undoing prejudice

It is really easy to get frustrated when road work or similar public works projects take longer than expected. But as I think about my home projects, especially building this climbing wall in my garage, it makes perfect sense. I've had my second three hour set of construction (with others helping of course) and progress is painfully slow. I'm not handy and this is more complicated than I thought it would be - yikes!
This kinda relates to the idea of prejudice but not really. Some it has to do with looking down on others as inept or "less," when I am lenient with myself when the same things happen. The reason prejudice is on my mind, is the sermon our pastor preached yesterday. James 2:1-4 talks about favoring the rich over the poor and when you look more intently at your life you can see all this preferential treatment that you extend to others, based on what you value. It is one thing to identify prejudice in your life and a whole other to root it out. I've been thinking as to how Jesus undoes the prejudices within us all. While a lot of things came to mind, here are the two big ones.
First, he undoes our need for prejudice. We look down on others to lift ourselves up. When we know the love Jesus has for us, despite being undeserving, we don't need to make our way up in the world by stepping on others. Second, he gives us a common object of love. When we are loved by God we love him in return. One of things that unites people is a common love. Random people in a football stadium can experience a deep sense of unity and oneness as the cheer for the same team. and a few things come to mind. Instead of loving ourselves, our position, our power, reputation, or all other sorts of things we love God and this love will unite us with all sorts of other people who love the same God.

Babie and Apples

Last week, over the course of about 72 hours there were three babies born to families in our church. It was a fun and exciting time checking my email and seeing announcements of names, weights, lengths, and gender continue coming in. Since our Sr. Pastor is out of town teaching I got to do the visits with the families and it has been fun. In the midst of the various birthings we also ended up with the two year old son from one of the families. We were planning on going apple picking that day so we took him along, and he and Wesley had a blast. They both loved yanking the apples off the trees - we ended up picking ~30lbs. I started munching on one of the apples I picked and the boys both wanted some, so I bit off the skin and let them give it a try. They were both liked biting the apple and kept getting closer and closer to me as they wanted to eat more the apple. It was a great time. The rest of the week was pretty nuts, between a youth overnight, preaching on Sunday, and visiting mom's in the hospital. I'm glad that this week is going to be more low key.

NYC, Boston... Paris, Milan...

This was a week of city hopping for Hillary as she was in NY on Wednesday and Boston on Friday and Saturday. I was joking with her about where she would be next week and we agreed it should be Paris, Milan, and Barcelona. Hillary went to New York with my mom and sister to see wicked (her birthday present). Then the two of us were in Boston for a conference called, "From Embers to a Flame," which focused on church revitalization. So here's the summary of our experiences:
1. Hillary liked Boston more than New York (it was interesting to visit both in the same week) and we could see ourselves in Boston at some point in life. Who knows whether it will happen, but Saturday was an amazing fall day and the church hosting the conference was right on Boston Common.
2. Revitalizing churches is just as important as starting new ones. This seems kinda obvious, but I learned a lot about this concept of revitalization and it gave me a lot to think about.
3. Wesley generally behaves well when we leave him with others. This was our first time away together since we had Wesley and it went well. We need to do this again, except go away for vacation and not a conference.
4. There were about 20 of us at this conference from our church and it will be great to get together and process all the different things we were learning about. There were various points for reflection interspersed between the teaching sessions and I'm looking forward to hear what other people learned and how we can synthesize this into a coherent whole so we can move forward as a church.

a parade of children

We had a combined community group at our house and this is the procession of the ten children meandering down the road towards the playground at the end of our block. We had stragglers at the back and fast walkers at the front, so it took some work to keep everyone together, but it was good. Before they left and after they returned it was pretty nuts with all of them milling around the house. I wasn't watching Wesley at one point and he reached up on the table and grabbed some chili-lime cashews. They have quite a kick, so one of the other moms grabbed him, but that was after he had already downed a few. He just drank some milk and was okay, but it's probably a little early to be itroducing him to the pleasures of spicy foods. It was fun to have all the people in our home, and it is pushing me to do more thinking about the nature of community groups with families. At what point do we shift how we do things to include the children in the "spiritual" aspects of our meeting?

back and building

So we had a great time in the mid-west visiting supporters and friends in St. Louis and Nashville. We got back on Friday night and are still readjusting. On the way home Wesley was awakw for 9.5hours, which was totally nuts. He's getting back on schedule and both of us are resuming the things we normally do. It is great to get back into a routine.

There were a lot of great things about being away and I'll mention two. First, it was neat to encourage people about what God has been doing in having us here in CT. Second, as various people asked us about our life and what we see God doing, it was a great opporutnity to reflect. There's lots more I could say, but I'll leave it at that.

In addition to builing stuff back up at church, I'm also building a climbing wall in our garage. You can see some of the equipment that just came in the mail. I'm excited It should happen Saturday!

On the road again

We're more than half way through our trip visiting ministry supporters and friends in the mid-west. It is somewhat of a flash back to three years ago when we started this adventure. We have had a lot of coffees and lunches then gave a brief report at our former church in St. Louis. Today we're in Nashville, getting our bearings and then meeting with a group of supporters tomorrow night. It has been a lot of fun to see people and places from different points in life, but it is also wearying. We haven' t had a normal day for since last Tuesday and it is catching up. I'm noticing the meagreness of my patience when I don't get regular time with God and when my schedule is all over the place. As we've been able to reflect on this trip we're continuing to gain perspective on our role in CT and refining our thoughts on how to best connect with supporters. We are glad that we have this opportunity to thank those who have partnered with us in ministry and to encourage them that God is at work in New England.

Time away and then again

We went down to my parents house for a long weekend and got back Sunday night. It was relaxing. Thursday, while Hillary was with college friends and my parents were working I took two naps (one in the morning and one after lunch with my grand pop). It was amazing. I can't remember the last time I've had two naps in one day. Besides the luxury of napping, it was good to have time with my family and they enjoyed having us (especially Wesley) there. He went on wagon rides, played in the pool, ran through the sprinkler, jumped on a trampoline, was pushed in the swing, ate ice cream, and had all sorts of extra attention. Sometimes when I go away it is hard to leave work behind and even when I do, I don't necessarily relax. This time I was able to do both. I worked on a few things, but wasn't preoccupied. The only thing I would have liked to play out differently was more time with God. There were some great lulls in the activity where I could read or pray, but there were many points where I was disconnected from that reality.
This week we're heading to St. Louis and Nashville to follow up with supporters from the past three years. We're looking forward to the trip, but a little apprehensive as we think about Wesley's schedule and how that will be affected by travel and a time zone change. Another aspect that is a little strange is that we'll be missing church for the second Sunday in a row. With so much of our focus directed towards our away it is easy to feel disconnected from life in West Hartford. Teens started school last week and it will be another two weeks till I see many of them and hear how it has gone. I wonder how it is for God who sees all these different places and times happening, yet it is all integrated into one whole. My life can be so disjointed at points yet his is seamless, fully integrated, into one masterful picture. It is hard, as a created being, to think of the ways of creator.