Grace Notes

Miscellaneous/Witnessing Stories

St. Patrick’s Day Parade

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St Patrick’s Day is just around the corner! We have found that St. Patick’s Day parades are a great place to get the gospel out to thousands of people. Few know the true history of St. Patrick — he was actually a great missionary to Ireland. We printed up a little green tract that explains the story of who he really was and what he really preached. Each year, together with the help of friends, we walk up and down the streets passing out the tracts and telling people it’s the, “…history of Saint Patick!” People smile and take them like candy. People like history. They’re interested! Afterwards we always go out for hot chocolate and a snack.

Click here or here for St Patrick’s Day reports from previous years.

If you live in or near a town that does a parade on the 17th, I’d strongly recommend you do the same thing! You are welcome to use our tracts! (link below) Even if you can’t go to a parade, this is a great week to be passing out the tract wherever you go.
Click here to view tract

Note: The tract is a PDF file and will require Adobe Acrobat Reader to open it. Click here to download a free version of Adobe Reader.

Bright Lights Internship

Restful Break

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A few weeks ago at church I was thinking, “It would be really nice if we could do something fun with the Bright Lights interns. They’ve been working so hard.”
About 10 minutes later a lady from our church came up to Sarah and said, “I thought it might be nice for you and Grace and the Internship girls to do something fun together. Would you like to take a little trip and stay in our condo in Galena?”

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We just arrived home from the wonderful little 2-day “retreat” in the cute historic town of Galena, Illinois. The shopping was fun, the food was delicious, and the weather was unbelievably nice for this time of year. But we all agreed that the highlight of the trip was the good discussions we got into about the Lord.

Another big highlight of the trip was the witnessing opportunities the Lord opened. We were able to share the gospel several times.

The Lord is so good. Just the fact that He saved us and gives us life and breath is amazing, but He continues to bless us with undeserved gifts.
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights…” James 1:17

Bright Lights Internship

Thoughts on Discipleship

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This morning my dad shared with the internship girls some principles of discipleship. He shared how when you are discipling someone, it’s imporant for it to be “hands on!” Do ministry together. Do evangelism together. Take them with you. That’s what Jesus did with His disciples.
It’s also important to remember that it’s hard to bring someone further spiritually than you’ve come yourself. (Another reason to be growing in the Lord!)

Bright Lights Internship/Bright Lights Local Group

Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?

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The four Bright Lights interns (Alexandra, Karissa, Hannah, and Mary) helped to teach Bright Lights last night. They all did a great job. And, of course, everyone enjoyed the funny skit they planned.

The topic of the meeting was guarding our words. The girls emphasized a practical way to screen what comes out of our mouths. Before you speak, ask yourself three questions.
1) Is it true?
2) Is it kind?
3) Is it necessary?

If it doesn’t fit into these categories, don’t say it!

Jesus said:
“But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.” (Mt 12:36)

Bright Lights Internship/Bright Lights Local Group

4:12 – Organized, One-on-one Discipleship

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If you would have come to the Bright Lights office last night, you would have found pairs of girls scattered throughout the building studying and praying together. It was the first night of something new in Bright Lights. Something special! Sarah designed and organized a new way to provide one-on-one discipleship for those within our Bright Lights group who are interested in deeper fellowship and accountability.
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Emma and Hannah

She divided them into pairs (an older girl and younger girl) and gave them each 4:12 booklets to do together. What do I mean by “4:12”? Well, that’s what we named this new program. It actually stands for three Scripture references:

1 Timothy 4:12 – “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”

Ephesians 4:12 – “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ”

Colossians 4:12 – “Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.

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Ellen and Katie

Each pair spent time getting acquainted, studying Scripture, sharing prayer requests, setting a “goal” for the week, choosing a memory verse for the week, discussing and talking through several other thought-provoking questions from the “4:12” booklets, making braclets, and eating freshly baked cinnamon sugar soft pretzels.

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Mary and Abigail


The partners will meet once a week for eight weeks, praying for each other throughout. We are excited about each team and how they are paired up. We prayed over each combination and feel that the Lord really arranged just the perfect matches. I think He has special things in store.

Bright Lights Internship

Desktop Publishing Class

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This week Stephen is teaching a “Desktop Publishing” course. He’s teaching the class primarily for our four Bright Lights interns (so they will be more capable and equipped to help with Bright Lights) but we also opened it to our community, and we ended up with a nice sized group of home school students.


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Today (day one) everyone learned the nine steps of graphic design, the importance of drawing “thumbnails” before you start your project, the eleven design rules, how to organize text on a page, how to edit photos in Photoshop, and how to make grids and insert text and graphics into InDesign, and all about picas, points, CMYK, RGB, different types of files, and other basic information, etc.

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The day was somewhat intense, especially for those who weren’t familiar with InDesign and Photoshop, but everyone did great! We are looking forward to a fun and stretching week!

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( “…Help, Stephen! ……it’s not working…… ” )

Miscellaneous

Lincoln Day

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Abraham Lincoln, February 9, 1864, Washington, D.C. Anthony Berger Photograph

As you may know, today many people are celebrating “Darwin Day” –Darwin’s 200 birthday. Coincidentally, today is also Abraham Lincoln’s 200 birthday. Who’s birth do you think we should celebrate — he who freed the slaves or he who degraded blacks by his racist writings?

In Darwin’s book The Descent of Man, he called those with dark skin “degraded,” and wrote that he would rather be descended from a monkey than such a “savage.” In contrast, Lincoln wrote that all men are created equal and should be treated equally before the law and God.

Bright Lights Internship

Internship “Orientation”

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Yesterday was a full day! We started out with a time of sharing from the Word and prayer. We also heard some neat testimonies from the girls of how the Lord had worked in their lives to prepare them for this time – again confirming to us how the Lord brought just the perfect team for these 10 weeks.
Then Sarah shared with them the complete story of how the Lord provided the office into which we just moved. (I am planning to share this story on Grace Notes as well in coming weeks.)
Since yesterday was the first day for all of us to work in our new office, it was rather exciting, as can imagine. We still keep asking each other, “Where do we keep this?” “Where do we keep that?”

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Here Nickie is explaning to the girls how to process “orders”. After we all practiced a few times I think we understand… 🙂
Nickie also trained the girls in knowledge of the Bright Lights material we ship out and explained to them the details of how it all works (i.e. the discount prices Bright Lights leaders get, etc.) how to package orders, and how to answer some of the most common e-mails that we receive.

Sarah also gave the girls a few projects to begin working on for Bright Lights this week. (Writing ideas for a Before You Meet Prince Charming Study Guide, helping to plan our next local Bright Lights meeting, etc.)

Late afternoon/evening the girls went grocery shopping. Some of the evenings they are planning to cook and eat on their own in the guest house, and some evenings they are planning to eat at our family’s house.