Mark Scandrette

Today Lisa and I are celebrating our 16th wedding anniversary. We got married when I was 20 and Lisa was 21 and we were best friends for five years before that. If you do the math, that means that Lisa and I have been together for 21 years now! We met at a child evangelism training camp in Minnesota (think Jesus Camp minus the cool factor and charismatic gifts) when we were 15 and 16. Although we were very happy together when we got married 16 years ago today, we both agree that at this point, every year is better than the last. The friendships & conversations are better, the sex is better, our weekly date nights are more fun– and at this point I think we both keep getting better looking!

Because I’m loud and Lisa tends to be calm & quiet, many people don’t know all of Lisa’s charms and accomplishments. She devotes alot of her time to guiding and educating our kids– and if you have met Hailey, Noah or Isaiah–you know that her investment is paying off in their character and confidence. She also spends 15 hours a week doing administrative work with ReIMAGINE, mentoring younger women and hosting the stream of people who come through our home. I should also mention that Lisa is the administrator for our local home education coop that serves over a hundred families and she is a girl scouts co-leader and co-op writing and knitting club teacher. In addition to all this she is making great progress in taking care of her body– eating well and walking an hour a day– and this year she has lost almost 50 pounds. Some of you may know that Lisa is also a compulsive knitter– in her spare time she always has needles and yarn in hand creating something for the many people she loves. In the past year or two she has been kniting prayer shawls for friends who are going through hard times. As she knits she prays for the person and then gives the shawl to them as a gift to wear when they are feeling sad or discouraged. I really feel like out of the two of us, Lisa is the best at living into the greater wholeness of the kingdom. I teach and write about the life she is living. I love you Baby-Mama!!! Happy Anniversary!!!

It seems like every week at this time of year someone is shot and killed in our neighborhood. I was especially saddened when I walked by the memorial for 15 year old Edivaldo Sanchez– only two years older than my daughter. The Chronicle did a story on Edivaldo that can be found here.(see an excerpt posted below).

(06-17) 16:20 PDT SAN FRANCISCO — A pair of gang members in a stolen car shot and killed a 15-year-old boy Saturday night as he stood with a friend outside his family’s apartment on a busy street in San Francisco’s Mission District, police said. The victim, identified by the city medical examiner as Eddie Valdo, was shot at about 8 p.m. at the corner of 24th and Harrison streets. Two young men, believed to be 17 to 20 years old, drove up in a Honda Accord and the passenger opened fire, said police Sgt. Neville Gittens, a department spokesman.

Eddie left a trail of blood on the sidewalk as he ran a half-block west on 24th Street and collapsed outside a taqueria at the mouth of Balmy Street. Paramedics pronounced him dead near a tree, where on Sunday a shrine of flowers, candles and photographs began to form. Eddie’s friend was unhurt.

The 24th Street corridor is a bustling business district full of cafes, restaurants and markets. It is also known for gang activity, but Eddie was not a gang member, said family members and Gittens. Even so, Gittens said, homicide inspectors believe the killing was gang-related.

Relatives referred to the victim as Edivaldo Sanchez, who went by “Eddie.” They said he came to the United States three or four years ago from Puebla, Mexico, attended San Francisco’s Horace Mann Middle School and loved to play soccer. He lived with his mother and several other relatives a half-block east of the shooting scene, in a second-floor apartment above a Mexican market.

“He was a really good boy,” said Jannet Alonzo, a 26-year-old cousin of the victim. “I don’t know why this happened to him.”