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Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
It's Like a Fire
By:
I. Wasn’therelasttime
A good friend of mine told me about twenty-three seconds ago to just let the past be the past, especially if it hurts so much. I must admit, that writing a devotional at this point in my life is one of the most difficult things I’ve agreed to do. In the past three months, I have learned that a best friend, a person who is in every way a diary, a journal with infinite pages to write every wound and every smile, but who also sees me as the same, can suddenly, due to actions and emotions, lock himself back up and storm away, leaving nothing but an empty room.
An empty room is like a fire, we expect it to breathe, but even though it dances, it only does so when the wind sighs into it. I was in an empty room. The paintless walls stare at each other, motionless. There is an iron table in the middle of the room; it has a sheet of paper resting on its back, and a pencil beside the sheet. The iron table matches the cold concrete floor, and few see it right away, we are blind in the room. Blind to everything in it but our own bodies, and what we believe to be solitude. I sat in a corner, facing the crevice where the two walls come together, there was a crack dripping down, a river in-between two shores.
The first things I found were dreams. Whenever I slept, which, in the room, does not happen often, I saw a shadow on the other side, at the other corner, just over there. At first, I thought it was solitude, but even solitude does not visit. I needed to get there. Something pushed me, the wind through fire maybe, but I tried to get to the other side. I turned from the corner, and crawled on my hands and knees, feeling through the room, I needed to get to the opposite corner, to see, did this one have a tear as well. And I needed to be near the shadow. I needed to know.
My hand felt the iron it did not know was there; due to blind eyes, while I inched toward the other side, and I was startled, and stood up. I ran my fingers along the top of it, trying to find what it could be, and I was met with the sheet of paper, and next, the pencil.
In the room, one does not know what to do. Thought is like the taste that comes in sleep. But one does not sleep, and if they do, they find dreams, and they find thought; but I was awake when I found the table, which I assumed it was. But the walls screamed, and one cannot listen in the midst of so much noise.
It was days before I slept again, and was able to listen to dreams and thought, but I eventually did. When I awoke after that sleep. I tore the paper off of the table, along with the pencil, and I wrote, and I erased, and this went on. But finally, I wrote what I knew I needed to write, especially to this paper, to that shadow in the corner, with this pencil.
“Help!”
I. Wasn’therelasttime
A good friend of mine told me about twenty-three seconds ago to just let the past be the past, especially if it hurts so much. I must admit, that writing a devotional at this point in my life is one of the most difficult things I’ve agreed to do. In the past three months, I have learned that a best friend, a person who is in every way a diary, a journal with infinite pages to write every wound and every smile, but who also sees me as the same, can suddenly, due to actions and emotions, lock himself back up and storm away, leaving nothing but an empty room.
An empty room is like a fire, we expect it to breathe, but even though it dances, it only does so when the wind sighs into it. I was in an empty room. The paintless walls stare at each other, motionless. There is an iron table in the middle of the room; it has a sheet of paper resting on its back, and a pencil beside the sheet. The iron table matches the cold concrete floor, and few see it right away, we are blind in the room. Blind to everything in it but our own bodies, and what we believe to be solitude. I sat in a corner, facing the crevice where the two walls come together, there was a crack dripping down, a river in-between two shores.
The first things I found were dreams. Whenever I slept, which, in the room, does not happen often, I saw a shadow on the other side, at the other corner, just over there. At first, I thought it was solitude, but even solitude does not visit. I needed to get there. Something pushed me, the wind through fire maybe, but I tried to get to the other side. I turned from the corner, and crawled on my hands and knees, feeling through the room, I needed to get to the opposite corner, to see, did this one have a tear as well. And I needed to be near the shadow. I needed to know.
My hand felt the iron it did not know was there; due to blind eyes, while I inched toward the other side, and I was startled, and stood up. I ran my fingers along the top of it, trying to find what it could be, and I was met with the sheet of paper, and next, the pencil.
In the room, one does not know what to do. Thought is like the taste that comes in sleep. But one does not sleep, and if they do, they find dreams, and they find thought; but I was awake when I found the table, which I assumed it was. But the walls screamed, and one cannot listen in the midst of so much noise.
It was days before I slept again, and was able to listen to dreams and thought, but I eventually did. When I awoke after that sleep. I tore the paper off of the table, along with the pencil, and I wrote, and I erased, and this went on. But finally, I wrote what I knew I needed to write, especially to this paper, to that shadow in the corner, with this pencil.
“Help!”
Days went on, but so did lights, and flames. I looked around and I found the crack on the corner had shortened, as if someone had come through and patched it while I slept. I could see the table, paper and pencil. People come in. Those I know and love; they are here, and those I have never met; they come and go. My room changes every day, and I can sleep again. I have my paper, my pencil, my table, and walls. I have my corners, but I don’t sit there much anymore. There’s a shadow in my room, when it’s dark and when it’s light, at first I thought it was solitude, but she doesn’t exist, this I know because now, I write everyday, with the paper and the pencil, and even though I can see new cracks emerge in the wall, others get patched while I sleep.
My room is like a fire, it breathes, and it breathes because wind lives in it, and it will forever.
My room is like a fire, it breathes, and it breathes because wind lives in it, and it will forever.
A Devo by our amazing Youth Lay Director Emily C.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Mexico Mission Trip
This Christmas, a group from Abiding Hope is heading south of the border to build a house in 4 days for the Amor ministry. The dates are Dec 26 through Dec 31 and costs are between $700-$900 depending on airfare.
For more details, email climbontrec@comcast.net.
For more details, email climbontrec@comcast.net.
Angels and Prayers
ANGELS and PRAYER WARRIORS NEEDED
Remember the Agape Dinner on you TrEC weekend. Thought you were getting pizza. Surprise! Guys and gals escorting you to your seat, fresh food carefully prepared by the greatest chefs in the world – the Kitchen team along with a little help from their friends.
Your whole weekend was like that. Angels working in the background so you could enjoy an awesome weekend. What an amazing gift!
Here’s your chance to do the same.
The men and women of Colorado are having their own TrEC weekend called Via de Cristo on October 16-19 (the men) and November 6-9 (the women) and they need your help. Old folks normally do!
If you want to serenade them, the agape dinner is at 6PM on Saturday night. Come sing along and serenade them through their love feast.
And since we are dealing with older but wiser folks, they tend to get tuckered out by Sunday morning so they need your help to clean and get things back in order starting at 10AM on Sunday,
Their weekends are being held at John Wesley Ranch which is about 30 minutes west of the Springs.
If you can make it, email climbontrec@comcast.net for more details.
If you can’t help out by angeling, you can always sign up for an hour of prayer to support the weekends. Go to www.3dayol.org and hit the prayer vigil button down the left hand side and find the Colorado Via de Cristo weekend links. Reading the Bible is a form of prayer!
Remember the Agape Dinner on you TrEC weekend. Thought you were getting pizza. Surprise! Guys and gals escorting you to your seat, fresh food carefully prepared by the greatest chefs in the world – the Kitchen team along with a little help from their friends.
Your whole weekend was like that. Angels working in the background so you could enjoy an awesome weekend. What an amazing gift!
Here’s your chance to do the same.
The men and women of Colorado are having their own TrEC weekend called Via de Cristo on October 16-19 (the men) and November 6-9 (the women) and they need your help. Old folks normally do!
If you want to serenade them, the agape dinner is at 6PM on Saturday night. Come sing along and serenade them through their love feast.
And since we are dealing with older but wiser folks, they tend to get tuckered out by Sunday morning so they need your help to clean and get things back in order starting at 10AM on Sunday,
Their weekends are being held at John Wesley Ranch which is about 30 minutes west of the Springs.
If you can make it, email climbontrec@comcast.net for more details.
If you can’t help out by angeling, you can always sign up for an hour of prayer to support the weekends. Go to www.3dayol.org and hit the prayer vigil button down the left hand side and find the Colorado Via de Cristo weekend links. Reading the Bible is a form of prayer!
TrEC Fundraiser
TrEC Fundraiser
HELP!!!!!
TrEC needs your help. We are having a fundraiser to help keep TrEC going. Here are a few facts for you to know:
It costs about $4,500 to hold each TrEC weekend. We have 2 weekends a year, so that’s 9,000 buckaroos to do God’s business for a whole year.
Each weekend, we receive approximately $3,750 in team and alp fees, that’s if we have 45 team members and 30 alps. Let’s see - $3,750 times 2 equals $7,500. That’s $1,500 less than what we pay out. Sort of like how the federal government does business.
So …
Every 2 years TrEC does a fundraiser to make up the difference. Our goal is to raise $2,500 and we hopefully get $1,250 in matching funds from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. These are the folks who helped get TrEC started.
This year the TrEC fundraiser is a silent auction. A silent auction is where people and organizations donate things to be auctioned off. People bid on the items through the web and also in person by writing down what they want to pay for the items – hence the silent auction.
The auction is going to be held on November 23rd either at Bethel Lutheran or Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in the Springs. We are planning a thanksgiving celebration on the 23rd, including a soup/bread supper and also a collection of canned goods for the homeless and hungry. Plus a few other surprises – and you know how cool TrEC surprises can be!
10 percent of the funds raised will be given to benefit ELCA World Hunger and the Second Wind Teen Suicide Awareness fund in honor of Pastor Roger Magnuson, Bill Sanford Sr, and Helen Harris – three Trecies who have summited with our Lord this year.
We are still working out a few details, but that’s okay, we’ll pass them on.
HERE’S HOW YOU CAN HELP!
Obviously, we need stuff to auction off. If your parent’s own or work for a business or you know friend’s parents who do, please ask them if they would consider donating some goods or services for the auction. If you could, take a friend and go around to businesses – like restaurants, Wal-Mart, specialty shops, movie theaters, and so on, and ask them.
We have created a request letter that you can give them to explain what we are doing. Check the TrEC website for the letter.
Bring the donations to the next TrEC Rendezvous on Nov 1 at Bethel.
HELP!!!!!
TrEC needs your help. We are having a fundraiser to help keep TrEC going. Here are a few facts for you to know:
It costs about $4,500 to hold each TrEC weekend. We have 2 weekends a year, so that’s 9,000 buckaroos to do God’s business for a whole year.
Each weekend, we receive approximately $3,750 in team and alp fees, that’s if we have 45 team members and 30 alps. Let’s see - $3,750 times 2 equals $7,500. That’s $1,500 less than what we pay out. Sort of like how the federal government does business.
So …
Every 2 years TrEC does a fundraiser to make up the difference. Our goal is to raise $2,500 and we hopefully get $1,250 in matching funds from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. These are the folks who helped get TrEC started.
This year the TrEC fundraiser is a silent auction. A silent auction is where people and organizations donate things to be auctioned off. People bid on the items through the web and also in person by writing down what they want to pay for the items – hence the silent auction.
The auction is going to be held on November 23rd either at Bethel Lutheran or Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in the Springs. We are planning a thanksgiving celebration on the 23rd, including a soup/bread supper and also a collection of canned goods for the homeless and hungry. Plus a few other surprises – and you know how cool TrEC surprises can be!
10 percent of the funds raised will be given to benefit ELCA World Hunger and the Second Wind Teen Suicide Awareness fund in honor of Pastor Roger Magnuson, Bill Sanford Sr, and Helen Harris – three Trecies who have summited with our Lord this year.
We are still working out a few details, but that’s okay, we’ll pass them on.
HERE’S HOW YOU CAN HELP!
Obviously, we need stuff to auction off. If your parent’s own or work for a business or you know friend’s parents who do, please ask them if they would consider donating some goods or services for the auction. If you could, take a friend and go around to businesses – like restaurants, Wal-Mart, specialty shops, movie theaters, and so on, and ask them.
We have created a request letter that you can give them to explain what we are doing. Check the TrEC website for the letter.
Bring the donations to the next TrEC Rendezvous on Nov 1 at Bethel.
Any questions, email them to climbontrec@comcast.net.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Rendezvous
TrEC Fall Rendezvous!!!!
Come join your TrEC community for a time of fellowship and a chance to do something good for others!!!
When: Saturday, November 1st from 2pm-5pm
Where: Bethel Lutheran Church, 4925 Farmingdale Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80917
What: We will be Trick-or-treating. But not for candy. We will be Trick-Or-treating so kids can eat which means we will be going through the Bethel neighborhood asking folks to donate canned goods and other pantry items to Care and Share, the local food bank. We will split into teams and compete to see who can collect the most pounds of food!
What to Bring: Please bring a SNACK to share for after we go trick-or-treating. Also please feel free to wear a costume (that is TrEC appropriate! Remember we will be representing Christ when we go out into the community)
RSVP: climbontrec@comcast.net by October 30th please!
Come join your TrEC community for a time of fellowship and a chance to do something good for others!!!
When: Saturday, November 1st from 2pm-5pm
Where: Bethel Lutheran Church, 4925 Farmingdale Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80917
What: We will be Trick-or-treating. But not for candy. We will be Trick-Or-treating so kids can eat which means we will be going through the Bethel neighborhood asking folks to donate canned goods and other pantry items to Care and Share, the local food bank. We will split into teams and compete to see who can collect the most pounds of food!
What to Bring: Please bring a SNACK to share for after we go trick-or-treating. Also please feel free to wear a costume (that is TrEC appropriate! Remember we will be representing Christ when we go out into the community)
RSVP: climbontrec@comcast.net by October 30th please!
This is a great time to hang out with all your TrECies who you may have just seen or haven’t seen in ages! Come for the fellowship and to help us collect food for those less fortunate as Thanksgiving draws near.
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