faith venture

My canvas group (small group) had a FAITH VENTURE last week.

Faith ventures are one of a canvas group's four practices, and it's meant to stretch the faith of the participant in a way that blesses others. My canvas group, EXSATIO, decided to put some 'care packages' together to hand out to a few homeless people or really anyone who could benefit from some little things like trail mix, gum, bottles of water, face wipes, chapstick, a Bible, and a bunch of other things most of us probably take for granted.

So we went to the store together, assembled the packages, and started walking around downtown and by the river, looking for people to bless. For a while, we didn't find anyone. We found a few places where we could see some type of dwelling, and we left packages there, hoping that someone would get them and use them. But as evening faded into night, we became a little disappointed that we hadn't gotten to interact with anyone.

And then a group similar to ours who were out doing something very similar told us a few gentleman up an alley would sing for us if we wanted. I ran up the alley to check it out (though honestly, something made me doubt that they were still there, and I told the rest of my group to wait and I'd be back and we'd keep searching elsewhere). Sure enough there were 3 guys sitting there, drinking a little, and they were very friendly. I started talking to them, and then the rest of my group, one by one, realized that I must have found them and started showing up around me.

We gave them the rest of our little packages and then just sort of sat and talked. None of us necessarily had a plan or anything, but we just wanted to be open and give a little of our time to people who many just walk by without taking much notice. And some really great things started happening. More people showed up, and EXSATIO started branching off in little clusters, talking to different individuals, listening to stories and sharing the hope that we have in us and the Source from which we draw strength to care for others like we were doing that night.

I got to talk mostly to one guy who I won't name just for privacy's sake. He was a very sincere man, and he actually had a great singing voice! He was raised in the church with tons of siblings and so knew lots of old hymns, which I and a few others sang with him. He said he wants to do a music project of songs he's written, and that any proceeds that come from it he wants to give 90% to the church. He seemed to be a believer in Christ but said that he's gotten into some bad things and wants to 'turn a corner.' He said he was an alcoholic, and his wife of only 5 months has taken a restraining order out against him and kicked him out of their apartment. He's now living in a trailer. We prayed for him and also for another individual whom one of our number had been talking with very deeply.

The whole canvas group seemed very affected by the whole experience. I asked them to take some time to digest and reflect upon the experience, maybe writing down some things that really made an impact in their hearts and minds. So here's a few my own thoughts:

At some points I felt that Christ was really using me, that He gave me a power to connect with this man and that the man could feel it as easily as I could; I felt like I was Christ's hands and heart to him in these moments.

I stepped out on a limb and offered to help him with his music project; I'm going to have a meeting with him! Maybe no one's ever taken him seriously before, maybe people have made him promises that they broke.

If I'm truly honest, there's a part of me that doesn't want to follow through; it's like I enjoyed the time I had with him but I don't want to give him any more time. But I do know that I WILL do it; I won't break my promise. I say that I feel like it's part of my job to encourage creativity (particularly relating to music) in others; why wouldn't I do that for this man?

I felt so surrounded and supported by my canvas group, my friends; they made sure I wasn't alone, which would have made it much harder. It's good to step out into uncomfortably deep waters in order to serve and be a blessing to others.

During our prayer for another guy, I felt very emotional and really could see a glimpse of what his life could be like if he let God change him; I really wanted God to water the seed that was being planted.

Anyway, this blog is getting long, but there you go! We're planning to follow up however we can with those we talked to and we're going to do another faith venture later in the semester.

SEPTEMBER 2007 PRAYER LETTER

HERE IT IS! Took me long enough, I know. For supporters of the ministry and anyone else interested, I present to you: Cameron's first 'monthly' prayer letter after three months! (Click the first picture, and when you're done with it, hit 'back' on your browser and click the second picture to finish.)

sneak peek

Here's me at the 'laptop bar' connected to the regular bar of so.zo, Morgantown's hottest little cereal and coffee place! I've had some requests for photos of the place, which I will post very soon (once I get them off my camera).

Luckily my MacBook Pro has a fancy little built-in camera with which I can take quick snapshots. Behind me is Sam, our beloved manager, and one of the volunteers (this one's Kim Sheets, who's also one of the founders of The Sign Factory, which has been hookin' us up with lots of nice signage).

More to come!

hey everyone...

Hi! Just wanted to confirm that I AM still alive. And I didn't want September to hit before I blogged. I've never missed an entire month on here AND I DON'T INTEND TO START! ...That was false enthusiasm, of course, though I truly would feel dumb if I went an entire calendar month without blogging. But my track record speaks for its pitiful self. Ha.

Who knows but that I was brought to this position for such a time as this? I don't know, just wanted to get a little epic here. But it IS new season as far as campus life goes, and I hope to regain a semblance of the 'rhythm' I've blogged about before. Hopefully part of that rhythm will be taking more time to express my thoughts with as much clarity as I can muster.

Anyway... I'm sitting here on the first official day of so.zo's opening! It's awesome. We still have a number of 'small' projects to complete, but we're occupying the space and have made several sales today! I bought a 'snack' size cereal for a cool 1 dollar; pretty good deal! Check out so.zo's website for more info.

weddings

'And the two will become one flesh.'

Can't even tell you how many weddings Sarah and I were invited to this summer. And even the number for which we ended up in the wedding party, playing instruments or just attending is pretty astounding for one 2-month period.

Here's some of the highlights:

Ben and Liz (Hazlett) Allen, Wheeling, WV, May 19
(Sarah was a bridesmaid)

Matt and Trina (Walters) Showalter, Lancaster, PA, June 9
(We don't have a picture unfortunately, it was a beautiful outside wedding; I ran sound and played their first dance song)

Cory and Amanda (Fisher) Neville, Wheeling, WV, June 23
(Sarah was a bridesmaid)

Ryan and Erica (Bolyard) Huffman, Morgantown, WV, June 30
(I was a groomsmen and Sarah and I played an original song for the unity candle)

Adam and Anne (Sheldrake) Niess, Greenwood, IN, July 21
(We just attended! Adam's an old friend of Sarah's from Wheeling)

And I played in another wedding in Morgantown on July 7th, we attended the rehearsal dinner of an old friend in North Carolina on July 19th, we were going to play in a wedding in Clarksburg in August but the couple eloped, and we have one more wedding in which we're playing music on September 1st in Morgantown. WHEW!

Weddings are obviously very special cultural, personal and spiritual events. Even with the volume of this summer's ceremonies, I still had a sense of awe at each. I remembered what it was like when I watched my own bride walk down the aisle toward me. I remembered how awesome it was to drive away at the end, the hustle and bustle fading away behind us as it was finally just me and her. And I remembered how utterly beautiful the joining of two lives is, and how mysterious. It's compared to the mystery of Christ being the true head of the church, and the church being his body, though that mystery is far greater (Ephesians 5:25-32). This was the subject of my song 'Love' that I wrote for Ryan and Erica.

Anyway, all this travel (and the work we've been doing on our coffeehouse so.zo -- more on that soon) are the primary reasons I've been absent from my blog for so long (Sarah and I also went to Columbus at the beginning of July to celebrate our own wedding day [2 years!], we went to the Outer Banks last week with my family, and this weekend we're going to Knoxville, TN to celebrate my older and younger brother's birthday [both on July 30th, 17 years apart]).

More blogging (I promise) soon!

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

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...

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.