If I only had my camera

OH...the things you would be seeing now!

1. Addison: Will he EVER STOP DANCING????
2. Andrea, babytalking to Jesus
3. Lindsay, responding to the babytalk only with the answer "YES"
4. Sydney "Oh look! A ghost" Bryn (Who was hard of hearing): "What?? A garden hose?"
5. Megan, was her foot asleep, or was she pretending to be Thumper?
6. Me, being a lowly servant, with only 1 talent, while playing a game of twister.

I can not even begin to remember ALL of the hysterical moments last night. What a blessing! Thank you all so much for the gifts that you all shared with us last night!

If you know what I'm talking about. :)

-----David

I see Father Bob dancing ...

I see trees of green, red roses too I see them bloom for me and you And I think to myself, what a wonderful world I see skies of blue and clouds of white The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night And I think to myself, what a wonderful world...

ummm - i know it's blurry but that's cause Father Bob and Susan were dancing too fast for my camera phone ...

Pictures from Sally's week with the Bishops to be...

One of our Nominees for Bishop's license plate. And the week of the Presentations comes to a close. And that would be "shag" as in a type of dance not as in "the spy who shagged me."

Pictures from Sally's week with Bishops-to-be

The Hour of Prime (sunrise) from the Rennaisance Hotel downtown Nashville .. pretty cool

The Bishop Nominees are here!

Almighty God, giver of every good gift: Look graciously on your Church, and so guide the minds of those who shall choose a bishop for this Diocese, that we may receive a faithful pastor, who will care for your people and equip us for our ministries; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
---BCP, pg 818

Well, our guests have arrived. All the Bishop nominees are in town for interviews this weekend. Keep this prayer in your hearts this weekend, and in the weeks to come!

----David

Beauty ...

Then the time came when the risk it took

To remain tight in a bud was more painful

Than the risk it took to blossom.

-Anais Nin

I have a beautiful job watching each of you grow into who God has made and is calling you to be.

Practicing Beauty after school with Sally. Trying on dresses. Practicing offering beauty to the world just like the stars do ... just like the sunset does.  

Finding sanctuary on Sunday evenings. Finding there's always room for at least two under the shadow of God's wings and in this case under a tallis 

Little Tents...

"Hide me under the shadow of your wings."

prays the Psalmist.

Sheltered under the shadow of the "Little Tent"

prayed B.

"Baruch atah adonoi, elohenu, melech ha olam asher kidshanu b'mistzvotav ve-tzevanu layitatef b'tzitit" pray the Jewish as wrap themselves in their tallis.

English translation:"Blessed are you, the Lord our God, ruler of the universe, who has made us holy with His commandments and commanded us to wrap ourselves in fringes."

Prayer should be nothing more and nothing less than just this... taking shelter under the almighty's wings; wrapping yourself in a prayer shawl.

Learn more about the Tallis (or prayer shawl):

http://www.jewfaq.org/signs.htm#Tzitzit

Guess who enjoyed the snow today...

What fun... what fun. Good stuff to wake up to all that snow this morning ...

????????? ?????????

So yesterday I found another purpose for sanctuary ...

I was found myself in a moment asking some pretty hard questions of God. And I realize that this too is what sanctuary is about ... it's a place to hold all those questions until we stand face2face with our maker and finally get the answers ... a sanctuary is a pretty safe place to ask such questions ... so I wondered if you'd like to join me in offering those questions we ask of God. Because even here in this cyber-sanctuary, God is indeed big enough and safe enough to take any of our questions.

the funny thing is if we don't ask questions of God, then we don't grow. Through questions, God leads us forward on our pilgrimage... Let it never be said that questions are a bad thing or a sign of doubt.

3 days ago, Jill was out of school because of the snow. It was barely 30 degrees when I took Wicket outside that morning. He literally tried to roll his own snow-man....of course, he's a dog...he just got snow on the end of his nose. Now, 3 days later, it's above 50 when I take Wicket out for his walk. He stood on the edge of the porch, before diving into the dirt...and took a deep breath. God's creation, beautiful in freezing cold with snow, or the warmest days with bright sunshine. Breath deep everyone, Breath deep the breath of God. ----David

the bloggers prayer

Our Fatherwho lives above and beyond the dimension of the internetGive us this day a life worth blogging,The access to words and images that express our journey with passion and integrity,And a secure connection to publish your daily mercies.Your Kingdom come into new spaces today,As we make known your mysteries,Posting by posting,Blog by blog.Give this day,The same ability to those less privileged,Whose lives speak louder than ours,Whose sacrifice is greater,Whose stories will last longer.Forgive us our sins,For blog-rolling strangers and pretending they are friends,For counting unique visitors but not noticing unique people,For delighting in the thousands of hits but ignoring the ONE who returns,For luring viewers but sending them away empty handed,For updating daily but repenting weekly.As we forgive those who trespass on our sites to appropriate our thoughts without reference,Our images without approval,Our ideas without linking back to us.Lead us not into the temptation to sell out our congregation,To see people as links and not as lives,To make our blogs look better than our actual story.But deliver us from the evil of pimping ourselves instead of pointing to you,From turning our guests into consumers of someone else's products,From infatuation over the toys of technology,From idolatry over techologyFrom fame before our time has come.For Yours is the power to guide the destinies behind the web logs,To bring hurting people into the sanctuaries of our sites,To give us the stickiness to follow you, no matter who is watching or reading.Yours is the glory that makes people second look our sites and our lives,Yours is the heavy ambience,For ever and ever,Amen

hat to: jonny baker

If I would only have had my camera

If I would only have had my camera today you would have seen:

• an incredible sunrise
• Sean, fall off a chair and conclude the meeting from the floor.
• Bugs, attempt to catch a squirrel through a window (he didn't get very far)
• Andrea, hiding the scent of cookies from Bugs by building a monument of paper cups and plates on top of them.
• Natalie, pumped at the prospect of going to Africa and visiting a World Vision village
• Nicole, jumping for joy in her restrained manner at the prospect of tonights Bon Jovi concert
• Bugs, quite ecstatic at meeting two ferrets and the getting quite disappointed when he realized that they weren't his dinner
• an incredible sunset

I gotta get one of those little cameras that fit in your pocket and you could have seen it all.

All in all a good day because I laughed often. Amen.

Yet another sign of what this Famine season is all about. Go Mags!! My favorite part is the piece of Garlic Bread ... clearly she's not fasting yet ... so who's raised the most so far?  

by Natalie Merry - I bet you didn't know that even Bugs listens to an ipod :) 

Another Sanctuary

Bugs and I found ourselves enjoying another sanctuary this afternoon.

Utter Joy!!!!

So there is something about snow that makes the winter doable. All of a sudden the trees without leaves; the hills without color; the ground stale and brown are made beautiful and clean and new. There is something about snow that reminds me that winter is indeed holy. That God offers something beautiful and something good in all seasons of life.

Sustain the Survivors

Get those pledges!!! Three week countdown until the Famine.

The Extension...

OK so here we go: the youth room extension onto the internet: another place to hang out. another sacred space. The St. Paul's Youth Ministry extension into the world of blogs ... so what do you think? at the least it's a start...