Leaving the country yet again...

At the end of May, my husband and a small group of volunteers from Mosaic and the Bay area are heading to Sudan. At this time last year, Kevin met a man named Michael - a Lost Boy from Sudan sent by the Clinton administration to the United States for an education. Displaced from his home in Sudan due to war, Michael walked several thousands of miles to safety in a neighboring country. Getting an education was his only hope to escape a lifetime in refugee camps. Fortunately, some of those in the U.S. government felt the same way and helped pave the way for some of the young boys to come to the United States. Now, years later, Michael wants to use his education to help those still living out the consequences of war. With the help of Kevin, Mosaic, and EMI (Engineering Ministries International), Michael will return to his home village, Jalle, this May with a team of dedicated and talented engineers and architects. This team will help the village assess its needs and help the local community move towards solutions they might not have had access to previously.

Please visit the website, Rebuild Sudan, for more information about the Lost Boys or to see how you might be a part of rebuilding this community.

Photo: Michael reunited with his mother after a 20-year separation.

some old prayer

I was reading tonight and came across this really old prayer (The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi). I am RARELY into things like this but it quickly caught my attention - especially the second part.

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith;
Where is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.

Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
To be loved as to love
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

It was encouraging to see another reminding us of this truth - of how Jesus lived and what he taught. Too often I feel frustrated that the church is too focused on themselves as though after a certain level of our "needs" are met THEN we will be able to serve and love others. Too often I feel alone in the campaign for serving and loving others as the way to grow in God. Too often I worry about how easily we are tempted to to put our needs first.

Do we think growing in God is about knowledge and not about action? What is growing in God? It is a matter of intellect and memorization? It is about how many books you read and how many "Godly" people you can quote? We must discuss these questions!

These other quotes/thoughts came to mind as I was thinking about this:

"The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
Romans 13:9

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."
1 Corinthians 13:1-3

The temptation is too great - so I tend to swing to the other extreme in hopes of hitting somewhere in the middle. Too many churches are known for how creatively they meet their own needs - though amazing programs and unfaltering organization. Will we be known for this as well? When will the church be known for its love? Not for its knowledge, its intellect, its amazing sermons and captivating productions... but simply for the way it loves and cares for others? This is the church I long for.

We strive so hard to encourage serving as a way to practice loving others. Too many times people come to us and ask about burnout or what will "fill" them back up? I have a few thoughts on this:
1: Whose strength are you serving on/with anyways? If it is your own, then you most definitely burnout. But burnout is not such a bad thing - to come to the end of yourself and need God's help (and/or the help of others) to empower you to finish.
2: Doesn't the prayer above say that serving is the means to be "filled up"? Does Jesus discuss and model this?
3: How are you serving? Are you serving in the ways you "should" as determined by the expectations of yourself or others? Or are you serving in the unique ways that only you can - with your passions, talents and gifts?

The core reason I am SO passionate and intense about this subject is because of my own story. I spent YEARS diligently growing in knowledge to find little to no character change in myself. No matter how many Bible studies I was a part of or lead - no matter how many verses I memorized - no matter how "christian" I became - I could not change myself. Knowledge is helpful in knowing God - but serving is essential to living out a life with God.

Not only that - but one really clear way serving helps you grow is in self awareness. You learn really quick what you like and what you don't - what you really think or hope for - in the act of serving.

I am not "anti-Bible study" but I am Bible study resistant. I am resistant to engage unless there is a clear vision of what we are moving towards and what we hope to attain. We hope to be the church FOR the world due to our understanding of who Jesus is and what He hoped for. It is in this context we can talk about the role of knowledge.

Creativity and Artichokes

I most enjoy cooking when I get to try something unknown and challenging, otherwise it's just a chore and a duty to me and I tend to avoid it. I have also found that I enjoy experimenting the most when there's a crowd involved - a dinner party of some sort... it makes it more of a challenge or something I suppose. It doesn't bother me too much when an experiment fails - I am thankful I tried at all, however, KV might have a different perspective :)

So last week we had some co-workers over and I heard artichokes were in season. Thankfully this one turned out - though the prep was tedious & my fingers hurt from the sharp points on the leaves.

So proud of myself

I FINALLY planted a vegetable garden! It was inspired by Mel Bartholomew's book Square Foot Gardening. I meant to build one last spring but the first picture shows how far I got. I basically built two square raised beds and left them sitting there for a year - I didn't even add soil. So this spring I basically had to re-start seeing as all the weeds that we pulled last year had returned.


Got to love pulling weeds. I was surprised to find that the soil had changed a lot since last year. Last year it was practically dust and hard as a rock - this year it even had worms and snails living in it!


Weed pulling took longer than everything else combined. The green trash bin to the right is our city's mandatory compost bin. You put all your garden clippings, unused food, etc. in it and they pick it up once a week. It usually smells so bad I gag every time I go near it. :)


After the weeds, I nailed weed cloth to the bottom of the raised beds and put potting soil mix from our local nursery inside. Hopefully this will reduce the amount of weed pulling needed in the future. The wood slats we nailed across the top of the beds are supposed to help us measure the space for planting. For example, lettuce can be planted six inches apart so you can plant four per square foot. Broccoli, on the other hand, needs more space so you can only plant one per square foot.


The planted boxes! I go out back and check on them as often as I can, half expecting them to be all shriveled up or attacked by an animal. I find myself worrying about it sometimes - is it too hot or too cool; is there enough water, sun... I even dream about it sometimes! I'm a typical first time gardener - clueless and hopeful.


Box #1: Cauliflower, lettuce, peas, tomato, spinach, onions, red bell pepper, strawberry, basil and broccoli.


Box #2: Strawberry, cucumber, edamame, cherry tomato, yellow bell pepper, broccoli, tomato, cauliflower.


I recently read something about the significance of the garden in the creation stories. The book, End of Religion, says, "A garden is a meeting place between nature and human culture. It reflects both divine and human creativity, as opposed to the extremes of a city on the one hand and a forest (or jungle, depending on how tropical you like your analogies) on the other. Genesis shows us that God's original design for humanity was an intimate, purposeful relationship between himself and humanity, expressed through a cocreative partnership." (End of Religion, pgs. 197-198)

Fool me once, shame on you...

Fool me twice, shame on me.

I am feeling the shame, or rather, the anger.

Our car was stolen for the second time last Thursday at the North Berkeley BART station just over a mile from our house. I was headed home after attending a design event in Oakland. I rode the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit aka. metro/subway) and looked for the car... to no avail. It was gone. Not even a shard of broken glass was to be found - that old thing was so easy to break into you didn't even need to bother the glass. I am angry today - if only we had taken the time to get a club after it was stolen the first time!



We are not confident that we will be as lucky as we were the first time - when the San Jose police department found our car illegally parked about an hour from where we live. The police told us last week we had about a 50% chance or ever seen it again. I do not feel hopeful. If only this was an April Fools joke - unfortunately it isn't.

On another note, KV's elbow is healing "twice as fast" as it should be, according to the orthopedic doctor he saw yesterday. He doesn't even have to wear the sling anymore.