Hope you all had a good end to Advent & Christmas. And we hope you have a wonderful New Year! We’re taking a brief winter break from the blog, but we’re planning on some changes and lots of new material going into 2010! Check back Week 2 of January. For those in town, no group this Thursday (New Year’s Eve), but we will be hanging Sunday night (12/3) for soccer & dinner starting @ 6PM in the gym. Regular group on January 7th. See you soon!
Archive for December, 2009
Peru Christmas Part 3: Possible For All of Us
Published 12/18/2009 Advent & Christmas , Peru Leave a CommentTags: christmas gifts, El Shaddai, katie cooper, lima, service
All this week, we are sharing reflections & pictures from the team that just returned from Lima, Peru. Their journey was part of an effort our community made to share gifts & hope with a community we’ve worked closely with for seven years. After raising nearly $7000 between our group and others @ WBCC, we were able to buy Christmas gifts for kids in Lima, Pachacutec, and Iquitos. We also bought two brand new moto-taxis as sources of income and employment for the church and those they reach-out to. Finally, we completed funding several smaller infrastructure projects that weren’t yet finished at El Shaddai.
POSSIBLE FOR ALL OF US Katie Cooper
I don’t think I knew what Peru would become in my life the first time that I went. I knew that I would enjoy it since I had done similar trips with the church in Mexico, but it has taken on a role in my life that I may not have anticipated early on. Now that’s not to say that every time I’m there I’m totally comfortable and at ease, or that I love every minute, because I don’t think that is it at all. But I fit in some way. I’m not always totally comfortable in my life here at home either, nor do I love every minute, but I have a role and a place here. There are obvious differences between the two, since my roots here have developed with friends and family for the twenty-four years of my life. Still I can’t help but feel that the bond that continues to grow with our friends at El Shaddai, this relationship we have worked for, hasn’t happened by accident. That even though I didn’t know what Peru would become, God obviously did. He must have had a plan for it. And for the record, Continue reading ‘Peru Christmas Part 3: Possible For All of Us’
Peru Christmas Part 2: Finding Love in Lima
Published 12/16/2009 Advent & Christmas , Peru Leave a CommentTags: advent, lima, love, love definitions, shaya lawrence, Shema
All this week, we are sharing reflections & pictures from the team that just returned from Lima, Peru. Their journey was part of an effort our community made to share gifts & hope with a community we’ve worked closely with for seven years. After raising nearly $7000 between our group and others @ WBCC, we were able to buy Christmas gifts for kids in Lima, Pachacutec, and Iquitos. We also bought two brand new moto-taxis as sources of income and employment for the church and those they reach-out to. Finally, we completed funding several smaller infrastructure projects that weren’t yet finished at El Shaddai.
FINDING LOVE IN LIMA Shaya Lawrence
As I reflect on this last trip to Peru, and on the Advent season I have noticed a common theme this year for me. I realize it is an often talked about theme, however it is one that to me is the most mysterious, most difficult to truly grasp, and one in which will take the rest of my life to seek and still may never comprehend even a little of what it is. The theme is Love. I have always truly struggled with this word/feeling/action contemplating; what does it mean to Love? Continue reading ‘Peru Christmas Part 2: Finding Love in Lima’
Peru Christmas Part 1: The Measure of Beauty
Published 12/15/2009 Advent & Christmas , Peru Leave a CommentTags: cassie nason, El Shaddai, lima, mother teresa, pachacutec, Peru
All this week, we are sharing reflections & pictures from the team that just returned from Lima, Peru. Their journey was part of an effort our community made to share gifts & hope with a community we’ve worked closely with for seven years. After raising nearly $7000 between our group and others @ WBCC, we were able to buy Christmas gifts for kids in Lima, Pachacutec, and Iquitos. We also bought two brand new moto-taxis as sources of income and employment for the church and those they reach-out to. Finally, we completed funding several smaller infrastructure projects that weren’t yet finished at El Shaddai.
THE MEASURE OF BEAUTY Cassie Nason
A dozen smiling Peruvian faces greeted us in the airport terminal in Lima…at 1 a.m. I was the only member of our group who had not been to Peru before, and therefore hadn’t experienced the midnight greeting from Pastor Elsa and her varied crew of neighborhood kids and family. It was also these smiling faces that were my last memory of Lima after our three-day whirlwind tour. And I think there is only one word for these people I met there. Beautiful.
Before I was able to absorb the beauty of the people I met in Peru, it’s important to relay to you my first impressions. First of all, Continue reading ‘Peru Christmas Part 1: The Measure of Beauty’
embryo of hope
Published 12/13/2009 Advent & Christmas Leave a CommentTags: Cheryl Lawrie, hold this space, hope, mary & joseph, poetry
Check back often this week as we share details on our Christmas project in Peru from those who were able to go! For now, enjoy this beautiful post by Cheryl Lawrie of http://holdthisspace.org.au/ that she wrote ahead of a visit to a prison in the midst of advent. A call to hope!
there are few things more fragile
than an embryo of hope
given its chance of life only by those who say ‘yes’
to its promise
like the prophets who said yes to God’s urging
Mary who said yes to an angel
and Joseph who said yes to his Mary
like the people of faith through all of time
who have said yes to the promise of love
and as we sit by the side of our wall
- whatever that wall might be –
surrounded by the rubble and rubbish
of broken dreams and lives
what faith does it take to imagine
an embryo of hope
being brought to life here?
what ‘yes’ are you able to say
for it to be born in our world?
hope has answered
Published 12/08/2009 Advent & Christmas Leave a CommentTags: advent, christmas story, god's narrative, immanuel, incarnation
advent is in full swing. hopefully you’re finding time & ways to realize the baby Jesus, born to us, in new & old ways. This short poem/video is pretty outstanding if you want something to help you in considering the power of the Christmas message. Past the video is a short film guide that really helps you process the message. enjoy!
Advent & Fair Trade
Published 12/01/2009 Advent & Christmas 2 CommentsTags: christmas gifts, fair trade, trade as one
It is Advent, the time in which we anticipate “God with Us”, and the implications that has on our lives. One inevitable consideration in the run-up to Christmas is how we spend our resources. “Fair Trade” has become one way to spend money & show love in the process. This company Trade as One is demonstrating that in a pretty sweet way. If you’re looking for gift ideas that benefit on a broader scale, you may like what they’re up to…
more about “Advent & Fair Trade“, posted with vodpod
