Hey Brian,

I quite like Marianne’s site as far as the design goes. Do you think I can put something like this together using wordpress?

http://www.marianne-kantert.de/

Cheers,

Nico www.nicoangleys.com

Nico's Current Website

Nico bro!

So, it’s time to dump Dot Net Nuke, eh? You have that running on some server space on a windows server somewhere…

You should go for a “hosted” page.

It’d be worth searching WordPress themes to see if one of them got you close to the look/feel of the page you mentioned, but I doubt it. They currently offer 105 themes in the free version of wordpress.com (that’s the “hosted” wordpress, as-opposed to the codebase, which anyone can download from wordpress.org and install – that’s what we run for http://servantsoftheword.org). Then you could pay the $12/year to get your domain mapped to the hosted wordpress… and even $14/year to custom-edit one of the built-in themes. That’s what I use for this blog.

Squarespace would really get you closer to that look/feel you linked-to at http://www.marianne-kantert.de/.
Check out some of their examples: http://www.squarespace.com/examples/category/featured.
But they’re on the “expensive” side for us guys who want to go gratis… $11/month for the two year plan: http://www.squarespace.com/pricing/.

Other hosted options?
My latest list was like this, but it’s just a list, not necessarily recommendations:

• http://Yola.com (supports google adsense)
• http://Weebly.com (supports google adsense)
• http://Jimdo.com
• http://Webnode.com

All four of these have:

• easy-editing (like microsoft word)
• a free subdomain (i.e. nico.yola.com)
• they’re advertising-free (except they link back to their own homepage)

Some of them even let you make your own domain name later for some $$$.

Paid options, again, not necessarily recommendations:

• http://SquareSpace.com – excellent! allows custom themes $$ coupon?: SISTA
• http://HomeStead.com – $5/month – click anything – start w template…
• http://Doodlekit.com – $$
• http://Viviti.com – $5/mo http://viviti.com/about/pricing

I hope you figure out how to make a new webpage!
-Brian

I got ‘er off a local guy named Ajeet. It cost me about $20, a wireless internet card, and an hour of tinkering together from the mountain of parts in his garage. This bike sat you up so high you felt like flying. It’s been a good two years…

Favorite moments:

• exploring the Lansing area on a cool fall day when I moved here in 2006
• using it to teach 18 year old Andy Christopherson how to ride a bike
• whenever Michel Dahan would come home from his cross-town commute with greasy-chain fingers

Well, we had some good times orange one-speed, but this is goodbye. You just broke too many chains and your spokes are too rusty. I wonder where you’ll end up?

You all should get yourselves bikes and save some gas while getting exercise. It’s really a lot of fun.

It’s been since September!?! Time flies. I’ve been telling myself to just post more often, especially when I run across a new hack that works well. Well here’s the latest hack.

Who uses RSS out there? It’s “Really Simple Syndication,” but I guess it’s not so simple since not so many people use it. But I use it and it’s fun.

The idea is that when you see the orange rss thing you can hit it and then you’ll stay up-to-date on that site’s new information. It’s a bit like my “subscribe by email to h2d” on the right, but it’s more user-friendly because you manage all your “feeds” in one spot. Confused yet?

How do I keep up-to-date on various RSS feeds?

I use FeedBlitz.com. It emails me once a day with a report of all the content of the posts from the websites to which I’m subscribed (currently 94 total, geesh). You can sign-up for free. That would be step 1.

Step 2 would be to set-up your browser (Firefox, of course) to show you a little orange rss thing in the address bar at the top whenever you’re browsing a site to which you could subscribe. You just hit that whenever you want to add the current site to your list. Here’s where the hack-part comes in:

1. In the Tools:Options… menu, you’ll find a tab called “Feeds.” Click that.
2. Then choose “Subscribe to the feed using…” and just choose Google for now. Hit OK.
3. Put “about:config” in the address bar of the browser, hit enter.
4. In the Filter: line put “browser.feeds.handlers.webservice” and hit enter.
5. You should see under “Value” on the right “http://fusion.google.com/add?feedurl=%”
6. Double click that and replace it with “http://www.feedblitz.com/f?Track=%s&email=your-email@dot.com” replacing “your-email@dot.com” with your email address. Hit OK.
7. Test it out on your favorite website by clicking the in the address bar at the top.

The hack part is that I added &email=your-email@dot.com to the line above… and whatnot. I couldn’t find out how to do this with Feedblitz anywhere out there, so I had to invent a hack. That’s a digression on the definition of a hack, though.

Maybe the instructions over here achieve the same thing, but there you go… http://www.feedblitz.com/downloads.asp

God is not a deceiver, that he should offer to support us,
and then, when we lean upon Him, should slip away from us.

Faith is a huge subject.

So all I will say is that this particular quote from Augustine reminds me of an image that I’ve heard to describe faith: it’s like the thing we do every time we sit down and put simple trust in a chair – especially when some of us lean back on a chair’s rear two legs.

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”-Hebrews 11:1

That definition of faith in Hebrews comes before a long example list of people who exercised it. These men leaned on God to provide for promises that he made; the “things hoped for” and “not seen”.

Back to the quote from Augustine; May I lean on God, the creator of everything, for everything. May I not lean on myself or any thing to provide me with joy, direction, or fulfillment. I lean on God alone. He is not a deceiver. I know that; “He who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.” -1 Thessalonians 5:24

Do you know how I could record talks to mp3?

This is what I sent:

The key specifications that I was looking for in a talk recorder were:
-record directly to mp3 format
-run on a rechargeable lithium ion battery
-have a built-in microphone that captures good sound

Here’s the one that I bought to do that: Support Plus 512 MB SP-MP363A-0062. I found it for $28 dollars total and it arrived within a week. You can also find a 1GB model (black in color) for around $75 (check ebay). All I have to do is hit a record button on the side and then set it on the table in front of the person speaking. Voila!

Support Plus is sort-of an obscure brand, but their reputation is solid. There are a lot of choices out there for flash-based mp3 players with more of a name-brand. Many of them have a built-in microphone, but it’s real hard to tell if they’re going to be able to capture good quality sound. I picked this one originally because it encodes directly to MP3. It just turns out that the built-in mic is good, too.

Finally, as mentioned in a post on audio editors, you could download MP3directcut for free and just use your laptop to record direct to MP3.

-Brian LaLonde

Brian LaLonde here. I haven’t posted in a while since Laba has been keeping us in touch with Belfast. Thanks Brian! But now Laba’s back and I’m ready to start posting a few things.

This one kicks off what I hope to be a collection of inspiring quotes. I like to put a quote at the bottom of my emails. Usually I just stick them there, but now I’ll post them here, too, with a tiny explanation every time I change my email footer (bi-monthly?).

Here’s one by a guy named Charles Finney (1792-1872).

“If you have once known the blessedness of spiritual life, and your heart has been molded into the image of the heavenly, you can no longer return to the miserable flesh-pots of Egypt. There is no longer any possibility of your enjoying earthly things as the portion of your soul. Let that be considered settled. Abandon at once and forever all further thought of finding your joys in worldly, selfish indulgences.”

It comes from his sermon “On Self Denial“.

I like this quote right now because we’re just finishing the 50 days of Easter. For these 50 days, Christians are supposed to have been celebrating (one of the first things that comes to mind is “no fasting”). Sustained celebration for 50 days is tough! There’s a temptation to return to the “flesh-pots of Egypt”!

A particular focus for me has been just trying to live the new life I have in Christ. Instead of celebrating through letting go of all restraint, I’ve been trying to stay focused on the joy of resurrection life. This has been true as I try to serve in UCO and during our Gold Rush vacation.

Although I haven’t been perfect in doing this (imagine too many chocolate peanut butter eggs or falling back into gray patterns that I tried to shirk during Lent), it’s certainly easier when I remember, as Finney says, “the blessedness of spiritual life”.

Happy Pentecost! Come Holy Spirit!

My last update came just after St. Patrick’s Day mid-Lent. That ushered in four days of snow, sleet, and some hail for good measure. It was all just in time for a week long visit by two of Noel’s mates from Miami. Late in the week the weather turned and we had a beautiful sunny and warm spring day for a Charis men’s day. This was a great day to be with most of the men, Secondary School aged on up, of Charis community. Some inspiring talks, and good prayer, mixed in with some good craic in the afternoon. Softball (not typical here) was the sport of choice in the afternoon, although I did get a sizeable minority playing some Frisbee Golf (even less typical).

Most of the next week was madly taken up with preparations for our TEC weekend. As I mentioned before the TEC format is highly developed and takes an awful lot of work to pull off. At times that week I must admit to having a bit of a bad attitude. The amount of sucking details (rest assured my language at the time was stronger) was daunting. It wasn’t clear how many were even going to be able to come, and I was well prepared for the whole thing to be a fiasco and a giant waste. In some perverse way I was even looking forward to that eventuality because then all of my crappy attitude would be justified (not good, I know, I repent).

On Friday morning, with leaving at 2pm for the retreat, I had a delightful break from normal retreat preparations. I hopped a bus to the airport and camped out in front of the international arrivals door, eventually to be rewarded by the first sight of my parents in seven months. We picked up the rental car, the roomier model (although not by big car loving American standards). The other wrinkle was the manual transmission. I was meant to reserve an automatic. I know I checked on their availability when enquiring about the price, but might have neglected that when actually reserving, the memory is foggy. Anyhow, Bob Laba being the adaptable and talented man that he is, quickly revived the decades long dormant stick shifting skills, and with a completely different hand to boot. We stopped by my house and saw some of the brothers, grabbed some breakfast, and then got them settled at Noel and Diane Dick’s house in the community cluster (a number of Charis families living in the same neighborhood). They met Noel that evening, but then had the place for themselves as the whole family was away in the States the oldest son Mathew’s wedding. Mom and Dad headed down south to tour a bit and spend the night in a castle as an early birthday present for Mom and I headed up north for a weekend at lovely Kilmore house.

Since my last visit there had been some facility issues, and a good portion of the girls’ side was missing great roof chunks. Thankfully the remarkable sunny and warm weather held through the whole weekend. The weekend itself was quite successful. We had a good crowd of first time participants, and the feedback overall was raving (in a positive rather than deranged sense). It’s an intense format, and nearly all seemed to receive abundant blessing though the time. Normally a TEC weekend is from a particular denominational perspective. This one was the second in trying an ecumenical format. We had a Catholic Mass Saturday night and an Anglican Communion Service Sunday morning, and participants were from Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, and Free Church backgrounds. Everyone there was grateful for the opportunity to advance against some of the exaggerated divisions that plague the churches in Northern Ireland.

The next week was Holy Week. Charis celebrates Holy Week in a rich way I’ve never seen before. Each night of Holy Week there were community night prayers in different locations. Most of the community crammed into whichever house or church we were at every night that week. My parents were back in Belfast by Tuesday and joined for most of these prayer times. This provided the chance for me to share the community life I’m living from the inside with my parents in a fuller way then I’ve ever been able to before and I’m truly thankful for that. On Thursday my sisters Beth and Kim arrived in Dublin so Mom, Dad, and I drove down to pick them up. On the way back we did a bit of touring at a Neolithic passage tomb (Newgrange), monastery ruins (Mellifont), and some huge carved stone crosses (Monstaboice). We arrived in Belfast in time for some afternoon ice-water with the brothers (meant to be tea, again that unusual full on sun had made its presence known and changed plans). Since I had dinners at the house during Holy Week my parents and, then parents and sisters, were generously hosted at different families for dinners. Holy Saturday the whole clan joined my house and five other guests for our Seder meal (seventeen total around the extra long table). Again this was a wonderful chance for me to share one of our yearly celebrations I really treasure with my family. On Sunday we had a house Easter celebration. I stuck around for the prayer time, plenteous hors d’oeuvres, and one of Martin’s finest soups for a first course. I left before while the steaks were on the grill to join the family at the Gilroy’s for a sumptuous Easter dinner (and if I hadn’t managed to escape that next course I likely would have exploded). After dinner we went back across the driveway to Noel and Diane’s and called Amy and John who were visiting John’s family for Easter.

On Monday the five of us set off for some Laba holiday action in Ireland. We lacked only Amy and John to make the sibling pentavorate complete, but their presence was distinctly felt. That first day we took a driving tour of the Glens of Antrim, stopping for lunch and a stroll in Glenariff’s forest park (GLEN-arf, the Queen of the Glens). Continuing along the coastal drive we stopped at Carrik-a-rede and Whitepark Bay, and found a bed and breakfast not far from the Giant’s Causeway. Carrick-a-rede is a forty foot long rope bridge eight feet high connecting the mainland to a rocky island. Originally it was used to fish the salmon which were forced into the small channel between island and mainland as they ran in the spring for spawning. Even thirty years ago there were a thousands salmon swimming by an hour at the height of the run. The fishery has collapsed, being gutted by big off shore trawlers. All fishing ended off the bridge ended about five years ago, with the run being measured in hundreds over the entire season now.

Day two, fortified by our hearty Ulster fry we set of bright and early for the causeway. Getting there bright and early we beat most of the crowd and had the sunniest portion of the day on the weird geometric basalt formations that make up the causeway. After that it was into Bushmills for a tour of the whiskey distillery (the oldest licensed whiskey distillery in the world). At the end of the tour it happened that it was four Laba’s that were selected to be taste testers, sampling six whiskeys instead of the typical one that comes with the tour, Sláinte (Irish for cheers). Next it was through Stroke City (Derry/Londonderry) and into Donegal and the republic. We found another B and B, walked around a Franciscan Friary, and sat in on a local Celi (dancing). On day three we visited Glenveagh National Park, toured the castle and gardens, and learned a bit about the glenveagh clearances, when a former occupant of the castle drove hundreds of families out of their houses in the middle of the winter when he found out he could make more off the land by grazing sheep then having tenant farmers, nasty stuff that.

On Thursday my parents headed back to the States, and I drove down to Dublin with Kim and Beth. We did some touring that afternoon in the city centre and even made it to evensong at St. Patrick’s cathedral. Some Nazareth (the community in Dublin) folks hosted us that night – I stayed at Cormac’s place and Sorcha (pronounced Sirca) arranged for my sisters to stay at her parent’s house. The community was already hosting a load of other folks for a teaching week, so I was really blessed by the ready hospitality. Thursday night we went out with a crew of the younger crowd. Because of the teaching week it included people living in Dublin, Belfast, London, and of course, the States. Tadgh took us up to one of his favorite spots, a mountain overlooking all of Dublin lit up below. The next morning I dropped Kim and Beth off at the airport and headed back to Belfast.

After putting together several hours of solid work over the weekend it was off to Donegal for some holiday time with the brothers (it’s a hard life trying to celebrate Easter well). For the third week or fourth week in a row the weather was predominately sunny, virtually unheard of in this part of the world. We climbed Mt. Eragol, ate good food, watched some films, and golfed. Doug Smith took around Noel, Georges, and I to first a par three and then a proper golf course. Doug was the only one in the group that had ever golfed before; I had never actually swung a club outside of putt-putt. My impression of the sport overall – incredibly frustrating, costly, but also quite fun, and notably addicting (given my disposable income I think I’ll need to focus on the first two I think). I had one beautiful drive the last hole on the proper course. As is expected I messed up my next several shots, losing any advantage I had. We stayed in a couple caravans owned by some Charis families. Again the generosity of the Charis folks was a tremendous blessing. The holiday was grand but the last day included a series of mishaps, including breaking the kitchen faucet, losing the car keys (with the spare set locked inside of it), and nearly having the car top carrier burst open when a couple latches broke. This last one was 9:30pm on a rainy Donegal Saturday night, not an opportune time to try and locate bungee chords, but luckily a local resident observed our plight and gave us some rope that allowed us to make it home intact.

Sunday I went to dinner with Doug at Joel’s family. Joel is a Queens student who has gotten involved with TEC this year and came along on the weekend. After dinner I went along with Joel and watched a Gaelic football match. The game is really different from anything else I’ve observed, and I enjoyed trying to figure out what the heck was going on.

This past week I actually had to do some real work. One of the highlights was interviewing ten former gappers over the phone (gappers are folks doing a year of service in our communities). It was really inspiring to hear the many ways the Lord had worked in people’s lives through these service years set apart. Another beautiful sunny day yesterday, and I got my last opportunity to play some Ultimate Frisbee here in Belfast. There are lots of lasts coming up, and more and more as I say good by to people after this or that event it’s not until the next thing, but until God only knows when. Yesterday was also the Belfast reception for Mathew and Sheena Dick (the ones who got married in the States over Easter). It ended up that I was able to help serve the meal and clean up at the end of the night. The service was just like I would have known when I worked for a banquet hall in High School. At that point, even though I was being paid, it was generally just a pain to serve tables and clean up. Last night I was grateful for the opportunity. It was a small way to show thanks for the way in which the Dick’s have blessed me over this year, particularly by giving my parents their home for their two weeks here in Ireland.

Today the big event was the first (and last) book club event for me in Belfast. Mags Tierney, who visited Ann Arbor a couple years ago and joined the book club I was in, encouraged me to pull something together over here. I finally got around to it and we had nine folks around a beautiful meal today talking about The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. The book had been recommended to me by both Bruce Yocum (former presiding elder of the Servants of the Word and one of my bosses this year) and Sara (random Pakistani girl I met on the plane in September). Given these disparate sources I was intrigued. Most everyone really enjoyed the book and found it powerful and evocative. Thankfully Steven Dick (nephew of Noel and Diane) disagreed and stirred up some very good debate by expressing his thought that it was really a two dimensional stilted work and comparing it to an Afghani version of the OC.  Every good book discussion is helped when someone is  willing to be a bit provocative.
As I finish this post and sip a(nother) glass of wine I am impressed by what’s gone on in my life over the last eight months. The Lord has been very present and challenged me in many ways. I’ve loved the time here, and sincerely hope I get the chance to spend more time here. Eight months is a good time, but at this point it feels short. There’s much more I see I could have helped out with and contributed to here. Regardless, I know I will be able to continue to serve and experience God’s work in new ways as I return to dear friends and family in Michigan. Hard to believe it’s my penultimate Irish Sunday … time to go raid that leftover Brie from book club before going to bed.

As I looked at my planner today I was taken aback by the realization that I’ve only got fifty more nights this side of the Atlantic, May 8th I’ll fly back to Michigan. It is amazing how fast these past six and a half months have gone by, Belfast has grown very dear to my heart in that time. It’s a great place, full of surprises. For instance, I had essentially given up any hope of seeing snow this winter, there were a couple false alarms after Poland, but March 18th is the day. Not only the first snow, but the first thunder and lightning as well in my time here have come today. Already during the time I’ve been writing this post I’m on the third snow flurry which has alternated with blue skies and full sun. I’m hoping that the cold snap doesn’t affect the flowers in bloom all over town. I first noticed the daffodils I planted last October coming up exactly one month ago, and they’ve been blooming since.

Yesterday I was the cook for our house Lord’s Day celebration, as is fitting for the 17th the menu was full on Irish. I made some Colcannon (glorified mashed taters), Irish stew, Mom’s Irish soda bread (a taste that makes St Patrick’s Day in my opinion), an apple crumble for dessert, and of course it all had to be accompanied by a Guinness. Hearty, and tasty fare if I do say so myself.

Last Sunday I was up at 4:30am in order to get Steve Clark, who had been visiting our house for the previous week, to the airport in Dublin for an early flight. We made very good time (surprisingly the traffic was light at that time of day), so there was time to enjoy a cup of coffee and muffin with Steve in the airport café. Steve is the founder of the Servants of the Word brotherhood. Now in his mid sixties he still travels all over the world building the kingdom, and finding time to encourage young guys like me. Having a chance to spend those couple hours with Steve hearing about what he’s been doing, and sharing my reflections on this year was a real privilege. He also had some good tips on sites I might want to visit and observations on Irish history. The breadth of subjects Steve is well informed on is pretty astounding, on some walks we’ve had back in the states we might cover natural history, ecology, and tree identification (he’s sharper then I am), as well as background he knows on whatever author I’m currently reading, and solid advice on what’s going on with me.

Driving back I tuned into a Gaelic radio station, and was reminded of countless Sunday trips in the family van to grandma and grandpas listening to the Thistle and Shamrock on NPR. As the dawning sun brightened the Mourne Mountains I found myself thinking of home. I do miss Michigan, family and friends particularly, but there will be a definite loss when I leave this beautiful island in a short time. It’s surprised me how easy and natural it’s been to start putting down roots here. Somehow that exotic land across the ocean I used to listen to music from on Sunday afternoons has become home to me also. That’s an exciting, and somewhat fearsome aspect of this life I’m choosing in the brotherhood. Part of that decision is a willingness to go where I’m needed, where I’m sent. I know more fully now that I think I can do that, and make a home where I am sent, yet I don’t think it will ever be easy to “leave home”, and I might very well have to do that somewhat often in the years ahead.

The second weekend of Lent we had our brotherhood Lenten retreat. We went to a Benedictine monastery in Rostrevor (southern part of Northern Ireland in the Mourne Mountains). It’s a new establishment, less then ten years old, and the first Benedictine establishment in Ireland for hundreds of years. There are five monks there, the leader (not sure if he’s technically abbot or not) grew up in Northern Ireland and the other four are from France. I’ve stayed at a monastery in New York before but this was a much fuller experience of monastic life. The chanting of the different offices was seriously beautiful, and the liturgy definitely had a French flair. We took four of our meals with the monks in silence. Because we weren’t talking the meals went by very quickly, a bit of a shame because the food was masterfully prepared. I started feeling some calling to become a French Benedictine; although I doubt the reasoning “I really like your singing and cooking would get me too far there.” Trying to communicate without speech can lead to some humorous situations. At one point my encouraging smile and nod of head, meant to convey “that was a fine meal my good man, thank you indeed” was interpreted as “give me another dessert please, I’m a shameless American.” Not being able to gracefully decline I simply ate the extra pie (several of the brothers mentioned the incident to me afterwards, I think they were jealous).

The retreat itself was a really blessed time for me to hear the Lord. During the last few semesters of my degree I had several experiences of all the threads from my different classes illuminating the same themes. This experience of Forest Ecology, Restoration Ecology, and Environmental Psychology all synching up was always exciting, finally getting the big picture in view. I had some serious spiritual synchronicity going on over the retreat, and was much encouraged in the same way. I think there are an awful lot of connections that I miss in life, and I experienced the Lord opening my eyes to some of them during those days. I’m reading a couple books over Lent, Spiritual Combat Revisited and Red Moon Rising, we’ve got a set of scripture meditations for the forty days, I had more space for personal scripture reflection, there were several opportunities to join the monks in chanting Psalms and other prayer, and there was input from Fr. Mark (leader of the monastery) in a couple sessions. All or these seemingly disparate sources connected into a common message. I’ve rarely experienced such clarity from so many directions. Even the elements were in on the act. It was a complete surprise to me, but Saturday night featured a full lunar eclipse (result: eerie red moon). While reflecting some on all these strings coming together on Sunday in my room there was a brief rain storm during full sun, heading to the window I got to enjoy a full rainbow gloriously spanning the green valley the monastery is nestled in. Certainly this coincidence (or confirmation as I see it) would have been more remarkable if I were in Dubai rather then Ireland, but I really believe that rainbow was meant for me. I think the Irish might take their rainbows a bit for granted. I’ve seen more rainbows since coming here then in probably the six previous years in relatively rainy Michigan; I hope I don’t get too familiar to appreciate their beauty and promise.

The previous week I had the chance to give my year review with the brothers in cell group. This is something that the brothers will do every year, evaluating and reflecting on the previous year, what has the Lord done, what struggles and growth have been experienced – in prayer, relationships, and work and service. As I’ve just made my full commitment this was my first chance to do this. I spent a couple mornings taking stock and offering up all that’s happened over the last twelve very eventful months to the Lord. Reflecting on this, and then presenting it to the bros for their comments, input, advice, and prayers was a hugely encouraging exercise. There’s real wisdom in recollecting and giving thanks like this, and I’m grateful that the pattern of brotherhood life pressed me into doing it.

Going back to 9-11 of February there was a big European retreat we hosted in Belfast for different groups related to TEC throughout the UK and the continent. The Kairos weekend, as it was called, involved just over a hundred for the weekend. The theme for the weekend was the passage where Peter gets out of the boat and begins to walk to Jesus on the water. To really give the time justice I should have updated the blog a month ago. It was a good chance to observe how events like this work outside of the US. Overall it’s gratifying to see that the same work and conviction amongst university students exists here in Europe as I know back home. One truly inspiring aspect was seeing how the men and women worked together. Most of the talks were jointly given by a brother and a sister, and I had never seen the synergy and complimentarily of men and women expressed so fully during an event like this, something to learn from for sure.

Over the next few weeks there are two major things for me to prepare for. One is a TEC weekend hosted by out TEC group March 30-April 1. This is a bit confusing, but in short a ‘TEC weekend’ is a highly developed retreat format from which our TEC fellowship here grew out of. Now we’re going to be hosting one, and it takes a fair amount of work to put on. I’m excited for the time, if a little overwhelmed by all that needs to happen before then. Please keep the weekend in prayer, especially that those still deciding if it will work can come. The other, and highly anticipated event, is a visit from my parents and two of my sisters (Kim and Beth) for Easter. About the only thing that could get me more excited is if Amy and John could come as well, but with a wee one and one on the way that just won’t work. So dear reader, there you have it. A meandering, not quite exhaustive, but certainly exhausting summary of the last seven weeks, thanks for reading!

The year of aught six ended and that of aught seven began as I have come to expect years to begin and end over the last several years, while on retreat with the brothers. On the 27^th the whole house hopped onto an easyJet flight to London. Throughout our travel we worked through the final rounds of our picks for the FA cup (English football craziness, sort of like March madness, sort of). Surprisingly enough I currently find myself leading the house, having managed to pick a couple of big upsets, but that’s off topic. We arrived in London and were met at the airport by a hired mini bus driven by Jamie Treadwell. From there we made our way through the English countryside to All Hallows Anglican Convent just outside of Norwich (Anglican nuns are brilliant). With the London brothers and gappers we were fourteen for the week. The retreat’s focus was on the Seven Pillars of our Ideal, the foundational aspects of Servants of the Word Life. Each morning one pillar was presented as a focus for the day. It was good to meditate on these core aspects of the life I am choosing for. Most of each morning was spent in prayer, spiritual reading, and meditation. I also took some time most mornings to brush up on my Christmas Carol playing. This is the first year I’ve played guitar in our prayer rooms, so this was the first time I played Christmas Carols for any but my own forgiving ears. Twas very good experience for me, perhaps slightly less so for the brothers subjected to my playing. The afternoons included space to catch up with some of the other guys and play some football or basketball together. It was especially good going on some walks through the country side. The area is quite flat, and beautiful in a subdued sort of way, with ancient stone churches rising up in the middle of fields where hundreds of years ago a town must have been located. One evening was set aside for cell groups, so me and the young guys headed off to a local pub with a cheery fire. After enjoying a pint of the local bitter and sharing about the retreat some we occupied the pool table. An intense, madly ricocheting (mostly to no positive effect) game ensued. When the local sharks showed up (lads with personal cues in monogrammed crushed velvet cases) we tried to hurry things along, and managed to sink the last three balls at the breakneck pace of fifteen minutes. Several nights after our night prayers I got together with Andy Pettman, my night sharing partner for the week. It was a great chance to know him better. He was well prepared, remembering to bring along binoculars for some star gazing on one particularly clear night walk.

On the back end of retreat I had the chance to stay for about a day at our brotherhood house in London. I was able to visit there once previously back in the summer of 03. Since I visited a classy addition was put in back, expanding the kitchen and creating a nice sitting room on the first (American second) floor. The younger guys went into town, but not fancying a long tube ride myself I took the opportunity to get a couple visits in. Our house in Acton (a London suburb) is situated in the midst of a cluster of families involved in Antioch, the community in London. Just a three minute stroll down the road sufficed to bring me to Andrew and Angie Bull’s place. I got to be friends with Angie when she was doing a Gap year of service in Ann Arbor back in 98-99. I’ve only seen her a couple times since then, so it was delightful to catch up with here and Andrew on several years of news while enjoying a cup of tea and the wonderful chance to meet for the first time their three year old daughter and nearly two year old son. After the Bulls I walked down to Bob Bell’s for a tasty dinner and a movie. Bob is truly one of the most encouraging persons I’ve ever met. He has been living single for the Lord for twenty to thirty year. Sharing a meal and some fellowship with Bob and seeing written on his face the joy he has in serving and loving others left my spirit buoyant.

After London I had a couple days back in Belfast to try and get on my feet for the new year. That process was slightly hampered by the demon that lives inside my computer. It had begun to act up around Christmas and started causing more trouble then. Nevertheless I did what I could, and then headed off to Bushmills (a town on the north coast, and home of the whiskey distillery). This was for a Q brain child, a joint retreat between our London and Belfast Gap program and a few other groups, the YWAM teams from Dublin and Belfast, and EQUIP. YWAM is Youth with a Mission. The group in Belfast is focusing on forgiveness and reconciliation. They’re working with school kids in Belfast and will split into two teams and do the same forgiveness workshops in Lebanon and Rwanda. Too many acronyms, so I can’t keep straight what EQUIP stands for, but it’s an internship program sponsored by a Belfast church and includes folks from Northern Ireland and North America. Between the different programs we had about sixty present and at least fifteen countries represented. Trent from YWAM gave most of the input. During the first session he used a passage from Second Samuel about David’s mighty men fighting through the Philistines to get a drink of water from the well at Bethlehem for David, and David refusing to drink it but instead offering it as a sacrifice to God. This really caught my attention as I had read it the night before for the first time in years. It was one of several passages that Josh Rock wrote in a Christmas card for me from him and Yvette. I experienced the Lord saying something immensely personal to me in the midst of this talk, and the whole retreat, about being valiant for him and the justice he desires on Earth along with sacrificing that which is most dear to God simply out of love for him. This is somewhat easier to get inspired about for a weekend, but I think it’s a fundamental part of what the Lord is calling me to in life, and a reminder of that as this retreat was a tremendous blessing. Another highlight of the weekend was getting a chance to see the Giant’s Causeway. It’s a completely bizarre rock formation of columns and pillars that is mirrored across the channel in Scotland. The legend is that it was once a part of a giant’s bridge between Scotland and Ireland, with only the ends exposed and the rest submerged now. It’s on a beautiful stretch of the north coast. This is definitely a weird and amazing enough place to deserve a good folk explanation.

Monday the 8^th in the afternoon it was back to Belfast, and a stretch of several days at home. I was still scrambling to get things set for the new term, as well as prepare for Friday when I would leave for Poland for a week. This attempt was seriously hampered by the fact that my computer decided to take this week to make itself off limits, I couldn’t get to anything on it at all until Thursday, and then it was still temperamental. Q and I have been talking about a chance for me to travel somewhere in Europe where there’s another SOS community since I arrived in the autumn. Martin visits the community in Bielsko-Biala several times a year (the L in Biala has a hatch mark meaning it has a W sound). The community, City on a Hill or Miasto na Gorze in Polish, is incredibly hospitable. Originally I thought I was going to tag along, see a new place, and connect in with whatever Martin was doing. As it turned out I ended up having a whole set of things that I did on my own. I gave a sharing/presentation to both Harambee (16-19 year olds, Polish High school age) and their Student group (20+, equivalent to UCO and TEC). I also ran a half-day workshop on the roll of a youth or university worker and the need to balance confidentiality and seeking help beyond ourselves when certain issues arise. I also gave a sharing on joy and hope at the community’s movement meeting (a prayer meeting of a couple hundred) and met with the leaders of Harambee and CDW (11-15 year olds) for their staff meetings. All of this was done though translation, a completely new experience for me. Sometimes the translation gave me a good chance to think more about my words and speak more clearly then I normally do. At other times I found myself listening to how the translation sounded and forgetting what I was talking about. The first sharing (at Harambee) was a little rough. It was the first thing I did at about 7:30pm on Friday after arriving from the airport, having been up since 3:15am to catch all my connections. This coupled with a first time experience of being translated made it less then my most lucid sharing ever. All these things meetings had a slightly surreal aspect. Suddenly I was related to as an expert in all sorts of areas, some of which I have actually very slim experience in. Strangely enough I experienced that when called upon I was actually able to positively contribute. It was also important to just laugh at some of the situations I found myself in, regularly thinking “If they only knew who they had here … but I’m the one here so I might as well get on with it and let the Lord do what he wants.”

Other Polish activities included teaching English lessons three mornings in Polish schools, a day in Krakow, and eating (lots and lots of eating). The English classes were a riot. I talked about some of the differences between UK and US usage (one man’s pants …) told a few jokes in English (not very funny even to native speakers) and shared some slang. The day in Krakow was wonderful. It’s a stunning city, beautiful architecture and some opulent churches (full of stunning treasures and priceless artifacts in guide book-ese). There’s enough there for a week of sightseeing, so it was a full day. We hiked up to the belfry of the cathedral on Wawel Hill (Krakow’s royal palace/castle from centuries of Polish kings) to see the four hundred year old Big Sigzmund (Poland’s Big Ben). I had to laugh climbing the crazy stairs, having to crouch down to squeeze under and between ancient timbers. This place would have been closed to the public (for their own safety of course) in the US long ago. Another highlight of Krakow was perogies. An absolute favorite of mine that I’d normally only get on Christmas Eve when grandma makes them. We picked one wee restaurant from the hundreds of potentials to get a steaming plate of this ultimate comfort food. There was no lack of food while in Poland. I was hosted for different meals at a half dozen different families. Every one of these was a feast. The hardship came when I had to go to several of these in a row (I think Sunday might have included the most food I have ever seen in any single day).

The Witeks were my hosts during my stay. Piotr and Wanda both help to lead some of the youth and university work in Miaso na Gorze. They have four great kids – Teresa, Pawel, Jan, and Michal. Plugging into family life and playing with the kids for a week was a real treat. It highlighted how beautiful loving family life is, and strangely enough strengthened my conviction that I personally am supposed to forgo this amazing gift for the sake of the Lord and his service. A final revelation during my time was Polish music. I had many opportunities to pray with different groups in Bielsko. Each time I was struck at how beautiful Polish in song and praise is. I certainly wasn’t expecting to find Polish music so moving. Some of the songs are translated from English so I know what they are about, and many others were written by members of the community. All told it was a tremendous chance to connect with some of my Polish heritage (it also gives me a lot to talk about with Grandma and Grandpa).

The trip home was more adventurous then I expected. Gale force winds in the UK delayed my flight from Krakow to Luton for three and a half hours. I ended up having to spend the night in lovely Luton airport as my connection cushion completely evaporated. After getting there I met up with a Polish couple who I found out was immigrating to Belfast. We got a coffee together and spent much of the night getting to know each other. It turns out they are from the same area in Poland my family on Grandpa’s side is. We got to pass the time together, play cards, lament our situation, and talk a bit about what’s most important in life. We had some significant spiritual conversations, and I was again amazed. Here is a crappy situation I find myself in that God turns around and leads me to make some new friends and share what he’s done in my life.

I got back to Belfast Friday morning the 19^th. The good news was Bruce had resurrected my computer without having to wipe all the files. After madly catching up on things for a few hours I crashed for much of the day and tried to catch up in a more pressing way. Saturday morning it was off to Ballantoi for the Charis weekend. Nearly the entire community, from babies to retirees, stayed together at a hostel. Once again I was on the beautiful north coast of Ireland. The whole time was a mix of lots of fellowship and some very good teaching by Anton and Angela Collela from the community in Glasgow. They shared about hope (that seems to come up a lot lately) and dreams. There were several relational and spiritual pinnacles, but my personal nadir had to be attempting to sing a song (I’ve blissfully forgotten which) during Party Karaoke time I thought I knew much better then is actually the case. More could be said, but in order to prevent the length of this entry moving from absurd to completely ridiculous I really should stop. I’ll be getting some pictures from Poland from Wanda so I’ll add those when I get them.