House concert

Liberti's worship leader Dave Braud hosted a house show with his wife Sarah. They had three artists that Dave knew from his time in Nashville, TN. All three were high quality! Sarah and I had heard two of them perform last fall here in Philadelphia and we bought their CDs. We bought another one at the house show last night, too. The artists are wonderful. They are on a three-week tour throughout the northeast. Some of their work has played on Grey's Anatomy as well as other prime-time TV shows! Check out Katie Herzig, Matthew Perryman Jones, and Peter Bradley Adams. Katie's song "Sweeter Than This" is simply beautiful--Sarah and I decided that it's our #2 song together. =)

Sarah and I sat two feet (TWO FEET!) from the artists as they played. After they were done with a set, we talked with them for a while. Then when the show was over, we talked with two of them for almost an hour about their touring, inspiration, etc. The whole atmosphere was very personal, laid-back, and intimate...I liked it a lot.

The procedes of the event went to a documentary a friend from Liberti is making called Women in War Zones. It's an ambitious project that two Liberti guys decided to undertake last year when they went to Africa to film treatment of women in conflict situations. More to come when that's completed and released!

Sarah's new phone and shoes

Within 24 hours, Sarah got a new phone and new running sneakers for free. The phone because it had been more than two years since she had purchased one, and the sneakers because she does Students Run Philly Style! I also received running shoes, but I forgot to take a picture of mine.


Tomorrow evening, Sarah, other folks from Liberti, and I are heading up to the Kinaard farm to camp overnight. We'll be joined by floods of other church friends and have a day of playing outdoors. Can't wait!

Bastille Day

I had the opportunity to participate in a awfully fun event on Saturday: Bastille Day! Sarah's Fairmount neighborhood celebrates the storming of the Bastille from the French Revolution a block from her new apartment right outside the Eastern State Penitentiary. This year was their 13th annual celebration, and I'm told it's gotten bigger every year. My best guess says that over 2000 people were there from 2-6PM to enjoy the booths, hear the music, and watch the reinactment. They had a real working guilletine!


My involvement was from helping my church Liberti. We had a meeting a week ago at our pastor's house discussing our involvement in this event. Since one of Liberti's goals is to join into things the neighborhood is already doing, we wanted to show our support and raise awareness of our church in the area. Our brainstorming led to the idea of making stocks and taking people's pictures for free--then posting the picture on our website for people to download. Over 500 pictures were taken, and people were pretty happy with the idea. I got to help organize the event for Liberti, which was our first time participating in the annual event. We all agreed we HAVE to do it again next year.


Another element to the booth was the confessional. Not the usual confessional you'd might assosciate with the Catholic Church. Inside, we had our pastor confessing the sins of the church to people--apologizing for things like the crusades, the church's idleness during the Holocost, treatment of gay/lesbians, justification of slavery, etc. As a leader in the church, our paster said he wanted to own up to those sins and ask the forgiveness of the person in the confessional. Our paster was so excited about people's reactions and the conversations that ensued! One guy said he didn't realize what Christianity was all about: "I had no idea!" A Jewish woman cried as she said she had never heard someone apologize for the church's lack of response to the Holocaust. There was no doubt that God blessed the conversations that took place, and it was pretty cool to see our pastor so fired up about it.


All in all, it was a very exciting and encouraging day. Not only did I get to experience over 2000 Twinkies raining from the sky when Marie Antoinette said "Let them eat cake," but I got to wear a Liberti t-shirt and talk with people about our church. What a fulfilling day!

Tubing pictures

Here are a few pictures from our adventures on the Brandywine River this past Sunday

Weekend!

What a fun weekend! Tubing, 4.5 mile race, friends, food, and beautiful weather. Here's the details:

Sarah and I watched the movie Akeelah and the Bee on Thursday night. (which was great since she didn't have any studies to do!!! her rotations have been doing orientation for a few days; the real deal starts later this week...dum dum dum....). It was a neat movie on its own, but what made me enjoy it even more was that it directly related with the current coursework in my online grad school classes at Walden University! I had been struggling with being interested in the course this week since it seemed to all be about teaching kindergarteners to read without a whole lot of application for me. The movie, however, had elements of phonics, etymologies, spelling games, and other activities that I associated with my latest lectures and readings, and I even wrote a paper this week using one of the games in the movie! It was a well-needed shot in the arm to help me finish up the week's assignments.

Saturday morning was an early: 6:30AM in West Philly to meet the bus. My students and I ran in a 4.5 mile race sponsored by Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church. This was the first race with me being the main leader, so I was a little nervous. Unfortunately, the bus was over an hour late, causing us to arrive JUST as the race started (thankfully for us, the church started the race 15 minutes late...gotta love the African American culture!). The kids had a good run despite the hilly course. Two of our runners were flat out lazy and finished BEHIND the ambulance. Finding intrinsic motivation on a warm day isn't always easy for everyone.

This week we start city-wide Students Run clinics. Our first one is in the graveyard behind our school! I'm interested in seeing how the students respond to having a bunch of kids from all over Philly come run in our backyard. They were pretty excited about it before, so let's hope it continues.

Sarah's new apartment is taking shape. It's been great fun for me to help her move in and figure out how she and her new roommate's place is going to look. (okay, so maybe I'm not too thrilled with all the designing part of it, but I can move beds and dressures and run wires through desks with the best of 'em!). It really is a beautiful place, and we've talked about its potential for hosting friends. She's lacking a TV, but what's more exciting...a TV or a roof deck?!? C'mon.

Yesterday about 25 of us went out tubing down the Brandywine River in Deleware after church. The 90+ degree heat made for a PERFECT day on the tubes. Traffic held our group up over an hour past our start time, and the tubing company wasn't too happy and dropped us farther down the river than expected. Still, we had a good hour in the water. Families were splashing in it all over the place.

After our ride, we went back to Libby's house for John's smoothies, pizza and fondu. John and Libby sure know how to host a party! What a wonderful way to spend a Sunday in the summer.

The latest forecast calls for temperatures to be over 100 today here. Yikes!

Food, glorious food

After church today, about 20 of us went to Mama Palma's Pizza. I had been there before and was impressed with their customer service and product quality, and this time was no different! Delicious pizza, popping with flavor. They served our large group efficiently and cheerfully (Seth also had the foresight to call ahead and let them know we were coming!). No complaints here!


Jeremy and I caught a ride from Casey to Penn's Landing where there was an all you can eat ice cream festival going on! We scarfed down seven tubs of ice cream from Coldstone, Edy's, Jack and Jill, Ben and Jerry's, Starbucks, Baskin Robbins, and a few water ice locations. MMMmmmm! I thought it would have been a blast if I was a kid too...can you imagine having so many different choices and all you can eat?!? Oh the possibilities.


Tip of the day: when wondering why your bank account made LESS interest than last month with MORE money in it, consider the fact that the months may have differing amounts of days in them. I checked my ING Direct account for its monthly interest and was about to fire off an e-mail question to their customer service department for why I had less interest in June than in May even though I hadn't made any withdrawals. Fortunately, I caught my mistake before I sent the e-mail. (by the way, if you'd like to make 4.5% interest on your savings account PLUS get $25 JUST FOR SIGNING UP, let me know...if you just sign up with the company on your own, you don't get a bonus--that's only with a referral from a current member like me).

Me vs. pollen

That's what today felt like. For whatever reason, all of Philadelphia's trees, grass, molds, spores, dust mites, animal dander, and other allergetic forms of Satan invaded my entire sinus system today. It was rough. I had taken an Allegra D in the morning, but it was no match for the devil's demoralizing attacks. Fortunately, my nose was mostly cleared up for the afternoon, which included a 4 mile run with my kids that felt like 8 miles (all in 88 degree weather...it's amazing what a harming effect heat can have on a runner!).

Despite today's pollen ambush, Philly has TONS of beautiful blooming trees all over the city. Here's a picture of a few of us pretending the petals are pink snow:




This past week was filled with runs. I ran 5 miles Mon, Tues, Wed, and Thurs. Then to top it off, my kids and I ran down to the Skuykill River from school and back--my approximate distance: 7-8 miles. For those of you who are counting, that's the longest I've ever ran in my life! The most encouraging part was seeing my students go so far and be excited about their accomplishments. We needed to go pretty far since our 10 miles race (Philly's finest Broad Street Run) is this coming Sunday morning.

My roommate Seth was asked to give his testimony in church Sunday. He did an awesome job of glorifying God and humbly sharing how God has moved in his life. God really has been at work in Seth, and I've felt tremendously blessed to have been privileged to observe so much as his roommate.

Yesterday some Liberti folk and I spent another GORGEOUS Sunday afternoon in a park. We grabbed lunch to go and headed to Liberty's Lands, a nice green playground/park a mile from Fishtown. What a blast! We played a frisbee game called hot box that one of our church's pastors taught us. I even indulged in the ice cream truck's wares for the first time. Not exactly Franklin Fountain quality, but it sure hit the spot.

God has recently brought some really neat people into my life here in Fishtown. John, Kallie, Nate, Melanie, Kristin, Jeremy, Seth, Sarah, and I have had some really fun times together. I feel so comfortable hanging out with each one of them, and I enjoy life so much with them, too!

Here are a few pictures from last week's adventures: