Dear Friends and supporters,

So what do you do again?
What is Life Change Adventures?

Two questions that I continue to hear. Questions made all the more poignant when asked by my kids. It might be high time that I increase my chatter to more fully communicate some of what LCA. After years of development and action we have many stories to tell and much that we’re excited about.

Life Change is very much grass-roots movement or mission. In other words it has grown up as a result of a bunch of us doing, (and thinking), about how we must live life and how we can go about fulfilling our purpose. We have decided that life, real life is truly an adventure and that “mission” must play a central role. “Change” – changing our lives and enabling others to see the kind of change in theirs that mirrors the character of God is what we do. People the world over are desperate to experience a real and fulfilling life. Jesus said it so well; I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of. (John 10:10)

Life Change inspires people to live life well while helping others live a “better life than they could have ever dreamed of.” This we do by providing experiences, practical help and coaching. The dreams of today will shape the world of tomorrow.

In the weeks ahead, via a regular newsletter (yes, I said regular), and our website we will attempt to chronicle some of these Life Changing adventures. Our hope is to both inspire you to keep dreaming dreams and provide to you with ideas for how your dreams might spring to life.

On a personal note… a few of you might have read the following article that appeared last winter in the Dayton Daily News. We received quite a kick out of it for if you know our son Gavin, you would know that he is certainly not one to pursue publicity. The journalist has taken a little licence with his information but it does serve as an introduction to our little family.

Pip, our eldest has just returned from Rwanda and currently is in Ottawa weighing her options and deciding how best to contribute to the country that she has come to love.

Nikki lives in Ecuador and finds herself immersed in relationships of all kinds. Her passion for the marginalised inspires us all.

And Gavin, the article says it! He currently is preparing with great anticipation of his senior and final year.

Mary and I? Well this week we celebrate our 30th anniversary. One of these days I will start feeling older.

Sincerely,
Jeremy

All’s well with tough-luck Raider Horne

By Tom Archdeacon
Wednesday, March 05, 2008

They’re both out of the jungle now.

His dad, Jeremy, has been down in Ecuador doing missionary work, Gavin Horne was saying after he provided Wright State with its most explosive play of the game — a steal, length-of-the-court dash and slam dunk — in the Raiders’ 60-37 victory over Detroit in the Horizon League Tournament opener at the Nutter Center on Tuesday night, March 4.

“He’s been down there with my sister, Nikki. They just finished building camp on the beach for the people with nothing, the squatters. He’s been in the jungle, so we haven’t been able to make contact with him.
“Supposedly, though, he’s out now and in Guayaquil (Ecuador’s largest city). He’s trying to get back for our next playoff game.”
When he does, he’ll find his son is finally out of his own jungle of sorts as well. That breakaway dunk was proof and his teammates knew it. That’s why they erupted on the bench as if he’d hit the game winner, rather than just the game’s final basket with 81 seconds left.
No one realized it more than the 6-foot-8 Horne, who finished with four points in seven minutes: “It’s been a long time since I’ve done that — a long time since I’ve done anything.”
He suffered a severe ankle sprain in practice two days after Christmas and didn’t play in the Raiders’ next 18 games.
“It’s really unfortunate because in a lot of ways that injury has taken his season away from him,” said Raiders coach Brad Brownell.
After playing high school basketball back home in Waterloo, Canada, Horne played two years at Sante Fe Community College in Florida and joined the Raiders this season.
From the start here, he’s had it tough, Brownell said.
“In the beginning of the year he played through blisters on his feet that were unbelievably painful,” Brownell said. “They were some of the worst I’ve ever seen.
“We were short on bodies then, too, so he played down in the post for us in practice and he took a beating,”
Brownell continued. “He was getting elbowed in the face, he had a shiner and yet he never complained and was getting better and better.
“Then came that ankle injury and it was bad.”
Once again, he didn’t complain.
“Why should I?” Horne said. “We were winning.”
Plus, thanks to his family, he knows a thing or two about people who have it a lot worse than he does.
His sister Pip is currently doing missionary-type work in Rwanda. “She’s working with street children,” he said. “She’s been there awhile, but safety’s always on edge there. The genocide there is always on people’s minds.”
Nikki’s in Ecuador. His dad makes regular trips to various spots and his mom, Mary, a nurse in Canada, has done a lot of medical work in Haiti.
Horne himself as been to Ecuador four times and done everything from fixing homes and painting walls to tiling a gym floor there.
“All that definitely opens your eyes,” he said. “It gives you an appreciation for what’s out there and what other people are going through. In your own life, it makes you not take anything for granted.”
And so he was going to try to send an e-mail message about the game to his dad before he started flying back home.
Just to let him know that Tuesday night he had done some high-flying here.