Crocodile Dock is almost here! August 17-21 is Vacation Bible School for First Lutheran Church and all our neighbors and friends are invited. I did not want to let the summer pass without asking you if you could or would be available to help lead or co-lead an activity station, be a counselor for a small group of kids, or simply be able to come and help where needed for the mornings (8:45-noon) of that week. On Friday of that week, we will be having a cook-out and inviting all the participants and their families to attend.
I know summer is a busy time, but your help is greatly needed in order to make VBS great this time around. Whatever gifts your bring to VBS, the best ones are go with the flow attitudes and a child-like desire to learn and have FUN!
We are accepting helpers from a wide age range, 7th grade to 101 and beyond (While minors being partnered with a qualified adult),so please call me or email me back and I will secure you with your preference in jobs as best as I can. Here's a sample list of jobs that need to still be filled:
DVD Bible Theater DVD Bible Theater Support
Opening song leader (I will do this if necessary.) Song leading support (1-2 people)
Team Counselors (We need 1-2 adults for each group of 15 kids and expect 60 kids this summer.) Approx 10-12.
This year our theme is "Fearless Kids shine God's light" - but courage is not limited to the kids this time! Thanks in advance for your help. Tara
Well the song "Love Addict" by Family Force 5 to be exact. I saw this band play at Kingdom Bound on Tuesday night and I have to say it was the most unique set I've seen for a long, long time!
The second band that we took in was Hawk Nelson, a fun power pop punk band that really did a great job of drawing in the audience, even for those of us that were new to them.
Exercise, eating right and the spiritual discipline of prayer and scripture reading.
Why is it so difficult to balance all three of these positive life assets? I can manage to juggle up to two of these things fairly well, but add a third and SPLAT - the whole effort can go down the tubes like dropping hand-tossed-over-ripe tomatoes!
In the early spring of 2008 I came to the place were I knew I needed to make some changes in my life to allow for more physical activity or asthma was going to take my life over. At least that is the way I felt at the time.
Over the last year and a half, I’ve managed to add exercise at first 3xs a week and now I’m up to about 5xs a week. In May of this year, I rethought how and what I'd been eating and have been relatively faithful in eating much better than I had been in the past.
Yesterday as I jogged 2 miles without stopping, I remembered that day in late February 08 when it was all I could do to catch my breath after running only a few minutes to catch a train… and realized that a year and half later I’ve become stronger, healthier and about 25 lbs. lighter than when I started. Progress is good to see, but it sometimes takes a while to see it. Epically when you see ads that promise to help a person loose a size in a week. That is so unreal. Real is putting on the shoes and heading out the door for a year and a half and beyond.
A Sleeping with Bread buddy, Unfinished Person, posted this scripture on Monday and it seems to be a perfect fit for my current state of life.
“It is not that I have already taken hold of it or have already attained perfect maturity, but I continue my pursuit in hope that I may possess it, since I have indeed been taken possession of by Christ [Jesus]. Brothers, I for my part do not consider myself to have taken possession. Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus. Let us, then, who are “perfectly mature” adopt this attitude, and if you have a different attitude, this too God will reveal to you. Only, with regard to what we have attained, continue on the same course." Philippians 4:12-16
Now that I’m moving and eating better again, I need to add consistent prayer and devotions. Why is it so hard to balance those three at the same time? I've had consistent times of actively engaging in spiritual disciplines, but sometimes I seem to be moving too fast, or too much to arrive at the place to recognize that I've got to take the time or even recognize that the day has passed and I've missed the opportunity.
How about you, have you been challenged to balance the physical and the spiritual necessities in life? I once heard someone refer to this imbalance between the physical discipline and the spiritual as spiritual anorexia. That is something I don't want to be...strong in the body and starving in the spirit.
What kind of suggestions would you have to someone fidgety like me to allow and build some spiritual reflection time into life? I think it's time for a spiritual meal, or a snack at least.
Maybe what I need to remember is part of the scripture above, "...I continue my pursuit toward the goal...", and to keep working on my juggling skills in the meantime.
"A digital mashup is a digital media file containing any or all of text, graphics, audio, video and animation drawn from pre-existing sources, to create a new derivative work[1]. Digital text mashups, for example, appear by the thousands every day as users of blogs and online forums copy and paste digital text in juxtaposition to comment on topics of interest, while fan-created video/audio mashups juxtaposing commercially produced video clips with favorite pop songs constitute a major portion of YouTube content."
This last week was somewhat of a "mash up". For months I'd prepared to go to New Orleans with my youth group for six days of service, education and fun for the ELCA Youth Gathering. There was a great deal of fund raising that took place to make the trip possible, as well as reservations and what seemed to be thousands of emails. But, all that work done and over with, our group was off to the Big Easy.
Our group was composed of seven student in grade 11 or 12, my wonderful husband Ian and myself. The personalities represented in our group were so varied. We have students devoted to baseball, sailing, theater, band, music, media and literature. Some are shy, some are not. Some are serious, some are silly. All in all our group was a mash-up of introvert and extroverts, and throughout the week we learned how to live, work and learn together.
There are so many moments that were amazing in visiting the city of New Orleans. One of my favorite places was the French Quarter and the bustling French Market. I swear you could find practically anything in that market. They had hats, dresses, harmonicas, blues and jazz cds, silk scarves, hand-blown glass beads, and more!
New Orleans itself has such a distinctive personality. This city and its people exude hospitality like no other. Their sincere kindness is so dear to me, I found it hard to go back home, even though I was a little homesick in being away for so long. Every evening as we returned to our hotel by the Mississippi river from the nights events at the Super Dome, we would be greeting with a "Good evenin.", cool air conditioning, freshly baked cookies and pitchers of homemade lemon aid.
Please forgive the rambling of this SWB post, but all these memories: the smiles from people on the street, the "Thank You for coming to help!" from total strangers, the stories of how people survived Katrina and are thankful to have come away with their lives and the lives of their loved ones, the sheer determination to carry on and continue to rebuild four years after the hurricane and flooding - all these memories are the bread I bring with me into this new week and month of August.
On our first day in New Orleans, our bus driver gave us a mini tour as we headed to our hotel. He told us where the flooding had occurred, where the mighty Mississippi was, told us how to order a Po Boy sandwich like a local, and in light of all the people of New Orleans had been through; he stated over and over again, "It's all good!"
In the mash ups of life, the good and the bad, if I could get up and keep on walking with the attitude that, "It's all good!", how different would my world, my neighborhood be?
At the evening program one night, the words of a worship song rang through me, sparked something in me, and made me think more about caring for the world, for New Orleans and for the people in my own hometown.
The words went something like this:
We will never be the same. We are sent in peace, Holy Spirit come, We are changed by love... live Christ, be Christ, share Christ. live peace, be peace, share peace.
The people I have met and their stories of loss and survival will be both what I hold on to and let go of this week coming. Although I physically had to move on and come home, I know New Orleans and its impact on me will never end. Now I know what it means to miss New Orleans and miss her each night and day... but hold on to hope knowing each one of us can make a difference in the world around us. What a mash up that is, huh?
If you need more explanation on the basics of a music mash up, just watch the fun video below.
Here's a great example of a clever music mash up by Elvis Costello and the Rogue Traders...
I'd made all the arrangement. Reserved the item ahead of time and made arrangements for pick up and transport. I worked an extra gig last week to be sure I had the $ to handle the surprise I'd hope to reveal later today.
Well, when I revealed the surprise, I did not get the response I'd expected. In fact there was only a quiet and trying to be polite,"Oh, ok."
What? How is this possible? How could you not WANT this?
Maybe it's time to go back to the drawing board on surprises for my pre-teen boy, eh?
This is too disappointing for words, yet her I am typing away.
After all this, when he saw the shiny red Schwinn mountain bike, all his ambivalence melted away as he grinned, "Is this the one for ME!"
Yes sir, that is the one for you, my unpredictable fellow.
Sigh.
BTW, I got a new bike too as I haven't had one since I was about 14. (That was a long while ago.) I too have some anxiety about getting back on the road, but my son and I have made a pact to hit the road together. Schwinn and Schwinn and probably some road rage shins too.
Last Saturday I sat among 38,000 Lutheran youth and youth ministers and waited with baited breath as Donald Miller (author of Blue Like Jazz), came onstage to address the crowd. He spoke of the challenge of being authentic in service to others, even in the areas that aren't so fun or are not the areas of service we feel we are "good" at. Donald spends a great deal of time still writing and working with The Mentoring project, that pairs adult men with boys that lack relationships with positive male role models. He spoke of the joys and challenges of mentoring. Mentoring requires the mentor to stay engaged and interested in the life of another person, even when that person does not turn out to be tiny Tim.
Being with others and living in community is difficult to say the very least, but the option of living in isolation from others does not offer very much interest to me. How about you?
Just as the caretakers of those shell-shocked children gave them bread to sleep with for comfort, their actions probably placed them in difficult or sometimes dangerous situations. Those caretakers knew how to "keep it real"- even in the middle of air raids.
This week in sleeping with bread, I've been thinking a great deal about both giving and receiving comfort. Sometimes, we are the thankful recipient of some kind words or gesture. Sometimes we are called to be the voice of comfort, maybe even the voice for those who have no audience to listen to very real and dire needs. Sometimes we are called to be the hands and feet to provide bread to others, even outside of comfort zones we prefer to stay safely behind.
As part of Donald's talk, he mentioned a note he'd received from Anne Lamott, stating the importance of the concept and application of Sleeping with bread as she asked him... "What bread are you holding on to Donald, and what bread are you giving away?"
Good question Anne. That's one I think I need to give some thought.
In this first week of August, what are your thoughts on the bread of your life?
