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My friend Jennifer Scroggins wrote a wonderful post on the American Catholic blog today. In it she gives a glimpse of some of the tales that were told at LoveStories last Monday night. Here’s a snippet of her post. Please click here to read her complete thoughts. They really are wonderful.

The world is full of amazing people.

You get up, you battle traffic, you work all day, you head to the gym, you make dinner, you check Facebook, you go to bed. And somewhere in that daily routine, you can lose sight of the remarkable power of a person.

Each individual component of your day has a way of seeming both huge and infinitesimal all at once. Read More…

So, who are some of the everyday heroes in your life? Share with us.

The word adventure has been on my mind a lot for the past 2-3 months. Not just on my mind… but in my soul. I can feel myself longing for adventure in a way that I never have before. Am currently reading a wonderful book by Donald Miller that is feeding this fire. In the book he waxes poetically about taking in the world around you. This year, I hope to widen my horizon and take in much more of the world around me.

The beauty of thinking about past and future adventures is the realization that most often don’t unfold alone. Adventure happens in community. My adventures have and will happen with my wonderful wife, and the wonderful group of friends who surround me and serve as co-adventurers.

In this vein, I stumbled upon this photo essay (here for slide show. here for list.) that I linked to off of the Cincinnati Enquirer’s website. It’s a collection of 101 things to try in 2011 in the Greater Cincinnati area. I thought it would be a fun blog and/or Facebook exercise for everyone to share the list of the things they’ve done, and the things they’d like to do in 2011. After all, if you can’t adventure in your own backyard, how will you do so in any other context?

Here’s both of my lists and a quick nod to the friends whom accompanied me on the journey.

The things I’ve always wanted to do, and hope to make happen in 2011.

The following is an email I sent to the attendees of LoveStories. I thought I’d post it here as well in order to provide a brief recap of the event, and to invite others to help us in our final fundraising push.

LoveStories Attendee,

We wanted to say thank you for your presence on Monday night at LoveStories. Each of you truly made the evening something to be remembered. We want to take a moment to update each of you on the financial goals, and applaud the sponsors and storytellers.

First and foremost, we are thrilled to report that together we raised $700 for Mimi’s House! $500 is the direct result of your dinner tickets, and $200 is the result of a few generous contributors who gave above and beyond. After sharing these figures with friends of the event, we have been encouraged to raise the bar and shoot for a final LoveStories total of $1,000.

A $1,000 gift from LoveStories would enable us to participate in the tile program at Mimi’s House (click here to read about the tile program). This will give LoveStories a permanent presence on a wall inside the house where these young girls will experience love and opportunity in a way previously unimaginable. Do you want to contribute towards the final $300? Have you told a friend about your LoveStories experience that might want to join the cause? Please reply to this email for further instructions on how to give.

We also want to make sure that our sponsors and storytellers are well recognized. Please take a moment to read a little more about each person and organization below who helped make LoveStories possible.

Sponsors

• Event Producer – Luke Dooley: Read Luke’s blog here. Follow him on Twitter. Attend his next event which will be announced soon!
• Photographer – Jessica Agee: Jessica has offered to give a discount to any LoveStories attendee who books a photography session with her. View Jessica’s work here. Email here at the following address to book her services: Jess [dot] Agee [at] yahoo [dot] com
• Chef – John Schwab: John is available for all types of catering and food services. Contact him about your party or special event by calling his assistant cook at: (phone number removed for blog post. contact me to connect with john.)
• Decor & Supplies – Journey Church and Monroe Church of God generously donated printing services, sound equipment, room decor, and much more. Visit their websites which are linked above.

StoryTellers

• Christopher Gilmore – Read Christopher’s insightful and witty blog here.
• Julie Bauke – Visit her website to read about her career consulting services and to buy herwonderfully helpful book.
• Larry Renner – Follow Larry on Twitter. You’ll appreciate his insight, and love his heart!
• Jennifer Scroggins – Read more about Jennifer’s paradigm shifting story of her travels to Lebanon by reading her feature report on AmericanCatholic.org
• Doc Wieland – Catch up with Doc on Facebook. If you live in the Lakota corridor look for Doc’s beautiful family on a Journey Church mailer in your mailbox next week.

Thank you again to everyone who made LoveStories such a success by helping, giving, sharing, and attending. Until next time.

“Have a Story Worthy Week”

LoveStories Organizers

P.S. If you were unable to submit your payment at the dinner due to the inability to process credit cards, please reply to this email and we’ll help you get squared away.

For 24 hours I’ve thought about how I could possibly capture for you in words what I experienced on Monday night at a Valentine’s dinner/event that I produced entitled LoveStories. In case you don’t know, LoveStories was a combination fundraising dinner and  storytelling event that was centered around the theme “Love in Strange  Places”.

For me personally, LoveStories was  special for countless reasons. You  see, this event for me represented a  bold step of faith towards a yet  unknown future. To the casual observer it may have appeared to be simply a fun evening for a good cause, but for me it was a trial balloon. A trial balloon that had years of fear, doubt, and frustration tied to it. 24 hours after launch it appears that th

e balloon is still rising, entering new atmospheres.

Please don’t hear me say that this evening was all about me. This was surely not the case. Instead, this event was all about….

• The 7 beautiful girls who live at Mimi’s House who will benefit from the $1,000 dollars raised by attendees and generous friends of the event.
• The 6 bold men and women who stepped onto a stage and laid open their hearts to share part of their story with 50 strangers. Stunning stories were told.
• The 50 people who came together to laugh, cry, eat food, drink wine, and ponder their story, and the unexpected places they’ve encountered love.
• Stories which unmistakably shared common threads of faith, hope and love.
• Fires in hearts and minds that were stoked to live a story filled life.

This was but a glimpse into the magical evening of Monday, February 14th 2011. There will be more thoughts to come in this little dusty corner of the internet. I hope you’ll come back to read more. I promise there will be more… more on LoveStories, and more updates in general. I’ve been called out, and I never back away from a challenge.