Happy Advent!

   Happy 1st Sunday of Advent! We hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends. The Lumen Crew truly enjoyed their time with their family and friends. What a great way to end the Thanksgiving Holiday by kicking off Advent and the new Mass Translation. Speaking of Advent, don't forget it's not too late to order He is Coming to help teach or enhance your child's Advent season. Also our friends at Holy Heroes. We both are incredibly thankful for your support!

   During this Advent season, some of the Lumen Crew has decided to do an Advent fast to prepare for the birth of our Lord and Savior! You can start now and it ends on Christmas Eve. It's some what like Lent and you do not have to give up something either. Maybe add something to what you already do everyday. You could add an extra 10 min a day to your prayer time, dive into scripture, attend daily mass, pray the rosary more often, or visit Jesus in Adoration. A priest had said in his homily,  "what better way to prepare for the birth of Jesus than to spend time in prayer and in the scriptures." Let all of us be encouraged to prepare for the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

   We pray you all have a great week and you all are in our prayers. See you on Friday for some Cuban Coffee and hopefully are mailing will be done and sent out! 

Song of the Week: To help prepare for the Birth: O Come O Come Emmanuel by Shane & Shane

Challenge of the Week: What are you going to do to prepare for the birth of Jesus?

Quote of the Week:  "God walks into your soul with silent step. God comes to you more than you go to Him. Never will his coming be what you expect, and yet never will it disappoint." Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Scripture of the Week: Jesus said to his disciples:"Be watchful! Be alert!
You do not know when the time will come." Matt 13:33

Prayer Intentions for the Week:

1. Our Mailing for our the Final Push Fundraiser. That nothing may come against it.

2. For everyone who is working on Skiff and AJ's Fantastic Voyage

3. For the continue financial and spiritual support for Lumen

Peace and Blessings ~ Lumen Crew 

Happy Day Before Thanksgiving!

  

   Here at the Lumen office we are excited for Turkey day tomorrow! Why? Well of course we are happy to stuff our faces and fill our bellies with delicious food. :)

Food to feed the Guys

Meet Nick and Matt

    Today we were blessed to have 3 volunteers to help with our mailing. Visiting us for the first time to volunteer was Nick and Matt Kuhlman. David, our devoted volunteer was here as well! They were great sports for volunteering their time and Nicol paid them with Cuban Coffee. We weren't sure if Nick and Matt would like it seeing they are not coffee drinkers, BUT it was a success! It was fun having them up here for a little bit. Please keep our mailing in your prayers!

Nick, Matt, & David

    Tomorrow as we all are gathering with family and friends and continuing with family tradition, we have so much to be thankful for in our lives. At Lumen we are thankful for all who read our blogs, all who support us spiritually and/or financially, to have an office to come to, all of our animators and those who are helping us with the project. We pray you all have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving. See you all on Monday! ~Lumen Crew

Working Hard

Notice the Cuban Coffee :)

The Organized Chaos

 

 

 

David Editing the Letter.

Cecilia is Excited!

We are pleased to introduce to you a member of the Altar Gang, Cecilia the music stand!

    Why is Cecilia excited today? Today is her patron saint's feast day! St. Cecilia is the Patron saint of music. For more information on St. Cecilia, you can visit Catholic Fire.

    Our very own Cecilia is a beautifully carved cherry music stand, is the newest member of the Altar Gang. She was once owned by a famous musician and singer. Her days were spent performing for thousands of people in concert halls and opera houses all around the world. She hopes you all are having a great day and are singing praises to our Heavenly Father for all the many blessings you all have received. 

The Well

    How did keeping it simple go this past week?  Today's blog is inspired from Nicol attending the Casting Crowns Come to the Well tour on Thursday November 17,2011. Here are her thoughts...

My brother and I were blessed to receive last minute tickets to see Casting Crowns, The Afters, Sanctus Real, and Lindsay McCaul last Thursday. While we were at the concert, the lead singer from Casting Crowns explained why the tour and their latest album is called Come to the Well.

       

       He said, one day while in prayer he had re-read the story about the Samaritan Woman at the Well(John 4). The Samaritan woman and Jesus were both talking about water, but the type of water was where they were differed. God began to show Mark(the lead singer)  we are all like the Samaritan woman, we go to different "wells" to be "filled up." What are the different wells? It could be where we draw our identity based upon what others think about us or we get "filled up" by our jobs. The list could go on and on. We often turn to these wells to fill a place that was only meant for one "well," Jesus Christ. He is our living water, He is the well that is always overflowing and giving us our identity. When we draw from other people or things we end up dry and searching for more, but when we draw from Jesus we are never empty. It is that simple.

    

It doesn't matter where you are on your faith journey, this is a message we need to be reminded of. Mark is right, it is that simple. When I heard him say the word simple, it made me think of our blog we wrote a week ago and how much the message tied in with our blog. As we head into Thanksgiving, it is easy to get caught up in preparing for the big day and making sure everything is just right. Let us all remember to keep things simple with our prayer life and preparation for Thanksgiving day.

Speaking of Thanksgiving weekend, it is also the start of Advent! Don't forget to visit our good friends at Holy Heroes and The Altar Gang for great ideas to help teach your children or relatives about Advent.

Have a blessed and wonderful Monday! ~Lumen Crew

Song of the Week: Come to the Well by Casting Crowns

 Challenge of the Week:

Getting in the habit of turning to Jesus first and visiting Him at the well.

Prayer Intentions for the Week:

1. Everyone who is traveling will be protected and safe from harm.

2. We will get the mail out finished by Wednesday.

3. Continue financial support for Lumen Entertainment and Skiff and AJ's Fantastic Voyage

Quote of the Week:

"Everyone has a past, but through Jesus we all have a future."

Fun Friday

Brian working on the back of the pledge card.

    The office is always more eventful when we have more people in for the day. Today we were graced with the presence of Mama Shields, Ally, and David. Mama Shields and David are our weekly volunteers and Ally comes up to the office when she is able to. Ally's visit this week comes with perfect timing(God's timing), because we are gearing up to send out our last matching fundraiser for Skiff and AJ's Fantastic Voyage. More details on the Final Push match coming next week!

Brian and Rich editing

Mama Shields!

Ally working hard on labeling.

nom nom nom

    Cuban Coffee Tip for the week... Add evaporated milk. With Brian, Rich, Carlos and David busy working on editing the film, it left Nicol to make the Cuban Coffee. Nicol's preference is to add evaporate milk. Try it some time! As Nicol would say... "nom nom nom."
   Advent is just around the corner! Don't forget to visit our friends at Holy Heroes and the Altar Gang for great tools to help celebrate Advent! Please continue to keep Lumen Entertainment in your prayers. We pray you have a wonderful and blessed weekend. See you on Monday! ~Lumen Crew.
   

Nicol making the Cuban Coffee

Mixing the Spumita with the Coffee

Nicol attempting to poke a hole in the evaporated milk can

Nicol pouring the Cuban Coffee and Carlos trying to poke  hole.

Nicol with all the Cuban Coffee

Evaporated Milk!

Nicol serving her brothers!

Carlos super excited!

Brian's Trip to the Dentist...

Here is to a good Wednesday laugh!

Brian went to the dentist this morning and he came back with his right side feeling funny.

It made us think about this video. Enjoy!

By the way... How is the Challenge coming? Are you keeping things simple?

It's That Simple

    In today's Mass readings the blind man was healed, because he had faith. It was that simple. We were talking about the Gospel and we were amazed how simple it was for the blind man to have sight. We realized how often we over complicate our relationship with God. God is simple, it is us who over complicate things. Our challenge for us here in the office this week, is to pray for the grace to keep things simple.  God may not give us exactly what we think we need, but He will give us exactly what He desires us to have. This week let us purse after the Lord and be open to what He wills to give us! Who is ready to take the challenge with us this week?

Need a teaching tool to help explain Advent? Check this video out :)

  We are 13 days away from Advent! Check out Holy Heroes for a wonderful teaching tool to aid you in teaching your children about this wonderful and Holy time in the Church. Holy Heroes also has available a variety of different ways to teach your children about Jesus, Scripture, and The Catholic Church.

Saint Quote of the Week:

“For this is the nature of God's grace. It has no end; it knows no bounds, and is on the advance at all times" ~ St Chrysostom 

Song of the Week:  

                                             What Joy Psalm 146- By Generation Church

Challenge of the week:

  1. Praying for the grace to keep things simple! 

Nicol and Carlos at Film Camp 2011

Prayer Intentions for the Week:

  1. One of our animators' wife was diagnosed with breast cancer.

  2. Pray for Carlos and Nicol, Today(November 14th) is there birthday.

  3. Continue financial support for Lumen Entertainment and to finish Skiff and AJ's Fantastic Voyage

We pray you have a wonderful and blessed week! We will see you on Friday for some Cuban Coffee tips. ~Lumen Crew

11-11-11

Brian's Computer screen this morning!

   What are the chances of the above picture happening?!?!!?! Well if you missed it, don't fret because you have the chance to see it tonight at 11:11pm :)

   November is a packed month of different feast days and holidays. Today as we all know is Veteran's Day. Have you thanked a Veteran today? We want to encourage everyone to thank and pray for our Veterans! They all need encouragement and our prayers. Aside from it being a great day to reflect on our freedom, it is also St. Martin of Tours Feast day! St. Martin of Tours is the patron saint of soldiers. As we are praying for our veterans and current soldiers, let us ask for the intercession of St. Martin of Tours. 

   This month as you are gearing up for the start of the beautiful Advent Season, visit Advent Adventure. It's a great website with exciting teaching tools to help teach about Jesus and the Church.
We pray you have a great weekend and may it be blessed abundantly. See you on Monday! ~Lumen Crew

Irreplaceable

In honor of Mike Tetlow...

Mike Telow in his classroom at St. Paul's Catholic School Jax Beach, FL

From Nicol's Desk:

         Yesterday we lost a man who is irreplaceable, Mike Tetlow. He was the middle school religion teacher at St. Paul's Catholic School in Jacksonville Beach, FL. What made him an unique brother in Christ and teacher was the fact he was a quadriplegic. He was in a car accident which left him paralyzed. Though he didn't choose his life to be this way, he never stopped living life to the best of his ability. Prior to his accident he taught through out the St. Augustine Dioceses and impacted many lives. Mr. Tetlow has lived longer than most had anticipated, but over the last few years his health started to deteriorate. We all knew that some day he would pass, but no one expected it to be this sudden. 

        Many are extremely sad to see that he has left us, but we all know he is in heaven out of his wheel chair and walking around with Jesus The overwhelming response to his passing, has been nothing but beautiful.  He didn't settle for anything less and he expected that from his students. He did not let his "disability" prevent him from fulfilling the plan God had for him. Many of his students could attest to his love for Jesus and the Church. Reflecting on his life, there were some questions I began to ask myself... Am I fulfilling God's plan in my life? Are my words and actions leading people to Christ? Am I working towards helping to build the Kingdom of God everyday? I asked myself all of this, because this is exactly what Mr. Tetlow did! In my humble opinion, Mr. Tetlow was a saint here on Earth. He wasn't perfect and he would admit that he was a sinner in need of Christ and His Church. That is a saint... A sinner that keeps on trying... Thank you Mr. Tetlow for leading many of your brothers and sisters in Christ back to our Heavenly Father! You will be missed by many.

           During the month of November, let us all take time to reflect on our life and see how much we have to be thankful for. Maybe even let people in your life know how thankful you are for their presence in your life. At Lumen the crew is thankful for all of your spiritual and financial support! You all are in our prayers and please continue to keep us in your prayers.

         

1 Tap

  Have you ever meditated on why Moses tapped the rock twice? This past week here at the office we have been discussing and wondering why Moses tapped the rock twice.  Here is the text:

" Then Raising his hand, Moses struck the rock twice with his staff, and water gushed out in abundance for the community and their livestock to drink. But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Because you were not faithful to me in showing forth my sanctity before the Israelites, you shall not lead this community into the land I will give them." ~Numbers 20:11-12

 We joked around saying  "What was he thinking tapping it twice? Maybe the sun, the desert, and the Israelites whining like babies finally got to him!" Reading the above passage, made us stop and reflect if we are "working too hard" and not relying on God's will for the film and the company. We are very close to having the film finished, but we need the right people to aid in the rest of the project and we are in need of financial assistance. Sometimes when something is not working our way, we think we have to work harder. We do have to work hard, but many times we neglect to stop and ask God "Am I working too hard in the wrong direction? Is this where you want me to put my energy towards?"  Instead of tapping the rock once, we have been trying to break the rock open because we thought the water that we needed was inside. We were losing focus and not having faith that God is going to provide exactly who we need to help finish the film and to obtain the right monetary support.  Paul says In Romans 8:28 "We know that all things work for good for those who love God."

  Are you punching the rock or simply tapping the rock once? This weekend take some time to reflect and ask God if you are working too hard in the wrong direction. Try giving the rock 1 tap and put it God's hands. :) 

Have a great weekend and please continue to keep us in your prayers. 

 God Bless ~Lumen Crew

Here is a new picture of a scene from Skiff and AJ's Fantastic Voyage

Happy All Saints Day!

  From Nicol's Desk:

   Happy All Saints Day! We hope everyone had a great and safe evening(All Hallows Eve) Today is the real reason to celebrate. What a great day to remember all the Saints that are recognized in the Church and those who are unknown who died for their faith and love for Christ selflessly. As the day has unfolded I have been thinking about this great feast day. It dawned on me that I should send out texts to those people in my life that I value and thank them for constantly encouraging me to seek Christ and to become a better person. Why you might ask? We as the Body of Christ are all called to be saints, but we cannot be saints on our own. Without my brothers and sisters, I could not seek after Christ, His heart, and the Church daily. I know that I am a weak individual and need my brothers and sisters encouragement. What is the definition of a saint? 

  " A Saint is a Sinner that keeps on trying."

  Think of people in your life that have impacted you and brought you closer to Jesus. Send them something encouraging, who knows they may need the encouragement this time. We are all running the race together!  So from the Lumen office, we thank you for your prayers and constant encouragement. ~ Nicol from the Lumen Crew.

"Therefore since we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and the perfecter of faith." ~ Hebrews 12:1