What a Day!

Days don't get much better than today. This morning, we had a retreat for the graduate fellowship groups at Emory, Tech, and (boooo) Georgia. Pete Bocchino was a fantastic, engaging, humble speaker who actually said "Apologetics is all about relationships." Sadly, you don't often hear that out of many of the spooky-brilliant minds that study the Bible and come up with amazing insight. At the end of his session, I felt better equipped to share the gospel of Christ with love and humility, as opposed to just gaining a lot of knowledge to throw at people. Good apologetics (silly sounding term, but apparently it's from the original Greek apologia, to defend a position against an attack) is gaining knowledge about God so that we can glorify him by sharing that knowledge in love. So there, rude people. PPPLLLLLBBBBTTTHHH! Take that.

After we left the retreat, we headed up to Taco Mac to watch the game. No, no, make that THE GAME. We beat no. 10/11 Virginia Tech in Blacksburg (scary scary stadium) 38-27. We in the Crane household are still in a little bit of shock. And we also have very sore throats from screaming, hooting & hollering so much. GOOOOOOO JACKETS! Holy poop. I don't know if I'll be able to sleep for a week! What a sweet, sweet victory for so many reasons!

And then we went to a benefit event for Mamelodi Township, South Africa. For just $10 a head, we got to eat ridiculous amounts of pig, sides & peach cobbler. We got to hear some really awesome Gospel/Blues singers. We got to laugh with friends and also be moved to tears by the pictures & stories of the people, and especially the children, of Mamelodi. Sitting next to my laptop are two beautiful soapstone carvings that we bought from African Leadership Development, a fantastic ministry that works to come "alongside and help fan into flame the gifts already there... [to find] 'African solutions for African problems.' " One carving is a little hippo that makes me smile because Kennan picked out the one that is yawning, and you can see its little teeth. The other is a family (mother, father & child) all holding hands. I rejoice that somewhere in Africa the life of a family will be improved because... I got to enjoy myself with friends. How wonderfully ridiculous is that?

Today we got to be educated, humbled, & uplifted; we got to cheer our team to a crazy victory; we got to celebrate with friends and family for a good cause. Today was indeed a glimpse of heaven! :)