AN EXCUSED ABSCENSE

Admit it - we all have wanted to sleep in on Sunday morning every once in a while through our lifetime. In fact some of us during adolescence (and adulthood) have faked being sick a time or two to not have to go to church. I personally like it when the nursery tells you to stay home from church with your sick kids and to bring them back when they get better. Our senior staffer of the week, Emily Lewis, has the ultimate greatest excuse for missing Sunday School that I have yet to hear.


Recalls Emily, "It was in April of 1983 when I was 6 years old. We had stayed home from church because I was sick. As the morning unfolded, my mom shared the gospel with me. I prayed to receive Jesus at that time." The next Sunday Emily returned to church healthier, uncontagious, as well as blood bought, born again, eternally saved and justified. You can't bring your child back much better than that!

Four years before Nicole Spears was born in Greeley, Colorado, Emily was birthed in the same hospital. (We may want to develop a pre-natal recruiting strategy for Memorial Hospital in Greeley.) Unlike Nicole, Emily left Colorful Colorado at the age of 10 for Connecticut where she leaned the grace and charm of New England lifestyle. After graduating from high school in Newtown, home of the Nighthawks and former Olympic great Bruce Jenner, she boomeranged back to Colorado and got as far as Boulder. There at the University of Colorado she received her Business Administration degree with an emphasis in information systems when not attending Campus Crusade meetings and studies. Now we know who runs the Excel sheets for Dave's Fantasy Football Leagues.


Emily joined staff the summer of 1999 and went on Staff STINT to Malaga, Spain from 2000-2001. "One of my best ministry memories was my entire time in Spain and participating in El Camino de Santiago." But like a Grateful Dead groupie from the 60's, she returned back to Boulder and the CU CRU team from 2001-2006 before joining the GPI Regional Office Ops Team for the last 3 years.

Something about the rarefied air and community of Boulder appeals to Emily. "I get a lot of pleasure out of aesthetically pleasing environments; I love the mountains; I enjoy helping others grow in their walks with God; I enjoy meaningful and significant conversation involving spiritual depth. The thing I enjoy most about being on staff is my sweet relationships with other staff ladies. I LOVE to decorate and help others to do so. The thing I least enjoy is packing for conferences/retreats/Projects…I don’t like to pack!"

A ministry lesson God has taught me during the last year: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.–Proverbs 3:5,6
Emily Lewis
GPI Regional Office

I have known these verses since I was a child, but the Lord revealed to me in a new light over this past year the importance of trusting in Him completely even when, especially when, it doesn’t make any sense at all(lean not on your own understanding). He values my faith and complete trust and surrendering my desire to control my circumstances through my own efforts.


You will want to click Emily's profile in the left margin for more interesting things to know about her life, including which Pride and Prejudice and Jane Austen movies to watch. Emily has several long term faith ventures in the works. "I have an outline for a book that I wonder if I’ll ever write; and I’ve considered getting a counseling degree…another who-knows-if-that’ll-happen." But the biggest new venture and blessing came December 2, 2008 when Gracie Joy was born. This delivered Emily from a household of men and boys (Lewis fraternity house) into a real family of faith where kids now outnumber the parents.

And someone may want to give the Lewis kids a heads on one game not to play- hookey from church. I think Mom is loaded for bear on that one!