Anna was lost in transition yesterday…her first flight being overbooked, so her second flight getting her there late…so she spent the night in Sao Paulo. We had an army ready to meet her at noon yesterday, so instead we sat and watched videos she’d made when she was younger and laughed alot. today (the 4th) everyone has to work (what the heck? i thought it was supposed to be a holiday!) and so John and i will head off again to pick her up. she called last night, said she was broke and fine and about to board the plane. thanks for the prayers. happy 4th.

a random band. in honor of Anna…who is currently getting ready to fly back from Brasil. please pray for her…she is scheduled to arrive in indy 11:00am tomorrow

the bus that runs on vegetable oil. apparently, there is step-by-step instructions on how to convert your vehicle into a used veggie oil consumer on the internet.

enough said.

switchfoot. no zoom. this is my bragging rights, David.

I Dare You to Move

then i drove to St.Louis and took a shower. celebrated with Uncle Dan his 25 years in the ministry

L to R: Mom, John, Avery, me (looking possessed), Jared, Aunt Becky, Dad, and Uncle Verdon

my cousin Jessica. two people thought i was her. John’s gap is taking over his mouth…he’s lost two in front and the next one is loose…

Don’t say you are

PRO-LIFE

until you are ready to walk up to a 14 year old pregnant girl and say “let me help you–and i am ready to adopt your child if you cannot keep them.”

Don’t say you are

PRO-WAR

until you are ready to have the war come here on our soil and affect your life directly. until you’re ready to see your child serve and die for your country

Don’t say you are

PRO-DEATH PENALTY

until you are ready to let God repay you all you deserve instead of cover you with grace

BUT

Don’t say you are

PRO-CHOICE

until you are ready to let your grandchild be brutally murdered because your child is not “financially stable”

Don’t say you are

ANTI-WAR

until you are ready to go to Iraq and hold their hands and tell them Jesus loves them and sing and die with them

Don’t say you are

ANTI-DEATH PENALTY

until you are ready to forgive someone who kills your loved ones, asking the courts to release them and let you love them in your loved one’s place

…

and so you have a bunch of people who refuse to say

ANYTHING

because they understand the gravity of saying

SOMETHING

but for too long these people have wallowed in indecisiveness and laziness and call it HONEST because they are not like the HYPOCRITES who say

SOMETHING

because they understand the gravity of saying

NOTHING

but for too long these people have wallowed in indecisiveness and laziness and call it STANDARDS because they are not like the HIPPIES who say…

(and i am both of these people)

i saw him and didn’t think too much. then he spoke a poem and made me cry and it happened.

a crush

like Erica after seeing Captian Jack Sparrow

like Anna after seeing Motorcycle Diaries

i decided that marriage might be fun

if i didn’t have to talk to him. if i just kept my idea of him

i went to buy his book

his cd

his dvd

He was at the booth speaking to the girl in front of me–he remembered her

she was so overjoyed that her hands shook as she showed him his picture she’d kept from a couple years back.

could she have an updated one? of course

and suddenly, my crush was gone

i didn’t even ask him to autograph his book.

i thought it was supposed to be WARM in July.

Everyone told me it would be freakin HOT at Cornerstone. i walked around with a blanket wrapped around me because all i brought were SHORTS and T-SHIRTS. during the concerts i thought the people in front of me were smoking. they weren’t. it was that cold. i am only slightly bitter.

i got a ticket on ebay for Cornerstone. ironically, from a guy who was in Brasil, and so couldn’t make it. His name is Phil and he likes Passion fruit juice too. i bought a dozen Panera bread bagels, kiwi, apples, carrots (that went squishy), and mom’s homemade granola and went off with my mapquested maps on my adventure.  

i didn’t find running water for a day and a half, and looked at the showers and the 20,000 people there and figured it wasn’t worth it. washed my hands once a day and we won’t even talk about the rest of sanitation except to say the hand sanitizer that mom slipped me before i left probably saved my life. i stepped in mud two minutes after i arrived and had one brown foot the whole week. the stuff is permanent.

The first singer i heard was really good (www.marongaffrom.com). i only met a couple people at Japoosa, but ran into one of them…it happened to be his wife who is…Maron. there were bands everywhere. you walk anywhere and there they are, set up next to their tents, playing. i liked most all of them except the screamy ones. i don’t like screamy music. there were alot of screamy ones.

Piller and Anberlin were slightly disappointing. they didn’t play any off my favorite songs.

Flyleaf (in honor of Cortney!) my word that girl is little. she gives off these vulnerability vibes or something. i was slightly mesmerized and stood up the whole time to watch her.

Tobymac took the prize for being the funnest. Got to see “In the Light” and “Jesus Freaks” live.

RELIENT K’s bus caught on fire. so they didn’t come. i was very disappointed because now i lost almost all my bragging rights with David. almost.

Switchfoot. takes the prize. of course–who doubted? since you enjoy a concert when you know the songs–i knew them all. got goosebumps during “On Fire.” you gotta see the picture from “Dare you to move.”

David Crowder band was worship. like one huge God moment with all 20,000 of us. and they had the WORDS to the SONGS on the SCREEN so i could sing all songs and jump around like i was in Paudalho when i know i can’t dance but no one cares and it is all for Jesus.

The sessions and expo tents were my favorite. After the writing workshops i am ready to reinvent my art, poems, and writing and want to start yesterday. There were tons of sessions sitting crowded on the ground around SHANE CLAIBORNE (who wrote “Irresistible Revolution”). His community house in Philly just got burnt down along with the whole neighborhood…he was like “darn, lost my other pair of pants” because he really doesn’t have much else, and is now working to rebuild the whole neighborhood. hearing him live was alot like his book, but his book is good enough to re-read, plus we could ask questions. then there was Bradley Hathaway, who does spoken word poetry. more on that later.

i’ve never seen so many interesting people. Erica! i saw Captian Jack Sparrow! this guy’s hair was for real and all. dressed like a pirate the whole time. i really don’t get the whole ear stretching thing. i like dreadlocks. my pet peeve is those horrible pants…you know…where the guy sags, but then the pants are so tight that they hug their legs and the only thing loose is where their buttocks was supposed to be. beards are nice. for some reason, i think it makes most guys look like Jesus (at least the weird, warped picture of Jesus i have been fed from picture books).

BIG LESSION: Offer first, figure out how second.

because i keep missing the opportunities to help people trying to figure out how to do it first.

somewhere during the flyleaf concert a guy in a big SUV backed into my car. left a note on my windshield. i came back late, crawled in the backseat, and feel asleep, oblivious. the next morning i found my headlight hanging and my front door jammed shut. and the note. God thing: he lives in Whiteland. we are getting estimates today. somehow, it is hard to be mad and upset about it, since it still works…and God gave me the car a couple years ago. you can’t hold on to that too tightly.