Uphill idealist

When one hears about food being thrown around, we often think back to elementary or middle school food fights. You would probably agree that food fights are wasteful, messy and ridiculous. This is not the kind of food throwing that I refer to. Several years ago, I read a story about two communities of Christians that were separated by to very high wall. The wall was too high to see over, but one day a person walked by the wall and heard a familiar hymn being sung. The music lofted over the wall and the person realized that even though there was a wall between the groups that they had something in common - their faith in Jesus Christ. The person was so excited about hearing the people on the other side of the wall singing and worshiping, that he gathered some friends from his church and went to listen for sounds of their worship. As they had hoped, they heard the singing and joined in singing with them. Even with the wall between them, the two groups of Christians were united in s...

Original Painting by T. L. Eastman Car Wash Welcome… A few days ago I was driving down Sheridan Drive when I saw a free car wash taking place. There were tons of children and teenagers waving their arms, cheering and calling to invite the drivers to pull off the road and get their free car wash. I have to say that I was impressed with the energy and the enthusiasm of the car washers. They did not care what kind of car you drove or even how dirty it was. They just wanted to say hello, wash your car and brighten your day. The free car wash was not for the purpose of just washing cars, but its purpose was to help to connect people and build a sense of community. Being a part of a caring, inclusive community is something that is important to most everyone. We all have a desire to connect with others, know that they know us and that our presence in that community makes a difference. Both of the healing stories in today’s gospel draw my mind into the concept of “community livi...

There are a few things you should probably know about me. 1. It is necessary for me to be creative. 2. Relationships born and fostered in community are my life-blood. 3. Serving God in the Church is my long-standing vocation. Image found at: grdodge.org 1. Creativity "31 he (God) has filled him with divine spirit,[a] with skill, intelligence, and knowledge in every kind of craft," Exodus 35:31 Perhaps it's because I grew up in a rural community in North Western Pennsylvania where I had time and space to play or the fact that my family valued music, art and reading; but I love to create. While some folks may designate a specific hobby or art medium they prefer to work with; I love to choose from a varied array of subjects to engage in creative process. From cooking to painting or singing to writing; creating beautiful things to taste, touch and view is a hobby and focus that gives my life, well, life. Part of what I feel God has called me to is using my cr...

Over the last two years, First Lutheran Church has been making an intentional effort to reach out into their surrounding neighborhood by using their parish house, “First House” as a place for community gathering and outreach. Since January, First House has been open to the public every Friday afternoon for a time dubbed “Friday’s with Friends”.  “Friday’s with Friends” is a free coffee house that offers youth and adults coffee, cookies, and comfortable-supervised space for conversation, reading and playing board games. (Janet Wahlberg, Kairie Williams, and Jim Wahlberg) Every Friday is run with a team of volunteers from the church and community. The summer time hours will be from 1-3pm each Friday or when our open sign is placed outside by the sidewalk to the front and kitchen entrances of the building on 116 Chandler Street. Earlier this year, First Lutheran Church was awarded the Karl Peterson Field of Interest Fund by theCommunity Region Community Founda...

This week my teaching artist friend Renee and I had the privilege of returning to visit a Pre-K Classroom at Fletcher Elementary for a mural project with the Arts Council of  Chautauqua County .We are working on two board murals about 2X6 feet in size. One board is a life-cycle study and the other is the four seasons. Here is our progress thus far. The students that are working on this project are only 4 years old and there are about 17 students in each of the two classes. This kind of teaching keeps an instructor on their toes and gives us a good dose of cute as well. Next week, we'll return to wrap up the project with these two groups of pre-schoolers.  Isn't it amazing what little ones can accomplish with a little helping hand?

Image from Rivercity Church page. Mark 8:18 Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don't you remember? On Thursday, I had the unique opportunity of being able to visit with a large number of high school students. Over the last ten years, I've been a part of an ecumenical team that helps to organize, encourage and assist a high-school level campus fellowship. Earlier this week, I had been invited to come back for a "Club Day" and promote the Campus Fellowship Club. From 10:30 to 3:00, I witnessed a visual and auditory feast of diversity and variety. The appearance of all the students was as varied as the rainbow of colors on a painters palette. As you might expect, specific social groups became obvious throughout the day - but what I think I was most impressed with was how different each person was from the other but how they all wanted to make a connection with someone else. Each one of us is unique, but we as humans like to be a part of som...

Image from Amazon.com. When my daughter was little, she loved the Richard Scarry book collection. Her favorite was the three story collection of Pig Will and Pig Won't. As you can guess, Pig Will was easy going and willing to help where help was needed and take care of things that needed to be done. Pig Won't - for the most part, wasn't interested in helping or doing much of anything. Scarry's books are filled with cautionary tales, but the endearing animal characters ironically humanize the conflict of each story. Years after reading these books, the lessons have stuck with me - as a parent and personally. While most of the time people fall in the middle of will and won't - the story of these brother pigs have reminded me how important my attitude and action (or inaction) are. Years ago, if my kids started out having a bad morning I'd say, "Hey, why don't you run upstairs, hop into bed, hop back out and start your day over again?" or when the...

Dreamcatcher image from Juror 2 - exceptionally curious t-shirts website. I love looking for, finding and observing connections in life and today's focus for Sleeping with Bread is exactly that - defining where connections are and aren't made. I don't know if you ever had the chance to see the TV program "Connections" , with James Burke - the science historian; but it is one of my favorite documentary series". James makes his way through the world, exploring the how, why, and what of things that have come to be from the perspective of 1978. I love to find out the way things work and how what they do connects people. I love studying connections! (If you would like to watch some episodes of Connections, you can view them at Top Documentary Film's website.) SWB Meme prompt: Where did you feel the least and the most "Connected" this week? There is some crossover for me this week on where I've felt the most or least connected. If you have e...

Image from Bestuff. You turned on the light "The love you give brings so much light, like a beacon in the night. removing the fear and the fright. Confronting shadows, blacked strife, defeating death, reviving life, fanning the ash, defending my heart. Hearts are breaking, souls are aching, but you turned on the light. You turned on the light, and made things right when they were broken and you removed the dark and lit a spark that was smoldering. How can it be I have a life? How can some good come from such strife? Something in me can turn out right. Giving value to the slight. Fueling dreams, inspiring sight - burning a path to realties might. Lives are changing, hope is gaining - because You turned on the light You turned on the light, and made things right when they were broken and you removed the dark and lit a spark that was smoldering. Hearts are breaking, souls are aching, but you turned on the light. Lives are changing, hope is gaining - because You turned on the light....

A local community center in the Jamestown Area was the recipient of a donation of complete laser tag equipment over the holiday season. The director of the Gateway Center , Amy Rohler, asked if I and my church ( First Lutheran Church of Jamestown ) would be interested in helping with the project of painting the area.Our theme for the project is "LIGHT". Each panel inside of the game area is 6 ft. by 12 ft., and we are primarily using fluorescent spray paint (as it is a black light lit space) on a black surface. There are 13 panels in the game room and we also are working on a hallway mural that leads to the game play area. The three panels above are a sample of the style that we are working in. The team that will complete this project are youth, young adults, local artists and me - thank GOD for having a team for such a big project. I will post more as this project moves along. Please keep us in your prayers as this project will need to be complete by Saturday Feb. 5th, 2011.

Image from www.hbci.com In my elementary school office, the secretary had a poster on the wall that said something like this, "Garbage in, garbage out - I'm not a garbage dump so don't leave your rubbish here!" Above these words was a drawing of a cherubic boy with rumpled hair, big ears, a tattered t-shirt, mo shoes and hand me down overalls. The secretary's poster was a reminder to all that children were important and the way they should be treated and spoken too as treasure, not trash. If people are treated like trash, then they will often reproduce what they are provided. Apparently, by hanging this poster the secretary was doing her best to develop and environment of treasure-seeking. The voices that we've heard our whole lives have a way of molding and directing our paths. I attended a session at Princeton Seminary last Wednesday at the Youth Ministry Institute called, "From voices to vision." In this class, we addressed the different voices t...

Another thought on confession that I picked up on on page 80 of the text of Holy Conversations: "We also need to confess that we have come to Jesus. Confessing sin is the negative side of confession ( saying no). Confessing Christ is the positive side (saying yes). Both confessing sin and confessing Jesus are necessary for new life in Christ." When I think of the word confession, I tend to frame it in a primarily negative context. I think what is freeing about the above explanation is that it give a person a place to let go of what inhibits and then take up the thing that uplifts. Jeff (from our facebook group) commented above on how "Confession is good for the soul" - I'd like to suggest that this entails both sides of confession, the - and the +. If the christian community were more likely to live out this way of confessional living, I believe it would breathe life into our communities.

The mural project that Billy Torres, Kristen Briggs and I led and worked on with the help of many volunteers and community support was revealed on Friday February 12th, 2010. Thanks to Linda Gross for documenting this event on her Facebook and her blog . Its my hope that projects like this and ones in the future can help to bring a stronger sense of community, creativity and unity to Jamestown NY!

Below is a sketch that I've started that is the beginning of a small mural project that will be going up on one of the walls at Infinity Performing Arts of Jamestown, NY. My children both take music lessons there and they are starting some visual arts classes as well. I was honored that they asked me to participate in a combined effort of many local artists to add some color and visual interest to their walls. Here's to another painting adventure!

This last weekend I had the privilege of helping with a local community beautification and clean up projec t in Jamestown, NY. The group cleaned up debris and painted under a train bridge and then got to work on the start of a mural 12 feet high by 20 feet wide that will be fixed to a central area of the downtown. The mural is the first of what we hope to be many community art projects to help build home-town pride and to help dissuade the graffiti tagging that has been occurring at increasing rate recently. When the dump truck pulled away from the underpass on Saturday, it was filled to the brim with dirt, garbage and debris that had built up over time. This underpass is located close to our city's high school and many students pass through it each day. This morning, I wonder what their reaction was as they walked through a cleaner, freshly painted path in contrast to what it had looked like prior to the hard work of the volunteers on Saturday? Sometimes you have to see some dirt ...

Utility boxes painted with the Precita Eyes project. Precita Eyes is an effort to beautify the mission district area of San Francisco. About two years ago I had the opportunity to see some of the murals for myself when I visited the area. Ever since then, I've hoped for an opportunity to help beautify my own small city with a similar kind of mural project. This morning I spoke to a friend of mine who just completed a clean-up/mural grant for our town. He called to ask me if I would like to be interested in helping with the painting of this mural. Am I interested? Yes! Let's see how things develop in the next month or so - the eyes of precita seem to be winking and looking this way!

Image from Nataliedee . Today I worked outside spray painting murals for VBS. I met two boys, their little sister, their family friend, their Dad, three other neighborhood kids and two rabbits named Milk Chocolate and Cadbury. I also got to say hello to people just walking by and taking in the art in progress. It's was so interesting that so many people we drawn in by the art and by the end of the day, many of the people ended up helping me carry everything back inside when I was done. We chatted all afternoon in the hot sun and got to know each other a little. Isn't it amazing what happens when you simply walk outside your door? I need to get outside more. Today's meet, greet and paint was what I'd like to see more in our community.

OBSERVER Photo by Tim Latshaw Although much of West Main Street in Gowanda lied covered in dust Tuesday, patches and piles of mud still proved treacherous. Jamestown Savings Bank Arena serves as ‘drop off’ collection point for Chautauqua County flood victims Jamestown, NY – The Jamestown Savings Bank Arena is collecting any food, clothing or household items that people are willing to donate to help fellow residents of Chautauqua County who were affected by this week’s damaging floods. Residents can drop off items at the Arena from 7:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday’s. “This is what an Arena like ours is for.” states Michael Ferguson, Arena GM. “In times of need or emergency, in any community, it should serve as a central service location to help those in times of trouble. We will see that the items dropped off at the Arena are delivered to the proper authorities for distribution throughout the affected communities.” The Jamestown Savings ...

These are the photos of the Unity banner I've been working on with a group of 1-3rd graders in a after-school program. This banner is a mixed media project involving fabric, pencil, marker, sewing, and fabric paint. It is approximately 4 feet by 10 feet in size. The project was individual and well as a group project, giving the children the chance to design their own square all about them and to work together on the descriptive words. Hope you enjoy the pictures. It was a big, but worthwhile project.

Jedidiah Community , a creative clothing company that gives a percentage of their profits directly to mission and social justice efforts worldwide, has been holding a storytelling campaign that gives voice to the principals of hope, love and sincere community. The following video was a story that won the campaign and has been translated into a t-shirt design that is available for purchase here . 20% of the profits of this shirt will go directly back to the mission and help the people from this story. Talk about wearing your heart on your sleeve. :) Jedidiah Community: Erin Lyde from Jedidiah Clothing on Vimeo .