Tuesday Tea Time!

Good morning Tuesday Tea Time!

While sipping a thermos full of sweet plum green tea the other day, sitting by a fire, in a very busy ski lodge, I couldn't help but think about the water I had used to make my tea earlier that day.

If you haven't heard, there's a water crisis. Sure this has been a global issue for years, decades of fen, but most recently it's come close to home in Flint, MI. It seems rather timely & Sprit lead that one of the big movements with this last Summer's ELCA Youth Gathering was the 'Walk for Water' challenge.

Daily, around the world, there are hundreds of thousands of people that walk miles upon miles to get clean water. At the gathering there was a simulation that youth & adults could get an idea about what it's like to walk the miles with not just the empty containers, but the very heavy filled containers. Cool, right?

The question now is how can we help raise not simply awareness to our communities & government, but to help the people of Flint in their need? This is such a desperate need that it will take years to fix. And sadly some of the fall out of Flint's lead heavy, aged rusty pipes, & who knows what else, filled water has cost some people their lives. The city knew about this problem for some time before calling for help, which doesn't help the public frustration with it all.

If you'd like to help support the people of Flint through water filters that filter out all the yuck, or through funds to go to local churches who want to be safe water locations, but now need to have all their internal piping redone, please visit this link to learn how to help. And to cover our bases, write a note to MI government.

Change must happen internally so it can be shared externally. We can make a difference & we need to make a difference. So let the water flow & the tea be pure.

Friday Favorites!

It's Friday & here's a Favorite!

Yes, rocks, big giant rocks. They're not just any big, giant rocks though. They're Michigan big, giant rocks.

Growing up going camping in MI you knew when you saw big, giant rocks - some may call them boulders - you were deeper into the mitten state & further away from home. According to my mom, it isn't vacation if it's closer than 4 hours to home.

I'm not sure she'd say that any longer, but that's what classified a family vacation for my childhood. We didn't often go too much further than 4 hours away either, which is why it was safe for my mom to say that made a vacation.

These rocks strike me today as one of the few things in life that seems to withstand time. While no doubt these rocks have changed season by season with the Northern Michigan weather & regular visitors climbing on them despite the neighboring signs that say "stay off the rocks." They still seem quite large & untouched.

I post these giant, untouchable, Michigan rocks in memory of my Uncle Ted. Uncle Ted was man who had a story for every adventure & had an adventure for every part of life. Uncle Ted loved Michigan, it's lakes, mushroom hunting, & miniature schnauzers. While there's so much more one could say about Uncle Ted, the stories are what keep the spirit alive, so we'll save the others for another day.

Sunday Snippits: good, bad, & awesome!

GOOD: This past week marked the end of my first month in my new job & things are slowly, but surely starting to feel like a new normal. Many times people have asked, "What do you do?" When they want something more than the generic "youth ministry" answer - which it seems they often do - I can happily answer "it is different each day." I say happily because while I seek out routine of sorts, it is good to have fresh vibes flowing from a solid Spirit led work. In reality this past week went by in a blink & of course I didn't get as much done as I would've liked to do, but I'm practicing some boundaries by allowing things to pour over week to week. Each day it seems that I am making new connections with more & more people from the community, so that is a definite bonus to feeding my inner being of an extrovert. This past week we also got to have dinner with some friends we hadn't seen in a few months. It was good to share what God had us all up to so that we can be in prayer for & with each other. It was also good just for some shared joy of life for friendship & our love for Michigan/the Mid-West.

BAD: That everything that is different is weird. One trick-or-treater came with at least one other youth that we know & she had painted her face to be a similar fashion of the skeletons in today's picture. When I wished her a "feliz día de los muertos" she exclaimed, "Finally, somebody gets it!" I wish that being somebody who goes against the grain - which we all do at some point - wasn't so negatively received. This wasn't even a big push against a skeleton costume for halloween, but a tribute to a holiday celebrated by many (just not in MI).

AWESOME: Being surprised by a treat from McDonalds. EE & KB stopped by my office late on Friday to say hi & share McDs. It's fun to hear about their adventures & shenanigans as seniors. I hope EE's ghost costume turned out as awesome as she planned!

WORD: Reading about death in lieu of Halloween & Día de los muertos.

coming up: It's November! That means monthly meetings .... and mom's birthday!

Sunday Snippits!

Heya all, I haven't disappeared from the world of blogging. Life has just been ONE GIANT TRANSITION after another lately.

As of today I'm sitting in Z's new office space, mooching off the church wifi, & admiring our home out the window. Yes, Z will be able to see the whole front of our house outside of his office. We could send smoke signals from my home office to his work office!

Life is good & we're definitely still in a time of settling. Who would've ever thought recycling could be so complicated? We can't figure out where to take all our paper & boxes from moving!

Z officially starts his new job a week from today & I start my networking/building my job title a week from today.

I'll try to be checking back in later this week, but without internet at home, who knows what will happen.

Thirsting for a Thursday Special

You've most likely missed Sunday Snippits & Tuesday Tea Time, those are everybody's favorite pieces of me sharing Life, Spirit, & Sparkle. So here's a Thursday Special to quench your Thursday Thirst!

The topic of the day: ambiguity

As I sit quietly listening to see if WOK will wake up from his nap, the 6 fingered cat Ernie (yes, after Hemingway) is howling from the basement. 

This is not ambiguity, this just is.

Now that graduation has come & gone, Z & I sit in a time of unknowns. Maybe today's topic should be hopeful unknowns. Ambiguity still fits though because we know that we have been assigned to serve in the North/West Lower Michigan synod & we know that the synod staff is working to give us potential placements. We know so much & at the same time, so little. 

Last week we celebrated 4(+) years  with friends & shared how we have been impacted by each other & our time at seminary. The next day family started arriving & Saturday afternoon we had all of our immediate family in our apartment except for my brother (who was camping in PA). At baccalaureate we were reminded to let the Gospel surprise us & at commencement we were given a pep talk to not be boring. Living in ambiguous unknowns is NOT boring.

It is the working of the Spirit that keeps us hopeful in the unknowns & the ambiguous "answers" to our questions of "What's next?!"

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Friday Photo Reminder

Photo courtesy of: Silver Lake Sand Dunes Area Visitors Bureau 3/1/13

As a child I loved going camping with my family at Silver Lake, MI. We went for several summers in a row. Growing up I didn't realize how unique the sand dunes were though. The campground is on one side of the lake & the other side is the dunes. Today I want to look around - you can do this too - and breath in something truly unique to its location. 

"God looked over everything he had made; it was good, so very good!"

Genesis 1:31a The Message Bible