11/24/2004 02:40:22 PM|||Joel VandenBrink|||

Well, I'm relatively new to the whole world of blogging, but the way i approach it is that it is an on-line journal of my thoughts. Some of them will be intimate, others will be surfacey. I guess depending on how i feel that day.

Well today is my day off -- first of five. So after replacing a flat tire on our Mazda I settled into my favorite coffee shop. An organic free trade local roaster called Zoka. Living in the land of Starbucks it is always fun to support the local competition -- plus their coffee is loads better.

It feels so good to have a day off. I'm so tired and so worn out. This weekend really took it out of me, and i'm still trying to recover. maybe watching the lions on tv tomorrow will help with that. this weekend was prospective student weekend at school and i played in intricate role in a worship service that we had at a local church. the evening was incredible. myself, tim soerens, tom rasmussen, and kendall bergman crafted an evening about 'story' specifically the mars hill graduate school story. My school has gone through hell and incredible joy, so we wanted to honor this history and invited story tellers that have lived through and experienced both sides of this to tell their story. it was so sacred and some of the stories were so hard to listen to and for the story teller to tell. tears were shed on the behalf of sin and celebration. the night was capped with communion. one of my sojourners, tim soerens, invited the group to celebrate communion in a way that is 'different' from tradition. It went something like this. On the tables were bottles of wine (7 people sat around a table) and on stations around the room were loaves of bread. Tim encouraged people to go break off a piece of bread and to give it to someone. But before they could give it they were asked to speak words of reconciliation, encouragement, or thanks. it was incredible how this time unfolded. every emotion that exists was present. tears, claps, cheers, and solitude were present in the room. after about 10 minutes of this we poured the wine and toasted to salvation. it was glorious. i have been blessed by many people's words since then, both of thanks and of 'what the hell was that?" It's been a struggle to let it be and to trust God in it. my tendancy is to encourage people to have fun and enjoy it, thus taking them out of the hard place that they may be in. i'm slowly learning that that isn't my role -- it doesn't honor them and is self-serving for my benefit because i can't stand seeing them in a hard place.

so needless to say i'm tired. i'm longing for rest and the mountains. my soul needs them, my soul longs for the solitude of snow capped peaks and the smell of evergreens. soon, so very soon i hope to get to the woods. i need it so badly, i need to watch my four legged son frolic in glacier streams and to hold my wives hand as we ascend up a mountain. is it too scary to say that i smell God in the woods and that he speaks to me more clearly there? well if it is, then oh well -- cuz i do. I think God made a mistake and allowed me to live my first 22 years in the midwest. or maybe he knew what he was doing all along and now i have even more of an apprecation for the mountains.

well i will sign off for now. if you want to read an incredible article go here.

and go buy the new U2 CD -- its incredible.

peace
joel

|||110133623495227202|||Wednesday at Zokas