Heart 2 Heart

Yesterday, we surprised our PCL girls with some special love on Valentine's Day!    Our hope is that these precious young ladies would stay connected to CGgirls and this is just one way to remind them they are loved!

Each bag was filled with some valentine goodness for each PCL girl!   Big Pink High FIVES go out to the CGgirls who donated the items!   We think the staff at GirlsTown is pretty special too, the tray of heart cookies went to them!

Each PCL girl got a special note to remind them how much they are loved.

We love what God is doing in and through CGgirls.    Don't you??!!

That's a wrap!

The last present was wrapped today for Project Crazy Love.

CGgirls donated 1,120 gifts.   Amazed?  Speechless?  Touched?  Yep...us too!

I can't tell you how many times I've sat and looked at all of these wrapped gifts thinking... only God.   I've said it before and I think the statement is still true:

Project Crazy Love has unleashed a powerful move of generosity that could only be authored by God.

As I was trying to quiet my mind last night so sleep would come -- this reality hit me:

We've said from the beginning we wanted these 14 girls to be so overwhelmed by the goodness of God that when they are 60 years old they would still be talking about Project Crazy Love.  "There was a group of women who didn't know me but they loved God and blew my mind for Christmas when I was a teenager."  Can you picture it?

The reality hit me last night that its going to be US talking about this decades from now.  How we watched a group of women who loved God, gather in unity and strength with a giving spirit.  And how we watched God move on behalf of the broken hearted,  lost  and forgotten.

Girls, it's us that have been marked by this.  It's us.   I haven't talked to one person who has been involved with PCL who hasn't been deeply moved by the generous spirit in CGgirls.

Two more sleeps!  :)

CaSandra Maynard, CG Photographer,  wraps gift number 1, 120.    The final gift for Project Crazy Love 2011.

It's beginning to look alot like...

This will be at each place setting for Project Crazy Love!

It's starting to come together...

The "Wonder"

Girls, I hope this doesn't ever get old.

The outpouring of generosity towards these young ladies in fostercare that we are adopting for Christmas has really blown us away.

I really hope we don't ever lose the wonder of seeing the activity of God move in and through CG Girls.

won·der : to be filled with admiration, amazement, or awe; marvel

Some of our Project Crazy Love stories that have added to the wonder:

• CGGirl's coworker made scarves for all of the PCL girls and her husband decided they needed gloves too and bought 14!


• CGGirl decided we shouldn't have to buy anymore shirtboxes and got Kohls in Canton to donate 100 of them.


• When our CGGirl shopping for hoodies at Old Navy with our donated giftcards could only get 12 of them, her Mom stepped in and purchased two more to make it a beautiful 14!


• Our gift total so far: 1,004.

I once read this quote and I've never forgotten it, "Mercy saves us but grace throws the party" --  and in a few weeks we are going to throw an amazing party for 14 young women.

14 young women who have no idea:

• They have been planned for and thought about for 17 months.


• We teared up when we finally got their first names.


• They have captivated the generous hearts of women all over Metro Detroit.


• Their names are going before the Creator of all life in prayers daily.Aren't you so glad you are a part of a movement of women who are taking God's love from the pews to the pavement?

Me, too!

PS - There is still time to contribute to this outpouring of love...contact  Tami (at) Connectionchurch (dot) info or leave a comment below!   We would like to get all fourteen girls pedicures or manicures and are collecting toward making that happen!

CG Girls are generous.

Yes.  Yes, you are!

In the last 24 hrs alone,  CG Girls donated to Project Crazy Love:

•  Bunch (and by bunch I mean a WHOLE LOT!) of wrapping paper, boxes and scotch tape!


•  Lipgloss, Kohls, Target, and McDonald's gift cards!


•  Money!

I just opened a note with a Target gift card in it from a dear CG Girl whose husband is out of work,  they are living with her parents and they just had a baby!    Is that not one of the most tender reflections of  God's love through giving that you've seen in a while?  We are blown away by God's provision for these young women in foster care.   God is stirring us up!

Roll Call! PS -- are you flickin' your B.I.C.? :)

CG Girls,  can you believe its been a week since CG Girls gathered together from these churches:

1. Milan Free Methodist


2. Rivers of Living Water


3. Connection Church


4. Metro South Church


5. Northridge Church


6. Grace Christian


7. Beacon Baptist - Taylor


8. St. Luke


9. Church of Jesus Christ


10. Monroe Vineyard


11. Calvary Baptist


12. EMU


13. Highland Park Baptist


14. Life Church - Canton


15. Calvary Baptist Church


16. Church of The King


17. St. Thomas A' Beckett


18. St. Francis


19. Dearborn Free Methodist Church


20. Faith Baptist


21. Harvest Bible Chapel


22. Elevate - Monroe


23. Huntington Woods Lutheran Church


24. SS Simon & St. Jude Westland


25. Bethany Bible Church


26. Dearborn Presbyterian


27. Neuburgh UMC


28. Hartford Church


29. Merriman Rd Baptist


30. Wyandotte Family Church

We said it that night and we'll say it again here...

Anyone who says unity in the body of Christ does not exist has not been to a CG event!   This is amazing...30 churches represented.    Look what God is doing!

Known, Loved, Invited...

Loving those far from God is easier when we remember that all of us have been far from God at some point.

God is a great Father.

Crazy in love with His creation.  It's often called His Unfailing Love in the Word.

This all-knowing God, the One who is captivated with each one of us...knows.

Let that set in today...chicks, we are known.

He loves us with the full knowledge of exactly who we are.

That is the love story He has invited us into...each one of us.

Who of us doesn't love a great love story?

Will you consider helping 14 girls who are far from God see that they are known, loved and invited

into the greatest love story ever?

Project Crazy Love:  Friday, October 21st 7pm

Connection Church
3855 Sheldon Rd.
Canton, MI 48188

Ok, Ok...I'm in!  Now what?

1. Bring your unwrapped
gifts to the event on Friday, Oct. 21st.  If you weren't at the last
event and didn't get a chance to pull a gift tag from the stinkin' cute
pink Christmas Tree then please feel free to bring a gift card (you
choose the $$$) from one of these stores:  Meijer, Walmart, Kohls, Old
Navy or Target.

 2. Are you like me and use bags at Christmas instead of wrapping paper?  Well
if you are and have been wondering what to do with all of the half
used Christmas wrap in your closets...we have a solution!  Please bring
it to the event on Friday, October 21st!  We'll hand it off to the
Project Crazy Love gift wrap team.

That's a 10 baby!

Hey CG Girls...we are on countdown!  In just ten days (Friday, October 21^st at 7pm) women from over 30 churches in the Metro Detroit Area will gather together for a Girl’s Night with a God Focus.   Yep, CG is happening!

New to CG?  Read our backstory!

Speaking of ten...this CG will be our TENTH event!  Is God amazing or what?!

To kick the excitement up a notch…we’re going all out on our giveaways!

TEN!  Yes...we'll be giving away TEN fantastic items that evening.

uh huh...drumroll please...

Pink Luggage Set

Black Luggage Set

 Bath & Body Works Hot Pink Box Gift Set

Surprise Gift Basket full of goodies

Photography Gift Certificate with CaSandra Maynard Photography

 Digital Camera

Gift Basket with Beth Moore Book, Coffee Mug and Coffee

Ring from Showroom of Elegance Jewelry

Pumpkin Candle Holder with Tea Lights

 Pink Bag from "31"

 Pretty sweet, huh?

Call, text, FB your girlfriends and invite them out to CG on October 21st!  Ask them to be a part of something bigger than themselves.   We're taking God's love from the pews to the pavement.

Come with?

Roll Call!

Big SHOUT out to the CG girls from 25 different churches that attended Friday Night's commonground!

Kingdom minded chicks rock! 

 1. Connection Church
2. NorthRidge Church
3. Calvary Missionary Livonia
4. Trinity
5. Dearborn Free Methodist
6. St. Marys
7. SouthPoint Church
8. Metro South Church
9. Rivers of Living Water
10. St. Thomas A'Beckett
11. Elevate in Monroe
12. Calvary Baptist Church
13. 1st Baptist of Canton
14. St. Michael's Wayne
15. Huntington Woods Lutheran Church
16. Phoenix Metro Community Church
17. Newburg UMC
18. AA Nazerene
19. Brightmoore Community Church
20. Church of Jesus Christ
21. Ypsilanti Assembly of God
22. Vineyard of Ann Arbor
23. University Lutheran Church
24. Catholic Fellowship
25. His House Christian Fellowship

CommonGround: Pregame

It's the day before CG, Girls!!!   The excitement is starting to build.

The exciting part is watching to see what will God do this time.  He is limitless!

We're doing our part....and that includes ...



Can you stand it?????????   :)

Tomorrow morning over 1000 gift tags will be on this pink beauty as we get the afterparty room together for quite a celebration!

Check out what the CG Girls over at Rivers of Living Water did this past week?   The kids at Camp Kesem are off to a great start!

Loved & Known by God? Yeah, thats some crazy love!

Good Monday Morning, Girls!

I can imagine that some of you are heading into work this morning,  or maybe figuring out what to do with your imalreadyboredwithsummerchild,   or maybe....you are planning to get your summer vacation on the books very soon!   Whatever you find your mind trying to handle this Monday morning I hope you take a few minutes to remember you are loved and known.  Loved and known by the most amazing God...the One who is the creator of all life.    Sometimes I ponder that thought and it absolutely leaves me speechless.   The Creator of all life knows me.   Like...really, really knows me.

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother's womb.
I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I'd even lived one day.  MSG (Psalm 139:13-16)

Isn't the reality of that staggering?

Perhaps that's why Project Crazy Love is something that is never far from my mind these days.   As I sit in my office fingers pounding on this keyboard, I'm well aware that 14 girls just a few miles from here are loved and known by the same God who loves and knows me.   God loves us equally.    He knows their sin,  He knows my sin,  He knows your sin. 

Let's not kid ourselves, there is always full disclosure with God. 

And still....He loves.  He chooses to love us.   And He waits.  He waits for us to want to know Him.

Patiently, He waits for us.

We have an opportunity with our (can you believe it 10th CG!) October 21st event to adopt these 14 young women for Christmas.    We'll be bringing unwrapped gifts that evening to be given to them at a special surprise luncheon in December.

It all starts this Friday night at CG.  At the after party you'll find a 6ft pink Christmas Tree with close to 1000 gift tags on it.   Pick one, ten or twenty and bring those gifts back to the October event.   Big Shout out to the CG girls at Metro South and Rivers of Living Water Church - they are each taking the responsibility to get all the gifts for two of the girls!

Project Crazy Love is starting....are you ready?

July 15, 2011 7pm: Are you coming?

CG Girls -- Check this out!!!

Are you coming to the Friday, July 15th event?

One of our CG girls,  Katy Reitz (aka 'lilalicesews), has created some amazing items for one of our giveaways for that event!

In this special giveaway:  I'm a CG Girl Tote Bag, Pillowcase w/Personality, Hair Pin, Day in Paris Make Up Bag, Day in Paris Coin Purse,  Housewife Plastic Bag Dispenser, Pink Flower Lanyard, Pink Flower Keyring Wristlet.

Phew....I need to take a sip of coffee after typing all that!

Who are you bringing to the next CG? 

CG Girls in the workplace!

Jennifer Strickland, a CG girl sent me this pic of her desk at work -- she is bringing the pink!   Way to go, Jen!

This is no ordinary life...

Sometimes we can go about our day and believe that we are just ordinary people.

Today was one of those days until I picked up the phone a few minutes ago.

On the other end?   A very nervous young woman who said,  "Two women came into where I work the other night and said if I call them they could help me."

The women?  The girls from My Sister Song!  Remember our January outreach?

Girls, we do not live ordinary lives.

Because God is an extraordinary God.

Thank you, God for reminding me...You still fight for those in darkness.

Exodus 14:14  The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still.

 

   

Camp Kesem: Helping kids who just need to be kids!

Hi CG Girls!

At our July 15th event the outreach spotlight will be on Camp Kesem.   If you weren't at the last event you missed this video that explains a bit about the kid experience at the camp.   We wanted to post it today so you could see it!



 

 

Camp Kesem: Taking God's love from the pews to the pavement!

From the pews to the pavement...

If you hang around CG Girls you'll hear this quite often, " We want to take God's love from the pews to the pavement."  I received two contacts this week that made me smile big and think just that!

We heard from Patricia from Penrickton Center for Blind Children... she writes...

Please accept my heartfelt appreciation for your kind donations of baby wipes, carnation instant cereal and hot cereal  to our center.  Your gift represents a vote of confidence in the programs and services we provide to children who are legally blind with at least one additional disability.

Springtime always seems to be a time for optimism for all of us here at Penrickton Center.  From an infectious smile to the twinkle in their eyes, we know that we have made a difference in helping our children overcome the obstacles that they face each day.  Every day our children seize life for all of its different joys and wonders.

Again, I want to thank you for helping our children thrive and live life to the fullest.   Thank you for the wonderful evening and for all you have done for our children!

Isn't that the coolest?    And remember My Sister Song?  The ministry we helped in January?    Women who attended that event, contacted MSS to come to their church and do training to start an outreach to dancers there.  Isn't that awesome?!!

Girls, God is using our events to spread His love from the pews to the pavement.

Lets continue to trust Him for Big Things ... not just probable things ...but GOD SIZE HUGE THINGS!

Shine brightly this week....where ever God has you!

Tami

April Event: Recap!

A CG girl just twittered out we have snow coming.  Really?

As much as I love April in Michigan...I love CG girls more!!   In case you missed what happened at our last event a few weeks ago...and really...why did you miss?   Please mark this down: Friday, July 15th 7pm - commonground!!

Once again, God worked through CG Girls who brought over 4000 items for Penrickton Center for Blind Children!  AMAZINGLY generous, girls!  Seriously.  God looks so good on you!

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commonground roll call: 32 churches!

Our event on Friday, April 8th was amazing!  I could list 100 different reasons why but I'll start with the first 32...(in no particular order)

1. Bethel Baptist


2. Dearborn Free Methodist


3. Northridge


4. 1st Baptist


5. Connection Church


6. Church of Jesus Christ Belleville


7. Metro South


8. Community Baptist


9. Southpoint CCC


10. Rivers of Living Water


11. His House Christian Fellowship (EMU/UM)


12. Wallace Street Full Gospel


13. First Assembly of God Chelsea


14. St.Mary's Wayne


15. South Redford Christian Church


16. Fair Haven Baptist


17. Life Church


18. Kensington


19. Vineyard


20. Metropolitian Tabernacle


21. Mosiac


22. Westland Shekinah Glory Ministries


23. STAB  Catholic Canton


24. Calvary Baptist Church


25. Huron Hills


26. United Lutheran Church


27. Plymouth Nazerene


28. St. Michael Livonia


29. Parkside Church of Christ


30. Sturgis Baptist


31. Woodland


32. NW Church of Christ - Detroit

Our most diverse crowd yet,  close to 200 women ages 13- 75 -- gathered together to worship the One, True, Living God!

CG girls are spreading the word -- what I loved most is we had 5 women who aren't plugged into a local church.  They are trying to find their spot just like all of us at one time.    We hope CG will be a safe place for women to come, get involved with taking God's love from the pews to the pavement and meet some fantastic women.

Were you at CG?

CG pregame.

Hi.  It's me again...and yes, I have coffee.  ;)

We're in CG pregame mode and let me tell you ... its never any different.   We are filled with an anxiousness of expectation of what God might choose to do in and through CG girls tomorrow night.

And please don't ever doubt this:  we all have a keen awareness of the responsibility God has entrusted us with -- I can honestly tell you...this doesn't leave my mind...like ever.

The CG worship team practiced the other night and I was able to snap some pics -- they are ready! As I tap this keyboard a CG girl is setting up the candles in the auditorium.  In about 3 hrs men will be coming to move chairs and we'll begin transforming the after party room for you.  Tomorrow morning,  CG girls will be gathering to finish set up and get everything "just so"...

Do you feel prepared for?  I hope so.

Our hearts purpose is to serve God through serving you.   We hope it shows.

See you tomorrow night?  7pm?  Hmmmm ?

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