So Where in the world am I??

Hey all! This is my WAY overdue update on what is going on in my life, where I am at, etc.

As my three months were wrapping up in Canada mid-June, I went back to the Mid-West for a few weeks, visiting friends in Chicago (especially participating in Nick Mullen's Ordination!!), and then home to Ft. Wayne to see family and go through all the C-R-A-P I have managed to collect and store in my parent's basement. Thank God for parents, no?

Then I got back to WA in time for July 4th celebrations, as well as to speak at the first week of kids camp at Cascades Covenant Camp in Yelm, WA. AMAZING! I somehow forgot how much I love camp, and it was a privilege to get to hang out with those awesome folks and share a little bit of God's love with them each night.

Along the way it seemed like there was a new opportunity developing in Clear Lake, WA. But rather than write it all out (because I'm lazy, and it's easier just to say it for me!), here is a short video for ya'll!

Strange Memories...

Now for something totally different...

I had a strange memory pop up in my head yesterday.

I'm not sure how old I was, maybe 15 or 16. I'm at the grocery store in the checkout line and I look up and see a boy bagging groceries. He looked to be about my age or maybe a few years older. And he is beautiful in that boyish, I know I'm cute sort of way, but I find I can't look away. And then he catches me staring at him, catches my eye. And would you believe of all things he throws me a cheeky grin as if to say, yeah, I know I caught you staring, but I'm worth staring at. My eyes skitter away in embarrassment, heat flushing my neck and cheeks. But inexplicably I can't stop my eyes from finding their way to his face again and horror of horrors he's staring at me with that stupid grin! And as my eyes hit his he has the audacity to wink at me! For some reason this disgruntles me. I don't even know why particularly. I spend the rest of the time at that checkout studiously looking anywhere but at him, avoiding another dangerous collision. And that's where the memory ends. The entire exchange happened in the matter of seconds without a single word spoken.

Now what is it about memory, that of all of the things I have experienced in my lifetime, I should happen to have filed this memory away? It was no momentous occasion, no date of significance to help me mark the event. I can't even actually remember what the boy looked like, just the interaction. And even more strange, what made it pop into my head randomly yesterday morning as I was getting ready for the day? I have thousands of strange memories and thoughts in a day, but this one struck me as so out of the blue, disproportionally large in memory for the insignificance of the event I had to share it.

What is up with my brain? *sigh*

And yet there it is.

LifeTogether in Langley

Just wanted to pass on info about the project I'm working on- LifeTogether in Langley. I am working on forming an intentional Christian community in the Lower Mainland of B.C., Canada, an hour Southeast of Vancouver. My task right now is to recruit people to join the community and commit to a minimum of a year doing "life together." It it my hope that we will form a sustainable community that is here for a long time, living into a Kingdom vision of community and growing more into being the family of God.

Please follow our journey at:

lifetogetherinlangley.wordpress.com

Also here is our intro video:

The Rollercoaster...or Art isn't easy

I will never question the genuineness of over-emotional stars of reality contest television ever again. Why, you may ask? Because I can totally identify with them now.

I have been at this LifeTogether project for just over a month now and it has been quite a ride. Describing it as an opportunity to be creative is an understatement. It is exhausting stepping out in a new project like this, putting it all on the line, everything you are and everything you have into making it successful. The buck stops here folks. And like an artist commissioned to create a piece of art, I have no idea if what I'm creating will be anything good at the end.

I find myself from day to day and even hour to hour feeling vastly different. After a meeting connecting me with someone in the community I feel like I'm on top of the world and that I'm creating something that will be successful and last. In other moments I think about all that needs to get done and how quickly and I doubt that anything will be accomplished. People stop me and ask, "No really, how are you?" and I find myself bursting into tears. How over-dramatic. How annoying! But I can't help it. I'm in a very vulnerable place, and my emotions are running very close to the surface these days.

So thank God (quite literally) that the success of this project doesn't depend on my fragile emotional state, but on the reality that this is precisely what God has called me to do right now. My job more than any other is to live into that call as faithfully as possible. It doesn't matter in the end how exactly this all turns out, LifeTogether in Langley is in God's all-powerful, creative hands. And I will continue to remain a beloved, called child of God no matter what.

This is most certainly true.

Video Uploads!!

Here's home for now!

Oh Canada!

Well folks, I've finally arrived in B.C.! As promised, here are a few pictures from where I'm living now- a real farm!! That horse is my next door neighbor-we share a wall! I'm working on uploading a few videos too- they will follow very soon. Right now I'm spending a few days in Victoria on Vancouver Island with my friend Phil. He's introducing me to all things "Canadian." He's helping me feel more at home here, which is awesome.

All I have to say is all ya'll in the U.S. better appreciate your cheap cheese and milk! It's double to triple the price here!! So eat a cheese stick for me, please?