I have always had the dream of owning and operating a restaurant…although if I were to cook the menu would be limited…in conjunction with the dream I have just returned from Mexico where I always enjoy eating copious amounts of tacos from street stands and vendors…my friends Jason and Matt were joking at the border about buying a taco cart and towing it home across the border…well low and behold, the next best thing…thanks to the Kiva my dream has come true…along with my guys d-group we have decided to loan some money we collected together to Simon Guzman Albiso who currently operates a taco and torta business from the back of his motorcycle (this guy is one of my new heroes, motorcycles, tacos and tortas!!!)…he needed a loan to make his mobile business more stable by building a stand…I am so excited about being an investor in a taco stand…but more importantly to help a man make a better life for himself and his family…I am already praying for Mr. Albiso, his family and his business…the guys and I are also going to try to visit his stand if at all possible…oh by the way we also loaned to a woman hoping to expand her market in Mexico…micro-lending rules!!!…graceandpeace…

…I just finished Rob Bell’s new book Sex God…

…I really enjoyed his thoughts on marriage, relationships, and sex…I will be using this in studies with young adults and couples…his chapter titles, and the title of the work are both provocative, but I didn’t find the content so much so…the ideas are generally very well supported and laid out in a very inviting and intuitive way…his overall theme is that there God is the God of relationships and that our sexuality/marriages/relationships are a microcosm of His relationship with us…graceandpeace y’all…

If anyone ever wonders why I do what I do….please read the poem below.  It was written by a past Eli Home client who is currently a 15 yr old honor roll student.  Nicole recalls when her and her family “escapes” the horrible living situation they were in.  This was 10 years ago, for those that may think kids are too young to remember or know what’s going on, this clearly proves otherwise.  Nicole and her family remain very close to The Eli Home, she shared this with me yesterday and feel it clearly describes the work of The Eli Home.

Lisa

Escape

Dark and scary

Trapped involuntarily

No where to go

Bruises she will show.

The families concern

Safety she will yearn

Five kids to save

She must be brave

She must get out

There’s no one to hear her shout

Slowly she is dying

Can no one hear her crying?

There is a beating on the wall

They all hear her fall

She sits in disbelief

When will she get relief

The kids gather round

And pick her up off the ground

They tell her it will be okay

That they will get away someday

Hoping and wishing it will be soon

Then one day around noon

He sleeps, passed out

Without a doubt

She gathers all five kids

Puts a hand over their mouths like lids

They must not make a sound

Hopefully he won’t hear her strong heart pound

They’re out the door

Dare she take a step more

They pile into the car

Leaving behind everything but the scar

The engines roars

Her spirit soars

They are safe…

They are free.

-Nicole

Check out www.kiva.org, it is amazing…a great way to make a difference and a personal connection…Cara and I will be looking for someone to loan to tonight…I am so excited about this…PBS Frontline has a great 15 minute feature, check it out here…graceandpeace y’all…

- Anne Lamott

Yup…modern slavery…poverty…AIDS…suicide…pornography…abuse…Darfur…Iraq…Camarillo…is anybody out there?…
what do we do now?…I feel that there is so much to do, but I don’t know where to begin…there are so many issues and people groups pulling at my heart, I know God has created me to care and to act, but how and where to start…help!!!

FRIDAY:…go to church…last minute paperwork…Justin shows up to help go shopping…Tanner Kavon tags along…gas up the truck…Target for stuff…Tanner wants Naruto cards whatever the heck those things are…they don’t have Combos, the greatest road trip snack…go to SportMart…buy a sled thingy and snowball maker/thrower (these things turn out to be an absolute waste of time and money)…almost buy a paintball gun, an airsoft gun, a big inflatable island, and some goggles, but don’t…not really sure why…or why I thought of wanting them…digression…on to Kragen’s for chains (don’t buy them because I can’t return them)…on the way to Kragen’s we stop at Big Lots for fun…I buy an Elmo watch for a dollar…from this time forward all questions about time are prefaced by “Elmo says…” so for example…”what time is it…Elmo says 12.02”…get it…on to my house to pick up my stuff…then to Taco Bell…Justin is always complaining about not stopping at Taco Bell on our trips so I preempt him by going there before the trip starts…of course this doesn’t stop Justin from complaining in the future…he is threatening to walk to Taco Bell next time we stop for food and don’t go there…little does he know I’m planning on lurking in the bushes as he walks to Taco Bell and tackling him…oops now he knows…oh well bigger and better schemes to come…return to the church…wait for arrivals…students arrive…pack up…turn around and only 5 of the 24 students are still at the church…apparently everyone decided to go across the street for food and snacks…1.30p we leave…only 30 minutes behind schedule not bad…on the road…the party truck is packed…travis, justin, 123, nate, tanner and I…started with the full shuffle on the ipod, then decide on “Freakin Mexico Madness”…wise decision…we pretty much party all the way to Mammoth on this playlist…stop at McDonald’s Justin has to pee…stop in some town Wes has to pee…this little gas station only has one bathroom…take a long time to cycle almost 30 people through the bathroom…123 watches his DVD player…he goes to the scene selection menu and selects the credits…he watches the credits…then he does it all over again…classic 123…he is also continuously saying “shut up and drive”…I feel sorry for Nate, he has to sit in the middle of me and 123…I think 123 is a bigger problem than me, but you’ll have to ask Nate for confirmation…123 pushes the dash for some reason, I think he is trying to turn it on, but there are no buttons, just dash, so I inform him that it doesn’t make any sense to press the dash…dinner in Bishop, Carl’s Jr, no Taco Bell for Justin…on the road, more Mexico Madness…arrive at our Mammoth home…check in…unload…rules and stuff…go to the store…hang out and watch I don’t remember what movie…for some reason I have a bed to myself and Justin, Travis, and Jordan are sharing one, but I’m not complaining…sleep…

SATURDAY:…wake up…shower…for the first time in years we don’t go to the Breakfast Club for breakfast on the first day…instead Travis, Justin, Nate and I accompany our second group of snowboarders to the Village…while everyone is renting equipment we go to eat at a place called Hennesey’s for breakfast…I order the Avalanche…it’s really good…we meet up with everyone else after breakfast and ride to gondola to Canyon Lodge…then we get back on the gondola and return to Village…on the ride back I explain the history of Jefe Maximo I, II, and III to the guys…we then stop at the bathroom because the Avalanche was fighting back…it becomes the Avalanche room…we then come up with a great plan for the rest of the day…first we will go and get 123 from his ski lesson, then go to Schat’s to get yummy bread…next, we will go to the store and buy stuff to make chicken noodle soup for dinner, we will get the soup made…and finally, we will make a live action stop motion movie featuring NDP and a fight scene…it was a great plan, but then it happened…when we got to the main lodge, after not finding a parking spot and having to ride the bus from Schat’s, we found out that Babis had hurt his wrist…Justin, Travis, and I commented that we hoped it didn’t require a trip to the hospital, because we had experienced that in 05 with Jordan…our hopes went unfulfilled as Babis did indeed need to go to the hospital…there goes our super plan…I take Babis to the hospital…3 hours later he has a new pink cast on his broken wrist…we go back to the chalet…the ladies (Jen, Debbie, and Janice) have prepared a wonderful dinner of chicken and rice soup in bread bowls, a great salad, and Sami cake for desert…we eat…we watch a little bit of MIB and then load up to go to the night session…apparently we are having the sessions in a different place and I didn’t know it because we get there and there is no one…we find the place just down the road…the session is good…Marty and his band do a great job of leading worship and our speaker Ian presents a wonderful message about how God sees each of us “really, really good”…afterwards we have group time…our curfew is 10p tonight because some kids from another church were making too much noise last night and the hotel wasn’t very happy with us…we hand out and watch MIB2…I fall asleep and wake up to the ending…turn off the TV…hear a sound that is akin to the sound of a dog growling while eating a large steak, but this is no dog growling while eating a large steak…rather it is 123 snoring…WOW this kid has some of the weirdest noises…at the present he is periodically making this half hacking half wheezing noise…the onomatopoeia looks like this “peeeh”…it is now called peeehing and Justin and I will be greeting each other with the sound…digression…sleep

SUNDAY:…I wake up at 6.30a to help Shawn with setting up breakfast in the Mountain View room…the hotel told us that they would be able to feed the students with their complimentary continental breakfast, but it sucks so we decide to set up the food we brought up…I hang out with him for a little while…and then return to shower and get ready for church…a group of 15 of us walk down the street to Mammoth Lutheran Church for service…the service was different than we’re used too, more responsive reading, standing up, hymn, and the such…overall the experience was great and I really appreciate the service…the pastor even invites us to stay at the church in the future…after church we gather the rest the non-snowboarding people and head off to lunch…by the way it was snowing lightly…we try to go to the Good Earth Café, but there is a long wait…we settle on going back to the Village…half of the people eat at a pita place…I go with a group back to Hennessey’s…good food there…Justin orders the Mammoth Burger, two big patties, bacon, cheese, fries and onion rings…I bet him a dollar he can’t eat it all…Sharon reminds me that I made a similar bet with her when she was in High School and lost…Justin loses the bet…I give him a dollar anyways for the effort…the students shop at a Mammoth logo store…I go to the Avalanche Room and do my business…then the students head to ride on the Gondola…Nate and I decide to put chains on the vehicles while it was still light outside…we figured this wouldn’t take too long…we were wrong…we get the chains on Debbie’s Yukon without incident…then we try to get them on Janice’s Expedition…we try and try and try, but they just wouldn’t fit…we discover that the chains she has are broken…no wonder they don’t fit…then we try to chain up Nate’s Odyssey so we can to get new chains for the Ex and for the truck I drove up…we try and try and try…the chains simply don’t fit…they should they’re the right chains but they don’t fit…then we receive a phone call…Kayla has hurt her knee and is on the way to aid station at Canyon lodge…we coordinate for Sharon and Melissa to head up to the lodge via bus and for Debbie to pick them up there…I walk to Rite Aid to buy new chains…Nate picks me up and we drive to a chain installer on Main Street to see if he can get the chains on Nate’s van…he tells us that they don’t fit after trying to get the chains Nate has on to the tire…we end up buying new chains for Nate’s van from him…we go to the hospital to check in on Kayla…they are just unloading her when we get there…she seems to be in pretty good spirits…Janice and Melissa volunteer to stay with her…big time thanks to them…I go back to the chalet to chain up the Ex and the truck…the new chains barely fit the truck and are too big to fit the Ex even though the box says they should fit…I’m gonna find out where this chain company is and go throw the boxes through their window…Nate and Nick leave to get chain tensioners and pizza for dinner…I take the truck to the hospital to wait with Kayla, Janice and Melissa…I sit and wait…finish a good book I was reading…and watch basketball on TV…C.Webb is having a good game…the ladies come out…Kayla’s knee isn’t seriously hurt…thank goodness…when I go outside to get the truck a man needs a jump start…I try to help, doesn’t work…take everyone back to the chalet…go back to the hospital to help out the guy…can’t get his truck started…he calls AAA…I go to the session…everyone’s good there…I go eat dinner at Carl’s Jr…needed a minute to unwind in the quite of my own thoughts…go to store to buy badges (we don’t need no stinkin badges)…find medals instead…buy some roses too…go to session…another good one…great worship…Ian shares about the prodigal son and God’s love…good stuff…group meeting…give out medals to Melissa for staying with Kayla at the hospital, to Justin and Travis for undertaking the secret operation (if you want to know ask them), and to Nate for being the man…the roses are for the Sharon, Janice, Deb, and Jen…students pack up and clean up…Guitar Hero in the Mountain View…youth pastor meeting…get T-Shirts…Guitar Hero in the room…Travis finally wises up and switches beds…something’s on TV…sleep…

MONDAY:…wake up…pack up…load up…after 5 years of showing him how, 123 still can’t roll up his sleeping bag…Wes rolls it up for him…123 unrolls it…still can’t roll it up himself…I finally show him again…on the road…Disney songs…stop to unchain the cars…more Disney songs…Schat’s in Bishop…yummy food…on the road…back to Freakin’ Mexico Madness…123 goes nuts…here’s a quick rundown…check out Travis’ report for a much better play-by-play…he watches the kissing scene from Sandlot 2 over and over and over, maybe 50+ times…every time we pass a car he sticks his hand out the window and yells “BANG”…he continues to say “shut up and drive” and peeehing…he falls asleep and looks really funny…he drools…overall he is hilarious and we can’t stop laughing…we stop in Lone Pine for gas and Palmdale for In’N’Out…overall the trip home has too many funny moments for me to mention, again Travis will do better…let me just say that the 400 mile, 6 hour car ride didn’t seem that long…that’s how much fun we were having…we arrive at home…good stuff…see ya in Mexico…you won’t want to miss out on that trip…graceandpeace…the Master aka Subcomandante Jefe Maximo IV aka 805.1…OUT

“***WARNING***
Don’t expect to understand anything…if you happen to understand something it is a mistake, just consider yourself fortunate…and away we go…

…yes I love elipses…the following is an account of the Mammoth 2006 Winter event…the names may have been changed to protect the guilty…errr innocent…

FRIDAY…realized I hadn’t bought any food for the trip yet…280 people may starve unless I get a move on…I figure 45 minutes is enough time…what a retarded idea that was…2 hours, 6 carts (the kind that are flat, not the basket), and over $1000 later we had what I thought would be enough food for the trip (culinary saga t.b.c.)…got to the church late…packing was boring…on the road…crap we forgot DDR, but maybe that was blessing in disguise…I’m getting tired of listening to 805.123 (from this point on will be referred to as only 123)…time to turn the tables…Don’t press that button 123…he pressed it and now it’s on…Hello, Mr. President…now you’ve done it, it’s on and we can’t turn it off…there is no vibe between us 123, me and Travis have vibe, but none between us…Justin you are not vibing…Dirty Vegas brings the vibe back to Justin…holy crap it’s ON…what…ok…yeah…this drive sucks…oh well make the best of it…good God it’s windy…IT’S ON…the Bush calls again…and again…and again…I think this joke has been used about as much as my cell phone has been touched by 123…my butt hurts…shuffle mode on ipods reveal long forgetten treasures such as “Hey Jude”…gas stop in some crazy town on the 395…Rockstar for Justin…Red Bull for Travis, who doesn’t like Red Bull and gives it to Justin…Low Carb Monster for me, don’t ask why…123 eats an entire package of Mentos in 5 minutes…they sell guns at this gas station…but only between the hours of 10 and 5…on the road again…yes, it is still on…no you can’t turn it off, once it is on it is on…the Bush calls again…see it’s worn out…like the antenna on my cell phone which is constantly being touched by 123…Carl’s in Bishop for dinner…I’m not too hungry…Nate gets nasty looking chili cheese fries…on the road again…my Sub is slow…newly rediscoved treasure “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” by GNR absolutely awesome…we’re there…unloading food…getting to our chalet…going to the store for more food…this time we add $200 in water, milk and OJ…back to the chalet…meet with Shawn to go to check out the venue…back to the store, this time for personal goodies, Gaterade and chips…back to the chalet…take my pills…go to bed…

SATURDAY…very early…the TV goes on…it’s a Spanish infomercial…Travis turns it off…123 turns on and Scott doesn’t help…lots of noise…bury my head in the pillow…finally get up…shower and change…go to The Breakfast Club…Travis doesn’t like cows, I comfort him…order chorizo and eggs…a lot of food…finish it all anyways…go to Footloose…don’t know why, but it seems we end up there every year…go back to the chalet…it’s cold, windy and snowing…get lunch ready…I turn on a pot of water for dinner…go to the store again, this time to buy materials for THE CAKE…drive up to the Canyon Lodge to pick up left over lunch stuff…come back…someone has turned off my pot of water…start it again…eat chips in the chalet…someone has turned off my pot of water again…this time I start it and stay to protect it…it takes forever to boil water in Mammoth…cook dinner…macaroni and spaghetti sauce…takes forever…this kitchen sucks…spaghetti sauce on my shoes…students act like animals…not enough food for dinner…oh well…time for the session…movie game…I can’t believe Travis doesn’t know these…Lizzie wins on the first try…worship led by Marty and his band…it’s really good…gets me in the right place…now it’s time for Steve…123 is sitting next to me…Steve is good…123 keeps talking…123 starts to fidget…123 wraps his jacket around his head and Nate and I almost start cracking up…Steve is doing a great job, but I am distracted by 123…Steve wraps up by calling the students to think about what they can do to change the world…yes students can change the world…shut up yes they can…the question is will they…if they put as much passion into the Kingdom of God as they do some of their other, and I say lesser, activities…well then…we would be talking not about mere changes, but of world wide revolution…go back to chalet for church time…good input on the part of students…hope some of this is sinking in…back to the store…$180 for more breakfast and lunch foods…by time we get back the other churches’ students have raided the food and eaten a bunch of the stuff we just tried to replenish…additionally they are animals and the concept of trash cans and trash can empting is obviously foreign…this makes me a whirlwind of anger…I’m tired…ready to go to bed…take my pills…go to sleep…

SUNDAY…very early in the morning…TV turns on again…it’s still a Spanish infomercial…I turn the TV off this time…123 turns on and Scott still doesn’t help out the situation…get frustrated and stuff my earphones into my ears and bury my head in the pillow…get up…shower and change…walk to Schat’s…admit to Katie, Scott, Travis, Justin and 123 something about Schat’s…yum Schat’s breakfast croissant sandwich and a cheese bagel…the frisbee o’ sugar…I get up to toast my bagel and when I get back all of a sudden my name has been changed to Chris…”I like you Jeff”…walk back to chalet…why is everyone else walking so fast…I fall behind…couldn’t care less…OK I’m going to start typing again…I just got back from the bathroom…I just left my class in the middle of it to go to the bathroom…I’m the teacher…but their are only 2 students today because of a field trip…yes I’m blogging during class…I don’t care, do you…I should probably grade their exams tonight…I going to get a tattoo tonight…back to Mammoth…get lunch ready…I have to take 123 to his ski lesson…he can’t find his glove…borrows some from Scott…ask 123 if he has any other pants, because the sweat pants he is wearing will get wet…he says no…get on the bus to the Main Lodge…almost to the Lodge when 123 says that he left his waterproof pants in the chalet…I can’t think of anything to say other than “It’s on”…oh well not going back to get the pants now…rent skis for 123…have to touch his feet…not fun…check him into his lesson…ride the bus back to the chalet…start cooking dinner…must brown 75lbs. of beef for dinner…Nate helps out while I go and pick up 123 from his lesson…get back and finish dinner…surprisingly dinner goes well…lots of food left over…offer $40 to anyone who will finish off the beans…probably about 10 lbs…no takers…students help out with serving and cleaning up…they helped clean up yesterday too…really proud of the way they are serving the other churches…time for the session…Justin plays Chubby Bunny…Justin is the Chubby Bunny champion…worship…even better than the night before…I’m really connecting with God through the music, not easy for me…Steve starts to speak…123 is doing better tonight…Steve has trouble with his mic…gey hinnom…he digresses into a Brokeback and a Lil’ Jon tangent…but the message was great…do you care…that’s part of the message, not a part of the blog…but I guess it is a part of the blog since it is in the blog…he asks if we are inclusive or exclusive…great question Steve…123 farts and it reaks…church time…directed prayer…123 farts again…I need to end this quickly or I’m gonna gag…hope this helps the students…really proud of them…packing instructions…the students surprise the coaches with roses and I get a swan…the swan’s head falls off, but it was still really cool…these students rock…back to the store…we buy every donut they had in the bakery…overall tally for food $2200…including 1200 bottles of water…500 sodas…300 cup o’noodles…75 lbs. of beef…20 lbs. of macaroni…and much much more…since THE CAKE never made it we serve a store bought cake and ice cream…Nate is slobbering all over himself…it’s quite impressive…I get it he is imitating Preston…”O Brother Where Art Thou” is on TV…I’m feeling very achy and my post nasal drip is going hog wild…I take Airborn, Zycam, Sudafed, and my pills…Justin wisely unplugs TV…go to sleep…

MONDAY…wake up…no crazy TV this time…pack up…load up…123 can’t find his pills…get very worried…is the party bus going to become the gey hinnom bus of sorrow filled with a great gnashing of teeth…can’t find the pills…everyone was looking…on the road…123 might have taken his pills but not remembered…he is doing relatively well…shuffle on the ipod rules…I’m getting tired of typing so this is going to get less and less descriptive…Schat’s in Bishop…Stacey steals my cream cheese…on the road again…gas stop…Justin’s 24 oz. Rockstar…more shuffle…more flow…we’re flowing…lunch stop…Carl’s in Mojave…lock Katie in car…feel really bad…tried to cheer her up…not good at that…on the road again…tired…achy…still feel bad about huring Katie’s feelings…can’t talk my throat hurts…123 keeps trying to talk to me…I won’t respond…shuffle still rules…were almost there…I really have to pee…I can make home…were at the church…i really have to pee…I run into the church to pee…much better now…everyone is getting picked up…say buh bye now…Travis and Katie need a ride home…Katie’s mom isn’t home yet and Katie left her key in Mammoth…Travis and I wait for Katie’s mom…the weird little girl across the street keeps yelling at me…she really wants to why I’m there…she doesn’t have a key to Katie’s house…she’s useless to me…watch out for freaky Jason…he comes out of nowhere…the magic blade of grass and the sudden urge for a Chalupa…not sure if that is chalupa as in Taco Bell or Grandma Dew…here comes Katie’s mom…bye Katie…take Travis home…talk about Mexico…bye Travis…go home…see Cara and Phoebe Louise…great trip…I’m sick…not happy about that…really proud of the students…thanks coaches…can’t wait til Mexico…it’s still on…hope the Bush stops calling…gotta get that magic blade of grass copywrited…still want a Chalupa…can’t sleep too afraid of freaky Jason…shuffle is my favorite thing about my ipod, it’s called “video killed the gooberpod”, rediscovering musical treasures all the time now…Mammoth is a great trip, but need to get more interest…how do we get others to go to this…i need to pee…I did this whole thing during Calculus class…Lizzie made us rush home to see a basketball game that was essentially forfeited…OK I really wanted to get home too…my throat is still sore…class is almost over and so is this post…THE END”

 ”No individual can live alone, no nation can live alone, and anyone who feels that he can live alone is sleeping through a revolution. The world in which we live is geographically one. The challenge that we face today is to make it one in terms of brotherhood.

Now it is true that the geographical oneness of this age has come into being to a large extent through modern man’s scientific ingenuity. Modern man through his scientific genius has been able to dwarf distance and place time in chains. And our jet planes have compressed into minutes distances that once took weeks and even months. All of this tells us that our world is a neighborhood.

Through our scientific and technological genius, we have made of this world a neighborhood and yet we have not had the ethical commitment to make of it a brotherhood. But somehow, and in some way, we have got to do this. We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will all perish together as fools. We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the way God’s universe is made; this is the way it is structured….

And I submit that nothing will be done until people of goodwill put their bodies and their souls in motion. And it will be the kind of soul force brought into being as a result of this confrontation that I believe will make the difference.

Yes, it will be a Poor People’s Campaign. This is the question facing America. Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation. America has not met its obligations and its responsibilities to the poor.

One day we will have to stand before the God of history and we will talk in terms of things we’ve done. Yes, we will be able to say we built gargantuan bridges to span the seas, we built gigantic buildings to kiss the skies. Yes, we made our submarines to penetrate oceanic depths. We brought into being many other things with our scientific and technological power.

It seems that I can hear the God of history saying, “That was not enough! But I was hungry, and ye fed me not. I was naked, and ye clothed me not. I was devoid of a decent sanitary house to live in, and ye provided no shelter for me. And consequently, you cannot enter the kingdom of greatness. If ye do it unto the least of these, my brethren, ye do it unto me.” That’s the question facing America today.”