06059

random updates...

- current reading...
* Finishing "The Jesus Way" by Eugene Peterson (the chapters on David/imperfection and Isaiah/holiness are just fantastic)
* Finished "Leading from the Second Chair"
* Started "Generation What: Dispatches from the Quarter-Life Crisis"

- current watching...
* the season finale of Lost was great...helped to redeem a meandering and sometimes even boring season

- current listening...
* arcade fire "neon bible" (keep the car running is a song that i can't stop listening to)
* elliott smith "new moon"
* rocky votolato (pretty much everything he's got)
* otis redding "best of"

- taste of durango raised somewhere around $17,000 for the manna house which is fantastic news!

- church barbeque tonight!

05959

what a day! today was a huge community event called "Taste of Durango." several blocks on main street get shut down and all these retaraunts from town come out and set up shop and sell their excellent wares. aside from a fun, huge community event the tase of durango (or TOD if you are an insider) benefits the Manna House (the soup kitchen we've been volunteering at). last year this event raised almost $15,000 for Manna...and this year probably more.

the day went really well...most of CTK-Durango's members were involved in one way or another. in particular, we are all really proud of ruth because, as the manna program director, a lot of the responsibility for pulling this event off fell on her. she spent months planning for it, recruited and coordinated 200 volunteers, and then oversaw the whole operation today. she did an amazing job!

the rest of us checked people in, sold tokens, and patrolled the streets in green shirts. the security task force (which you will see below) ensured the safety of the good citizens of our town...and we also ate a lot of great food.

i am really proud of our church for all of the ways we were involved in helping out with this event...this is exactly the kind of thing we want to do...bringing the church to our community instead of asking them to come to us.

also, as a manna board member (somehow this week i became the chairman of the planning committee) it was so awesome to see our church represent so well.

manna is on the web too http://mannasoupkitchen.org/

ps...two of our guys (shaggy and ron) were not able to make it to church today because they were "evicted" from their campsite...an interesting juxtaposition...while we need events like TOD to make the manna house happen there is still so much else to be done.

the security task force:

05859

...there are all kinds of little events that can lift us out of whatever we might be dealing with at particular moments in life, and this week i had two of those moments that make you just a little bit happier to be alive...

...on tuesday night at small group, the daughter of one of the women in our group gave me a soccer ball wrist band...a small gesture, but it made my day, and so i wore tonight while i taught on james 1...i thought that was really cool...

...i aslo got the "new" elliott smith cd in the mail on friday...i say "new" because elliott died in 2003...he's been one of my favorite (if not my all time favorite) artist since the end of high school...his music, though dark, has always been a comfort and a window into my own life ever since i came across it.

...the album is called "new moon" and is mostly songs that didn't make it on "elliott smith" and "either/or" (from his days on the "kill rockstars" label...which put this album out)...like a lot of posthumus work and collections of songs that got cut from earlier records, there are a lot of throw away songs, but there are a couple great ones ("whatever: folk song in C", and "angel in the snow" in particular...along with the cover "13")...more important though was being able to hear an elliott song for the first time again...it was like talking to an old friend you haven't spoken to in a long time...

...so, 2 small things that helped make my week...

...other thoughts...lots of other good new music is set to come out this year...i continue to enjoy reading just about anything Eugene Peterson writes...i like my new job supervising soccer games...my small group is the best!

peace

05759

this is so awesome, you just have to watch it...start with the most recent (4-29-07...via satelitte with bill 2)

http://www.welovethebulletin.com/

05659

thanks to everyone who was able to make it to our "show and tell" meeting on friday. it's been fun for us to talk about what we are doing and to take a step back and look at the big picture and see what is developing here in durango. it's pretty exciting.

church last night was pretty great too...we showed our video and it was awesome to see everyone light up and cheer each other on.

i think that's it for now...