Brooke and I are back from our 36 miles trek in 136 degree heat through the grand canyon. Some brief highlights of the trip are: getting chased by wild turkeys, being hissed at by a rattlesnake, and getting ‘trapped’ at camp because of flash flooding everywhere.

I posted pictures of the trip here

peace
joel

Josue brought to my attention that i don’t have a link to RSS on my site. silly silly me. so until i have the 10 minutes to update my sidebar.php below is the address for my RSS 2.0 feed

http://www.joelvandenbrink.com/feed

simple enough

peace
joel

So Michael Frost’s latest book is published and sitting on my living room floor (thanks to Amazon Prime free 2-day shipping). I am a mere 30 pages in and already loving it. Frost, in a way that only Frost can do, takes the thoughts of Brueggemann (post-Christendom exiles) and Hauerwas (story-formed people) and beautifully blends in the story of Daniel and out comes a possible way forward. Brilliant!

What is a little surprising to me though is the change of tone, thus far in this book as compared to the book he wrote with Alan Hirsch. That book was extremely hopeful, whereas, this book has numerous one-liners that attempt to name that the current resurgance of the Christendom church is a waste of time. Granted, this may be true, the audience of this book already knows this and so why re-iterate it? To me, it is the equivalent of saying that modernity has died and we are living in a post-modern era. But, none the less, it does not distract from the thesis of the book.

So if you have $13 and want a good book to read i recommend buying this one — especially if you have any interest in what has been termed (and already abused) ‘missional church.’

And if you do read it, let me know what you think of it by commenting below

peace
joel

So can anybody tell me where June and July and almost all of Augustwent? I know, that in the rhythms of the world they existed, but in my own world they have seemed to disappear ever so slyly.

But, these months, for being crazy busy, fun, and disappearing had affect on my life and those around me. so i know by life changing that these months happened. Without giving an itenerary of things that transitioned i will give a list — in bullet form, or something like that

1. My brothers came out for a week and we had a blast. We went surfing, camping, hiking, to a Mariner game, pike place market, and a whole bunch of other stuff. i think i succeeded in wearing them out.
2. My sister and brother-in-law came out for a week. We also had fun. We went to Hurricane Ridge, Pike place market, kayaking, and a whole bunch of ther stuff around seattle. as well, they headed down to the oregon coast for a couple days and relaxed at B&B’s
3. I am, as of 9:22 this morning, officially, officailly, officially, done with Mars Hill Graduate School. I mailed off my last paper (that had been down for 3 weeks) to the Professor. Strangely, it was hard to send off. It symbolized an ending. The very thing that brought Brooke and I out to Seattle is now done. weird.

so in my digital absence those are the larger things that went on, most of them, but not all of course.

switching gears a little, this saturday brooke and i are taking off to finally do our hike through the grand canyon. i’m stoked, geeked, juiced (all those good cali words). it is going to be so refreshing, and so good. we will return, hopefully, ready to take on the fall season and having plenty of time to process all that went on this summer.

i promise, soon i will be making a rhymatic return to blogging. i still need this outlet. and now that i’m not working 50 hours a week and attending classes, i will have time.

peace to you all
joel