Fasting’s All About Balance

Megan and Mackenzie:
We can’t lie, it’s hard to handle all the food around here, but we’re making it. Fasting is all about balance. Balance between spending time playing games and running around as well as seeing God through our fast. The cold, rainy weather gives us opportunities to see God clearly in the world around us. Even though it’s a gloomy day, we can still give to our community. As of right now, the group is split up, doing service projects. Through service projects, we’re building community, giving back to Mountain T.O.P, seeing God through helping people, as well as killing time until we break our fast. Some are re-painting the common area in the dining hall, some are replacing drywall, and some are dealing with the bath houses. Mountain T.O.P. gives us so much during the summer, it’s a great thing we’re giving them some help too. Although fasting seems like a difficult task, it’s possible when you know you’re helping the community and getting to closer to God.

Hey everybody!

Katie Roth:
Hey everybody! What a wonderful day this is. And even though it’s raining outside, and everything’s wet, and we’re all cold, it’s such a great day. We’re all here together. Enduring this fast together, praying ceaselessly together, playing together, singing together, walking together, talking together, and just being together. It’s so incredibly awesome to feel this way. We’re all a part of something great, God’s plan. God’s way. We had a really cool worship session today about praying with our eyes open. We all walked around the camp and looked through God’s eyes. The rain came down, the cold seeped through our clothes, but the moment stretched on and on. I thought of something cool, too. So you know how we came from the dust? God made us from the dust, no? Well I think He didn’t just want us to be from the dust, but He wanted us to be from the mud. And from the raindrops on the trees. And from the slippery tree trunks. And from the rocks. And from everything in this world. I think maybe He chose the dust because it flies around everywhere and travels all over, just like pilgrims do. And WE are pilgrims. But I was thinking that since all the other stuff in this world IS everywhere in the world, we are partially from that, too. It’s our mission to go, to go and spread the word. So I would like for all of us to remember to keep on praying with our eyes open, and to think about our mission in this beautiful world. And hey, maybe Sally will get that snow she’s been wanting!

Hello from Mountain T.O.P.!

Emma Peterson:

Hello from Mountain T.O.P.! I’m pleased to announce that although fogged in, we have made it safe and sound. Back at church we played games and then went over to the chapel to pray. At the chapel, we decided to remember God by marking one another wtih a cross on the head from the ashes left over from Ash wedenesday. Afterwards, we departed for camp. Here we have all signed up for at least two vigils to keep praying the whole 30 hours while we are fasting. Please keep us in your prayers and eat a lot!

Arrival.

Hello from Mountain T.O.P.! I’m pleased to announce that although fogged in, we have made it safe and sound. Back at church we played games and then went over to the chapel to pray. At the chapel, we decided to remember God by marking one another wtih a cross on the head from the ashes left over from Ash wedenesday. Afterwards, we departed for camp. Here we have all signed up for at least two vigils to keep praying the whole 30 hours while we are fasting. Please keep us in your prayers and eat a lot!

Arrival.

Hello from Mountain T.O.P.! I’m pleased to announce that although fogged in, we have made it safe and sound. Back at church we played games and then went over to the chapel to pray. At the chapel, we decided to remember God by marking one another wtih a cross on the head from the ashes left over from Ash wedenesday. Afterwards, we departed for camp. Here we have all signed up for at least two vigils to keep praying the whole 30 hours while we are fasting. Please keep us in your prayers and eat a lot!

Traveling to the Mountain

It was a long drive up to pines with many a complaint of the cell phone/ipod ban, but we are here.  We look forward to a new experience with the famine and traveling up to the mountain for a change.  Something old mixed with something new, a familiar journey with new intentions. The drive may be over but there are many more adventure to come during the rest of our fast.  Good Night to all in the valley below from your friends on the mountain.

-Bailey

insearchof the Royal Rule.

It was an intense Transfiguration Sunday at Se*lah this week. We began as usual, stepping out of the traffic of our crazy  lives and stepping into the quietness of God’s presence. We ate a wonderful meal, complete with salad and delicious brownies! After a brief Famine inspirational clip, a reminder of our friend Affiisu (our sponsored child), we trucked straight on into The Letters of James. Picking up at chapter two, we began by discussing partiality both on a large scale and in our very own church community (even at Se*lah). We continued with what soon became the unscripted focal point of the night, whether all sins were equal in GOD’s eyes and the reasons behind temptation and pain in the world.  An analogy surfaced likening a life with God in this world as to walking on a path (a path that is as fun as it is wide maybe a bit more like a playground).   There are numerous ways to end up of the path but from God’s perspective they all lead to the same result:  not being on the playground-path.    The conversation was very spirited and heavy.  Even the quietest of our group spoke out their opinions on the subjects. We wrestled as a community with some very difficult topics,and continued our conversations well into our individual groups trying to work out what this all means in the details of our every day life.

 

-Hannah Hopkins

In searchof some sense.

To say I was disappointed when I learned it had been decided we would be reading the book of James next at Selah, instead of Timothy, would be about on target.  I should have known better and maybe one day I’ll trust God enough to just go with the flow and remember His camera has a larger lens, more mega pixels, and uber zoom to see the details.  Thanks God, the correlation I figured out – the reminder I received – it was just what I needed.

 

I’m in a 12-step recovery program.  The program is spiritual based.  Since being in the program, I’ve heard things like “Let Go, Let God”, “Turn it over to God”, “Faith without works is dead”.  I know we talk about God in the recovery program I belong to but until we started reading James, I never put the 12-step program and the Bible together.

 

When we started reading the book of James, my first impression was Yeah, right!  I’m supposed to be happy when life gets bumpy?  If you stop to think about it though, it’s through the trials in life that we grow.  If life had been fantastic, I wouldn’t have found the 12-step program.  Typically, we don’t come asking for help when life is good.  We have to get to a point where we realize we can’t do it alone.

 

James goes on to talk about asking for God’s wisdom when we don’t have the answer and that it’s in our best interest to leave it with God.  That doesn’t mean I can ask God what I’m supposed to do with my life or for help passing a test and then go lay on the couch doing no action expecting God to take care of it.  We need to do the foot work and have faith that if we do our part, I mean really put forth the effort that maybe we don’t have to get all stressed out about it and trust that things will be ok.

 

I think it’s like the sign I see when I go to my 12-step meetings that I mentioned “Let Go, Let God”.  Let Go of the worry and do the next right thing.  Have faith and Let God take care of outcome.

 

How cool and peaceful, how blessed a people we would be if we could practice this without ceasing.

 

Kristi  Herring

InSearchOf More than Cash

I am in the top 1% of the richest people in the world.  My wife and I don’t seem like we make that much, in fact some months it feels like we are barely getting by.  But we own a house.  Two cars.  A television.  A refrigerator.  A toilet.  We are among the richest 1%.  We are the rich.  I am rich.

 

So, what can I do?  What can we do?  Americans are, as a whole, the richest people in the world. And we live and work in one of the richest counties in America.  So, what can we do?  The first option seems the most logical: give money.  We have lots of it, so why not give it to people who need it.  You know, it costs one dollar to buy a song on iTunes, but that same dollar could also feed and care for a child for whole day.  That’s right, just one dollar a day.  Here’s another one for you: one half of the world’s population live on the money we spend on our daily latte.  The money that we give and the money that we raise can make a difference, but is that all that is required of us?

 

Let’s look at 1 Timothy 6:17-19

As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. ¹⁸They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, ¹⁹thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.

 

These versus seem to suggest that there is more to giving than just money.  We (the rich) are supposed to give ourselves, to do good and practice good works

 

We, the youth and adults at St. Paul’s, have done the 30 Hour Famine for twelve years now, but this year we are stepping out of the usual routine and we are getting serious about what it means to give ourselves to the famine this year.  We will be fasting to seek God, in search of how we are called make a difference in this upside-down world.  We don’t know what this will exactly look like, but we do know one thing: We want you to be there with us.  Won’t you give yourself to the Famine this year?

 

What were we seeking?

How rich we really are.

Ways to get serious about the Famine.

 

How did we seek it?

We learned from Rob Bell’s Nooma “Rich,” that we are among the wealthiest people in the world.  We quieted ourselves to get in sync with God and God’s reality, and we looked at startling facts about hunger to get in sync with the reality of this upside-down world.  We searched for ways to give ourselves to the famine, and tried to think of methods we could use to teach others about hunger while asking them to pledge themselves to the famine.

 

What did we find?

We discovered that we are rich.  We learned God calls us to give more than just money, but to give ourselves to fight hunger and poverty.  We found that raising money for the famine can be easy, but getting serious about making a difference and seeking God can be a more difficult task.

 

How then shall we live?

We will be serious about hunger.  We will get in sync with God’s reality and with the reality of this world.  We will give ourselves to the famine and to God, and we will take you along with us.

 

To learn more about what St. Paul’s is doing for the famine this year, please go here.