Yup, that’s right. Late last week Brooke and I were accepted for a Backcountry Permit in the Grand Canyon for the week of August 20-27th. Shortly thereafter, we hopped on southwest.com and purchased our tickets. Thus, it is official — Brooke and I are hiking 30 miles in the Grand Canyon. WHOA.

Our route consists of 3 campsites that are set up for backcountry-ers. We enter at the South Rim, and descend to the base and spend our first night at CIG campground, the second night at CBG, the third night at CCG, and then back again. We wrestled with hiking from one end to the other and that being it, but it is a 4.5 hour bus ride back to the south rim from the north rim — so we decided against that.

After we get out of the canyon and drive back to Phoenix we are going to pamper ourselves and stay in a nice resort for one night before heading back to Seattle.

I can’t wait.

peace
joel

so, i recently started my summer job of painting and for the next 7 weeks i am on a gig all by myself. luckily, i have an ipod. Unfortunately, i’m obsessed with learning and so I don’t want to merely listen to music — i want to be able to educate myself as well. So do any of you out there know of podcasts that I could subscribe to that would help me pass the time? any category, and any realm

peace
joel

Foe those of you who weren’t at graduation Michael Wilhoit managed to film my first one minute and 12 seconds of my first speech (them my camera’s memory got full). I posted it here.

and for those of you who are geeks like me, it is in video ipod format so you can carry me with you wherever you go. (ha, that’s funny)

peace
joel

With the advent of a heat wave this week I have remembered how much I enjoy nice weather. I have also remembered that when there is nice weather I am less likely to want to be in front of my computer. I have also remembered taht during the summer I am less reflective and overall I have a faster pace of life.

All of these contribute to this next sentence: I won’t be blogging as much.

My goal during the winter is to blog three times a week — but for the summer I think it is going to be once a week. So continue to check back (or for those of you that subscribe just read ‘em when they arrive) but don’t be surprised if there are droughts of posts. If you happen to puruse and see that there is a drought in posts then I highly suggest you also put down your computer and go walk around green lake, take a bike ride, take a walk in a park, hike Mount Si, mow your lawn, weed your garden, do anything other than stare at pixels lighting up your face and causing your eyesight to get worse.

peace
joel

So I realize that I have had a few posts on Mark Driscoll, but it seems this man is taking over the church scene in Seattle. His verbose, often critical opinions are everywhere. The Stranger recently published an atricle about Christianity in Seattle. In it, they interviewsed three pastors, two ‘conservative’ and one ‘liberal.’ It is a pretty decent article, but the author misues some language (primarily calling Mars Hill Church an Emergent church). As I read the article I couldn’t help but notice how many times Driscoll said something that practically begs for people to get offended. So I thought I would paste those below as a way to start a conversation.

Driscoll, for his part, has an apocalyptic, us-versus-them view of his church’s role in society, arguing in a recent sermon that true rebellion means being “heterosexual and pump[ing] out some kids,

There is no occasion where women led a society and were its heads and the men complied and followed.

If you claim to be a Christian and you continue to sin, you get the boot… If you don’t want to obey God, then you should be banished out of the church, because the church is a community of God.

If you would like to post a letter to the editor to broaden the scope of this article please do. We all know this article is only a subset of a subset of Christianity in Seattle. The email address for the editor at the stranger is appropriately editor@thestranger.com

peace
joel

There are many of you out there who have asked me to share what my trip was like with Ron and Tim. I love that fact that you are interested in hearing about it and so I will try to honor your interest with these words. But before I begin, let me say, that words can not capture emotions perfectly, nor can tehy translate the many facial expressions that I had during my time. So, although words are good, they are merely a tool to help us express something that happened outside our presence. So, i guess let us begin the journey.

Gift 1 — the relocation of our bodies and souls
Tim and I arrived at Ron’s in Woodinville around lunch time on Monday May 1st. Upon arriving there were Panini’s and drinks waiting for us to devour. After devouring Ron said something like, “Although I like my house, let’s see what Sea-Tac has to offer.” Upon finishing this sentence he handed us our boarding passes for Bend, Oregon. We then hopped in Ron’s car and drove down to SeaTac and boarded a prop plane for Bend Oregon. It was a 51 minute flight that led us directly over Mount Saint Helens, Mount Hood, and many other fantastic mountains. When we arrived at the single gate airport in Bend we were greeted by an Iraqi Freedom Veteran holding a sign that “VandenBrink/Soerens” written on it. This driving service took us out to Mount Bachelor Village where Ron had rented a marvelous room on a bluff that overlooked the Descheutes River. Tim and I ran around like 12 year old boys from room to room exclaiming, “Hey, check this out, I have a refrigerator in my bathroom” and “I have a jacuzzi in mine” and “Whoa, look at the size of these pine cones, they are huge.”

What a gift to be able to receive

Gift 2 — Words of Hope
Many of you who read this had a role in this next gift — so thank you for that. The gift began with sliding my feet into new slippers, wrapping myself in a fleece blanket, and opening an envelope that said “open me first.” What was inside of this envelope was words from Ron that sent me into tears of gratitude and amazement. I then proceeded to dump out the contents of the bag and inside where letter after letter from friends all over the country. My parents, along with Ron, had contacted friends from my childhood and friends from college, and friends from Seattle to write what I meant to them.

I spent the next hour or so crying

Letter after letter massaged my heart until it was so relaxed that all I could do was sit in the love that was showered upon me. These words, and these letters will be carried with me the rest of the days of my life. And when I need them most i will have them. When the world tells me I am something that I am not, I will have these to go back to. And when I start to believe that it isn’t worth it, these words will call me forward.

What a gift to be able to receive

Gift 3 — Ron’s Time and Intentionality
Ron is a man of influence in many realms outside of Mars Hill Graduate School. And because of this, his time and knowledge is incredibly valuable. For this man to take two days to treat two emerging leaders to an extravagant retreat is an amazing honor. Not only did Ron take time away from his two jobs, but he treated us to everything. Everything from the plane ride, to the resort, to the Gatorade after our hike along the river, to buying us clothes to be comfortable in for retreat, to a bag to carry our stuff in, to all our meals, and everything else that is required to life for two days. We were loved well and cared for well. If I were a member of royalty I would want to be treated like I was treated these two days.

Then, after our time was up, Ron volunteered to be our first ‘Board of Directors/Consultant.’ Tim and I both get bored easy (this was something that was brought to the forefront on this retreat) and so we need someone to call us back to our mission and call us forward in our mission. Ron said that he would love to do this for us and so for at least the next year we will meet with Ron at random to learn and to covenant.

What a gift to be able to receive.

Gift 4 — The learning that occurred
Tim and I learned a lot about how we relate to each other, ourselves, others around us, and God. The data that came in, and the lenses that Ron has helped us to see a lot about who we are. We got to ask questions like “What, if not paid attention to, could destory our friendship?” and “Why do we even like each other?” and “What do we see ourselves doing?” and “What do other people see us doing?” and “What are some pitfalls we need to be attentive to?”

What a gift to be able to receive.

Of course, there is much more to tell and much more life to be lived. But the rest will seep out at random times, and you (or I) may not even know that it was because of these two days that I am doing something that I am doing.

peace
joel

For those of you who could not be at the graduation ceremony, he is my part of the speech that was delivered by four students.

Part 1
This is not the school I started in. Sure, the name is the same, the location (for now) is the same, but this is not the school I started in, in the Fall of 2003.

It was my first semester and there I was, sitting in a 10 x 12 room with 10 other people. Two dim incandescent lights lit up the space in a rather dreary way. Across from me was a woman with red hair, she looked important, more important than the rest of us in the room. To my right was a man holding a traveling coffee mug with a tea bag sticking out from under the cap – he too looked more important than the rest of us, or at least more comfortable. I noticed his shoes, red leather clog slip on’s. I noticed his wedding band, strangely similar to mine. Just then the door shut and the room got darker.

As the semester went on I was profoundly confronted with what it meant to be introduced to the world of counseling. I didn’t particularly enjoy this introduction, in fact, I spent most of first, and even second semester hating the question: “So where do you want to go today?” Subconsciously I was thinking NO where, I don’t want to go anywhere, the only place I want to go is out of here and back to bed. Why am I here, I am an M.Div student I want to be learning theology.

This is not the school I started in. Sure, the name is the same, the location (for now) is the same, but this is not the school I started in, in the fall of 2003.

I took a class this past semester called ‘Naming the Future.’ The only assignment in this class was to write an integrative paper that pointed us toward our future. As I struggled through this paper I kept on coming back to scenes in my life where the following phrase felt true “You can only take someone as far as you, yourself have gone.” Here I was, a third year M.Div student, ready to graduate, writing a paper about the necessity for a pastor to be in counseling. I wrote, “the level of health that a self has is the very most the system of others can have. It is impossible for a person to have a healthy team if the self is not healthy.”

I am not who I started as. Sure, my name is the same, but I am not who I started as, in the fall of 2003.

Speech 2
A recent Verizon Wireless ad campaign shows the “Can you hear me now” guy with a crowd of people behind him, following him wherever he goes. What a beautiful picture this is of the passage we read earlier. We are surrounded by people everyday, I am surrounded by people everyday.

But, who am I? Who are you? Who are we? The scriptures tell us that we are the Body of Christ, we are the hosts, and we are the cloud of witnesses. I have come to believe, but often forget, that I can not go through this life alone, I need to confess so that those around me can help turn my desires into good.

It is an honor of mine to stand here today and say that a whole host of witnesses has helped to turn that which I desire into good. The number is too great to start naming. But many of you are here today, and for that I am grateful. But others have moved geographically, or are writing books in heaven, and still others could not be here. But I will move forward from this place with the words from a friend, “At times you may feel and seem alone. May you, with eyes of faith, see there are others who are by your side.” These words were given to me, so I now give them to you. May we all go forward knowing that there are others who are by our side.

peace
joel

Well, besides the week I got married, I think this week was the best week of my life. I was treated like royalty for two days by Ron Carucci as he took Tim and I on a Leadership Formation trip, my parents were in town (and still are until tomorrow morning), and I graduated with my Masters of Divinity degree. Phew, I’m tired.

It would seem that with all that happened last week that I would have plenty of words to post, but in the midst of so much I am worded out. I have spoken all that I can speak. So here I sit, a man humbled by the love he has received this week. A man grateful for wonderful friends and family, and a man who waits for the words of gratitude to bubble up.

To all of you who read this who had some role in my life this past week. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Your presence in my life is too much to bear — and for that I am grateful.

Blessings and Peace
joel

i’m back in seattle after spending two glorious days in Bend Oregon. I don’t have the time or energy to articulate the experience of the past two days, so for now, i will leave you all wondering what these days were like. Hopefully sometime wednesday or thursday i will have time to journal then…for now, i am off the spend some time with my dearest, most lovely wife. (wink, wink)

peace
joel