If you are looking for all your favorite posts from the past, you’ll find them here! We’ve decided on a simple title: the CTR Blog. It may not be the most creative name, but it communicates exactly what you’ll find on this new site.

And with this launch of the CTR Blog, we’re renewing our commitment to come together as one Body of believers to share what God is doing in the lives of people everywhere.

Head on over and tell us what you think!

The Fox Valley is selected as one of 50 such outreach events that Convoy puts on each year across the U.S. Each outreach gives hope by providing free groceries, health and dental screenings, free haircuts, games and activities for children of all ages.

10 Fun Facts about Convoy of Hope Fox Cities:

• Convoy of Hope rolls into town Saturday, August 14 from 10 a.m. until groceries run out

• The location for the one-day event will be announced within a few days.

• This event will be the largest outreach to ever happen in the Fox Cities.

• Booths will be set up so that visitors can establish valuable connections through job fairs, churches, government agencies, and community service organizations.

• Sponsors and partners include 50-100 local businesses

• Number of volunteers needed to pull off this event: 1,000

• Amount of free groceries to be distributed: 35,000 lbs

• Other free services include:  health screenings, haircuts, shoes and school supplies, family photos

• Big attractions: Job fair, kid’s carnival and a free cookout with live entertainment.

• Number of low-income people served: About 5,000.

• Number of Fox Valley residents living below the poverty level: 21,600 (the 2006 federal poverty level for a family of four was $19,350.)

• Number of households just above the poverty level considered to be the “working poor:” 38,000.

• Federal housing programs administered by the three Fox Cities Housing Authorities have lengthy waiting lists. In Appleton, the estimated wait between application and receipt of a rental subsidy is five years.

• The three counties in the Fox Cities area provided almost 220,000 partially subsidized or free meals to low-income or homebound residents in 2005.

• The number of food stamp recipients in the Fox Cities area grew 95 percent between 2001 and the end of 2005. In 2005, more than 13,000 people received food stamps.

(Statistics from Fox Cities Project Promise Poverty Coalition)

Not an easy topic to teach or grasp hold of, but keynote speaker Jill Briscoe did a fantastic job in her unique way of weaving stories and word pictures together to bring the message home.

The weekend was rainy and windy, but inside the Osthoff Resort many new friendships were brightening the resort. Many of the attendees were from Christ The Rock but a significant number of people came from other churches or with their mothers or their daughters.  On Saturday, six women got baptized in the hotel pool!

Thanks and kudos to the 16-member planning team, the dozens of behind-the-scene folks, the workshop speakers and the women on the prayer team (who worked for a year to pray for this event before it even happened!)

Lots of mothers and daughters came together –all ages. Jill Briscoe taught on the Holy Spirit.

Thanks also to Stacy Lenz for taking photos! Here are just a few:

The morning of Sunday August 15 we will begin the day of fun with one huge church service at the Timber Rattlers Stadium. (No Saturday services that weekend!)  Then it’s off to the parking lot for tailgating and mingling. Bring your frisbee!

At 1 p.m. we’ll head back to the bleachers for an afternoon of baseball and fun with Fang, the T-Rats’ mascott. Tickets for the game will be available for purchase in the Lobby soon, so watch for announcements and get ready to party!

Hearts Full of Tears is a show about hope in the face of tragedy—and it’s already touching the community.  Last Tuesday the cast had a booth at an event in Clintonville on stopping crime & violence. More than 300 people came to hear stories of how peoples’ lives have been affected by crime and violence and to take part in a candle-lighting memorial.  Many of those people – victim’s families, law enforcement, teachers, government leaders and victim’s advocates – talked with the cast about how much they appreciate & are looking forward to attending a play that could help people deal with their grief by turning to God, who is in control.

Here are some of the photos from that event, and below the gallery is a story cast member Amy Houlihan shared with the audience. It’s a harrowing story about a violent crime that happened in her neighborhood to her own family:

My name is Amy Houlihan and along with my husband and our four children, we have lived in New London for over 18 years.

The Houlihan home was very fortunate in many ways…in that a relatively small rock was thrown at our window on January 8th, 2009.

It was about 11:30 on a Wednesday evening when our story began. We have always had an open door policy, and encouraged our kids to share our home with their friends, and I never in a million years suspected that this would have a downside. Our two sons and four of their friends were relaxing by the pool table in our basement during their Christmas break from college. Our garage door was open so they could freely come and go.

Having tried to enter several other residences in the neighborhood unsuccessfully and walking through many yards, a man named Tim saw our open garage door and came in unseen. We had no previous association with him that led to the event, proving that random incidents really do occur. He brought with him a metal pipe and a kitchen butcher knife…and had taken a considerable amount of over the counter cold medicine. He found the stairway to our basement and went down. There, he set a chair for himself on the other side of a set of double doors, and watched our two boys and their friends from this unfinished area. That happens to also be where we keep our guns….and finding those, he traded in his knife and pipe for two rifles and plenty of ammunition.

The people on the other side of the door had no idea they were being watched. At some point, two of their friends went to retrieve something from their car. Tim followed, and when discovered, he held them at gunpoint, threatening them with the loaded weapons. My son, suspicious of why it was taking so long for them to return, went to investigate…and found himself held hostage as well. The three of them were held at gunpoint in our driveway, in the freezing cold, for approximately 30 minutes total. The remaining three people downstairs and three of us upstairs in our bedrooms…had no idea what was happening.

The incident continued to escalate as Tim told them he was going to kill them, and how…and questioned them as to where they were going to go (heaven or hell) once it was over. Those held hostage had every reason to believe that their lives were going to end. My son, who was in his second year of studying criminal justice, was very aware of the danger before them. At the point when Tim was ready to act….as he prepared to smash the back of my son Pat’s head into the cement with the butt-end of one of the rifles…Pat took advantage of the opportunity given, the one time the rifle was not aimed directly at them, and was able to jump up and upset Tim’s balance.

Quick to follow, the other two boys joined in and together, the three were able to subdue their attacker, but not without the guns being involved. Fortunately, one gun still had it’s safety on, and the other was loaded with the wrong sized shell…so neither fired. If that had not been the case, I am convinced one or more people would have taken their last breaths in my driveway, while my husband and I slept unaware.

For some of you….that is the painful truth, someone did die, and on behalf of all us who have not had to go through that, I offer my sincere condolences to you. I can’t explain why my son was allowed to live, and your child was not. I can’t begin to imagine how difficult that day was…and everyday thereafter. For you, the world…the system…the perpetrator…perhaps all of them…have taken part in throwing very large rocks shattering into your window….and since that moment, you have been faced with tasks unimaginable as you try to relate to a world that just doesn’t look the same anymore.

Like I said…our stone was small…and I am very grateful…but as a result of what we experienced, we have changed how we do things. Little things maybe, but different. I no longer assume that we, or our children are safe wherever they are. I sleep less…watch closer…and very much appreciate the times we come together as a family knowing that things could have been much different. Like many of you here tonight, I feel a desire to help make a difference…to make good come from bad. I am directing a play in Appleton this May that will help bring the message of healing from tragic loss to our community…and I encourage you to consider helping us to get that message of understanding and hope to those who need it most. The play is written by Bill Jenkins, and he speaks from experience, having lost his son to a shooting at a fast food restaurant in 1997.

I just want to encourage each of you, each of us, to seek the healing needed to continue on…restoring the broken parts within us, as God allows.

We must learn to listen to the Lord. We must be sensitive to the Spirit. We must be attentive to His Word.

Psalms 119:104 Your precepts give me discernment. Therefore I hate all deceitful actions.

Proverbs 4:1 Listen, children, to a father’s instruction, and pay attention so that you may gain discernment.

Proverbs 8:5 You who are naive, discern wisdom! And you fools, understand discernment!

Let Him guide your every step and the direction of your entire life. Listen for His voice.