This is the picture that I mentioned in the blog post about the hailstorm in Kenya. This is little Cara out in a snowstorm in Houston, Texas. Please note her “mittens,” which are really socks!

Cara grew up in Texas (Houston, not Austin). And since it’s never cold there (and often hotter than hell, I’m told) she never really got to experience snow when she was a kid. Except for the one time that there was a big hail storm that dropped enough ice to make it look like it snowed. There is a picture of Cara as a little kid with socks on her hands as mittens (she didn’t own any, she didn’t need them!), looking really happy and playing in the Texas version of snow.

Last week, Cara sent me a link to this story of a Freak Hailstorm in Keyna, which made her think of that experience. The pictures are awesome. To this day, Cara says that she loves living in the northeast because of the snow – to someone who grows up only in the oppressive heat, it’s magical.

Cara just sent me this link, in reference to this article on Minoan Bull Jumping. It’s a video and it’s pretty amazing.

Last Friday was Cara’s last day at Ziff Davis, where she has worked for about the past 8 years (minus the 6 months that she was in Burundi).

When I asked Cara what part of leaving her job made her the most excited, without a doubt she was most eager to get rid of her brown pants. Cara wore brown pants to work just about every single day (except casual Fridays). At all times she has at least two pairs, so she can alternate between them. But she always sticks with the brown pants. She would have to confirm this, but I’m pretty sure that the reason that she started wearing the brown pants was because it was easier to wear the brown pants than try to come up with something “business-casual” every day.

The brown pants were so essential to her wardrobe that if something happened to one of the pairs of brown pants, she had to spend the next day in the mall shopping for a new pair. Once at a college graduation ceremony that we were at, it poured rain. Cara’s bag that she had leaked blank ink all over the brown pants. Ruined. Another time she called me to tell me that she ripped a hole in the pants climbing in the window of her apartment (she got locked out).

At any rate, the brown pants are history. Cara wanted to burn them – I convinced her not to. But one of her favorite things about her new job is that she no longer has to wear the brown pants.

— Cara, today at work

Cara recently was interviewed for an upcoming article in a magazine. We will keep you posted about WHEN and WHERE that article will appear (don’t worry!) but in the meantime, I thought it might be fun to share the questions and some parts of some of the answers that Cara gave (I don’t want to give the whole article away, afterall). The focus of the article is Cara’s focus on missions with her music. The questions are bold, answers are not.

How many countries have you visited on mission trips?

5 so far, Kenya, Ecuador, Burundi, Thailand and Cameroon

What moved you to decide this kind of mission was right for you?

What moment (or moments) on a trip has shown you that this was the right decision?

What has been the scariest, or most uncomfortable, time on a trip?

Well, in Kenya, one village tried to stone us during a Jesus Film showing. Eventually, some old lady got up with a stick and started smacking the culprits into submission and everyone eventually settled down again.

How long have you been playing music?

What musicians have influenced you?

How do you write songs?

I always start with the theme. Usually it is something that I have really been struggling with or working through or praying about. I am definitely lyrics focused, and the music comes second. Once I get the idea and jot down some phrases and words, I pick up the guitar and see what happens.

Is music your full-time job, or what else do you do (or have done) to make a living?

Why Christian music? Couldn’t you reach more people with secular lyrics?

�