Sunday, November 21, 2010

57559

conspire...


at sojourn's last leadership community we began to dream together about taking on a major challenge to bless the socks off of someone this christmas. the last few years we have been participating in the advent conspiracy movement as a joint sojourn/reunion effort and we felt that as a collegiate community we were ready to do something a little audacious this year.

our brainstorm and some subsequent conversations led us to decide that this year we really wanted to bless Adoption and Foster Care Mentoring (AFC Mentoring).  CJ, one of AFC's board members, attends reunion and is a part of one of sojourn's community groups. he told tim, our director, that AFC had been selected by the Prudential Center as one Boston's Outstanding Non-Profit's of 2010. the "pru" holds a ceremony each night of december for all the non-profits selected (here's an article from 2009's "31 nights of light"). 

AFC is excited about the opportunity but also somewhat bummed about not having known sooner (which would have helped them plan to make the night really special, specifically for the kids and their mentors). we were immediately drawn to this organization that is taking seriously James' words to care for the orphans (1:27)...for more info on why mentoring kids in the adoption and foster care system is important, click here. sojourn continues to be drawn towards partnerships that help build up and invest in the youth of our city.

after some discussion we felt the best course of action would be to help make this night (december 7th) a night to remember. so, we are going to throw the kids and their mentors a party. we want to honor them and the work they do, and offer them a gift they can always cherish: recognition.

i am really excited about this endeavor for what we can offer AFC, but i'm also excited about it because i am seeing students stirred to serve and give themselves away in tangible and impressive ways (to pull this party off right we need to raise close to $5000). i'm seeing students reach out o their friends and networks and invite them in to this story. i'm seeing students take ownership and sacrifice in ways we've never asked them to before. they are jumping in with both feet and attempting to tell a great story.

i want to invite you all to join us too. this story can be your story as well. here are a couple of suggestions/ideas...

1) pray with us and for us...we have a lot of work to do and a lot of money to raise in a short amount of time. this is a great and worthy challenge but this won't happen without God's gracious intervention. prayer is huge.

2) consider sacrificing alongside of our students...you may not live close enough to give us your time or "presence" but you can give a few bucks...even $5 goes a long way (and that's only one latte to give up this week =)...one less gift could mean one huge memory for a foster care child and their mentor.

if you do want to give $ you can do so at our facebook cause page or if you don't feel comfortable with facebook send me an email and i can give you a physical address to send check to (both methods are safe and all the money goes directly to this project).

either way, joining the cause page or lending your prayer support or giving your money, shows a tremendous amount of support for AFC and for our students. your support helps give them a vision for what being a part of a bigger story looks like and becomes an answer to their prayers.

thanks for taking the time to read this long post and hopefully we can join together to tell an amazing story this advent season!

Monday, November 15, 2010

57459

lexington


for the first time since labor day amy and i had a free weekend with no church/sojourn events, no classes, no weddings, and no conferences. so, we took advantage and made our way to lexington, ma. spent some time walking around minute man park, hanging out in downtown lexington, and enjoying the beautiful fall weather!

Friday, November 05, 2010

57359

leadership_and_teams


sojourn leadership community tonight: the marshmallow challenge...the importance of community and "doing it together" (ala henri nouwen)...dreaming about advent conspiracy projects...nehemiah as a case study...and banana pancakes.


enjoy the pics...

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

57259

one_more_giants_post

one more thought on the world series victory. every fan takes a certain level of responsibility for the outcome of their team's games. most of the time this is an unhealthy level of responsibility =) my not-so-secret-shame is that during game 6 of the 2002 world series i called my friend bruce as dusty baker was removing russ ortiz from the game with a 5-0 lead. the giants bullpen that year was "nails". with the game going to the 'pen needing 8 outs to win it was as good as done and i foolishly jumped the gun. so, of course the resulting disaster was my fault...

...but if i blew 2002 then i should get some credit for 2010 (or, at least, my friend devin should). i've already told this story in this space but a quick summary here will be helpful: devin calls a sports radio station thinking he might win an autographed tim lincecum ball and ends up with season tickets. SEASON TICKETS!!! of all seasons =)

well, devin, because he is a saint, used his blessing to bless us and support Sojourn on a recurring basis. i love that in some weird way the 2010 World Series winning San Francisco Giants are supporting campus ministry in Boston. this is the crazy upside world we live in now. 

how's that for a redemption story!

also, this guy has been the best pitcher in major league baseball for the past three seasons...go figure:


Monday, November 01, 2010

57159

giants_win_the_series

where to start? a few weeks ago i highlighted the "torture" of being a giants fan. i could go on and on about what this means to giants fans. just ask one. for me, though, this is a different world. anything is possible now!

the only regret i have is not being able to call my grandma boutry. she would have LOVED this team, and she would have loved this moment.
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for the next week or so baseball nerds will try to figure out this giants team. the new school guys will talk about strikeouts, homeruns, xfip, and a bunch of stuff like that. they will drool over the pitching staff and the extra base hits. the old school guys will talk about team effort, grit, determination, and gamers. 

the "team" angle of this story is certainly legit. the list of hero's is long: ross, renteria, huff, uribe, posey, sanchez, lopez, affeldt (game 6), bumgarner, cain, wilson, even burrell hit a 3 run bomb against the braves and jonathan sanchez struck out 11 in that series as well.

that said, 2 people stand out to me. bruce bochy used to be a source of joy for me and my dad back when he (bochy) was managing some of those punching bag padre teams. the look of exasperation on boch's face when some middling reliever would leave a hanging slider for bonds to whack 500 feet was a guaranteed laugh for my dad and i to share on a random august afternoon. when the giants hired him in '07 i thought the pick was pretty uninspiring. have to tip my cap though, he had the best month of any manager i can remember in a long time. several teams have won the WS in the past few years in spite of their manager, but everything bochy did this postseason turned to gold.

however, the old cliche is that players play the game and that's why, for whatever its worth, if i had to pick one guy as the MVP/most-important-player it would be tim lincecum. no other player perfectly represents san francisco, and no other player on this team better encapsulates the whole.

lincecum is a baseball mystery...no matter how much they analyze him no one really grasps how he does it...how does such a weird little dude dominate so thoroughly? how does this giants team win a world series? mystery...

lincecum beat derek lowe (NL pitcher of the month in september), roy halladay (probably the NL Cy Young winner who was coming off only the second playoff no-hitter of all time), and cliff lee (the "unbeatable" cliff lee of recent post season dominance) twice. he won all three game ones...the giants (for all the torture talk) never trailed in any of the three series they played in the playoffs. he threw 37 innings (16 more than any other giants' pitcher) and had 43 strikeouts, a 2.43 era, 0.92 whip, and 4 wins.

renteria is a hero, cody ross will never have to pay for a meal in SF again, and buster is the future, but the Giants are not champions without tim lincecum.