Labels: church, family, friends, Retreat, Via Christus

Labels: concert, James Taylor, Ravinia

Labels: Cairo, hypothyroidism, seborrheic dermatitis

Labels: personal, ponderings

Labels: gardening

Labels: community, Lars and the Real Girl, The Carnival in my Head

Labels: art pieces, family, fun, personal

...as soon as this cold/allergy/sinus thing leaves me alone
and my brain is fully functional.

Labels: personal

So, the question has become what are we gonna do AVC? (After Via Christus) And quite honestly I have to say I don't know. I just don't have a clue. I've been trying to stay in the moment and take advantage of and enjoy every moment we have left. It would be easy to say "I can't" when presented with current VC opportunities - because after all what will it matter in two months? That's not the way to look at it. And I struggle. I am frustrated that such a good thing has to have a conclusion. And yet, so excited for where God is leading people. Life is fluid. That's all there is to it. And we have to deal with that fluctuation, and with change. So, again, I don't know what is in store. Mike said it well on his blog yesterday....

" I was reminded that after being immersed in a highly participatory house church community for so long, it would be really hard (if not impossible) for me to go back and be content in that non-interactive "sermon and a sing-along" format anymore, not even if I was the one up front getting to do the sermon."

I know, I hear you all saying if you can't find one, start one. But I certainly don't feel equipped to do so no matter how much I'd like to be. And I certainly don't have the enthusiasm of someone twenty years younger. Or the ideas, connections, knowledge and energy it would take.

I do think about it though, what it would take, how it would look, and who we could get to come on board. But I'm afraid each of the people I would like to incorporate, and whom I think could and would contribute and benefit from this kind of group has multiple reasons why it wouldn't work. Including teenage kids that "need" a youth group.

Labels: church, faith, ponderings

You've probably seen the headlines about record food prices, which have led to deadly violence and panic across the globe.

The U.N. Secretary-General said last week that the situation has "become a global crisis," and the World Food Programme is warning of a "silent tsunami" of hunger. Even here in the U.S., grocery stores are starting to ration sales of rice.

Sojourners

....Sadly, this desperate situation is being worsened by our own government's policies. While we spend billions of dollars on food for the hungry overseas, Congress requires that all of it be purchased from farmers in the U.S. and shipped halfway around the world — wasting money and delaying the food's arrival.

As Congress finalizes the Farm Bill, tell them to fix this misguided policy and help feed more hungry people.

From Sojourners

Labels: Farm Bill, Food crisis, rice, Sojourners

This is John Hall our guide and brew master, not to be confused with John Hall the owner....

This is the Brewery on Clybourne.

After the Brew tour we headed over to Wicker Park Grace which was fun and interesting. The music was excellent. They had a potluck after the service, but Jen has been wanting us to go to one of her favorite restaurants on Milwaukee Avenue.


So, after Vespers Jen, Karen, Katherine, Kelsey, Kim and I went over to Earwax Cafe for dinner.

Labels: Ear Wax Cafe, Goose Island Brewery, Wicker Park Grace

Labels: Italian sausage, personal, pirogies

The institute said several factors were behind the rise in rice prices.

Land for producing rice and irrigation water is being lost to industrialisation and urbanisation.

The growing appetite among Asia's burgeoning urban middle class, especially in India and China, for meat and dairy products is also leading to less land for rice production.

Factors such as the flooding in Indonesia and Bangladesh and recent cold weather in Vietnam and China have also hurt production, it said.

Labels: food issues, poverty, rice

Labels: compact fluorescent light bulbs, federal Energy Star program

I'm sorry - it's beginning to irritate me. Us playing them when they are truly hungry.

That has to seem like a mockery. If you want to enter into this, make real changes, not drastic, splashy," I'm cool cuz I'm doing it for a week" things.

Really cut back. Change the way you look at food, the way you eat. What you eat. Make changes in lifestyle, gas consumption, energy use and consumerism. And mean it. Don't just do it to be cool, or to fool yourself into thinking you get it. Or to alleviate guilt.Or to make some statement.

And why choose this particular project? Why aren't more of them choosing to experience poverty and homelessness in the US? Why don't I see them living / sleeping on a street in Chicago for a week in torn rags, with no coat, in the middle of the winter - and writing about that?

I'm sure this post is gonna make people mad. And I'm equally sure there are some who are doing these things with very good intentions. I'm just not sure this is the way to do it, or that telling everyone about it is the way to go. It's like fasting. Do I run around telling everyone I'm fasting? Or do I just do it - as a thing between God and me? As a way to enter into communion with God. A way for him to show me what I need to hear, see and know.

Yes, we need to understand there are billions or more starving. We need to understand the horrendous poverty that over half the world endures. We need to find ways - like letter writing or phone calls to congressmen, or working on the Jubilee act, or any number of other ways - to help alleviate these conditions, not just pretend to be in their shoes.

Do it if you choose, but keep it between you and God, and maybe a friend or two to talk about what has changed in your life as a result of it. Just don't stand on the street corner enlightening all who walk by.