I don't know if this will show up in the blogs site for GS but I have been happy to "participate" via our current technologies. It it far more interesting to join in the conversations, even if not actually present or a voting member.
Again - I so appreciate the passion and commitment to engage in in-depth discussion on the issues which will affect this particular section of the Body of Christ.
I have posted comments elsewhere so won't repeat here.
I do want to say thank-you to Jay H. for all the great photos. It has helped to make this seem a not so distant event. I have enjoyed seeing many familiar faces - w/the exception of one special one - my Dave. ;)
Peace be with all as you continue your work as those who serve God by serving others.
(Hi to Toni & Gloria & Paul, and ooh I see Kent and ...you get the idea. LOL)
Monday, June 8, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
The Way - Here's a model
Check out this community in PA -
The Simple Way
http://www.thesimpleway.org/index2.html
A lot of folks have asked about some of the structures and rhythms that allow us to function as a community. Over the past 10 years, we’ve learned a lot and made plenty of mistakes, and we have now created a little packet to help new folks adjust to life here on Potter Street, sort of decoding some of our common life and expectations. We often liken these structures to the trellis of a garden. You want enough structure to provide stability, so that your tomatoes don’t flop around on the ground and rot. But if you have too much structure it can have the opposite effect, and can suffocate the plants from being free to grow. So this works for us, along with our foundations and functionality. We offer it, not necessarily as something to emulate or copy, but as a resource to look at as you discover what works for your community.
Our Commitments
Our Foundation and Functionality
Our Mission is:
"To Love God. To Love people. To Follow Jesus."
We're giving that our best shot.
The Simple Way
http://www.thesimpleway.org/index2.html
A lot of folks have asked about some of the structures and rhythms that allow us to function as a community. Over the past 10 years, we’ve learned a lot and made plenty of mistakes, and we have now created a little packet to help new folks adjust to life here on Potter Street, sort of decoding some of our common life and expectations. We often liken these structures to the trellis of a garden. You want enough structure to provide stability, so that your tomatoes don’t flop around on the ground and rot. But if you have too much structure it can have the opposite effect, and can suffocate the plants from being free to grow. So this works for us, along with our foundations and functionality. We offer it, not necessarily as something to emulate or copy, but as a resource to look at as you discover what works for your community.
Our Commitments
Our Foundation and Functionality
Our Mission is:
"To Love God. To Love people. To Follow Jesus."
We're giving that our best shot.
The Way
Although life is no longer centered around the C2C ride - I used a picture of the bay off of Atlantic Highlands, NJ for my profile. It's where Dave & I went last year after I returned.
It's hard to believe so many months have passed since that major event and yet it is beginning to fade into the recesses of memory. However, the purpose of the ride exists as real as it ever did responding to the the reality of poverty, the prevalence of injustice, the continuation of a world/creation suffering in spite of an abundance of resources - mental, physical & economic. However, these things are not being used wisely and suffering continues.
I just heard Shane Claiborne again this past Tuesday night. I first heard him last summer when he spoke at the C2C Michigan Rally - one of many service highlighting our efforts and bringing us into communities to share worship & hear the message of how we are all called to respond to the needs of the world by LIVING the gospel, not just preaching or listening to it.
And now, I am once again challenged to respond but am not sure how to do this. While events like the C2C ride have a place and can continue to be a means for responding the ills of this world - it's not something that I at least can live off of - or expect to continue doing. How can I respond now, in the place that God has called me to live, in a way that is effective, meaningful and faithful. I am not sure what is in store for me as I try to respond to this continuing challenge. But I don't believe I am called to respond alone - on my own. I have gifts and graces that are meant to encourage others as we all work together. Yet, I can't just go and live in Philly or elsewhere just because like minded people happen to be there. I am w/Dave and don't see that changing - nor do I want it to. But we aren't living in urban America & rural America also faces suffering and hopelessness. And is also called to discipleship - whatever that looks like in our context. While creation may have "started" in a Garden & may "end" as a City - that isn't where we live. And it can't be all one or the other - can it?
Anyway - I should be writing my sermon. I have the information and the time, but I am filled with excitement & frustration that this drive that is within me has no outlet at least at the moment.
If I had the resources now however, I would buy the farm or some other land, establish a healing center and set it up so that people in need of healing could come and till the soil and plant the seeds and feed the animals and reconnect with creation in a way that so many in the past have found to be healing. But I want it to be a place that people w/out a huge income can come to. For clergy and military personnel and hurting people and even the rejected animals. I want to live THE WAY where we are - NOW!!
It's hard to believe so many months have passed since that major event and yet it is beginning to fade into the recesses of memory. However, the purpose of the ride exists as real as it ever did responding to the the reality of poverty, the prevalence of injustice, the continuation of a world/creation suffering in spite of an abundance of resources - mental, physical & economic. However, these things are not being used wisely and suffering continues.
I just heard Shane Claiborne again this past Tuesday night. I first heard him last summer when he spoke at the C2C Michigan Rally - one of many service highlighting our efforts and bringing us into communities to share worship & hear the message of how we are all called to respond to the needs of the world by LIVING the gospel, not just preaching or listening to it.
And now, I am once again challenged to respond but am not sure how to do this. While events like the C2C ride have a place and can continue to be a means for responding the ills of this world - it's not something that I at least can live off of - or expect to continue doing. How can I respond now, in the place that God has called me to live, in a way that is effective, meaningful and faithful. I am not sure what is in store for me as I try to respond to this continuing challenge. But I don't believe I am called to respond alone - on my own. I have gifts and graces that are meant to encourage others as we all work together. Yet, I can't just go and live in Philly or elsewhere just because like minded people happen to be there. I am w/Dave and don't see that changing - nor do I want it to. But we aren't living in urban America & rural America also faces suffering and hopelessness. And is also called to discipleship - whatever that looks like in our context. While creation may have "started" in a Garden & may "end" as a City - that isn't where we live. And it can't be all one or the other - can it?
Anyway - I should be writing my sermon. I have the information and the time, but I am filled with excitement & frustration that this drive that is within me has no outlet at least at the moment.
If I had the resources now however, I would buy the farm or some other land, establish a healing center and set it up so that people in need of healing could come and till the soil and plant the seeds and feed the animals and reconnect with creation in a way that so many in the past have found to be healing. But I want it to be a place that people w/out a huge income can come to. For clergy and military personnel and hurting people and even the rejected animals. I want to live THE WAY where we are - NOW!!
Monday, November 3, 2008
Keeping On
So, in order to finish what one starts, one has to complete any number of tasks, which in the completion of them leads to a finished product. If I keep writing,
at the end of this presumably there will a book, a collection of essays, or something that others will get to read - aside from family and/or friends.
As previously indicated, I did finish the ride, I did raise funds that are at this moment being used to support others in need while seeking to end the cycle of poverty and awareness was raised throughout the continent about these issues. Even as I write this, I still find it incomprehensible that people have not been aware of the existence of poverty, the conditions which lead to it, the attempts to address it. And again - I have to acknowledge that there are people who are either unaware of it's existence, in their midst, or believe that due to their financial struggles that they are living in conditions of poverty. If we understand poverty to mean more than a like of money, economic security, then I suppose it's true. For poverty is more than just lack of money in the bank. It's more than not having material necessities although it wouldn't do to minimize the impact this has on people's sense of well-being. However, there is a mental component to the state of poverty which isn't addressed as much. Anyone who has a roof over their heads but believes that their situation is equivilent to that of those who sleep on the streets because they no longer have a roof, is in a mindset of poverty. Fear of losing the house, fear of not paying bills, fear of being destitute does things to people. It robs them of the understanding that 90% of the world's population would feel like millionaires if they had the what most of us in the western world has and takes for granted. It's amazing to me that there are so many of us who have no real understanding of what it means to be truly poor. Does it matter? If you think you live in poverty, then perhaps you do - no matter what the facts of your life indicate otherwise. And then there are the people that a recent article in the AARP bulletin described - people who are out on the street having just recently owned not one but two homes, worth over a million dollars. Not that I think she deserves to be living in her car at this time but I cannot fathom what lead her to believe that she needed two homes. Or two homes worth that much. It's hard for me to conjure up feelings of empathy that tend normally would be almost automatic upon hearing this situation. I know she is suffering, I know that I would not want to live in a car. Why isn't there a place for her, a place she can afford, a place where she can have three square meals a day? I don't know. But the image in my mind of the "townships" Dave & I saw in South Africa, the images of the people of Darfur and the Sudan, and our native American reservations and pockets in the Applachians as contrasted with the home she used to live in, make it hard for me to feel that compassion that I would prefer to think of as automatic and non-judgemental.
But interestingly enough she is keeping on. She is seeking solutions to her problems. She is looking for options. They are there although not at the level they could be in a country which has so many resources but tends not to distribute them equitably.
What do people do when there are no or minimal resources? No water, no wheat. No medical care? How are these situations going to be addressed? Well, at the moment during the countdown to election day, as the candidates stress the need to vote for THEM, I am hearing the "promise" that things will change, that in the future, more people will be able to pay their bills and live the "American Dream". It's what presidential candidates do but is it real? Can one person change the focus of a country enough so that all people will be able to pay bills, own a house and have enough for the periodic vacation? And what about people throughout the world? Don't they also have right to all those things we've been conditioned to believe we have right to? Like oh say - WATER!!! Did you know that in a recent world leader conference - there was actually a discussion as to whether access to water was a right or a privilege? HELLO!?!?! Is that for real? Not that access to water hasn't always been a hallmark of those in power, those who could control a designated geographic/social environment. But when, how did it come to this point that we would seriously discuss the possibility that some people, just because of where they live don't have the same right to drinking water as anyone else in the world. Amazing.
Anyway - the 2.1 million that we raised, while perhaps only a drop in the bucket in the larger picture, will be used to address these issues in the lives of individuals and communities.
at the end of this presumably there will a book, a collection of essays, or something that others will get to read - aside from family and/or friends.
As previously indicated, I did finish the ride, I did raise funds that are at this moment being used to support others in need while seeking to end the cycle of poverty and awareness was raised throughout the continent about these issues. Even as I write this, I still find it incomprehensible that people have not been aware of the existence of poverty, the conditions which lead to it, the attempts to address it. And again - I have to acknowledge that there are people who are either unaware of it's existence, in their midst, or believe that due to their financial struggles that they are living in conditions of poverty. If we understand poverty to mean more than a like of money, economic security, then I suppose it's true. For poverty is more than just lack of money in the bank. It's more than not having material necessities although it wouldn't do to minimize the impact this has on people's sense of well-being. However, there is a mental component to the state of poverty which isn't addressed as much. Anyone who has a roof over their heads but believes that their situation is equivilent to that of those who sleep on the streets because they no longer have a roof, is in a mindset of poverty. Fear of losing the house, fear of not paying bills, fear of being destitute does things to people. It robs them of the understanding that 90% of the world's population would feel like millionaires if they had the what most of us in the western world has and takes for granted. It's amazing to me that there are so many of us who have no real understanding of what it means to be truly poor. Does it matter? If you think you live in poverty, then perhaps you do - no matter what the facts of your life indicate otherwise. And then there are the people that a recent article in the AARP bulletin described - people who are out on the street having just recently owned not one but two homes, worth over a million dollars. Not that I think she deserves to be living in her car at this time but I cannot fathom what lead her to believe that she needed two homes. Or two homes worth that much. It's hard for me to conjure up feelings of empathy that tend normally would be almost automatic upon hearing this situation. I know she is suffering, I know that I would not want to live in a car. Why isn't there a place for her, a place she can afford, a place where she can have three square meals a day? I don't know. But the image in my mind of the "townships" Dave & I saw in South Africa, the images of the people of Darfur and the Sudan, and our native American reservations and pockets in the Applachians as contrasted with the home she used to live in, make it hard for me to feel that compassion that I would prefer to think of as automatic and non-judgemental.
But interestingly enough she is keeping on. She is seeking solutions to her problems. She is looking for options. They are there although not at the level they could be in a country which has so many resources but tends not to distribute them equitably.
What do people do when there are no or minimal resources? No water, no wheat. No medical care? How are these situations going to be addressed? Well, at the moment during the countdown to election day, as the candidates stress the need to vote for THEM, I am hearing the "promise" that things will change, that in the future, more people will be able to pay their bills and live the "American Dream". It's what presidential candidates do but is it real? Can one person change the focus of a country enough so that all people will be able to pay bills, own a house and have enough for the periodic vacation? And what about people throughout the world? Don't they also have right to all those things we've been conditioned to believe we have right to? Like oh say - WATER!!! Did you know that in a recent world leader conference - there was actually a discussion as to whether access to water was a right or a privilege? HELLO!?!?! Is that for real? Not that access to water hasn't always been a hallmark of those in power, those who could control a designated geographic/social environment. But when, how did it come to this point that we would seriously discuss the possibility that some people, just because of where they live don't have the same right to drinking water as anyone else in the world. Amazing.
Anyway - the 2.1 million that we raised, while perhaps only a drop in the bucket in the larger picture, will be used to address these issues in the lives of individuals and communities.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Begin Already
So, I rode about 3000 miles on a bike ride. I had originally meant to ride the full 3831 miles - starting in Seattle WA., and ending in Jersey City NJ. I really did. However I ended up not riding the full 3,838 miles. I did accomplish what I intended to accomplish. And according to everyone who hears about the ride, it was a pretty major accomplishment - full ride or no. 3000 miles is nothing to sneeze at yet even now, a full two months since the end of the ride, it hasn't really hit me. I rode my bike, across almost the full country - with a left turn into Canada. I also didn't raise the full $10,000.00 I had hoped to. The total I did raise was just over $8000.00. That's not bad either considering the most money I ever raised in the name of fund-raising was $100.00 in 6th grade. The purpose of that money making event was to sell space in the 1970 year book and the class that raised the most contributions would earn a pizza party. Was in 1970 or '73? I can't remember actually so I might have been in 8th grade but the point is - the thought of raising enough to help our class have a pizza party generated enough effort to actually accomplish that goal. Of course, I didn't do it on my own. I had plenty of help in that mom & dad were teachers in the school district and of course teachers colleagues are great marks to hit up since it's only fair. School employees are almost a guaranteed source of fundraising income since everyone turns to each other for help in this gig. A colleague's kid has to raise money for Girl Scouts and someone else for the ball team so in comes a TON of candy to be distributed and paid for so the machine stays well oiled since we all know that "what goes around, comes around". What comes around is an overdose of sugar and calories and thank goodness that in IS 7 and surrounding schools there were enough stairs to climb throughout the day so that if you planned right, a teacher or aide could get enough exercise to burn off oh say maybe a bag of MnMs.
Anyway - thanks to Mom & Dad and our neighbors at home, some relatives and maybe even some local people that I didn't really know but were acquainted with paid for space in the Elias Bernstein Jr. High School (aka I.S. 7 - not sure why), year book of 1970, or maybe it was 1973 and our class had a pizza party. Funny that it was the promise of food which inspired me as my next major fund-raising effort was to address the issue of not enough food. While I had given some dollars here and some other dollars there throughout the year for poverty related issues, I had never taken on a project of this magnitude. And what was that you ask? It was making a commitment to ride in the largest cross country bike tour ever. The purpose of the ride was to raise funds and awareness of poverty related issues. It was to get people thinking about the sytem which allows people to go hungry and not have a place to sleep - and not be able to work while needing to pay for medical care for self and family. This is a situation which occurs worldwide: in the streets of Haiti and Calcutta, in all the continents of all the world, including in our own back yards. Families known and unknown to us face conditions daily, hourly which many more of us have an option not to address. But we are all called to address the needs of sisters and brothers everywhere - be we Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddist, or any of the other faith systems which help us make sense of this world. And knowing a couple of self-acknowledged atheists, I can say that they too feel a sense of responsibility for the others in this creation who for any number of reasons are not living in a state of even minimal well-being. Of course it would be naive to say that everyone, everywhere cares enough about others to make the necessary changes which would afford everyone access to the necessities of life but this doesn't stop the rest of us from doing what we can to see that change. "Us" being anyone who does whatever they can, in their place in the world, no matter how large or small. That's about the most I like to do with the "us" and "them" dichotomy. Not that I want to lead you to think that I don't appreciate difference. As a matter of fact, I think in our effort to cement together a sense of unity, we minimize, diminish even the notion that we are different, in so many ways from one another. We are both. There seems to be a trend toward ignoring those things that make up our character, our view points, our ways of perceving things in the world. As if we could. As the old line says, if we were all alike, it would be a pretty boring cookie cutter kind of world. But because being different from others has led to such violent and disastrous tendencies, instead of being able to acknowledge and appreciate them, no one wants to point them out. Skin color, ethnicity, cultural tradition and life experience for everyone in this world entails numerous marks of different. It SHOULDN'T MATTER. Sadly, it does. So, intead of being able to address how being different from someone else has led to looking at life a certain way, we just say, "oh, underneath we're really all the same." Well, that's not exactly true, even in individuals who grow up in the same household never mind the same neighborhood. Perhaps instead of saying "we're all the same", we could say, "some of me is different, my hair, my color, my faith tradition but I care about what school my kids are going to or I care that my kids have enough to eat and if you care about those things then we have something in common." Anyway, my concern with the concepts of "us" and "them" is the way it leads to one individual thinking that (s)he has a right to things that another person doesn't. Or the things that make us different lead one group of people to oppress and diminish another group merely for differences in whatever.
"Us" and "them." It often leads to a lot of conflict. It doesn't even have to be a major issue.
Jocks/brains! Druggies/nerds! Stoners/surfers! Oh no - heaven forbid some of us don't do things the way some others of us do. Some of us don't look like others. Some of us don't do as well at whatever as others. Why should it matter? It shouldn't except that it does.
The idea of the ride grew out of members of the Christian Reformed Church in Canada marking a major anniversary 3 years ago. That ride took place within the Canadian borders and about 65 bikers rode. It went ten and a half weeks with the money raised being used to fund new church starts within the CRC. It was successful and enjoyable and enough people thought it was such a good idea that they looked for another opportunity to ride again. Three years and a lot of planning later, the "Sea To Sea Bike Tour- Biking to End the Cycle of Poverty" came together and on Monday, June 30th 144 riders with about 25 support staff left the park at Puget Sound heading east. I am still amazed that I even considered participating in the ride never mind having completed 7/9ths of it. But it made sense for me at the time and I have no regrets about joining the ride and spending a good portion of the summer of 2008 on my butt, on a saddle, (bike seat but bikers call it a saddle - based on the fact that when the bike was first developed, it was made so that riders would throw their right leg over the bike in the same way horse riders would mount a horse). I have no regrets that I huffed and puffed my way up 3,000 mile "inclines". Or that I slept in a tent almost every night but would accept an invitation to sleep in someone's home almost any chance I could. Nor do I regret getting off the saddle and hitching a ride with our support staff in one of the vehicles designated for the purpose of rescuing injured or just plain ol' worn out riders. Had I not been able to take a break as needed, I don't think I would have been able to keep myself going when the going got tough. Although I also know that there was a fair measure of the divine at work keeping my two little legs pedaling when all I really wanted to do was throw myself off of the bike and just lay down out in the field next to whatever road I was on. This was work. Riding a bike when you are a kid is fun. It's a means to get you from point A to point B. Or to show off. But getting from point A to point B out on this ride was more than just traveling for traveling's sake. It was to help others. It was to challenge self. It was to see how a community (in this case, of faith) can maintain their principles and good humor while being unable to avoid the natural pitfalls of spending a lot of time together in somewhat pared down circumstances. We did it even though there was the occasional stepping on of toes. Hey, 150 to 200 people spending pretty much 24/7 for 9 weeks is going to cause some ruffled feathers. But we got through it because no matter what our differences were, we were committed to the same principle, the same cause, - living out our love of others. And that in the end was all that mattered.
Anyway - thanks to Mom & Dad and our neighbors at home, some relatives and maybe even some local people that I didn't really know but were acquainted with paid for space in the Elias Bernstein Jr. High School (aka I.S. 7 - not sure why), year book of 1970, or maybe it was 1973 and our class had a pizza party. Funny that it was the promise of food which inspired me as my next major fund-raising effort was to address the issue of not enough food. While I had given some dollars here and some other dollars there throughout the year for poverty related issues, I had never taken on a project of this magnitude. And what was that you ask? It was making a commitment to ride in the largest cross country bike tour ever. The purpose of the ride was to raise funds and awareness of poverty related issues. It was to get people thinking about the sytem which allows people to go hungry and not have a place to sleep - and not be able to work while needing to pay for medical care for self and family. This is a situation which occurs worldwide: in the streets of Haiti and Calcutta, in all the continents of all the world, including in our own back yards. Families known and unknown to us face conditions daily, hourly which many more of us have an option not to address. But we are all called to address the needs of sisters and brothers everywhere - be we Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddist, or any of the other faith systems which help us make sense of this world. And knowing a couple of self-acknowledged atheists, I can say that they too feel a sense of responsibility for the others in this creation who for any number of reasons are not living in a state of even minimal well-being. Of course it would be naive to say that everyone, everywhere cares enough about others to make the necessary changes which would afford everyone access to the necessities of life but this doesn't stop the rest of us from doing what we can to see that change. "Us" being anyone who does whatever they can, in their place in the world, no matter how large or small. That's about the most I like to do with the "us" and "them" dichotomy. Not that I want to lead you to think that I don't appreciate difference. As a matter of fact, I think in our effort to cement together a sense of unity, we minimize, diminish even the notion that we are different, in so many ways from one another. We are both. There seems to be a trend toward ignoring those things that make up our character, our view points, our ways of perceving things in the world. As if we could. As the old line says, if we were all alike, it would be a pretty boring cookie cutter kind of world. But because being different from others has led to such violent and disastrous tendencies, instead of being able to acknowledge and appreciate them, no one wants to point them out. Skin color, ethnicity, cultural tradition and life experience for everyone in this world entails numerous marks of different. It SHOULDN'T MATTER. Sadly, it does. So, intead of being able to address how being different from someone else has led to looking at life a certain way, we just say, "oh, underneath we're really all the same." Well, that's not exactly true, even in individuals who grow up in the same household never mind the same neighborhood. Perhaps instead of saying "we're all the same", we could say, "some of me is different, my hair, my color, my faith tradition but I care about what school my kids are going to or I care that my kids have enough to eat and if you care about those things then we have something in common." Anyway, my concern with the concepts of "us" and "them" is the way it leads to one individual thinking that (s)he has a right to things that another person doesn't. Or the things that make us different lead one group of people to oppress and diminish another group merely for differences in whatever.
"Us" and "them." It often leads to a lot of conflict. It doesn't even have to be a major issue.
Jocks/brains! Druggies/nerds! Stoners/surfers! Oh no - heaven forbid some of us don't do things the way some others of us do. Some of us don't look like others. Some of us don't do as well at whatever as others. Why should it matter? It shouldn't except that it does.
The idea of the ride grew out of members of the Christian Reformed Church in Canada marking a major anniversary 3 years ago. That ride took place within the Canadian borders and about 65 bikers rode. It went ten and a half weeks with the money raised being used to fund new church starts within the CRC. It was successful and enjoyable and enough people thought it was such a good idea that they looked for another opportunity to ride again. Three years and a lot of planning later, the "Sea To Sea Bike Tour- Biking to End the Cycle of Poverty" came together and on Monday, June 30th 144 riders with about 25 support staff left the park at Puget Sound heading east. I am still amazed that I even considered participating in the ride never mind having completed 7/9ths of it. But it made sense for me at the time and I have no regrets about joining the ride and spending a good portion of the summer of 2008 on my butt, on a saddle, (bike seat but bikers call it a saddle - based on the fact that when the bike was first developed, it was made so that riders would throw their right leg over the bike in the same way horse riders would mount a horse). I have no regrets that I huffed and puffed my way up 3,000 mile "inclines". Or that I slept in a tent almost every night but would accept an invitation to sleep in someone's home almost any chance I could. Nor do I regret getting off the saddle and hitching a ride with our support staff in one of the vehicles designated for the purpose of rescuing injured or just plain ol' worn out riders. Had I not been able to take a break as needed, I don't think I would have been able to keep myself going when the going got tough. Although I also know that there was a fair measure of the divine at work keeping my two little legs pedaling when all I really wanted to do was throw myself off of the bike and just lay down out in the field next to whatever road I was on. This was work. Riding a bike when you are a kid is fun. It's a means to get you from point A to point B. Or to show off. But getting from point A to point B out on this ride was more than just traveling for traveling's sake. It was to help others. It was to challenge self. It was to see how a community (in this case, of faith) can maintain their principles and good humor while being unable to avoid the natural pitfalls of spending a lot of time together in somewhat pared down circumstances. We did it even though there was the occasional stepping on of toes. Hey, 150 to 200 people spending pretty much 24/7 for 9 weeks is going to cause some ruffled feathers. But we got through it because no matter what our differences were, we were committed to the same principle, the same cause, - living out our love of others. And that in the end was all that mattered.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Starting My Book
Actually, I've started several writing projects:
Title - "Waiting For The Wren To Come" - poetry
Title - "Band of Gold" - play
Title - Our Story- The Life of Women in Columbia-Greene Classis - research project
Title - "Little Shepherd Boy" - children's book
Title - "I Reached For the Stars, And Caught The Moon" - Sort of autobiographical - with the
C2C bike tour as the backdrop.
Forward: In January, 2008, I read in a church bulletin insert that more riders were being
sought to participate in a cross country bike tour sponsored by the Christian Reformed
Church with the Reformed Church in America. The purpose of this tour was to raise
funds to address and awareness of the issues of poverty in our world. The Christian Reformed Church (CRC) held a similar effort in 2005 to mark their 150th anniversary. The funds raised by that effort supported church starts throughout the North American Continent.
Because of the success of that effort and the desire of others to participate in something similar, the Sea To Sea Tour - Biking to End the Cycle of Poverty was organized. This resulted in the largest cross continent tour to ever take place. When it was completed, over 200 cyclists and approximately 25 support staff journey either some or all of 3831 miles throughout North America. More significantly, over 2.1 million dollars were raised to support mission efforts in the CRC & RCA. The funds raised were to be distributed among these organizations:
In order to ride, each cyclist had to raise either $4000.00, $8,000.00 or $10,000.00 dollars.
Donations continued coming in throughout the summer. Numerous individuals across the country also contributed as we made our way throughout the towns, villages and cities in 8 states and the province of Ontario, CA. Waitresses handed over their tips, diners in small coffee shops and other eateries pulled out their wallets to support the effort when they heard about the tour. Folks in groceries, gas stations and along the roads offered whatever they could to offer a helping hand. These contributions came spontaneously and with heartfelt generosity by people happy to help support such an effort. That doesn't begin to describe the support of the family, friends and "strangers" we met on the way who offered the precious drink of cold water, or held up a home made sign to encourage bikers as we pedaled what sometimes seemed like endless miles. And the cakes, cookies and other fare offered to help us maintain our energy. You cannot imagine the support and encouragement we received by so many others who went out of their way to remind us we were not alone. Additionally, the help we received by our support staff cannot be underestimated or over appreciated. The SAG drivers and "Kitchen Ladies" were part of this rolling, mobile community - a community which was born out of the desire to feed His sheep and share the love of the Lord.
How I got involved in this effort is a story in and of itself but I realized that it was a backdrop to a larger story - the story of
The title came from a saying I heard around the same time that I heard about the trip. I have paraphrased it, I think, because I don't remember the exact phrase. But the concept is pretty clear. While many of us reach for the stars and actually get to grab ahold, sometimes we reach for something and don't get get it. In sharing my intention to participate in the ride, I received mostly encouraging feedback. Mostly but not all. There were a few responses of the "what are you nuts?" kind of question or the ever heartfelt, "better you than me" comment. Of all the people who had something to say only a couple which fell in the negative category. For whatever reason, these people were adamant that this was not something I should participate in. However, their reasons weren't persuasive enough to dissuade me from following through on this decision. I did appreciate when people expressed concern for my well-being as my overall health in general was never in the great shape category. But when people asked, "what if you don't make it", I could and did reply, "well, then I've reached for the stars and caught the moon instead - not a bad deal."
Title - "Waiting For The Wren To Come" - poetry
Title - "Band of Gold" - play
Title - Our Story- The Life of Women in Columbia-Greene Classis - research project
Title - "Little Shepherd Boy" - children's book
Title - "I Reached For the Stars, And Caught The Moon" - Sort of autobiographical - with the
C2C bike tour as the backdrop.
Forward: In January, 2008, I read in a church bulletin insert that more riders were being
sought to participate in a cross country bike tour sponsored by the Christian Reformed
Church with the Reformed Church in America. The purpose of this tour was to raise
funds to address and awareness of the issues of poverty in our world. The Christian Reformed Church (CRC) held a similar effort in 2005 to mark their 150th anniversary. The funds raised by that effort supported church starts throughout the North American Continent.
Because of the success of that effort and the desire of others to participate in something similar, the Sea To Sea Tour - Biking to End the Cycle of Poverty was organized. This resulted in the largest cross continent tour to ever take place. When it was completed, over 200 cyclists and approximately 25 support staff journey either some or all of 3831 miles throughout North America. More significantly, over 2.1 million dollars were raised to support mission efforts in the CRC & RCA. The funds raised were to be distributed among these organizations:
In order to ride, each cyclist had to raise either $4000.00, $8,000.00 or $10,000.00 dollars.
Donations continued coming in throughout the summer. Numerous individuals across the country also contributed as we made our way throughout the towns, villages and cities in 8 states and the province of Ontario, CA. Waitresses handed over their tips, diners in small coffee shops and other eateries pulled out their wallets to support the effort when they heard about the tour. Folks in groceries, gas stations and along the roads offered whatever they could to offer a helping hand. These contributions came spontaneously and with heartfelt generosity by people happy to help support such an effort. That doesn't begin to describe the support of the family, friends and "strangers" we met on the way who offered the precious drink of cold water, or held up a home made sign to encourage bikers as we pedaled what sometimes seemed like endless miles. And the cakes, cookies and other fare offered to help us maintain our energy. You cannot imagine the support and encouragement we received by so many others who went out of their way to remind us we were not alone. Additionally, the help we received by our support staff cannot be underestimated or over appreciated. The SAG drivers and "Kitchen Ladies" were part of this rolling, mobile community - a community which was born out of the desire to feed His sheep and share the love of the Lord.
How I got involved in this effort is a story in and of itself but I realized that it was a backdrop to a larger story - the story of
The title came from a saying I heard around the same time that I heard about the trip. I have paraphrased it, I think, because I don't remember the exact phrase. But the concept is pretty clear. While many of us reach for the stars and actually get to grab ahold, sometimes we reach for something and don't get get it. In sharing my intention to participate in the ride, I received mostly encouraging feedback. Mostly but not all. There were a few responses of the "what are you nuts?" kind of question or the ever heartfelt, "better you than me" comment. Of all the people who had something to say only a couple which fell in the negative category. For whatever reason, these people were adamant that this was not something I should participate in. However, their reasons weren't persuasive enough to dissuade me from following through on this decision. I did appreciate when people expressed concern for my well-being as my overall health in general was never in the great shape category. But when people asked, "what if you don't make it", I could and did reply, "well, then I've reached for the stars and caught the moon instead - not a bad deal."
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Oct 9, 2008
Pretty straightforward title, eh? I'm trying to become more disciplined about writing on a regular basis - but why in a blog? Why not just in a journal or even a word document?
Maybe because it's the compromise between writing as a writer for myself and writing something in the small hope that one day I'll get around to writing something which I can
then submit for publication. I write knowing that it's possible someone else may read these
entries but also possible that no one else will. Which is fine - as long as I write. Something I've supposedly wanted to do for ages. And not just for me - but with the hope of getting published.
But like they say re: winning the lottery - "you've got to be in it to win it". In order to be published - one has to write - or there will definitely be NO POSSIBILITY of being published. Ok - my credo is somewhere on the shelves of NBTS - I think - but it's not quite what I had in mind. And why is it that some writers can sit and write as if their life depended on it - and others struggle with the chasm between desire intent and intent and follow through.
It's kind of similar to what I experienced while riding on the C2C tour. Many of the riders could get up each morning, eat breakfast and hop on their bikes and just go. And it was never (according to them) something that they struggled with. Riding was just so much fun, so inspiring, so whatever that apparently they didn't ever wake up cringing at the thought of hoping on and going. But for me & I think at least a few others - there were mornings when the thought of getting up and pedaling for the next 5-8 hours was overwhelming. Sometimes tear producing. It's not that I ever stopped liking biking in and of itself. But even though I did manage to get up every morning at least by 6, a miracle, and wanted to fully participate in this thing I committed to doing, I had days when I just didn't know how it would happen. One morning, in the town of Dinosaur, I woke up, after a night of sleep and no particular agenda other than getting to point B from point A that day but found I could not get going. I DID NOT WANT TO GET OUT OF MY TENT. I did not want to get up, get dressed or ride. Now, did I somehow change in the middle of the night to a creature whose heart changed, whose mind changed about this tour and the purpose of the ride? No, I don't believe so. I just was going through a moment in life in which my heart, my mind, my body decided we'd had enough. It was more than I could bear - the thought of riding 1 mile never mind whatever we had to ride that day. But as my friend says in her song - "there is more than what was going on in that moment". I perhaps could not fathom what exactly it was I was feeling in that moment -
but I had to fix my eyes "not on what is seen by what is unseen". If I let myself sucumb to the moment of distress, I would not have moved - the feeling was almost enough to paralyze me - not as I have experienced in say, a PANIC ATTACK - because I wasn't panicky. I was just TIRED, I think. So, in order to get going, I promised myself I would only make myself ride a mile. At least. I'd even aim for 3 miles but after that I wasn't going to make myself go any further. And I had to allow myself that leeway or else I would not have left the haven of the tent. And so I got up, got dressed, had breakfast, got my gear put together to go on the truck and I swung my leg over the saddle and started peddling. And in interesting thing happened. After 3 miles, I thought I might make it another 2 or 3 at least. At that point another rider, Ad, rode up beside me. It's funny because on this particular day, Ad decided that he wasn't in any particular hurry and asked if he could join me. I responded the way I always did - that he was more than welcome to ride alongside but he was welcome to go on at any point if he decided that he wanted to speed it up. Speed became somewhat of an issue during the tour and it could be a struggle trying to keep up with others - even when they offered to slow down. For the most part - it would work for a while but then the bikers with more stamina, energy, whatever would find that the slow pace just didn't work for them. I personally didn't have too much of a problem with that but it did get discouraging now and then or more to see people passing, passing, passing on their way to the next stopover. Now, it's easy to say that comparing ourselves with others isn't necessary or helpful or even what God wants us to do. Which is true. If God called "Me", to ride, God called me as I am, not as I should or even would like to be. God called me and uses me with all that I am and all that I have to offer in service. But, I would like to be more physically fit and always have wanted to be. I've worked out, I've gone to gyms, I've exercised on and off my whole life and no matter what - I don't improve after a certain point. So, while I didn't have to keep up with others - I would have liked to so that I could take my time later in the day to keep up with blogging, or to go to a local store, hang-out whatever and just be part of the larger group. Or even a smaller one. So, sometimes, on rare occasions it happened but for the most part, I would, with the support of one or two or maybe 3 others who weren't in a hurry that day, get to our overnight site more towared the end of the day - rather than earlier.
Do I feel less of a person? Does God or anyone else love me less? No!! I'm not less than anyone else although I might want to be better at the fitness thing. Certainly God would not love me less - or more - than any other rider. And in fact - it was quite a reminder that God uses us in our weakness moreso than using our strengths to work in us. We are so caught up in our culture to worship strength!!! Physical, emotional, spiritual - that we forget that God's work is with the weak, the poor, the marginalized. Our strengths very often can get in the way of God's purpose - we sucumb to an "oh, look what I did kind of thinking and forget to say look how God uses me. Certainly it's not a sin to recognize our strengths and capabilities and use them - but we can't eliminate or ignore the way God uses the weaknesses of our lives, our personalities to show us how great God is - and what can be accomplished when we remember that it IS ALL ABOUT GOD!!
Anyway - for the bikers who didn't want to ride everyday, all the way - but did, with or without support - amen. I commend you and I appreciate that you probably have an idea of what it was like that one morning when I couldn't do the whole day's ride. I did end up riding 18 miles - to the first SAG stop of the day - COREY - YAYY COREY. I had a snack and then got in his van and fell asleep for like 3 hours. Then we rode on and at some point I did get out and finish the ride for that day on my bike. As the tour progressed, there were a lot of days such as that one. I'd start out on the bike, ride for a while, then get a ride in a SAG and then finish the day off on my bike. It was the style - the pattern - the recipe that worked for me. Toward the end of the ride - I had more days when I could ride the whole day - every mile - even if it took longer than most. Right now I'm riding almost every day of the week - but not more than 20 miles in one day. And it's getting harder, not easier to keep it up. Why? I want to stay in shape - the physical part of it should be showing improvement but I don't seem to be. It's weird.
I really did learn that I had to and continue to have to trust that inner voice - that inner knowing that when I make a choice, a decision to do or not something, it is because I am allowing God to lead me. To the outside world, it may not make sense, but I know that I know what I know and I have to trust that. I don't do this in a vacuum as I am in conversation with Dave and others about other possibilities but I trust that my relationship with the Divine is ongoing and real so that I can trust that today's choices are part of an overall plan for my life and my life in the context of the greater world around me. I know that when I took days off during the ride and when I took the 2 weeks off to come home they were so the right choices - for me. I wasn't quitting as someone asked me one day. I wasn't giving up. I was pacing myself for the long run - the run that continues after the bike tour. If I had really pushed myself - I might have collapsed - physically or emotionally and who knows what that would have meant. Of course there seems to still be an awareness and acceptance of physical needs moreso than mental/emotional. We applaud people for getting physically injured but we dismiss those whose wounds we can't (or won't) see. We decide that if "I can do thus and such", then so should someone else be able to. Our ability & willingness to judge what others do - or what we think they should do is so arrogant. Hey, I'm guilty of it myself. I know how hard it is to overcome childhood wounds - and the control we can feel throughout the years but I will say things like, "it's time for so and so to take responsibility for his/her life." Yes, it may be true - but not everything is revealed to each of us in the same way. How on earth can I say that "he should just move on (this isn't in relation to the loss of a loved on) when I still am working on issues which hang me up. Now, it's interesting that I don't say that about people who are in grief about the loss of a loved one - but grief generated by other kinds of loss they should be able to move past. I guess it's watching how others allow the wounds of the past to continue to control them so that they don't get to grow and move forward using their full potential for life. They are in their weakness - which God can use - but I guess the question is - do they let God do that for/with them?
Anyway - I think the next entry should be some pictures. I have to put together a CD with highlights from the trip as I will be doing some presentations in the next couple of weeks about it - and it'd be nice to have pictures to show. A power point presentation is what I'm going to try working on. No, I'm going to work on it - hopefully it will come together.
One more note - the wooly bears are out all over the place. I have seen plenty while riding around and the other day saw an all black one. It was beautiful. Fall is truly here and it's a great season.
Maybe because it's the compromise between writing as a writer for myself and writing something in the small hope that one day I'll get around to writing something which I can
then submit for publication. I write knowing that it's possible someone else may read these
entries but also possible that no one else will. Which is fine - as long as I write. Something I've supposedly wanted to do for ages. And not just for me - but with the hope of getting published.
But like they say re: winning the lottery - "you've got to be in it to win it". In order to be published - one has to write - or there will definitely be NO POSSIBILITY of being published. Ok - my credo is somewhere on the shelves of NBTS - I think - but it's not quite what I had in mind. And why is it that some writers can sit and write as if their life depended on it - and others struggle with the chasm between desire intent and intent and follow through.
It's kind of similar to what I experienced while riding on the C2C tour. Many of the riders could get up each morning, eat breakfast and hop on their bikes and just go. And it was never (according to them) something that they struggled with. Riding was just so much fun, so inspiring, so whatever that apparently they didn't ever wake up cringing at the thought of hoping on and going. But for me & I think at least a few others - there were mornings when the thought of getting up and pedaling for the next 5-8 hours was overwhelming. Sometimes tear producing. It's not that I ever stopped liking biking in and of itself. But even though I did manage to get up every morning at least by 6, a miracle, and wanted to fully participate in this thing I committed to doing, I had days when I just didn't know how it would happen. One morning, in the town of Dinosaur, I woke up, after a night of sleep and no particular agenda other than getting to point B from point A that day but found I could not get going. I DID NOT WANT TO GET OUT OF MY TENT. I did not want to get up, get dressed or ride. Now, did I somehow change in the middle of the night to a creature whose heart changed, whose mind changed about this tour and the purpose of the ride? No, I don't believe so. I just was going through a moment in life in which my heart, my mind, my body decided we'd had enough. It was more than I could bear - the thought of riding 1 mile never mind whatever we had to ride that day. But as my friend says in her song - "there is more than what was going on in that moment". I perhaps could not fathom what exactly it was I was feeling in that moment -
but I had to fix my eyes "not on what is seen by what is unseen". If I let myself sucumb to the moment of distress, I would not have moved - the feeling was almost enough to paralyze me - not as I have experienced in say, a PANIC ATTACK - because I wasn't panicky. I was just TIRED, I think. So, in order to get going, I promised myself I would only make myself ride a mile. At least. I'd even aim for 3 miles but after that I wasn't going to make myself go any further. And I had to allow myself that leeway or else I would not have left the haven of the tent. And so I got up, got dressed, had breakfast, got my gear put together to go on the truck and I swung my leg over the saddle and started peddling. And in interesting thing happened. After 3 miles, I thought I might make it another 2 or 3 at least. At that point another rider, Ad, rode up beside me. It's funny because on this particular day, Ad decided that he wasn't in any particular hurry and asked if he could join me. I responded the way I always did - that he was more than welcome to ride alongside but he was welcome to go on at any point if he decided that he wanted to speed it up. Speed became somewhat of an issue during the tour and it could be a struggle trying to keep up with others - even when they offered to slow down. For the most part - it would work for a while but then the bikers with more stamina, energy, whatever would find that the slow pace just didn't work for them. I personally didn't have too much of a problem with that but it did get discouraging now and then or more to see people passing, passing, passing on their way to the next stopover. Now, it's easy to say that comparing ourselves with others isn't necessary or helpful or even what God wants us to do. Which is true. If God called "Me", to ride, God called me as I am, not as I should or even would like to be. God called me and uses me with all that I am and all that I have to offer in service. But, I would like to be more physically fit and always have wanted to be. I've worked out, I've gone to gyms, I've exercised on and off my whole life and no matter what - I don't improve after a certain point. So, while I didn't have to keep up with others - I would have liked to so that I could take my time later in the day to keep up with blogging, or to go to a local store, hang-out whatever and just be part of the larger group. Or even a smaller one. So, sometimes, on rare occasions it happened but for the most part, I would, with the support of one or two or maybe 3 others who weren't in a hurry that day, get to our overnight site more towared the end of the day - rather than earlier.
Do I feel less of a person? Does God or anyone else love me less? No!! I'm not less than anyone else although I might want to be better at the fitness thing. Certainly God would not love me less - or more - than any other rider. And in fact - it was quite a reminder that God uses us in our weakness moreso than using our strengths to work in us. We are so caught up in our culture to worship strength!!! Physical, emotional, spiritual - that we forget that God's work is with the weak, the poor, the marginalized. Our strengths very often can get in the way of God's purpose - we sucumb to an "oh, look what I did kind of thinking and forget to say look how God uses me. Certainly it's not a sin to recognize our strengths and capabilities and use them - but we can't eliminate or ignore the way God uses the weaknesses of our lives, our personalities to show us how great God is - and what can be accomplished when we remember that it IS ALL ABOUT GOD!!
Anyway - for the bikers who didn't want to ride everyday, all the way - but did, with or without support - amen. I commend you and I appreciate that you probably have an idea of what it was like that one morning when I couldn't do the whole day's ride. I did end up riding 18 miles - to the first SAG stop of the day - COREY - YAYY COREY. I had a snack and then got in his van and fell asleep for like 3 hours. Then we rode on and at some point I did get out and finish the ride for that day on my bike. As the tour progressed, there were a lot of days such as that one. I'd start out on the bike, ride for a while, then get a ride in a SAG and then finish the day off on my bike. It was the style - the pattern - the recipe that worked for me. Toward the end of the ride - I had more days when I could ride the whole day - every mile - even if it took longer than most. Right now I'm riding almost every day of the week - but not more than 20 miles in one day. And it's getting harder, not easier to keep it up. Why? I want to stay in shape - the physical part of it should be showing improvement but I don't seem to be. It's weird.
I really did learn that I had to and continue to have to trust that inner voice - that inner knowing that when I make a choice, a decision to do or not something, it is because I am allowing God to lead me. To the outside world, it may not make sense, but I know that I know what I know and I have to trust that. I don't do this in a vacuum as I am in conversation with Dave and others about other possibilities but I trust that my relationship with the Divine is ongoing and real so that I can trust that today's choices are part of an overall plan for my life and my life in the context of the greater world around me. I know that when I took days off during the ride and when I took the 2 weeks off to come home they were so the right choices - for me. I wasn't quitting as someone asked me one day. I wasn't giving up. I was pacing myself for the long run - the run that continues after the bike tour. If I had really pushed myself - I might have collapsed - physically or emotionally and who knows what that would have meant. Of course there seems to still be an awareness and acceptance of physical needs moreso than mental/emotional. We applaud people for getting physically injured but we dismiss those whose wounds we can't (or won't) see. We decide that if "I can do thus and such", then so should someone else be able to. Our ability & willingness to judge what others do - or what we think they should do is so arrogant. Hey, I'm guilty of it myself. I know how hard it is to overcome childhood wounds - and the control we can feel throughout the years but I will say things like, "it's time for so and so to take responsibility for his/her life." Yes, it may be true - but not everything is revealed to each of us in the same way. How on earth can I say that "he should just move on (this isn't in relation to the loss of a loved on) when I still am working on issues which hang me up. Now, it's interesting that I don't say that about people who are in grief about the loss of a loved one - but grief generated by other kinds of loss they should be able to move past. I guess it's watching how others allow the wounds of the past to continue to control them so that they don't get to grow and move forward using their full potential for life. They are in their weakness - which God can use - but I guess the question is - do they let God do that for/with them?
Anyway - I think the next entry should be some pictures. I have to put together a CD with highlights from the trip as I will be doing some presentations in the next couple of weeks about it - and it'd be nice to have pictures to show. A power point presentation is what I'm going to try working on. No, I'm going to work on it - hopefully it will come together.
One more note - the wooly bears are out all over the place. I have seen plenty while riding around and the other day saw an all black one. It was beautiful. Fall is truly here and it's a great season.
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