A Night At A Castle

June 26, 2012 / MacKenzie / Leave a comment

Last week Paul and I, along with several of the REVO crew, went to the Stand for Freedom Gala in Greensboro at Castle McCullough. It was a semi-formal event with hors d’eouvres, live music, a silent auction and speakers.
As Thursday approached we all became giddy with the excitement of getting to dress up and go to a CASTLE! If the week leading to Thursday was filled with giddiness then Thursday itself was nothing but female hormones running wild. Shoes, clothes, lipstick, bobby pins…you name it and it was all being tossed to and fro in excited energy as we all got ready. (This is how it was at my house. It is quite possible that this happened at the homes of others as well).
Paul and I rode over with our friends Stephen and Ally. We talked about the food, the Castle, and the food some more.
We arrived and the first balloon popped….We would not be eating fancy finger foods in the castle but in the garden that the castle overlooked. We got in line for the all out food fest but POP…down came the second balloon. The food was great, but there wasn’t much of it. I guess we were expecting a meal even though the invitation clearly stated hors d’eouvres.

We bid, we took pictures, we ate, we chatted…and then we listened. We were moved at the words of a poet from the West Coast as he recited beautiful, uplifting and challenging words. We cried at the story of a woman who had come out of prostitution and is now helping other young women do the same. We were moved to action by the CEO of World Relief.

It dawned on me as we walked out how preoccupied I had been with things that really didn’t matter. I didn’t focus why we were having the event until it was more or less over. I lost sight of how many people are trafficked through my world, my country, my state, my city. As I sat and listened to people share incredible stories that I didn’t want to be someone who gets dressed up, goes to an event, writes a check and leaves thinking no more about the problem. I want to not only think about it, but help change it.

Why can’t we see the end of human trafficking? The only thing standing in our way is ourselves.

Funny Says from Lily

April 25, 2012 / MacKenzie / Leave a comment

“Dinosaur get me. ROOOAAARR!” as she runs around the house.

While taking a bath with her brother, pointing to herself, “I T-REx, Caleb T-Rex….you mommy.”

“Shhh…dinosaur comin’.”
(Noticing a dinosaur theme, are you?)

To Heather, our friend who watches the kids during the day, “I want some money.”

To me while changing her clothes, “You funny mommy. You so funny.”

“Daddy my best friend.” Everyone from her imaginary dinosaur to me have been her best friend at some point over the last month.

“I watch Kitty-Kitty” referencing “The Aristocats”

Making a Difference One Name Tag at a Time

April 24, 2012 / MacKenzie / Leave a comment

This is my second post in my Making A Difference Series. You can read the first one by clicking on the following link: http://paulandmackenzie.blogspot.com/2012/02/making-difference-one-movie-at-time.html

When Paul and I started dating, I went to church with him at 121 Community Church in Grapevine, TX. Vince and Sharon Rice greeted us at the entrance, giving us a name tag. Every Sunday after that, we went to the same entrance, where Vince and Sharon would give us our name tags.
“Hello’s” turned into “How are you doing’s”, which turned into deeper conversations. None of us could have known what would have come from a simple greeting and name tag.

Vince and Sharon later became our small group leaders and began pouring into us personally. I find myself quoting them, referring back to things they have taught me, and thinking about truths they continue to speak into our lives often.

I don’t know if I have the space to write all the ways they are making a difference, but I will share a few things.

Vince and Sharon share what they have with others. From money to knowledge to wisdom, they help others when they see a need arise.

Vince and Sharon pour themselves out into the small groups they lead. Their couples group in particular has reproduced itself so many times I have lost count. That is a testament to their faithfulness to teach Scripture and not apologize for it, to love people, and to make disciples who make disciples.

Vince and Sharon live sent. They recognize who is in their circle of influence, pray for those people, speak truth into their lives, and share Christ’s love with them. They also go outside their circle to other countries to share the same love of Christ to people they may or may not see again. They fight injustices in the world, one ghetto, one brothel, one orphan at a time.

It is impossible to share with you the impact these two people have had not only on our lives, but countless others. They are making a difference for the kingdom every single day.

Good Times in the Backyard

April 24, 2012August 4, 2014 / MacKenzie / Leave a comment

Working Mom

April 24, 2012 / MacKenzie / Leave a comment

As a stay-at-home mom I always felt like I worked really hard. I viewed the things I did at home, like clean the house, cook meals, do laundry, as my job. Granted, it was a job that never ended and I felt like I had to justify it to others at times, but I really loved my it.

Now that I am a working mother/wife, I realize how good I had it. Yes, being a stay-at-home mom had its challenges. It wasn’t always fun and easy and I didn’t get to sit around eating popcorn and watching movies all day. However, now I never get to sit down. Gone are the days of sitting down to watch TV after the kids have gone to bed. There is always clothes to be washed, a kitchen that needs cleaning, a grocery list to make out, bathrooms to be cleaned, floors to be swept…you get the idea.

So the conclusion I have come to is this: Working moms have it harder on the larger scale than stay-at-home moms. I am not taking anything away from those who stay-at-home. To be quite honest, I wish I was still there. But having to work 40 hours and then come home and do all the things I was doing before I was working 40 hours is very trying. Luckily I have a husband who appreciates this fact and does his part.

I now realize why my mom had us doing chores by the time we turned 5.

Passed Down With Love

April 4, 2012August 4, 2014 / MacKenzie / Leave a comment

This is a story of love, fun…and dough.

It begins many, many years ago as my mother, red-headed and freckle faced, stood in her grandmother’s kitchen kneading biscuit dough in a dough bowl that had been carved out from a log and sanded down to a smooth surface, her hands, small and smooth, working alongside her grandmother’s hands, wrinkled and worn with age. She learned how to bake without measuring. She learned how to be patient as she wanted for the biscuits to bake. She felt her grandmother’s love in a small kitchen over a hot oven.

Fast forward about 25 years later to a cozy kitchen in rural Mississippi and you will see me, a blonde haired little girl, who purposefully woke up early to beat my siblings to the kitchen so I could be the one to help make breakfast that morning, and my mother, tall, slender, and still red-headed. Racing to and fro in the kitchen, I eagerly help gather ingredients for the biscuits.

My mother measures out the flour and hands me the measuring cup to dump the flour into a bowl. Next comes the shortening. Mother explains, “We don’t want too much shortening – it will make your biscuits crumbly,” as we scoop it out of the blue Crisco can. After cutting the shortening into the flour, we pour in the milk and stir it all together. Next, came my favorite part, kneading and cutting out the biscuits. I sprinkle flour on the red topped laminate table and mother scraped the dough out of the bowl and we would begin to knead until the dough was a smooth, round ball. We’d pat out the dough with our hands and begin cutting out the biscuits with a mason jar ring, making the perfect sized biscuit. On to the large flat cast iron pan they would go and into the oven. For 20 minutes the house would fill with the smell of raw dough turning into flaky, light, slightly golden brown biscuits.Standing in a flour dusted kitchen with doughy fingers my mother taught me so much more than how to make a delicious biscuit.

She taught me love, tenderness, patience. She taught me to spend time with my children, sharing with them simple things that in later years will mean so much. She taught me to see the beauty and joy in sharing those simple things.

Fast forward 20 years later to a different, but still cozy, kitchen in Winston-Salem, NC and you will see me and a curly red-headed two year girl standing over a bowl of dough, the same way her grandmother and I did. Look closely and you’ll see love being kneaded into those biscuits…look closer and you’ll see a little girl’s bright blue eyes shining with delight and glee as she steals biscuit dough to eat!

Catching Stars

March 15, 2012 / MacKenzie / Leave a comment

I have not had time to blog about my new job at Forsyth Technical Community College. I am a secretary for the Community and Economic Development program. We do so much in this program that it is impossible to write it all down. In a nutshell, we offer everything from flower arrangement to gaining employability skills. Name it, we got it.

But this post is not to tell you about my job, but to brag on this school. Especially in my department, we are helping people gain new skills that will help them gain the knowledge they need to find a job. I am really proud of that.

But yesterday I witnessed something that made me so very proud to say I work at Forsyth Tech. We had our professional development meeting yesterday, which means all 500 and something of the full time faculty were present. Towards the end of our morning meeting the Star Catchers performed.

The Star Catchers are a group of students who are part of the compensatory education program, which is a program designed to help mentally disabled people gain skills to become as independent as possible.

This group has performed for many groups that range in size from 80 to the thousands. As I watched them sing and sign “You Raise Me Up” I thought about the courage it takes anyone to stand in front of people. I also was extremely proud that I work for an institution that has not forgotten people that society so quickly dismisses and casts aside.

However, the lingering thought I had was, “Has anyone told them about the God that created them and loves them?” We are teaching them how to buy groceries, do laundry, clean house, but do they have anyone in their lives teaching them about the love of Christ?

What is THAT????

February 29, 2012August 4, 2014 / MacKenzie / Leave a comment

Is it hail? A tiny pice of cottonball? A kernel of white corn, perhaps? You would be wrong on all counts. What it is, is a piece of styrofoam Paul and I had to extract from Lily’s nose yesterday afternoon with the pictured tweezers. I have to sterilize my tweezers now. I have seriously seen hail smaller than this thing.
The minor surgery which took place on the bathroom counter was anything but pleasant. Picture if you will: Lily, lying on the counter screaming like she’s a soldier in Gone With The Wind and the doctor is about to amputate her leg with no anestheia. Paul, holding Lily’s arms down and trying to hold her head still with his forearms. Me, tweezers in hand trying to pull a piece of styrofoam out of Lily’s nose without pushing it further up her nasal passage or grab a piece of nose hair and pull it out accidently.