London is bursting at the seams...

We saw "The Holiday" yesterday at the theater, and since half of it was set in London, I was reminded of our trip thereearlier this year and thought I'd post the pictures from that trip (six months later)! The thing is - London looks in the movies JUST like it does in real life. I think that we should have to live there at some point in the future...

London Photos

Dear God. Please let Granny live. Amen.

My Granny (my mom's mom) is in the hospital, very sick. The thing she is sick with - the doctor's told her last time she had it that the NEXT time she were to get sick with it, she wouldn't make it; that her heart and lungs had undergone too much damage from it too many times. That "next time" is this time.

Granny can't die yet.

"Please and Amen."

Christmas Lights, Pt. 2

We went to see the Christmas lights mentioned in the post below, (turns out they were really close to my apartment), and it also turns out, they were JUST as FANTASTIC as they look in the video! It was great!

No, Aunt Bethany, those are the Christmas lights.

You know how you see video of crazy guys who sync up their house's Christmas lights to music? Well, one of THOSE guys goes to our church and the resulting light show is FANTASTIC! Take a look for yourself!

Roman's Christmas Video One


Roman's Christmas Video Two

Like the Spokes On a Wheel

Detoxing From Church

The link above will continue the excerpt below, so be sure to click on it, because you NEED to read it...I stumbled on it today and liked it. You know that GOING to church is not where it's at. We are the church and there's something a lot bigger in being the church than going to church, right? This article speaks to that.

I need to worship. So I go to my local church, which, if it’s cutting-edge, has a worship pastor on staff that prepares an inspiring "worship experience" for me on a weekly basis. One local church I know advertises its worship services on its marquee, "We worship five times, three ways, one God." (Hello! Is it me or does that just sound wrong?)

I also need to fellowship with my fellow Christians. So I go to my local church to attend a programmed version of community that provides a surface-level contact with people around some form of activity at my convenience. If I need more fellowship, I go to a small group, usually focused on the dynamic personality of the small group leader or on the subject matter I feel I need to better my life. But again, this is at my convenience and fairly optional if my schedule becomes too demanding.

I need discipleship and Christian growth. So I go to my local church to attend Sunday services, Bible studies and small groups where someone opens the Bible and tells me what it says and how it should apply to my life. I also have the option of learning "practical" topics such as how to be a good spouse, parent, employee, leader, steward, etc.

I need to serve. So I go to my local church and participate in a program where I use my time and skills in a fairly convenient manner to help others. For the most part, it’s fairly safe. And if I'm a volunteer, my participation is completely based on my schedule.

I need to be engaged in mission. So I go to my local church to connect to their evangelistic ministry and their missions program. Every so often I might volunteer to hand out sodas or serve coffee in a convenient and semi-relational form of "reaching people" for Christ. I might also give money to local missionaries the church supports and maybe participate in a weekend mission trip.

I need a children's program to educate my kids. So I go to my local church to place my children in the care of Sunday school teachers and youth pastors who will provide the spiritual and moral foundation for their Christian growth via an age-relevant program.

I need purpose for my life. So I go to my local church, hoping to find a leader with a vision big enough to inspire me. Then I sacrifice my time, energy, and money to become involved in the leader’s vision so I can build something big for God with him. New programs. New buildings. New projects. New groups. New services. New converts. New church plants. New missions. More and more and more vision to give my life a reason to exist.

Now strip all of that away. Imagine what you would have left after you remove from your life everything connected with the organizational church. I mean everything. I’ve discovered the hard way that living most of my adult life in cultural Christianity has formed my entire identity as a Christian. And when everything in my life connected with the church is gone, including sixteen years of professional ministry, I’m confronted with the true raw status my personal faith.

Click here to read the rest.

Carols + Candles + Stamps!

Last night at Carols and Candles, we had just started singing the merry tunes of Christmas when Brandi slipped me two ROLLS of stamps! A great lady who has known gone on many mission trips with Robert (and pulled many a prank on those trips ;-), and known me for two years, has joined the stamp crusade! Thank you Stamp Lady (you know who you are!)

Instant Deco Art

This crazy lady I know is taking a poll on her blog about the adhesive properties of spaghetti cooked "just right". Get the whole story and get in on the action here!

Christmas Carol Hunt, Meeker Style

So, Bob and I went for a walk the other day (since it's been so spring-like lately), and decided to play a little game along the way: Find as many pictures which represent Christmas Carols as we can. It didn't take any supplies, just my cell phone's camera. Here are a few of the pictures we found along the way (there were others, but you couldn't tell what the pictures were). Hey - maybe you and your family or friends can go for a walk in your neighborhood sometime soon and find some Christmas Carols and share those, too?! We used this list to help us know what to look for. Any ideas on what these five were? (if you click on the pictures, they get bigger).

If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn't. (Emerson M. Pugh)

I went to see my friend the doctor Friday. :-) We haven't visited for about six months, and he seemed almost excited to see me! I can't imagine why!? I had the opportunity to introduce him to Robert for the first time, which was great, because Robert got to tell him his version of what it's like when I have a seizure. I thought Robert might actually SHOW him, but he restrained himself and just told him. (Showing him can be sort of FUNNY, but I guess the Doc's office is not the time for fun and games).

After chatting it up for about 20 minutes, and after I confessed that I am still having the "small" seizures, but no "big" seizures, Doc had lots to say. He explained to me (using the brain model sitting next to his chair) that these small seizures happen "here" in the brain and it's only the Topamax that I'm taking that keep them from spreading (as he makes sparkly spirit fingers to the rest of the brain model) and becoming "big" seizure (otherwise known as grand mal seizures).

Hmmm...So. If I wasn't taking this medicine, everytime I have one my "small" seizures I'd be having a "big" seizure? OOOOOHHHH. Those "big" seizures hurt. These small ones are just embarrassing and inconvenient and somewhat dangerous. The big ones are all of those AND they hurt AND they're MORE dangerous. YIKES. I'm having the small once about once or twice a month! Good thing the medicine is at least controlling the big ones!

So Doc goes on to say we have to do something with the medicine I'm on. He said we can't just up the med I'm on because it's not completely working and the side effects are not acceptable the way they are. So the one he wanted to add at my last appointment, we're adding. He said that hopefully, this new one will control the SMALL seizures completely, AND the big seizures. The idea is to have me on both for a while, then take me off the med I'm currently on, and see if the new med will control both the BIG seizures and the SMALL seizures. But we won't know until we try.

The new medicine has some interesting possible effects. Among the usual side effects are nausea, dizziness, fatigue, possible confusion, etc... but the fun one is something called Hyponatremia, or not having enough salt in your blood. The first time Doc mentioned this med to me, he said, "Yeah, so you'll just have to be sure to eat a lot of salty foods while you're on this med because it really zaps all the sodium out of your blood, and it can put you in the hospital really quickly because of that. He'll do blood tests in two weeks to check that level. Sounds like fun, eh?!

OH! And! it's REALLY expensive, too. For a one month supply, it's $293.00. I buy my medicine from Canada, and so it's only going to be $190.00. I found some coolness on the manufacturer's website and got a free trial for the first six weeks (YEAH!), so by the end of the day when I had the prescription filled, the freeness of it made up for the fact that I was being put on it in the first place.

That happiness will wear off when I start taking it Sunday night. :-(

Doey!

The Part of Man Sitting On the Train...

The Cincy Vineyard pulls it out again! Check out this non-promo video for their Christmas play, Mass Transit. The video shows why they hired professionals rather than using their homegrown actors...The audition is complete with the HeatMiser, a Sean Connery wanna-be, a Snakes on a Train freakout, and a I'm a Little TeaPot girl trying to make the play, among others. Good stuff!

The Meeker's Christmas Party!

You're invited to join us after Carols and Candles for dinner at our apartment (if you're not an ax-murderer that is)! We’ll have a 20 pound turkey to share (courtesy of Brandi, she bought one a few weeks ago just hoping that she's have an opportunity to make it one day, so we thought this was a great time! We are fixin' up some of the fixins', and if you’ll do your best to bring some of your favorites to share, or something to drink, we'll have ourselves a new Christmas tradition: Tinsel and Turkey after Carols and Candles! You know you always go out to eat afterwards anyway - just come over here instead! Robert will get the background Christmas music rolling, we'll have some Christmas movies playing for the kids (or even the big kids, if you're one of THOSE) and maybe, just maybe...we'll even take in a good Charlie Brown-eseque reading of Luke 2?! Who knows what will happen...we just know that it won't be the same without you.

If you think that you’re coming, let us know so we can make sure to have enough cookies (and chairs!) for everyone and if you need directions, shoot us an email!

See you at Carols and Candles!

Gather Round the Tree - Let's Sing!

Each of these represent a Christmas carol or well known Christmas song. Can you guess the song?

1. The apartment of 2 psychiatrists.
2. The lad is a diminutive percussionist.
3. Decorate the entry-ways .
4. Sir Lancelot with laryngitis.
5. A B C D E F G H I J K M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z.
6. Present me naught but dual incisors for this festive Yuletide.
7. The smog-less bewitching hour arrived.
8. Exuberation to this orb.
9. 288 Yuletide hours.
10. Do you perceive the same longitudinal pressure which stimulates my auditory sense organs.
11. The red-suited pa is due in this burg.
12. Stepping on the pad cover.
13. Uncouth dolt has his beezer in the booze and thinks he is a Dark Cloud's boyfriend.
14. Far back in a hay bin.
15. Leave and do an elevated broadcast.
16. That exiguous hamlet south of the holy city.
17. Behold! I envisioned a trio of nautical vessels.
18. Listen, the winged heavenly messengers are proclaiming tunefully.
19. A joyful song relative to hollow metallic vessels which vibrate and bring forth a ringing sound when struck.
20. As the guardians of little woolly animal's protected their charges in the shadows of the earth.
21. Frozen precipitation commence
22. Monarchial triad
23. Oh, member of the round table with missing areas
24. Boulder of the tinkling metal spheres
25. Vehicular homicide was committed on Dad's mom by a precipitous darling
26. Wanted in December: top forward incisors
27. We are Kong, Lear, and Nat Cole
28. Cup-shaped instruments fashioned of a whitish metallic element
29. Oh small Israel urban center
30. Our fervent hope is that you thoroughly enjoy your yuletide season
31. Parent was observed osculating a red-coated unshaven teamster
32. May the Deity bestow an absence of fatigue to mild male humans
33. Natal celebration devoid of color, rather albino, as a hallucinatory phenomenon for me.
34. Obese personification fabricated of compressed mounds of minute crystals.
35. Tranquiltiy upon the terrestrial sphere.
36. Have hitherward the entire assembly of those who are loyal in their belief.

Who knew that the next Ralph Lauren poster boy would be found in MY family? I mean, look at this boy! You don't get much more classically/stereotypically American looking than that, do you? Brian's a cute one...I wish I had digital images of his dad (my brother Joe) to show you just how much he looks like Joe did at his age, though you can definitely see how much Nat added to the mix! (Thanks for overriding the awful Osborne ears, Nat! and giving Brian some good ones!)

And, it other picture news, here's one that never made it to the blog before. A few others will be added to the rolls soon. Enjoy!

She's BAAAACK!

My mom was taking an extended break from the Blogosphere, but she's back now! Pop over to her spot sometime and leave her a comment to let her feel some Land of Oz love! She's writing a book, you know? Maybe she'll start writing some of the chapters on her blog so we can get a preview...??

Call Off the Search

I was reading by online Bible this morning and then went to read Relevant Magazine, when I saw this banner ad for Frontiers at the top of their site. And not just Frontiers, but for our particular work. Cool, huh? Hopefully that will bring some "relevant" workers our way. Onto other thoughts. James thoughts:

14-17Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?

18I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, "Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I'll handle the works department."

Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove.

19-20Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That's just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?

21-24Wasn't our ancestor Abraham "made right with God by works" when he placed his son Isaac on the sacrificial altar? Isn't it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself in works? That the works are "works of faith"? The full meaning of "believe" in the Scripture sentence, "Abraham believed God and was set right with God," includes his action. It's that mesh of believing and acting that got Abraham named "God's friend." Is it not evident that a person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works?

25-26The same with Rahab, the Jericho harlot. Wasn't her action in hiding God's spies and helping them escape—that seamless unity of believing and doing—what counted with God? The very moment you separate body and spirit, you
end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse.

When was the last time you were seriously reminded that your ACTIONS should line up with what you say you believe? Last night I was writing a letter to the church I went to when I first became a Christian asking if we could come present there. I doubt that they'll have us over (mostly because I heard that the Senior Pastor just resigned, and he was the last person on staff still there from when I worked there), but I DIGRESS. Writing them sure puts the past 15 years in perspective! Wow...I remember sitting in their pews just soaking up every word that would drip from their mad-ranting pastor's mouth! He was so passionate about the truth, and such a good teacher. All he wanted was for his church to know God, and to change the world. And I look at our crew of students, and so many of us have gone on to do crazy things for the Lord (whether it's in full time ministry or not). It's just that somewhere along the way, our Pastors said to us, "Hey, your actions should match what you believe," and we sort of believed them. And no, we by no means get it right all the time (GOD NO!), but the past 15 years of saying to the Lord, "I believe in YOU, and because of that, I'll live for you..."

It's good, eh?

I am going to learn to make bread tomorrow. (Emily Dickinson)

I am going to learn to make bread tomorrow. So you may imagine me with my sleeves rolled up, mixing flour, milk, saleratus, etc., with a deal of grace. I advise you if you don't know how to make the staff of life to learn with dispatch. (Emily Dickinson)

This is my loaf of bread. I made it today, believe it or not. I used to make bread in the bread maker, but no more. This bread is too pretty to use the bread machine any more. Now, I have no real idea how this bread taste since I have yet to slice into it, but it looks nice, doesn't it? It's the same recipe I've used before in the breadmaker, and I suspected that bread would taste better if made in the oven where it had more room to breathe. Our bread maker's pan is small and stout, so last week I bought an actual loaf pan, and today I let the bread make do the first round of kneading, and then took the dough out, did round two myself, let it rise in the loaf pan one last time and THEN put it in oven to bake. WE'LL see. It sure looks and feels better so far then it used to in the machine!

Stamps, Act 2.

(curtain rises as Angie is sitting on the couch, indian style with her trusty cell phone calculator, figuring out how much 400 color laser copies will cost at approx. $.23 cents per copy, per side, if it is a double sided piece, plus paper. Add in another document that is plain black and white, but also double sided, on heavier card stock paper. The battery is getting low on her phone and she realizes that she needs to plug it in soon or it will die. This heavy math will have to wait until later).

This was the scene the night before last as I tried to figure the cost of printing a full color brochure for our trip to Iraq, plus the response cards for the giving envelopes we'll send to our supporters. Yikes! It's SO expensive to raise money!

BUT, you know what I started thinking, right? Stamps.

I mean, it worked with the stamps! God rained downed stamps from heaven - why not printing?! So I plugged in my phone, and banged out some emails. First to some pastor friends in town (and some not so in town), and then to some Christian printers in town, asking if any of them would be up for spotting this print job. Then, I just sort of prayed, "God, could you get this one too?"

:-) And we got two takers! We will have enough brochures now to be able to send to all of our supporters, and to go to a church with our presentation as soon as we find a church who will have us! The pastor who said his church would print them - I don't even KNOW HIM really! We've passed each other online over the years, but he lives in another state for goodness sake! He just said, "I could use my less than half used copy budget for it. Send it my way."

And the printer here in town - he was all over it! In fact, he said, "I know just the paper to print it on," and started into this talk about a "dull gloss heavier weight paper, lightly colored to look like sand, which would really make our brohures colors pop and stand out (not boring like most churches or missionaries just use white)...and it would be great", he said, "because the light sand color would be reminiscent of the sands of Iraq." :-) And he said, "I know you said you needed 400, but we should probably print 500, in case you find you need more along the way. You never know who you're going to meet!"

My goodness! My God's Goodness.

Christmas is a time when you get homesick, even when you're home. (Carol Nelson)

I called Devan last week to ask her if we could drive over to Ludlow Falls sometime this Christmas season and visit this place I used to go to every year as a child (well, every year we were in Ohio anyway). She said, "if I can make that happen, sure!). Devan's from Dayton, and Ludlow Falls is a Dayton thing, so it only makes sense. Ludlow Falls is kind of amazing, kind of awful, I'm not sure which. It's this small gorge and waterfall that a local fire department decorates with tens of thousands of lights and decorations, and if you wait long enough into the season, the waterfall will freeze! It's meets two of my requirements for a fantastic evening out - sparkly lights and water. So they light it up usually around my birthday (just for me, I'm sure), and since that's next week, I thought I'd check that out online to find out the times and such.

Yeah. So the lights are out at Ludlow Falls. The Fire Department apparently called it quits. How sad! This was one of only two holiday traditions I even remember from my childhood. We so often were traveling from Virginia to Ohio, or vice versa, that traditions didn't really seem to have a place. We just had to GET where we were going, and then once we were there, get from one place to the othere. But Ludlow Falls! If we were in Ohio, we did that, and it was FANTASTIC! :-(

Oh well. There's always Clifton Mill, right? I tried to upload the pictures of Clifton Mill here, but Blogger's being stupid. Check it out here). Clifton Mill ain't nothing, as they say. It will never replace Ludlow Falls, but it's pretty cool nonetheless. I think I remember going there once in high school with some crazy friends. No. Literally. CRAZY.

But in happier holiday news, I found out today that the animated displays (pictures forthcoming) that used to be downtown at the Rike's Building are now on display at the Schuster Building! Wonderful! This obviously means nothing to those of you not from Dayton...but if you're ever swinging through! Now you know what to stop and see!

Vision speaks in 39 cent increments

Stamp Collecting dispels boredom, enlarges our vision, broadens our knowledge, makes us better citizens and in innumerable ways, enriches our lives.
(President Roosevelt)

That Roosevelt was one smart fella! Yesterday someone gave us money for stamps! Can you believe that!? I told you so!

A couple of books of stamps have never felt so NEAT in my hands, to use a perfectly sixth grade term. You know that feeling in sixth grade when you became fixated on some subject matter or sport and every next thing you learned about it was just the COOLEST? And every next thing that you could buy to add to your collection about that was the BEST? And you just wanted to show your stuff off to EVERYONE because they just HAD to learn about it too?! (Well, for me anyway). These stamps are NEAT, THE COOLEST, THE BEST and HEY LOOK AT OUR STAMPS!!!

14 When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. 21 Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.

Birthday Celebration Continues Despite Peace Talks

Yesterday's news that NBC, MSNBC, the Los Angeles Times and many other American news outlets are now officially referring to the situation in Iraq as a "civil war" did not seem to phase Iraqi president and PUK founder Jalal Talabani. What the American press names the state of life in his country is of little consequence to him as he deals daily with the sectarian violence that has torn apart his country. The world watches as it struggles to rebuild and waits to see what will come of this volatile area.

Talabani did take a few minutes out of his busy schedule today to surprise one of our very own Oz readers with a celebratory birthday dinner along with several heads of state at his Kurdish home in Erbil. Jen H. was welcomed with the hospitality that is typical of the Kurds, and sat with Talabani and his family for a meal of rice and shila. After dinner, Talabani and Jen met with the press for questions. One member of the Kurdish press asked her how this compared to American celebrations, and she answered, "Well, in America, we are given cars at every birthday, and you did not give me a car. That is different. Your cake is very good though, and I am glad that we could dance. I have missed Kurdish dancing."

Jen flew home on Thursday and was met at the airport by her friends Robert and Angie at the airport in Columbus, Ohio. They will be enjoying another birthday celebration together on Friday evening, though one can only imagine it will not be as eventful as meeting the President of Iraq, Jalal Talabani!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEN!!!

Discover the Point

No really, DiscoverThePoint.org. This is the website I've been making for a church in Toledo. It's not finished yet, but it's due to launch in just a few days, and tonight, I talked with the director at the church and found out a ton of changes to be made to the site. I'll be working on it all day tommorrow for sure. Oh, but I still have that Family Fun Night flyer to finish up for the church in Texas having REAL SNOW, a petting zoo, a carousel, and who is watching a Charlie Brown Christmas and The Polar Express outside on the big screen for their block party in a few weeks! Who wouldn't want to come to that?! And I seriously need to dig back into their database...For someone who doesn't have a real job, I sure have been working a lot this week and have a lot more to do.

Oh and in MUCH more exciting news! Robert and I have begun our support raising for our return trip to Iraq. Yup! It officially began this afternoon when we sent our November Newsletter. If you would like a copy of it and didn't get one, shoot me an email and I'll make sure you get one. The highlight of the newsletter (in my opinion)was our "Creative Ways to Give!" Over the next few weeks, we'll be sending out HUNDREDS of letter to people and churches across the country asking for their support, and while walking out the door the other talking about how we ONLY need 100 of those HUNDREDS to pledge $50 a month in order to meet our goal, it dawned on us that HUNDREDS of stamps are VERY expensive! At least, they are when neither of us are working steady full time! We know that we will have to send to hundreds of people in order to gain the needed support, and we know that God will supply just what need in order to GO. BUT, we need stamps in order to do that! HA!

Well, stamps are no match for GOD, right!? So, stamps became a creative way to give to our ministry! I mean, we can totally believe for God to show a few people how THEY are TRULY supporting the work of our ministry by simply mailing us STAMPS, right? I'm not being sarcastic either! As we walked out the door and talked about it in the car, I think we had this moment (at least I did) where I remembered that it may be someone's joy to pick up an extra book of stamps at the Post Office, knowing that every 20 stamps mails out 20 letters which may yield another person's support for our ministry. It's strange how God works like that, right?

*sigh* Enough of that...Wanna hear something strange? What I want right now - is an Apple Fritter donut from Jolly Pirate and some more iced Apple Juice. Yum. That's brain food when you're working on important stuff like websites, flyers, databases, and that most important stuff - stamps and praying for stamps!

The Dream of A Library Goes Down.

Last week and this week, I took what was essentially my youth ministry library (easily over $800 in books) to Half Price Books to sell them. I was given a total of $82. Now I know what you're thinking. "Angie! Did you REALLY need the money THAT badly!? These are your BOOKS! YOUR BOOKS!" I mean, anyone who knows me knows about my books, right? Heck, Jason used to SMELL my books when he'd walk into my office, for goodness sake! So to answer the question, "Yes, I wanted some extra money but NO! I didn't need it THAT badly. NO! No. If I really needed the money that badly, I would have found it other ways than selling my books, I can promise you that. These were my books!"

But they were my books. And they were just sitting around all day every day staring at me (along with other things), reminding me of all the things I'm not doing. Of what I USED to do. Of what I USED to need them for, of what I used to reference them for. And I told myself that I was keeping those books because I'd need them again someday, but one day last week, suddenly I saw: I am never going to use them again. Even if were to need them again, they'll be so hopelessly out of date, I shouldn't be using them. That is beside the point though; I won't use them again anyway.

I'll never be that person again. I'll have new ministry, for sure, someday and I'm getting entirely anxious for it...but not that ministry. Not anything like that, for lots of reasons. I just can't. So the books had to go. And in the process of doing that, I freed up a cabinet, almost an entire bookshelf, AND made $82. Not bad.

It took 10 years to fill that up and only an half hour to empty it. Wonder what I'll fill it with next?

WTF!?

Tribesman, clansmen, and cavesmen in other countries who are just setting up their satellites, televisions, and internets for the first time ever see this and think THIS is what the rest of the world is like?

Thank YOU very much, Mr. David Hasselhoff. What would we do without you to represent the rest of the human race?

We Never Went To Church (The Streets)

Lyrics here.
The Streets website here.

Getting lost at the circus

When I was little, I never got to ride in the front seat. Joe was the oldest, so he always called shotgun and got it. It sucked. I could never hear what was being talked about, I couldn't control what was on the radio, and I couldn't see over the seats to even know what sort of fun was being had "up there." So, I would be left to entertain myself in the back seat, usually just looking out the windows at whatever happened to be whirring past.

For some reason, rainy days stick out in my mind like this. Probably because the street lights and headlights glisten so much more brightly when its raining. The rain captures everything, you know? It was one of the worst feeling when I was a kid-being stuck in the back seat on a rainy day just staring out the window while "stuff" happened in the front seat.

Turns out, years later, I'm right back in the back seat (in a number of ways) and hating them all just the same.

Everytime I get in a car, I am that little kid sitting in the back seat, straining to see over the seats, wondering what's on the radio or what's going to come on next or what the other people are up to or going to do next. From the moment that I recognize a need to leave my apartment, I just give up my own independence. No more lingering in the store just because I want to, or stopping at an extra store along the way; no more "oops I forgot this, let's go back," or "I'm sitting at home bored, I think I'll go here." And once I'm in the car, it's not my decision what station to listen to (or NOT to listen to), or windows to roll down, or route to take, and so on. I have to plan my entire day when I want to go out, and then plan it around someone else and be able to communicate every detail of it to whoeever is going to be taking me somewhere. Not to mention that my CAR is where I used to THINK best, and it's where I used to listen to music. I have yet to find a place that works as well as my car for those two things. It's been this way for an entire YEAR now, and it's not going to change. I can't honestly tell my doctor next month that I've been seizure free since our last visit, so another six months of not driving is on its way. THIS is why teenagers looked so forward to getting their licence!

NOT DRIVING, is the same as being in the back seat, and in fact, it IS being in the back seat. It's awful, plain and simple.

PS. Resist the urge to comment with platitudes and niceities. I will delete your comments if you do. I really don't need that. I'm just writing to write. But thank you for your thoughts if you WERE going to. :-)

What's your phone number again?

Tonight Brandi, Bob and I went to tutor a Somali family in English. It was the first in what I'm sure will be many visits. I have no idea how three people who speak no Somali tutor a family in English who speak little to no English, considering none of us have any training in this? But, I guess if we talk AT each other long enough, we, or they are bound to pick up some of each other's language sooner or later. That sounds terrible, but honestly, that sounds like the PLAN of the agency that sent us! AH... more details of our visit later if someone else doesn't beat me to it. Good times.

What if this is as good as it gets?

Ramblings ahead.

Now, I'm still an outsider. I'm a "has-been" that walked away. People in the church don't / can't / won't get that. So what does that mean for me? I don't know. Do you have any clues? I've actually toyed with the idea of putting together a "clearness committee", a group of close friends and counselors who will help me hear and discern the will of God. Can you hear the frustration in my voice? I don't know what to do, where to go, or how to get there. These are difficult days. I wish I could sound a little more victorious, but when it comes to investing my life and utilizing my gifts, well, I'm at a loss.

A friend of mine wrote this to me the other day. He used to be a senior pastor but isn't anymore. Just recently he started trying to get back into it (apparently, things aren't going so well). He's an amazing senior pastor, too. It will be a sadness for the church, if he doesn't end up somewhere.

I haven't written him back yet because I honestly don't know what to say. I feel a lot of the same frustration he does and so, what do I say besides, "Yeah, I understand." (That much goes understood between us). I don't know why yet, but for some reason his entire email reminds me of this song by derek webb, called Nothing is Ever Enough. Maybe it's because you'd have to know the whole story about why he left the pastorate in the first place, but the "she" in this song makes me think of the church and how she can be so beautiful at her best, and because SHE is only made up of WE, really ugly at the same time. And because of that, sometimes she can't see past the changes a person has made and the enormous contribution a person still has to contribute to the community.

she’s not real,
she’s the spokes on a wheel
but the way she moves will take you where you wanna go
and you’re the one that she steals from
but if not you she’s gonna find somebody else
‘cause nothing is ever enough
and you love her but you know you’ve got to leave her
‘cause she’s leaving you with no way out
she’s a jewel in the nose of a fool
she’s beautiful but she don’t know who she is
and you’re a wreck because you suspect
that she’ll never be who she was years ago
‘cause nothing is ever enough
maybe you don’t see it
but she’s waiting everywhere
you’re gonna go
in the faces of the people who look at you
like someone that they know

Truth is, I've always been thirsty. (Senior Ed Bloom)

My friend Devan called tonight to tell me that she and her husband Scott have decided to launch out of their harbor and move to Charlotte, without having a job first.

It's perfect. (BTW, the XM Cafe radio station I've been listening to lately is providing the perfect soundtrack to my life right now. If you have access to it, take a listen). Anyway, it's just the right insert to my life's story line right now. Yes, if you know me, you know that I believe that this world revolves around me, and so while Devan and Scott think that their move to Charlotte is about THEM, it's actually a subplot in MY story, AND as such, it's just what needed to be happening right now. Everything else was getting a little stale. Someone had to do something to break up the monotony. Good play, Dev.

No seriously. Good play, Dev. ;-) I'm proud of you guys. Go kill Charlotte.

And speaking of breaking up the monotony, today was Robert's Kurdish Supporters Meeting. Despite what that might sound like, it was not a marketing brainstorming party for the newest Iraqi jockstrap. :-) (it's been a long day. I think I'm funny). I can't speak for Robert, because this was his deal, his gathering to share about his experience with his supporters from his trip...so maybe he'll talk about it on his blog, but here's my take:

I've never been more excited to go than I am this evening. I can't stop thinking about it. The vision God gave me 10 years ago about going to a "country without a country..." hasn't been as vivid in 10 years as it is tonight. I feel as confident tonight that God will bring to us 100 people to support us with $40 a month than I ever have (that's just an avg. of what we'll need - something I use to help me get my head around the huge $ we're raising). The gathering today wasn't MY gathering - but the people are. They've been my people for 10 years; I just didn't know it. Every time Robert tells a story or shows some pictures about these people, my heart grows bigger for them. I am crazy caught up in this madness.

Tonight I was thinking about this man in Colorado at my internship (Gene, I think was his name) who told me what he thought about "visions" and "dreams" and so on. His advice was so plain, and it wasn't anything I hadn't heard a dozen times before., but it was good. "When you feel like God has shows you something, you tell your wise counsel about it, so they can test it against your character, against the Word and against the Spirit. Then you put it on a shelf and see if anything comes of it." There was a little explanation given to each of those, but basically, that was it. I've done that repeatedly in my life, and repeatedly, it's been the wise and right thing to do. AND, repeatedly, the vision given to me from God has been TRUE.

This crazy vision God gave me TEN years ago is TRUE. Isn't that nuts!! Days like today - are PROOF that God loves us and wants us to be close to him... (at least, to me it is), because he went out of his way to tell me of this so I would know and not miss it. So I wouldn't miss Robert (because he's a part of this). So I wouldn't miss the goodness of this whole thing. So I wouldn't miss the opportunity to serve Him in this way, whatever this is going to look like.

*Sigh* On that note...Amen.

3:37

I'm tired. Good night.

A new look!

How does the new look look? I'm working on getting all the fonts changed to the same thing, and getting the post titles changed to a different color than the date so that it sticks out, but all that takes time to figure out, you know?

For some wedding pictures (as many as I could fit in the album before reaching my limit), click here.

To jump right to seeing them as a timed SLIDESHOW, rather than clicking through them individually, click HERE.

On the way out of the parking garage at the library this afternoon, the parking attendant caught me off guard. Rather than allowing Brandy and I to slip through with the customary, "Hi." "Hi. How are you today?" "Fine. And you?" "Good. Have a nice day," he interuppted the natural flow of things and instead asked "Well, since you asked, I mean, you asked me how I am, do you really want to know? Because if you do, I'll tell you."

Awkward pause as he breaks the proscenium wall while waiting for our response. "Well, yes, of course. How has your day been?"

ABC News: Haggard Admits Some 'Indiscretion,' Says Fellow Pastor

Industry talk ahead. I don't know why this is, because I should be just this sad when any well know pastor admits publicly to some sort of sin (or is "found out), but Ted Haggard? And not an affair, but a gay affair and undercover meth use?

And not just a gay affair, but how ironic that TED HAGGARD was in a gay affair? Co-Leader of the Colorado Springs movement to ban gay marriage has been having a gay affair (he and James Dobson take the charge on that one)? How sad and double-minded his life must have been for these three years to have been living this way. Dear Jesus. Could you come back now and save us from ourselves.

It's still a work in progress, but this is one of two logos I'm working on for a church in Toledo. This is for their Kid's Ministries' Nursery. I'm also doing their website (and by tomorrow, I'm supposed to have the second round of their basic sight design ready to look at). Oh, and for another project I'm working on for another church, I have 300 pages of technical manuals to read to learn how to use a new database I've never used. They're all PDF's though, and that's obviously too much to print out here at home. Reading technical stuff on the screen is like poking my eyes out - especially when I need to be comparing what I'm reading with what's on another screen. The funny thing is, it's just a church management database, so typically, that's the sort of thing I can just look at and KNOW what to do. But, this one is actually GOOD! and when I opened it up, and started poking around, I thought to myself, "DANG! FINALLY! a company made a database for churches that DOES what we've been looking for!" and SO, it' sort of um? Well. Let's just say that you can't just be a monkey and operate it so I'm having to read some instructions about how the different modules interact with one another. Mad props to Fellowship Church for that one. Oh, and I think that I'm going to end up integrating this database with their website too, so I better REALLY pay attention. YIKES!

For someone who doesn't have a job, I sure do have enought to do (and a lot that I'm putting off doing strangely enough)...a lot to do that I would TRADE doing in a heartbeat to just have a NORMAL job again. *sigh* (and by normal, I mean something with meaning).

But since I don't, I should probably get back to work. See ya!

I WISH I WAS THE MOON TONIGHT, BY NEKO CASE
Click here to hear the song, "I Wish I Was the Moon Tonight"

Chimney falls and lovers blaze
Thought that I was young
Now I've freezing hands and bloodless veins
As numb as I've become
I'm so tired
I wish I was the moon tonight
Last night I dreamt I had forgotten my name
'Cause I had sold my soul but awoke just the same
I'm so lonely
I wish I was the moon tonight
God blessed me, I'm a free man
With no place free to go
I'm paralyzed and collared-tight
No pills for what I fear
This is crazy
I wish I was the moon tonight
Chimney falls and lovers blaze
Thought that I was young
Now I've freezing hands and bloodless veins
As numb as I've become
I'm so tired,
I wish I was the moon tonight
How will you know if you found me at least
'Cause I'll be the one, be the one, be the one
With my heart in my lap
I'm so tired, I'm so tired
I wish I was the moon tonight

Last night, I didn't dream that I'd forgotten my name or that I was the moon, but I definitely did dream that I wasn't here. (The song, btw, is a by a new artist I'm loving).

I first dreamt that Robert, Stephanie, another woman that I didn't know and I were moving into our apartment in our city in our middle eastern country. I can see the apartment right this moment as clear as if I were there right this moment. There were three beds within eye shot of the front door, all with dark, reddy colored blankets. One was in its own room (of course), and the other two shared a room. The kitchen was the to the left of the main room where you entered, which was sort of like what we would call a "living room" (or what MY family calls a living room, the more formal room). There was hardly any furniture in this room, which I thought strange, though it seemed to be decorated well enough. Beyond this room, we could see a room where there was a couch, so I figured that to be the "family room." We were greetly warmly by a tall-ish round lady who knew Robert, and put our things in the first bedroom. What I remember most about the whole thing is the bed linens. They were the strangest, reddish-rustiest color. I didn't want this dream to end.

But of course it did, because apparently I needed to dream about sky diving, only not sky diving on purpose. I was assigned to cover someone doing it, and didn't mean to cover them all the way out of the plane, I just happened to be so into the story that I followed them all the way out. I didn't have a parachute on, so as I went down, I was frozen in fear almost the whole way, but I remember thinking, "Hey, if I can just wiggle around enough at about 5,000 ft., I think I'll slow down and be able to stick the landing." It worked.

When I woke up, I thought to myself, "I was so scared stiff during that dream, I wonder if I've just had a seizure?" because there are types of seizures that are basically where you stiffen up SO tight at night during your sleep. BUT, then I realized that I didn't feel tense or tight at all, and settled on the fact that I was just a freak with a freaky dream freaking out!

GALATIANS 6V1-10

My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. For if those who are nothing think they are something, they deceive themselves. All must test their own work; then that work, rather than their neighbor's work, will become a cause for pride. For all must carry their own loads.

Those who are taught the word must share in all good things with their teacher.

Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.

WRITE YOUR OWN CAPTION.


This just shows that you can't trust Emily Krider when it comes to Education. Vote NO for Emily Krider this November.

THIS NUMBER IS TEMPORARILY OUT OF SERVICE.

(Edited: So apparently, she didn't take my charger after all. Maybe the plug upstairs just wasn't working or something and that made it seem like that charger wasn't working. We're back in business now. Thanks everyone!).

So last week when my mom was here in Columbus catching her flight back to Texas, she accidentally grabbed MY cell phone charger and took it back with her. So my phone is dead as a door nail. And probably her new cell phone is, too. Only, because it's new, she might think that the charger that she has is just the WRONG charger, and might have even just thrown it away or something. I'm just saying that she might not realize that she has mine. Well, and without telling the whole story, I don't actually KNOW her new cell phone number so I can't call it and see if it's dead or try to tell her what's happened. I think I'm going to write her a letter. How 1940.

OH, and ironically...Bob and I HAVE a car cell phone charger that works with my phone. Now all we need is a car and I'll be back in business. Maybe someone else will come stay with us and accidentally leave their WORKING car with us and take our broken down van with them!?

HEY! It COULD happen, right?!

JAMES 1:19-27

(check out the comments for the actual post - this post is for our home group mostly, but everyone else can read, too).

GOOD CHARLOTTE INDEED.

"girls don't like boys, girls like cars and money!" is playing on MTV right now and I'm remembering how much I liked this song when it first came out.

CHEAP GRACE.

Brother Lawrence did not have this kind of preaching and singing in mind [the kind that seeks its own easy glory, rather than God's]. He washed dishes; it was enough for him. He did not need to preach like the superstars of his day (and surely there were some). He had no need to travel about doing some medicine show for Jesus. No, his testimony was simple: "We must serve God in a Holy freedom, going about our business carefully, but without stress or anxiety, recalling the mind of God...whenever we find it wandering."

The purpose of God for our lives has to do primarily with fellowship, not entertainment. There is only basis that we may find this fellowship with God and that is with godliness. 1 Tim. 4:7 begs us to discipline ourselves for godliness. There are many books out now on discipline. Deitrich Bonhoeffer reminds us that salvation without discipline is merely cheap grace. It is a poor attempt to buy the most of God with the least of our yielding. Dallas Williard, in the Spirit of the Disciplines, says,

My central claim is that we can become like Christ by doing one thing - by following him in the overall style of life he chose for himself. If we have faith in Christ, we must believe that he knew how to live. We can, through faith and grace, become like Christ by practicing the types of activities he engaged in, by arranging our whole lives around the activities he himself practiced in order to remain constantly at home in the fellowship of his Father.

In the Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence has this glorious order in mind, that we will practice the discipline of relationship. Charles Spurgeon wrote, "I must take care above all that I cultivate communion with Christ for though that can never be the basis of my peace - mark that - yet it will be the channel of it." Our relationship with God and our hunger for that relationship is God's agenda. He does not require our amazing talent to be laid on the altar. He requires our lives to be the altar. We are never to be content with merely DOING things for God. We are central in his will only as we hunger for more of him. When we crave his presence, our music will transcend accompaniment tapes, and our preaching will throb with otherworldly power. Seek the kingdom, Jesus said (Matt 6:33), and then we will be able to dispense with every salute to our weak genius.

(Calvin Miller, The Unchained Soul)

TUMBLEWEED TENDENCIES DIE HARD.

Tumbleweed is a name used for a number of species from the genus Salsola (Family Amaranthaceae). Tumbleweeds break away from their roots in the autumn, and are driven by the wind, as a light, rolling mass, over fields and prairies, scattering seed far and wide. Prairie tumbleweed produces its seeds in such profusion that the plant doesn't bother with protective coatings or food reserves for the coiled plant embryos.

I'M FASTING TODAY, SO BY 6:40PM, THIS IS FUNNY.

LOSING INTEREST IN SELF.

Nothing is so glorious as the reception of Christ into our lives. There, deep in the center of our true identity, he is Lord. We bow to him, leaving self and self-interest behind. At that moment, it is no longer enough to explain ourselves by owning up to our own names. We must own up to his. We must confess him to others and unashamedly say that our own identity is of such small importance we have replaced it with his...

The excellence of his lordship is often learned when we are locked in the jaws of need and failure. As long as we are winning in life, we bask in a glory that celebrates only ourselves. But when we begin to fail, our celebration of ourselves will not sustain us. Then we call out to Christ, confessing his name. How true the words of David, "The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart" (psalm 34v18).
(The Unchained Soul, by Calvin Miller)

HEADS CAROLINA, TAILS CALIFORNIA.

We both knew it would happen, we just didn't expect it so soon or suddenly. We threw a rod in our new old van this Friday, and so our new old van is now dead. It was all very dramatic, as you can imagine, and the results of NOT having a vehicle also feel very dramatic.

*HEAVY SIGH*

I LOVE THESE PICTURES.

Ah-Ha-HA

THE COOKIES STILL SUCK OR (WHAT THE CHURCH NEEDS NOW) OR WHAT'S ON MY MIND THAT'S KEEPING ME FROM BLOGGING.

What the Church Needs Now is kind of a bold title for an article, but it carries with it a bit of irony. There is a bunch I think the church in America needs; join the club, right? I'll get to one specific item in a few sentences, but here's a thought before I get there. What if the church doesn't need anything now. Maybe that's part of the problem. We are always looking for solutions to fix the church's problems right now. We go through a period of disillusionment with the status quo, leave and begin looking for greener pastures, and almost immediately reorganize into something with basically the same values and culture as the place we left. The model might be tweaked a bit, but the fundamental patterns of church life remain.

I used to recommend that people leaving church staff or other leadership positions take at least 6 months to a year to detox from ingrown, destructive patterns before setting out to start something new. Now I wonder if that time frame needs to be more like five to ten years. The Apostle Paul immersed himself in life with Jesus for fourteen years before his real ministry began. For someone who was forcefully upholding the Jewish way of life, it probably took that long for him to learn how to minister to people the way Jesus did. If our ministries have had their foundation in numbers, programs, and mechanisms of success achievement, then perhaps we need the same retraining.

What the church needs are leaders willing to be retrained in the way of Jesus. This training will not come from a seminar or book or by copying some famous Christian celebrity. The first step, bluntly, is to die to the American way of getting things done. This transition will not happen efficiently or autonomously. This is old school ancient, eastern, Mr. Miyagi kind of training. You can't buy your way through it faster and you can't get it done alone. If you try to short-circuit the training and get through it quicker (and I'm speaking from experience here), you go backwards and everything gets longer. If you go into it looking for inspiration, or as Peterson says in the Message, "homeowner improvements to your standard of living," you'll get your butt handed to you. I've had mine handed to me so many times I'm wondering how my pants stay up. If you doubt me in any of this, go read an old saint of your choice. The older the better. (Now you know why so many old men have no butt:)

Recently we took the Lord's Supper with our church family. My wife Amber spent time talking with the kids about the nature of communion and asking them some questions. One question she asked was, "What do think happens to God's people when they take communion?" Our oldest, who is five, responded, "I think God gives us courage."

Courage.

What if what we need is courageous people to lead the church, and that courage only comes as a gift of God through an act of worship and obedience? Maybe in God's economy, gifting doesn't mean a thing when it comes to leadership. Maybe skills don't matter. Education. Experience. Previous success. Makes no difference. Maybe what we need are people who live in spite of questions and fear, fail regularly, get frustrated, pour their souls out to those precious few around them, and then stubbornly return to the One who is overseeing every aspect of the process.

Things are beginning to get much simpler for me...and more difficult. The choices are clearer...and more scary. God doesn't want a repackaged, band-aided American church culture anymore and he is sick and tired of poster-boy leaders who gloss over the stark realities of becoming a disciple of Jesus. I just received Dallas Willard's new book in the mail today, The Great Omission, and a line immediately stuck out to me from the jacket blurb: "Willard boldly challenges the thought that we can be Christians without being disciples, or call ourselves Christians without applying this understanding of life in the Kingdom of God to every aspect of life on earth." To address this claim, which I think is accurate, a new kind of leader is required. That is the challenge being offered to all of us.

POST SECRET



See a Secret...Share a Secret. Check out this website, an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard. New entries are added each Sunday, but then you can't view the previous week's entries after that. There is a book,and an art tour, too. I love this idea. The previous three week's entries have been better than this week's (sorry gang, I just forgot to post the link before now!) Thanks Ben for the link.

(Matthew 8:18-19)
When Jesus saw that a curious crowd was growing by the minute, he told his disciples to get him out of there to the other side of the lake. As they left, a religion scholar asked if he could go along. "I'll go with you, wherever," he said.
20Jesus was curt: "Are you ready to rough it? We're not staying in the best inns, you know."

21Another follower said, "Master, excuse me for a couple of days, please. I have my father's funeral to take care of."

22Jesus refused. "First things first. Your business is life, not death. Follow me. Pursue life."

23-25Then he got in the boat, his disciples with him. The next thing they knew, they were in a severe storm. Waves were crashing into the boat—and he was sound asleep! They roused him, pleading, "Master, save us! We're going down!"

26Jesus reprimanded them. "Why are you such cowards, such faint-hearts?" Then he stood up and told the wind to be silent, the sea to quiet down: "Silence!" The sea became smooth as glass.

27The men rubbed their eyes, astonished. "What's going on here? Wind and sea come to heel at his command!"

MRS. ANGIE MEEKER RETURNS TO OZ.

To quote my "husband", "Yes, the honeymoon was awesome. Thanks for asking. And, yes, that's as much detail as you should expect."

But, I will give you this much. Operators are standing by if you'd like to get your very own, Bob Ross-Happy Trees-inspired, limited edition, sure to sell out and definitely not going to be around for long (but not so much because there are limited supplies but more because there's a limited demand and the market won't support this amazing piece of art!)...Yes, Oz Readers, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for you and your investors, something you can be sure to pass along to your children and their children.

It's the Robert and Angela Meeker Wedding Print. If you'll expand the photo and look closely, you'll see the actual brush strokes from where where each of these have been HAND painted! :-) (Actual wedding photos to follow soon.)



In unrelated news, my not-arty neighbors are playing a didgeridoo right this moment (12:49PM). Quite well, I might add. At least they're able to make a noise with it. That's more than a lot of people can do with one. Kudos to you, not arty cracked out neighbors. If the crack/meth business drops off here in C'bus, you can always go into the didgeridoo playing business somewhere downtown. OH! Hahaha...they just tickled their lips on the tip of it. Hahaha...

GIRL, PUT YOUR RECORDS ON

I'm sitting here on the couch, just listening to music. I should be doing something productive, like figuring out the rehearsal schedule, or cleaning house, or packing, or doing laundry, or putting away the dishes, or cutting ribbon, or changing the sheets on my bed or vacumming or making the sheets that will have the directions from Trinity to the Vineyard, or any number of things like this. Or I suppose some people would even say sleeping. What a novel idea.

Instead, I'm just listening to music. Today was entirely too long, but punctuated by a lovely lunch with a good friend. ;-) Just the way I wanted to spend this Wednesday afternoon...

EGR's ABOUND.


If you can't see the grace in this picture, you're colorblind.
And if you can't see the plank in your own eye, you're probably not well-equipped to be telling others about the speck in theirs. (We can all be a little graceblind at times, including the Bridezilla).

BOB IS A GENIUS.

Bob posted directions to all of the wedding places on his website, and that seemed like a pretty good idea. After giving directions to some of my people tonight, I realized though that my people need a little more detail (sorry Oz readers, but it's true for some of you. You're just a little more needy than 13 Month'ers). So, here you go. Enjoy!

From Grove City to Trinity United Methodist Church:
Take I-270 to the Georgesville Rd (exit 5)
Turn south at Georgesville Rd (away from Walmart) - go 1.5 mi
Turn left at Norton Rd - go 0.7 mi
Turn right at Bausch Rd - go 0.9 mi
Bear left at Alkire Rd - go 5.0 mi
Bear right at Lilly Chapel-Georgesville Rd - go 1.8 mi
Arrive at 8530 Lilly Chapel-Georgesville Rd, London, OH 43140

From Trinity United Methodist Church to Minnelli’s Pizza
(where the Rehearsal dinner is, Thursday, Sept. 21, 7:30-10:30PM):
Bear left at Alkire Rd - go 5.0 mi
Bear right at Bausch Rd - go 0.9 mi
Turn left at Norton Rd - go 0.7 mi
Turn right at Georgesville Rd - go 1.4 mi
Bear right into the I-270 N entry ramp to Dublin - go 3.4 mi
Take the I-70 E/I-70 W exit 8 to Indianapolis/Columbus - go 0.2 mi
Take the I-70 E ramp to Columbus - go 1.2 mi
Take the Wilson Rd exit 94 - go 0.3 mi
Turn right at N Wilson Rd - go 0.4 mi 0.4 mi
Arrive at 1189 N Wilson Rd, Columbus, OH 43204

From Minelli’s Pizza back to the Hotels in Grove City:
Turn right out of parking lot onto Wilson Rd.
Turn left into the I-70 E entry ramp to Columbus - go 4.9 mi
Take the I-71 S exit 99A to Cincinnati - go 5.5 mi
Take the Stringtown Rd exit 100 to Grove City - go 0.4 mi
Turn right at Stringtown Rd - go 31 ft
Arrive at 1800 Stringtown Rd, Grove City, OH 43123
__________________

From Trinity United Methodist Church (where the Ceremony is, Friday, Sept. 22, 6:30PM) to Vineyard Christian Fellowship (where the reception is after the ceremony).
Turn left from Lilly Chapel-Georgesville Rd - go 1.8 mi
Bear left at Alkire Rd - go 5.0 mi
Bear right at Bausch Rd - go 0.9 mi
Turn left at Norton Rd - go 0.4 mi
Turn right at Alkire Rd - go 1.3 mi
Turn right at Holt Rd - go 1.4 mi
Arrive at 3005 Holt Rd, Grove City, OH 43123

THERE'S A BREAK IN THE ACTION ON THE FIELD!

Did I mention that I still don't have a job? Yeah, isn't that funny? I've been working on various graphic design projects since May, and somehow that's just been paying the bills. I completed 70% of the FAMJAM website and project last week, and that paid pretty well, and will pay another chunk when we get back from our honeymoon(s). It was also great fun to be working with those folks again. They emailed me last week and said that the site and new brand we helped create together were doing exactly what they needed it to do - giving the show an older feel and that they even had some junior high kids come up and ask how they could get involved (the same kids who last year said that the show was too BABY for them). So Awesome!

Then last week, my youth pastor, Pastor Brad, called and asked if I wanted to do his church's site. They've been kicking around a redesign forever, and have talked with me all the way through as they've researched companies and church build programs, sort of consulting with me about the various options, but keeping me as an option the whole time. Well, they finally just asked me to do it. AND, the budget for it is enough that I'm golden for another few months (which is GREAT news. I can keep looking for a FT job without having to freak out!). What a relief. AND, they obviously know I'm getting married this week, so I can't get started right this moment and they're ok with that. They're going to spend that time getting together some copy and graphics I'll need. They don't want it finished until Dec. 15, but I told PB that if he agrees to the what I think I'm going to quote him, then he's basically paying me a full time salary for two months, in which case there's no reason to think that it will take that long. He got excited at that idea, because I could hear his gears cranking out this thought, "OH...so maybe you could get the website done in the first month, and then in the second month we could have you do all sorts of OTHER things. I mean, why don't we just consider this hiring you on staff for two months in the Communications Department, and the website can be just ONE thing you do?" I was right, that's what he was thinking because he said it just a second later. He's so funny. I love that guy.

Did I also mention that if my dad doesn't show up for the wedding (HUGE change he's not) that Pastor Brad will be walking me down the isle? Yup.

Speaking of this wedding this weekend, I need to get in the shower. I have candle votives to stuff, bags to roll down and then hole punch once Robert gets here, a hosue to straighten up (again), I need to tanning (again), make yet another list of things to do, look over the guest list to see who really DOES need directions places, email Tanya to go buy flowers on Tuesday, take clothes to Goodwill, (oh and apparently smelly crack boy also rode in our van the day before yesterday when Mom took the dying dog to the pound, so his smell was stuck on me all day yesterday and I couldn't figure out why until about 5:30PM yesterday when I was on the verge of throwing up because his FUNK was stuck in my nostrils. We had to stop and vaccum and armorall the van which made us late for dinner), make a diagram of the church set up, write a schedule for the rehearsal, the day of, and the ceremony, figure out who is taking all of the stuff where after the wedding, cal the pharmacy to make sure they got my prescription refill correctly, find jewelry for me and my girls, find someone to drive with me on Thursday to go pick up my granny in Waverly (but NOT my mom...because that would make Granny's evil plan come true, right Mom?), sew hems into the fabric that will drape Hannah's basket, go get our marriage liscence today, make the ceremony program and the children's coloring books for the reception, find my crayons, too,...

well, you get the idea. I need to get in the shower.

Buy plates, plastic wear, napkins, cups, plates for the reception. Get the chafing dish from Tammy. If we're having the lime sherbert punch, get punch bowls. Meet up with Corrine to pick up the cake table candles and possibly the buckets. Get the trees from Robert for the ...

5:21AM EGR REPORT.



The cool, arty, indie, punk, rock neighbors are REALLY no longer cool, arty, or rock. They're just punk neighbors.

And I found out just now that the teenaged kids are not brother and sister as my mom reported. They're dating. The boy just pounded on their door and ours until I answered. I HATE answering the door at 5AM (I really shouldn't probably, it's dangerous, and really could have been this time, too). He said, "Hey uh, I locked myself out and wondered if I could use your phone. They're not answering, and well, uh, I don't have any other place to go if they don't answer."

I noticed that he smelled that particular smell that I'm somehow familiar with (God only knows how) that one obtains when one hasn't showered in approx. six days, hasn't washed ones clothes in at least 10 (he was wearing the same ones he has been for the past four), and when one passes around a particular brand of rolled "cigarette." Yesterday, mom noticed a lot of scabs on his arms and legs, which she said she knows to be indicitive of crack use, but I said they could just be flea bites and wondered why she had to jump to such conclusions. I wondered a little less last night at midnight when I heard him outside the apartment screaming and hollering at someone all sorts of nasties about all sorts of things.

Oh, but back to the story. I told him that even if they didn't wake up, I had a number he could call for Emergency Maintainence where they would come let him in. He said, "Well, I'm not on the lease or anything like that. See I'm just seeing her daughhter who lives there, and we kind of had a fight and I got locked out earlier tonight, and so I'm not sure they're gonna let me in, and if they don't, I don't have any other place to go, so I hope they do (as he hangs up they phone), but they're not answering." I told him, "Well, you can keep knocking. They're probably just asleep. I heard you, I'm sure they will too."

The smell is wafting up the stairs and sticking itself into my nostrils. Is there a special febreze nasal version for that?

SAFFRON DANCING WITH THE EUTHANIZED PITBULL

It's tminus 6 days and counting and I have a headache, and have for days. I just can't get it to go away.

I have so many things to tell Oz readers, but I think I'll just start with these things. I have new neighbors! (Bob doesn't know yet). It's a mom, and her two teenaged kids (who look so much older than teenagers, I thought perhaps they were a married 20-something couple with their elderly mom living with them). I remarked to one of my friends how neat it was going to be having the cool arty indie punk rock neighbors living next to us now.

But then I saw their decidedly UNCOOL dog about five minutes later. A PIT BULL. Not cool at ALL! They can leave now. I have a theory that Dogs Bite, because well, they do. And in my theory, Pit Bulls give the commands to all other dogs "BITE, Bite!" So how sad when the next day arty indie punk rock girl comes up to our door and says with the look of a little girl whose dog had just been run over by a speeding train, "I know we just met yesterday and all, but I was wondering if you could take me to the Animal Shelter. My pit bull got loose today and picked up by the pound, and then when he got home, he tried to snip at me a few times, so, we have to take him to the shelter."

Seriously, I know I don't like dogs and all, but that's kind of sad. So I told that I personally couldn't driver her, but if she could get directions, my mom would. Oh, and she's only 16 (and her husband isn't her husband - it's her brother). They had the dog put down, and my mom said that the girl cried a lot.

And then last night for my bachlorette party, we went to Cafe Istanbul (among other things ;-) ). It's a Turkish restaurant here in Columbus that I've wanted to go to for a while. (This was actually a really well thought out and thoughtful place to go - Bob and I have tried two different Turkish/Middle Eastern restuarant in Columbus, so now this makes three). i still had my hip scarf with my from the night's earlier belly dancing lesson as we walked through the restaurant. No sooner had we been seated, than a female manager came and talked with us. She said to me, "Are you to be married soon?" And I said, "Yes, next Friday, how did you know that?" She said, "Where I am from, in my country, if you wear one of those scarves, it means that you are to marry, only it would be red. And you would wear it around your face during dinner with your friends, and then you would cry. And that would mean you would be married. And then you would tie it around your waist, and you would dance. Like this...And you would take off your shoes and dance on the table."

I just loved it! I loved that this woman came up and talked to us about the customs in her country! And she kept coming back and talking to us over and over again! I wanted to just sit down with her and say, "Will you tell me more?" She was actually FROM Turkey. And THEN, come to find out, that our server was getting married week, too!, but he never told us where he was from.

Isn't that fantastic!?

FOR THE JOY SET BEFORE HIM...



This is my Happy Jesus video. It was the first video I ever made (we used it for Easter 2002 at East Lake, and the music wasn't canned, the band played it live). People were saved through this, did you know that? People didn't know what Jesus looked like, and after this, they did. And I don't mean, "they didn't know he looked like a sunny white guy from Texas," because probably he didn't. I mean, they didn't know that he looked like he actually WANTED to save them. Normally, he looks all pissed off about having to come get us, right? But what if he wasn't like that? What if everything he did here was marked by incredible joy (NOT HAPPINESS - don't be stupid), even in the hard stuff, because of the JOY he knew would be his afterwards when his people were reconciled to him. I mean, look at Hebrews 12, and all the instructions he gives us after telling us about he lived, knowing about the JOY that would be his afterwards. Shouldn't we be the same? How THEN should we live, knowing the joy that we will be ours after here? (Well, and let's just be real. The Kingdom has spilled over here now so this joy is ours now in part!).

1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. 2We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish. He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterward. Now he is seated in the place of highest honor beside God's throne in heaven. 3Think about all he endured when sinful people did such terrible things to him, so that you don't become weary and give up. 4After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin.

5And have you entirely forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you, his children? He said, "My child, don't ignore it when the Lord disciplines you, and don't be discouraged when he corrects you. 6 For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes those he accepts as his children."[b]

7As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Whoever heard of a child who was never disciplined? 8If God doesn't discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children after all. 9Since we respect our earthly fathers who disciplined us, should we not all the more cheerfully submit to the discipline of our heavenly Father and live forever[c]?

10For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God's discipline is always right and good for us because it means we will share in his holiness. 11No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening--it is painful! But afterward there will be a quiet harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.

12So take a new grip with your tired hands and stand firm on your shaky legs. 13Mark out a straight path for your feet. Then those who follow you, though they are weak and lame, will not stumble and fall but will become strong.

BE NEAR
Click here to download the song.

But as for me, how good it is to be near God! I have made the Sovereign LORD my shelter, and I will tell everyone about the wonderful things you do. (psalm 73v28)

You are all
big and small
beautiful
and wonderful
to trust in grace through faith
but i'm asking to taste...

for dark is light to You
depths are height to You
far is near
but Lord, i need to hear from You

be near, oh God
be near, oh God of us
Your nearness is to us our good
be near, oh God
be near, oh God of us
Your nearness is to us our good, our good

Your fullness is mine
revelation divine
but, o, to taste
to know much more than a page
to feel Your embrace...

for dark is light to You
the depths are height to You
far is near, but Lord
i need to hear from You

be near, oh God
be near, oh God of us
Your nearness is to us our good
be near, oh God
be near, oh God of us
Your nearness is to us our good, our good

NOW THIS IS IMPORTANT

I'd forgotten I'd made this. Enjoy! (especially since he's out of town this week!)

CONVINCING MYSELF IT'S IMPORTANT.
(written after initial posting: this is NOT a post about money!)

I went tanning yesterday and today, for the first time ever. Can you believe it? Yeah, that thing I said I'd never do, I'm doing. I want my pictures to look nice for the wedding, so I plopped down $35.00 for the lotion and got a week free of tanning. It would have been $35 for the week of tanning, too, but I had a coupon. I mean, you HAVE to look good in your WEDDING pictures, RIGHT?

I found out today that we're going to have to rent some additional tables for the church, because we're not allowed to use the extra rectangulars ones that the church has, and that we're not allowed to use their linens for the rounds they DO have, so we have to figure something else. So, we'll rent 8 rounds and 4 rectangulars. Not a HUGE deal; it just means that the only money I had for decorations has to now go to renting tables (and it will use all of that). Not a big deal - I mean, it's AWESOME that we have that money, right. God's been just making things appear out of the air! And we're not going to rent linens because that IS money we don't have (they're EXPENSIVE!), so we'll figure something out for all 20 rounds and all the rectangular tables we do have. Probably we'll buy a bolt of fabric from Hancocks and use that ($45 for one roll, we'll maybe use two). OR maybe white or brown butcher paper?! What do you think?! I looked today, and it looks like we can get that for $35, and one roll would work.

And the thing is - since we're HAVING a wedding reception, you HAVE to have tables, you know? 130 and counting of our closest friends and family are coming to celebrate with us with dancing, laughing and toasting (with just eight weeks notice no less! Imagine if we'd given them ACTUAL notice! We might have gotten the other 120 to show up!) and it's only right that we give those 130 and counting a place to sit and put their cake and light fare. And if you have tables, they have to be covered with SOMETHING. Really they do. It's only proper.

So as I'm sitting at home tonight pondering all of this, and wondering exactly what we're going to decorate with now (don't fret - we HAVE stuff, someday I'll tell you the story of how theknot brides decorated our wedding) - but as I was thinking of all this, I started thinking about our city, and what's going on there. I surfed over to one of the sites where I get news about that region, and I saw this article about the chemical attacks on a Kurdish city in 1988. (This is not our city, btw, it's just in that area of the country). I read the article, and as I was reading, my mind drifted far away from tanning, table rentals and toasting. I watched this video which shows actual video of the attacks (not for the southern belles among you), and was drawn so far away the wedding...

They have a saying, "The Kurds have no friends but the mountain." I'm here wondering if a pumpkin centerpiece matches my bridesmaid dresses and meanwhile, there really are people there who are scared to tell their family members about their decision to follow Jesus. Or they HAVE told their families about it, and it's simply CHANGED their lives. I love what's happening here, but I want to be there. I want to know them. I want to be their friend. This feels like marking time. ;-)

I'm thankful for my 130 people who are going to celebrate with me. They love us so much and that is SO obvious by everything that has been done for us. As someone said to me, "This is the wedding I've been wating for since you starting dating him." But I just spent $35.00 on tanning, and I'm going to spend $60 or so on fabric to cover the tables that will cost another $87 to rent...all the while, I need still $200 to cover my core training to GO to these people. I TANNED when I could have saved that money and put it towards GOING. And it's not the only thing I've spent money on like that. What's wrong with me!?

It's hard to convince myself that anything beyond the bare minimum is important for our wedding when my people are waiting for us just around the corner. Why buy any more decorations than simply candles if JUST candles can be beautiful? Or, so...what if they're not the MOST beautiful thing in the world? Is it worth it when there's a people waiting for us? And in the end, are Bob and I and our guests going to remember more our centerpieces and what covered our tables? or are Bob and I and our guests going to rememberhow it DIDN'T matter what covered the tables? I've also already had one person tell me, "I love that you're doing your wedding the way you are (talking about how my wedding dress was given to me, and that I'm okay with that). It says a lot about how you and Robert are starting out your marriage that you aren't willing to spend a ton of money on your wedding when you don't really have it, and that this is still okay with you guys" or something like that.

*sigh* or MAYBE...just this once, it does matter. Maybe this isn't the occassion to start having it matter. Maybe it IS important and I need to FIND the money for a "more than candles" centerpiece and "more than butcher paper" table covering. Who knows. The whole thing has been a blessing in the first place, and the reality is that we will have only and exactly what God wants us to have. If that means that someone gave us money for the WEDDING, and I want to look nice in my wedding pictures? Then I suppose that means I can go tanning.

And then I pray that God will also supply all our needs as it relates to quickly taking us to our people. I love them and I haven't even met them.