First Family Visit!

Taken by Jonathan Stanton in front of the Chicago Bean :)

Jonathan and Christy Stanton (Caleb's brother and his wife) came to visit us this last weekend to celebrate their one year anniversary. As you might guess, Caleb and I were pretty excited to have family come visit us in the booming metropolis of Elkhart, Indiana. We got to tour them around Elkhart, show them Lifeline, take them to Das Essenhaus to see Amish people, and explore Chicago a bit. On Sunday, we drove into Chicago and just had to have Chicago-style deep dish pizza. We even found a place that had gluten-free crust for me! We went up 103 floors to see the top of the former Sears/now Willis Tower and stood on a see-through ledge. We saw the Bean, which is shown in the picture above. That is our reflection off the Bean. 

For me, I think what meant the most about the Stantons visiting the Stantons was that someone came and got to see even just a taste of what we do here in Elkhart. What do we do here? We invest in God's kingdom. We love on kids who need love and attention. In clubs this year, we taught elementary kids about the Ten Commandments, the Armor of God, and soon the life of Jesus. Most of these wonderful, mostly crazy, children do not know Jesus personally. We try to communicate the love of Jesus and the saving grace of the gospel to seven year olds in the best way we can. Caleb visits Mary Beck Elementary during lunch hours and gets to know our Lifeline members and their friends, showing them that our love for them extends past the two hours we see them on Mondays. Caleb coaches Lifeline's basketball team and is building relationships with our high school guys, while I volunteer with Jr./Sr. High Girl's club and invest in girls who need to hear that we love them no matter what, and Jesus loves them even more than that. To be 100% invested in these kids lives here in Elkhart is an amazing blessing. 

So a huge thank you to Jonathan and Christy for coming out to see us :) We love you both. And as a shameless plug, read our previous blog entry and watch the video that we posted. Kyle Peterson did a fantastic job giving a face to Lifeline Youth For Christ :)