Newsletter - July, 2004
July is Christian Community month for us: The Big Sur Camping & Crawdad Society drew forty folk for relaxing, feasting, river play and goofy songs around the campfire; and Family Camp at the conference center in Oakhurst brought together seventy folk for a week of worship, prayer, fellowship, teaching, water play, disc golf, marshmallow roasts, creative experiments and goofy songs in the chapel. Draped around our living room in a post-camp glow, we talk of a possible Winter Family Gathering. Let me know if you have any bright ideas for a time & place.
Community is both the blessing and bane of Christianity; the longing of many
hearts, the wounding of countless others. Often people give up. They retreat
into a God & Me community of two, forswearing what they call 'organized
religion.' My gut level response is always, "you call this ORGANIZED?"
So we come together. Some things work, some things don't. I'm the sort of
person that likes to fiddle endlessly with the plan, the rules, the
administration, the liturgy, the different ways we can come together....what if we tryÉ?
Maybe next year. Maybe you'll join us.
Books are another way of being in community; the thoughts and experiences of
the ages passed from hand to hand. I had an interesting run of healing books
beginning with AWAKENING INTUITION, a secular book by Mona Lisa Schultz about
using your mind-body network for insight and healing. Since I tend to
approach things from a soul & sprit perspective, it was interesting to read someone
who moved from the physical to the mind and emotions...despite cringing past
some of her spiritual stuff.
EXPERIENCE THE BLESSING focused on healings that flowed from the
spiritual river of the Toronto worship. Edited by John Arnott the book includes the
essays by many known Christians like Ted Haggard, Stephen Strang, Dick and
Betty Mills, John and Paula Sandford...all who went to Toronto and wrote about
their experiences. This book reminds us that the manifest presence of God IS a
healing presence, and for me, it sparked an inner desire for that depth of
corporate worship so rarely encountered.
HEALING THE WOUNDED SPIRIT by John and Paula Sanford is a fat book which
offers the best delineation I've ever read of the difference between the
personal/human spirit and the Holy Spirit. The outline of the purpose, function
and development of the human spirit is worth the price of the book, $13.99. The
copy that I read has already been sold so there are no deals on this one, but
the other two are used books: $2 for the secular one, $4 for the Testimonies
from Toronto.
Yesterday I was trying to cram yet another Jack Hayford book into our
overstuffed shelves; sliding a stack of Hunter in one direction and shoving stack of
Graham in the other. I decided it's time for an end of the summer sale: $5
for as many used books under $5 that you can carry out in your arms. This
year, we'll exempt a few starred books. These *Sneetches* are books highly
recommended books by staff and well worth the full $1-$4 each. First two weeks in
August. One pass per person. Come and get 'em.
Jane writes that Philip Pullman is an intriguing fantasy author, despite
being aniti-church. The third of his series, THE AMBER SPYGLASS, came into the
store and has been sitting on my coffee table. The dilemma: do I wait for the
first one of this series, or go ahead and read the third one? Please advise.
Tessa sent me two children's fantasies by Edgar Eager: THE WELL WISHERS and
MAGIC BY THE LAKE. WELL WISHERS reminded me a bit of Mrs. Piggle Wiggle with
it's magically tweaked character development. MAGIC BY LAKE was more of a time
travel adventure. Good mid-elementary school fantasy now available for a
couple dollars each.
131 CHRISTIANS EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW is a book by the editors of Christian
History Magazine. It's comprised of a couple of pages of very readable
biographies on luminaries through the ages. I'm going through a person a day--like
multiple vitamins. Isn't it lovely that Christian community transcends time and
space? You can have this copy in a hundred days or so...or order a new one for
$14.99.
One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps
someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time. -Carl Sagan,
astronomer and writer (1934-1996)
It's a poor sort of memory that only works backward. -Lewis Carroll,
mathematician and writer (1832-1898)
Blessings,
Alliee +