5 Years!

So we are in Maui celebrating and enjoying a time of family respite. Celebrating finally having a vacation after some super intense months, our upcoming 10 yr marriage anniversary, and 5 years of living and ministering in Santa Cruz. It truly blows our minds to think we actually have been in santa cruz for 5 years. In the 5 years we have been here our journey has been insane, amazing, lovely, torturous, lonely, overflowing and so many other things.

-we have lived in 3 houses

-had 2 children in santa cruz

-bought a house

-had friends move to Santa Cruz

-have tons of friends move away

-had cps called on us twice for no reason

-had the cops called on us over 2 dozen times

-started an after school program

-started a thursday night youth program

-started a sunday morning youth program

-fixed over 1,000 bikes

-donated over 50 bikes

– loved on kids at schools, skate parks, beaches, and parks

-been able to create a safe space for kids to be kids

-lead around a dozen kids to the Lord

-take dozens of kids to camp

-and the list goes on.

Its seriously crazy to see how much life has happened in this short amount of time and how much ministry has been lived out. We feel humbled every day to wake up in such an amazing place that we love, that we can genuinely call home. We have grown to love Santa Cruz and its beauty and its flaws. The people are our people and we feel blessed to be able to walk among them. The Lord has sustained us through the dry seasons and the season of bounty and we have been lead through by the prayer and financial support from everyone of you. We have a peace knowing we can turn to you all for prayer and that your faithful financial  support. There really isn’t a way to convey how much we appreciate all the support you have given us! Thank you so much and we are looking forward to what the Lord continues to lead us into in this next season.

Love Nick, Lindsey, Cade, Mylee and Brooklyn Hart

2010:

2010

2011:

2011

2011

2011

2012:

2012

2012-mylee

2013:

2013

2014:

2014

2014-brooklyn

2015:

2015

almost 5 years

hey everyone, well this is another post to tell you we can’t wait to give a more detailed update and hopefully we will post the few other monthly update videos as well. Things have been super crazy lately and we’ve been dealing with 3+ weeks of sickness in our house but we are also so excited as we come up on our 5 year anniversary of ministry in Santa Cruz. It is truly amazing to see what the lord has done and continues to do as hard as some things are. Hope you all are doing well! And as always thank you so much for all your support, we wouldn’t be able to minister here with out your prayer and financial support! So thank you thank you thank you!

the harts

January 2015 Ministry Update

Aloha!

Please take a moment to check out our latest video update. The link is below.

 

Blessings,

the Hart Family.

 

 

Its been way too long

sorry its been so long everyone. But we are going to get our blog back up and running very soon with links to the monthly updates and some current photos as well!

thanks so much for all your love and support!

lindsey

Prayer and Praise updates for the Summer

Good afternoon friends!

Have you ever stumbled upon the actual meaning of a word that you use all time & it totally change the way you see that word or even use it? This happened to me recently with the word: “remember”. As in Holy Communion, “Do this in remembrance of me… as often as you do this you proclaim the Lord’s death and resurrection…”

The word literally means to recall the memory, or recall the one who the memory is of… in this case- our Brother, Savior, and LORD Jesus. It may seem elementary to you (which i understand, many things that seem profound to me are in fact grade school level in nature- but i digress), but to me its mind boggling. Especially in regards to this summer and how i REMEMBER Jesus showing up and blessing the socks off of us, here are some of the things to remember and thank our Lord for:”Remember your Creator in the days of your youth…” Ecc 12

Houseboats! In a couple words: So humbling, So amazing! The week was humbling for me because I was truly forced to “let go” of anything I thought i was in control of, which at times i refuse to believe but this time was different- God had me. I had to let go of what I thought the kids where picking up, how they were going to process it, how they were reacting to the messages, small group time, worship time, prayer time, you know all the eternal stuff that is good for the soul but freaks us out at the same time for fear of our flesh offending someone in the process… Can you tell I was wrestling with some stuff that week or what? 🙂
Praise God for the amazing week at Houseboats for the 7 Santa Cruz girls who came and the most amazing female leader ever who said yes to braving a week with some super tough girls. Megan is an answer to prayer and God did a mighty work in her all week long. Praise God for Megan and the words He gave her as she had so many great but difficult conversations with these skeptical and smart girls.
Praise God for Bailey Fastina who came up to the optional worship/campfire on Wednesday night and sat next time and sang worship songs with me. With tears in my eyes I looked over and saw this amazing young girl singing to a God who she has never known but is haunting her with his Love & Grace. Praise the LORD!
Praise God for the 20+ students that came to know Jesus that week!~
Praise God for a moment with each of the girls to share how much we respect them and love them and so stoked on the fact that they all stepped out in faith this week whether they realize it or not
Praise God for Cassidy Lewis, an absolute rockstar and a students who loves her friends more than I ever loved my friends in High School. She put her fear aside and invited her friends to step into the reality that the God of the universe LOVES them and she loves them enough to let them know that.
Praise God for a great summer of camps, interns, hanging and sharing life with students, surfing with them, talking about eternity with them, and walking beside the Lord in the process… and praise God for the summer coming to an end cuz we are tired 🙂
Lastly, this one came in just this morning- Praise God for the half pipe that was donated to our family and our ministry here in Santa Cruz. For the past year I have been saving up and preparing to build a half pipe (skate ramp for those who don’t know) and just today a friend of a friend found out i wanted one and hs given me their perfectly fit & custom ramp- saving us nearly 1,000 🙂 BOOOYAA!!! As my son Cade says, “Skate or FLY!!”
Prayer:
Please pray for B40 middle school & the up incoming school year. Pray that FLOW is invited back to share more life with that campus & faculty.
Please pray for our medical insurance. It went up by 19% this year & as most of you know we raise our support to pay for salary as well as medical. This is not a burden to us and we aren’t freaked out– just asking for prayers.
Please pray for our strength heading into the new school year. we are tired but we are united as one.
Please pray for the Lord to continue to lead us along his path for us as we continue to figure out just who we are in all of this.
Please pray for the lives that the Lord touched this summer, that the reality that they saw would not fade or become distant, but be more and more real and close as it was the moment they 1st saw.
Pray for my family and I as we continue to pray for close friendship here in Santa Cruz. & praise God for the few that we do have with hopes that those will grow more deeply.
Thank you so much my beloved friends & family. I am overwhelmed by how much love the Lord allows us to have for one another. Blessings to you all & REMEMBER your creator!

Skate or Fly!

Love Nick.Lindsey.Cade.

PS: getting that ramp felt a lot like Christmas morning when I was a kid, only I am 30….

July update

Hi everyone,
hope you are all doing well. July is here! We had a great trip to oregon the last week of June with family and then Nick followed it up with a week of speaking at Mt. Hermon’s Ponderosa Camp. That week was amazing and the Lord blessed him and spoke through him, it was amazing to see. Cade and I were able to join them a few days and it was fun to meet the kids and counselors that Nick was getting to spend all week with. We also have a summer intern living with us for a month. His name is Chris and he was a past student in our youth group in Austin. He wanted to see what it is like to do youth ministry and it is cool to have him here with us.
As always the Lord has continued to provide our needs and bless us with His peace and grace. We are so blown away by everyones generosity and the Lord’s lavish grace. One thing I have been dwelling on and blown away by lately is how often I list off the things I want and the Lord often allows us to have them but when I truly give up my entitlement and surrender to His true will for my life He lavishly blesses us above and beyond in often intangible ways but ways that are amazing, like unsurpassing peace, or wisdom. It is a hard lesson that I still struggle with but I have really seen the joy and power of full surrender and it is amazing. I encourage you to try it, it is so worth it.
As we continue into the summer we could use your prayers for stamina and prayers for upcoming events. We have weekly events with the kids and then Nick, Chris and a female staff member will be taking i believe 8 girls on crosswinds houseboat trip for a really cool camp experience. Prayers for those girls would be awesome as most are not Christians and it will be a really new experience for most of them.
Thank you so much for all your support and prayers. We love you all and so appreciate it!!!
With love and gratitude
the harts

just some thoughts

hey everyone,

hope you are all doing well. Cade and I have been living the single parent life the past week as Nick has been at a conference and man does it give me more and more respect for single parents. I don’t know how they do it. I’m exhausted and both Cade and I are getting over being sick but it has also been amazing. Cade and I got to spend 2 days with my mother in law and it was so much fun. Today we went to the beach in the morning and I was just thanking the Lord for this amazing place we live in and for all the blessings and trials we have experienced since we have been here. This past week as I’ve been on my own with Cade I have really been challenged by the Lord with the idea of not putting limitations out for myself or the Lord. Instead of stressing, running to others for prayer when i’m exhausted (not a bad thing) but to first run straight to the Lord and give Him my full trust and believe that He is Lord and capable of providing everything I need. It’s been such a cool time of practicing minute by minute turning every thought over to the Lord. It’s hard but I have just been enjoying the freedom it brings. Well I need to run but wanted to update you all and encourage u to trust who the Lord is and that He is a good and loving God.
-Lindsey

1 Year!!!!

Hey Everyone,
Well, today marks the 1 year anniversary of our move to Santa Cruz. We have had an amazing journey so far and are looking forward to all that the Lord still has before us. I was sitting and reflecting yesterday on how amazing this year here in Santa Cruz has been. We have had some huge trials, been stretched way out of our comfort zones, grown a ton, learnt so much, and just come to love this place we get the pleasure of serving in and living in. This year has been a year of firsts and year of growth. We have fallen deeper in love with the Lord and each other. We have experienced amazing freedom, life and blessing. We feel so privileged to have so many people that believe in the vision the Lord has given us and support us in that vision. We are humbled and so blessed by your prayers and financial support and your willingness to walk with us every step of the way. So from the bottom of our hearts thank you so much!!!
With that said we know that many of you wanted to re-evaluate after a year of support and so we want to give you that option. We still need your support more than ever, but we also want you to do what you feel lead to do. We totally understand that circumstances do change, we are asking however that everyone would please respond by email or mail to let us know whether or not you would like to re-commit for another year.
Once again, thank you so much! And we pray that you too would meet the Lord in an amazing way each day in this upcoming year.

with love and gratitude,
the harts

Huge Praise

Hi there beloveds!

At 1pm I had an impromptu meeting with the Principal at B40 middle school. It was in regards to an incident that we had last Thursday in which a teacher came in and was concerned about the “physical activity” that was taking place in the Multipurpose room… Needless to say, I was less than excited to meet with the Principal due to the nature of what “i thought” we were going to talk about. 🙂 This is where it gets really cool!

SOOOO…. I met with her & lets just say- IT WAS AWESOME!!!! She actually apologized for not giving us guidelines to operate FLOW out of. Not to mention she showered us with encouragement and blessing for how much we love their students. She encouraged us with the diverse group of students that FLOW attracts. She was impressed with how we dont “force” or even “imply” that students need to stay at FLOW just cuz they get pizza from us. She gave us advice on how to “do discipline” with students. She even offered her and her administrations help if needed. To which I was thinking in my head, “Sounds a lot like a partnership to me!?!!!!”

I mean does it get any cooler than this?!

PRAISE GOD!!! PRAISE GOD right now! 🙂

God has taken a suspicious faculty who wondered what we were about and turned their hearts around to begin to trust us and affirm our love that we have for their students. WOW!!! Talk about our pray being answered about wanting to be a life giving presence to the students and faculty of B40!! Makes me laugh that the LORD would use something “kinda scary/ frustrating” to bring about something RADICAL!!!

Just had to give a quick praise!

LOVE!

Thank you for praying faithfully and thinking of the Kingdom of Heaven here and now in Santa Cruz and where you are.

Nick (cant stop smiling & giggling)

So Cool

I am going to keep this short sweet and to the point…

Sunday I had the privilege of speaking at church. You can listen to the podcast by clicking on this link here. http://santacruzfaith.org/sermons/

Anyway… my grandma hart was there and she became a Christian just before we served communion yesterday! SO STOKED!!! Many of you know she has a few leg problems and knee issues that normally make it difficult for her to get up quickly or gracefully but when she found out that we were serving communion she “jumped up” (like a 80yr old does- not like Michael Jordon but still very cool) and walked down the isle to take communion!!!

I hope you can rejoice in our new/older sister Mary Hart who is a precious child in the patient Father’s eyes! To think, He has waited over 80 years for her to come home and he she is… Praise God!!!!

I love you all and rejoice alongside of you and the angels in heaven!

Nick.Lindsey.Cade.