I'm in Tennessee now. It was a bit of a culture shock when I went into a gas station on the way here and everybody was yes, mam-ing me and calling me honey with a slow southern drawl. I honestly felt like I was in a movie.

Well, I'm off to explore Nashville with my friend that knows all the blue-grass music spots.

Hey, ya' all...

That's right-I'm finished and once again I'm packing up. I'm getting ready to drive out to B-more for Sandy's baby shower this Saturday. Tomorrow is my last day in Brattleboro, VT. It's likely I won't be back for a good couple years. (I've got to come back eventually to present my research.)

There's so much I want to say and so many emotions, thoughts bubbling around. But I guess to summarize it all I could say I'm walking away broken, you could even call it a bit shaken. But in a good victorious way. Because I've learned a little more about dying to me and instead living in Him.

I'm thankful.

For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.
2 Cor. 4: 5-11

the cutest pic!

the cutest pic! .

jewliet a couple years ago...isn't this the best pic! june gets all the credit for this picture...

two more days of SIT life. can you believe that? i can't. wish i could contemplate it for hours but instead I'm trying to write a paper on the Turkish financial crisis. what was i thinking?

i'm visualizing finishing this paper...yes, I see it in my mind's eye...it is oh so easy. ommmmmm.....

and this book's title made me snigger..... (is that a word? :-)

A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I Am a Missional, Evangelical, Post/Protestant, Liberal/Conservative, Mystical/Poetic, Biblical, Charismatic/Contemplative, Fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Green, Incarnational, Depressed-yet-Hopeful, Emergent, Unfinished CHRISTIAN

Yup. It's time. I'm in the process of finishing my last paper and I'm wondering if I'm going to pull it off. Why is the last one always the hardest? It's like I'm just not taking it seriously enough...I need to get panicked so I'll actually get my butt in gear. Did I mention this is due Friday?!

Next week is my last week of classes. I can't believe it. Then I'm "on the road again" and this time literally because I'm driving cross country with someone else's car. That's an interesting story. Maybe I'll get to sharing that sometime but basically the Lord hooked me up.

I'm going to be stopping by Dallas and yee-ha, seeing some friends I haven't seen in a long time. And then I'm SD bound and plan to spend most of my summer in Pasadena. Yo!

Help stop human trafficking! As many of you know every May 3rd is my own personal "stop human trafficking day" This annual observance started on May 3rd a couple years ago as result of a powerful documentary I saw on that day.

So say a prayer with me today for the thousands trapped in this industry. And if you don't know much about the issues check out these links...

http://www.catwinternational.org/

http://www.amnestyusa.org/stopviolence/trafficking/

"mainly, i think that the rise in gas prices is important because it is the only way to bring fundamental change to a culture which thrives on consumption without responsibility. global warming and air quality are issues that are already threatening the health of our species; but equally threatening is our population's cultural infatuation with a consumer lifestyle. this is what drives reactionary politics which retard long-term perspective; this is what motivates exploitation of the third world, global inequities in health and wealth, and ultimately the prejudices which justify social hierarchies and immoral wars.

the rise in gas prices might help to encourage community where previously people were at liberty to operate as individuals. it will certainly spur technological innovation which will protect the environment. and at the very least, it should force us to reconsider how carelessly we consume our world's most valuable natural resource."

can you say, "WORD!"