RockTheDesert

More from Dan

24 March 2008

Monday, we did another Leadership Development Course (LDC) for a May campaign in Eastern Rwanda. Eastern Rwanda is called the New Homeland. It is cattle county and the national park. Most of its people were killed in the 1994 genocide. The national park was reduced to allow returning refuges a place to live when peace was established after the genocide.

The LDC is a course where church leaders and pastors gather for e3 Partners campaign training. The are trained in the use of the evangecube and the discipleship of the new believers. The churches that are the most ready for a campaign are those which train their new church leaders in the use of the evangelism - discipleship material, have denominational support, and have a plan for a church location (someone's home, land, building, etc. that will comply with local laws). After the evangecube training the leaders go out and practice for 45-minutes. At this LDC there were 80 church leaders and 145 people accepted Jesus during the 45-minute hands-on training. The church were the LDC is held is responsible for the follow up and discipleship of the new believers. The testimonies follow:

When one group of pastors entered a compound the family ran away. They thought the pastors were health inspectors. When the family heard that the pastors were there to share the story of Jesus they returned and invited their neighbors to hear about Jesus. Eleven people accepted Jesus at that home.

Another pastor went to the local, neighborhood which doctor and lead him to Jesus.

God has an on-going revival in Rwanda. Thank you for coming and joining it.

Attached are pictures of the food preparation for 200-people.

WCW - Bookworm

Today is Watercooler Wednesday - this post, along with many others from creative bloggers across the planet, can be found at Randy Elrod's Ethos blog today. If you are looking for a great daily blog to read, add this one to your RSS reader and enjoy the creative, thought-provoking, artistic posts that are the trademarks of Ethos! Randy's WCW post today is about his favorite book of all time.

I was a bookworm growing up. I even started a library for the neighborhood kids in the treehouse in our backyard! Yes I did create those little checkout cards in paper sleeves inside of each book cover. I guess I don't have a favorite book. I've got tons of favorites. I've got multiple favorite series of books. Don't even get me started on all the Reader's Digest Condensed Books I've read - believe me - there are 100's!! Reading is a feast for the imagination. Well-chosen words crafted into dangerously true sentences have the power to transport is backward and forward in time, awaken long-forgotten memories, and stimulate our longing for creativity, purpose, and abundant life! By the way, is there a better word for abundant - it has such a churchy connotation. Maybe overflowing?

I went to the public library for the first time in years yesterday. I've decided to start paying my children to read books. It's not that they don't like reading, it's just that, well, they LOVE guitar hero, rock band, starcraft, and medal of honor. Trading one love for another is not my goal necessarily, but I really want to add some balance, some sense of words on a page being meaningful and rich and potentially life-changing, and a way to broaden their view of the past, present and future. OK, all that to say, Scottsdale has a beautiful library, totally interactive, well-organized, well-staffed, and well-stocked. While waiting for my offspring to painstakingly select some books, I managed to find a huge stack of books for myself as well. I was drawn to these three books:   "The Savior," by Eugene Drucker (of Emerson String Quartet fame); "I Heard That Song Before," by Mary Higgins Clark; and "Mozart's Sister," by Rita Charbonnier. Maybe one of these will become a favorite!

"Bunk Beds?"

Email from Dan...23 March 2008

Easter Sunday in Rwanda is low key. The Rwandans decorate cars and a table in the church with flowers.

I visited the orphanage today that we will all visit in June. The orphanage is the most horrible yet beautiful alternative homeless street children in Kigali have. The children are clean and well clothed. Attached is a photo of the orphanage. I wish I could describe the orphanage but words cannot convey the experience.

According to Dan (he called me yesterday!), Sidney (fellow e3 campaigner, loves Rwanda) has gotten 350 pairs of shoes donated to the orphanage and they are being shipped from the USA. Sidney is an accountant at a major aeronautical company and has conducted an independent audit of the orphanage - it passed with no problem - it is run with integrity and compassion.

Letter from Dan

22 March 2008

Muraho (hello), Team Rwanda, just finished Leadership Development Course (LDC) with pastors in Nyabihu, Gisenyi, Rwanda. Ildephonse is the coordinating pastor (oh yeah try to say all these names). He is a voluntary e3 rwanda staff member and very well organized. Over 150 pastors and church leaders attended the conference.

During the evangelism workshop the pastors and church leaders went out into the streets to practice the evangecube. In 45-minutes 232 people accepted Jesus. One man experienced immediate life change. After he prayed to accept Jesus, he handed the pastor his pipe and "weed" saying, "I don't want to this anymore. This is sin."

The people are physically and spiritual hungry. The average person gets 1-meal every 3-days. We feed the pastors and church leaders lunch. Meal time was culturally shocking. The pastors went first and piled shredded chicken, rice, greens (?), sauce, and cows hoof (?) in their bowls like they hadn't eaten in, well, 3-days. When they were done the church leader men were invited to eat. They quickly grabbed the cleanest dirty dishes and attacked the food line. Then after all the men were full the women got their shot, mostly rice (None of the North Americans ate. We wanted the nationals to have all the food).

Heavy Suitcases

Dan left on Wednesday for Rwanda and Burundi. He's joining several other  e3 partners staff in conducting LDCs - Leadership Development Conferences - for upcoming church-planting trips this summer. Click HERE for prayer calendar for this trip. Click HERE for latest Team Berryman update!

This pic is of the stuff that didn't fit in his alloted 2 suitcases. He had to add a third bag in order to haul all the extra materials with him for the LDCs. 20 e-cubes, 400 laminated bookmarks, 100's of pens, nearly 7,000 pages of printed materials, proclaimers, mega-voices...he called me from Atlanta - his luggage weighed so much that they charged him an extra $150 - at least he'll be leaving most of that stuff in Africa!!

On a more frugal note, text messages are only .35 cents. Here's some of the cryptic text messages I've received so far.

• I have arrived in rwanda. I was met by mike & sidney. Brussels air is the best. Bags were wet from heavy rains in atlanta.
• Happy anniversary! 21.75 years, can you believe it?
• We are in ruhengeri at the guest house. LDC tomorrow. Then back to Kigali. I'm leaning how to make campaign successful.
• Halfway done with 1st ldc. Over 211 professions of faith with pastors practicing with ecube. Pastor Japhet is here.
• In Africa, the LORD is risen

Holy Week - Good Friday

I've deleted all the hard-to-read holy week devotionals I posted - I couldn't figure out how to re-format them from the original I received. Click HERE to go directly to the Holy Week Devotional page at Austin Stone Community Church.

We are having a Good Friday service at Fellowship North. It is going to be beautiful and somber and reflective and worshipful. I will post pics later today - Alyssa and her team did an amazing job of creating original artwork (pencil drawings) to reflect several stations of the cross along with 8 interactive prayer stations.

You can preview some of the artwork by clicking on the following links.

Download jesus_on_cross.doc

Download Jesus_with_dove.doc

Download last_supper.doc

WCW - In Memory of Mary

Today is Watercooler Wednesday! WCW is a collaboration of creative people who gather around the watercooler at Randy Elrod's Ethos blog every Wednesday. Click HERE to read Randy's latest WCW post and to join the conversation!

This week is Holy Week - started on Palm Sunday will culminate on Easter Sunday. I found some great Holy Week devotionals at Austin Stone Community Church. Today's devotional features a 3-dimensional original painting by Christina Drake entitled "In Memory of Mary."

Artist's Note: This picture is called "In Memory of Mary" and is the worshipful response of one of our partners to the picture of the woman anointing our Lord.  Our artist wanted to capture the picture of submission and sacrifice of the woman, as well as the many colors of grace of our God.  The painting is also three-dimensional, with a shelf at the bottom filled with brushes, tools and entire tubes of paints.  "No amount of paint, tools or expensive perfume can ever compare to what Christ did on the Cross for us..."  Artist: Christina Drake.

Palm Sunday

I really want to experience Holy Week in a meaningful, personal and relevant way this year. Today was Palm Sunday. Defined as:  On the sixth Sunday of Lent we commemorate Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Worship services include blessing of the palms and a procession. The liturgical color is red. Also known as "Fig Sunday."

We decided to try three distinctly different church services.

We went to Christ Church Lutheran on Saturday night - they have a traditional service in the Chapel. Simple, intimate, kneeling, confession, prayers, scripture, message, blessing, 34 minutes later we were ordering wings at a sports bar down the street. Sunday morning we went to Fellowship North. Non-traditional service. "Let The Praises Ring" - "How Great Thou Art" - "Hallelujah To My King" - "Here I Am To Worship" - Message, Video, Testimony. Sunday evening we went to Christ Lutheran at Desert Ridge. Contemporary service. Very nice people. Brand new church meeting in a school. Palm cross strung on a ribbon placed around our neck. Upbeat songs. Great message. Dinner served afterward.

Did we worship? Did we observe Palm Sunday in a way that was meaningful and personal and relevant? I've got to say that if I combined various parts of each service into one service, added the "blessing of the palms and a procession" it would have been just right.

I hope to write a song this week. My response to Holy Week. We'll see how that goes!

Holy Week

I've been doing a little bit of research on the "Christian" calendar. Although I've attended church since birth, I've never been a part of a church which followed the Christian calendar. December 2007 was the first time I remember really observing Advent. I absolutely loved it. I think our church did a fantastic job of making it relevant and beautiful and meaningful and personal.

I'm going to focus this whole week on observing Holy Week. I'll begin with a post on Palm Sunday tomorrow. Stay tuned!

I found this summary of the Christian calendar on Origins Church (NYC) website.

For those of you who may come from a tradition that doesn’t practice the Christian Year, it is listed simply as follows.

ADVENT is a time to wait.                

CHRISTMAS is a time to rejoice.

EPIPHANY is a time to witness.                

LENT is a time for repentance and renewal.

THE GREAT TRIDUUM is a time to enter death.                

EASTER is a time to express the resurrected life.

PENTECOST is a time for power and life.                

KINGDOMTIDE is a time for study and evangelism.

•Holy Week, the week before Easter, is a week of meditation on the Passion of Christ.  The major days are Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter.  “The various traditional rites of the week...probably began to develop at Jerusalem in the 4th century, when pilgrimages became possible, and Christians could indulge a natural desire to re-enact that last scenes of the life of Christ in liturgical drama.”

•Palm Sunday initiates Holy Week and usually involves a procession representing Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem; this procession is “attested...as early as the 4th century” in Jerusalem.  “According to the current rite there is a general blessing of the palms held by the people, if possible in a different building from that in which the Mass is to be celebrated.  After the reading of the account of the triumphal entry, and a short homily, the clergy and the people process into the church, singing Psalms or the traditional ‘Glory, Laus’ or some other chant.”                

•Maundy Thursday - The word “Maundy” is “derived from the first antiphon of the ceremony of the washing of the feet, ‘mandatum novum’ (John 13:34).  The day is for the recognition of the institution of the Eucharist and was attested to as early as the fth century by the Council of Hippo (393).

•Good Friday is a “day of fast, abstinence, and penance, and in the RC Church, Good Friday, together with Holy Saturday, are the only two days in the year on which no Celebration of the Mass takes place.”  The day’s liturgical color is red.  The observation of this day originates in the very early part of the church.                 

•Holy Saturday is also known as “Easter Even” (in Book of Common Prayer), and “it commemorates the resting of Christ’s body in the tomb.”

•Easter is “the Feast of the Resurrection of Christ, being the greatest and oldest feast of the Christian Church.”  “Eastertide” refers to the period from Easter to Whitsunday.

WCW - August Rush

It's Watercooler Wednesday!! Join me and many others at Randy Elrod's Ethos blog for creative inspiration today!

I was in NYC for the first time last week. On our flight home, the in-flight entertainment included the movie "August Rush."

I'm embarrassed to admit that the last movie I saw in a theater was The Bourne Ultimatum.  That was awhile back. Oh, yeah, I guess I saw several forgettable movies while traveling back and forth to Africa.  So, I had no preconceived idea of what August Rush was about. I splurged ($1) on the headphones (the worst ever) and proceeded to be engaged and entertained and uplifted and inspired for the next 2 hrs. I absolutely loved it! If I hadn't been on an absolutely jam-packed flight with zero privacy, I would have laughed and cried out loud. As it was, I kept finding myself on the edge of my seat, literally. It's like the movie drew me in, was calling me into the center of it. I was extremely happy that the majority of the movie took place in NYC...I felt like I knew the places and the people and the vibe even more deeply because I was just there, soaking up the city and falling hopelessly in love with it! The music was beautiful. The story wasn't terribly complicated or sophisticated. But the pain was real. The sounds and melodies swirling around and connecting the characters were stirring and chaotic and soothing all at the same time.

I went to Sam's Club today and purchased the movie. I plan to watch it again. And again.

Click HERE to see a 2 min. montage of clips from the movie.

One of many favorite quotes:  "Do you know what music is? Harmonic connection between all living beings."

The thoughts and dialogue expressed in this movie run parallel to thoughts and feelings and ideas I've had for as long as I can remember. Music has called and still calls to me. My first thought is always to run from it. To shut it out. To be practical and pragmatic and ignore the muse. But lately the music has been tugging and coaxing and calling to me like mighty waves call to distant shores. Maybe because I'm less afraid of being connected to it and to others. Maybe it's just time. Finally.

NYC Saturday Night Update...

OK, so it's 10:25. I've just returned from an exciting little excursion. I decided to go walk around at the Grand Central Market. But on the way downstairs, I decided to throw caution to the wind and be impulsive and adventurous...I turned left then left again and started power walking down Lexington Avenue. I walked confidently with purpose. I dug deep inside and mustered up the New Yorker in me. It was really cold but not raining. I had my bling hoody on, jeans, purple crocs, I felt pretty in step with the people around me. I had a lot of company. Lots of couples, groups of friends, Asian tourists, 1 yelling crazy man who stopped occasionally to curse and dig thru trash cans. I tried to breathe in the city. I kept looking up. NYC is all about the vertical. Tower after tower. Pretty soon I passed the Waldorf Astoria. Beautiful and majestic. I turned right on a street. Turned left again. I think I was on 3rd Avenue by this time. Maybe. I walked past Bloomingdales. I decided I wanted to find a little Italian place to eat at. I stopped and read the menu at one. Didn't sound too bad, but there were no customers. That could be a problem. So I kept walking. Turned down another street, maybe 59th or 60th. Came upon a neon sign that said "Patsy's Coal-Fired Pizzas." This was definitely the place I was looking for. There's a really great place in Scottsdale called "Patsy Grimaldi's." They have coal-fired pizzas which are fantastic. I was sure this place would be similar in taste. I wasn't disappointed. I ordered a calzone loaded with incredibly creamy ricotta, really fresh mozzarella, and spicy pepperoni. They topped it with fresh basil and gave me a gravy boat filled with delicious marinara for dipping. It was a very vibey little place. Super-loud in a boisterously friendly way. I decided to order a cannoli to save for breakfast. I hope it's still fresh in the morning. I set it by the window which is a pretty cold spot in the room. In fact, Daphne has had a piece of cheesecake cooling on the windowsill since Thursday nite. She and Marianne are convinced that it will be good as new for at least a few more days. I also brought half of my calzone back...if Daphne's window cooling system works out for me, I could have that for breakfast on Monday!

Waldorf

Patsy's Pizzeria

Patsy's Delivers!

Inviting entrance. Once inside, there's a fireplace in the waiting area

My receipt - not exactly a budget-friendly place - actually, the prices were pretty much Scottsdale prices. $16.50 for the calzone. $2.75 for the Coca Cola. $7 for the cannoli.

NYC Saturday

Lots of rain today. We had a photo shoot outside of Carnegie Hall with our Voices group. Had lunch at the Europa Cafe across from Carnegie. NYC is so cool. I can't wait to come back for more of Broadway.  Most of our group headed out to see Spamalot tonight. I don't want to ruin the perfect memory I still have of Legally Blonde so I'm planning on blogging, reading, journaling, wandering around the Grand Central Market and figuring out a public transportation route to the Brooklyn Tabernacle - we've got a little group interested in experiencing the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir live tomorrow - then we have dress rehearsal at 5:30pm, dinner, then the big performance begins at 8:30pm. We've got tickets for a harbor cruise aboard The Spirit of New Jersey directly after the show. Monday we head back to AZ. Not sure when I'll blog again - I'm paying $10 per day for internet service - I'm really surprised it's not included in the highly inflated price of our room!

#1 Group photo inside Carnegie while waiting for part of our group to arrive.

#2 Group photo inside Carnegie - still waiting for the rest of the group to arrive - decided to be silly.

#3 Historic Landmark sign on wall outside Carnegie Hall

#4 Poster outside Carnegie announcing our concert

#5 Lunch at the cafe - Clay & Claudia

#6 Lunch at the cafe - Daphne, Satyam, Brooke

#7 The Russian Tea Room - I've read about this place for years. I'm still not sure what it is - we were walking pretty quickly (late for rehearsal), it was raining and slippery and we were pretty much running, trying to hail a cab, and we couldn't stop to peek inside.

Friday in NYC

First off, we met Dr. David Thye. He's one of the conductors at Carnegie Hall. We had an intense 3-1/2 hour rehearsal with him. We actually sounded pretty decent by the time he was done with us. Here's a few friends from Voices - that's the studio that I'm here with.

I had great Chinese food for lunch at a restaurant on e. 45th street. Then we all headed to the Empire State Building. We walked. And walked. This is definitely a walking town. Tons of people are on the street all the time. We went to the observatory on the 80th floor. Since it was overcast, the visibility was only 5 miles and it was a pretty grey 5 miles. The wind was icy cold - brutal, really. I'm surprised I didn't drop the camera - my hands were frozen and numb. I tried to take pictures from the north, south, east and west. In the third picture you can kind of see the Statue of Liberty in the distance on a tiny little island  Tonight I decided to splurge on a ticket to "Legally Blonde" at The Palace Theater on Broadway. It was an amazing, wonderful, invigorating, feel-good show based on the movie and book by the same name. I had a center seat, 14 rows back from the orchestra pit. I got a last minute deal - $67. When we left the theater it was raining. Icy cold rain drenched us all the way back to the hotel. It actually felt good. Fresh and wet and sloshy and drippy and rainy. Tomorrow I'm going to head to Central Park, possibly the Twin Towers, the Soup Nazi for lunch, a four hour rehearsal, and a photo shoot in front of Carnegie Hall.

 

I'm in NYC

It's really hard to take good pictures while travelling in a bus. Tried to capture our journey from Newark (I'm not sure why we landed in New Jersey instead of New York). Our bus ride was uneventful except for our ride through a tunnel, possibly the Holland Tunnel - I took a picture that I thought would be really cool. Dark tunnel, red lights on the ceiling, tail lights of vehicles all around. The picture turned out sort of OK, but our bus driver got really mad at me. He said it's illegal to take pictures inside tunnels in New York because of terrorism. Evidently there are security cameras throughout the tunnels and if someone caught me taking a picture of the tunnel they would pull over the bus and confiscate my camera. I debated for 2 seconds then deleted the picture. It wasn't my best picture anyway. Here's my other 2 best shots.

We're staying at the Grand Hyatt in Manhattan. It's a beautiful, 4 star hotel. We're going with 4 to a room. I'm in a room with Claudia, Daphne and Maryanne. Here's one of the beds we will share - did I mention 2 full-grown adult women will be sharing these beds?

One final picture - our hotel is literally right above Grand Central Station. We wandered downstairs and checked out the market and bought some fruit for breakfast tomorrow. I loved the hustle and bustle of rush hour. Tons of people rushing past us to catch the train or subway.

WCW - Groovy Pillows

It's Watercooler Wednesday! The day when creative-types from all parts of the world converge in one central location - around the watercooler at Randy Elrod's Ethos blog! This ongoing creative conversation is designed to spark even more creativity in everyday life and in our creative pursuits. If you'd like to join the discussion, click HERE for the latest Ethos WCW post!

My house is pretty eclectic. A little bit of mid-century modern. A few hand-me-downs. A couple of antiques. I have tons of books on shelves adorning the walls. Couple of wooden carved giraffes from Africa. Stained concrete floors. Circa 1956 bathrooms. The look I'm going for is, well, it's um, I guess vibey coffee-house might be the best description. The most difficult part of decorating my house is SHOPPING. I'm not a shopper. I have very little patience for browsing and window shopping. I'm a "conquer the list" shopper at best. Rewind to Christmas 2007. I was shopping with my beautiful mother-in-law, Judy, one of the champion shoppers of the 20th and 21st centuries. She took me to a very cool store in Orange County, CA where the theme was Red. Everything in the store was red - in a very good way! I was hoping and praying that I'd easily find gifts for my sisters when all of a sudden, the most magnificent pillow announced its presence to me and practically jumped off the shelf and into my arms! It was a big, beautiful, decorative pillow, hand-embroidered with great detail. Judy ended up buying it for me for Christmas! And now, it resides in a place of honor as the central pillow adorning my bed.

I looked up the designer, just certain that he or she would be just as cool as the pillow. The company name is Catstudio. The designers are Carmel and Terrell Swan. Their bio is fascinating. Click HERE to go straight to their bio page. Catstudio has a Geography Collection with hand-embroidered designs of lots of states, parks, countries and regions. They are works of art, really, they are! As soon as I can afford it (not any time soon), I'm going to purchase Arizona and Florida (two places we've lived besides California).

Carnegie Hall On Sunday

I leave tomorrow (oops) Thursday morning for New York City! I'll be with a group of 19 singers from Voices Music & Arts Studio in Scottsdale, AZ. We've been practicing for months and I think we're as ready as we can be. We'll join nearly 200 other singers on stage at Carnegie Hall to perform John Rutter's Requiem. It's mostly in Latin. Deeply somber, but hauntingly beautiful. Click HERE to listen to "Agnus Dei" (minimal amount of Latin).

We only have a couple of morning rehearsals. The rest of the time is "explore New York time!" Most of the people in our group have Broadway plays and musicals all lined up during our free time - I'm not sure what I'll do with my free time. I thought about trying to attend a service at Origins Church. The lead pastor, Jon Tyson, taught at the Re:Create conference I attended in February. He left us with this great quote: "we aren't called to change the world, we're called to create culture." I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately. Trying to digest and dissect what it exactly means and how to make it a reality. I'm hoping that I'll understand this more deeply by experiencing the church firsthand. Their tag phrase is: "the way of Jesus. to serve the city. for the renewal of the world." I love that.

Dr. Livingstone, I Presume

While we were in Burundi, I couldn't help but feeling like I had reached literally "the ends of the earth." Burundi is a remarkable place. Beautiful. Rugged. Extremely poor but with great dignity. On our "tourist" day, we drove about 20 minutes outside of  Bujumbura to a beautiful overlook area. There was a large, if unremarkable, rock with an inscription carefully chiseled on it - as soon as we exited the bus to check out the rock, a mob of kids swarmed around. Half a dozen armed guards wandered over to see all the commotion. We took pictures, shared the Evangecube with the kids and the guards, then we left.  Here's a picture of the rock - the inscription isn't very clear -- this is the very spot where Mr. Stanley found Dr. Livingstone! I've included a very informative article just to refresh your historical memory! 
David Livingstone arrived in Africa in 1840 with two goals: to explore the continent and to end the slave trade (see Livingstone Discovers Victoria Falls, 1855). In England, his writings and lectures ignited the public's imagination regarding the "Dark Continent" and elevated Livingstone to the status of a national hero.

In 1864 Livingstone returned to Africa and mounted an expedition through the central portion of the continent with the objective of discovering the source of the Nile River. As months stretched into years, little was heard from the explorer. Rumors spread that Livingstone was being held captive or was lost or dead. Newspapers headlined the question "Where is Livingstone?" while the public clamored for information on the whereabouts of their national hero. By 1871, the ruckus had crossed to the shores of America and inspired George Bennett, publisher of the New York Herald, to commission newspaper reporter Henry Stanley to find Livingstone.