lilly's pad

blogging at mecca

greetings from the apple store in kenwood mall...i'm here with mac waiting for his ibook to get repaired...yes my son's name is mac...but that is short for mckendree, not macintosh! just thinking of all my great blogging buddies and especially all you mac addicts out there as i check out the new stuff!
i also want to wish my good buddies jonny and jenny baker a BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY! jonny's was officially yesterday and jenny's i think is sometime soon...i'll have to check on the date! just know that the adventure just gets better after 40! hope everyone is having a great weekend especially the bakers out with group publishing in colorado!

MAP ROOM: this tuesday...journey to the cross

welcome to the last weekend in february! how the heck did that happen? it seems like we just got to 2005 and now it's fast approaching the third month! i gave some bad info earlier on MAP ROOM...it will be THIS TUESDAY night, March 1 rather than March 8th....a scheduling conflict at old st. george's moved us to March 1. anyway, we'd love to have you join us anytime from 8-10pm. MAP ROOM is an open house for god...or "free-range" worship experience where folks can pray, create, journal, have coffee, just be with god on the journey...there isn't an official beginning or end...just come and stay as long as you want!
this week's theme is "JOURNEY TO THE CROSS" ....taking jesus from palm sunday to the crucifixion..and pondering the last week with jesus and what that means to each of us.
we just got word that osg has been sold to a devleoper...so this may be one of the last times to
worship in this amazing space! so join us from 8-10pm this tuesday. and know that friends are always welcome. please email me if you need more information! and check out old st. georges too. Download osg_home.html

hotel rwanda 2

heard this week that my buddy brain mclaren felt strongly about hotel rwanda too. he has some great thoughts in an article for leadership Download leadershipjournal.net - The Passion of Hotel Rwanda.htmlthanks mike king for the link.

hotel rwanda ...go see it!

during the 30hour famine this weekend, we took the students to see hotel rwanda...i was utterly blown away! if you haven't taken the time to see this film...make some time...don cheadle deserves his best oscar nomination and i'm praying hard that this film just might win at least one (like best screen play!) so more folks will go see it.
i haven't seen folks really acting as jesus would on film in a long, long time...from paul (played by cheadle ) to the woman who works for the red cross...a tale of sacrifice and standing up for the least of these. and don't let the subject matter frighten you off...it's pg13, but the passion was much more graphic in content! this story illustrates the tragedy of the genocide in a heroic way...filled with the human story of a brave man and his family and the hotel he runs. having one of my closest friends as a missionary in rwanda drew me to the film, and power of the story made me see why she is there! hotel rwanda challenges us all to be involved, not just say "oh how horrible and go back to eating dinner"...it reminded me to be involved in the crisis in sudan, and in the world wide aids epidemic, and not to forget the tsunami victims even though they aren't headlines anymore....as well as the poor and forgotten in my own neighborhood...
i really want to be more like the heroes in this film! and youth pastor folks get permission to take your students (12 and up ) and take the parents with you to see this movie! the discussions we had were truly inspired!
Download united_artists_hotel_rwanda.html

blogging in bed...big dream #1

OK, I’m sitting here, blogging in bed…at 9:30am, debating going to church (now that I am an unemployed youth pastor, I can sleep in if I want…) or staying in my pajamas…just taking some time to recover from this weekend’s amazing 30 hour famine (yeah, I’m now the volunteer in our youth ministry…so I run the big special events like the famine, til they hire the new person)
Anyway…checking in on my email, and discovered the 24-7 newsletter…24-7 folks based in chichester changed my life a long time ago…well at least 4 years ago!
And sometimes avoid their website, because I always start crying…not that “oh woe is me” crying or even “happy tears of joy”, but rather the holy spirit kind of crying, where you have nothing to do with the tears, they just keep coming!
Last week I blogged briefly about a dream I had last summer while in the outer banks of north Carolina…and I was asked to expand on that post and tell more about my dream…
Three years ago, when my family and my extended family were on vacation in duck, nc, rob and I noticed just how many college students were working in all the shops, restaurants and bistros around the beach. Yeah, I know that this happens up and down the coast, but this isn’t Daytona, or fort Lauderdale, this is a more mellow family focused place…so I guess I wondered what these “kids” did after hours?
And who was doing “church” for them? Or really, “who was being Jesus to these folks in their late teens and early twenties? ( I think about this lost people group all the time! And I love hearing their stories and what they are thinking about…to the chagrin of some of my friends who ask if I don’t have friends my own age)…anyway we left the beach and life happened and we did other things for vacation the next couple of years…
In 04, we went back to duck, nc…many of you followed that trip due to the three hurricanes that were happening during our two week stay…(thanks god that we had two weeks) any way, now the college-age students aren’t Americans…now they are mainly internationals from all over, but many from Slavic countries…and also, the Hispanic population has exploded (they are now doing all the jobs that the American teens won’t take and one shop owner said that places like mcdonalds rent homes for them in order for the golden arches to have a labor force and many Hispanic folks live in large groups in one home. ) Every restaurant we went in, and each shop provided a new adventure with another culture. In our favorite bbq restaurant I met a girl from Russia who said there was an organization that helped them get visas for summer work and that they rented houses together to save money. I drove my kids crazy always asking where someone was from and how thy got there, etc. I also was asking “where are the people loving these international students to jesus? “ and who is doing church for these Hispanic families ? ( the only internet café was in the Hispanic grocery store! We had a blast there!) Also during this trip, you need to know that my beach reading was RED MOON RISING…the story of how the 24-7 prayer stuff got started. An amazing book out from relavant books….(as well as reading How the Irish saved civilization)
So the god-dream became” why couldn’t there be a 24-7 prayer house at the outerbanks? Why couldn’t someone, or some church provide the money to rent a house for 2-4 months..where there could be food, music, and a space for a 24-7 experiential prayer room? What else would be needed? Other college-age or young adults, etc. to work at bistros and shops to make friends with the international students…money for food and supplies, churches and folks to pray….and churches in the area to keep stuff going during the off season…some one who likes to do music, video, dj stuff so we could have awesome parties with jesus centers…
And maybe these could spread up and down the east coast from beach town to beach town…like the monasteries of aidan from lindesfarne spread down the coast of Northumbria in England!!!!
I shared this dream briefly with a small group at the Episcopal church in the outer banks…but sadly I didn’t follow up on it…and life happened again, and other things filled my time and my brain…and being the add girl that I am, I got distracted from this god dream and moved on to a couple of others….
But in reading the last 24-7 newsletter (they are starting a boiler room in ibiza and London) and after seeing hotel Rwanda yesterday… and after the comment from last week…I had to revisit the dream and throw it out to the blog world to see if anyone wants to pick it up…I know the power of a team effort…and it would have to be a team…not just one crazy ohio celtic person’s wonderings…
And maybe it is too late for an entire summer blitz this year…but maybe not?!
God is big and he can do above and beyond my small mindedness….maybe it’s spring break praying over the beach….or praying this summer and starting to build relationships with shop owners and restaurant owners around the outerbanks….and then next year having the house?….i don’t know….i just know that the need is there…and god has brought the nations to our door and we need to go into the culture to bring his love! I also know that this could happen wherever we live if we just choose to see the possibilities! We could begin to hang out with the lost people groups around our cities and neighborhoods…maybe not as glamorous or fun as the beach, but still where jesus would be…in the clubs and coffeehouses, in the art galleries and pubs, on the college campus, and in the inner city….
SO WHAT DO YOU THINK? ANY ONE INTERESTED?

get hungry!

that's what i'll be doing with oasis and students from north presbyterian from friday night til saturday. the 30HOUR famine is always a highlight for our group and it's my last hurrah as the ccg youth pastor....at least til summer when i may do SOS (summer of service) again with the vineyard. so throw some prayers our way for energy and real impact on the students as they fast and serve and experience jesus in a new way.
pray for those without heat and food as you go about your day....and thank jesus for what you do have...even if you don't get to eat chocolate or coffee til easter! hope you have a great weekend!
Download world_visions_30_hour_famine.html

one of those days 2

for the first time in my history of blogging, i have actually deleted a post...i'm having mixed emotions now that i have officially done the deed...didn't know all the great comments would go to cyber heaven too...sadness on that...
but thanks be to god i have them in my mail box to re read and enjoy all the great encouragement from all of you! thanks for the wonderful thoughts! and chris you gave me great perspective and insight that truly helped my ability to forgive!
ok...so if i got more comments than i've had in weeks, why the heck did i pull the post?
well, i was feeling very passive agressive about it.. about why i wrote what i wrote in the first place, and i was having second thoughts about the post before my eyes were open at 6am! then one of the scriptures of the day was the famous "do unto others" verse...and i felt guilty, bad, uncomfortable ...especially having many folks reading the blog today...
and i began to think again about just why i wrote what i did...yes, i did keep everything totally anonymous, and i really did try to just give my feelings and emotions on the whole thing, and not pass any judgement...and yes, there has been some closure since the initial post was conceived....

but i really do get passive agressive at times ...not even realizing what i have done until it's too late!
so i deleted...
i have been hurt before in blogland and didn't want to cause anyone else pain ....
so i have done the deed ...for better or worse...delete...
thanks again for all your prayers and encouragement today! i have felt them and am feeling much better all around! thanks for loving me...even if i'm a blogging whimp!

to birthdays and a year of adventure!

a shout out to the youth pastor, experiential worship guy in texas who always cheers me up and brings a smile! happy birthday shane! hope this will be a year of blessing and big adventure with jesus! happy birthday also to 24-7 Prayer...this great ministry has celebrated 5 years of adventure in prayer around the globe! in fact, it was through dan slatter of warehouse/revelation church in chichester, england (home of 24-7), that i started my first experiential prayer room (in jan. 2001)
Download 247_prayer.com.htmlan adventure i thought of last summer, would be to create a 24-7 prayer house at the outer banks in north carolina this coming summer. many international students work there in the summer and it would an amazing missional opportunity...
any one interested in taking up the adventure?

lenten thought for the day

from the sacred space web site, lenten reflections...this goes along with being great dust!

PRAYER

Help me to appreciate how much I matter to you. Let this growing understanding and experience of your love bring me closer to you so that all my choices will help me to become the person you have created me to be. Help me to realise that your dream for me can be trusted, that you can be trusted because you love me.

dust to dust....we are great dust!

for my friends who are new to lent...you might not know that the ashes of ash wednesday are sometimes the result of burning the palm branches from the past year's palm sunday...and in the ash wednesday liturgy...the celebrant places a cross of ashes on one's forehead...and pronounces "from dust you were created and to dust you will return"...a visual symbol of our being the " created ", the creation...belonging to a much greater CREATOR!
ash wednesday in the anglican/episcopal prayer book is a service of confession and repentance...remembering the dirt of our lives and the dirt that gets on us and that we get on others...

so we leave the church, confessed and cleansed...laying our dirt at jesus' feet, but with a smudge of dirt on our foreheads as a reminder of what we left behind...
and a reminder of being that dust...that creation of the great creator...
the clay in the hands of not just a potter, but an amazing ARTIST...who has an awesome design for each and every pot he creates...
we are dust, but as roger my priest said wednesday, the cool thing is WE ARE GOD's DUST! and that makes us a MASTERPIECE!

btw> if you missed ash wednesday...why not have your own service of confession and repentance...mix some ashes with a little olive oil and have someone pray with you...and place the cross of dust on your forehead.