jesus for president... again

yay. so. reading shane and chris's book this summer was awesome. i loved it. yesterday we had a potluck dinner with them, all the people on tour with them (the psalters included... they both smell deliciously of hummus and falafel) and a bunch of people from the catholic worker. it was awesome talking to chris and seeing how he was connecting with our little hartford city mission community here, and getting to know him a little better. he and his wife live with shane and a bunch of others in an intentional christian community called "simple way" it's beautiful. i love the very real possibility of getting involved in a community like that.... so exciting.

anywho, it was a blast. cnn wrote an article about them on their tour, which is pretty sweet, but it misses how much about jesus it really was. they brought in a lot of other political stuff into the article too... but at least a good portion of chris and shane's message remains. it's beautiful

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/29/evangelical.campaign/index.html

i ran into a few people from my church there, which was awesome, cuz i missed a lot of them, and haven't had a real chance to catch up with them while being here. it was nice being able to do that. it was also nice that the majority of the people i expected to come... didn't... but this group that i had no idea was going to be there... was. while i would have liked to see people i hoped would come, it was a nice surprise to see people i hadn't thought would come. i think you get it.

adrienne, my lovely girlfriend, came to visit us this weekend and hang out. she came on saturday and left this morning... it was awesome to be able to talk with her face to face and share my life with her here a bit. the girls i'm living here with all expressed how great it was for her to come and how wonderful it was to spend time with her. i'm really blessed by that. and also blessed that she came.

camp has been going well. last night, my mom asked me what i've been reading. my first response was to list off all the books of the bible i've been studying. which for me is something that i'd never jump to as a blink reaction. but it's been eye opening to see how much God is increasing my love of him and his word through being here and spending intentional time really trying to learn more about God and how to serve God every day... all day.

i've been intrigued by the hebrew scriptures lately. i haven't read them much since i was a kid... while i did lead a bible study on hosea last semester of school, i haven't read the "bible stories" i grew up with in awhile. i've decided to revisit as many of those as possible, along with other daily disciplines and rhythms of diving into God's character. i realize that the more i read God's word, and the more i learn about God, the more i read into myself, and the more i learn about myself; how interconnected we are... i'm blown away.

so, as i said, camp's been going well. this week i've been preparing cirriculum for teaching time. it's been a little overwhelming, but God's got my back, as well as the rest of our team. today i taught the kids about samuel, saul, david, and goliath. a broad picture of all of it, and the specifics with david's fight with goliath. for the rest of the week, we're going to learn about daniel and his three amigos. i'm loving being a learner while teaching. it's one of my favorite things about leading a bible study... the more i have to share with others, the more i want to learn for myself. God has been opening up massive pathways for this in my heart, and providing me with opportunities to share, with anyone who will listen, about what i've been learning in the bible. it's exciting. God's word is breathing and alive.

as frustrating as some of these kids at camp can be, i love them. and i know it's only God that can enable me to do that. it's sad, how not being showed love by parents and family, can lead to it being harder for other people to love them as well.

i prayed tonite, thanking God for the blessing of my parents. people who are so totally invested in my life and my spiritual upbringing. so totally given over to God to grow me up in ways that i would see him in order to know him. and so blessed by God providing them.

i received letters from courtney and stewart, mike's kids... who were visiting him and my mom in rhode island while i was here. they're growing up so fast... stewart was so excited about the idea of us living with a food budget of only four dollars a day. my mom and mike made it a nightly discussion around the dinner table... they would print out a post from my blog every night before dinner (that was when i was posting almost daily) and pass around copies to everyone and then read it aloud. (mike's parents were also at the house to visit) it was great to hear that story and feel so overwhelmed at how great it was that they were joining in the work that God is doing here and sharing it with the people around them.

so you all know... it is such a blessing to be here. and while i miss a lot of people back home, i know God's got some time in store for us all to hang out and share how he's been active this summer. God is on the move.

-steve