New Day Rising

It's a new day and I got 6 1/2 hours of sleep last night!
I feel like the mom of new born - slept six hours straight and I feel awesome!
I guess in a way I am, once again, a mom of a new born.  We're starting again.  Rising from the ashes.  New life, new birth, fresh start.  And last night I had a good night sleep, ready for the day!

Yesterday they let us into the building.  It felt like an open casket at a funeral.  Necessary but oh so hard.  You want to look but you can't look too long, and after you look away because you can't take anymore, you turn your head for one more quick peek just make sure it's for real.

Not much remains.
I am struck by how final a fire is.  Things are not just damaged or missing, they are turned to ash.  Not a hint of what it once was.  But out of the ashes we found a few treasures.

The most amazing find was a melted dvd case that was on George's desk.  The Path to the Cross (Ray Vanderlaan), a video series that we were in the midst of using for our Wednesday night gathering.  It was a mangled mess of melted plastic.  George used a knife, pried open the case and there was the dvd - pristine.  No burn marks.  No scratches.
We take this as a clear sign, "Carry on."  
Your ministry is important, carry on.
Wednesday night bible study went on last night - uninterrupted.

Some people have been surprised at how many personal items we had at the Ministry Centre.  I explain it like this, George and my relationship was born in the midst of ministry.  We met during training for campus ministry.  We courted while we were youth pastors and campus ministers.  We lived the first four years of our marriage in residence with college students while George was chaplain and I was coordinator of residence life.  Our personal life and our ministry have been so tangled up you can't separate the two.

Connections grew out of our home.  As Connections grew our house felt smaller.  Until last month our garage and basement were full of gear, books, speakers,  paper products, etc.  We outgrew our house.  In a sense the ministry centre became our "guest house" or our "second home". 

Out of the ashes we pulled The Mystery of Marriage.  Unreadable.  But we found it.  This was the copy that we shared when we were engaged.  We wrote notes to each other in it.  We were poor campus ministers so we passed our one copy back and forth as we read chapters.  Our ideas of marriage were formed and founded by the words of that book.  Every wedding George officiates he gives a copy of that book.  First on my list of new books to buy, The Mystery of Marriage.  Maybe this time we can afford two copies!  

Again the message, carry on. Your marriage is important, carry on.

In the mess of ashes we found family history.  The book of memorial addresses given in Congress in memory of George's grandfather, John P. Saylor.  George thinks there's another copy of this book floating around the house.  We'll find it.  But one more time the message, carry on.  Your family is important, carry on.  

Carry on we will.

I am rested.  I have been fed physically and spiritually by our friends, family and fellow Christians.  I have renewed hope.
It is a new day, and out of the ashes WE RISE!