Go! Spread! Fire!

We spent six perfect days reaching out to the community in fun ways. None of us wanted the week to end! Highlights of our weeklong Go! Spread! Fire!

1. Cold Water for Jesus
We gave away 1,200 bottles of cold water on sweltering days in Washington, Bethesda and Rockville. (At times, Patrick's van became an intense assembly-line for labelling and laminating the bottles between destinations!)

2. Rebuilding Ancient Ruins, Metaphorically
As a surprise, we cleaned the Bethesda church where we've started to rent a room for Sunday mornings. When we got there, we heard they'll have a new pastor soon, so here was an instant opportunity to beautify his yard! We bought garden tools to do the same thing in the Twinbrook church, new site of our evening service.
These two churches have gone through a lot, and the idea was to encourage them and possibly light a spark. (I'd never pulled weeds before... Made me think about the value of removing little-noticed weeds in our lives!)

3. Dollar Bills
We dropped and hid dollar bills wrapped around tracts in a mall. It was harder than we imagined to drop them covertly!

4. Free Fotos... Really!
That was the slogan on our tee-shirts. We walked around the greatly inspiring World War II Memorial with digital cameras and portable printers, offering to take and print pix on the spot for visitors. The pix are also on the deeperthandermis website for downloading. Along the way, we engaged in amazing conversations... We met a brother and sister in their twenties who live in different cities and found each other on MySpace!!

Similarly, we'd love to create bonds and bring smiles to Washington, our hometown, mission field and global hub.

I'll remember this as a week that mingled creativity with compassion. It was immense fun and so spontaneous, involving out-of-the-box thinking, prayer, hard work and, importantly, a willingness to speedily change plans as we listened to the Holy Spirit. Lots of planning + an undoing of plans when God revealed new paths. It's the way life should be, Su said.

We also wrote a tract that we printed, laminated and memorized. We were self-conscious when we role-played the evangelistic encounter with each other. Great practice. It's OK to be fools for Jesus. We'll either be fools now or later, PD said.

It's all about SOULS!

Also WONDERFUL was the 8 am devotions that we started the day with (to seek God's heart and the day's marching orders), and the evening revival meeting that we ended with (for refilling).

You can tell that I learned and experienced LOTS and LOTS! One other lesson is to persevere and laugh more. For example, our photo ministry (see above) started discouragingly some weeks back. But we refined our ideas, sourced printers at one-third the original price on overstock.com, and went out again. It worked!

Similarly, reaching out to Rockville was easier than Bethesda and Washington, cos we'd spent three years as a church in Rockville and prepared the ground. About two years ago, I'd also given away cold water with my former church in Bethesda, and the reception was a little chilly. But, I'm sure a few seeds were planted at that time. Indeed, last week, more people grabbed our water bottles in the same place in Bethesda, near the trail.

It's been a fuller than full week, and greatly transforming. Still bubbling over. It's exactly what Jesus said about giving us life to the full. What's a little surprising to me is that mostly we were five people in the team, and the planning and shopping for supplies was done mostly on the first day. We had two people who were computer whizzes who could design labels and tee-shirts and other stuff on the go. We were a mixed bunch of people, from a high-school kid to career women. We were all focused on outreach and souls and worshipping God.

This tells me that creative and powerful outreaches can be replicated in our communities by little teams, especially our generation of youths who have so much passion and are reform-minded.

I'd planned to join the team a couple of days, but was unstoppably hooked from Day One. My friend Sue would say I'm ending my Washington days on a high note and that's the way to go. I pray that this is transferable, whether in reality or in spirit.

Hey, Tyson, I thought of you, PS and your international group and the Seattle youths!! Have an adventurous summer!

Answered Prayer!

Lori and I were in my car on 355 when a motorist behind us tooted his horn. "Ignore him," Lori said.

I stepped on the gas a little but the driver accelerated to be level with us, gesturing for us to wind down the window. Then he yelled: "Your left rear tyre looks flat!"

Wow! We thanked him, impressed with his persistence and kindness on 355 in morning-peak traffic.

I wasn't expecting it but Lori called Dustin later. He fixed the flat and inflated all four tyres. The offending tyre had only FOUR pounds of pressure out of the prescribed 44!

The next day, I liked how my car felt so comfortable, stable and safe. I try to take good care of my car but, living alone, I've to be much more independent and responsible for everything.

There's more! The best thing is that Lori told me later that every morning before she goes to work, Dustin prays about her drive and the car's mileage, gas, tyres, everything!

We KNOW it was because Dustin prayed that the driver noticed and felt the urgency to let me know. It's wonderful that Dustin, our pastor, is totally serious about prayer. Every morning, he wakes up at 6 am to pray for all of us.

This slice of life displays all over again God's tenderest love and goodness.

It's been fun to spend time with Lori. I should keep this next part more covert, but I guess it's part of the story. Lori's pregnancy (she's due July 4) has caused carpel tunnel syndrome in her wrists and it's excruciating for her to drive though she's the original trooper and never whines. I volunteered to drive her to and from work, and one week of not driving has improved matters for her.

God is tremendously faithful and there's no way to outgive the giver of all good things and the lover of our souls.

Strathmore: Eternal Summer

Strathmore...

Chanelle was an ideal companion for afternoon tea at the Strathmore Mansion today. She's a fellow book-lover and lingerer at art shows, and we took our time to admire creations like whimsical teapots. I was fascinated by "Winter Trees,'' a petite piece formed from glass and LED-illuminated.

The Strathmore is a gorgeous estate filled with majestic trees and memories, and it's easy to forget that it's tucked just behind hectic 355.

For me, Strathmore will always conjure up the sweetness and youth of midsummer. Last August, my Tapestry friends (and other Washingtonians who were unusually smiley and lulled by the summery family atmosphere) watched King Kong on a extra-wide outdoor screen, and we were all perfectly engulfed by the tenderness and tragedy of the story.

Midsummer...

I'll remember our spontaneously creative Jessy creating little face-paintings on us, practicing ahead of our Go! Spread! Fire! outreach with inner-city kids. (The faces of the children... along with our non-artistic face or hand paintings of butterflies and rocks... would often rise in our mind's eye later.)

When it got chilly, Yong, always compassionate besides being always funny, let me have his jacket. Later, Lori, always active, drove home to get lots of blankets.

Create Memories...

At the end of summer, PD asked us about our summer memories. We remembered the outdoor movies, the balloon launch to celebrate our anniversary, the outreach, and other special moments. He's asking us to create memories. I think that's an intrinsically valuable part of connecting people to each other, and weaving a richer tapestry of many stories.

For me, memories are one source of creativity. In school, I wrote a poem titled Old Photos, which sprang from a nostalgic hour spent looking at pictures of my parents when they were so young.

Wish I'd brought my sister Ping to the Strathmore last summer!

Peonies

Now that it's early summer, I look out for peonies. These lush and extravagant blooms first entranced me when I saw them at the home of a Japanese journalist in Washington.

Peonies are a symbol of China. I imagine that they're popular in Japan too. In the United States, the Cricket Hill Garden in Connecticut is "madly devoted" to peonies. I like their peony picture collection, where I viewed an "Ancient Pink" peony (above).

And the name Ancient Pink suggests one more reason why I love peonies: They evoke the ancient, and most of us have a sense or a nostalgia for the ancient -- the virtuous side of it anyway.

My pastor has talked about Robert Webber's ancient-future faith which values a deeper kinship with the early church. Recently he also highlighted Isaiah 61:4 and its idea of rebuilding ancient ruins -- which is one reason why our morning service rents a room in a lovely old Bethesda church, whose tiny congregation has a desire to grow vibrantly.