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.

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.

PAUL / FORREST & JEN KEADY!

Paul Crouse is a great guy.  He’s my best bro here at Moody, and he’s also doing his internship at Antioch.  I’m excited to be doing my internship with some other people I know and have grown so much with already.  Anyway, Paul and I are going to be staying with the same host family this summer: Forrest and Jen Keady!  After reading their email and learning a bit about them, we’re both really excited to meet them.  Check it out:

My name is Jen – wife to a great guy, mom to three crazy little boys, born and raised in Oregon but hoping to expand those borders in some way.  The great guy – his name is Forrest.  He is married to an amazing gal and is an active dad currently coaching lacrosse for the oldest son.  Three boys!  Be forewarned.  Jake – shaggy haired, 4th grade, loves sports and music and friends.  Travis – 2nd grader, clean cut, solid as a brick, loves the Texas longhorns and his friends.  Will – face of an angel, gets away with things because of it, Kindergartener – that helps too.  Loves to do whatever his older brothers are doing but still cuddles mom and dad.

Jen & Forrest – I’m really excited, and so is Paul.  Paul’s got a couple brothers back home, so he knows the ropes; I’ve never had any, and I’m stoked to take on three little brothers at once!  Looking forward to it–

Tony