June 21, 2007

JUNE 2007 PRAYER LETTER

Here (finally!) is my latest prayer letter, the at-least-intended-to-be-monthly update I send out to supporters of the ministry I work with in Morgantown. Just click the picture to view it large in a new page!


Unfortunately you can't click the links I referenced within the image of the prayer letter, but I've included them here if you want to check them out:

H2O Morgantown Live Podcast Site
Billy's Blog

June 12, 2007

symbiosis

This is a photo from the recent New York City trip Sarah and I took with some friends. It's of Bryant Park in Manhattan.

The reason I'm blogging on it is because to me, it represents an image of the potentially beautiful and symbiotic relationship mankind could have with nature. Sure, there's still a hustle and bustle here, an industry, with people going to and from work, passing through the trees. But there's also an extreme sense of peace, as some people are just enjoying the green space, relaxing under the branches, letting the breezes pass over them. There's even a Reading Room, a café-like setting with tables and chairs and bookshelves, where you can check out a book for the amount of time you're going to sit there and read.

The scene of Bryant Park is startling as you round the corner from walking down street after street of tall building after tall building. All of a sudden you see tall trees instead, gently swaying, people and animals running on grass, a large fountain with its soothing tones of mildly splashing water. We who had been walking for a while were drawn to it instantly, like a moth to the flame, and a grand sense of delight overcame me as we ascended the stone steps and entered in.

There are several well-done parks like this in New York, Central Park of course being the mother of them all. And I'm extremely glad the city planners allowed for such a wonderful break from all the 'brick and mortar.' On the other hand, though, seeing it also caused a small sadness in me, like that of someone seeing some little object at home that instantly fills them with the memory of a lost loved one.

The sadness was simply from realizing how truly little green like this there is in the city compared to how very much stone there is. There's a greatness to the city, to the achievement of man, but there's a far greater beauty in the creation God has made. I often think about the way things were 'supposed to be' had we not wandered so far away from our Creator. How wonderful the garden of Eden must have been! What would have Adam and Eve and their huge family have done, have built, had they not been cast out? Would cities have been raised anyway, with God smiling on and blessing our endeavors? Would they have been different than the cities we see around the world now? I don't know. It is certainly evident that God had put in us the desire to build, to make, to 'sub-create' as Tolkien puts it. But what would our creations have been like had we not broken our relationship with Him?

I'll blog more on cities soon, as I'm becoming increasingly interested in them...

June 2, 2007

majesty

My friend Adam Zakowski (featured proudly here in front of beautiful West Virginia mountains) is working this summer in the Monongahela National Forest in southern WV for the U.S. Forest Service. He's on 'trail crew,' meaning he gets to up and down and every other which way on the trails of this national treasure, making sure they're clear and in top shape for people coming from all over to experience supreme silence and solitude.

We did a message series at h2o this spring called 'Rhythm' and one of the messages was on the importance of silence and solitude being a regular rhythm in one's life. In America especially, we get into rhythms of constant activity; our minds and bodies rarely have the chance to rest and let saturate the things they encounter throughout the week. God knew we would need this pattern, and so when he created everything he gave us the example of resting on the seventh day, and told us later that we should do the same (just in case you're wondering, God doesn't rest anymore according to Psalm 121:3-4, but we are commanded to in Exodus 20:8-11). So each week, it would truly do us all good to take an entire day off and enjoy Him! And even the rhythm of each day calls for a little silence and solitude.

Anyway, looking at these pictures Adam sent me makes me envious of his opportunity this summer. He's definitely working hard, doing a lot of physical labor, but he gets to enjoy sheer beauty that has been barely touched by man, and he gets to live simply for a few months. I think when he comes back to Morgantown he'll be better equipped to let the rhythms God intended for us be a regular part of who he is, and maybe he can help the rest of us here see the majesty of God being who He wants to be in our lives so that we can be who we were really meant to be in Him.