Free Music, People!

How do you pass up such great stuff? Avett Brothers, Fleet Foxes, Joan Baez, Billy Bragg, Iron & Wine, to name a few -- and that's just from the Folk Sampler... Getting ready to download the Jazz Sampler, which includes Branford Marsalis, Dave Brubeck, the Bad Plus and others. TGIF! and thank you NPR.

These are from the Newport Music Festivals on the 50th anniversary.

Go to NPR Music at Newport.

P.S. If you want more solid acoustic guitar work, also check out a new album by Bruce Cockburn called Slice o' Life. Down to earth Canadian folk singer who has always put out great music, even if it has been a bit under the radar at times.

New Kind o' Veggie Burger...

True confessions: I have not tried this recipe yet. But it sounds marvelous. Give it a spin and tell me your impressions -- I just went and bought an eggplant today and plan on making it this weekend with my Fairview Gardens heirloom tomatoes and fresh basil. I got it from The World Community Cookbook - "Simply in Season."

Eggplant Burgers

A delicious late summer meatless grill, or make it under the broiler. You might need a knife and fork to eat these hearty sandwiches.

Serves 4

2 tablespoons oil

2 teaspoons wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Whisk together in a small bowl.

1 large eggplant

Cut crosswise into 1/4-inch / 5-mm thick slices to make 12-16 slices. Brush with the oil mixture. Place on grill over medium-high heat. Close lid and cook, turning and brushing occasionally with remaining oil mixture, until tender, 5-10 minutes. Remove from grill. (Eggplant slices may be cooked under the broiler or sautéed in a frypan until tender, 4-5 minutes per side.)

8 thin slices provolone, Gouda, or other cheese

2 tomatoes (thinly sliced)
or 4 large pieces roasted red sweet peppers

8-16 leaves fresh basil

freshly ground pepper

Place a slice of cheese on 1 eggplant slice; top with another eggplant slice. Top with 2 tomato slices or a piece of roasted red sweet pepper, then 2-4 basil leaves. Top with third eggplant slice, then another slice of cheese. Top with fourth eggplant slice. Repeat to make 4 stacks, adding a grind of pepper at the end (optional). Place on grill; close lid and cook for about 2 minutes, turning once.

4 crusty rolls or 8 thin slices sturdy bread

Drizzle balsamic vinegar on inside of split rolls. Or brush the bread with olive oil, toast it on the grill and lightly rub a cut clove of garlic over the toasted surface. Add vegetable stacks and serve immediately. Or allow to cool, wrap tightly, and refrigerate several hours or overnight, allowing flavors to blend.

Summer Selections

It's a bee-YOO-ti-ful day outside, and I plan on enjoying it very soon. But I wanted to check in and shoot off my mouth a bit about things that I really like.

Please feel free to share your favorites as well.

Life is good, full of small and sweet pleasures that I enjoy...

• Date Almond Rolls with Coconut from Lassens Foods
• Organic Strawberry Spread from Costco on Brown Rice Cakes (don't knock it till you try it)
• Avocados - at any time of day
• Bike rides -- to the Mission, Lake Los Carneros, Campus Point, on errands
• Scooter rides! especially with a friend in back, feeling summer on your face
• Andy Shauf - sort of a cross between Sondre Lerche (Dan in Real Life soundtrack dude) and Sufjan Stevens
• Tour de France on TV in the morning while I am drinking coffee and eating breakfast
• The Book of Joshua
• Fresh produce from Fairview Gardens -- strawberries, yellow squash, basil, cucumbers, tomatoes

But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds. (Psalm 73:28)

Thanks for being part of my grace-filled life. Feel free to share your own top summer selections.

Deforestation in Haiti

Just heard an amazing story on NPR about Haiti & their deforestation crisis. This is all the more cool because this past Monday (a whole two days ago) I met with a man who has gone to Haiti six times in the last 4 years on medical missions. When he heard about the work of Eden Projects, he wanted to meet and talk through the possibilities of us going to Haiti next.

Best of all, Eden has already been asked by another group to come down, and plans are tentatively set for this October to scout out the potential for Eden to get started. This story on NPR motivates me even more to be involved with reforestation. The more I learn, the more evident it appears that something needs to be done. Now.

Eden Projects is on track to plant 3.5 million trees this year in Ethiopia and Madagascar. The plan is to double our planting rate each year for the next five years, getting to the point of planting 100 million trees. This is crazy and lofty - but necessary. As Steve Fitch, the founder of Eden Projects says, if we can't plant 100 million trees a year, we shouldn't even bother. Anything less would be like going to Skid Row and feeding one person a single meal.

Please be praying for me as I try to recruit churches and businesses to join Eden Reforestation Projects in this work. I will also be inviting former students of mine to get involved by starting chapters on their campuses that will support Eden by seeking ways big and small to raise funds and awareness. Thanks. Go to www.edenprojects.org and scroll down to the videos at the bottom to learn more.

Article Published on "Two Whom"

Another article related to youth ministry has been posted online with Fuller Youth Institute (FYI), an excellent research institution connected to Fuller Seminary, its School of Theology and their program in Youth, Family & Culture. I met with the Executive Director Kara Powell last month to talk through future projects we might work on together, and she asked if they could post my story about our "Two Whom" project.

I care about the Two Whom event because it was my best attempt to help students learn how to live out their faith in the midst of their everyday life. Kara and I really connected on a passion of FYI -- to work with students in understanding "deeper justice" issues. In other words, when we take that summer missions trip to Tijuana or Costa Rica or the inner city, it's easy to dive in and work with the poor when that is all that we are doing. We have both found that students are energized to serve and sacrifice for the next few days or weeks after such an experience, but that it is difficult for them to sustain that commitment because the trip was so... "other."

Two Whom was a step forward because it asked students to grapple with poverty, injustice and our faith right in their world -- heck, right in their kitchen! May we keep seeing ways to live out kingdom values in our lives and relationships, bringing grace, justice, humility, love and peace to those we see daily.

Job Update #4 - final

Thanks to those of you who have plowed through these posts. This last update is the least specific. I will introduce it with this quote I heard recently:

I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. Henry David Thoreau

During my sabbatical (Nov 08 thru Jan 09) I decided to try my hand at a little writing. It had always been a long-unrealized dream of mine to get something published. While it definitely took some work on the front end to learn a few of the ins and outs of queries, writing guidelines and article submission, it has been a fun adventure. While none of my work will go down in the annals of fine literature, I will say that it has been a fun little rush to see my name in print. Editors have been gracious, readers have been encouraging, and the whole experience has motivated me to keep working at it.

What has been published this year (some of the links are listed to the right):

• Two articles published this year in Youthworker Journal, and I am contracted to write another one for the fall.
• An essay in the book When Kids Hurt by Chap Clark and Steve Rabey
• An article on Steinbeck and Faith in Provocations Journal, a publication of the Trinity Forum; I have another submitted to them that they are considering
• Regular columns on youthminblog.com
• I have been contacted by ymtoday.com and fulleryouthinstitute.org, both of whom have asked me to write for them.
• As mentioned in Job Update #1, I will be assisting the President of Eden Reforestation Projects in writing a book about creation care and environmental stewardship, primarily focusing on the huge need for reforestation around the world.

I agree with Thoreau. Head in the direction of your dreams. Don't count on those dreams for the big bucks (I think I have made a total of $250 from the efforts listed above....) but enjoy the opportunity to stretch, think, create, risk.

I close with some wise words from Dorothy Parker:

If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second-greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first-greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they're happy.

Job Update #3

Yes, there is more to tell. It may sound like I'm taking on too much, but thankfully, all of it still only adds up to 40 hours or so. Each of the pieces are part-time -- though I admit to full-time energy for all of them. This is gratifying time of learning, growth, challenge, and best of all, creativity. I have said it before, but I'll say it again: I am so grateful. God has been very generous, and his provision has been remarkable.

I've mentioned some consulting projects these past couple of months, and they have come from two sources:

Youth Ministry Architects (YMA): You've heard me talk about this group already - what a tremendous team of people. I have learned a ton from them as I have tried out many different things:

• I represented them at the National Pastors' Conference in San Diego and met hundreds of pastors;
• I analyzed assessment data for them that had been submitted from churches all around the country;
• I assisted in some searches for youth and family pastors;
• I wrote a couple of articles for them addressing specific issues related to youth ministry;
• I went on-site to churches in Nebraska and Illinois.

From all of that, I am now in ongoing consulting relationships with the churches in Nebraska and Illinois, and I have also picked up another project in Arizona (plus one or two potentials in the hopper). With these 3 churches I will be video-conferencing with them once or twice a month, coaching them in some of the specifics of YMA's comprehensive approach to youth ministry. They have a really solid, systematic method for assisting a whole church in renovating their entire infrastructure for youth ministry. I will also visit periodically (maybe two more times) to do some work onsite. I am really impressed with what YMA offers -- and I'm not just sayin' that!

Free Methodist Conference of Southern California: this has bubbled up unexpectedly -- but as I said, God is cool. I won't go into boring details, but out of one relationship with a former student where I offered to help him work through his "stuckness" in some areas I am now coaching two other lead pastors in Southern CA every week. I use a bunch of tools I've used in the past in training interns & staff during my years with both Young Life and the church. This coaching is rather different from YMA in that I am focusing my work solely on the lead pastor to maximize his effectiveness, whereas with YMA I work more comprehensively with a church's leadership team, in partnership with another consultant.

You know me -- I love to assist folks in thinking through needs, ideas, challenges, and so on, and then coming up with a plan for how to move forward. For this consulting work I meet with each pastor in person for our first meeting, and then we meet weekly after that through video conference. I love technology.

I will soon post about one last sliver of my job pie soon. Thanks for reading.