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- a small world story...

thursday i was sitting in a coffee shop on newbury street talking with someone from church.  in the middle of the conversation he paused and slyly nodded towards another table.  "i think that guy is reading a christian book," he told me.  i looked over, half expecting to see Blue Like Jazz or something by Rob Bell, but it turned out to be Responsible Stewardship of God's Creation by Ken Gnanakan.  Ken is the founder of ACTS ministries in Bangalore, India, a ministry I visited a couple of years ago (amy has been there as well), and long time partner with SVCC.  apparently, the fellow reading the book heard Ken speak at Gordon-Conwell and is fascinated by what he is doing in India.  Ben, my new friend, and I are having coffee on tuesday.  nice!  

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- not a well thought out post, so bear with me...

- camp is over!  it was a lot of fun, but i am ready to transition in the school year program.  however, as i make this transition i've had some time to reflect on the summer and some of my early observations from living in dorchester and working at bird street.  i find that as far as work goes, i oscillate between hope and despair often...

- for example, this week, for the first time all summer justin's dad came to pick him up from camp.  normally his aunt takes him home, but, for whatever reason, on this day his dad came and the kid was pumped.  justin has struggled all summer with choosing his words well, especially when he gets frustrated.  i have talked to him several times about which words are acceptable while at bird street and which words are not.  so, it was incredibly discouraging when his dad rolled up in his escalade, with the music pounding, and yelled out the window: "get in the f*&#ing car dummy!"  and it goes on and on, stories like this one.  joao, the kid with jimmies all over his face, had his wallet stolen on friday, etc etc.  these moments of ugliness always juxtaposed with the face of a kid totally enjoying himself, lost in a world far removed from some of the harsh realities of "normal" life.

- i've observed many reactions to the idea of inner-city ministry.  however, two stand out in my mind.  one is exemplified by a conversation i had with someone at our wedding reception.  this woman came up to me and said: "it's so great that you are going to be working with 'those' people in the inner-city.  i only support overseas missionaries, but 'they' need Jesus too, in the city."  i call this the "overseas missions is more important but i guess the inner-city needs Jesus too" perspective.

- the other side of the coin, in my experience, is the wide-eyed naivete of mostly young white people (myself very much included in this critique) who see working with kids in the inner-city as this amazingly radical and "pure" ministry.  

- of course, the reality is lies somewhere in the middle of all this...i wrote a couple of weeks ago about the beauty and the ugliness at the beach, and that is really the story of my summer.  there is both incredible beauty and incredible ugliness in working at a place like bird street.  the realities of the inner-city really expose many of the atrocities of our society but also bring out some of the best kingdom moments possible on this side of heaven.  the mature perspective, i think, is the one that can hold those realities in tension and keep choosing to love.

- we've been talking, at church, about having hearts that break over the things that break God's heart, and i think that is ultimately what happens when you serve in this context.  i hope i brought some light into the world's of the people and especially the kids i worked with this summer, but more importantly i think i've gained some insight into some of the things that break God's heart.

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another camp story...

maybe i'm pumped from all the swimming i've been watching, maybe i'm tired of all the "camp drama" that takes place at the beach, or maybe i just needed to do something to get the attention of the boys in my unit.  but, today, i swam across the lake and back.  

ok, not all the way across (which is not all that far to be honest), but out to a buoy in the middle of the lake.  interpretations of this endeavor are all a matter of perspective.  my father, and my wife, would have laughed at my rusty stroke, my gasps for air, and the pace that fell off dramatically as the swim wore on.  if you were to ask my boys, however, they would tell you about my feat of strength, about the great distance i swam, and the snapping turtles i fought off to get there.

an exaggeration perhaps, but i don't think they've ever seen anyone swim that far before!

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- a 3 minute look at what i've been doing this summer...enjoy!

- so the quality of the video is somewhat muddled with the youtube compression.  it actually looks a lot better than that.  here are my ten favorite pics from the video.

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- a cool story and pop culture updates...

story: the morning amy and i moved in we were greeted by our neighbor Leroy, who lives across the street from us.  Leroy often sits on his porch and watches over our street.  the first thing i observed about Leroy was the long-stem, hand carved pipe he was smoking.  he immediately held my interest!  over the weeks we've had many brief conversations, but i never mentioned my own pipe smoking tendencies.  finally, i drummed up the courage and i said, "Leroy we need to smoke one of these days."  we then discussed the beauty of pipes and where to by tobacco in boston.  the next day when i got home from work, Leroy was on the porch as usual and he called out, "hey steve, i got something for you."  he then produced a bag of cavendish and handed it to me.  sweet!

updates: jonathan lethem is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.  the fortress of solitude is outstanding.  also, while on the topic of books, scot mcknight is quickly becoming one of my favorite theologians.  

i love the new coldplay album.  i think they get better with each album...a rarity for bands.  also, check out amy crawford...our friend in boston (via pacific grove...small world).  we got to see her last night. 

last, but not least, i finally saw the new batman...creepy...still can't decide if it was such a unique experience because the movie was good or because watching a posthumous performance was so weird.