Simple Joys

This past Friday our church hosted an art night were a few of us got together to respond to the death and resurrection of Jesus artistically. While I can't say that I created any masterpieces...it sure was fun to play with watercolors and acrylic paints! There is something so satisfying about seeing a white page become colorful.

The second fun thing actually happened this morning. I went with a neighbor to sign up for a community garden. As bizarre as it sounds...I was first introduced to the joys of community gardening by Cassie, a fellow student at UCSB who actually had a garden at UCSB in the UCSB community garden. I always thought it was kind of a quirky thing that she did...but secretly envied her ripe tomatoes that she would bring back to the dorms. Anyhow, there's a garden not to far from our apartment. We're on the waiting list currently and met some really cool people at the sign up event...but I'm hopeful we'll have 10 by 20 plot of dirt.

And I'm so excited to see a brown earthy canvas become colorful....and excited to begin battling squirrels for ripe tomatoes.

Thailand

If you haven't seen them yet, you can read about (and see) some of Matt's latest travels here:
Uncle Sawat
Universal Language
Bangkok Portraits

What to run after

Best quote heard during our latest travels to California to attend a missionary conference at Matt's home church:

"It is better to run after a rabbit and never catch it, than catch a skunk and live with it for the rest of your life." -said by Indonesian missionary in regards to life as a missionary where you feel like you never have enough time, money or energy to share the gospel with everyone you want to.

Amen to that.

USA Today Article, Religion in America

Interesting USA Today article about recent religious trends and survey results from the American Religious Identification Survey. (And great photo's Garrett!)

It was interesting to read the USA article about a week after being forwarded this article: "The Coming Evangelical Collapse". A bit on the dramatic side...but a worthwhile read.

Traveling

It's been a while since I've traveled so frequently. When I was on campus staff there was a stretch of about 2 years when I was on a plane every 2 months. Traveling so much then I think cured me of all ambitions I might of had about being a grand world traveler. Anyhow...the past few years have been relatively travel free for me (not Matt). These next few months however are full of plane rides, long car rides and fast food. I think I'm actually on the road more than I'm going to be at home.

On the positive side, traveling makes me appreciate home more and more and in particular home cooked food and my own bed. On the negative side it usually stretches my patience and makes me feel like I am forever 2 weeks behind in the work that needs to be done.

My latest journey took me to St. Louis for some Urbana planning meetings. The highlight of that trip was getting a tour of St. Louis by a local InterVaristy alumni. I had completely forgotten that Missouri was a former slave state and it was interesting to hear so many stories were related to that fact and how race still plays a major role in shaping St. Louis (both in good ways and bad). The other highlight of the tour was seeing this place. If you're ever in St. Louis...it's pretty amazing to see and I'd recommend it. It's almost entirely covered by mosaics inside. Crazy.