NorCalUrban

Got this from Max. To God be the Glory!

I'm reading the book, "Mother Theresa, Reaching out in Love" as a devotional. Here's a quote, Without Prayer, no faith Without faith, no love Without love, no service Without service, no joy, no peace There are four essential steps - prayer, faith love and action- resulting in interior joy and peace in society. To obtian this result there is a preliminary condition: prayer requires interior and exterior silence. Silence of the eyes, of the ears, of the mind, of the imagination. One has to be self-composed, able to concentrate, open to God's inspiration. For exterior silence in noisy towns and cities one needs to find a quiet corner in a room or a park.

It's been a long week. Last weekend I was blessed to again attend 'Larry's Party', the annual Urban Youthworker's Institute conference in Los Angeles. I did a workshop on "Building Strategic Partnerships". By the way, you can hear select previous year's sessions and workshops here. Thanks to the UYWI staff for again putting on an excellent conference for those of us banging it out in the trenches. It was great to catch up with many close friends at the event. Max Torres made a surprise visit. Saw Chris Brooks for a minute. (Pray for Chris, he was in a car accident last week. Check out his blog for more information.) Of course saw fellow bloggers Rudy and Jeremy (More about him later.) A close friend and now 'country' pastor in Gilroy, Angel Ruiz, stayed with me in my mod. It was a great time catching up with him and calling him names like, "Chongo". I took Samuel with me again. Honestly, the most fun is having him there. He enj...

Sam and I are headed to the Urban Youthworker's Institute conference in LA. We come back Saturday. On Sunday I head to NYC to do some research with area credit unions. This is part of a strategic planning initiative for our project here in EPA. Posting may be sparse... Looking forward to seeing everyone in LA. Jeremy found us tickets for the Yankee game on Tuesday night - vs Boston no less! It's definitely the bright spot of the trip!

Maybe it was inevitable that the movement he had done so much to create would grow up, stretch out, even rebel against his strong paternal supervision. Part of this was the much chronicled disillusionment of some Christian soldiers who had duly marched onto the field, gone door to door and pew to pew in search of new voters, placed their faith in politics and politicians to promote their most precious values, only to find those values were a currency that could be traded away behind closed doors. After six years with a born-again evangelical in the White House and the GOP dominant on Capitol Hill and spreading through the judiciary, the religious voters who believed they exalted these leaders for a purpose had reason to believe they'd been betrayed. It was a bitter irony to see the bookstores filling with accounts of the rise of a new American Theocracy: what many conservative Christians saw was that the boardroom, not the sanctuary, was Republican hallowed ground. When their inte...

Thanks, Jeremy. Great story about a man who ministers to caddys and players on the PGA tour. Shows how much of an impact you can have when you put yourself in the middle of where God wants you. PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla., May 13 — Early in the afternoon, on the final day of the tournament, Tiger Woods came to the 13th tee at The Players Championship, along with his playing partner, Davis Love III. A large black man in funky gold-framed glasses and a bright-white NBC baseball cap ambled over to them. He knew them and the golfers knew him. The two caddies, Steve Williams and Cubbie Burke, knew the man, too. He's known on Tour as T-O-W, The Other Woods. At one point on Sunday, Tiger Woods was on the 13th tee — and so was George Woods. At The Players, George Woods was working as a spotter for NBC, relaying the clubs the players were using back to a producer. He's averaged 30 events a year for the past four years, although he hasn't been out much this year. When the Tour's in y...

Saw this video on Obama's website. Interesting discussion. This video is somewhat long, but worth watching. I'm certainly happy there is some honest discussion on the separation of church and state and the role of the church in society and politics. What do you think of Obama? Check the video out here.

Sometimes I think I should just link directly to Guy Kawasaki's blog. His blog consistently makes me think. Here's some excerpts from a recent post where he interviews Richard Sterns, the President of World Vision. Question: You had a nearly seven-figure salary, a corporate Jaguar, moved and took a seventy-five percent cut in pay. Why did you leave the corporate sector in 1998 after twenty-three years to run an international Christian humanitarian organization? Answer: It wasn't something I planned. At the time, I didn't even want the job. I had been a donor to World Vision for fifteen years when, through a long series of circumstances, I was approached by World Vision, interviewed and offered the position. As a committed Christian, I felt I couldn't say no. When God gives you an opportunity to serve, you obey. I had "talked the talk" of being a Christian for many years, now I needed to "walk the walk." It has turned out to be the greatest pri...

Recently I came across a Franciscan benediction that grabbed my attention. It says: May God bless you with anger At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, So that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace. And may God bless you with enough foolishness To believe that you can make a difference in the world, So that you can do what others claim cannot be done To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor. That is why we began this journey—to bring justice to the poor by breaking systemic poverty in East Palo Alto. Many factors motivated us; the lack of appropriate financial services, check cashing places that are charging exorbitant rates, the fact that East Palo Alto has no grocery store, no downtown, and few local businesses. When I look into a grandmother’s eyes, who is struggling with paying her bills and caring for her family, and when I see despair in the families of my son’s classmates, a fire is lit within me to fight injustice. As we stepped out ...

Yesterday was my mother's birthday. She and my father are down in San Luis Obisbo right now. Dad is working the nuclear outage at Diablo Canyon . For a few weeks. She came along to be with him. A couple of weeks ago they came up to hang with us in Capitola, near Santa Cruz. We had a nice weekend by the beach. Some friends have a wonderful house down there and graciously allowed us to spend the weekend at their place. The photo was taken at 'Mr. Toots' coffeehouse in Capitola. Melissa and I used to hang there over 18 years ago - before we were married. Anyhow - Happy birthday, Mom! Where would I be without you?

In the current edition of Rolling Stone Jane Fonda speaks about her conversion to Christianity Jane says: "Someone very hostile to me said, 'Are you saved?' I tap danced around that, but later asked a friend of mine who teaches a Bible study, 'What does that mean?' And she said, 'what it meant to me was taking the next step.' Well, that's all anybody has to say to me - I'm always ready to take the next step (laughs)! So I became a Christian. And I'm still a Christian, but I'm still on a journey to define what that means. I very much feel the presence of God, and that person is Jesus - I am utterly fascinated by this man. I feel what he preached was revolutionary, and it's totally what we need now. The most revolutionary statement anyone could make is 'Love thy neighbor as thyself.' Whew, man. If we could live what he taught, everything would change. But it ain't what goes by the name of Christianity right now.