Bay Area Update 3: Northings

With the first weekend of Project having come to a close, it's appropriate to note what some of our objectives are and the vision that drives them. Our Project vision still remains to:

Establish a community of Christ-centered and Christ-incarnate disciples, organically planting spiritual movements on the campuses and communities of the Bay Area.

This is the same vision as last year's Project, so I'll just refer you to my explanations from a year ago.

Along with our vision, we are developing another theme. The purpose behind us using the name "Epic" is as a reminder of the Spiritual Journey. It's a reminder of the struggle within the Journey. Annie Dillard once wrote a meditation on the pursuit of God called, " to help round out the meaning behind the words.An Expedition to The Pole". In it, she compares the Spiritual journey to that of a Polar expedition, stating that in both there is but one goal...measured by northing. A 'northing' is the distance traveled or measured northward. That goal is the destination and the explorer's proximity to that goal is the only measure of progress. Likewise is the journey towards God. She writes:

"These northings drew me, present northings, past northings, the thought of northings. In the literature of polar exploration, the talk is of northing. The explorer might scrawl in his tattered journal, 'Latitude 82 + 15' N. We accomplished 20 miles of northing today, in spite of the shifting pack.' Shall I go northing? My legs are long."

I like this description of our spiritual journey. I like that this reminder of the determination and the single-minded focus on destination that characterizes successful exploration is also what characterizes a drawing near to God. I like how the Epic Movement draws inspiration in its name from similar themes of an epic journey. Lastly, I like how all of us on Project have committed to the same thing. Shall we go northing, then?

Bay Area Update 2

It's late Saturday night of our first weekend of Project. We've had a full schedule so far. After our Welcome Orientation on Friday morning, we all went for a tour of downtown San Francisco. The weather (which, you may have noticed, is something that I closely observe) has been very cooperative so far. Normally, San Fran can get chilly when the fog rolls in from the Bay, but Friday was sunny...the kind of day that the Chamber of Commerce loves because it makes the city seem so great. On the tour (conducted by our friend Keoke), we saw various parts of Chinatown and got some of the history of the area. Keoke commented about what a strange sight our group must be: a white guy giving a tour of Chinatown to a bunch of Asians. We also asked the students to take pictures of things they saw in downtown SF that spoke to them concerning God's heart for the city and the people. We asked them to try and capture, on film, what might break God's heart or signs of His redemptive plan at work. We're going to share our results tomorrow (Sunday) night at our Family Time.

Today (Saturday), we took another trip into San Francisco for our first Mercy Ministry event. Partnering again like last year with City Team Ministries, our group travelled to Sixth Street in SF to pass out bags of food to homeless and near-homeless residents. It is said that by the time a person hits Sixth Street, they've burned all of their bridges and have nowhere else to go. They've lost their families, jobs, homes...they often are in the grips of multiple addictions and far, far away from a life of meaning. City Team does some incredible work in these hard places, giving structure, guidance, and assistance to those who want to get back on their feet. Most of all, they give out HOPE found in the truth of the Gospel and an environment by which the most broken and marginalized people in the city can experience the redeeming work of the Cross. Carita and I both teared up at the testimonies of the volunteers, who themselves are going through City Team's addiction recovery and Re-education Program. It's sometimes hard to imagine all of the various circumstances and poor choices that would finally land these people where they're at, but it's equally hard to imagine the amount of courage and faith it would take to climb out of that hole.

I think the impact of entering into another's world can change lives...certainly, it can change perspectives. We passed out the bags, but more importantly, we offered to pray for people. We listened to their stories, shook their hands, gave them hugs. For many who find themselves on Sixth Street, this is more than they have received in years. As the director of the City Team center, Rashida, said, "this is the worst kind of poverty...to not only have nothing materially, but relationally, either." I pray that God would truly help us to not only Proclaim the Gospel passionately, but Demonstrate the Gospel compassionately this summer.

Epic Bay Area Project 2007

Summer Projects are cool. I know that I'm biased by the fact that these are a part of my job, but I really think these Projects are some of the best things that we offer to students and staff. The true indicator of what I really think about Projects is the fact that I'd be willing to pay to participate in one (oh wait, I am paying already...hmm). Last year, the Project checked in at a not-so-whopping 8 student participants. Crusade doesn't normally conduct Summer Projects with so few students. But with committed staff and committed leadership, we got the thing up and running. When all was said and done, it was an incredible experience and one that I am so glad we didn't give up on. One major lesson for me was that God accomplishes His purpose...every time. He can't be thwarted by our disobedience, our lack of faith, our sins, our issues, our uncertainty or fear. He can't be swayed from His purpose by a lack of resources or a lack of people. What a privilege, then, for us to step into the redemptive plan that He has always been executing and will continue to do so until it bears its fruit.

This year, we have 16 students coming on Project. Amazingly, we prayed that God would double the numbers from last year and that's exactly what He's done. Those of you who aren't familiar with Crusade, one of the biggest challenges to starting a new Summer Project is the recruiting of students/publicity to get your name out. There are dozens of Projects available for students and it can be difficult to gain recruiting momentum for a new one. The fact that God answered our prayers exactly...not one more and not one less reminds us of who is actually running the show.

So, tomorrow, the students arrive to join the 9 of us staff. We have people from Texas, Oregon, California, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, and Rhode Island who will come together in this place. Our prayer and desire is for nothing less than life-transformation...of ourselves and those we come in contact with. I'll keep a running diary of our days here, so if you're praying with us, check back for updates.


This is a picture of our staff team (minus me), taken during our afternoon trip to Half Moon Bay, CA.

Arizona: The Land of Hotness

We're on a road trip from Texas to California for this year's Epic Bay Area Project. On our way, we stopped for a few days in Arizona. The reasoning behind this, of course, is that whenever you find yourself on a multi-day road trip through the harshest temperature zones in the country, you should always stop and stay a few days at the absolute hottest places. It only makes sense that way because you aren't really vacationing until you face the threat of severe heat exhaustion. The Phoenix/Scottsdale area hit temperature highs of 115 while we were there. Overall, it was great to see some of the sights and I mean that sincerely. I'd never ventured out to this part of the country before. Three of the highlights were:

The Grand Canyon: awe-inspiring in scale, beautiful in the most striking vistas, and humbling in what it says about God...that He could simply speak and wonders such as this would come to pass. The second picture is taken from Hopi Point, right before sunset.




The Red Rocks of Sedona: very interesting sight, those red rock formations jutting out from an otherwise brown desert...a little bit too overrun by tourists and new-age hippies touting the virtues of crystal energy cleansing, though.



Taliesin West, the winter home of architect Frank Lloyd Wright: historically significant work from perhaps the most influential architect in American history. No better place to see Wright's vision for various design principles, including Organic Architecture, Building for Democracy, and Deconstructing the Box. The first picture is a view of Wright's office (where he would sit at that desk and meet with clients) and the second is of the back of the home.

So What Happened to the Last 8 Months?

If you’re reading this, you may have also noticed that the Blog has taken an 8 month break. Unlike the previous extended hiatus, however, there was actually a reason for this break. I originally planned on transitioning the Blog to a full-fledged website and suspended the Blog updates until I worked that out. This was what I was working on until I ran into some trouble securing an affordable host (by ‘affordable’ I mean ‘free’).

So, the Blog is back in this format until I work up the motivation to try again later. Just wanted to state this for the record.