Winter Chill

JT and I have the privilege every Sunday and Wednesday to help out with our youth ministry at church. A few weekends ago we kicked off the Spring semester by taking all the junior high & senior high to Pine Cove in Tyler, Tx for a weekend retreat: Winter Chill.

JT was the main speaker for the weekend and Cody Kimmel was the worship director. For those of you who have never been on a youth retreat, I'd like to share some words that will paint a picture for you. For those of you that remember youth retreats oh so well.... enjoy reminiscing :)

• Traveling by bus
• Sleeping bags, pillows, and luggage
• Bunk-beds, cabins, leaking roofs
• Communal bathrooms
• Middle of nowhere forest camp
• Ice breaker events: good 'ole toilet bowl diving & poop deck (see pics below)
• Late nights with only 4 or less hours of sleep
• Early mornings and no sleeping in
• Crud wars
• Crushes/relationships
• Making new friends
• Time with God
• Small groups
• Challenging sermons and powerful worship
• God showing up and the Holy Spirit moving
• Glad to be going home but wishing you could stay
• Looking forward to the next...

Here are some pictures to tell of our time there. If you want to see all of them, go here. 

Lives were changed. God was praised. 

Read more...

Day of Mourning in Port-au-Prince

Haitians gathered Saturday at the Champ de Mars plaza in Port-au-Prince for a day of mourning. 

Psalm 34

  ¹ I will extol the LORD at all times; 

       his praise will always be on my lips.

 ² My soul will boast in the LORD; 

       let the afflicted hear and rejoice.

 ³ Glorify the LORD with me; 

       let us exalt his name together.

 ⁴ I sought the LORD, and he answered me; 

       he delivered me from all my fears.

 ⁵ Those who look to him are radiant; 

       their faces are never covered with shame.

 ⁶ This poor man called, and the LORD heard him; 

       he saved him out of all his troubles.

 ⁷ The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, 

       and he delivers them.

 ⁸ Taste and see that the LORD is good; 

       blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

 ⁹ Fear the LORD, you his saints, 

       for those who fear him lack nothing.

 ¹⁰ The lions may grow weak and hungry, 

       but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

 ¹¹ Come, my children, listen to me; 

       I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

 ¹² Whoever of you loves life 

       and desires to see many good days,

 ¹³ keep your tongue from evil 

       and your lips from speaking lies.

 ¹⁴ Turn from evil and do good; 

       seek peace and pursue it.

 ¹⁵ The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous 

       and his ears are attentive to their cry;

 ¹⁶ the face of the LORD is against those who do evil, 

       to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

 ¹⁷ The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; 

       he delivers them from all their troubles.

 ¹⁸ The LORD is close to the brokenhearted 

       and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

 ¹⁹ A righteous man may have many troubles, 

       but the LORD delivers him from them all;

 ²⁰ he protects all his bones, 

       not one of them will be broken.

 ²¹ Evil will slay the wicked; 

       the foes of the righteous will be condemned.

 ²² The LORD redeems his servants; 

       no one will be condemned who takes refuge in him.

To see all the photos covered by The New York Times, click here.

Read more...

329 days...

Till Christmas 2010.

After getting married, you realize this new (or old) rule that you have to start sharing holidays. I don't think any girl ever really thinks about this as she's dreaming for her future husband. But once the topic comes up, you realize you have to make the tough decision every year, and then hope that both of your families don't think you're picking favorites. To all my lady friends out there who are going to have to make these decisions for the first time... don't worry, the first year is the hardest, second to the following, and so on. So basically, by the time JT and I have been married for 20 years, this will be a piece of cake... hopefully :)

For our first two years of marriage, JT and I spent Christmas with his family. For Christmas 2009, it was the Sinclair's turn. Since JT and I have moved to Dallas, my parents have also relocated back to their "home" town (this is where they met and got married), so all the brothers & the sis-in-law were heading to Dallas to celebrate.

Chris flew all the way from Thailand to surprise both my parents. We worked out a fabulous plan to surprise them at dinner... and despite their suspicions, they were still ecstatic and could barely believe their eyes. Priceless.

Sam came up from Houston and Kate & Charlie drove in from Nashville. And we all rendezvoused in Magnolia, AR. This was very exciting for everyone on the Sharp side of the family because all cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents were going to be present. I think the last time we were all together like this was probably 6 years ago.

Here's a snapshot of what you'd find in Magnolia on Christmas Eve:

That's my Uncle Sam and here's his HUGE dog rightfully named, Dozer. 

We headed to my grandparents house for dinner where Aunt Nancy was away in the kitchen cooking up a storm, JT and I were posing by the fire (Christmas Vacation anyone??) and all the family was catching up life.

Here's the the whole fam...

Anyone want dessert??

After our bellies were full and we hugged everybody, we got back in our cars and drove through a snowstorm to get back to Dallas. On Christmas morning, JT and I woke up like little kids and opened all our presents under the tree. Merry Christmas!

Here's the wood bat-rack that Bapa made JT. Now we just need to get his Rockies bats down here to fill it up!

Everyone came to our apartment to celebrate on Christmas day and we had a great time eating, playing games, Sam watching Mariah, and enjoying time with family. 

Here's to a wonderful Christmas, a happy new year, and only 329 days till the next! I love Christmas!

Read more...

Update on Haiti

Please pray for Ben & Katie in Haiti. The Lord has placed them there for this specific time, this specific place, to do His work and glorify His name.

Here is an update from Ben:

"Hi, we have a brief time right now with internet. This thing is crazy, what ever CNN is telling you isn't doing it justice. It is a disaster area here. We are safe, our apt is undamaged, but we are staying at the school. About 2 dozen orphans are staying there too, their orphanage collapsed.


Pray for us. Pray for supplies, peace, health, safety. The government here is 100% ineffective. The UN is out with helicopters everywhere. We hear France and US have committed money and troops. As we get more access to the internets then I will update you more. We love you guys and are praying for you. Don't worry about us, we will be just fine."

Read more...

Our Small Group

Since October '08 we've been apart of a married couple's small group through our church. Since then our group has multiplied, changed meeting times/places, said hello to new couples and said goodbye to ones we did not want to see go. Every Wednesday night JT and I look forward to getting together with some of our closest friends to talk about how we can know God more and how we can make Him known in our lives and marriages.

We get to see Acts lived out every week when we're around these people. As soon as you step foot into this group you are automatically family and things will be given and lives will be shared to support, love, and encourage you in life. It's truly a picture of what the church looks like.

Since November '08 we've known Katie and Ben. We've had the pleasure of getting to know them better over the last year and can now say with confidence that we will be friends for life. This past summer we started praying for opportunities for God to take them overseas for missions and can now celebrate that after months of prayer and preparation, God has placed them in Haiti to minister to the Haitian and missionary community. They officially moved to Haiti on December 29th (last Tuesday). Praise the Lord for his provision.

To learn more about the Kilpatricks click here.

JT and I have also found a specific ministry at our church: students :) High school and middle school to be exact. We, along with Katie and Ben, are having to leave our beloved small group and serve where the Lord is leading us to go. Our Christmas party was a time for food, laughter, and celebration. We love this group so much and are excited to see how it will grow and send other couples in the coming year.

This is us with Caleb & Lindy Jo (we co-lead the small group with them).

Read more...

The day we ran 13.1 (Dec 13, 2009)

JT and I woke up that morning wide awake with adrenaline running through our veins. We were pumped to get on the road and pass tons of people! We were also anxious for what the race would be like. Neither of us had ever run in a large race before and didn't know what to expect.

We started off the morning at my co-workers apartment right above where the start line was. We were meeting up with a few other co-workers that were also running the 1/2 marathon that day.

Below we could see thousands of people starting to get in line and then we took that as our cue to go get in line as well. JT even spotted Tracy from this season's Biggest Loser! It was so neat to see all 20,000 people come out for the race and get pumped to see how quickly they could finish.

After many miles and quite a few songs on the ipod... we sprinted towards the finish line and even held hands as we crossed! It was such a great experience for us to train together and also run the entire race together. There were definitely moments of encouraging each other and sheer exhaustion... but it was all worth it.

Now... we're even talking about running another 1/2 in the Spring and then shooting for the goal of doing the full marathon in next year's White Rock.

Can I actually say out loud that I might really enjoy running now?... nope. I'll just type it for now :)

Read more...

Thanksgiving recap... 37 days later :)

Last night, amongst casual conversation, my friend stated "Oh yeah, I noticed the other day that it's been a month since your last update on your blog". Now, she didn't mean harm by it... but it was a huge reminder for me of two things: 1. That the past 37 days have been slammed packed with things and 2. That the blog has fell way down on the totem pole.

So... here goes quite a few blog posts that will bring everyone up to speed :)

We spent and entire week in Colorado and realized then how much we missed it! You really take the mountains for granted when you live there. We spent our first few days catching up with old friends, seeing movies with Jack, and just plain relaxing... it was good to have a few days off from work and school to be able to recuperate.

I spent some one-on-one time with Kathy and we decided to go to Clement park for some fun picture taking.... these pictures pretty much sum up our relationship :)

On Thursday, we went to 24 hour fitness to have a pre-meal workout (plus we had to keep training for our 1/2 marathon that was in 3 weeks). JT and Todd were playing basketball while Jack and I were actually working out :)

Once we got home, we all started to do what we do best...

Jack was on the phone with family (and cooking the Turkey):

Todd & JT were watching football:

Marcy was cooking:

And I was taking the photos.

One thing we all accomplished with class and excellence was stuffing our faces! Happy Thanksgiving!

After our fabulous meal, we headed to the theatre to see The Blind Side. What a phenomenal movie! This is definitely one that we will buy on DVD and watch every Thanksgiving. That evening we enjoyed hot cider, homemade apple pie, and conversations around the fireplace.

On Friday, Todd hooked us up by getting the entire suite to the Nuggets game that night! We were able to invite some of our friends and also meet some of the people he works with. It was a great night to enjoy watching Denver sports and relax before we head back to Dallas.

Before we even got on the plane to come back I had already discussed with JT when we were going to put up Christmas decorations... the next day :) Yay for Christmas. I get a smile on my face just thinking about all that this time of year means. It's really the most wonderful time of year!

Read more...