Otherwise, the doctor is very happy with my weight and the levels of stuff in my blood and urine. Overall, he is pretty pleased with the way this pregnancy is going. He always says, "Good Job!" which makes me feel really good about doing almost nothing.

Now, at 20 weeks, Tony and I agree that I am definitely looking pregnant. According to what I've read, this baby has grown past the size of a large mango and is now closer to the size of a small cantaloupe. Don't you love the food references? S/he weighs more than half a pound and can probably hear sounds in there. Hoping this baby loves sitting in the front at church with Tony's loud music as much as I do. Last night I felt this little baby move for the first time! Well, it was the first time I believed it anyway. I am sort of a "I'll believe it when I see it" type of person, which doesn't serve me all that well in my faith, and has made the majority of this pregnancy very surreal. Now that I can see and feel my stomach growing, hear the heartbeat, and feel little movements, I'm pretty sure there is a baby in there... So Crazy! So Exciting!


GREAT LAKES CHURCH!
These are big days not just for our little family, but also for our greater church family here at Great Lakes Church. Tony and I just got back from a wonderful visit home to Washington. It was fun, full of love, restful and just what we needed. We were surprised at how eager we both were to get back and hit the ground running with everything that will need to be done to get ready for the fall season here. Tony busted his butt finishing up the mailer that will hopefully hit 50,000 homes in the Kenosha area on September 10th. It advertises our new series "Q & A" where we are handing control of what we talk about to the audience via email and live text messages on Sunday mornings. I'm excited and nervous to see how this goes. The mailer also advertises our new auditorium seating. We are opening up a second auditorium/theater because we have been bursting at the seams in our 10:30am service especially. We are also going to be opening up new class rooms for kids, lauching new Growth Groups, and using a new and much better online database to continue to make sure everyone is getting connected. Lot's of work to do and no shortage of enthusiasm to get it all done.

Requiem

Mourning is an unfamiliar and uncomfortable feeling for me. I have known of people who passed away every few years or so around me. Most were distant acquaintances, some relatives. I never know quite what to say or feel, so I tend to be quiet which seems entirely acceptable to those around me. I can honestly say, though I have known of death, my life has never been devastated by death, and for this I am grateful. I have seen what tragedy and death has done to those I care about and it’s a grueling awful thing.

My father, Michael Elbert McKenzie, was born on May 25, 1943 and lived 66 years until June 18, 2009. He lived his remaining years in Las Vegas, Nevada near my two oldest sisters, Laura & Celina, and their families. I received the news on Friday, June 19th, that he laid down to take a nap and simply did not wake up. It was surreal to hear the words and difficult to understand their finality.



As his 3rd daughter of four, I was not close to my dad. Circumstances being what they were, we spent about 17 years without so much as a letter exchanged. We reconnected when I was 22, but by then, having a father-daughter relationship seemed a bit unnatural probably for both of us. Yet, he had lived an incredible life and had years of stories to tell. So, I found myself in our interactions simply available to listen to him. His stories were always interesting even if they may have been a skewed historical perspective. It was what he had to give and I didn’t always know how to receive his offerings.

The news of his death hit me rather hard. I’m still in my first trimester expecting our first child. My husband had yet to meet his father-in-law, and I hadn’t considered that our time was limited. I knew I needed desperately to attend his funeral, but we were in no way financially prepared for that kind of last minute trip. And then something seemed to happen around us. As we reached out here and there, we found family and community around us who were eager to sacrifice so that we could attend. We received airline miles donated from a couple of different sources which took care of our plane tickets, our bosses generously gave us the time we needed off, friends gathered around us to pick up the slack of our responsibilities while we were gone, and we even had rides to and from the airport. We received notes of sympathy and priceless prayers. We were overwhelmed.



In the midst of the funeral and all the arrangements, it has been this generosity of community that has kept my attention. I am reminded of all the ways the Bible says we are better together, and worse off alone.

This is what the Bible says about the early church: All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Acts 2:44-47

King Solomon must have had experiences both in being alone and in having true friendships. He says: Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Ecclesiastes 4:9-11

And, in the book of Hebrews we are encouraged: Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another… Hebrews 10:23-25

Of friends, the book of Proverbs tells us: As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17

I am certain, without family and community, Tony and I would not have been able to attend my father’s funeral and spend that valuable time with family. Without the community in my father’s life, there wouldn’t have been anyone with anything to say at his funeral. Instead, there were countless friends and witnesses, each with their own stories of how my father and his stories blessed their lives. Without the family and community in Las Vegas, my sisters would have spent the rest of that afternoon alone, rather than surrounded with love and good food.



I think there is a prevailing myth that it is possible to seek after and truly follow God without taking part in a community of other believers. “My faith is private,” I’ve heard people say. Or, “I don’t need to go to church to be a Christian.” Well, my friend, you may be technically correct, and getting connected with other people certainly involves risk, but there are countless benefits and blessings to taking that risk and surrounding yourself with the very people God calls your family. Tony reminded me this week as we talked together about this very thing that it’s like saying to God, “Yeah, I like you just fine, it’s your wife I can’t stand!” The church is called the “Bride of Christ” and the Bible says He laid down his own life for her. We give up a great deal that is available to us in community when we decide to isolate ourselves and go it alone. Not only so, but we offend the heart of God and the very relationships he may have intended to bless us with.



Tony and I are fortunate to have been built up and sent by an incredible community in Washington to help build and cultivate a community here in Wisconsin, people who will sharpen and encourage us as we attempt to invest, sharpen, and encourage them. We do this in the name of Jesus Christ, trusting that he has given each person and each relationship to us as a gift, that we may grow in love and character to be more and more like Him.

An Obituary…
Michael Elbert McKenzie, 66, of Las Vegas, passed away June 18, 2009. He was born May 25, 1943, in Augusta, Ga. Michael served in the U.S. Air Force, as an air traffic controller, during the Vietnam War. He then worked in radio, as a TV news reporter, a Christian youth pastor, and, in 2000, retired from truck driving, settling in Las Vegas. He was inducted into the Nevada Broadcasters Hall of Fame for 50 years of broadcasting, and was a member of American Legion Post 76, Sons of Confederate Veterans and Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. Michael is survived by his sisters, Shirley Vickery and Martha Martin; daughters, Laura McKenzie, Celina Sorensen, Michelle Peterson and Kathleen McKenzie; and grandchildren, Titus, Aubrey and Grace Sorensen, Kaylan Brown and Corrigan McKenzie, and baby Peterson on the way. Michael was a true treasure and we will miss him greatly. He was laid to rest at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery. Donations may be made in his honor to the family.

MY WIFE...

... is amazing!

We met in a bar (like normal people do). She came to see my band perform and from then on we were friends. She just stood out to me... in a sea of faces and intentions, hers really connected to me. There was something different, something special about this one, but I didn't really know what. The truth is, I was in a long term relationship when I met her, and the closest I could get to Michelle was as a friend.


In that atmosphere (the club), you can so easily get lost in the hype and moment of it all that 8 hours just flies by... but when Michelle was there, things slowed down a bit for me. Then, one day, she was gone.


The rumor was that she was "dating Jesus" and broke up with the band photographer cuz of it... and that was that for the rest of the guys... just another fan moving on... but I was hopeful for a return.


Days turned into weeks turned into months. Then, at The Central Saloon in Pioneer Square, there she was. She came back.


NOW she was the "weird christian" girl... overly nice... obnoxiously comfortable to be around... and that was that for the rest of the guys. But I wasn't just going to let that be that.


I asked her about the rumor, and she told me that it was basically true. There began my path back to a life worth living. My other relationship ended, and Michelle and I started to date. I was going to Catholic Mass at the time and she had her church, so we would go back and forth. We were invited to attend a preview service at EastLake Community Church by a friend... did... and fell in love enough to spend 4 years there, be employed, and launch a church identical to it out in Wisconsin.
Talk about a nut shell... but that's not what makes her amazing.


She's not supposed to be launching a church, she's supposed to be selfish and inward seeking. She's not supposed to be kind, she's supposed to be bitter and rightfully so. She's not supposed to be in love with God, she's supposed to hate Him and hold Him accountable and curse Him and live life with regret and remorse and self pitty.
But she doesn't...


God has done a great work in Michelle, and I am honored to be here to witness it everyday.



Great Lakes Church: Michelle Testimony from Tony Peterson on Vimeo.


This was the video testimony we showed this past weekend at Great Lakes Church. It had an amazing effect on everybody. If you've already watched it you know the power of Michelle's story... and that power is being used for Gods glory. Dave (watery eyed and sniffling after the video played) said it best...

"Michelle is a trophy of Gods grace"

Road Trippin’: A Shared Experience

We made it! We now, officially, reside in Kenosha, Wisconsin. We finished our last minute packing, errand running, and breakfast on Monday, 9/28 and headed out. The first 20 minutes of the drive were really the hardest for me. It was the last of the “Good-Bye’s” and “See-you-soon’s” we would have for a while. I was definitely teary-eyed… can you still call it “teary-eyed” if the tears are actually rolling down your cheeks and creating a sort of bib on your hoodie? Anyway… I was truly comforted when Tony grabbed my hand as we left Kirkland and said, “This will always be home.”

Day 1: Monday – We popped in THE SHACK (audio book courtesy Karen Jussel) and made it to Spokane in time for Tony’s dad’s (Allen) incredible cocktail sauce before dinner. It was a great evening! Tony played some of the song’s he and Ryan have written on the Larrivee, and we talked about what little we know of Wisconsin. They shared their adventures of the early years of their marriage, Allen’s days in his own rock band, traveling the world and leaving their families behind. They were very encouraging to us, and still ORDERED us to keep in touch. We’ll do our best.


Day 2: Tuesday – We left the Peterson home just before the sun rose on Tuesday morning, hit up Starbucks, filled the tank, looked at a map, and headed out on I-90. The northern parts of Idaho and Montana were spectacular at that hour of the morning. I had no idea it would be so beautiful. We were still listening to The Shack, pausing every once in a while to talk about it. It made for an amazing trip. We got to the northern entrance of Yellowstone Park around 4pm, but we’d forgotten to buy firewood for camping. It took us much too long to find a store that was still open AND had what we needed, which of course included the essential ingredients for s’mores. We found a spot to camp and finished setting up mere seconds before it got dark. It was an incredible time. We ate hotdogs and the pasta salad we made before we took off. It was our first time camping just the two of us, I LOVE married camping. I can’t imagine anything better than a clear night with my best friend talking and singing and eating s’mores. We got into our very warm sleeping bags and before long realized I might not have inflated our mattress completely. Of course, way too cold to get out and fix it, we ended up sleeping on a V-shaped bed, rolling obnoxiously into each other all night. It wasn’t until the next morning that we realized we basically were on the ground… ah well.


Day 3: Wednesday – Had some camping style French press coffee in the morning and some nifty cereal-in-a-cup for breakfast. Broke down our camp and headed deeper into Yellowstone Park. I was confronted with two realities: 1) Buffalo and Bison are the same thing. 2) Neither are extinct. No, seriously. We have video to prove it. They’re real and they still exsist. Also, of note:
• Geysers are really cool looking and really stinky.
• The crows in Yellowstone are of pre-historic size.
• All Coldplay and the Garden State Soundtrack are the best CD’s to listen to while driving through Yellowstone.
• The Grand Tetons do not get nearly enough fame and attention for how amazing they are.
• Pictures CANNOT contain the amazing things you actually see.
We finished driving diagonally through Wyoming that day. Of course, couldn’t get through this great western state without an “up-close-and-personal” with a couple of hunters stuffing a dead dear with ice on their tailgate at the local gas station. I was in sincere shock! We ended the day by arriving in Ft. Collins and having dinner with a couple close friends. Thank you Grant and Natalie for letting us stay with you.


Day 4: Thursday – Woke up and went to Grant and Natalie’s favorite breakfast spot. After a huge cinnamon roll and a little eggs benedict, we went to their favorite coffee shop, which was just a little outside of town. The coffee shop was called Loodles and would definitely be our favorite shop if we lived locally too. It’s owned by Mark Ludy (a childrens book writer/artist) and is decorated with Mark’s art. After Loodles we went and checked out their church / Natalie’s work. There was an awkward moment when we met their pastor and he shook Michelle’s hand for about 30 seconds, staring her directly into her eyes, but it turns out he’s just like that. Natalie does for that church what Michelle did for EastLake… Groups. Natalie has been using the EastLake groups method, and has been successful in implementing it… I think that’s why the pastor had heard of Michelle and was a little ga-ga in person. We left there and headed back to their house where Natalie and I swapped music vision… she taught me a few songs her church does, and I taught her one of the songs EastLake does. It was really fun, and Michelle was enjoying every moment. We ended the day with dinner in, and of course, video games!

Day 5: Friday – It was another early riser… we woke up and hit the road at 6am. On our way to Starbucks to get our morning fuel, we were almost tracked down and shot by an angry local who wanted to make sure I knew that I was in the wrong lane. Today was the day we were going to get to Kansas City, and have some awesome BBQ. We hit the freeway and finished The Shack audio book (which I can do a whole blog about… so I’ll just leave it at “we finished”) and started Blink. This was the first and only night that we stayed at a Hotel… so after hours and hours of driving, we made it to our hotel and went out to eat. Knowing that our friends Matt and Emily Cox are from the Kansas area, I called and asked Matt what place has the best BBQ. We found the restaurant, but just driving by we could see that every table was full and there were about 20 people standing and eating inside as well… really congested. We decided we wanted a more personal dining experience and ended up at a place called Café One80. It was fine, but I’m really disappointed we weren’t able to eat at Matt’s favorite spot.


Day 6: Saturday – Sleeping in is a blessing from God! Michelle and I spoke, and decided it would be so cool to show up early and surprise Dave… so we spent the whole day driving from Kansas City to Kenosha. We did stop at St. Louis for lunch, and of course had to try the local BBQ spot. We stepped into a little place on the outskirts of downtown called Smoki O’s. We were coaxed into trying the local delight called Snoot, which is the cooked-to-a-crisp snout of a pig. Not bad… kinda like a thick pork rind… but now that I’ve had it, I’m good with not having it again. We took our BBQ to-go, and ate lunch literally underneath the St. Louis arch. We finished Blink somewhere in between St. Louis and Chicago… another good book that would take too long to talk about. Chicago is AWESOME! We’ll prolly spend a lot of time there. We ate dinner (per the Stennetts advice) at a deep dish pizza joint called Lou Malnati’s… AMAZING PIZZA! Thank you guys for the awesome suggestion. In the end, we rolled into Kenosha and our new home around 11pm.

We’ll tell you all about our adventures here in Kenosha in different blogs, but we wanted to let you know that we’re here… we’re busy… church was AWESOME… and we were feeling bad about not letting you all know where we were and how we got here. Stay tuned!