Phillies won!

Just so you all know, I'm pulling for the Phillies to win the World Series in five games. They dominated the Yankees in the first game with a final score of 6- 1. Ah, yeah!

Anyways, a lot has been going on. In fact a lot happened today, so I want to stay up and get it all down before I forget. First of all, I've been having trouble with sleeping. I've been sleeping in past 8:30am which is really weird for me. I think it might be caused by stress. I have a book report and that research paper hanging on my back like two stupid monkeys. Sunday I went to church, came back, did a little homework, then I went to see Where the Wild Things Are with everyone except my Dad. (I think he would have thought it was a goofy, ridiculous movie, anyway.) On Monday, I met with Sue, my internship supervisor. We talked about my internship and other stuff that's going on. One of these days, I'll go more in depth with that. But right now, I want to tell you what happened yesterday and today.

So, the City blocked off the street to clean them gutters and my Resident Director, Jesse, got two tickets and his car towed! He got a ticket for his own car, and his car that he uses for driving school. So I had to go with him to pick up the driving school car. Anyways, as his car was getting towed I saw another car getting towed down the street and I realized that it was my cousin's car. I didn't do anything about it at the time...I'll get back to this story later.

So on Tuesday night I went to World Mission Prayer League (WMPL) to pray. WMPL was started in the 1920's by college students who gathered together to pray for unreached people in other nations. They began to send missionaries to countries all over the world and they still do that today. They also continue to gather to pray for the nations on Tuesday nights. A CSP alum, Bethany Paulus, leads these prayer nights, but tonight she had something different in mind.

Bethany, her friend Kathryn, and I went to Roseville to Communitas. Communitas is a gathering of believers who meet on Tuesday nights in the house of Paul and Karen Anderson. The fellowship started as two small groups who merged together. It has been going for 3 years and there were about 60 people in this living room. There were some worship songs, prayer, announcements, a brief message about past memories of hurt, and prayer. I recognized a few people and there were probably a dozen people who hadn't been there before. It was a twentysomething crowd; people like me kind of. I thought that the sense of community and energy in that house was definitely positive. People were excited to be there and that rubbed off on me. As I learned last week in Cross-cultural Outreach, a Christian community is a hard thing to have in an individualistic culture. I think it Communitas is a good supplement to Christian life for a lot of these people because they have a place that they can go once a week to be themselves with other people. I would describe it not as a church, but a fellowship of Christians. It reminded me of the close-knit community I had in high school with Teens Encounter Christ (TEC.) At TEC, I could be myself around people and be close friends with people I met once. There was some funky stuff with the prayer (ask about it if you are curious) and it was experimental and spiritual. I think that it is important to not let emotions dictate our worship because then it is dependent upon human effort. I'm not saying that emotions were driving this evening, but they did have a part in it. I think worship is proper when it is done in response to the Word of God, what Jesus has done, and what the Spirit of Jesus is doing in our lives today. Overall, I am very glad to have that experience at Communitas.

Ok, so I visited another place of worship this morning. I went to Spirit Garage in Minneapolis. I had heard about it before this year, but I had never been there. Spirit Garage started about 13 years ago in Uptown as a "church for people that didn't really fit in anywhere else." They make an effort to be a relevant and welcoming place for people who are new Christians and those who are being led to Christ. I think that they have some issues with watering down the teaching of the Bible. It also seems to be almost more committed to being relevant to its target culture than being committed to God's Word. At the same time, where the name of Jesus Christ is preached and his crucifixion which brought forgiveness and salvation, the Spirit can work faith (or you could say sanctify) in the lives of believers So, I'm not sure about it; these are just some of my thoughts. Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think. www.spiritgarage.org

In Cross-Cultural Outreach, Dr. Bunkowske invited a women to speak about people with disabilities. I didn't follow her real closely, but what she said was important. Churches need to know how to reach out to people who have intellectual disabilities. They are in themselves their own culture group and the Church needs to share the Gospel with these people as well. I am reminded of Developmentally Disabled Week at Camp Omega. Those campers where the best because they were so excited to be at Camp and be around the counselors and other campers. Plus, they loved the activities and most of them loved to hear about Jesus. Yeah, its hard work, but things that involve hard work are often the most rewarding things that God gives us.

This Friday I will be speaking at the Concordia Mission Society (CMS) meeting. There is some exciting stuff that is happening at Concordia and apparently there is a different feel to the campus and it has something to do with CMS. I'll update you on this all later this week. Hopefully.