prayers and parables

this was SOS week at the tri-county vineyard.  summer of service gives 700
jr. and sr. high students from all over the country and all kinds of churches the opportunity to learn to do servant evangelism. for the past 5 years, i have either designed or consulted on the design for the /experiential prayer room for this gathering. it's become a favorite piece of this week. this was the first year in five, that i haven't had students attending. that felt strange and a little sad. i missed handing out free cokes and doing free car washes and watching my kids learning to show god's love in a practical way through cleaning toiliets. 

at the same time, i was thankful to be sleeping in my own bed not being "ON" 24/7 all this week.
lori and  i spent 8 hours setting up the room (the prayer room takes up the entire north lobby of the church ) on and monday(thanks to andy and his great guys small group and future teacher sarah and jess for putting up with me.)  it took a group of us about 3hours to tear it down last night. thanks to angela, sarah, meredith, marianne, and the lewin men for all the manuel labor and laughter . now it's the fun of unloading the van one more time! photos soon...but the most fun was seeing all the end result of a week of prayer...artprayers in chalk.   pastel and clay, wailing wall filled with written prayers, fish with names of folks they'd like to catch. a map of the world covered in crowns for the kingdom and a sign reminding me that jesus doesn't just heal, he can still raise the dead!

and in the midst of this week, my friend wilma's husband had emergency open heart surgery! i'm just glad i had the time and space to be there and not be too busy with sos. please continue to keep rick in your prayers as he's still in the hospital and things are progressing slowly.thanks.

i've also been feeling poorly the last couple of days...don't know if it's some sort of virus i picked up or just my body rebeling against the 90 degree heat and the actual summer humidity. so much for my southern genes....

today the weather broke and a great breeze blew through. early this morning, the cohort gathered for a parable walk in glenwood gardens. we read a passage in matthew 11(lectio) and then had time to walk around the park or sit and reflect on what god revealed to us in nature. glenwwood gardens is an amazing park with great trails and a vista that looks over the fields and trees down to a small river/large creek. 

while walking today, i discovered a tree that had barbed wire going through it...the tree had grown around the barbed wire fencing and one could still see the barbs sticking through the bark. (the tree was once a part of an old fence row that prevented people/animals from falling in the river)

the tree had grown tall despite its pain
despite the fencing
depsite the barbs and broken wires....the tree had grow and prospered and now provided shade and shelter.
the rusty fence hadn't stopped the new growth from happening
the barrier had been overcome
the tree took over the thing in it's way, despite what it was.
the broken fence was now a part of the living tree...
making it stronger.

next time, i'll not forget my camera!

hope you have a great weekend.
i've got a major writing deadline to get to this week, so i may silent for another week.
i'd love your prayers for this. thanks again.

Comments

[gavin]

i really liked your reflection. seeing trees similar to this help to imagine, no pic needed.
shalom
-g

[Jennifer]

Wow - what a great picture! Thanks for the reflection too :-)