june we bid you farewell...

back in denver. its hard to believe tomorrow is the first day of july. the summer is already going so fast. being in columbus was great. it was everything great you love about home. i just happened to plan my trip around comfest weekend. say what you will about comfest, it in many ways is the best columbus has to offer in one place, which is why i love it. below is a pictoral summary of the weekend.

chris

chris was a friend of my organization. when we had a team in mauritania he was a great help and friend to us. please pray for his wife and four kids. this is a loss for us 

Chris Leggett

she belongs to her mother and the state of ohio...

view from stauffs down grandview ave.

morning walk down grandview avenue

it is such a strange world when you come home after being gone from it for so long. everything seems new and beautiful. things that seemed so ordinary when you passed them day in and day out are like a new adventure. i flew home sunday nights for seven days. it has been such a wonderful time back. without intentionally planning it i scheduled my trip around comfest.  june in ohio is by far the most beautiful. comfest (community festival) is often the last weekend of the month and to many the grand finale of early summer in columbus. this year is no different. having come back from an unseasonably cool summer in denver it is almost refreshing to come back to a  hazy, hot, and humid city. walking around this morning it was already 83 and the humidity was so thick you could taste the air. There is something about this i would have found infuriating this time last year, but today it seems almost nostalgic. it is crazy how our brains do this. i'll post more later this week after comfest. until then i'll leave you with this song that i've been loving this week. It is by a band called company of thieves...seriously check it out.

company of thieves- oscar wilde

and the world spins madly on...

i am twenty six years old. this statement shocks me a bit even now as i sit at the top of my spiral staircase on a lazy june afternoon listening to benny goodman on the record player.( i have had a whole week to get used to the idea). i love my life. i can't really say it enough but, it is soo true. i love it. in january this year i gave up my medicore paying job serving coffee to work for a non-profit in denver colorado. i make nothing. i have people who believe in what i do and donate. I pay the bills off of people's generosity. it is a crazy, but so amazing life. at twenty-six i love the feeling of knowing i have a good 50 years ahead of me to continue this crazy ride. i love the feeling of being free from expectations to live up to someone elses thoughts of success. it is unbelievably freeing to discover ways to live simpler and simpler and enjoy the things that don't cost me everything, but are worth so much. it is unbelievably satisfying to know what i am doing is helping people. i am in the business of hope, and the return on investment never ceases to amaze me.

He shows up in unexpected ways

it isn't much of a surprise to most of you that finances have been a struggle for me in the past few months. It has been an uphill battle more often than not. There are times when it is really easy to be discouraged...and then you open up a box of cinnamon toast crunch and God shows up. Last Monday ( memorial day) we had the day off from the base. I was hanging out at my apartment watching some morning news and eating a bowl of cereal. I was thinking about finances and some fun stuff I would like to do that always involves money, when I nonchalantly read the label on the box of cereal, "you could be a winner!". I rarely even check under pop tops for the million dollar prizes let alone take the bag of cereal out of the box to check under it....and sure enough...in the bottom of the box a credit card shaped package. As I pulled it out I was still a little skeptical. As I removed the silver colored wrapper I saw the gift card in my hand was for 25$. It might as well had been for a million because I was jumping up and down....Crazy ehh....

A week Later...

The 25 dollar gift card burning a hole in my pocket I decide to go to the ARC (our local thrift store). Thinking I may find some tank tops or other summerwear I start looking through the modge podge of items to find a snowboard and bindings for 25 dollars! I immediately pick it up and check it out making sure that there isn't a catch. Finally as I am satisfied with the fact that I am not going to be ripped off in anyway I take it up to the check out to find that it is saturday and thus 50% off everything day. I leave the thrift store with a 13 dollar snowboard, 12 dollar gift card, and the reassurance that God cares even about the littlest things in my life.

may update

    Happy Mother’s Day to all of you mothers. I hope this Mother’s day finds you well and blessed. Know that you are appreciated by all but especially your children. Mom, thank you for all you do for me that goes overlooked. I cannot imagine my life without you in it.

    I want to take some time and update you all on the past few months. This spring I have been working with the Multicultural DTS. It is a group of 8 boys and 8 girls from all over the world here to do our Discipleship Training School with a bit of a twist. We spend extra time teaching our student’s how to learn and appreciate other’s cultures and to see how unique God has made every culture. We have seven eight nations represented between our students and school staff. I am the only American small group this quarter and it has been an amazing experience. This school is one of the most unique schools we have ever run. Many of these students come from a very broken past and have been basically going through a “Follower of Christ 101” course.  It has been neat to be apart of speaking truth into their lives in very basic ways. I have a small group of four girls. I am blown away at how much the Lord has done in them in this past five weeks. Many have come in with deep rooted depression, drug abuse, self image issues, as well as many other difficulties. As they learn more and more about the character of God they have opened up the door to healing in every area of their lives. In two weeks half of the school leaves for the Around the World outreach. These students will spend the next 80 days traveling from here to San Fransisco, San Fran to Tokyo, Tokyo to Mumbai, Mumbai to Mozambique, Mozambique to San Paulo, San Paulo to Bogota, and Bogota to Toronto. The focus of this outreach is to help the poorest and most destitute in the world. The other half of the school leaves in 5 weeks for Costa Rica to help in hurricane relief.It is exciting to see these students embody the principle of being “broken healers”.

    This week also marks the end of the road for our teams that our currently in the field. We have 46 students and staff returning from Panama, Thailand, and Mexico. These teams have worked in safe homes for child prostitutes, orphanages, shanty towns, feeding shelters, and slum ministries. This upcoming week we will get to hear from all of these teams about their work.

    Thank you all for your prayers and support. I am still building my financial support and am overwhelmed at how faithful God is. Thank you all for your generosity, prayers, and encouragement. Thank you for being apart of bringing HOPE to a dying world.

oh...

so, they made this documentary about us last year, after the shooting, before i came back on staff. it follows the life of 5 dtsers during the boarders dts. its complicated to really explain it all, but the documentary is done and is being pitched at a bunch of film festivals. HBO and AandE are really interested in it, so it may very well come to a television set near you. but...it is us. our good our bad and everything in between. I cant wait to be able to show it to those of you who wonder just what i do. watching it tonight  made me remember...remember why i came back, why i am here at all. i was here the week of the shooting and it shook me. the documentary starts off with tiff in her dts giving her testimony. she starts by sharing a bit of her life then they fast forward to the 911 call from charlie and then goes through this whole dts and then it ends with tiff saying "i dont know what the lord has for me in the future, but i am just going to trust, trust him with my life."  little did she know three years ago that she had done just that...and died that december night, and no one or no thing will be the same since. i know i am not.