Born: June 9, 1972
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September 19, 2005 at 11:06 am
Community Times Four...
Zach Lind graciously bought Doug Weinbrenner and me dinner at The Freestate Brewery in Lawrence, Kansas last night. It was a great time, full of conversation and catching up. We talked about all sorts of things: from life being a dad, to theology, to music — and more. I had a lot of fun. Afterwards, Doug and I watched Jimmy Eat World (Zach’s band) rock Liberty Hall... Seriously. Wow.
Click on the picture below to watch a thirty-second movie of “Sweetness,” which was the final song of the night (QT – 1.6MB):
I didn’t get a picture of Zach and me last night, but if you’d like to see one of us from last Christmas, click here. And, if you’ve never checked out Zach’s Blog, you should… He’s got a lot of very insightful stuff to say. (You can also see a photo from the concert here.)
Before the trip to Lawrence, though, Julianna and I went to our church‘s “5+1” party — a five-year anniversary that just happened to happen one year late (yeah, we’re crazy like that). That was a lot of fun too: tons of people, all sorts of fun things to do, watching Tim Keel get dunked in the dunk tank over and over again… The picture here is showing a dry Tim Keel taunting the ball throwers — immediately after…splash! Priceless. And, of course, there was all sorts of food, live music from Parachute Adams and Don and Lori Chaffer (aka Waterdeep), fun stuff for the kids to do, and even a firetruck! No kidding! (You can see a photo of Don & Lori Chaffer here.)
On Friday evening, Julianna, I, and four other families, got together for a potluck. This was a special evening: all of us live within one or two blocks of each other and we all call Jacob’s Well our church home. (This wasn’t all of us either, as we were missing one other couple from our neighborhood due to prior obligations and John Raux, who is currently on a cross-country adventure.) Anyway, including kids, there are close to twenty of us who are all worshipping and living in proximity with one another. Dinner was great and we had a blast hanging out with all of these cool people. Hopefully, we’ll do something like it again soon. This is close to what I think real community is supposed to look like, folks. (Pictured from left and clockwise: J.T., Ingrid, Leslie, Julianna, Shandar.)
Last (or, I mean, first), on Thursday evening, a bunch of us got together to help Bill Wallenbeck and his wife Kathy move into their new home, the Peregrine House. Peregrine House is a home that was purchased by the Hope Center (a local Christian ministry who works with inner-city children) for the sole purpose of having some middle-class people live and work in the inner-city. There are two or three couples and a one or two single people (including our friend Jill) who have made the commitment to move into Peregrine House, live communally, and be in community with their inner-city neighbors. I am very inspired by this and, in some ways, a little jealous of the experience they are all about to have.
Community is an amazing thing, and I pray that everyone will have some sense of real community in their lifetime — something that goes beyond work, church, and school; something that pervades every area of life. To know that life can be filled with people who have similar values, who desire to be a part of each others’ lives, who care about the world and those around them… It’s truly a blessing. To know that I can break bread with neighbors, and fellow followers of Jesus, and a guy who’s on tour with a major label rock band that I met through blogging… I don’t have words sufficient enough to express my gratitude to God for placing me where I am today.
So, what happened on Saturday anyway? Well, I was in communion with my home office… And a paintbrush… And paint… All…day…long.
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