So Did We Ever Tell You The One About...

A few months ago when our crew talked about "vision, calling, mission" and so on, and then also when you guys were asking me personally how I knew that I could go to that country and so on, I shared with you the ACTUAL vision that God had given me concerning the people group there. That was in college, and that's how I know I can go to that place. But there's more to my LIFE calling really...And this will help explain my OVERALL calling, the part that I usually shorten "to help equip believers for the work of the ministry." I've invited my friend Devan to pop in on this post because she was one of the founding schemers of this dream, though I don't know if she will say anything or not.

JC's Place: founded in my heart in 1995 and 96, when Devan and I were in high school. We used to sit around my house, her house, McDonald's, or go driving in our cars late at night just to talk about this "JC'S Place." We'd hang out at the computer lab to type up notes about it. Even after we both graduated, we'd furiously shoot emails back and forth from Tulsa (where ORU is) to Ft. Wayne (where Taylor is) to make sure that the dream of JC's Place was settled. I still have some of the more important ones, too.

What is JC's Place, you ask? Straight from the "JC's Place" manual sitting in front of me...(and I'm shortening this a bit for the post): to teach the Bible; to equip its members with the tools necessary for the work of the ministry, including but not limited to prayer, fasting, giving, the traits of 1 Tim. 3:10-13, and Eph. 4v11-16, the gifts of the Spirit and the fruits of the Spirit; and to provide opportunities to excercise what they have learned both within the ministry of JC's Place itself, in the surrounding community and in all the world.

Where is JC's Place? JC's base is in the US. All initial training takes place here. After training, members are free to continue in the US or to go to another country. After sending out of the member, other bases could then be formed.

How long is the commitment to JC's Place? Pre-acceptance training last for a period of two months. The internship last for one year. After that year expires, members are invited to become elders and are free to go where the Lord leads them long term.

Where does the actual training take place? Where do members live during training?
Interns and elders are lodges at the facility of JC's Place. Members are expected to maintain an attititude of discipline, love and respect despite the fact that their home is their school AND place of ministry. Members are expected to pay for various expenses during their stay. These costs are to maintain the home, buildings and ministries of JC's Place. Once accepted, JC's elders will assist its members in fundraising and working to earn those costs.

Will interns have free time or time to pursue activities other than those involved with JC's Place? JC's Place will require the amoutn of time needed to be a college student who works a job. Many evenings will be free and schedules are flexible. We recognize the perils of a closed group setting and will work to avoid and problem this will create. Anyway, this is not all work, it's a lot of fun, too!

What will we do?
YOU'LL LOVE GOD

Pray.

Complete a ten month study of the Bible, four months OT, six months NT.

Create five original Bible studies every two weeks.

Attend all in house Bible studies, prayer meetings or staff meetings.

Memorize required scriptures.
YOU'LL LOVE OTHERS

Plan and participate in at least four service projects a month (some maybe ongoing projects).

Be actively involved in a local church.

Participate in at least three JC's Conferences while at JC's Place (these are youth outreaches in the local schools).

If you are based in the US, complete at least one foreign mission trip during your year stay.
_____________________________________________

Now here's the thing guys. Some of you read that and you think, "Big deal. That sounds like every internship program or mission organization I've heard of." That's all well and good, except we'd never heard of those programs. We didn't know about raising your own support for an internship - we thought, "Well this thing is going to cost money? Guess we'll have to help them raise it." We were making it up as we went along. We really felt like God was giving us a picture of something that we were to be involved with and to build at some point in the future, and it was unfolding on paper right before us. We ended up taking it to Pastor Brad one day (we were SOOOO nervous). It was like taking our entire lives' dreams to our Pastor ( CRAIG - can you imagine)!? You know what he said? "Yeah. Huh. REEEEALLLLY??? That's great. It already exist." We kind of looked at each other and then at him like, "NO you must not understand what we're trying to say here." HAHA...it was great confirmation that we were on the right track.

Anyway, all of that to say, I know what's in my heart with JC's Place, and the HEART of it...and I feel like it fits with the organization that sends people to that country to which we'd be going back eventually, and the work we'd be doing there as long termers. It's funny how the dreams that God places in our hearts years and years ago wriggle their way into fruition in ways that you might never expect, because they don't LOOK like what you were expecting. But they're there, just as clear as day...

Play at the Park?

Hi guys! I was wondering if anyone might like to go to a play at Schiller Park this Thursday, Friday or Saturday (if the weather is permitting). The play starts at 8PM, and is free. We could maybe pack some ham sandwiches and chips and pop? Here's a summary of the play. It looks to be humorous. (though isn't this also the beginning of the "weekend o' fireworks?"). Ah well...if anyone is interested, here's the plot summary!

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) is a parody of the plays written by William Shakespeare with all of them being performed (in shortened form) during the show. The play is unique in that only three actors are involved in it. Typically, the actors use their real names and play themselves rather than certain characters. The fourth wall is nonexistent in the performance with the actors speaking directly to the audience during much of the play, and some scenes involve audience participation. The director and stage crew also may be directly involved in the performance and become characters themselves.

The script was published in 1994 and contains many humorous footnotes on the text that are often not included in the performance. However, improv plays a heavy role and it is normal for the actors to deviate from the script and have spontaneous conversations about the material to each other or to the audience. It is also common for them to make references to pop culture or to talk about local people and places in the area where performance is done. As a result, each performance can be vastly different from another, even with the same cast.

Plot summary
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The three actors first introduce themselves to the audience and begin with a parody of Romeo and Juliet. Next, they do a parody of Titus Andronicus, portraying it as a cooking show. Following it is Othello, which is done through a rap song. The rest of the first act demonstrates most of the other plays with all of the comedies being combined into one convoluted reading and all of the histories being acted out through an American football game. At the end of the act, the characters are about to finish when they realize that they forgot to perform Hamlet, Shakespeare's greatest work. One of the actors becomes nervous about this and runs out of the theater with another actor chasing him. The final actor is left to entertain the audience by himself, which he does by telling jokes and calling for the intermission.

After the intermission, the two actors who left return, with the nervous one being convinced to do the performance. The entire second act is the performance of Hamlet. The audience gets involved during this segment when one audience member (sometimes, but not always, someone that has been planted by the director) is asked to portray Ophelia. The rest of the audience makes up Ophelia's subconscious, with three sections that each represent her ego, superego, and id. After the portrayal of Hamlet is over, the actors play it out several more times, each one faster than the last. They finish by performing it in reverse and saying goodbye to the audience.

So I got to thinking

It has been awhile since I actually posted a real post. The reason for that is that I really don't have anything to say and I haven't really wanted to write. Every so often I get in this state of mind that has me not wanting to have anything to do with thinking or learning or anything. For those that know me I love to read and I usually read a lot. To put into perspective just what this funk is like, I have been on the same book for over a month now. I have actually forgotten what the beginning of the book was about. Will I go back and reread it? Probably not. I will just finish it off at some point and hope that the information is floating around somewhere in the vast expanse that is my brain. Some may say that maybe the book is not interesting? I don't think that is the problem at all, while the book is not what I would consider a must read or a page turner it does deal with something that I tend to be passionate about and has a lot of good facts and insight that will be very helpfull in the future. Well, enough about my lack of reading and onto more important things. So I got to thinking...... why am I like this? Is anyone else like this? You see I think I go full out for weeks or months and I tend to fry my mind, and it takes some time to cool down enough to be able to start putting things back into it. It reminds me of a radiator cap on a car. You all know what I am talking about. Your car starts to overheat and steam comes rolling out of the radiator cap but you know (or at least you should know or you shouldn't be driving) that you shouldn't open it right away or the pressure from the radiator might send boiling water all over and you might get seriously injured. Now I know some die hard car guys and gals will tell me that the caps that they put on cars nowadays have a pressure release seal. Well you go ahead and open it right away I will wait a few minutes, Thank You very much. Once the pressure is released and the water has cooled to a less threatening level then you can start investigating what the problem is. I think I am de-pressurizing as I speak. Life is changing so fast yet not changing at all. What I mean by that is that I can see some things in motion in my life that will come to fullness sometime in the future but back here on June 19th, 2006 life goes on at what seems like a snails pace and nothing much happens. All I want is some nugget to hold onto now of a future occurence that will give me aim and focus.I want something tangible, something I can put my hands on and grab ahold of. Something fresh and new. The same ole thing has gotten pretty boring and tired and somehow all the promises of a better day have blended into the old routine of life and it feels like I have been down this road before. I hate going down the same road all the time. I am a restless person. For example as most of you know I live on the East side of C-Bus and our church and my friends all hang out on the West side of the aforementioned city. I come out there alot and on my way back home I usually go different routes. I get bored taking 270 all the time so I switch to 70E but after a time or two it gets boring so I take 670E (I love the view of the Columbus skyline from 670 at night), even this gets boring after awhile so if I have enough time I will take Broad Street or 104, etc.etc.etc.. So I guess my point is that I would like to see something new and fresh and make it a surprise please! Does anyone else have these feelings or is it time for me to seek professional help?

This is a post from Brandy Shrader, via Angie's computer.

(Brandy's pictures)

I went to the Franklin Park Conservatory. Would anyone like to go? I have a pass and it would be free.

Let us see if she knows what she is talking about?

While reading a Blog of a certain friend who is also a member of this blog I came across a post that I am having trouble believing. In this post this person wrote that people are reading the blogs and they often ask her why people have quit writing. She assures us that people are reading even though they may not be commenting. So I want to put this to the test and I need ALL of the so called "readers" help. If you do read this blog just let us know by posting a simpe comment. It doesn't have to be witty or deep or spiritual or anything. You can just simply say "I was here" and leave it at that. I personally believe that not many people are reading the blogs or at least this blog but I want to be wrong. Unfortunately I believe this little test will prove the writer of a certain other blog to be wrong.