Grateful

I am grateful for two events that happened today.

First, I spent some time with a good friend that I hadn't seen since college. We spent the better part of 3 hours sharing a great meal and catching up on life and where we sense God is leading our respective journeys. It was just good time with a brother that has the gift of encouragement and was supportive and excited about my passion for fusing my wilderness skills and masculine spirituality passions. Time seemed to stand still... I thank God for that.

Second, I just got off the phone with a mentor and friend that I hadn't spoken to in about a year or so. It was so refreshing to share with one another the joys and struggles that we observe with the church, faith and life. In short to say with one another... "we don't know" and to know that is okay. We were both able to acknowledge, as Richard Rohr says, our ability to live our lives in liminal space. It was good to hear from him about where A Place Apart is at this moment and what it is yet to be.

I thank God for the ways that my life is interconnected to gracious, honest and raw people of faith.

Influence

Been listening to way too much Steven Delopoulos lately. Even some of my music has taken a Delopolous-like turn. Fun Stuff. Check out his MySpace Page... my favorite is the song "Seasons"

Later OGBB

I've not asked my Grandpa about the Old German Baptist Brethren's Annual Meeting and if a decision had been reached regarding the use of the Internet but if the shutting down of the OGBB Blogring is any indication, then I suppose I need not ask him.

Too Good Not to Pass On

A quote that is quickly moving up on my top ten list of all-time quotes. It comes from Don Jones' book Wisdom for the Journey

A man must be feminine enough to find his soul,
and masculine enough to find his balls.

Unique Treasure Soon to be at your Fingertips

The oldest surviving copy of the New Testament, a 4th century version that had its Gospels and epistles spread across the world, is being made whole again — online. Read more about it here.

Men Need More

I've been thinking about starting something new out here in Illinois.

...been thinking about how I might fuse my passions of wilderness living skills and masculine spirituality, right here and right now... not off in some distant future that will only keep me wondering what if? I am presently beginning to work on a letter that I will submit to local Brethren congregations inviting those men both active and inactive out into the wilderness to seek how we might come alive again.

Don't want to give too much away but I'm excited about what might be and trusting God to lead the process!

Wolves Under Protection Again

A judge in Montana declared Friday that gray wolves be placed back under endangered species protection! Read more here

Been Too Long

Yesterday was the first sermon I've preached in almost 2 years! I thought it went alright and the content challenged the congregation to think about where they might have lost Jesus and how they can fall in love all over again. Here's a quick highlight from my message:

Wilderness represents mystery. It represents the unknown... faith. Sadly enough the word faith has come to mean the opposite today from its intended use. When I use the word faith, I think of Hebrews 11: faith=things not yet seen. Today faith seems to be more about answers, clarity, solutions. We even go so far as to say that Jesus is the answer. Done. Figured out. Checked off the list. I don't want that Jesus. We aren't even comfortable seeing Jesus as a mystery anymore, a mystery that we continually fall in love with.

Being Hospitable

Though the Village of Lena may not necessarily agree. I purposely let my grass grow a bit taller than the yards around us. By a bit I mean 2 inches. On my days off it has been interesting to watch how much more animal activity we seem to have than any of the other yards. Aside from the squirrels and hundreds of various birds, I've seen rabbits, raccoons, weasel tracks and a groundhog in the back yard.

Just yesterday we saw a rabbit that has a warren right next to the house and she had come to nurse her young babies. Amazingly, Brenda had just done some weeding the day before in that very spot and did not see the warren or burrow. I too had this sense about not mowing that area at all, had I done so I would have probably killed about 3 or 4 babies! It just makes me wonder about receptivity. I think by purposely allowing our yard to be a little more hospitable to animals we are seeing more than our neighbors.

The picture below was one of the better pics we were able to take while the mother was nursing her young.

Princesses Tracking

Last week was an interesting week because one of the three camps that was at Far Horizons was a Pampered Princess camp. I didn't get it at all. These girls were there to be pampered (spa treatments, manicures, pedicures, facials etc..) all that feminine crap. Why did they sign up for a camp that was out in the middle of the woods? Some were complaining because they thought that they were going to be staying in a motel not in cabins with but, spiders and bats! This was the group that had lots of issues (homesick, ecophobia etc..). I found myself not even paying much attention to that group.

Until...

I had the luxury of being one of the few staff old enough to drive the vans so I was stuck with taking these pampered princesses to Galena for an off camp activity. They went to a bath and body kind of place for more manicures, massages, fingernail painting and coloring a rubber duck. I, on the other hand, sat in a chair in the corner plotting my revenge since they had me for a nature session later on that afternoon!

I wondered if these girls would even give a rip about the nature stuff at all? So when the time came for me to teach them about tracking, fox walking and other wilderness skills, I was shocked at exactly how interested they were! They really got into the tracking and wasn't even afraid to get a little dirty. So it ended up being a good experience for them and I'm glad I didn't just pass on that particular camp otherwise they and I would have missed out on a great learning experience.

At the campfire that night, all three camps were interested in how I got the fire going as well as asking more questions about fox walking or tracks that they had seen around camp.

Just goes to show that you can't judge a book by its cover or a girl by how "pampered" she is.