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- more bird street stuff (see the previous post for a funny video)...

- we said goodbye to one our staff yesterday (shae is moving to a different site)...so this is what our groups have looked like over the last couple of months (sans a few kids)...

shae's group:

tiffany's group:

my group:

16559 king_of_the_bumblebee

- friday chess randomness

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too many thoughts for one post...i apologize.

- at some point in the next week or two i will have a major update regarding life direction to write about in this space...stay tuned.

- our community group continues to grow.  we are over double digits now!  (time to think about splitting, yikes).

- also, in our group we have some really fun new-christian/pre-christian types who bring a bunch of great energy and fresh perspectives to the table (one of our girls lied to her athiest parents about going to reunion at first...i love that!).

- i am having some really great conversations with ramon at starbucks.  our conversations have moved from film and making films to topics like religion and destiny and does anyone have the right to speak into other people's lives.  really interesting and fun.  we'll see what comes of that.

- bird street continues to be challenging in many ways, but i've experienced a recent break through with at least one of my students.  aishah's family is going through a nasty divorce right now and a lot of her anger over that got taken out on us.  she hated our program at first and did whatever she could to get written up/kicked out so she could go home, but now she has a turned a corner and is really enjoying herself after school.  which helps me enjoy myself too =)

- tuesday was also a big day at the school i work out.  it was very cool to see the kids get so excited about a national event.

- i am very antsy for baseball season to get underway.

- amy and i had our first experience of Boston University hockey (they are ranked 2nd in the nation in division I).  very fun!  they play in a beautiful arena, and hockey is such a great sport to see live.  however, we both felt very old sitting in the student section, wishing the dang kids in front of us would sit down and shut up.  

there's probably a bunch more to share, but i'll wrap it up there for now.

peace!

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- i love what manny has to say about today.  enjoy!

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i had an opportunity to share in church today about my experience as a "former pastor" joining a new church.  i enjoyed the opportunity and it gave me a moment to reflect on this transition as it has unfolded over the last seven months.

this has been a very unusual stage of life, but not anywhere as difficult as i had anticipated.  i think the main reason for this is that i love being married.  i was asked this morning to describe an "aha" moment as it pertains to leading community groups and my experience transitioning from staff to non-staff.  i think the biggest "aha" for me has been just how fun it is to lead with amy, as a team.  it is really, really amazing!

as much fun as i had in durango with ctk and as much as i miss it at times, i wouldn't trade anything for the opportunity to lead our funky little group of christ-followers in fields corner with my wonderful wife.  

so thank you john and tim and reunion for giving me the opportunity to reflect on that today.

(ps...if you want to listen, go here and download the podcast...i'm about 30 min in)

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- last night amy and i had the opportunity to watch "project: revelation," the short film i was in.  (see 15559 or this link).  i enjoyed the film and thought zack and ramon did a good job with this project.  however, it is tough to watch yourself act!  kind of weird actually.  more importantly, i think it was really fun to hang out with people who aren't a part of our reunion/sojourn circle.  their next project is called "success?" and i may help out in some role.  even if i don't though, this newest project has already sparked some interesting conversations about what it means to be successful.  i love those kinds of conversations and i am so pleased that my starbucks experience is starting to build some connections, relationships, and purpose beyond just some additional income.

- a couple of months ago i asked for some prayer regarding decision making and the future.  over the next weeks i'll be using this space to detail what that looks like for us.  so, stay tuned!