Describe yourself with the alphabet..

Tagged by Jim! Thusly, I tag August, Eric, Todd, Jackie, and Mark-Alan! Supposedly you're not allowed to spend more than 26 minutes working on this too.

a. antagonistic at times
b. butterfingers in basketball
c. crowdfright
d. dastardly
e. enthusiastic
f. far-fetched thoughts
g. good listener
h. happy usually
i. independent to a fault
j. juxtapose-crazy
k. killer sarcasm
l. lofty, impossible standards
m. meddling
n. nifty
o. only 1 person at a time, please!
p. prideful
q. quiet
r. runner
s. street-smart
t. timid
u. undisciplined
v. voiceless
w. wary
x. excel novice
y. yam-lover (and ALL other foods too!)
z. zoologist at heart

Souls eager to arrive at union with God must accept, without excusing themselves, every correction or rebuke, even if not wholly deserved, and even if wholly unjust. It takes great humility to find oneself unjustly condemned and be silent, and to do this is to imitate the Lord, who set us free from all our sins.

- Teresa of Avila

Pope Benedict XVI visits the United States

Don't really have much to post, well I suppose I do, lots of cool stuff is happening lately. Lots of youth ministry ranging from kindergarten through 9th grade boys... good stuff at work... weather is inducing more running... lots of opportunities for me to further nourish relationships with friends and family. But what I'm interested in posting is a bit of information about the current Pope.

I've recently realized how much the Pope speaks to the world. He has something to say to everyone. I have no doubt that he could have an intense conversation with you, and draw out and illuminate the image of God that you were born with. He has been in the U.S. this week, and I'm most amazed at the depth of content that he prepared and reflected on during each of his various visits. Below are his speeches verbatim, from just this trip:

• Press Conference Aboard Papal Flight - "I Go to the United States With Joy"


• Pontiff's Address at White House - "Faith Sheds New Light on All Things" (Bush responds)


• Benedict XVI's Address to US Bishops - "The People of This Country Are Known for Their Great Vitality and Creativity"


• Pope's Homily at Nationals Stadium - "Americans Have Always Been a People of Hope"


• Benedict XVI's Address to Catholic Educators - "Freedom Is Not an Opting out, it Is an Opting In"


• Pontiff's Greeting to Jewish Community - "The Past 40 Years Has Fundamentally Changed Our Relationship for the Better"


• Benedict XVI's Address to United Nations - "Human Rights ... Must Be Respected As an Expression of Justice"


• Papal Address to UN Staff - "I Would Like to Express My Personal Appreciation"


• Pope's Homily Durning Mass at St. Patrick's - "Communicate the Joy Born of Faith and the Experience of God’s Love"


• Papal Greeting to Jewish Leaders - "Continue Building Bridges of Friendship"


• Pontiff's Address at Ecumenical Prayer Service - "A Faithful Witness to the Gospel Is As Urgent As Ever"


• Pope's Address to Young People With Disabilities - "God Has Blessed You With Life"


• Pope's Meeting With Youth and Seminarians - "God Is Our Origin and Our Destination, and Jesus the Way"


• Papal Prayer at Ground Zero - "God of Peace, Bring Your Peace to Our Violent World"


• Benedict XVI's Homily at Yankee's Stadium - "Look to the Future With Hope" (Cardinal's welcome)


• Benedict XVI's New York Farewell Address - "I Assure You of My Affection and Friendship in the Lord" (Cheney responds)

Holy cow that's a lot of speaking! The theme for the visit has been "Christ our Hope", and I noticed that in some of his content directed towards Jews, he set the meeting topic as "Peace our Hope".

(Update: Benedict sent some telegrams to various heads of state during his return flight.)

Hitched!

Noah and Maria are married! I'm very happy for them. I grew up with Noah and went to school with him through 8th grade, but then different high schools, and different cities for college and beyond, but we have both made the effort to stay connected. Below is the toast that I wrote and then read at the reception. I figured it appropriate to let everyone not there too, a little bit about them.

When I think of Noah, here are a few things that I think of:

I think of being treated like one of the family whenever I came over to play. Getting into trouble together. Growing up together. Learning together. Ok, you want specifics.

Did you know that when you press steel wool onto a 9-volt battery, it burst into flames? Noah and I discovered that together, nearly burning down the Koontz shed in the process.

Did you know that in the Koontz household, computer time was dished out to the kids - far more than the TV, and years before the computer was the common tool it is today? Noah and I discovered many technologies together over the years, which is THE primary reason that I'm in the Computer Science field today.

Did you know that Noah is an avid: backpacker, runner, cycler, white water rafter, canoer, swimmer, and caver? Did you know that, Maria? Did you know that at a moment's notice, he may begin choosing these activities as family vacations? These are all things Noah & I have explored together, and it brings me to more concepts that remind me of him. Adventurous, to a fault. Just last night I heard about Noah snapping a photo of a Canadian border official, and then lying when later questioned about it!

Noah, I don't know anyone who is more capable of laughter amidst personal difficulties than you. What it means is that I can no longer distinguish your sense of joy and compassion from your strength of perseverance. It has been a joy - and really a miracle - for me to see you overcome childhood social difficulties, to nurture many friendships in high school - old friends and new alike - and even to become the life of parties in college. To me the amazing and Christlike part about it is the method by which you've overcome difficulties. Instead of closing up and disguising yourself, you've opened yourself to the world, and become increasingly vulnerable - in a good way - to those around you. How many of us can boast that? Not many. Noah, I daresay that you are taking the short, quick path to being a child of God, while the rest of us are taking the long uphill path.

When I think of Maria, what do I think of? The first thing I think is, Noah, how the heck did you pull that of?? A beautiful young woman walks into a computer store asking for help. She has an amazing familythat took great care to be the best they could be for her, and she unwittingly steps into the realm of Noah Koontz, and finally she has found one person to which she can both give and receive 100%. Maria, when I think of Noah's perseverance in everything, I've seen very clearly in the last few years that his relationship with you captures the reality of it most fully. He will do anything for you.

It's an understatement for me to say I'm excited to see the coming years. As the two of you - and your extended family - continue to grow together, you become an increasingly powerful force for good in the world. You can count on me - and everyone else here - to be in the front row of your cheering section! I love you both and pray often for you. May God remain the center and foundation of your love! Thanks for giving us this day, Noah & Maria Koontz!

Trail run, anyone?

One of the precursors to Spring is the excited anticipation of runners who begin making ambitious plans for the warm weather, before it has even returned. I am one of the guilty many. Though it certainly seems that I have more runners around me than I did last year. More of my friends are interested in running, more are taking the step from "not running", to "jogging", to "running", than before. I have also become aware of my decline in fitness since leaving Chicago.

The Davids (Salmon & Zimmel) told me about the Grand Island Trail Marathon awhile back, and I've since scrounged up a solid commitment from a few other guys to register to run it! There is also growing interest from a few more folks to join us in driving up there and do the 10 kilometer run that accompanies it. I think so far we've got 7 or 8 people signed up total. To quote the website, "The marathon filled by early May last year and the 10Km filled by late June," so if you are interested, you will need to commit soon!

As part of our marathon training, we plan on running in the Sunburst races a couple months prior... some in the half marathon, some in the 5k or 10k. This race is always open through race day, though you will pay quite a bit more if you do not register early.

My good friend Chris has provided some great help to us. I have not gotten to see him much at all since I moved out of Chicago a couple years ago (that long!!), but we stay in varying degrees of contact online, which is really a blessing. He helped me run the Chicago marathon twice, and this time he created a training schedule for our trail run! Check it out for a great example of what kind of running to do for a competitive marathon. But our primary goals are to survive this scenic trail course with as few open wounds and pulled muscles as possible, perhaps even without walking. :)

Anyone care to join, for any of this?

Trying something new..

Not sure how often I will do this, but I'd like to try something called "fisking," though what I actually produce will usually be a poor example of it. I would rather get my thoughts out, in a broken form, than miss getting them out there while I wait for the opportunity to more clearly articulate them.

My first one is based on an article that I encountered in my Del.icio.us network (that links to my own bookmarks, but I'm referring to a bookmark somebody else in my network posted.) The article is: How to Respond to Conservatives, and my response to it is:

The first half of this document is basic conversation/debate tactics. It makes the claim that conservatives are emotional and unreasonable, even though you could easily swap in a person with any ideology for that. They are attacks on the person, not the topic. They highlight the flow of the conversation over the content. The problem is he slides in content: i.e., diverting a pro-lifer by saying "by all means then, you should not have one". You should be careful what you learn from this article, because it provides no means for dialog, and very little means for reason.

The second half of this document is entirely about persuasion. It establishes liberals as a wall of truth, and teaches you how to extend your territory without ever giving any up. Amazingly, it again makes no space for honest 2-way dialog with "truth" being the goal. Instead, your own ideas, the vague ideas behind liberalism, are the goal.

The fact of the matter is, dividing the world into two camps: liberals/progressives/leftists and conservatives/rightists, is no better than dividing the world into democrats and republicans, which creates absolutely no real "progress", because it both polarizes people, and obscures ideas.

Sainthood

Interesting thing I'm discovering about myself: I grew up thinking it was a selfish thing to say, "I want to be a saint."

That probably sounds absurd. All Christians aspire to sainthood, and even non-Christians know that it's something important to us.

I grew up thinking it would be an amazing gift from God to be a saint, but would honestly feel ashamed ever expressing a desire to be a saint.

Pretty crazy! I realize now that what I saw in sainthood was miracles and eternal life and joy and comfort and good food and being "better than everyone else." What I see now is a life of poverty, humility, and humiliations. An ardent desire for God's unity and peace and justice, so ardent that you would daily lay down your life for it. As this understanding grows, I'm beginning to realize how good it is even to desire sainthood. To be Christ here today.

Who wants to be a saint?

Allendale

This week I have been in a neighborhood in Shreveport, Louisiana, called Allendale. A few years ago a few young men in the People of Praise did some research and praying for where God would like for them to spend their energy and help usher in his kingdom. They settled on Allendale, one of the poorest places in the country, and there has been an ever-increasing presence here, being and bringing Jesus Christ to a struggling people. Just a few pages with snippets of the Allendale work are here, here, here.

As an inadequate summary of the week, I'm just going to briefly describe the pattern of life, and what I did each day beyond the pattern. All of the local full-time employees of One:Ten, except me, are members of the new Work College in South Bend. It's a collection of undergrads, recent grads, an older single, and a largish family, that share a large part of their life together, meeting together for most dinners, praying together, learning together, playing together, and working together. The Work College decided that those who were able to would spend a week together in Allendale, with the folks living down there.. another group of singles plus an older couple and a younger couple.

I had been hearing a lot about Allendale, but had never been here. So when these plans came about, I jumped at the opportunity to tag along even though I am not a member of the Work College. Our offices are on the Work College campus, but I am a member of the Havard household in Mishawaka. So the plan for One:Ten was to join in the trip to Allendale, but simply share in the life while spending the workday still doing normal One:Ten work. This consists of morning prayer with everyone, a simple breakfast, personal prayer, workday, lunch with everyone, workday, dinner with everyone, and then various evening activities throughout the week. I'll primarily be listing the evening activities.

The road trip down from South Bend was an adventure in itself. It's 15 or 16 hours, and we have enough people to fill 3 minivans - 17 total I think. A few others flew in due to scheduling. The drive passed in 3-4 hour increments, with drivers rotating each time and people jumping between cars. We stopped for a catfish dinner just before we arrived on Sunday evening.

Monday morning was the only morning that I did PT - physical training. Some continued through the week. We did a push-up ladder, sit-ups, and a fast, kinda hilly, 1.5 miles. That evening, Nathan gave a talk on conversations and openness and how we love each other through that. After, Ricky Thomas gave me a running tour of Shreveport, about 5 miles. I was worried I would be tired and sore all week! :)

Tuesday evening is Allendale's evening for men's and women's groups, and we all joined them. The men gathered briefly as a group, broke up for 20 minutes of missionary prayer, and then in groups of ~4, we went to a couple of emergency room waiting rooms and similarly struggling areas of Shreveport so that we could make ourselves available for one-on-one prayer with people. I went to the LSU hospital, where the waiting room was packed, and had the opportunity to pray with two separate guys who had each been waiting all day to be treated for seizures. The product of my just-prior prayer time was that God wanted people to simply know how much he loves them, and the Our Father. After about an hour, we returned home and all the guys gathered together and each briefly debriefed.

Wednesday evening is Allendale's chores night, and with the extra numbers here for the week, we were able to help them get more done than they could themselves. I worked in the room where we've been having most of our meals.. floor, and windows, with Ricky, and after that we snuck out before the ice cream party to get another run in. Right at the very end of it, he was telling me how he has never had ankle problems, when he twisted it. The following morning we prayed over his foot, and also Cathy's, at morning prayer.

Thursday evening is Allendale's off night where they either gather for a meeting just amongst themselves, or spend time with just themselves, strengthening relationships that can be strained amongst all the work they are immersed in with so many people. The Work College decided to have a meeting during this time, which left me the odd man out. The Allendale folks were just hanging out together playing board games, listening to music, surfing the internet, and they invited me to join them for that.

Friday evening... I'm typing this right before dinner! After dinner the plan is to have a full-fledged prayer meeting followed by a party. In the morning, the Work College - and I - are back on the road! Funny, I'm not anxious about the road trip at all. :)

I've tagged all of the pictures taken by various people on various Flickr accounts under the tag "allendale-work-college-january-2008". Enjoy! A more personal account would I'm sure have been more valuable to many of you, but I was able to hammer it out quickly this way, and hopefully give those I don't see very frequently a glimpse of my week!

Festival of Lessons and Carols

I had the chance to attend Muncie's Festival of Lessons and Carols along with Pete Gaffney. My mom, Beth, was one of the readers. Below is what she read and shared. I stole it, with her permission.

From Isaiah Chapter 9: "The people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light. For a child is born to us, a son is given us; upon his shoulders dominion rests. They name him wonder-counselor, mighty god, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace."

The words of Isaiah are powerful. When we read them, we feel his confidence and knowledge of God. Those words sound so direct. How can one not see that this promised messiah is fleshed out in the life of Jesus? Why cannot the whole world see it? Why cannot the Jews see it?

Many of you here know that I grew up Jewish, in an observant Jewish home. To understand the Jewish viewpoint, you must remember that the Jews were expecting the Messiah to be a powerful, good king. They were expecting a person of God's choice to rise up and deliver them from their enemies and to bring peace and righteousness into their lives. They knew they needed and they wanted leadership.

The very idea of God incarnate was never what they hoped for. Indeed, monotheism is the very halmark of Judaism.

Shema Yisrael, adonoi elohenu, adonoi echod. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. This phrase is literally and specifically called the Watchword of our Faith and is recited as the central part of every Jewish service. Shema Yisrael, adonoi elohenu, adonoi echod. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

God incarnate was not what the Jews were ever expecting.

Are we so very different. In our lives, very often the Lord works in ways that we are not expecting. We let the Lord slip by us in the events of our lives and in the people in our lives. We want our way and we want people to act the way we think they should.

The word spoken in the old testament, manifest in Jesus, is a living word — the word made flesh.

The word made flesh wants to live in you in a dynamic way. God wants to work in you in unexpected ways.

Are we willing to listen for him? Are we willing to tune our hearts and ears to him? Are we willing to ask him to reveal himself more fully to us?

Don't let God walk by you because you are expecting something else.

During this season let us open our hearts to Advent's very theme — Come Lord Jesus, wonder-counselor. Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Rejoice!

I've been taking more pictures lately. Jennifer instigated it when she suggested that One:Ten should start it's own 365 on Flickr as a way of sharing more of our life with those outside the office. So we now have a One:Ten pool on Flickr which anyone can subscribe to if they don't already subscribe to those of the individual members. I'm sure there will be vast dry spells, but anyone can help us by giving us ideas for what they'd like to see.

The photography continued into a road trip I took last weekend with a few from the local young adults group. We went to visit Dan who is an actor and was playing in A Christmal Carol with a few different parts. We managed to take quite a few pictures there. It was a huge blessing to get some much time with everyone who came.. so much time provides cement for relationships.

Earlier this week I drove down to Indy with a couple friends, Dan from my men's group and Michael. Wanting to fully experience it as much as possible, I set the camera aside. We had arranged to spend the night and the following day with the Indianapolis Missionaries. They have a video blog, extensive coverage in the recent November issue and earlier March/April and Feburary issues of Vine & Branches, and most recently, a cool new "music video" highlighting some of their work and a beautiful song, on YouTube called "Rejoice, Indianapolis South Side!":



It was just a great experience, for a number of reasons:

• More cement (see above) for my friendships with Dan and Mike, as well as all the folks down there.


• Got to experience a day in the life of the missionaries, which further bonds me to them as another part of the body of Christ. I feel a part of them, and feel that I can pray more personally for them.


• Was re-awoken to the nature of ministering to strangers. Something I did a little bit in Chicago but far more casually.


• Learned more about that same ministering, and then evangelization, and not only as an individual but as a group working together. Extended personal prayer immediately before going out. Sharing between the group before we go out. Sharing between the group when we return. Placing all joys and troubles in common.


• Household life when so much more is placed in common. Something as simple as moving all the guys' personal effects from one house to another, and everyone packing each other's stuff, instead of each packing their own. As unique as each person is, people are far more interchangeable amidst serving the community when they have this much in common. They are constantly communicating the state of the various relationships with people they are serving.


• Both the IUPUI and hospital visits were productive inthat we are now considering some form of both up here in the Bend. The hospital visit, and similar corporal works of mercy, are excellent things that our young adults group can do despite our many different positions and beliefs in life.

PS - Almost forgot to mention. There is some super exciting news regarding Dan Reinbold! Guess who just got a new roommate?