Guadalupe River in San Antonio

Enjoying a day with a picnic by the river

Britta, Amy, Kristen

Relaxation and friendship.

This weekend has been one of the most relaxing weekends I have had in quite some time. On our spring break, i've been able to catch up on sleep, relax by the lake, journal, read, and spend time with a couple of wonderful friends. It honestly couldn't have come at a better time.

It is easy to get to know people on a semi-real level because of the lack of time we are able to spend with each person and the amount of cities that we go to. However, over the past week, I have been able to open up and be completely real, getting to know someone and her getting to know me. Hearing her struggles and her joys in life. Seeing her face gleam when she talks about her husband. Having her be a listening ear and sharing her wisdom with me. It is something that couldn't have come at a more perfect time. As I will continue to open up with people and share my people and hear theirs, I hope to continue to make friends as close as this one and be nothing but real.

We were blessed to stay in a house that is somebody's second home (or fourth to be exact..). It is a place that I look at and can see the financial blessings that they have been given. It is a home with eight beds, but room for many more. It is a home with all the amentities and a little extra. Their home is surrounded by a lake and their property even includes its very own island. With all of this, it is easy to think that I am being completely spoiled and that this family may not be using whats been given to them in the best way possible. But then I stop and think... I have been blessed by this family opening up their home to us and for our team to have 3 days of relaxation and hibernation in sense that was needed for us to keep from wearing ourselves down. This time has helped me to feel refreshed and to be reenergized. It is a place of peace and calmness and serenity. A place where I am able to go out onto the island, sit in silence, and feel God surrounding me. I think that it is all too easy for me to judge a book by its cover... all too dangerous for me to do so. God is in the poor and the homeless, but he is also in the middle class and in the wealthy. I am thankful for the blessings that I have received personally and the way in which it has grown me, and I am thankful for the way in which some with wealth understand that it is not their money but that they are only a tool for which they are being used to disperse money to bless others.

In a matter of hours we are leaving to drive to Houston. And thus begins our craziest week we have scheduled for our tour. Excited - yes! Overwhelmed? Ask me at the end of the week... :)

Spring Break in Austin

All teams have been asked to take a long weekend for a spring break (to keep us from running ourselves down and getting worn out)... so that means, our spring break is here!  We have the weekend off and will be spending it in Austin.  I am excited for the time of relaxation that is to come.  Be expecting more entries and pictures since I will have a sufficient amount of time to sit down and do it.  I hope you all are doing well!  Love.

The Vision

The Vision

So this guy comes up to me and says,

"What's the vision? What's the big idea?"

I open my mouth and words come out like this...

The vision?

The vision is Jesus:

obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.

The vision is an army of young people.

You see bones?

I see an army.

And they are free from materialism.

They laugh at 9-5 little prisons.

They could eat caviar on Monday

and crusts on Tuesday.

They wouldn't even  notice.

They know the meaning of the Matrix;

the way the West was won.

They are mobile like the wind; 

they belong to the nations.

They need no passport.

People write their addresses in pencil

and wonder at their strange existence.

They are free, yet they are slaves

of the hurting and dirty and dying.

What is the vision?

The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes.

It makes children laugh and adults angry.

It gave up the game of minimum integrity

long ago to reach for the stars.

It scorns the good and strains for the best.

It is dangerously pure.

Light flickers from every secret motive,

every private conversation.

It loves people away from their suicide leaps,

their Satan games.

This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause.

A million times a day

Its soldiers choose to lose

that they might one day win

the great "well done"

of faithful sons and daughters.

Such heroes are as radical 

on Monday morning

as Sunday night.

They don't need fame from names.

Instead they grin quietly upwards

and hear the crowds chanting,

again and again:

"COME ON! "

And this is the sound of the underground

The whisper of history in the making

Foundations shaking

Revolutionaries dreaming once again

Mystery is scheming in whispers

Conspiracy is breathing...

This is the sound of the underground.

And the army is disciplined.

Young people who beat their bodies into submission.

Every soldier would take a bullet for his

comrades at arms.

The tattoo on their backs boasts

"For me to live is Christ and to die is gain."

Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their

upward eyes.

Winners.  Martyrs.

Who can stop them?

Can hormones hold them back?

Can failure succeed?

Can fear scare them or death kill them?

And the generation prays

like a dying man with groans beyond

talking, with warrior cries,

sulfuric tears and with great barrow loads of

laughter!

Waiting.

Watching.

24 - 7 - 365.

Whatever it takes they will give:

Breaking the rules.

Shaking mediocrity from its cozy little hide.

Laying down their rights and their

precious little wrongs,

laughing at labels,

fasting essentials.

The advertisers cannot mold them.

Hollywood cannot hold them.

Peer-pressure is powerless

to shake their resolve at late night

parties before the cockerel cries.

They are incredibly cool, dangerously

attractive (on the inside).

On the outside?

They hardly care!

They wear clothes like costumes:

to communicate and celebrate

but never to hide.

Would they surrender their image or their popularity?

They would lay down their very lives,

swap seats with the man on death row;

guilty as hell.

A throne for an electric chair.

With blood and sweat and many tears,

with sleepless nights 

and fruitless days,

they pray as if it all depends on God

and live as if it all depends on them.

Their DNA chooses Jesus.

(He breathes out, they breathe in.)

Their subconscious sings.

They had a blood transfusion with Jesus.

Their words make demons scream in shopping malls.

Don't you hear them coming?

Herald the weirdos!

Summon the losers and the freaks.

Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes.

They walk tall and trees applaud,

skyscrapers bow,

mountains are dwarfed

by these children of another dimension.

Their prayers summon the hounds of

heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.

And this vision will be.

It will come to pass;

it will come easily;

it will come soon.

How do I know?

Because this is

the longing of creation itself,

the groaning of the Spirit,

the very dream of God.

My tomorrow is his today. 

My distant hope is his 3D.

And my feeble,

whispered,

faithless prayer

invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great

"Amen!"

from countless angels,

from heroes of the faith,

from Christ himself.

And he is the original dreamer,

the ultimate winner.

Guaranteed.

by Peter Greig

Meet Priscilla..

We stayed at a contact's house last week and she just so happened to have a pet rat named Priscilla.  At first I was more or less disgusted that this rat crawled all over people.. but then we became friends.  Priscilla is pretty cute and she would run up one arm, around my neck, and down the other.  I thought I would include a picture so you could look at her sweet face..

Riverwalk

Here is a picture from San Antonio of my team (in which we are very small, i realize this) at the top of the bridge along the riverwalk.  If you have never been here, I suggest you come sometime to visit.  There is a river that runs right through downtown and shops and restaurants are built alongside.  Not to mention the beautiful architecture of the buildings!

San Antonio arrival

I have been trying to post pictures and unfortunately, to no avail.  I will hopefully get that figured out soon so you can visually see some of my experiences.  I am also making it a goal of mine to take more pictures that I have been because I know I am going to look back on tour and wish that I had.  

We made it to San Antonio yesterday!  After a long boring drive through western texas... but things have been going well!  We had a five hour drive and a screening when we got here, so that made for a long day, but a good one.  It was the first house screening last night that truly went how I'd first pictured it.  After showing Sunday, we were able to sit down and talk with everyone (about 20 people) in the living room and answer questions and discuss what to do, etc.  

It is also encouraging when you find those people who you really connect with.  One girl and I sat and talked for a good 45 minutes throughout the night about life and where we are headed and whatnot.  It was encouraging and I made a really good friend through that.  

Today we had a day off and we went with one of our contacts to see the sights in San Antonio.  We went to The Alamo as well as the Riverwalk.  It is gorgeous weather here (80+ degrees), so I am loving that aspect as well!  We will be in San Antonio until Friday morning... so much more to come!