We graduated! 

Thanks(giving)

Today LPTS Connects (the new volunteer group on campus that we're trying to get going) took a day to help build a Habitat house here in Louisville. Habitat builds (and other things like it) always pull out the best in people. It pulls out the community aspect that we don't normally experience when we sit and study next to each other. Today we were asked to present ourselves at 8:30 in the morning, in 21 degree weather, to measure, cut, climb, and hammer things to a house that we may never enter again. There are so many beautiful things about experiences like this. The woman whose house we worked on this morning is apparently at the house every single day. Every Habitat family is required to put in 400 hours of sweat equity (whether on their own house or someone elses) by the time their house is completed. Well, this particular woman? Before her house had broken ground she had already put in 600 hours. SIX HUNDRED! How amazing is that? This is someone with a full time job and four children, hoping soon to be in her own house. This family is dedicated not only to each other but to their community.

The popular question to third year seminarians is what is next? What are you going to do next year? Well, at this point in time I have no idea. I mean, I know the things that I want to do (love, do service, travel, speak spanish, etc.) then I do something like Habitat and realize that this is exactly what I want to do for the rest of my life...more on this laterrr. Check back in, oh, August to see what the next steps in this awesome adventure are. :)

I am a Christian. I am a Democrat. I voted for Barack Obama.

Recently I got an email from someone I went to high school with. This particular email was a forward giving a laundry list of reasons why everyone who received this email should not vote for Barack Obama. It also said that many of the voters for Obama don't even know what he stands for. So of course it followed with all the things that Barack "stands" for.

I emailed this person, telling them of my support of Barack, and the fact that I knew exactly why I was voting for him and not for the McCain ticket. She emailed me back in shock that I was an Obama supporter. Her exact words were, when she read that I was an Obama supporter: "you've got to be kidding". She had one reason and one reason only for not voting for Obama: he's pro-choice.

Now, I love her. I miss her. We played ball together for a long time and I would give anything to do that. However, it showed me a lot of things, and got me re-fired up about a lot more.

Do people who are pro-life think about what happens to the mother? What happens if a woman is the victim of a rape? Also, call me crazy if you will, but the U.S. changing the language to "unborn baby" is loaded. There are so many things that go into this discussion, though, I'll save it..

Another oxy-moron is many (I refuse to say most, or all, because let's be honest, I don't know) pro-lifers are also pro-death penalty. Why would any of us think that we have the right to kill someone? God did not come to me one day giving me the permission to put someone to death.

I have a hard time with all this. I also have a really tough time with people who know you're a Christian but don't know much else being surprised when I vote democrat.

Gasp, I believe in universal health care (being done right).
Gasp, I believe that every woman has a right to choose. I believe that every woman knows her body better than anyone else and the last thing she needs is someone else, let alone the government she pays taxes to, telling her what to do with it.
Gasp, I believe in supporting those who are fighting for our country, but I do NOT believe in the fight.
Gasp, I am a pacifist.
Gasp, I am a follower of Jesus, who taught me how I should try to live my life as he did. Who spoke to lepers, prostitutes, and outcasts. No surprise, I fail, but will continue to try.
Gasp, I support (and encourage) interfaith dialogue and mutual understanding.
Gasp, I support "the most liberal senator"
Gasp, I support someone who will find a way to help the homeless, the needy, children without care.
Gasp, I support someone who supports teachers, without which none of us would be where we are.
Gasp, I believe in LGBTQ rights - for all of them being the same as my own.
Gasp, I believe in making the "minimum wage" actually into a "living wage", because most cities in our country don't pay people enough to actually feed themselves, let alone their children.
Gasp, I'm appalled by the wall that has gone up between Mexico and the United States.
Gasp, I support someone who is highly educated, and doesn't claim to see Russia from his backyard.

Stewardship

I wrote this for my home church's monthly "Courier", and thought I'd post it.

_____________________________________________________

We all try to do our best to be good stewards. More often than not we think of stewardship solely with dollar signs in mind. Our denomination puts forth that stewardship “is not just one part of Christian discipleship; it involves every aspect of life in all the stages of life.” What would it look like to be a living, breathing steward in all aspects and stages of your life?

Stewardship is much more than the giving of money – it’s the giving of time, love, compassion. It’s the recognition that we are not alone in this big human family – that we are called by Jesus himself to care for those around us. It seems so easy sometimes to give money and not time. But what about putting our hands and feet where our money is?

Not living in the Valley for three years has taught me a lot about the Valley. I know that this may sound a little backwards, but growing up here you don’t see the everyday beauty as often as you should. But when I think about the beauty of the Valley, I obviously think of the physical surroundings, but more than that, I think of all of you. I think of the Feeding the Flock group who feeds those who are bound to their homes; of the Soup Kitchens where we have worked and eaten side by side with the homeless of Harrisonburg; I think of our Cooks Creek family who surrounds each other in times of joy – and in times of hardship.

As Cooks Creek followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to continue this work that we have done. We are to live, each day and in every aspect and stage of life, in celebration of the grace we are freely given in Jesus Christ through our time, talents, money, love, and compassion. I have been on the receiving end of God’s grace through your stewardship, and for that, I thank you. I thank you for all of your love, compassion, prayers, and monetary gifts. But more than what you’ve done for me, I thank you for what you’ve done for each other and our community. I thank you and challenge you to continue this ministry in whatever ways and means you are able. Thank you for being a living example of stewardship for me, proving to me what it means to be a faithful member of this family. I think of you often, and tell others of you even more.

Grace and peace to you, from the One who gave it first to us

Opening night of High School Musical 3 - my weakness! My friends and I dressed up in either caps & gowns or prom like dresses and went to the movie. Two of them (in caps & gowns) were asked if they were paid to dress that way. :) It was a blast!

So Jake sent me this poem, said they did it in chapel and it reminded him of me. It's beautiful..

The Place I Want to Get Back To

is where
in the pinewoods
in the moments between
the darkness

and first light
two deer
came walking down the hill
and when they saw me

they said to each other, okay,
this one is okay,
let's see who she is
and why she is sitting

on the ground, like that,
so quiet, as if
asleep, or in a dream,
but, anyway, harmless;

and so they come
on their slender legs
and gazed upon me
not unlike the way

I go out to the dunes and look
and look and look
into the faces of the flowers;
and then one of them leaned forward

and nuzzled my hand, and what can my life
bring me that could exceed
that brief moment?
For twenty years

I have gone every day to the same woods,
not waiting, exactly, just lingering.
Such gifts, bestowed,
can't be repeated.

If you want to talk about this
come to visit. I live in the house
near the corner, which I have named
Gratitude.

- Mary Oliver

An odd love affair..

I've been realizing lately that I have an (almost?) secret love affair with a denomination different than my own. Now, don't get me wrong, it's (a tad) obvious that I love the Presbyterian Church (USA) with all my heart, she has done a lot for me and I've done a lot in return: she has introduced me to this amazing person of Jesus and shown me how I am to live my life according to that which I have been shown in him.

So my secret love affair is with the Disciples of Christ (D.o.C. from now on) denomination. I have a lot of friends who have grown up in the D.o.C. and a few who have become ordained in this denomination. Most of my introduction to the DoC has been through those who I've met in the last two years or so, when I started going to DoC churches more than I ever have (there aren't any within at least 30 miles of my hometown, so it's not really a surprise that I didn't really know much about it before. At home there are Methodists, Presbyterians, Mennonites, & Brethrens mostly represented).

Here in Louisville I sometimes attend a DoC church, for a lot of reasons. One being that there are not many people from the seminary or that I go to school with that I run into while I'm attending these churches. Not that it would be a bad thing to worship side by side of the people I see five days a week, but it's been good for me to make my own experience.

I'm going to have a hard time putting words together.

My roommate and I were watching the documentary "For the Bible Tells Me So" the other day for our class and I realized another reason I love the DoC. In this movie there were a few DoC pastors interviewed. I have a more liberationist/progressive theology than I do anything else, and I am always floored by the amazing things that Jesus did in his time on earth. I have noticed that more often than not DoC churches (and pastors upon interview) are unashamedly excited about doing work in their own neighborhoods and in the world; in their prayers, their announcements, gathering around the table; all from the get-go, they explain and expect their members to be active in the world around them, to be the hands and feet of Christ.

Now, I'm not taking time to poke at the PCUSA or our creeds, confessions and history; these are all things that I embrace and love. I'd just like to see us step up to the plate I guess. I don't want to go to a church (no matter its denomination!) that doesn't reach out and put their hands and feet in the same places where they want their money to go.

It's hard too, finding a church that I feel just as comfy in as I do my home church, or Perrine-Peters UMC in Miami, or even Riverside in Jacksonville. I've been quite lucky to be dropped into situations where I have been a witness to something amazing. I've seen people give their time and talents to Heifer project, or Feeding the Flock, or Bible Schools and mission trips, to unpaid youth and Sunday school positions, food pantry's and homeless shelters, recycling programs or chicken bbq fundraisers.

While I write this I realize a lot of things, and this morning at Hurstborne Christian Church I realized some, too: 1. I love small-medium sized progressive churches, and I miss church. I miss church so much. I miss being a part of a community that stands behind each other as family, upholding their baptismal vows to not only those in their congregation but those outside their doors as well.