Karen and Kyle's wedding...we had a good time, Praise Jesus!!!

Last Saturday my old roomate Karen married Kyle in Seattle. It was a reunion of sorts...most the girls from 746, or the Capitol Hill House, were there.

It was an eventful evening, starting with me getting lost in a parking garage! Yes, I couldn't even walk out of a parking garage to get to the hotel where the wedding was being held, even though I could see the hotel across the street. It was hugely frustrating...I don't get lost very often. I just kept getting in to different elevators, going up and down, moving my car, and walking the length of this gigantic garage. And I was all dressed up, in heels, carrying this present, telling myself not to cry or I'd mess up my make-up. Dark, empty parking garages are not fun places.

But I made it...right in the middle of the processional! They had me walk in after the parents and before the bride's maids...I know people thought I was part of the wedding party...and then, when I sat down, I was half-way in the lap of my neighbor! A complete stranger to me...although a handsome young man...

After that, it was just a good time...as you'll be able to see from the pictures. Karen was beautiful...honestly, I think she wore my most favorite dress ever. We were in a hotel that looked over the Puget Sound and ferries came in and out in the distance. Yummy food, gorgeous flowers, great wine, bad dancing....and good friends.

Some other thoughts: white girls can't dance, praise Jesus, Karen's mom is a great dancer and true confidante.

I talked for a long time with Rosie...which is always good. For me, she is a true prophet....not that she predicts the future, but she encourages me and also admonishes me. Wish I was able to be around her more...

Chad Dale documented the evening by sitting back and quietly taking a ton of photos (although we did get him out to the dance floor once!)...I thank him for the ones you find here. I'd also like to thank Jason Jost for saving me a place to sit and for moving my car at the opportune moment.

Talking to Rosie....

White Girls Can't Dance


Praise Jesus

Karen's Back

Talkin'....

Why can't we get this picture right?

More Quotes...

My very pregnant sister Elisabeth said this yesterday:

"I think my brain actually doesn't work anymore. I'm sorry."

Norah Renee Busch

Last week my sister Jamie had her third baby...a girl. Here's a few pictures...Isn't she lovely?

Some Favorite Quotes by Some of my Favorite People

"It may be that faith is no more and no less than a choice between the words 'it may be so' and 'I will live as if it is so.'" Thomas Schmidt, A Scandalous Beauty

"I am full of hope that when God delays in fulfilling our little thoughts, it is to leave Himself room to work out His great ones. And, more and more as time goes on, I feel that the longer He waits the more we can expect, for the deeper and wider will be the undermining, and the greater will be the band of those who will come forth free from their prison walls. When one gets hold of that vision, one can throw back in the devil's face His taunts ovfer the seemingly wasted years that lie behind us." Lillias Trotter

"Mom, Bepo (me, April) is par, par away, huh?" My 4 year old nephew Micah said to his mom when I was in India.

"I believe I saw in young Boughton's face, as we walked along, a sense of irony at having invested hope in this sad old place, and also the cost to him of relinquishing it." Marilynne Robinson, Gilead

"I miss Bepo when I don't see her everyday." Jonah Brawley, my nephew

"So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord." Hosea 6:3

"How good life must be once you got the hang of it." Walker Percy, Second Coming

"And, Lord, we thank you for our relationships." 3 year old Ava, my neice, praying at dinner one night.

"Anxiety is the mark of spiritual insecurity...the fruit of unanswered questions. There is the laziness that pretends to dignify itself by the name of despari, and teaches us to ignore both the question and the answer." Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island

"I'm prettier than you," a little girl said to my 7 year old neice Sarah. She replied, "We're all pretty."

"We shall see Him just as He is....God is greater than our heart, and knows all things." 1 John

"Send out Thy light and Thy truth, let them lead me; let them bring me to Thy holy hill, to Thy dwelling places, to the altar of God, to God, my exceeding joy."

"April, where's your husband?" asksed my 5 year old nephew Jayden as we were falling asleep when he was spending the night with me. "I don't have one," I said. "Yes you do..." "No, I don't." "Yes, you do.I know, he works nights!"

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart wil certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one...Wrap it careful round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it safe in the casket...of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless,airless- it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable...The only place outside of heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers of....love is hell."
C.S.Lewis

"Shalom: Living in peace with those around us, seeking the good of the community, nurturing justice and abundance for all....it is there, in the heart of Love incarnate, that we learn how to best live with and love our brothers and sisters." Kristyn Komarnicki, Prism

"I smiled at April and she laughed at me." 3 year old Aislyn Patrick

"...we let the crusts of our lives fall away and we rested in the deep hush of eternity." John Howard Griffin, Black Like Me

"Human beings do not readily admit desperation.When they do, the kingdom of Heaven draws near." Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew

"...because in thinking it through I realized that doing what I needed to do meant giving up what I thought I wanted. Having been set on an easy, well-marked path, I had to turn into a thicket of trees. And there, ignorant of the terrain and the extent of the forrest, I would have to keep going, taking it on faith tha I was pursuing the right course." Kathleen Norris, The Virgin of Bennington

"You have a lot of freckles," 6 year old Makenna said to me. "Yes, I do...but the ones I dislike the most are right here on my elbow," I replied. "You're still pretty," she said.

"....You are our Author, and we try to listen and set down what You say, but we suffer from faulty hearing and loss of language and we get the words wrong." Medeleine L'Engle, from Pharoah's Cross

"Whom you would change, you must first love." Martin Luther King Jr.

"Pain makes us recognize each other." Over the Rhine

"As long as a woman can be bought or sold, no woman is free." Maria Castaneda

"For in their own bodies Christians live existentially the tension of their present uncompleted existence in solidarity with an unredeemed creation..." Beker, Suffering and Hope

"Jesus inviting us to drink the cup without offering the reward we expect is the great challenge of the spiritual life. It breaks through all human calculations and expectations. It defies all our wishes to be sure in advance. It turns our hope for a predictable future upside down and pulls down our self-invented safety devices. It asks for the most radical trust in God, the same trust that made Jesus drink the cup to the bottom." Henri Nouwen, Can You Drink the Cup

"You get points for just breathing in and out." George O'Malley to Meredith Grey on Grey's Anatomy

"Thou art the God who workest wonders...Thy way was in the sea, and Thy paths in the mighty waters, and Thy footprints may not be known...I will remember my song in the night." Psalm 77

"Those who live in His shadow will again raise grain, and they will blossom like the vine. His renouwn will be like the wine of Lebanon....I am (GOD) like a luxuriant cypress; from me comes your fruit." Hosea 14

Proverbs 1:10-19

My child, if sinners entice you, turn your back on them! They may say, "Come and join us. Let's hide and kill someone! Just for fun, let's ambush the innocent! Let's swallow them alive, like the grave; let's swallow them whole, like those who go down to the pit of death. Think of the great things we'll get! We'll fill our houses with all the stuff we take. Come, throw in your lot with us; we'll all share the loot!" My child, don't go along with them! Stay far away from their paths. They rush to commit evil deeds. They hurry to commit murder. If a bird sees a trap being set, it knows to stay away. But these people set an ambush for themselves; they are trying to get themselves killed. Such is the fate of all who are greedy for money (or possessions); it robs them of life.

I am considering how hard it is to live differently than my culture...that life is, that I am, more than I possess. And that for everything I possess, there are others who have so much less, and perhaps were even robbed of life in order that I may have more.

It's interesting that right after these verses in Proverbs, we find this set about wisdom: (vs. 20-23)

Wisdom shouts in the streets. She cries out in the public square. She calls to the crowds along the main street, to those gathered in front of the city gate: "How long, you simpletons, will you insist on being simpleminded? How long will you mockers relish your mocking? How long will fools hate knowledge? Come and listen to my counsel. I'll share my heart with you and make you wise."

What is the value of wisdom? Is it worth more than a new car, a new shirt, a new book? Most days I think I'd rather look good than be wise and have life. Today I long for wisdom, in order that where life has been stolen, I can help it be renewed.

Expecting a King

It’s Advent season and in church we are singing Christmas carols. This Sunday we sang one particular carol that spoke of the coming of a King. I know that as humans we try and fail to wrap our minds around God becoming flesh. I sang this carol and tried to wrap my mind around the coming of a King.

As a citizen of the United States, I have no idea what it means to hope for a king. Truly, in our modernized, industrialized, and globalized world, hardly a country exists anymore that waits in eager expectation for a king. Instead, Americans anticipate election years or demand resignations from world leaders. We threaten economic sanctions on governments who would propose to oppose us. And, if we must, we send our very own, our young women and men, to bear the cause of democracy. No, I have little idea what it is to long for a king.

Where monarchies still exist, they are mostly in name only. Still, they seem to be a common rallying point for their people. Japan’s monarchy claims to be 2,666 years old with an unbroken line of emperors. Much historical debate exists around this statement; still it is a monarchy that outdates any other existing one in the world today. And until this year, it was a monarchy on the verge of dissolving due to the inability of either of Japan’s princes to produce a male heir. Between the two of them and their wives, they have birthed three daughters and according to the law, the crown cannot be passed on to a female. An initiative was being drawn up to change this law, until one of the wives became pregnant and then the entire country held their breath and awaited the birth. A son was born and the unbroken line of emperors remained intact. This was an interesting political and cultural dilemma for Japan because the royal family holds no political power. The Prime Minister and the parliament, all of whom are elected officials, hold political power. Instead the Japanese monarchy represents a state religion, even though the Emperor cannot claim to be divine. Still, Japan heaved a sigh of relief when a son was born.

In America, we don’t anticipate the birth of a prince, or for that matter, a princess. We are a democracy and in theory we vote in order to be represented in all forms of government. America represents a level political playing field where, also in theory, a poor boy from Arkansas can become president or a woman can become Speaker of the House. Still, we have our own ‘royal families’ composed of old money and bloodlines. But instead of births we lie in wait for election years anticipating the political victory of a president or governor.

1 Samuel 8 in the Old Testament records Israel’s desire for a king. They were the only nation without one, and so they looked around and wanted to be like everybody else. They wanted a king who would represent them, who would lead them into battle and judge them. Israel was a theocracy, with God as their leader. God warned them about kings, about what kings wanted, expected and demanded. He told them a king would be their demise. Still, they asked for a king. And so, they got ‘em, a whole list of kings that divided their nation, fed their children to the fires of Molech, taxed and impoverished them. In the end, Israel waited and expected only that one King who would make everything right again. He would restore the monarchy and the nation.

The King who was born for Israel was not the King they had been expecting. Truly, not many Jews even acknowledged Him as King. He did not come and overthrow a government and He did not restore Israel as a nation. Instead, He turned water to wine, healed the sick, hung out with public enemies, and occasionally did some fishing. I don’t think this is the King I’d be expecting either. In fact, the carol I sang on Sunday went on to say that this King would set the oppressed free and I thought to myself, “27 million slaves exist in the world today, more than at any other time in human history. The expected King came, and the oppressed still are not free.”

I find myself getting caught up in that Kingdom where the oppressed are free, everyone has enough to eat, disease no longer exists, and everyone lives in equality. I believe in Kingdom living, a way of life that is gospel-centered and hinges on more than mere personal conversion, but on righteousness and justice that make up the foundation of Christ’s throne and lovingkindness and truth (Psalm 89:14) by which He leads and should be demonstrated toward all humanity. I recognize my own tendencies toward living in a materialistic fashion, and wonder how I can live in a more just and loving way.

I immerse myself in considering what it means to belong to Christ’s Kingdom, and forget to expect a King. My days are so filled with what I see as wrong with the world that I fail to recognize the importance of a King. A king represents his kingdom. This King is just, is righteous, is love, is truth, and because of who He is, so will His Kingdom be. I believe that Christ’s Kingdom can find immediacy on this earth and that I as a gospel follower must seek to represent both the Kingdom and the King. But how can this be done if I am not expecting Him?

In the Christmas stories of Matthew 2 and Luke 2, I read that when those who came to see the Baby realized who He was, they worshiped Him. They recognized that the One, the King they’d been expecting, had arrived. The import of His arrival, I am certain, was not lost on them. But they didn’t get caught up in what it would mean for their King to be born. It probably seemed odd to them that a King was born in a barn. But their focus did not remain on His poverty or on a coming Kingdom. Instead they simply brought their gifts, bent their knees, and worshiped.

The course of human history was changed because this King was born and I know that it should change the way I live my life. I hope I am changing a bit more each year because He was born. The future for me and for the world changed because this King was born and died and rose again. But this Advent season finds me hoping that I am changed because I am expecting Him, a King who is called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). Because of who He is, and not just the Kingdom He represents, I will worship.

Refugees

USCCB, for whom I loosely work, just issued this statement in regards to refugees and asylum seekers. Please read and respond...we are all just refugees, really, waiting for a country to call our own.

I write concerning a matter of utmost importance and urgency, which requires your active involvement in advocacy on behalf of refugees currently barred from the United States on account of an overly broad interpretation and application of U.S. anti-terrorism laws.

Thousands of refugees and asylum seekers are being prevented from receiving the asylum, resettlement, or permanent residence in this country they desperately need. Under U.S. anti-terrorism laws refugees, for example, have been barred from entering the U.S. because they were forced at the threat of death to provide "material support"- money, food, or other support-to an organization now broadly defined in U.S. law as a terrorist organization (including pro-democracy rebel groups.)The U.S. refugee resettlement program, a lifeline for those who flee oppression, has been undermined by the failure to resolve this crisis. Tens of thousands of refugees have been denied entry and asylum seekers here have had their cases rejected.We need you to generate grassroots letters written to President Bush about this problem. There are two particular requests that should be made of him:That he require the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and State to recognize "duress" as a waiverable circumstance when considering refugee applicants; and That he support bi-partisan legislation, hopefully forthcoming in the new Congress, which legislatively fixes these unintended consequences of current law.

You can access a model letter and send it directly via email to the president by going to www.justiceforimmigrants.org/materialsupport.html .I encourage you to reach out to parishioners and others in the community to have as many letters as possible sent to the President.Ideally, letters can be sent on December 12, 2006 to the President. In this way, we have a better chance for impact. However, if you cannot get letters in on that particular day, please send them whenever you can.Thank you for your essential help on this important initiative. We will keep you informed about developments.

This message was sent from
Migration and Refugee Services
Office of Executive Director
3211 Fourth Street, N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20017