are we all talk?

so it's not just because i...preached, taught, spoke...on anger yesterday but it's also this looming fear that i have.

is wellspring all talk?

i've been thinking about school starting soon and the fact that everyone will be busy as bees once again, and i'm worried.

what will happen to our day laborers? what will happen to the fire we all had in our bellies??? now, i know that everyone has been out of town, out of the country, or just plain out of it (i blame those crazy drugs they gave me for my silly wisdom teeth) but c'mon guys-let's get it together.

karen mentioned during church this week that we should put a face on the injustice that angers us and then focus on that. (at least i think that's what she said, only not quite as eloquently of course) so where did our focus go? i'm not talking about intense emotion or anything-i think that love is more of an action than a feeling, but it was as if we had finally found our place...somewhere to help the world. make things right, or at least try to.

perhaps i'm just venting about fears that aren't even there, but maybe i'm right. i told ken today that i think we need a revival. he laughed at me. just know that i'm thinking about all of you along with everyone else that hasn't joined our blog yet and i hope that all of you are just as passionate as we once were.

i think this is something we really have to commit to. we pick a day to be at MSC, we show up for a couple of hours and we serve. easy as that...right? we're all going to get busy but i think if we really want to make a difference we have to first start by making a difference in our own lives and in our own daily schedules...mine included.

For those interested in the topic of fair trade . . .

“For every dollar the US gives in foreign aid, it takes back two in unfair trade.” Learn more about fair trade at Fair Trade Mission – a day of fair trade awareness, entertainment and shopping. The event will be held on August 12 at the Taft Street Coffeehouse at 2115 Taft from 3pm to 8pm.

Intresting Article

Maybe this is good for some discussion:

http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a/disowning-conservative-politics-is/20060729195809990004?ncid=NWS00010000000001

And here's another interview worth checking out!

Perhaps you've heard of Ken Shuman??? Check out what he has to say.

good things...good things

it's kinda lonely around here guys...time for some new posts. here are some fun interviews during the interim:

Tony Jones Interview

Brian McLaren Interview

"week-o-bdays"

so here's the deal guys, in a month from now we're going to be having birthday extravaganza and if everyone could start planning now that'd be great!

Tuesday August the 8th: Becky's bday
Thursday August the 10th: Pat's bday
Friday August the 11th: my bday

so during the week we're hoping to go to a 'stros game (we have tix the 8th-12th) so if everyone could kinda give some imput on what night would be best. we'd also like to hit up downtown for dinner and maybe a bbq at some point during the week as well. so lemme know everyone's schedules....how exciting!!!

hot pockets = love

let me begin by saying that as a college student in the middle of her summer...my body doesn't comprehend 5:30am. as i yanked myself out of bed and began to get ready i glanced out the window to still see darkness...and i groaned. i don't get how so many of you are able to get up that early and be your awesome, functioning selves. i adore all of you for it.

as i struggled into main street with my t-shirt & jeans, 'stros hat, and no make up... ken let out a hearty laugh (perhaps i'm not cute at 6am, oh well.) and as our gang began to gather the wheels started turning. mark and ken were already getting things in order when i showed up. soon we had terri davis, al from one of the hispanic churches here in tomball, julie b, dana, and pat. what an awesome bunch of people, right? s o we giggled and we yawned and we baked hot pockets and the midst of all that...the Kingdom was growing. we had finally stopped talking about it, and we had finally started doing something.

while we filled our bags with hot pockets, apples, and OJ we would sometimes look out the windows of MSC to see men walking in the deep blue hues of morning. these were the hispanic men we wanted to love. it burns somewhere deep inside to realize where they're headed. as they walk, they almost appear like zombies. if you were to look down main street you'd see dozens of these guys... most walking alone and silent and all to the same destination. now, i realize there are so many political and social issues revolved around this, but it doesn't matter. some of these men work hard all week and still don't get paid. i don't care what color your skin is or whether you deserve to be in this wonderful US of A or not...but that simply isn't okay with me, and i'm not sure that jesus is okay with it either.

i'm really glad we had al in our ranks. we may have had food to give but we also had a message to give to these guys..."we care". so we crossed the tracks and rounded the corner and found ourselves on brand new territory. these men were at least able to gather on picnic tables on a sort of pavillion to eat their breakfast, but it still didn't change things. some of these men were still being abused. after we passed out the breakfast, al began to explain that there were cards in the bottom of the bags and small golf pencils that they could use to write down the vehicles info. that they left with. it also had main street's number along with al and his wife's numbers. some of these guys actually looked surprised and some put them in their wallets. after al translated one of the older men that appeared to be in charge stood up and said some words of thanks to al and the rest of us. they appreciated what we were doing. there are several other details of this story that most of you will get later-like the beer cans and trash we hope to clean up, the one white guy hanging out over there, and the rest of the actions we'd like to take to help these men. hopefully some of you guys can join us later as we continue serving the day laborers.

as we walked away from the men and made our short trek back over the tracks to main street, my heart was warmed. the sun had risen on our first day as servants and i felt somewhere in me as if the Kingdom was rejoicing. it's such a simple thing that we're doing, but we're doing something and more will come later.

amen to that you guys...amen.

amen. amen. amen.