Dare to be Creative

Forge Residency: Intensive Weekend #1

2011-11-15T13:11:00.001-06:00

www.forgedallas.org

It's been a couple weeks since our first Intensive weekend with the Forge Residency. Our cohort met together with Lance Ford (Right Here Right Now: Everyday Mission for Everyday People, co-authored with Alan Hirsch), Brad Briscoe, blogger (http://missionalchurchnetwork.com/) and our cohort leader, Ryan Hairston (http://wakenministries.org). My husband, Shaun, and I were able to be there for most of the sessions and really felt encouraged and challenged by the session.

The greatest part is hearing real stories from people engaged in relationships with their neighbors, real people and the true challenges those relationships bring. I love seeing how the Holy Spirit is drawing people from being stuck inside the church walls to actively participating in the lives of everyone.

Ideas I've been mulling over these past two weeks:

- The church is important. We should be sent as missionary people, both individually and collectively.
- Jesus spent 30 years listening before acting. Establish a posture of listening/relationships.

- 95% of churches are trying to reach 35-40% of the population (ouch!)

- The U.S. has some thorny ground (culture): individualism, consumerism and materialism. The thorns shut down our missional imagination. Every hear, "we can't do that"?

- Compartmentalized life. Everything is separate: home, church, work and friends. How do we bring those things together? Instead of being so stretched.

- Think redeem. Redeeming life around us (through the work of the Holy Spirit).

- Storing up riches in heaven -- in people. Now!

Sender - missio dei, sending nature of God

Sent Ones - everyone

Place - wherever we are

Purpose - kingdom, think redeemed - restoration of all creation

Love these thoughts below. Working it's way through my life right now.

Missional Rythmn

Reaching Up (Jesus one-on-one)

Reaching In (Jesus is the body)

Reaching Out (Jesus outside in the least of these)

Living in rhythm. Like a dance. Rhythm of rest, reflection and mission.

Weekly:

Bless 3 people (1 Christian, 1 non-Christian, 1 either)

Eat with 3 people

Listen to the Holy Spirit 1 hr/week (be still)

Learn from the Gospels (or sit with Jesus)

Sentness (reflect: how did I respond/resist God today?)

As I think about how rhythm affects everything and how important it is I grab hold of these thoughts and put them into practice. These are not meant to be laws, holding you to the fire of guilt, but placing you at the feet of the cross every day in a posture of openness to whatever the Holy Spirit has ready for you that day/week. I am challenged and asking the Lord to renew my mind, my schedule and use it for his glory.

Halloween

2011-10-26T14:16:00.001-05:00

Our neighborhood seems to love Halloween. Everyone is out trick-or-treating and talking with their neighbors. This is a rare experience in our neighborhood filled with back alleys, high fences and busy lives.

This Halloween we'll be having a grill out in our front yard. A step up from our 'spider cider' (apple cider in a crock pot) and candy fare we've served the last two years. We simply pulled our outdoor furniture from the back to the front yard for Halloween and actually got to know a couple of our neighbors.

We'll see how the grill out goes this year. Hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken for our non-beef eating neighbors will be on the menu. It'll be a fun evening. Looking forward to meeting more neighbors and actually getting to talk with them, instead of just handing out the cider.

It's tough to get to know neighbors. Do you know your neighbors?

Desiring Noise Again?

2011-10-04T16:31:00.001-05:00

Sending a missionary couple (Apartment Community Advocates) into a new community is not an easy transition, especially if the community is in turmoil. With a number of evictions taking place over the past few months and other reasons - there is a lot of noise. Banging doors, yelling, police presence for a moment to check out the disturbances and other loud moments make for sleepless nights. It's noisy.

As I read too many books at once, The Shaping of Things to Come, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical, Generous Justice and, oh yeah -- the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) I struggle. Maybe that's a little too much at once. Maybe it's exactly what I need. Am I that complacent? Do I need that much ignition to get me out of my comfort zone and into the neighborhood?

I feel a tug. Not really sure what it means right now, but there's definitely an uncomfortable-ness to life recently. I don't feel as comfortable in my home, my car or doing anything else I normally do. Is something about to change?

As I move people from our congregation into new neighborhoods to be Jesus to the people around them, I question if I'm being Jesus to my neighbors. Do my neighbors even know us? Do I know them? So that's where we're starting. Getting to know your neighbors is really hard in Texas. There are a lot of fences here and busy lives. Those two things coupled together make for a really quiet neighborhood.

Makes me long for a little noise again. Children in the yards, people out and about, and more talking. Are we in the wrong neighborhood now? Eek. I can't believe I asked that question. It's a great place. Nice streets, lights in all the right places, a community pool, community playgrounds, gazebos and even a community exercise area. Why would I feel uncomfortable here and long for the noise again?

We used to live in downtown Dallas, off Swiss Avenue, while we were going to seminary. It was a little noisy with the grocery carts rolling past, the roosters who obviously escaped their fighting ring, people fighting in the street, helicopters shining their lights through the streets and the normal ambulance picking up another dying person from the nursing home. I miss the realness of life. That noise.

I had someone look at me seriously and say, "be careful what you ask for." I know that. This isn't something I'm asking for, it seem to be asking of me. So here we are, our little family - a mama, daddy, spunky toddler and one on the way - ready for more noise.

Refreshing Tension

2011-09-20T10:11:00.002-05:00

What a weekend! Shaun and I were in Lancaster, PA for a family member's wedding. It was actually green there and cool. A huge shift from the Texas drought and wildfires. It was refreshing to say the least.

Time with family is refreshing. Usually. It can also be stressful at times. Our family has had it's ups and downs like most families. Even when there's frustrations though we love through it. I think about how loving people through the hard stuff makes for pretty intimate relationships. Something to remember when I want to bail from a tough time in the future.

Romans 5:3-4 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

As we flew from place to place this weekend and drove around, I was beginning my journey with the book, The Shaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. This book is going to be a much deeper dive into the missional church. I had a few feelings of frustration with the introduction of the book labeled, read this bit first. It's the tension between the established church and the organic, break the mold, incarnational church. I enjoy both. I love both. I'm involved in both. That's a tough tension.

I feel the tension but yet agree at the same time with the statements about starting over to establish a truly missional community, but at the same time I'm a Mission Director at an established church working with a congregation to turn our eyes outward into our community and the world. I have hope for our church. I see the fruit of missional living in families homes, neighborhoods and the apartment communities we are sending missionaries into.

I have hope.

Why Forge?

2011-09-15T15:05:00.000-05:00

Why would I sign up for the Forge Residency for the next 9 months?

Taken from the website:

ForgeMission Training Network, founded by Alan Hirsch, seeks to be a midwife to themissional church, helping give birth to the missional church anywhere it isappearing.

Forgebrings together denominations, seminaries and faith communities of all kinds asit trains people to live on mission, lead missional communities and createmissional movements.

Aftermeeting with Ryan Hairston at Cafe Brazil (good conversations happen atStarbucks or Cafe Brazil) I was very intrigued into this process. A year and ahalf ago Michael Frost was the main speaker during the Dallas Seminary's World Evagelization Conference. I haven't even gotten through the whole week'sworth of speaking, but just Day 1 rocked my world. I was brought to my kneesthinking about the time wasted on the unnecessary and the people God caresabout right outside the door. My heart was prepared to jump into the ForgeResidency since March of 2010.

How could I not joininto this amazing opportunity to read, learn and be challenged by a group ofgenuine people? We signed up and found ourselves met by an incredible group ofresidents and coaches last Saturday night. This is going to be a journey. Asyou read this can you take a moment and pray.

We are now reading TheShaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. It's said to be afoundational resource for missional movements. I read ahead as you may haveseen on a previous post and finished The Tangible Kingdom.

We're also tasked withgetting back to basics and digging into the gospels. As I meditate on thebeginning of John I feel locked in for an adventure I pray I'm prepared for. We'vebeen warned that the enemy doesn't want to see God's children awaken to therealities around them and will try to get in the way.

In the beginning was theWord, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginningwith God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thingmade that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. Thelight shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sentfrom God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about thelight, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came tobear witness about the light.

- John 1:1-8

May I bear witness aboutthe light.

The Tangible Kingdom

2011-09-14T12:44:00.003-05:00

I'm finishing up the book The Tangible Kingdom by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay. Very interesting read - a fast read. It's caused me to spend time thinking about how bogged down we get in the structure of church. I appreciated that by the end of the book there were glimpses of hope for the established church. Spurring individuals to just start inside their church and not jump ship.

So often books like this cause more fleeing of the church and continued confusion among Christians vying for the next 'cool' thing. I appreciate the encouragement of those in churches to stick with it and ignite the passions of mission and incarnational living with their friends and fellow church members.

Yesterday I met with our Children's Director to discuss summer plans. We had an idea on the horizon for a Family Campout for the Spring, but it's now morphing into a Family Mission Camp (within 300 miles of the church). The whole purpose would be to spark the missional imagination in the family together. From the beginning to the end would be about service. I can see fun, creative ways to get families out of the box and serving alongside each other. Serving one another in the family, serving the others at camp and also serving in the local community as well. It would be a serving explosion!

How amazing would it be if these families would take their excitement for serving and model that in their neighborhoods and in the church? There would be a catalyst effect. It's a God-sized goal and I can't wait to see how it'll end up.

http://forgedallas.org/residency

Forge Dallas

2011-08-10T15:03:00.006-05:00

Shaun and I have been praying about joining this residency program through Forge Dallas. We're applying. I'll be honest, it's a big step of faith. I'm already at 22 weeks in the pregnancy and going to have a new baby. Can I do this in the midst of growing our family?

Isn't it amazing when God calls you to do something, even when it seems impossible. Shaun and I are looking forward to hanging out with mission-minded people, learning from leaders and being challenged. We want to be challenged in our weaknesses and work with our strengths for God's glory.

The program is 9 months of intensive reading, weekly meetings with a coach and ongoing missional living, of course. I'm feeling called to do something in our neighborhood. It's been nagging at me since we moved into our house. Maybe a mommy get-together or progressive supper or game nights - whatever it morphs into I pray we will see the Lord glorified through laying down our whole lives to him.

Check out Forge Dallas for yourselves.

Interested in helping us reach our $3,000 goal? Email me: daughertybeth@gmail.com

When Helping Helps

2011-04-21T12:05:00.003-05:00

After reading When Helping Hurts I experienced a mission trip to Haiti about a year later. It was really difficult watching continued relief happening over a year after the crisis instead of movement toward a development vision. We were told 11,000 NGO's were in Haiti. Are you kidding me? 11,000!!!

This made me a little sick to my stomach. Were we continuing to add to the "problem" in Haiti, just by being there. But how could we do nothing. We drew together in prayer day and night after night. It was an incredible learning experience for the 7 of us. Each person has a plan birthing inside them on how to partner with people in Haiti to share the hope we have.

Our hearts were expanded. We met people. Developed relationships with those people. God gave us love for people who are suffering. There are good things happening in a corrupt nation. Incredible testimonies of lives changed, jobs created, people trained, school built and more. Hope never dies! It cannot die.

I'm wrestling with the lies in my head that doing something would only add to the problem and knowing in my heart that true helping, as a learner and partner with local Haitians will actually help. There is hope.

I recently tweeted while reading "Radical" by David Platt: I can't do everything, so I won't do anything," is straight from hell.

This truth is boiling over inside me. Do something, but not just anything. Take the time to think and learn and listen to those who've been in Haiti, live in Haiti, work in Haiti and love Haiti before making a plan.

I think back to my husband and my wedding vows. He, of course, wrote them. I was freaking out at the time over my seminary courses and didn't have time to write my own wedding vows. I just re-wrote his to match in my words - ha!

So, one line says-- I will fail you often and I will need your grace.

We heard a lot of comments about these lines. Why would you promise failure? Why would you want to bring such dark language into your wedding?

We know the truth of our depravity. We will fail. It's life. Not that we really want to fail. Believe me, as a type A, perfectionist personality I struggle so much with the possibility of failure I stay in a constant state of paralyze sometimes. God is working with me - Thank you Lord!

I say this about our wedding vows, to put them on the mission field as well. We will fail those in Haiti, but we need grace too. We're not going to go to fail. Take precautions, learn more about missiology and about cultural dynamics and good cross-cultural communication. Try to fight against enthnocentrism and partner...partner... partner.

I pray we can encourage as we pour into the people of Haiti and wherever the Lord calls us. We have seen incredible encouragement among our friends in Peru over the past 7 years. The Lord has poured down his mercy on the children and Pastor's we've been working with. He sustains. Not us. We just celebrate and walk together.

So, there are my thoughts today... sometimes - Helping does Help. Don't give up.

Just Do It Discipleship

2011-04-20T14:46:00.002-05:00

About 6 months ago I began feeling the tug to pour out more. I felt a little stale (aka selfish). I remembered back to the times when I was working with teens and listening to their problems and trying to keep them alive and knew I needed to be in that place again. Pushing to share what I'm learning in the present and learning right along with them. I needed to be in discipleship relationships.

I started praying for people to hang out with and study the Bible with. It's awesome how the Bible puts our crap in perspective. Makes our mountains a little smaller and more manageable or removes them completely, because their really not worth any amount of worrying. We believe in the Lord God, the creator of the universe and giver of LIFE!

It's amazing what happens when you pray for something for more than a second. It begins to flower and grow. In my case, relationships that I've had began to get personal and deeper - more vulnerable. I think it had to do with the position of my heart and, of course, the movement of the Spirit of God. Let's just say it just started happening. Hard to put a definition on "it".

Each relationship is very different. Friends, co-workers in the faith, lay leaders, ministry partners, partner churches, apartment residents ... all hungry for relationships with others who care. I guess when you begin to actually lay your life down, it becomes clear life is about more than self and about the other. I'm challenged more in these relationships than ever before. I have to read the Bible each day -- not because I "have too" because it's a law or that people will think bad of me, but it's like air or food or water! I literally ache for it.

I'm thankful for the time I get to spend with people in the Bible and pray for more of it. Join in, share a meal, a coffee and an hour in the Word and prayer. Life really can't get much better than this.

So, if you don't know where to start. That's where I was. I just started it. Just began bringing the Scriptures into life. Started a little study at an apartment complex. It's now growing. Who know's what will happen?

Power of Prayer

2010-10-19T16:05:00.005-05:00

It's been incredible lately here at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church. There are new faces coming each Sunday. Our staff has been spending time in daily prayer. I love it.

Coming together for a moment in the middle of our day is beautiful. Sometimes there are 8 of us and sometimes just one, but each day we're stopping and enjoying the presence with the Father. The Holy Spirit is active and present in this place.

Mission 11:06

Ephesians 1:16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers ...

vs 17-23 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Uncompromised Faith

2009-03-20T17:07:00.003-05:00

In Uncompromised Faith, S. Michael Craven demonstrates how the ideas of our day affect our culture and society, hindering belief in Christ and the witness of Christians. His book is a good introduction to those just entering the study of “Christianity and Culture,” but may be simplistic for those who have already been immersed in the “post-modernity” conversation.

Craven examines ways to contextualize the gospel for our culture. He explains the postmodern perspective on Christianity: “The postmodern merely demands what Scripture confirms: that our faith be authenticated by demonstrating that we love our neighbor” (p. 72). He then goes on to describe how Christians can actively engage their neighbors’ ideas and struggles, using the examples of homosexuality, New Age, consumerism, marriage and the sexual revolution.

Uncompromised Faith is a good overview of the shift in American culture. Part II: Social Ideas was very engaging. The subject matter was handled very well. For example, with Feminism Craven states, “No other culture, outside of those transformed by Christianity, has even raised the issue of equality between the sexes; as noted at the beginning of the chapter, many cultures still do not afford basic human rights to women”…“human beings are made in the image of God, they have equal value and dignity - a concept that stands in stark contrast to the fallen world where oppression, malice, and envy sadly remain the norm” (p. 166).

Finally, the epilogue “What Are We to Do?” takes the contents of the book and uses them to promote action. Craven effectively demonstrates the impact on society and Christianity, producing a book that will ultimately help the reader understand their neighbors and love them authentically.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from NavPress Publishers as part of their Blogger Review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Vacation in Oklahoma

2009-03-19T16:25:00.006-05:00

Shaun and I slipped away to Edmond, Oklahoma this week for five days. Believe me, there's not much there for tourists. It is a suburb of Oklahoma City and Oklahoma Central University is seated in the town.

We stayed at the Arcadian Inn, a lovely Bed & Breakfast. I've heard that most B&B's have you eat breakfast together with all the guests. This was a very different because the breakfast each day was brought to our room. Since we stayed for 4 nights we received a different breakfast each morning!

Because the Spring Break of the University was the same as ours we traveled to a sleepy town to rest. We slept in every morning and walked in the afternoon. The weather was wonderful at 78 degrees. I am so happy that we were able to take some time off.

While relaxing I was able to finish three books I've been working on: Uncompromised Faith, Mad Church Disease and The Parting (a novel). Reading daily gave me a sense of accomplishment in a different way than ministry does. It was a good filling up!!

March Madness - Back to the Basics

2009-03-12T21:44:00.001-05:00

March is a tough month for those who have four mission trip scheduled during the summer months. Rounding up four teams of people, training them, filling out paperwork and encouraging fund raising may seem like a lot to keep track of. If that was the only part of this ministry I would have it easy. The hardest part is faith.

Faith is the biggest part of a mission trip. As a leader I have to understand that all the planning and organizing and training does not enable the partnership in the gospel to take place. Over the past year I have started to take a new look at my prayer life. It is necessary. If I did not pray every day through all the stress of not knowing who is going to sign up for the trips I would be back at Starbucks making lattes. Don't get me wrong, I love making lattes! Really, I love the people.

People are the unknown factors. Never knew at Starbucks whether someone would be in a good mood or a bad one. I always liked the challenges of breaking into the lives of some of the stone faced ones. It was something I worked at. I knew persistance and actually caring about them as a person would wear them down. A few times it did.

People are people. Can't check them off a list or say I know how a new missionary will react to the poverty we'll see in Peru and Kenya this summer. The training will only take the team so far.
So if prayer is needed, my schedule must look different. Alone time is necessary, not a luxury that some people think of a slacking off. I need time to gather my thoughts, pray for strength and read the Word. After seminary I think I felt overwhelmed by the Bible. It seemed as though if I was not studying every historical fact and looking at the Greek and Hebrew with it I would not understand anything. I believe those things are helpful, but that thinking got me out of the habit of reading every day. It was as though it became a addition to my day not the passion of my life.

As I visited my ammamater, Dallas Seminary, today I realized how special my time there was. There was a lot that was learned there and can be used in my life. The truth is powerful and can change lives. Even my own life can be changed.

How Can A Good God Let Bad Things Happen

2009-02-21T11:33:00.007-06:00

How Can A Good God Let Bad Things Happen is written by Mark Tabb, the author of more than twenty books, including the number one New York Times best seller Mistaken Identity and A Promise to Ourselves (with Alec Baldwin).

The author weaves the story of Job in the Old Testament together with questions about the great tragedies of human history and real stories of personal struggles. As we consider life and the world as it is, we begin to question why God would do this. We shake our fists to the sky, angry that God would allow us to suffer. We don’t deserve this. Or do we?

“This world we now live in is the end result. God did not speak into existence a world of drive-by shootings and random acts of violence. Human beings created this world for themselves.” p. 31

The honesty in the writer’s frustrations with suffering and death allows the reader to think clearly about God and His motives. Are we afraid of the real answers? Tabb helps readers face the truth in the balance of Scripture rather than the simple, trite statements of comfort that offer no comfort at all in the midst of pain.

In the end the author focuses the reader’s attention away from self and toward the reason for comfort and hope: the treasure of eternity with Jesus Christ. “The hope of heaven…the final chapter, that makes all the other chapters make sense.” p 215

This Life is a Dream

2009-02-20T19:46:00.003-06:00

This life is a dream

I’ve been here before

Smiling

A new dance to dance

To share my joy

Song – laughter – grins

My joy is new

Welcome change

Grow me up

Move me out

Here we go

Why I Care about Obama?

2009-01-21T22:41:00.003-06:00

Yesterday was a very important day in my life. The new President means more to me than ever before. It really has nothing to do with his politics...but has everything to due with community. Everyone I know was glued to a tv or the internet (if you were blessed enough to get the streaming to work). Thankfully our church has cable on the 4th floor and a bunch of us ran up there to see the innaguration.

It was a beautiful day. Clear...looked cold. The people were in top form. George W. Bush looked about 10 years younger. Probably the beginning of the stress lifting off his shoulders. There was a bounce in the steps of most there yesterday. The world turned and watched our nation with hope.

I think that is why I stopped and watched so closely yesterday. The world has taken notice. I can imagine what it was like in Kisumu. My friend Allison is there right now and she says it was a holiday on the 20th. Everything closed early and the whole city was celebrating Obama's entrance into office in the USA. We will be taking a team there in June this year. I'm sure there will be many questions about the new President. They are so proud of Obama.

The burden now rests on a well-spoken man named Obama. So much hope rests in his administration and his decisions. His words are so hopeful and real. It's going to be a tough road ahead. Thank you for telling us the truth. It will be tough. We're ready for a shift in life as usual here.

I'm interested to see how international relations will fair with Obama's presidency. Will it be easier for US Citizens to travel abroad? I pray this is the case. The world has become so small and the relationships with other countries in the world is important. Everything that has been cracked cannot be fixed in a day...or ever. The only thing I know is that there is a new beginning. A fresh face and voice in the oval office.

Every time he speaks I have to stop and listen. George W. lost my attention after the second speech. I love hearing Obama talk. He's a speaker who demands an audience. His words are not written by him, but are spoken so well. He doesn't stumble over words or speak his own Texas slang. He honors language and retoric.

It will be an interesting 4 years at least. Probably 8, seeeing that so many have hope in his promises. Things will be different and I believe different is good. I am praying for our new leader.

Prayers for a Faraway Friend

2009-01-12T19:50:00.001-06:00

As I remember back to April 2008 when I was blessed to return to Kenya I think about one sweet friend, Emma. We first met in June 2007. She was the one child that never smiled and moved very slowly. She seemed to be sick and her mother told me that was the case.

This picture of Emma and I is so special because this is the biggest smile we saw out of her. A tiny lift in the corners of her mouth. I pray for her often. Every time I think about Kenya. It is a great place with beautiful people. I will be returning there in June this year and will look for my friend and hope to see her smile.

We go to Kenya to encourage a church our church helped build in Kisumu, Kenya. So many heartaches there and yet I always feel so empty leaving it. There are so many rich relationships there. We teach seminars for the lay leaders and church leaders in the area. This year I hope to have a couple seminars taught by the church leaders and lay leaders there. Hospitality and Prayer would be two great seminars that I know the team would soak up. There is so much to learn from our brothers and sisters in Africa. Can we take the time to listen?

Why Blog?

2009-01-11T15:06:00.000-06:00

So, if no one cares about your blog or my blog than why do we have them. Why do we feel guilty when we don't update frequently? Does anyone actually care if we stop blogging altogether? Maybe not, but that doesn't keep me from blogging.

There is so much information that we have to dig through nowadays to get anything we actually care about. I love to follow people who blog about things I'm interested in. The overwhelming amount of clutter in our lives really causes problems for me some days.

My husband and I moved into a house for the first time last year and really enjoy our home. There are so many things that have to get done when you move into a home or apartment. The list seems daunting when packing isn't even on the list. Set up telephone, but we both have cell phones. Turn on cable! This, this is a must. Isn't it? Well, folks, we've given up on the television as we knew it before. No cable! No television channels at all. Our town seems to be in the pit of no tv signals even.

What do we do then? We have a large flat screen monitor (aka television) that is hooked to our small computer with Windows Media Player. We have a NetFlix subscription and Internet through the cable company. I had to explain to my mom over and over again that we would be fine in an emergency. We can hear the siren's. We do have a radio!

Not having a television has given us some freedom from the media. We get to watch what we want to watch when we want to watch it. Isn't that our generation? I don't like getting my news from one source or hearing what I should think from one news anchor. I read blogs and get tweets from trusted friends and people I have never "met" before. I also love my Google Reader to funnel articles to me daily through RSS feeds. It's amazing to start to clear through the clutter and decide that it is suppose to free me and not consume me.

So I blog to speak out into the loud world of the Internet. Maybe someone out there enjoys my thoughts. Filter through the noise and find some useful wisdom out there. Free yourself from the guilt of blogging and share with the world your thoughts. Think originally and be creative.

Twitter Fascination

2008-12-29T09:09:00.000-06:00

My fascination with Twitter isn't really all that weird. There are so many others out there tweeting away there day and people are following them. I'm still trying to figure out why people follow people and if they are really following. What do you think?

Do you know what Twitter is? It's a micro-blogging site that allows you to text or through the computer update your "followers" with what you're doing. It's an interesting place to hang out for awhile (www.twitter.com). You can also follow people from Twitter even if your not a Twitter user. Just text to 40404 "follow bethbethbeth" and you will begin receiving my updates straight to your cell phone. That may sound weird, but it's really neat to live life a little bit bigger in a sense. I keep my settings on Twitter pretty set to make sure it doesn't interrupt my sleep. 1. I only receive cell phone updates from my closest friends or CNN Breaking News 2. My hours on from 9am-10pm. This keeps me from getting jdgeek updates at 2am when he's working full speed ahead. He's our technology guy for the church.

Who wants to know that I am crocheting another afghan or I found a great site to find patterns? I also write about work related things that only a few of my followers know anything about. i.e. Langel preaching - Landon preaching dressed as an angel.

My husband and I made beignets the other evening to go with our coffee and almost immediately when I posted my twitpic there were 15 views. Now 18 views. That's not a lot of views, but still... who viewed this and were they interested at all. I'm just curious.

I love facebook and see that as a very useful tool for my job. I'm the Director of Missions at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church (www.princeofpeace.org) so I'm constantly rallying the troops to get out into the community. We're doing our 1st Saturday event this upcoming Saturday with Hearts for Homes (www.heartsforhomes.org). We'll be working on a home that really needs some help. Loving our community outloud. I post these events on Facebook and people respond well to the requests. The only thing I wish would happen is that everyone I know to join so that I can reach the masses. I still have to communicate through paper, e-letter and posters! Of course, the personal invite is always the best, but Facebook is a good back-up and information holder.

So off I go... if you want to follow me on Twitter - please do. I cannot promise that everything I update is interesting. That's life.

Twitter User: http://www.twitter.com/bethbethbeth

Back To Blogging

2008-12-27T13:51:00.000-06:00

I haven't written anything for quite a while. Not as though I haven't been busy. This summer was a whirlwind. Three back-to-back mission trips--- literally, 12 hours between the first two and 2 days between the last. We went to the Texas/Mexico border (Edinburg, TX), Guatemala City, Guatemala (with the youth), and Lima, Peru.

Shaun and I are in a new home now in The Colony and enjoy it a lot. There is something amazing about having a home. I cannot explain it. It's nice to invite people over. Thanks to my wonderful family who painted the whole thing inside! It's a warm place to be.

Over the Christmas break I've been spending time at the house cleaning up. Not only cleaning up the house but also my computer. I have trouble organizing folders and emails and programs. I decided that if I didn't use it often then it wouldn't get a place on my desktop. I feel better now having things tidied up. When I get things cleaned up I begin to feel creative again.

I'm crocheting an intermediate shawl right now and it's difficult for me right now. I want it to be easy, but the directions have got me confused most of the time. I'm trying to challenge myself to make more difficult pieces. This December I've crocheted 4 afghans, 3 hats, 3 scarves and I'm in process of the new piece and another afghan. A friend came over and brought her son and he said he wants a blanket. I guess I'll have to visit Michael's again soon and bulk up on yarn. I have been using Caron's Simply Soft Eco Yarn. Part of the yarn comes from recycled plastic bottles. That's pretty 'green' of me. I love saying that when I give these warm gifts away.

Be creative.

http://www.naturallycaron.com/projects/oasis/oasis_1.html