The next Rolling Hills Writers Connection meeting is Thursday March 18, is at 7 p.m.  in the East Atrium.  Come network with other faith writers of all genres. Get connected and inspired. Learn of opportunities to be published. Network and share ideas. Dennis Marcellino will be the guest leader. 

Questions? Contact Cornelia at corneliaseigneur@comcast.net  or at 503-318-3480.

I have Olympic fever.

I will be so sad when this is over. Every night when the Olympics are on, I am hooked and cannot help myself but to stay up till it ends each night at midnight. Last night was the final showdown of the Women’s Ice Skating, my favorite event.

The emotion, the trials, the beauty, the stories of these amazing young women.

It’s the individual stories that impact me the most. The stories of sacrifice and hard work and determination. And, I think of the sacrifice of the families of the athletes and how neat it is when the athletes honor their parents by thanking them for their sacrifice.

I got to thinking about sacrifice, that there is no shortcut to where these athletes are today. There is no drive-through training, no quick workouts, no skip a day here, no wait till tomorrow or next week there. These athletes and their families have given up so much to be here these weeks in Vancouver, B.C.

The story of familial love hit home the most for me. Last night’s heart-wrenching ice skating performance by the young lady from Canada, Joannie Rochette, whose mother died of a heart attack last Sunday. And, that she went on the win a bronze medal despite her heartache epitomized the spirit of the Olympic Games. The impact was felt throughout the world. When Joannie was interviewed afterwards about her performance, they asked how she did it, and she gave her mom the credit. She said her mom taught her to be tough and to work hard at whatever she did and to not quit.  http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-news/n/news/afp-news/figure-skating–rochette-puts-heartbreak-aside-to-claim-bronze_293842ok.html

        There were other ice skating stories. The young 19-year-old woman from South Korea Kim Yu-Na who won the gold medal in figure skating. She talked about her dream, which started in her living room watching  American Kristi Yamaguchi, the American figure skater who won the 1992 gold medal in figure skating, sparking a dream in the heart of the young Kim Yu-Na.

        I have been staying up late and losing sleep and my kids have been joining me. It reminds me of my growing up years watching the Olympics and I had wanted to be an Olympic athlete. Gymnastics was my sport of choice, but then I got too tall and moved onto the dream of wanting to an Olympic Runner. Every kid needs dreams. Bad knees ended that dream. And, flash forward into my parenting years and my children are watching the Olympics with me, losing sleep and getting addicted to the Olympics and I know we will all have withdrawal symptoms when this is all over.

       As an adult, I now enjoy more than just a select number of sports but almost all of the events of the Olympic Games. Each one has a story. A story of an athlete’s dream come true, a story of an athlete just happy to be here. A story of just missing a trip the medal platform by a point or a second. A story of a father giving up everything for his son’s dream, like Apolo Ohno’s dad, present at every nail biting event.

The announcers would talk about past Olympic medal winners, which brought to mind so many memories for me. I remembered those winners and their stories. Katarina Witt and the Swan Girl and Sarah Hughes and the Battle of the Brians and the husband and wife Russian couples pair, who had won two Olympic gold medals in 1988 and 1994 – Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkovage. Sergei died of a heart attack a year after that last gold medal performance when he was 28, leaving behind his wife and 3-year-old daughter.   http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/longterm/memories/1995/95pass2.htm 

        These athletes and their stories become household names. Names of people are go for amazing goals and reach for their dreams and sacrifice to reach their dreams.

        The closing ceremony is on Sunday and I am already feeling the pre-sorrow emotions.

        For now, there are three more days and I especially look forward to the showcase of all the ice skaters and dancers. And that will be just for fun. Just for the experience.  Which is of course the point in the end after all.

The next Rolling Hills Writers Connection meeting is Thursday, Feb. 18, at 7 p.m. in the East Atrium of the church.

Our new highlight is featuring a guest author, starting this month with author Melanie Dobson.

Melanie Dobson was the corporate publicity manager for Focus on the Family for four years, and is the author of six historical/contemporary novels and one nonfiction book.

Come for inspiration, connection, networking, publishing ideas, and feedback. See how writing is a ministry. For questions, contact Cornelia at corneliaseigneur@comcast.net or 503-318-3480.

Photo by Ross William Hamilton of The Oregonian

who are in the team sports program, many of whom he has worked with since they were in first grade. They are now fifth graders, and Gulbrandson plans to coach and mentor them through high school graduation.
 “I tell them I am always available,” Gulbrandson said. “Sometimes they try to think of questions to ask just to have an excuse to check in.”
 Gulbrandson’s idea for Mentor Athletics sprouted during the years he coached classic soccer with the Willamette United Soccer Club, which he felt was too expensive for some youth. He also had a personal sports training business and worked at Kraxberger Middle School in Gladstone and noticed many of the kids did not participate in sports due to their family’s financial situation.   
“I wanted all kids to have the opportunity to play sports,” Gulbrandson said. “And I liked the idea of male mentors. When I researched, I didn’t see anything like it. The closest nonprofit to what I wanted to do was Friends of the Children, but mine is a sports mentoring.”
 Gulbrandson, a soccer and basketball player when he attended West Linn High School,  said the program is good for him as well as the students. “I get to hang out with kids and get rewarded daily by seeing their development. This is the best job.”

 Mentor Athletics began as a cost-free after school and summer sports program, and Gulbrandson estimates he has worked with some 300 kids. In 2006 he switched to the model where he focuses on his core sports team program and golf, “because although we were seeing over a hundred kids in our programs we did not get to know the kids as well as we would like.” 

Gulbrandson’s mission is to build the life skills of perseverance, integrity and commitment. He recalls a time when one of the boy’s, Jordan O’Neill, took to heart the focus on integrity, when the ball hit his hand during a soccer game.
 “Jordan then proceeded to raise his hand and tell the referee ‘I did a handball.’ The referee, who was not going to call the handball, was stunned, blew his whistle giving the ball to the other team, and said, ‘I have never seen that before.’”
 Joel Quintanilla, who is 11 and lives in Oregon City, says that in every practice, Gulbrandson gives the boys something to remember, “like you shouldn’t follow the crowd, and don’t make fun of people, things like that.”
 Quintanilla particularly enjoys participating in sports tournaments as well as the groups other activities, such as bowling and dinners at the Gulbrandson home.
 Volunteer junior high, high school and college students also get involved, such as 17-year-old Will Caplan of Lake Oswego, a junior at Catlin Gabel School.
 “It’s good for these kids to see another example of someone to look up to,” Caplan said. “I look up to my brother, and I don’t have a younger brother. It’s a positive place for kids to come.” 
 To keep the boys from getting burned out, Gulbrandson scheduled  more unstructured activities over the past year and insists on everyone taking off two or three weeks each year.
 “And, though I know the kids and I need it, they get upset when I tell them we are taking a break,” Gulbrandson said.
 He wraps up a recent Tuesday practice by gathering the boys into a circle to talk about the rest of week at school. He asks what they might do if they hear someone talking negatively about another student.
 “Don’t say anything mean,” and “ignore them,” are offered as suggestions by the youth.
 Gulbrandson adds another suggestion: “Just do one nice thing.”

(originally appeared in The Oregonian, Metro Cover, Feb. 4, 2010 and online at The Oregonian’s website: http://www.oregonlive.com/west-linn/index.ssf/2010/02/mentor_athletics_helps_kids_develop_relationships_and_life_skills.html)

The event takes place at Willamette Christian Church   in West Linn, which is located at 3153 S Brandywine Drive. The church website is: http://www.willamettechurch.com/youngpdx/  Willamette Christian Church is the co-sponsor along with Season of Service and Portland Leadership Foundation. Paul Young will share his experience of writing The Shack and how it changed his life, and his vision for making a difference in the lives of the youth of Portland.  

I met Paul Young at Oregon Christian Writers winter conference in Salem when he was key note speaker and I was leading a workshop on freelance writing. His honesty and desire to serve Christ and use his writing in whatever way God saw fit was amazing. I was inspired.

So my twins now have I-Pods. Okay, they bought them with their own money and I could have said no, but they were so excited so I gave in. they are just getting into this tech world so early in life. They are 12.

Man, it seems the thing is glued to them. I keep telling myself this will change. Sometimes they will hide in my room or their own rooms and when I walk in they quickly put it away as if I am ignorant of the fact that they are using their iPods.

When I first protested that they were getting them, they said, but mom it has a bible application. What about the old fashioned way for reading the bible. And you can check e-mail as well. And each day they tell me of all the new things they can do with their iPods.

I do not like I-Pods in ears as it hurts the ears and it tunes out the rest of the world. Like everything else, I need to teach my boys I-Pod etiquette. We would not sit there and ignore someone we are with but we feel like we can sit there and play I-Pod and that is fine? Or, for that matter, text people on their cell phones. People do it all the time.

We have a rule in our house that Sundays are a non-electronic day. We have done this for about a year or more now. After church, it is reading time and nap time and game time, anything that is non-electronic, which includes computers. I literally look forward to Sundays for this reason. I sit in my living room by the Bow window overlooking my creek with the sun shining in and curl up with a good book and turn off the phone and fall asleep often. And we have our kids do the same. No internet, no X-box, no Nintendo, no computer, no I-Pod, no Facebook (for me), no blogging (for me).

I just think it is good to detune, de-tox from being so plugged into gadgets that we forget how to interact with real people. To sit quietly with a book rather than race through an iPod game or app.

I came upon an article in December 25, 2006 print edition of U.S. News & World Report. A group of college students from Western Kentucky University were using the slogan, “Take out the earplugs and plug into the world!” And, that was three years ago. Just think how much farther technology has come in just three years. We have become so fast paced and plugged in that I just need personally to de-tune. And as a parent help my kids to de-tune as well. Until, on their own, they will want to put the electronics away for a day.

One thought is that parents need to live values that they talk about. Delayed gratification when it comes to things we want/need. We maybe should ask ourselves: Do we, as parents,  buy things whenever we want. . .without waiting. Do we model delayed gratification?

As for kids, living in suburbia USA, they get new cars and do not pay for gas or insurance at age 16. And then, if the parents do not do this, my friend mentioned how some kids will then say their parents are stingy, and I am thinking – Oh, my. Here, parents are trying to teach their kids values and not giving them everything and they miss the point.

My parents did not give me everything and taught me the value of work by making me work. I wanted to live on campus when I was working on my undergrad degree at The University of Portland – but my parents lived 7 miles away and said no and I did not have the money. So, I worked the next summer and saved up enough to live on the dorms. Did I learn the value of work. And gratitude.

Kristi and I also talked about building true faith into our children’s lives and mused on the fact that so much in today’s church culture can seem to be watered down for the sake of entertainment. The church seems to sometimes be there to just entertain youth. She mentioned a guy named Paul Washer who is very strong in his belief about the church and how watered down the sermons have become. To tickle ears. . . I need to check it out and evaluate and discern and ask the questions. Are we as a church just trying to be liked and loved and are we just trying to sell books and get people inside our church building.

I love my lunches with Kristi. Always solid  food for thought.

[note: originally posted on my WriterMomMusings blog on Nov. 14, 2008]

A friend of mine and I were on an adventure hike at Tryon Creek State Park on MLK Junior Day, and our 12-year-old boys and my 6 year old boy plus our family 12-year-old and 13 -year old friends from Sudan

The four 12-year-old boys were meandering off the trail to discover trees that had fallen over the creek, and they wanted to walk over these logs to get to the other side of the creek.

They came up with this idea on their own. Though at first I thought they should not go off the trail, yet I then realized that there were no signs up that said they could not go off the trail, so we let them. Too many times at school and in life, kids are required to stay in bounds and live between the borders of walls and books and desks, and told to color in the lines, but real life is sometimes off the trail and outside of the lines and off the trails.

So, the boys took off down toward the log which had fallen over the creek, and I followed them to make sure they were okay. Then, another woman who was also out for a hike at Tryon that day, stopped to see what the boys were doing, and with hesitation in her voice asked my friend, “Is it safe?”

My friend said unashamedly to this other woman, of course it is safe, and they are just boys on an adventure.

The question, Is it safe? got me thinking about family life and safety and kids living in our suburban culture, where they are so sheltered and not allowed to explore and where they are driven everywhere they go and are not allowed to walk or bike anywhere. Ironically enough because families move to the suburbs to be safe!

I also thought about life  as a believer and how we in the church always pray for safety and protection which is a great prayer and all. But is there more to life than just praying for safety and hence, an easy life.

And I think of the promise that so many people in the church base their Christian life upon, the promise that God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life, and when we think of a wonderful plan, we think of a life that is safe and conflict free.

Of course, being safe and conflict free might be good things to want in general, but it seems that we forget that when life has conflicts and risks and outside the box experiences, that is when we seem to grow the most. And when we need God the most.

When our lives are lived outside the box in the realm of adventure and risk, when we take chances and get out of the safety zone, we live lives where we have not choice but to be dependent upon God and where we look to Him and where we learn new things. And when we try new things and live outside the box in one area of our lives, we will risk and truly live in other areas of our lives.

Adults need this. Kids need this. Kids in suburbia USA need chances to climb across trees that have fallen across creeks, to try to figure out how best to do this, to help one another in the task, to problem solve together how best to do this. To learn to trust in God.  

As my friend and I watched our 12 year old sixth graders, we saw their eagerness to find log after log to cross the creek, and we saw team work as they tried to figure out the best way to make it and we saw their laughter and the challenge that it was and the excitement when they made it across, each time waiting for one another to cross.

And my 6 y ear old also along for the hike wanted so badly to join the older boys and I kept saying it is too hard and he kept getting mad at me for saying it was too hard, so on one log that seemed reasonable for a 6 year old to cross, I said that we could cross it together and we tried, but my 6 year old got scared half way across so we turned around. But on the next log he wanted to join the older boys again, so I took him, and we made it all the way across that time, and it was such a great adventure for my 6 year old.

The challenge, the adventure, the risk, the creativity, the team work, the maneuvering to find the best route were all skills that can be transferred to real life and real faith.

The boys got dirty and the trails were muddy and getting off the trails was even muddier, but the boys did not complain. They kept looking for more logs to cross. 

The next day, I got a call from the mom friend and she said her son had such an amazing time with us, and that is all he could talk about, the adventure with my boys.

Was it safe? It was safe enough and we were smart about it.

And, most importantly, it was an adventure.

But he did not listen.

Instead, he worked as a carpenter. He opened a furniture mart and he began to sell furniture. Then, a flood washed away all his furniture and he lost everything he had built. That was his wake up call.

Now instead of building furniture, he is building into the lives of others as a barefoot pastor.

“Realizing my disobedience caused these heavy loses I chose to serve Him. God has blessed me since the day I stepped out to do His work. By His guidance, I started a church with the name ‘Mahimayin Sabai.’ It is in the village of Valliyoor in the region of Virudhu Nagar.”

His church now has 58 members and 43 of them have been baptized. K.A. Masila Mani is one of 10 barefoot pastors that Rolling Hills sponsors in partnership with India Gospel League. Barefoot pastors bring the message of Christ to rural India and are in ministry in the tradition of the New Testament preachers, who go out into villages with just sandals and the shirt on their back. They establish relationships and seek opportunities to share the Gospel.

Village people who accept the Lord are encouraged to be open about their faith even though they know they will be persecuted. Only two percent of India is Christian. Over 80 percent is Hindu and 13 percent Muslim. In addition to sponsoring barefoot pastors, Rolling Hills is assisting India Gospel League in helping fund rural development and adopting villages. Helping communities to get clean water. Build housing and community centers.

And churches.

On November 7, 2009, a new church building was erected in Gantura in the region of Surgana. The words etched in stone in front of the church state: This Life Center is the gift of love from the friends at the Rolling Hills Community Church, USA. No city needed. No state needed. Just Rolling Hills Community Church, USA.

Pastor Bhaskar Kashram Powar views the new church building as a symbol of how far God has brought him. “When I think of the initial days of my ministry here, my heart goes back to the hardship I faced to establish His Kingdom. During the initial stages of ministry, the church service was held in a hut. We faced tremendous problems at that time. Now I praise God that He removed the barrier in my ministry by answering our prayers in giving us a good church building.”

Bob Ervin, who is the Local/Global Team Leader at Rolling Hills, shares that he heard stories of believers digging their own graves because they knew they were going to be killed for their faith. And still, they are willing to live for their faith.

Rolling Hills Children’s Pastor Gary Strudler, who will return to India in March to train children’s leaders for Children’s Gospel League, shares: “Because they are believers, store owners won’t sell them groceries, and last year we heard stories of homes being burned.”

Christ followers in India intimately know the words of Jesus found in John 15:20: “If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also.” For more information, visit http://www.iglworld.org/

We are having our next Writers Connection Meeting at Rolling Hills Community Church,

All writers are welcome. Connect, get inspired, hear from published authors, share your publishing experiences, talk about opportunities to be published, bring in work to be read,  and discover ways to use writing as a ministry. Share your story and the dream of your story. If you’ve never been before, feel free to stop by. Get that muse going with the new year!  

Here is the church’s calendar note on the meeting-

http://www.rollinghills.org/writers-connection-meeting