Updates from December, 2007 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Mark 4:02 pm on December 26, 2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Coffee and reCreation 

    mudhouse.jpg

    Once again I find myself in my favorite coffee shop, the Mud House here in Springfield, MO. I don’t know what it is about this place; its one of the only places I can people-watch AND get some quality time in with my laptop or a good book. This is a place of peace for me – I know that I could pay this place’s light bill if I lived here.

    On our holiday trip we’ve had some great conversations with family – with subjects ranging from Chicago plans (or plans still in the making) to living life with forgiveness and acceptance at the center of our lives. Both sides of our family have been through major traumas, and everyone (from great-grandparents to the newborns) have been drastically affected. Trina and I have found ourselves mainly as listeners, counselors, and coaches to our own family, and it has been extremely healing for us. We too need to be listened to. We too need to make peace with our family, and to be restful and REAL with who we are as an extended family together.

    While most of this year has been jam-packed with life-altering forks in the road, the majority of this life is filled with moments like this. The simple movements of life that require little more than keeping our eyes open to where we are at the moment. Living honestly as we enjoy a cup of coffee, sitting quietly over in a corner of a busy coffeehouse. While we may have revolutionary dreams, those are the punctuations of a much longer sentence in our lives.

    Right now at the end of 2007, I’m just thankful to be spending time here in a warm, enjoyable coffee shop, with little else to think about but rest, rejuvenation, and Christ’s re-birth in our hearts. This is Christmas after all. Cheers.

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    • EC 11:55 pm on December 26, 2007 Permalink

      Hey Mark! Hope ya’ll had a great Xmas too. Let’s just say I will be at the party in spirit…any time someone trips or spills something, it’s really me :)

      Travis will be applying for podiatry school this month. He is applying to the Chicago and Iowa schools. We are hoping for the Chicago school. According to the recruiter we should know something by St. Patrick’s Day. We shall see…

    • EC 11:56 pm on December 26, 2007 Permalink

      P.S. I remember going to the Mud House!

  • Katrina 12:41 pm on December 19, 2007 Permalink | Reply  

    A llama?! Watch out. They spit. 

    llama

    I’ll get back to talking about brain dumping again soon. I promise. :)
    In the meantime, I want to share with you a little Christmas cheer. The other day I had my good friend Jennifer over. She was telling me about how she is planning on heading to meet with family for Christmas. Apparently, her parents rank at the top of the stack for dreamers at Christmas time. They want it all – -and they send her an itemized list prior to the holidays, so she can prepare… and save up her money.

    Well, this year, she decided to buy them a llama. “A LLAMA?!?” You heard me right: a llama. I could hardly contain myself. Her logic went something like this, “Well, Katrina… It generously helps a family in the south, and it cost about the same amount of money I would have spent on them, and if they complain about it, they’ll have to live with themselves… it’s great.”

    Needless to say, I could barely stop laughing out loud. At first, I thought she had physically bought them a pet. Then she mentioned Heifer International. She proceeded to describe a little toy llama she had bought for her family as well. “I’ll put in a box with a card, so they’ll have something tactile.” Brilliant. And the heifer website gives you a printout of the gift you’ve purchased, too. It’s great.

    I knew about Heifer before this, but I never connected it with Christmas time. It’s great if you’re doing some last minute shopping. You don’t have to walk into any stores— you just print the card and hand it over. And it’s a great conversation piece. Merry Christmas!

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  • Mark 6:36 pm on December 7, 2007 Permalink | Reply  

    Get “Centered” 

    centered-cover.jpg

    My friend and mentor, Kent Smith, has recently made publicly available a book he’s been working on for over a year. It’s small (about 40 pages) but its profound, and I believe it has the potential to revolutionize one’s spiritual life, as well as how North American’s understand what following Jesus looks like.

    Think about the universe, think of a flower, think of your DNA, think of just about anything we consider beautiful…what do they have in common? A repeating pattern around a center. But what are the patterns in your lifestyle? What is your center? Or rather…WHO?

    Kent is interested in a little experiment – and needs your help. Read below to find out more.

    Friends,

    I want to invite you to join me in testing an exciting new tool I have developed with the help of some friends. It’s a short gift book called Centered, and it is designed to help people take a deeper look at what it really means to follow Jesus.

    Last Sunday 250 Million people in the U.S.A. did not attend church. That’s five people out of every six—and their number is growing by about 10,000 per day.

    Many of these people are very interested in spiritual reality, just not church. Chances are you know some of these people. If you’d like to take your conversation with them to a deeper level and help us learn from your experience, here’s what you can do:

    1) Buy a copy of Centered at the website listed below, read through it and jot down your impressions, good and bad.

    2) On reflection and prayer, give or lend the book to one of your friends who seems open to spiritual things with the offer to discuss what they think of it over a cup of coffee (or whatever!).

    3) After that conversation, write out your impressions of what impact the experience has had on you and your friend and e-mail them to me.

    That’s it. Early indications are that this tool will make a big difference for many people—and I will be delighted and grateful if you choose to be part of the team that helps us refine it even more. (But still love you if this isn’t a good time for such a venture!)

    Here’s the website

    Blessings in this season. Looking forward to hearing from you!

    Kent

    So go ahead – purchase a copy; help out a missionary here in North America, and then be blessed by a great message! If you don’t have Kent’s email, feel free to drop me a line by commenting on this post. We’ll make sure the message get’s back to him!

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    • Jason 9:04 am on December 8, 2007 Permalink

      I clicked on the link you provided, but I can’t find Kent’s book even though I searched for “Centered” and “Kent Smith” within the bookstore. Your description of it really intrigued me. We’re wanting to share the Gospel in Australia (as well as among the people where we are now) and I think this would be very helpful. Please help me out if you can.

    • Mark 1:35 am on December 9, 2007 Permalink

      Jason,

      Thanks for pointing this out. I had a temporary link to his book. Try the post’s link again, also listed here:
      http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/77488/66d4f0e5e84558cedc7d9897031c4167

      Write back and tell me more about your hopes of sharing the Gospel in Australia. I’ve spent some time there, and have come to love what I believe a truly post-Christian/ post-modern culture. I look forward to hearing from you!

    • Jason 9:18 am on December 9, 2007 Permalink

      Thanks, Mark! I’m putting the book on my X-mas wishlist.

      I’d love to hear about your time in Australia. I spent a month in Sydney in 1995 and then lived there from 1998-2000. I married an Australian, Nicole, in 2002. We planned to move to the States for a few years and get equipped for vocational ministry before moving back to Australia not knowing where. We ended up at Harding Graduate School of Religion, Memphis, TN. I’ll have to tell you more later . . . Can you shoot me an email?

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