MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!

I had someone ask if we celebrate Christmas... Yeah, we crazy people do celebrate Christmas Anything to celebrate , after all-it is one of the Five values !
We try not to celebrate the birth of Jesus in the normal rushing around, focus on gifts and how busy you can be but rather to reflect on God's heart and why he sent Jesus as a baby. There was a friend of the community who got together about 12 people to do a bit of a prophetic act in one of the malls. They wanted to call attention to the reason for the season (and how the meaning is lost in all the hubbub of buying and consumerism; buying the perfect gift for the person in your life who has everything, when really the majority of us in our culture have everything we need already...
So this group wanted to do something that would call people to slow down and maybe remind them this is a time for reflecting on God's goodness and grace to send Jesus... In order to show how fast everyone was going they went slow. REALLY Slow. They simply started at on end of the mall and walked to the other, but they went slow. I don't know how slow they went but it was slow enough that the security guards got pretty upset. They told our friends to leave, and they responded "...that is what we are doing, we are on our way out." They said, but go faster!!! The guards even went up to the people who were just watching, and from everyone that had taken photos--they deleted the pictures from their cameras!! can you believe that! A huge mall and only twelve people just walking slow, not stopping anybody from doing what they want to do, could get such a aggressive response. What a prophetic act in our society and culture.

Last night at Creative World Justice we went through the scriptures looking at the ways the prophets and their prophetic acts, The responses were hardly ever great, but they did the word of the Lord like the Lord wanted. Such creativity too! there must have been a lot of unhappy onlookers when Jeremiah buried his loin cloth 400 miles away and then turned right back around to get it walking 1600 miles in total in just a loin cloth --or naked. Or the laughter that must have occurred at the absurdity of choosing to lay on one side for 390 days just to roll over and do another 40 on the other side.

Doing the absurd and the creative to make the points that God lays on our hearts is a powerful image and continuation of the creative voice of God through his people. There is a strange freedom to find that though i don't always have words, but that i do have a voice in different ways; actions sometimes speak louder than words. (like that day in the mall).

Merry Christmas to all of you, and may we remember the prophetic side of Jesus being sent as a baby; the King available to the least by starting life amongst manure and hay, and the first visitors being sheep herders.

Little Mountain and Artists

I went painting at Little Mountain Apartments last Sunday. Here is a link to some of the images( mine included) :
www.photobucket.com/littlemountain
Also here is a write up about it:

Backgrounder: Little Mountain Art-In/tervention

Last Sunday, working in a chill wind under sunny skies, 50 people painted.

More than 50 pieces of art created by professional and amateur artists will go on exhibit starting Monday, December 15, at the Little Mountain Housing complex. The paintings are mounted on the boarded-up windows of vacant apartments slated for demolition during the next few months.

The artists include professionals like Tiko Kerr as well as current and former residents of the complex and their children. Kerr has contributed silhouette representations of former tenants forced to displace other families on BC Housing’s 14,000-name wait list.

Monday’s event will include an opportunity to interview artists, a tour of the paintings on display, opportunities to see the interiors of the homes of the some of the 16 families who remain on site, and the appearance of Santa Claus above one of the boarded-up doorways.

The artists’ goal is a re-opening of the 15-acre site to ease Vancouver’s housing crisis, which is becoming more and more severe as overnight temperatures drop to –10. B.C. Housing Minister Rich Coleman intends to demolish the 224 homes within the next few months. At the earliest, redevelopment would start in 2011 and perhaps much later, yet the homes could be refurbished at a modest cost to house at least 700 of the thousands of people living on the streets and others in desperate need of affordable housing. The refurbishing could begin immediately and the homes kept open until new construction is ready to begin.

The provincial government has pledged to replace the lost social housing units, but not to increase their numbers. CALM wants the entire site to be used for housing for people with low and modest incomes.

Lisa Hawthorne from Dublin, Ireland, kneeled over a 4x5-foot piece featuring the Vancouver skyline and a lost child. “I came here 3 months ago and right away saw how bad the housing is here. There’s housing problems in Ireland, but…I felt I had to do something.”

Tiko Kerr said: “Building social housing and ending homelessness are our greatest social challenges,” said Kerr. “I felt I had to get involved.” Kerr, other participants, Opus Art Supplies and Benjamin Moore Paints donated materials for the Art-In.

Several of the 16 families still living at Little Mountain participated in the Art-In despite concern they might antagonize their landlord, BC Housing. Sammy Chang, 75 years and virtually blind, contributed two sheets of Chinese calligraphy and an English translation by the daughter of his neighbour, Pen Ke Mi. His dry, warm basement is where many of the Art-In works were stored to dry.

“This art event marks the importance of supported and affordable housing and the absurdity of tearing Little Mountain down during the city's housing crisis," said Barry Growe of Community Advocates for Little Mountain Housing (CALM).

A spattering of thoughts from one night...

Behold as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters,

as the eyes of maiden to the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God,

until he has mercy on us."
Psalm 123:2

It amazes me how the Lord continues to work in power even through what is weak. We had a full house yesterday for Creative World Justice, but it was not the usual crowd. we had eight people from the community that came not because of Creative World Justice, but varying reasons and from different spots in life. It was the first time the apartments felt like there was a swinging door (reminiscent in a way, of the house we moved from). I looked around the room and i saw the body (the beloved of God) as beaten down, broken, tired...
...and beautiful.

In all of our exhaustion as a house yet still open and welcoming, it was not us healing, but God was sculpting beautiful lines in the lives interwoven together for the moment.

So tired ...
... so beautiful.

At Creative World Justice the night was a night to align our hearts intent for Justice back up with God's (it was a vertical night). The Verse referred to was "Love your Enemies and pray for those who persecute you..." (Matt.5:44) It was fitting for the night...
It was a full night of various events and various thoughts, here is a spattering:

...A couple of the girls from our community witnessed a fight last night on the streets. One of the girls had the urge to break it up but the other girl held her back and said it was not time to get involved and they must leave. As they were walking back to the apartments they saw the guy that had been being beat upon trying to escape by crossing the road through the traffic, they tried to catch up with him but could not find him after he had crossed the street. so they came home. As one of the girls shared the story with me, my heart was filled with compassion not solely for the obvious struggle that was going on inside but compassion on those who were involved. Where does the bible...where does Jesus, talk about fleeing and letting hatred exist right in front of you...? I do not understand why are we limited to the care after the deed is already done?...Why do we not step in? I do not understand how such hatred for another being can exist...i have not been able to grasp my heart around these thoughts...

...I dreamed of gang wars last night. I continually arrived too late to prevent the damage, some one died. I was outraged and scolded them..." How many eyes do you see here? --"two." they said-- How many ears? --"Two" They said.-- Do you see hands? --"yes."-- Feet? --"yes."-- Do you not see that this is a human like you! Why do you hate that this person was seeking the same thing as you; a place to belong. Their desire to be, does not interfere with your ability to exist as well. When will it be possible for brothers to dwell in unity... "No greater love has a man than this that he would lay down his life for a friend" (Jn.14)

"You have caused my companions to shun me; you have made me a horror to them. I am shut in so that i cannot escape; my eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day i call upon you, O Lord; i spread out my hands to you. Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you? Is your stead fast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in destruction? Are your wonders known in darkness, or your righteous deeds in the land of forgetfulness? "
Psalm 88:10-12

As much as it depends on you, make every effort to maintain the peace...How do we know if it depends on us...how do we know if it is something we cannot stop if we do not try. Do we exist only to attend to the wounds after they are inflicted or are we to stand in the gap distract from the violence?...just some thoughts that i don't have to figure out an answer to yet...

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed;
perplexed, but not in despair;
persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
We always carry around in our bodies the death of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
2 Corinthians 4:7-10

This is an event coming up that i am really excited for. One of the Women from our team here in Vancouver (Nay Greenfield) will be sitting at the table for discussion one of the days, and i look forward to seeing this whole thing play out. especially that this art event is going to be held live on the Downtown East side (DTES) and then be live cast into the Vancouver Art Gallery--it is great creativity to do it this way because it will be messing with space and displaying the "lower society" of the DTES and their art in the public eye of the "upper Society" in the prestigious art Gallery of the town...who would in most normal cases this scene would be flipped and the Vancouver art Gallery would host.... the whole thing calls into question the status and how most society turns a blind eye to this area and these topics! (under "Websites of interest" there is a link to Gallery Gachet.)


Flesh Mapping : Vancouver Markets Pacific Women November 25th to December 10th, 2008Opening: Friday November 28th, 2008, 7:00pm-10:00pm.

Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter with four artists: Haruko Okano, Bettina Matzkuhn, Susanne Rutchinski and Krista Tupper explore and reveal the demand for prostitution in Vancouver and international sex trafficking. Live feed and video connects 60 women at the Gallery Gachet installation, with 15 Pacific Rim women meeting at the Vancouver Art Gallery and 100 gathered at the Vancouver Public Library Central Branch.Presented in conjunction with WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

My first 3 Weeks in Canada...Some reflections

I am in Canada now. The House that i live in is located in the downtown East Side(DTES) of Vancouver. There are about 12 people who stay here as well. I say about because some nights people from the street sleep on the couch and at a few point there have been people who are getting ready to go into rehab programs a need a place to stay until they can get in so they are not out on the streets. Then there are the visitors who come by and there is rarely a dinner meal that has been less than 15 people around the table. The door is in constant motion and it is great...
The Image that is used to remind us how to balance our daily life is the picture of a wheel. The inside is the time for Solitude and reflection--time to rest with God and gain his strength and insight for the rest--It is the center, the hub in which all else is held together.
And then there is the spokes which are the time spent in the community and reaching out. With out a strong community the practice and use of the wheel is weak and easily broken each part needing to bear a part of the load.
The outer rim is ministry where life hits the road and gets involved with the world around. The action and getting out into the community we are surrounded by.
This is how we are encouraged to spend our days... a time with God, time with community, and time with our neighbours. I spent the first three weeks mostly exploring the streets and the new surrounding i have found myself in. I at first was amazed at how much there was around here with the outreaches and people trying to help. It seemed as if there was a different organization on every corner, then i learned that the reason why it is so thick in this part is that there is very little help elsewhere and so the DTES has become like a section quarantined for the lepers and fatally ill. People don't want to be bothered by it so they have shoved it into one area where they can ignore the problems, yet for the people here it becomes increasingly difficult to get out because they are continually rejected elsewhere. There is one thing that i have noticed while being here so far, and that is the community that is built up here on the streets. The People know they need each other to survive. This reminds me of something i had read from Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Paraphrasing the basics because i cannot find the exact quote at the moment...) when we cling to the community we will inevitably chock the life out of the very community we profess to love and need, but the community that is centered on Christ will be able to live and thrive being willing to sacrifice so that the community may live.
This is the community that is found down there, yet you don't get much better from the organizations that are trying to go about systematically giving help to those who need it, missing the relationship that is necessary to a whole restoration both body and soul.
In some of my down time i have been reading a book called "there's is The Kingdom" by Robert D. Lupton, and this story is something that i have had some good reflection on:
(This is kind of long and the last part of this post so enjoy pondering when you have time.)


"It was front-page news, the biggest happening to hit town in recent memory. Rev.Jarius, the distinguished pastor of Capernaum First Church, actually had fallen on his knees in the dust before an uneducated Galilean teacher, begging. a parent, even a dignified one, will do desperate things when his child is dying. Rev. Jarius publicly humbled himself, pleading for the life of his daughter. And the Teacher agreed to heal her. This was no small event.
The crowds surged toward the Jarius home as people pushed and shoved to get a decent spot to view this spectacle. Suddenly the Teacher halted in the middle of the road. Turning around, he asked: 'who toughed my clothes?' An absurd question when the masses are pressing in hard upon you.
But the Teacher persisted. 'Someone has touched me.' It was not the ordinary jostling of crowds. It was an intentional pull on his robe, an insistent tug. He had felt this touch a thousand times before from people who wanted something from him. Someone had grabbed his garment, intruded upon him and he felt the drain. 'Virtue has gone out of me.' He said.
(--Master i know the feeling. When i am on my way to meet an important person and a homeless person grabs my arm, insisting on talking to me right then with no concern for my time, no consideration for the harm that might be caused by delay, it drains my energy. Care and compassion leave me. Impatience and irritation rush in. I want to respond with a quick hand out or some equally demeaning put-off.)
It was a poor person of course, who emerged trembling from the crowd. A woman with an incurable bleeding sore. A social outcast, impatient, clutching. She wanted a fix, and she got it by grabbing onto Jesus. He felt the drain. The woman was cured but Jesus lost virtue--perhaps a decline of his compassion or a twinge of impatience. Whatever, it was a clear signal to him that he must stop immediately regardless of the gravity of the situation at Jarius home. Cure without personal care was not the Father's way. He must not go on.
(But master, shouldn't i honor the commitments I've made to others? I need to respect their time. If i allow the urgent intrusions of poor people to control my schedule, I'll become known as irresponsible and undependable. I must maintain my priorities. Isn't that right?)
She knelt before him, Healed but not heard. Then the teacher listened. The woman's story was one of misery, alienation, and desperation. It was a story that toughed the Teacher's heart. Too long a story for the anxious disciples. Horribly long for the Jarius family. But there was no rushing the woman. No expediting, no referring.
The Teacher listened attentively until the woman knew she was understood and cared for deeply. Only then he spoke. He affirmed the woman as a person of deep faith. He proclaimed that it was Her faith--not some magical power in his robe--that healed her. His words brought wholeness to her wounded spirit, healing far deeper than a physical cure. Then the Teacher, full of virtue, continued on to the Jarius home.
But it was too late. The worst already had happened. A runner broke through the crowd bearing the tragic news. 'The child just died.' Rev. Jarius was stunned. The disciples were outraged. The crowd began to murmur, 'if only...ifonly.'
(I understand, Master, why it is important to personally care for the needy ones. But it seems unwise to lose such an important opportunity. Maybe I've helped a homeless family find food and lodging, but I've had to cancel an appointment with a busy person whose influence could do a great deal for the poor. What if i can't reschedule the appointment? What if a greater harm has been done?
But the Teacher was calm. He wasn't affected by the outcry. Although the bleeding woman was not on his planned itinerary, he did not rationalize giving a quick cure just because his day was a busy one. He did things the Father's way. He knew that whatever coincidences now had to be orchestrated, whatever supernatural events arranged or perceptions altered, the Father would attend to these details.
'Don't lose faith,' he encouraged the grief stricken and morally outraged. 'She isn't really dead.' Some jeered. The mourners wailed. They ad seen the dead girl, and they knew that an opportunity was forever lost. But the few who believed that one can never lose by doing things the Father's way were invited into the child's bedroom for a behind the scene glimpse of an invisible reality. One of the men there learned the lesson and said it again for us in a letter: 'Make every effort to add to your faith virtue"(2Peter 1:5)

I am In Iowa again...(I love circles!)

Well plans never cease to change...the week with my mom turned into a little more than two weeks of unpacking boxes and setting up house in her new apartmentin Longbeach California, and now i am back in Iowa to pick up my belongings that i left behind and then head back out.
We arrive in the evening at mom's apartment on Tuesday night and about an hour after we were there a seventeen year old boy got shot in a drive by right next to my mom's house. I learned that night that my mother had never heard gun shots before...and she learned that i had. We had several talks over the next couple of weeks about how to live where she lives, levels of safety, what is just being caucious and what is settingn up barricades to ministry. to what can she do and what does she feel comfortable doing. I saw a new side of my mom that week that i had not seen before. Please pray for my mom's neighbours as they greive the loss of a friend, and please keep my mom in your prayers as she learns where and how to be the hands and feet of Jesus in her new surroundings.

More plans have changed since i have come back too Orange City, Iowa. I was planning on just a few days and then hopping my 1969 VW Bug with my belongings piled inside and heading back out. But the Bug that was in the shop while i was gone ended up not being fixed by the time i got back (more than 6weeks later) because the mechanic thinks that the bug will not make the trip without some other work done with the engine. So i finally came to the hard decision of selling the bug and heading out without the beloved Bluebug. So almost a week later i am still here in Iowa getting the details squared away.

There are no regrets though; the time back here in Iowa has been wonderful and i relize just how much i will miss it here. And the future days ahead are breight...I am looking forward to meeting up with the Servants team in Vancouver, BC on October 1st, and a good friends wedding on September 26 (woohoo Kevin!)

Looking forward to new adventures and new plans changing, catch ya later!

So Much Can Happen in a few Days Time

The most beautiful 360 degree View and "relaxation" by a lake with Rock formations and forests surrounding it the wonderful company of a beloved sister, her family and my dear Daddy; that was how i spent my time for the past 6 days--completely oblivious to the world around us we were able to enjoy God's creation, some deep honest conversations, and some really good family time as well. My nephew William hiked the whole way with us which i thought was rather impressive since we went more than 17miles and he is only 3 (almost 4yrs). I will post some pictures once i figure out how (sorry for my lack of technology)
We were in the Serra National Forest (Ansel Adams Wilderness) at a lake called Lillian Lake. We camped at about 8868ft elevation and daddy and i hiked up a peak that was 10000 at least. Most gorgeous view from up there.

When we returned back to the world on Monday (Aug. 11) we got the message that My Sister Christine had her baby on Sunday night August 10. William Raymond Lewis was born 8lbs and 21 inches. Cutest little thing! --i mean baby not thing... anyway. we brought Christine and William home from the hospital today and they are taking a nap as i type. My mom is coming up Thursday to spend the weekend here with her and then mom and i will spend the next week together.

The time with my family and the time in the wilderness has been a continual learning experience and revealing who i am in Him. Thank you for your prayers.
Grace and Peace to you all.