blog one another

Gas prices are changing our lifestyle

The kids are back in school, and that means Kay is back in driving mode. As I learned from first-hand experience, she does a lot more driving than I.

So as much as she loves her Odyssey and I my Prius, we have swapped cars in order to save money. Yes, the rising cost of gas is leading to lifestyle changes.

I still have trouble parking the minivan in the garage at work. But Kay seems to have adjusted quite easily, mocking the large trucks and SUVs in the pick-up lines at each school with the gusto of a seasoned Pious driver!

The recluse

Neighbor M's father died recently, so I bought a condolence card, and took it around for each of the neighbors to sign. I'm sneaky, you see: I want to bless M. I want to bless the neighborhood by rallying them to a neighbor's cause. But I also saw an opportunity to visit each neighbor, and if invited, enter their homes.

"Looks like except for W, you have everybody," R said.
"Yeah, I'll get W. But I also want to get S," I replied.
"S? Oh man. If you don't come out, I'll come look for you," he joked.

The neighbors don't know what to make of S, who lives with her grown children but is never seen. Some of them are scared of her. R tells me that once S came into the court with a handgun, which W removed from her.

So I headed over and rang her doorbell. Little dogs inside responded, trying to sound vicious. A voice: "Get away from there!"
"S? Is that you?" I asked.
No reply.
"S? It's your neighbor, Jon. May I come in?"

S came out instead. She hadn't heard the doorbell, she explained, and was yelling at the dogs. We sat and visited. I already knew some history: She was a pastor's wife, until he divorced her. She's experienced chronic back pain since an injury years ago. Her life is dark. "I think if I died, nobody would notice. The neighbors might notice my children wearing black -- except that they wear black anyway," she said with a sad grin. "Nobody comes to see me. I don't want to think that God has forgotten me."

"That's why I'm here," I said, apologizing for not coming sooner.

Knitting for a Cause

From my friends at Haven. I should have posted this earlier, but there are still 3 Saturdays left.

Folks,

Just wanting to let you know of a series of events from our knitting friend Mayra Barajas. Her father works for an organization called FREE AT LAST that works with men and women who are struggling with drug addiction to find hope and recovery. What they need are knitted hats/caps/beanies that will be given out by Free At Last volunteers to homeless persons primarily in East Palo Alto. They will be distributed prior to the winter season so that they will be ready for the cold.

Mayra's goal and vision is at least 50 hats - 50!! And she's going to host a "knitting hour" at a local yarn retailer if you don't want to knit alone - and need a community to knit with. She'll do this for the next 4 consecutive Saturdays - yes 4!!

If you're just learning or don't know how - Mayra is a pro and she'll teach you too. You can buy the stuff at the store and she'll have you knitting these in no time. Or whatever it is that you're wanting to knit. So no matter the skill level or lack there of - come on out and help Mayra and her gang reach the goal of 50 knitting hats!! Donations for yarn to be knitted into hats are also welcome.

Info below:

Bobbin's Nest
1171 Homestead Rd. #130
Santa Clara, CA 9505
408/246-1121
August 9, 16, 23, 30 [SAT] - 12pm to 2pm
Snack Likely; Discount From Store Owner Probably [TBD]

Mayra's contact info - barajasml [at] gmail.com.

Thanks all - look forward to reaching the goal of 50!!

Saturday with God

Watch Olympics in the morning with Kay.

Go get some food to take to the party tonight. Huh, there's a homeless guy soliciting outside the grocery store. …No, not today. I've got a lot to do. Finished with my shopping, I start to drive away. There's the homeless guy again. Should I stop? No, I think I'll keep going. Made it on to the road back. Darn. I should not develop a habit of ignoring the poor just because "I don't have time." Turn around, head back. Find him, park. Walk to him.

Friday evening with God

Nobody's seen our neighbor R in days. On Thursday I asked our neighbor G if he knew where R was, and he didn't know, but suggested I ask R's sister M, who lives outside of our cul-de-sac. G also said he had heard M might have been diagnosed with a tumor.

So on Friday after work, I went out for my neighborhood prayer-walk, which I have made a new daily practice. Walked over to M's house. Opened the gate and entered a beautiful courtyard I have never set foot in. Rang the doorbell, which still takes courage because it is crossing a suburban boundary. I hear a little voice inside saying, "It's a white man."

The door opens and M invites me inside. I have never been in her house before. We visit for a bit, then I ask where R is. Turns out he's vacationing in Hawaii -- nice! Visit a bit more. M shares that she has in fact developed some kind of tumor between her stomach and a kidney, and will be going in for surgery next week to have it removed. I know that M is a Christian so I have no hesitation in offering to pray for her. I pray for healing, that the tumor would not affect neighboring organs, that it would be completely removed, and that M would be free of fear.

On my way out, I wave at M's husband D eating in the kitchen, but notice that there are other people there as well. "Would you like to meet my parents?" Yes! I doubt they can speak a word of English, but they greet me warmly nonetheless. M offers to feed me, but I need to get back to my own family for dinner and the the opening ceremonies of the Olympics.

I'm a dancing fool

I wasn't going to tell this story, because drawing attention to myself was not the point.

Two weeks ago, I played bass for Sunday worship. We did Matt Redman's song "Undignified" which draws its words from the time one of King David's wives rebuked him for dancing in worship, and he retorted, "I'll become even more undignified than this!"

In my book, if you're going to do a song, you'd better mean it. So as I hammered out the bass line, I starting prancing (I can't call it dancing) along the length of the back of the stage. Finally, I dropped to my knees, then got on my back, and started spinning in circles. The spinning caused me to become unplugged, but I never noticed -- I was busy. One shoe unexpectedly went flying through the air, so I deliberately followed it with the other one. As I followed its path I thought, "Oh no, it's going to hit one of the singers!" Thankfully, the shoes made a good arc just over their heads, dropping in front of the stage.

And that is the end of my story.

Technorati Tags: worship

Wordle

This is my blog, as a worldle (click to enlarge). I like the interesting juxtapositions of words, like "Sunday heresies".

It doesn't have to be a web site; you can paste any text you like. (Hat tip: tallskinnykiwi)

Water found on Mars!

Well I'm excited, at least.