The Fifteenth of June.

I wish that I could introduce you to Antioch and the interns.  We have some pretty incredible people here.  Maybe I’ll start a summer-long project of interviewing some of the interns and staff so that you can get to know them.  That would be a great idea.  As long as I have time.  I’m pretty pressed for time.

Lately my project has been web design for the Paradox website.  The colors are great, but not attention-grabbing.  So there’s a lot of color configuration, Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator files swimming back and forth between my computer, the church’s media/graphics computer, and email.  I’d take pictures, but they wouldn’t be that exciting.  The web design isn’t a huge project, but it is time-consuming and requires a great deal of detail.  I’ll be working with another intern or two to finish up the project, and run it by my ministry focus leader, Matt Smith.

Our host family has been great – we’re putting on an Intern Host Family Appreciation Banquet for all the families with whom we are staying.  They’ve been awesome.  Our host parents just finished The Dirty Half, a half-marathon they’ve been training for.  They finished in 2hr.1min.  We were really proud.  Jake – the oldest of the boys – is learning how to solve a Rubix cube and is getting better and better at it, and as often as I am home, he’s asking what to do next.  He and his brother Travis were working hard yesterday weeding the planters and garden.  After some encouragement to wipe their not-so-enthusiastic frowns off their faces, and after a few more hours of weeding, we rewarded their hard work with a trip to the local pool.  It was freezing when we walked back.

It’s been a brisky 50-60 degrees for the most part here in Bend, which I think is unacceptable for mid-June weather.  It should be hotter.  I wake up cold.  I’m not complaining; it’s just unusual.

Anyhow, this Saturday the interns are putting on a fundraiser to raise support for us to participate in Family Camp with Antioch.  Mostly, we would be helping while there, but we are raising support via car washes in two locations in order to pay for the expense it is to have us go.  To make it more fun, it has been declared a competition between the two intern teams, which, for competitive-natured people, is incentive enough.

This week, and through next week I will also be working on message preparation for Paradox on June 25th, after which we will have a community “Night Flight” (glow-in-the-dark frisbee football).  Pray for all of this, if you could.  For message guidelines, I am to choose a parable of Jesus and tie its message into the idea of the kingdom of God and what it means to be a kingdom citizen.  I’ve just started, and will be posting progress in order to include you all in the verbal (written) process.  I will be speaking/teaching at Paradox again on July 16th and August 6th.  I have yet to set dates for the other four times I will be speaking/teaching this summer.  As for this Friday, though, I am helping to lead worship at Paradox.

The first week of July, I will be working to put together a worship packet for the interns.  We will be spending July 8th in meditative solitude, spending time learning to hear the voice of God, to rest in him, to bring even the thinnest threads of our lives and lay them at his feet in prayer, and just take the time to focus fully and wholeheartedly on him.  I will be creating a series of stages each intern can journey through in a Christ-centered process of worshipping God holistically – in cognition, affect, and behavior.  It will be a week or so process of preparing the heart in the days prior to solitude, amplifying our sensitivity to the movement of God throughout solitude, and reflecting internally and externally after solitude.  In every way, I want to work to the best of my ability to help create that environment and atmosphere of the soul most receptive to what God would have us learning.  I pray and hope that he would teach each of us powerfully and that we would embrace – be it ever so pleasurable or painful – him and all that he gives.

Please continue to pray as you have been praying for me, for Antioch, and for Bend!  Thank you all.

Day[1].

(I was going to post this yesterday morning before I left, but my computer wouldn’t let me, then it died.  But we can pretend like it’s still yesterday.)

Good morning!  In just a while, we will be having our first official meeting of the internship to kick off the next ten weeks, get our intern vehicles, and get everything set into motion with our respective leaders.  With Paradox, I’ll be meeting with Matt – I don’t know him very well yet, but I’ve heard such great things about him and the wisdom he has to offer that I’m looking forward to learning from him, growing because of what God is doing in him, and participating with him in what God is doing here in Bend and at Antioch.

Today, kicked off the day at 5:00AM with a 4 mile run in the woods.  Jen and Forrest are running the half marathon coming up here, and they’re training, so I might join them.  They ran the whole 13 (or so) mi course on Sunday.  I’m not in good enough shape to have that endurance, but hopefully by the end of summer I can.  It’s great all the outdoor sports and activities that are available here throughout Bend and out in the woods, caves, mountains, and rivers.  Yesterday the church leaders took the interns that had arrived already out to the lava tubes and we went spelunking.  Which is pretty much cave exploring.  We went as far as we could go, belly-crawling through the dirt and climbing over rocks.  I’d post a video, but apparently it costs money to do that here on WordPress.

Sunday evening Paul and I were given tickets to go see a show at the Les Schwab Amphitheater downtown.  Three bands played: Dawes, She & Him, and Band of Horses.   They were great, especially Band of Horses.  There was even an accidental simultaneous fireworks show just down the river a bit from the amphitheater during the band’s final song.  We had a good time, and got to know Cole, one of our Bend friends, and a few of his friends.  A big thanks to Jen and Forrest for giving those to us.  That was an amazing blessing.

Yesterday was Paul’s birthday, too!  He just turned 25.  The boys made cards for Paul when we got home from spelunking, and we had apple pie and ice cream with them, and played a little “would you rather” game.  That’s always a blast.  He loved it.

So now I’m about to eat breakfast and head out for the church offices with Paul, and we’re going to get this thing started!  Please continue to pray for everyone here.  It means so much, and it is our act of surrendering our lives and the lives of those we know and love in speech before God.  That’s a big deal to me, and I deeply appreciate your prayers and support.  I can’t say it enough: can’t do it without you all.  And I wouldn’t be where I am were each of you not present in my life.  Thank you.

Now let’s get this party started.

Here’s some pictures from the past few days!

Antioch meets in a nearby high school. There were more people there than we expected.

Redux meets after the morning service as a Q&A time where people can text or ask questions.

At the Les Schwab amphitheater, She&Him played. Zoey is "she", but the old guy here isn't "him".

She&Him

Band of Horses.

Band of Horses.

Spelunking in the lava tubes with Jarrell.

Interns riding back from the caves.

Paul, hangin in the caves. Happy Birthday, Paul

This is Angus. He came spelunking with us. It was pretty amazing.

THE JOURNEY & ARRIVAL.

Wow, just spent three days straight in the back left seat of a car headed out of Chicago, IL to Bend, OR with a few bags of things for summer and nine dollars worth of bread, granola bars, and peanut butter.

We went straight through Iowa and stopped in Nebraska where I got to spend some time at a friend’s house, meet her awesome family, wrestle some kids for an hour or two on a trampoline in the backyard, and go on a thorough tour of the farm.  We were well fed and extremely grateful.  Because for the next several hours, Nebraska bored us to death.

We cut up into Wyoming where we drove through Yellowstone National Park, where I unfortunately discovered my camera had died (and at this point, my phone as well).  But my friend Audrey, who we drove with (Thank you, and Mama Velez), had a camera, so I’ll post pictures soon.  Yellowstone was gorgeous.  We saw a grizzly, some mule deer, a few elk and a bunch of bison.  I saw a bald eagle, too, but Paul and Audrey don’t believe me.  It’s like when my little sister and I saw a big black panther in Mexico up on the rooftop of where my dad’s abuelito lived in Puebla.

I suppose anywhere in the world, jealousy can lead to denial.  ;)

After Yellowstone, we went through Montana, into Idaho (missed most of it ’cause I was sleeping), and then crossed through Spokane, WA before we headed down into Oregon.  We slept two nights in the car, which were brutal.  There’s just  no way to sleep well with four people, luggage and food in a four-door sedan.  Tried my best, and I’m the kind of guy who can pass out pretty much anywhere.  I love that.  But this was crazy hard.  So we slept on and off the whole trip, just closing our eyes when we felt tired, catching an hour here, two hours there, a half hour 200 miles down the road.

Overall, it was an amazing trip. There were vast fields and millions of trees, gaping canyons and valleys that remind you why “valley” starts with a “v”, rivers that make your head swim, and summits that steal your breath away.  It was an awesome reminder of the hugeness of our God and how incredible he is to be the Creator of it all.

Now I’m in Bend.  And we have arrived.

Here’s some pictures of the Keadys’ home, where we are staying, and two of the boys with Paul, who we also wrestled with on a trampoline.  I feel like that will become a fairly regular event.  I’m barely going to edit these – it’s late.  They have a beautiful home and an awesome family.  They’re all great, and I’ve had a blast with them so far.  I’ll keep taking pictures and posting them, so you can meet the family and get to know the area.  I’m going to church at Antioch for the first time tomorrow morning, so I should get to bed pretty soon.  It’s been a long day!   I’ll post again soon!

This is Will - he's in Kindergarten.

Travis, or T - he's in 2nd.

Welcome to the Keady home!

I'm staying in Will's room.

This is where our first "interns vs. keady boys" wrestling match began.

They have a beautiful home.

Paul with the boys. Jake came home later - I'll get pictures of him, along with Jen and Forrest in my next post.