Saturday, August 21, 2010

IC Sandimus from San Francisco / A call to practice more silence before God.

Here is a short musing on my time with the SF IC Sandimus Team. Let me say that I am glad for the time that I had with them. It is theirs to share what they learned from me... Rather I am going to focus on some things that God brought to my attention about my own life.

Jose, the current leader of this team, was trained up under the Base community model of Bible study while living in El Salvador. He later came went through our formation. Still some of the strengths of his former training comes through in a profound way. (and no we are not from the Liberation Theology camp... but we don't stick our fingers in our ears either...)

Jose models a deep discipline of listening to God. a good part of this is learning to regularly take silent retreats. His modeling this inspires the rest of his team to practice the careful listening to both God and their own souls. This also impacts the quality of their sharing together. They know their own hearts, souls, & thoughts ... and the various ways in which God seems to speak to each person on the team. Because of this practice and the reality it grounds each member of his team in... Jose has a deep trust in each persons ability to follow God and contribute to their community's process of discernment. The team has a deep sense of loyalty to one another... deeper than I have recently seen anywhere else... and even a deeper sense of loyalty to God.

The groups openness to God drew out of me a capacity to hear God that is unusual for me. In the first 10 minutes of meeting with them God called me to give a small financial gift to one of his team members. I saw the need before they said anything about it... and it was the last thing on my mind... For me it was a call to obedience. (Jude - my wife / I am her husband - she is the one who has the gift of giving [between the two of us]... and any impulse in that direction I attribute to God's grace and the impact she has had on my life.) Our lives in very simple ways... and direct ways touched one another. (I can tell sometimes when the grace of God flowing in my life is coming from my own rootedness in God / Eph. 3:14-21, or from Grace that is at work in and around others... The Grace at work wise profound to me and largely not from my spiritual well.)

The result of this time and the re-reading of Henry Nouwen's book "The Wounded Healer" (encouraged by Jeff Man)... I have promised Martha & Jose that I will try to go on my own silent retreat and try to listen to God and his initiative in my heart for 3 hours... before the end of the year... I am putting this in print for the sake of accountability.

I should draw up again some of the basic literature on this practice... Like Richard Foster's Book Celebration of Discipline. I am sure that Jude will celebrate and encourage this movement in my life. She also will have articles and other lit. to give me to enrich my focus in this work.

I can not say enough of the Caya's hospitality. Simply put, they were very kind to us for all the time we were with them.

There is more to share. But I must rest here because my plane has just arrived... late... but it is here.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

The Story of Stuff

I am finding that there is a growing desire among my friends to find an alternative to this narrative. THE STORY OF STUFF ... AND many of them find Acts 2:36-47... A far more attractive narrative to live into.

Pray for us in Los Angeles. A major Import / Export city...

A friend of mine... Lyndy sent me this email...

"If you are a lady in the LA area, this email is for you, if not, please disregard this email....

My church is having a Clothing Exchange this Saturday, June 26th from 2-4pm. I wanted to invite you all to attend.

Bring clothes to donate and hopefully someone else will take it home with them and you can take whatever you like as well. It is a good way to clean out our closets and re-use things. (think this is perfect in line with our creation care in learning community.) Something you are tired of might be someone elses new gem.

If you can not make it, but would like me to donate clothes, please bring it to Tuesday prayer or give me a call so you can drop it by my place this week and I will take it on Saturday.

I will be going early around 12 pm to help set up, so see you there.

Thanks,
Lyndy

Kairos Hollywood (building we share with Hope International Church)
4903 Fountain Ave
Los Angeles, CA, 90027"

This is just one example of this impulse...

A good friend of mine Evelyn has a website called: EarthCaringArt.com
She has pursued and built this website out of her own passion for "Creation Care".

Monday, June 21, 2010

Tire Swing... Check this out...


My Friend and Colleague Alastair Rundle has figured out a way to turn some old tires into new useful Tire Swings for the youth in our neighborhood. He's now got one up for sale on Craigslist. Check it out.

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Disaster Preparedness...

Well... I have some work to do... and I intend to begin to post some of the basics here...
Resolve after a day workshop in Los Angeles:

Friday, June 04, 2010

The Practice of the Presence of God

Here is Kevin Ha's sermon referencing Brother Lawrence's Book, "The Practice of the Presence of God". One of my favorite Christian Spiritual Classics.

I am finding New City and it's vision very compelling for my context in Los Angeles. Come and visit sometime if you are in the area.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

My Birthday Party

Hello Folks,
Well it is coming soon, John Tiersma Watson’s May Day birthday. This year his Birthday is on a Saturday. As always, there is a lot going on that day, but we invite you to join us for a cup of coffee to celebrate John’s birthday. We are starting early, as some folks have a workshop at 9:00. Feel free to come say hi even if you can’t stay long. For those who have more time, we will enjoy your company a bit longer.
When: Saturday May 1, 8:00 AM to 11:00 AM. Come when you can,
Where: Ollin Café, 1325 W. Venice Blvd, just east of Hoover.
Street parking, or come on MTA bus 200.
Why: Because we want to see you.

Looking forward to seeing you there!
John and Jude

Note from John -- I am asking people to bring a wise saying, Poem, or Bible Verse that you like. Gifts should be limited to anything Re-cycled or bought second hand unless it is art supplies. The greatest gift will be seeing each of you.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Jaw1LA

I am committed to sharing my life with a network of young people in Los Angeles. First they asked me to join MySpace (which I hardly use any more). Then they asked me to join Facebook. Then some of them asked me to consider joining Twitter or YouTube. I have decided against twitter because it would rob me of the need for silent spaces... once on twitter and connected with a phone one can report any small fragment of thought at any time. This is too intrusive for me to do right now. Now that I have a MacPro. I can both do the reflections & interviews that I want to do.

Help me by giving me feedback whenever you are moved to do so...

And thanks for joining me on this journey.