Loving the marginalized, looking for veggie oil

While we were in Spokane for the weekend, we met some folks who are traveling the US and Canada in their Veggie Oil powered RV's.  They are Mustard Seed Ministries.  The 2 families are the Fidanzos and the Coulombes.  They are both from the Portland area, and for the next year or so they will be going into communities to invest in the poor and marginalized in practical ways.  They aim to Follow Jesus, Love People and Be Simple.  It was so cool to hear about what they are doing, and also challenging to think about what this might look like for our community here in Portland.  Something I will be thinking about for a bit...

Please pray for them and support them if you are able.  Let them know if you have some veggie oil too.    

Lazy time in Spokane...

We're in Spokane for the 4th.  One of Jason's best friends from High School lives up here.  He's the kind of friend who once new Jason in the "Mullet Phase" and still hangs out with him and is kind enough to not bring it up.  Eric is a pastor here in Spokane for a church called Jacob's Well.  It's fun to hang out with Eric and his family because I see different side of Jason when I'm here.  I hear stories that I've never heard, and it helps me to put some of his quirkiness in perspective.  Those of you who know my husband, also know that he is the king of quirkiness, but in a good way.  Just so you can appreciate how cool my husband is, I'm sharing a picture today of him eating a fire wing at lunch.  He is just coming back to meat after a 3 year stint as a Peskitarian. 

I spent like 2 hours hosing off watching Youtube today.  I never do that.  I never allow myself to do stuff just to do stuff.  It feels good in certain ways, but I also feel lazy.  

As we've been driving around seeing new places, I've been thinking a lot about living in different parts of the country.  Jason and I talked about the idea of moving somewhere to "start fresh" once the kids are older.  Then I wondered if we should have a purpose for moving that was about something more than "starting fresh".  It seemed kinda selfish to me.  I thought about maybe moving to be a part of a community or moving to invest in something or contribute something.  I don't know if I'm just being weird about that, but I've been thinking a lot more these days about purpose and the drivers behind the choices we make.

We will begin the long drive in the Mini-van tomorrow. 6 hours.  Jason has made these CD's that we listen to.  The CD's have his entire collection of songs in alphabetical order by song title.  Jason is really into Spanish music, and a lot of those songs start with "El".  That section of the CD begins to suck by the 5th El song.  I'm kind of a singing in the car kind of gal.  I have a hard time when I don't know the words.  I'm going to use my powers to introduce some of the new John Mayer live CD.  

It's going to be sad to go back to the real world and the busyness of living by my blackberry.  I will miss the lazy times.