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T h e   S a c r e d   R o m a n c e

"You've got to read this book," saidJan Meyers and Annette our good friend, Jan as we were squeezing in conversation about 8 years of life's journey (four of hers and four of ours) in a morning.

"I would give you my copy, but..." her voice trailed off as we saw the note her friend had written in it before he died.

"Please don't," I replied, "I'm sure I'll be able to pick one up," which I did as soon as I found it. From then on I kept coming in touch with people who talked about how much this book had meant to them. So when Tim and I were going to spend a few days traveling and relaxing with a friend it wasn't hard for me to choose which book I wanted to take along to read.

The Sacred RomanceA few times in my life I have read a book which helped me understand life better, by giving me terms or categories though which to analyze and understand my experiences and thoughts. The Sacred Romance by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge is such a book. It addresses questions like the following: What is this emptiness and restlessness I feel, sometimes long years into my Christian journey? Why do I let activity for God replace my communion with him? What do the deepest dreams and fears of my heart have to do with my spiritual journey? What am I to do with the emotional wounds and tragedies of life?

In college, while reading the somewhat obscure book by C.S. Lewis, "The Pilgrim's Regress," I first encountered the description, which resonated in me, of an experience of intense longing, a "stab of joy", which he later calls "Sehnsucht;" a "sunbeam" which leads your mind back up to the sun [God.] This longing, this joy, is what the authors describe as part of God's wooing of His Beloved:

Overlooking Valle de Bravo, MexicoThe Sacred Romance calls to us every moment of our lives. It whispers to us on the wind, invites us through the laughter of good friends, reaches out to us through the touch of someone we love. We've heard it in our favorite music, sensed it at the birth of our first child, been drawn to it while watching the shimmer of a sunset on the ocean. It is even present in times of great personal suffering--the illness of a child, the loss of a marriage, the death of a friend. Something calls to us through experiences like these and rouses an inconsolable longing deep within our heart, waking in us a yearning for intimacy, beauty, and adventure.

This longing is the most powerful part of any human personality. It fuels our search for meaning, for wholeness, for a sense of being truly alive. However we describe this deep desire, it is the most important thing about us, our heart of hearts, the passion of our life. And the voice that calls to us in this place is none other than the voice of God.

My hope is that this will whet your appetite to dive into "The Sacred Romance" so that "with an awakened heart, we can turn and face the road ahead."

With Lots of Love.... Annette


--------------- Prayer Requests ---------------

· We asked Latin American youth leaders how we could help them, their answer was: ministry resources and training

Over the last 2+ years we've development and disseminated hundreds of pages of resources. Now our focus will now turn to training. During these next few months Annette and I and our friends will be producing interactive youth ministry training courses for the tens of thousands of youth leaders across the Spanish speaking world. Please pray that God will help us to create practical, strategic courses that will aid the local church in reaching the youth of their community with the life changing truths of the Bible and the love of Christ.

· Pray for our web site team:

please pray for them
Benjamin Leon, Daniel Medina, Veronica Dominguez, Dora Flores, Julio Bautista, J.C. Flores, Jorge Bernaldez, and Carlos Olivares, Xavier Cabezas, Greg Lusk, and Sarah Montgomery that they would know how important the work they are doing is and that Annette and I would be able to serve them well as guides and facilitators.

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