Sometime on November 30, 1977, my older sister, Stacia Cressa was born into this world in North Carolina to loving parents who loved giving their children unique names. On June 23, 1990, at the age of twelve, that same life was reunited with her Heavenly Father for eternity after battling Leukemia and Melanoma cancers.

I was taken aback this morning with the realization that my sister would have been 30-today.

30! Wow.

If I think about it a bit, she probably would’ve been married. Probably would’ve had children. Our families would’ve probably celebrated her birthday together over the Thanksgiving Holiday. Who knows what would have been…

What’s also continuing through my mind today is that Stacia is still ‘older’ than me – even in my brain. She’s been gone from us for 17-years and somehow she’s still ‘looks’ older, ‘talks’ older, and ‘acts’ older than me. When I think about her I can’t help but envision her as my continuously ‘older’ sister.

I thank God for the memories of my sister – and for the faith that she had as a young pre-teen that assured her family and friends that she would one day be reunited with them (us) if we, too, put our trust in the Saving Grace of Jesus Christ!

The rest of our Thanksgiving/Christmas Vacation pictures are finally online here.

At our youth service on Sunday night we did a “Night of One-Thousand Thanks”. We invited parents to this event and had more than 10 sets of parents come to join us for the worship experience. We ended the evening with communion and acoustic worship. It was an intimate time and a great expression of our gratitude to the One who gives us life.

More pictures from the event are here.