Community

My school gives students the neat opportunity to share a devotional presentation with the class. Last week I took the opportunity to present on the topic of community. We have a neat community among our students here and their families. I opened it up for some students to comment on what they thought was important about living in community with each other and what that entailed. Then I shared a few things I thought was important about it. The main point I made is that each person is created with a need to be known deeply by other people, not just on the surface. We are made with a need for intimacy....or "in-to-me-see." There is something powerful that happens when we spend time with eachother and get real with eachother about the things that really goes on in our lives "behind the curtains." When we are loved and accepted even after people know how we really are, an amazing sense of healing, comfort and unity comes. God definitely intended this to happen in our marriages, but he also calls us to these sorts of relationships with others. I put together a video presentation for the class with some bible verses about this that are commonly known as the "one another verses." They are set to the backdrop of some fabulous photos that my classmate Matthias took. Many of those photos were taken around the school. There are some pictures of some of my classmates that appear a few times. A little "web version" of the video appears below.

Heather, Holly and I loaded into the "family station wagon" and headed out to this little town called Sagatuck for Sunday afternoon. It's a very interesting place. It is on a little inlet from Lake Michigan so there's plenty of yachts parked everywhere. It is one of those places that is loaded with really unique and sort of strange shops. We hiked a "mountain" there (basically an enormous staircase that took about ten minutes to climb). And finished off the day hanging out on the beach. Here's some photos....they include Holly flying with some of the guys from my school. And a snapping turtle we saw while camping two weekends ago. Not to mention "African Night" that my Kenyan friend (also the pilot on Holly's flight) hosted. He provided an amazing spread of Kenyan cuisine for us. And did it all from memory. We tried our best to "dress African." My attempt consisted of bringing a beadsheet and making a bow and arrow out of some sticks. Heather and Holly wore "surongs" (sp?).



We also got to see our friends Liz and Jared last weekend who just moved to Ann Arbor from Columbia. Their little boy Elias is several months old. It was a fun trip. We went out in Ann Arbor for a while. Then we came back and Jared and I hung out with Elias while we watched one of those Discovery Channel Alaskan crab fishing marathons, while the ladies went out for a while.