Mother’s Day is a mixed bag for many people.  On the one hand, it seems simple and beautiful to honor and celebrate our Mother’s.  Many of them are worthy of being regarded in this way.  But for others, days like Mother’s Day, a day whose intention is joy, can actually carry some pain.  What of those who grieve the loss of a Mother?  What of those who have longed to be called ‘Mom’ but for whom that wish has never been fulfilled?  What of those who never knew their Mother or who had a destructive relationship with their Mother?  This tension between joy and sadness is one that we wrestle with as human beings on a regular basis.  Thankfully, we have a God who is capable of sharing both in the joy and sadness that we call experience.  My hope is that we can all do the same for each other.

As many in our church and in our community prepare for Mother’s Day, I want us to take a moment to think some about Mary, the Mother of Jesus.  There is a Greek word that people of the orthodox tradition use to talk about Mary. They refer to her as the Theotokos.  Theotokos literally means, ‘God-bearer’.  Mary is revered because she is the one who literally carries God into the world. She is considered the first of the saints because she is simply the first one to carry God into the world.  

When we read the Christmas story, when we hear the angels sing, the shepherds pray, and the wise men give their gifts, we know that this is the beginnings of the story of Jesus- the one who died and rose for our sake, the one who granted us the gift of the Spirit that lives within us.  But it is a sort beginning of our story as well.  You see, we too, are ‘God-bearers’.  We are people who, by the power of the Holy Spirit, carry within us the holiness, the righteousness and the justice of God.  As Mary carried the salvation of the world in her womb, we carry the salvation of the world in our hearts.  What good news!

We carry the divine within us.  This is good news for us and for our world.  It is good news for us because we are reminded that all the other claims on our life- all of our struggles, all of our failures, all of our insecurities, all of our sicknesses- all of them that try to define who we are take a back seat to the reality that God dwells in us.  

Of course, this is good news for our world as well!  We are like Mary as well in that we too give birth to the divine in our world.  We are agents of the good news.  The goodness of God at work in us is not something to be held, but it is like a light to be shared.  We are agents of the reign of justice and righteousness that Isaiah proclaims.  We are teachers of the wisdom and justice of the wonderful counselor.  We are soldiers in the ranks of the mighty God.  We are children of the Everlasting Father.  We are ones who proclaim the Prince of Peace.  To be a god-bearer is to carry the goodness of God in our hearts and to be changed by the love and mercy of the one who comes to us.  But to be a god-bearer is also to be one who gives birth to God’s mercy, righteousness, justice, and love in the world.

‘Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We would like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet, it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability--that it may take a very long time. Above all, trust in the slow work of God, our loving vine-dresser.’

I have a confession to make.  Marcia and I are not the best gardeners in the world.  We try hard, but it often seems that our success have more to do with luck than with care and intentionality.  Our garden this summer is a perfect example.  We tried to start from seed this year (I know.  All of you real gardeners and farmers are laughing at the fact saying, ‘Is there any other way to grow a garden’?  Give us a break.  We lived in the city a long time!).  At first, everything seemed to be going splendidly.  We dutifully planted seeds in the little planter that would sit in our guest room receiving the warmth and sunlight they needed.  It was a joyful experience to see the different seedlings sprout and to begin to imagine what they would be when they grew into full and mature plants outside.  We mapped out where we would plant each of these little ones when we moved them outside.  I could almost taste the peppers, the tomatoes, the basil, and everything else.  This was the easiest thing we had ever done!

That is, until the transplanting.  Some of our precious seedlings died, some seemed to never grow, and there was no lack of frustration and second-guessing in wondering what was going to happen to our garden.  Was something wrong with the soil?  Was the dirt too hard?  Were the plants not mature enough to be outside yet?  We looked for quick fixes.  We tried to loosen the soil more than we already had.  We planted more seeds to try to get them to grow completely ignoring the map we had created.

All I can say now is that I am unsure of what we did right or wrong.  We are still trying to learn those lessons.  The good news is that many plants in our garden are thriving and doing quite well (though because we abandoned our map, we also are not quite sure what several of the plants actually are!), and I am sure this is completely independent of our efforts.  Plants are meant to grow, and when they get the sunlight, soil nutrients, and water they need, that is what they do.  The slow work of God, setting the rains and the sun and the warmth to motion, is bringing our garden to life, and we trust that it will bear fruit.

A garden has been a metaphor for the spiritual life for many people in many times and places, and there are so many obvious reasons.  Those small, little seeds that hold so much power and so much life can be a metaphor for so many things - for our own spirits, for the good news of Jesus at work within us, for the ministries and relationships that we care for, nurture and sustain as individuals and as a church.  And we, just like an impatient gardener, can try to rush them to their fullness, we can take easy ways out, we can looks for quick fixes to avoid the necessary instability that leads to so much of the growth.  Ultimately, the overwhelming reality of it all is that the slow work of God will not cease despite our best efforts to hurry it up!  God works in the joys and excitements of new things sprouting to life in our lives and in our church.  God works in the dry and unstable periods when we wonder how we will make it through and whether the struggle and difficulty is even worth it.  God works in the pruning when there are things that we need to let go of for new life to grow.  And God works in the joy of harvest when we celebrate the fruit that comes from both our labor and our trust in the slow work of God.  May God continue to do his work, in our lives, in our church, in our communities, and in our world, and may we have the patience to trust that God’s work is done in love - whether it is on our time table or not.

The Gospel of John is one of the masterful works of theology in all of the Bible.  It does not take long to see this.  The book begins with the theological work in the prologue talking about Word, Light, Life, Flesh, and more.  It is a magnificent piece of theological work that names Jesus as the Word of God present at Creation and now here in the flesh!  The Gospel of John is also known for its creative writing as well.  Simple words and phrases are infused with deep and powerful meaning and imagery.

So, when we read something as simple as Jesus first words spoken in the book, we hear the simple words of a man wondering why two people have started following him, but we also hear a deeply profound word about the purpose for the rest of the book.  It almost serves as a clue to those reading John’s testimony that, in reading this story, you will see and encounter Jesus, the word made flesh, the lamb of God, the savior of the world!  What are we looking for when we read the Gospel of John?  We are looking for none other than Jesus!

In some ways, I think that this is how we ought to read all of the Bible, not just the Gospel of John.  When we read, we ought to be looking for Jesus.  That seems pretty obvious, but let me try to explain a little more.  It seems logical that when we are confronted with a moral or ethical dilemma, as people of faith who believe the Bible to be the word of God, we would go to the text to look for answers. It seems to make sense as well that we would try to find the places where the Bible may address this topic specifically, and we would allow those texts to be the core of our quest to understand the Biblical teaching on the matter. There is some strength and merit to that approach and it is a common method amongst people of faith, but I think we need to be careful about it as well. What I mean is, what does the Bible reveal? Is at an ethical guideline and a moral code or is it a lens through which we see Jesus? That is a simple, either/ or question, and I understand it is more complex than that, but I think that question, “What does the Bible reveal and how does it do so?” is a critical question for all of us who seek to take the Bible seriously as a source for faith. When we read the Bible looking for a moral code, it seems to be that we are practicing a form of fundamentalism where following God means knowing and following a set of rules and dogmatic statements. That can be done without any sense of a living breathing relationship with God through Jesus, and that, as we know, is not what faith is about.

No, just as faith is not about following a moral code, reading the Bible is not about deciphering a set of rules either.  The Bible reveals to us who God is, who we are, and how God redeems that broken relationship through Jesus.  The reality is that much conflict that exists among people of faith today can, in some ways, be boiled down to differences in how we read the Bible.  They are differences of what it means for the book to be a living and inspired word.  Some want it to be like a legal code parsing each letter and phrase seeking the minutiae of each word trying to find the hidden meaning behind it all.  Some want it to be nothing more than an ancient artifact giving us insight into the history, culture, and spirituality of another time that has had a deep impact on modern life and culture.  I would like to suggest that the inspiration, the life, and the perfection of the Bible is that it shows us who Jesus is.  It points us to the son of God, the savior of the world, and it shows us that there is a better life, a new life, that comes when we follow him.

The next words that Jesus speaks in the Gospel of John?  After the two have responded to his question of what they were looking for by asking him where he is staying, Jesus says, “Come and see.”  Yes, indeed, come and see.  Read these words of life, and you will see the lamb of God, the Word made flesh, Jesus.

But as a Christian person, I quickly began to ask myself, how am I to respond to this news?  Is the death of another person, even someone as terrible as Osama bin Laden, truly something to celebrate?  The gravity of the whole situation set in.  The reality is there have been thousands of deaths over the past ten years that are lamentable, sad, and bring us some degree of grief.  Is Osama bin Laden’s another or should it be treated differently?  I read a quote recently from the Vatican that I thought summarized well a Christian response to this news.  It said, “Osama bin Laden, as we all know, bore the most serious responsibility for spreading divisions and hatred among populations, causing the deaths of innumerable people, and manipulating religions to this end.  In the face of a man's death, a Christian never rejoices, but reflects on the serious responsibilities of each person before God and before men, and hopes and works so that every event may be the occasion for the further growth of peace and not of hatred.”

In the economy of this age, we live with the regrettable reality of hatred, division, suffering, and war.  The sad reality is that we all know that the death of Osama bin Laden will not be the end of it.  If history has taught us anything, it is that we human beings are very capable of choosing conflict over peace, choosing hatred over love, and choosing death over life.  It will no take long for a new face and a new name to become the common enemy of us all.  More blood, whether innocent or guilty, will be shed, and none of it will atone for past losses and sufferings.  Osama bin Laden did and said terrible things.  Even worse, he did and said those things in the name of God.  But the sad reality that is faced by all of us, especially by those who have lost husbands and fathers, mothers and wives, children and grandchildren in the past 10 years, is that his death will bring none of them back.

The reality we face in this age is that we have so little faith to believe that there is only one person whose blood has any ability to atone for anything, and that is why the cross means so much more.  Perhaps the best way for us to respond to this historical event, namely the death of bin Laden, is to renew our commitment, in word and deed, to faith in Jesus Christ whose death and resurrection is the only reality that matters.  In Matthew 25, Jesus tells about the coming of the new age when ‘the Son of Man comes in his glory” where all will be gathered before him and Jesus will separate the sheep from the goats.  The criterion for this judgement?  When did we see someone naked and give them clothes, someone hungry who we fed, someone thirsty who we offered a drink, a stranger who we welcomed, or a prisoner who we visited?  This is not some claim to a works-based righteousness, but rather a reminder that any true follower of Jesus lives a life marked by compassion, humility, mercy, and love.

I trust that God will judge Osama bin Laden for his sins.  I trust just as much that God will judge me and you as well.  My hope and faith is that the blood of the lamb will be sufficient and will wash us white as snow.  As Americans, perhaps our response to the death of Osama bin Laden should be to do something good for a neighbor, to do something to promote peace, to give and care for those who are suffering because of this 10 year war.  What better way to show the world that we are not the selfish, hoarding, war-mongering, infidels that bin Laden thought we were than to show the world, in word and deed, that we are something far different.  As a Christian, perhaps our response should be to show that we are not children of this age, but we are people who seek an age to come.  We are not people of vengeance and hate, but we are people of peace and resurrection.  Perhaps we ought to take Jesus seriously and we should give the naked clothes, give the hungry some food, give someone who is thirsty a drink, welcome a stranger, and visit a prisoner.  In doing this, we show the world that the cycle of sin, death, and destruction is over.  There is a new way to live, and there is new way for us to live and love in relationship to God and each other.  There is one blood that was sufficient for all.  His name is Jesus.

“Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. ... if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.” -1 John 4:11-12

    It has been kind of an exciting week at our house.  Our daughter, Anastasia, took her first steps.  They were the clumsy, half-falling/ half-moving forward type that all babies take when they first make the switch from crawling to walking, but we are enjoying it nonetheless.  The excitement in her face, the ways she falls into us at the end of her short journey, all of it wonderful!

    It has us thinking about the first time Josiah walked as well.  Just as clumsily and unsteady.  You would not know it now though.  In fact, his default mode of movement now is to run or climb from place to place.  Those clumsy steps his sister takes?  In the distant past for him.

    All of this makes me think of that idiom, ‘practice makes perfect.’  Of course, we know that this is not entirely true.  While Josiah has practiced his walking/ running, and Anastasia will as well, they are not perfect, nor will they ever be.  Even I trip sometimes and I have 30 more years of experience at this walking thing than them.  But, even so, there is this sense in life that practice builds things into our lives in a way that they become almost intuitive.  They become second nature to us, things that we do not even think about all that much.

    I think that this applies to our spiritual lives as well.  I read this week how Mother Theresea required the nuns who worked with her in Calcutta to stop their work three times a day for an hour of prayer.  When one thinks about the work that they did, how could they not stop and pray?!?!?!?  There is no way they could have done that work of caring for the sickest of the sick, the poorest of the poor, without having themselves firmly rooted in God and God’s Spirit’s work in their life.  But their practice of prayer gave them the strength, the conviction, and the compassion to continue in their work, to love people as well as they could.

    We are not necessarily involved in works of compassion to the extent of the Sisters of Mercy, but our calling is no different than theirs.  I read this week where someone said, ‘if the gift of the Christian life is to be loved fully by God, the calling of the Christian life is to love well.’  God has given us a precious gift of love in his son, Jesus Christ.  Our calling then, is to take that gift of love, and to share it - in love of God, in love of others, and in love of self- the person God has made us to be.  However, if we are not people who practice our faith, we are people who will not grow and learn either.  Anastasia will stumble for a while, but she will learn, with our help and support, and soon she will be just as fast as her brother!  Our spiritual journeys are similar.  We must be people of devotion and prayer.  We must be people of worship and alms-giving.  These must be part of our weekly and daily practice.  If not, we will simply stumble, trip, and fall through this life as well.

    Perfection is a difficult word when we are talking about spirituality.  The truth is none of us will ever be perfect.  We will stumble, we will make mistakes, we will fail to respond faithfully.  But God’s love is perfect, and God’s perfect love resides within us, and so we must continually seek to know that love more fully that we too may grow and be changed by it.  As we continue to live a faithful life, as we continue to practice the faithful life, a life marked by love of God, others, and self, God’s love is perfected in us more and more.  When we slow down, when we make the space for God in our lives, when we practice our faith, we know more of God’s love for us, and we know more of who we are as God’s children.  The practice of our faith rooted in the Spirit gives us the strength, conviction, and compassion to love well.  We are ready to love others more fully and more authentically in ways that our world desperately needs.

On a seemly unrelated note, finishing one book and looking for another to start I picked up my son’s summer reading book, The Color of Water: A black Man’s Tribute to his White Mother by James McBride (excellent read by the way). I was touched by this book in many ways, but in particular by one scene where the author and his mother are in church, and the mom is crying. She is crying because God makes her happy. Ah I think I cannot wait until Kevin reads this part, maybe he will understand his mother’s Sunday morning tears. Well this was a Saturday evening, the next morning during service, pastor Paul quotes C.S. Lewis in his sermon: “We read to know we are not alone”.  Yes I think – that’s right let me tell you about what I read last night.

Some of you may have noticed my Sunday morning tears, especially friends in the choir. Like McBride’s momma, it is often the singing of a favorite or touching hymn that starts the tears. But unlike McBride’s mother my son has seen me cry plenty, especially during these letting go years. I wish someone had warned me to bring tissues before I sat through Toy Story 3 to watch Andy decide what to do with his toys as he prepares to head off to college.

Why do I cry? I cry because my children are growing up, my tears are both in mourning and in wonder at the people they are becoming. My father is terminally ill, I cry for the injustice and for joy because he is still enjoying a good quality of life. When I read the paper I cry for the family torn by violence and for the criminal that could be driven to such acts. And on Sunday mornings in Salem church I cry for all these reasons and because I feel the presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling in and around us sustaining us and making us  humble for all we could be. For in no other place on such a regular bases do I feel these words come alive Matthew 18:20 (NIV) “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” I cry because I am happy to be a part of God’s church family. Thank you Salem.

The Gospel text for this Sunday (Luke 15:1-10) has more stories of a boundary crossing God.  It begins with saying that Jesus sat down to eat with tax collectors and sinner.  A very matter of fact statement!  It is sort of like saying he sat down to eat with thieves and scoundrels.  These people were not just outcast, they were also seen as unrighteous, yet these are the ones that Jesus sat down to eat with.

Following this sentence is two very familiar parables.  The one of the lost sheep where the shepherd leaves 99 to search for the one who was lost, and the parable of the lost coin where, when the coin is found, the woman throws a party to celebrate her good fortune.  Jesus then reminds his hearers of the joy and celebration in heaven when one who is lost has been found!

One commentator spoke about the recklessness of God in pursuit of those who have been lost.  I was struck by those words in this context.  It seems to me that these parables are both stories of amazing grace, joy, and hope that God is reckless in love and pursuit of we lost sheep.  But, it is also a strong word of conviction in that Jesus shares these words while sitting with those scoundrels and tax collectors.

Some questions to ponder as we prepare to gather in Jesus’ name on Sunday morning:

• Who are the sinners and tax collectors in your life, in our communities, and in our world?  How have you welcome them?
• The fact that we follow a God who crosses boundaries has implications for many aspects of our life (personal, social, political, etc.).  How does this aspect of God’s character give you hope?  Challenge you?
• How has God been reckless in pursuit of you?

'The Salem Covenant Church of Washington, CT. was quite proud of their Youth Group that recently returned home from a rewarding mission trip to New Orleans.   Unfortunately, the trip was marred by the theft of a rented van, and the church is making an appeal to the community for help to raise $7,000 in restitution to the van rental company.

Aaron Ruiz, Salem Covenant Church Youth Minister, felt rested the morning of Monday, July 19th, after driving twenty-three hours to New Orleans to begin what he hoped would be a memorable experience for him and the members of the Salem Covenant Church Youth Ministry.   The Salem Church Youth Group had selected as their 2010 Mission project to go to New Orleans to assist with the clean up effort that still exists following the 2005 Hurricane Katrina.
   
They left from the church, located in Washington, CT. on Saturday, July 17th, and arrived at the Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church the following day.   On Monday morning, Ruiz pulled the keys from his pocket, and went to the parking spot reserved for their van.    The van was missing.  Ruiz’s wish came true.   It was to be a memorable experience, but initially not in the way he had hoped for.   

Following the filing of a police report, Ruiz rented a replacement van, but was without funds to pay for it.   Word of the loss spread amongst the local community and back to Washington, CT.      Another Youth group housed at the Lutheran Church representing the Church of our Lady of Angels from Burlingame, California chose to donate money dedicated to their post Mission party to the Salem need.   Additionally, Carla Ruiz, trip chaperone and a staff member of the internationally renowned dance troupe MOMIX, shared their plight with her employer.   MOMIX generously donated vouchers for the remaining balance.

 “It was disturbing to see the disastrous conditions that still exist in New Orleans this long after Katrina,” Aaron Ruiz shared.   “Over half the schools in the area suffered damage in the storm, thus affecting over 35,000 students.   The lucky ones were placed in over crowded class rooms, while others waited for the clean up effort to reach their school.   This void placed a great challenge on many families, as they struggled to avoid lessons being taught on the streets.”


The Salem Covenant church selected their mission through needs identified by the non profit organization, “Youthworks” (www.youthworks.com).  Created in 1994 and based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.   Youthworks has over 75 significant mission adventures throughout the United States and Canada.   Youthworks select projects that fit the needs and capabilities of youth, ages 12-19.


 The Salem mission team finally began their work.   They were split into two teams.   One team was given work projects through the Recovery School District (www.rsdla.net), which has taken the lead at restoring the infrastructure of schools in need of repair.    The second team led a summer day camp program conducted by the APEX Youth Center (www.apexyouthcenter.org).   This effort required imagination and patience, as participants often would bring the challenges of living in the difficult environment into the camp.

As the week was drawing to a close, all the members of the Youth group agreed that they learned some valuable lessons from this experience.   They returned having a greater appreciation for the community where they live, and a higher degree of sensitivity to the challenges faced in multi-cultural urban environments.    They also develop greater self esteem and confidence, knowing their efforts made a favorable difference in somebody’s life.

Ruiz and the Salem Church Executive Council diligently worked at making provisions to get the team home.   Through much collaboration and negotiation with the airlines, the Youth Group arrived on schedule, exhausted and humbler.

Unfortunately, there were more lessons yet to be learned.   “We believe we took all the appropriate precautions when renting the Van,” shared Congregation leader Senor Pastor Paul Corner.   Despite accepting the additional insurance coverage provided by Action Auto of Sharon, CT., it was later discovered that “theft protection” was not included in either the rental company policy or coverage provided through the Church’s General liability policy.

“The rental company has been rather considerate regarding the loss, and gave us some relief’,” Corner continued.   “Restitution was set at $7,000.”   We hope to satisfy our obligation through a Fundraising Dinner being held at the Salem Church on Friday, September 24th from 6:00 to 8:00pm.”   

For information on Tickets for the Dinner, or to make a donation, contact Pastor Corner  at the Salem Covenant Church ~ 96 Baldwin Hill Rd. Washington Depot, CT 06794
(p) 860.868.2794 www.salemcovenantchurch.com'

Clean water. Education for refugees. A community center serving the needs of entire families—babies, children, mothers, fathers, grandparents. HIV/ AIDS education. Seeds to plant and land to farm. Empowering women. Human rights advocacy. This is just a sample of the impact Covenant World Relief projects are having around the world. Twenty-one new community development projects have just been recommended by the Commission on Covenant World Relief and approved by the ECC Executive Board. These ministries are in addition to several other ongoing projects and CWR’s disaster response.

These projects all embody one of the core values of CWR: partnering with others. Partnership empowers local ministry, increases local involvement, reduces overhead, and facilitates immediate response to the most vulnerable. By working with others, CWR is able to leverage human and financial resources to have a more significant impact.

Together with churches and Christian organizations throughout the world, Covenant World Relief is loving, serving, and working together with the poor, the powerless, and the marginalized in the name of Christ.

The Projects . . .

• Afghanistan Well Project. Clean water in a poor village with no potable water
• Albania Community Health Evangelism (CHE). Construction of sewer mains, training and education for an entire community
• Bangladesh Water Project. Access to clean water, toilets and hygiene education for the urban poor
• Central African Republic Farming. Vegetable and field crops, pasture, livestock and aquaculture project
• Central Asia Animal Loan Project. Providing a central herd of sheep to be loaned to community members to create their own herd so they can provide a sustainable livelihood for their families
• Central Asia Micro-Enterprise. Small business in agriculture and reforestation to provide for community needs
• Central Asia Peanut Butter Business. Micro-financing of a peanut butter business for the local community as a training facility in business as well as to provide nutritional support for local orphans
• Colombia Chicken-Egg Project. Chicken-egg production for nutrition and financial support of a school for at-risk children
• Colombia Education Center. Construction of a day center for early childhood education and community support for the elderly
• East Asia Water. Water pasteurization, education on the health and environmental risks of coal burning
• India for Christ Ministries (IFCM). Holistic community development and sustainable livelihood support
• India Rural Evangelical Foundation (IREF). Community development projects that will provide clean water, access to toilet facilities, microfinance loans to begin small business, education of children
• India Tribal Projects with Covenant Social Services and Hindustani Covenant Church. Holistic community development in rural areas targeting tribal and low-caste communities by providing women’s empowerment, access to healthcare, micro-finance, education
• India Truthseekers. Caste reconciliation and community development projects
• Kenya Education. Schooling for Congolese refugees in partnership with the Evangelical Covenant Church of Kenya 
• Sudan At-Risk Children. Provision of food, vocational training and emotional support for vulnerable and orphaned children, Evangelical Covenant Church of Sudan
• Thailand Fish Farm. Tilapia production system in the HIV/ AIDS-affected community 
• Togo Fistula Repair. Fistula repair surgery for women with training, loans and micro-enterprise support after their surgery
• VietNam Vocational Training. Vocational training for children living on the street in urban areas
• Advocacy to end hunger. With Bread for the World, we are urging our nation’s decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad

If you would like more information about Covenant World Relief, click on this image to be taken to their blog.

'As a Company of touring artists, Innovo Physical Theatre travels internationally, performing on stage or the street, university or the market place. Hailed by maestro Marcel Marceau as "the future of Mime," Innovo celebrates the centrality of the mime/actor in theater by reference to the Christological significance of the transfigured body. Using the expressiveness of the body as starting point, and the poetry of a simple stage, our artists explore the struggles and stories of humanity through life and death, comedy and drama, reality and symbol, momentary and eternal. Performances range from solos and duets to large ensemble works.

Innovo Physical Theatre represents an extensive network of artists in varied creative disciplines; all sharing in the belief that creativity starts in loving God and one another. Consequently, Innovo's repertoire demonstrates warm-hearted humor, simple costumes, and a history of excellence in ministry. Their performances engage both young and old in an experience of physical theatre that conveys the emotion and grace of life's journey in stories of transformation, enlightenment, mystery, and the joy of life.'

Marcia and I hosted Rommel and Anny in our home for two weeks while they attended workshops given by Pilobolous.  We were blessed by their performances in church, but Marcia and I were even more blessed by the opportunity to practice the virtue of hospitality, and to get to know two wonderful people.  As Marcia said, 'Two strangers came into our home, but two friends left.'

For those of you who were not able to be here on July 25, I hope you will enjoy these videos.  My apologies for the less than ideal quality!