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puente news

People keep asking me how the fund raising is going. Very well thank you very much! Right now we are more than half way to our goal of $228,000. At last check after Easter we were at about $117,000. And this does not include the generous gift of the Mueller’s of waiving our rent! So if you include that we are about at about $132,000. These are tough times to be asking over and above giving. But we are thankful for every cent we get.

This morning the Herald had a full front pager on Puente in the Neighborhood section of the paper. How cool is this…  http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=289194&src=2 

But what is even cooler is the awesome video feature they created for the website. Not to keen on the extreme close up of my mug but Paul Michna really did a terrific job! Paul took the photo’s, wrote the article and did the video piece from shoot to edit. Impressive!

Check out the video http://www.dailyherald.com/multimedia/?category=9&type=video&item=337

when you don’t have anything to say, don’t.

I think I do this about every 5 weeks or so. I have lots of thoughts. Most of them not good so I don’t write it down. I am coming off the busiest three months ever at WBC. So much going on. Honestly I am just a little wiped out.

But this was the funniest thing I have seen in a long time. There has got to be some sort of Biblical Application…

how did we get here?

The financial crisis. Ok Greed, yes. But what exactly happened and how? This video sheds a lot of light on the topic. This is much easier to understand then the Wired mag articles that came out this month. The governments plan is to unfreeze the banks so they will start lending again. And they might, but unless they change the rules we will end up right back where we started. The rules for lending need to tighten, yes that means less home ownership, but as we have seen many people should have not been in the homes they had. I am afraid we are enabling too many people by bailing them out. If they can’t afford their 3.5% mortgage how will they afford a 5%?

We are fortunate in our area of DuPage. Not too many foreclosures relative to other parts of the country. Still, there are many people losing their jobs who were able to pay their bills, all because the economy is stalling out.

Since so many people identify themselves with their job, and their money, and their status in the ‘burbs, perhaps this is an opportunity. Many people will have to find themselves again after so much has been stripped away. Perhaps we will see increasing numbers of people leave the gods of this world and turn to the God off the universe.

Oh yea check out the video.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

David @ the dentist

Perhaps you have not seen “David after Dentist”? My wife and I watched it last week and thought it was pretty funny, but also wondered why someone would put something like that on the Internet. It just seemed a little personal to me. In case you have not seen it….

Pretty funny huh?

Now there are several versions out there. One of which is here:

Ok so now I am not sure if this is so funny. I don’t know how I would feel if my son became a celebrity in this way. Sure by the time he is old enough to really care these videos will be replaced by something else. But still, it is impossible to know what kind of effect this will have on David both positive and negative. Shouldn’t he have the option of whether or not to post this on-line himself one day?

Laura posts videos of our kids on-line all the time. In fact I got her a sweet hand held video recorder so she does not miss anything. We will need to be careful about who we allow to access the videos. I am not sure Jack and Shay and baby #3 will think those videos are as cute when they are in junior high.

sometimes you just need this

Been such a craazazzy week.

Had meetings with three of my teams this week. Hunger Team on Monday, we have delivered 7 tons of food in the last 24 months. That represents a lot of new relationships with the marginalized. Local Impact Team on Tuesday, created over 20 new mentor/big buddy relationships in the past 14 months. Our refugee teams have welcomed and loved families living in hell on earth from around the world. New. Relationships. The Gospel is being communicated. People are getting on their knees and asking for forgivness. People are joining our community.

Last night the CareFest team met and planned next years event. They are excited. Early this morning I met with four new churches to come on board with CareFest next spring. We could have over 15 churches serving all over DuPage. Relationships.

In 4 days we open the door to Puente del Pueblo. We have more referrals than we have room for already. But we will be there @ wegner school, eager servants ready to build relationships. We will love them. We hope they meet Jesus one day. Some will. All will be helped, regardless.

 

I saw this video this morning and it put a smile on my face. In the midst of all this work you forget to take a moment sometimes.

True Love – phil wickham

This song has been cranking on my ipod the last few runs I had. Love it.

gotta get back to my spanish

I need to return to the Rosetta Stone. This video is a fun reminder….

One semester of spanish

keller, carson, piper on mercy

These are just great. There really is a problem it seems with churches who have tackled justice in the long term somehow loosing their footing when it comes to the Cross. These videos are very insightful. Keller has written what I believe to be finest book on mercy and the Gospel I have ever read. Check my sidebar for it. It is called simply "Ministries of Mercy". I can't believe this book is not more widely read.

Watch all six parts of this youtube video, but the first two really get at the issues of Mercy.

keller, piper, carson on mercy and the gospel

portland fest

The Luis Palau Association is thinking about bringing their Festival 2.0 model to Chicago in 2010 or 2011. They have been meeting with churches and networks the past several months to measure interest. Because there is a growing network of churches hear in DuPage County linked together by CareFest they invited me to come out to Portland to get a look at their Festival, PortlandFest.

What makes their model different is the season of service taking place in the months leading up to the event. In a nutshell, it is the service that leads to relationships that leads to invites to the festival.

But does it work? I am curious of how effective this event is, and if we really need it here in Chicagoland. The LPA was hear 10 years ago and by their standards had a less than stellar event, although I have talked to some people who thought it was great. I was not living here at the time so I don't know.

I am not sure doing something like this in Grant Park is a wide idea unless their is ton of support from churches located in the city. I know Reverend Meeks' church is 100% behind it. His church choir has been touring and supporting the LPA for a number of years. But most of the larger churches are located in the suburbs as are the larger networks of churches.

It takes about 3 million simoleans to pull this off. Is this is wise use of those kind of resources? Not sure.

Even though this is called a "festival" it still sounds like a "crusade" to me. They have added extreme sports and music that appeals to a younger crowd. But it is still bring your friends, they hear they gospel message, they believe and put their life in God's hand. Is that still an effective way of evangelism in our culture? Maybe in the far more secular Portland but what about the Midwest? Not sure.

Will suburbanites travel to Chicago to hear the Gospel? Should they? Not sure.

So that is why I am heading to Portland. Somehow the LPA wrangled up someone generous enough to fly me out on a private jet with someone from Harvest and Christ Church Oakbrook. They are also putting us up in a hotel right across the street from the Festival. I look forward to seeing the event up close.

I am also hoping to connect with the Tarka's who moved back to Portland to lead worship at a great church out there. Which somewhat ironically is not involved with the Festival.

So I will blogging and twittering the trip. I will post some pics from the phone as well.

Technorati tags: cityfest, portland

barry barry barry

One of the lead worshipers at church sang the national anthem at the Cell the other night. Not bad Barry! Not quite good enough for Wrigely but you will get there some day. 8>)

(Ill try to get to more El Puente stuff tomorrow!)