im dreaming of a white halloween

4 to 6 more inches today. this is october in colorado.

October Update

Ok... it's been long overdue that i update you all on what is going on in my world.  As most of you know I have been on staff with YWAM Denver for 10 months now. These have been some of the coolest and at times hardest months of my life. It is hard to believe it has been this long,  but these experiences have been great.

This quarter is our busiest yet. We average somewhere around 20-30 students at our offices in any given quarter . This quarter we are facilitating 6 training schools with 111 students. I am working with the leadership training school. It has been really great working along side these students. These 35 guys and girls are some of the coolest most loving people I have seen.

At the end of this quarter I have been asked to assist one of our outreaches to Ireland. We will be gone December 19- February 19. Myself and another staff member will be taking 16 students to Dublin, Belfast, Wexford, and throughout Northern Ireland and the Republic. We will be teaming up with YWAM Ireland and working alongside them in programs they have started in this nation. YWAM Ireland's goal is to continue working towards reconciliation and forgiveness among people groups through a feed cafe, work with at risk youth, family life resources, as well as many other programs and ministries. To learn more about these programs feel free to check out YWAM Ireland's website and their partnership with the innercity faith community of Shanskill (Belfast).  Although staff get their trips paid for in the students outreach cost I will still need to raise money to cover my expenses while I am in Ireland as well as covering my bills at home. As I have been unable to cover my monthly need while on staff at YWAM Denver I have been doing odd jobs around the city to pay my bills. Being gone I will not be able to do these.I will need to raise 200 dollars extra a month while gone to supplement my support as well as any needs I will have while in Ireland. I am looking to raise 1000$ by December 19th. If you are able to help out please send checks to 

Laurie Granger

ATTN: Accouting

12750 W. 63rd Ave

Arvada, CO 80004

make the check out to YWAM Denver and put my name in the memo. You will receive a receipt for your taxes.

or

click on the donate button on this site and donate via paypal with your credit card. You will not be able to write this off your taxes as it goes to me directly.

anything you can do will help. Thank you all for your love and support. I would not be able to do any of this without your generosity.

here are a few resources for those interested in more ways they can get involved with the human trafficking fight at home...

1. betterworldshopper.com - this website takes 20 years worth of research and compiles it to grade some of the major corporations in the world by 5 standards. You'd be suprised what companys are failin in every day human rights.

2. slaverymap.org - this is a website run by everyday people. it spurred off of a San Fransisco University project that documented suspected local businesses that used forced labor or were contributing to human sex trafficking. It was a heavy dose of reality to see how many businesses and shops have been busted as fronts for sex trafficking or used and promoted forced labor.

3. Notforsalecampaign.org -  a great resource to connect you with organizations in your area working to end modern day slavery. check it out. these guys are pretty  amazing.

did i mention that i love bono

Come together on October 25th at 7pm for a night of music by O'Holloran, Brothers O'Hair and Consider the Raven, fashion designs and show sponsored by Fashion Denver clothing and jewelry designers, and live screen printing of t-shirts by A Size Too Small.

Cost is $10/person and City Hall will be operating a full bar for the evening! 

All proceeds will go toward Love146, an organization that prevents sex trafficking in the US and around the world. For more information check out www.love146.org.

For any questions about the event, write Nicole McAdoo-Popovich at nicole@arvadavineyard.org.

Invite some friends! We'll see you there!!

getting wrecked

i have a strange respect for those who's lives are getting wrecked. whether it's a good wrecking or a bad one there is something so powerful about it that it almost demands your respect. it is the act of watching someone wipe the slate clean....a blank page. death, a lost job, a lost love, a dream that's died. it wakes us up a bit to realize that we are not the masters of our own universe... that we choose things in our life, but there is that part of life that happens to us and in us that has nothing to do with our choice. It chooses us. Getting wrecked (read: suffering) is a paradoxical gift, a sort of bloody, traumatic, awful, strange gift. the question presents itself when faced with this idea...what do you do with bad news? the really bad kind? what does it do to your heart? after the pain and tears what are you left with? when this subject comes up i tend to have more questions than answers...there is power in the questions, and if the answers came easy, the questions wouldn't be worth asking.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

this is the time of year that always reminds you of how the earth is constantly changing around you. There is this tree right in front of my balcony that to me has been like hands on a clock. One morning i walk out and it is green and full and as the days go the green turns slowly golden. And then one day the golden leaves scatter the ground around the apartment, and the tree is bare.  There is beauty in change , in watching things die. It holds the anticipation of the next season of life which is sometimes full and green and other times cold and bare, but spring is always around the corner...the new is always a breath away. 

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,  
Her hardest hue to hold. 
Her early leaf's a flower; 
But only so an hour. 
Then leaf subsides to leaf. 
So Eden sank to grief, 
So dawn goes down to day. 
Nothing gold can stay.

a soundtrack to a snowy october saturday.(to download just click on the link for each song)

1. William Fitzsimmons- Heartless (kanye west cover)

2.Volcano Choir- Youlogy

3.Nick Drake- Things First

4.We are the Willows- Funeral Dress as a Birthday Present

5.Karen O - All is Love (from the "where the wild things are" soundtrack)

6.Passion Pit- To Kingdom Come

and it snows..

and it snows...

random

random shots around the apartment. yes we have a christmas tree. don't ask.

exhausted is probably the best way to describe me right now. the past few weeks have been filled with the busy-ness of preparing for the new schools starting tomorrow. we are running 6 schools this quarter with something like 120 students. Needless to say our staff has been running around like chickens with their heads cut off. as things always seem to do around here my schedule for the quarter has changed. as of today i am no longer staffing the school of social justice and am now working with the Phase II Leadership school . this is quite a change of gears for me and am more or less kind of just winging it right now (is this a sign of good leadership or lack of preparation...who knows..) michele has also moved out here about two weeks ago. we are living in an apartment near the offices and she has a job at a salon down the street. it has been good having a bit of home out here and i am happy to have her out here. fall is deffinately in the air . the nights have become considerably colder and there are rumors of snow in the mountains this week. it is amazing how quick things change out here. as things start to slow down a bit for me i will update more often. hope life is treating you all well. many of you  havent talked to in some months. know i miss you and think of you often. love you guys.

cheers.