"Three minutes"

This past weekend myself, Hannah and Leah participated in the 30 hour famine event at Cornerstone Church. The Event is an international movement to fight hunger and poverty around the world. The focused is on bringing awareness to World hunger and raise funds towards World Vision to save lives of children and adults. During our church service on Sunday they had fifty candles representing 50 children. Every three seconds there is a child that dies of hunger around the globe. I was moved into tears as I watched the flames being extinguished in short three minutes.

During this event we fasted from food and participated in several service projects around our community. The girls and I took part in the food drive walking door to door collecting food ( about 2500 pounds ) and clothing for PRISM a local food shelf located in Golden Valley. Other groups baked items to sell at the bake sale and the proceeds went to World Vision. Some worked on houses in Minneapolis through Urban Home Works. The last group went to serve at the Marie Sanvick center.The event had a huge impact on myself and the girls. It was a great reminder that we are truly blessed living in America with food, housing and medical help.

If you would like to donate to World Vision here are some simple ways:

• $30 can help feed and care for a child for a month
• $180 can help feed and care for a child for six months
• $360 can help feed and care for a child for a year

All you need to do is go to www.30hourfamine.org or call 1800-732-6463 and make your donations today!

Have a blessed Thanksgiving Holiday,

Kim Rudd

" Striving versus Striding with God"

Sunny November Monday.........

I feel very tired from the whirlwind of activities over the weekend. We had over 100 women attend the Espresso Yourself event that I was in charge of at our church. The brunch, comedy/drama show and crafts were enjoyed by many women and children. I began to panic early Saturday morning that I would not have enough food to serve so I decided last minute to whip up one hundred scones for the event. Why do I do these things?

Turns out we had plenty of food without the added scones ( although they were a big hit ). So many times I make more effort than is needed. I could have slept in and spent more time in prayer with God, but instead I was busy doing. It is so much easier for me to " do " than to "be". Don't get me wrong, I believe God desires us to serve and " do", but there are times when I know that I should just rest and learn how to " be".

One of the ladies from the show said a quote that stuck with me, " stop striving with God and start striding with God". So often I try to please God and others by what I do when all along I could be resting in His unconditional love.

My to do list is very long today, but I am going to give that list to God and start striding with him. He will show me what is most important and what can wait.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

O.k. So it took me awhile to get in the groove of writing on this blog. Better late than never. I am taking up the endeavor of writing a book so I thought it would be good practice to start writing weekly blog updates about the Rudd families whereabouts. Since is has been a long while I will fill you in a bit.

Today was a lazy Sunday afternoon. The girls and I enjoyed a nice walk through the woods and played at a nearby park in the wonderful 60 degree temps. We came back home and baked some pumpkin apple bread and home made apple sauce. After dinner the family enjoyed some fun board games. This is what Sundays are for!

Hannah
is 11 years old and just finished her first quarter at Plymouth junior high school. Yikes! Junior high. Can you all remember your junior high experiences. Thank goodness it has been a positive experience for Hannah. The best part is that she can sleep in later than most students who take the bus since she is in walking distance. Hannah still continues three classes in Spanish immersion in Social studies, Science and Spanish reading. She is very grateful that math is now in the English language. One of her favorite classes is English writing. She is quite the writer with a mind full of imagination and lots of words ( us women have many of them). Hannah also enjoyed traveling summer and fall soccer where she enjoys playing the midfield position. She is looking forward to the snow falling so she can start getting her skiing kilometers in at Minnesota Youth Ski League. Next year she will start skiing at Armstrong high school. How did my baby grow up so fast! She is also starting to take on lots of babysitting jobs around the neighborhood.

Leah ....

Is eight going on eighteen and is currently in the third grade at Spanish immersion school. Almost every morning she comes out with some new fashion statement either by fixing her hair or clothes in a unique "Leah style". Both girls enjoy taking piano and recently played at a nursing home dressed in their Halloween costumes. Leah had the privilege of having Dad be her head soccer coach this past summer and fall. The team has lots of aggressive little girls and they were quite successful. Mom is going to take over coaching in the spring. Leah is very social and loves to talk a lot. One of my recent favorite Leah sayings came when we were departing from Animal Kingdom in Disney World when she stated, " Get me out of this character world". Craig and I just looked at each other and laughed. The trip to Florida was a Christmas present from Craig's parents. We went with his parents and sisters family for a week to Disney and Cocoa beach. It was a fabulous week, especially surfing on the waves and running on the beach at low tide.

Craig ......
Is 39 going on 40! One of Craig's midlife crisis distractions was to finish a 120 mile canoe race across Quetico National Park in two days this past August. He and his race partner Bill Dossett finished 5th place overall! It has been a difficult year in the financial planning business, but things are finally looking more upbeat the last few months. As a family we really tried to stop spending money on anything that was not a need. It is amazing how much we were spending on " wants" versus " needs". Craig just came back from dear hunting this past weekend with his Dad and brother-in-law Kurt. Our freezers will be filled again with yummy venison meat!

Kim...
I hung out with the girls over the summer months and enjoyed swimming at the pool, bike rides and lots of fun excursions. Leah and Hannah both had days to pick what they wanted to do. Hannah picked to ride her bike down town and take the light rail transit to the mall of America. We shopped and went on some rides and had a great time. Leah chose the Minnesota State Fair. I think we ate nearly twenty different food items between the three of us. Some memorable vacation memories were the Cornerstone church bike trip up in Alexandria, BWCA trip with Papa out of East Bear Skin Lake, camping trip to Cass lake for the Chippewa Triathlon and Bemidji visiting our old stomping grounds at BSU. I have been enjoying my new coaching job every Wednesday evening through the Loppet Ski club. We have about 40 adults of all ages who come for weekly training and technique workouts. I am still working as Women's ministry director at Cornerstone where I am privileged to work with a great staff and minister to wonderful women.