Good Afternoon Everyone,

I hope your week is going well thus far. One of the things you might enjoy is looking at some of the pictures I uploaded from our Laundry Love BBQ last Thursday.

There’s not too much going on this week but we are ramping up to do peace playhouse next week and yearly meeting the following. So there’s some big stuff on the horizon!

I plan to be out at the Farmer’s market with the family from 5-6pm tomorrow and will be grabbing dinner. If you’d like to come out and join us that would be awesome!

Good Afternoon Friends,

Well, I am happy to be back in Camas and back to work. There was a lot going on after being gone for two weeks so I’ve hit the ground running, thus the lateness of this email. I’ve had a chance to see some of you and catch up a little and I hope to do more of that in the next week. If you’d like to have coffee or lunch (or even possibly dinner) just let me know (And of course you’re always welcome to just drop in the office and say hello)!

Community News

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“When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (John 20:19–23)

Good morning everyone!

I know you must be having a fantastic week. Can you imagine that we’ve had almost three days of sun? My Vitamin D intake is off the hook!

A number of you have given me feedback on Zachary’s visit and it sounds (thank you) and like many of you I was really blessed by his time with us. It was fun having him in town and was really nice to have him stay with us. I was talking with Lee Foster earlier today (he’s one of the people on Zachary’s care committee) and I think we both had the sense that this has so far been a mutually beneficial project. This is how good ministry always is. Ministry should never be a one way street. In the encounter with another person, and through “redemptive hospitality” as Zach talked about on Sunday, we will be challenged, changed and moved. I hope that this is something we continue to experience in the many ways we connect with people outside as well as inside our own community at Camas Friends. Let us continue to risk relationships, as we build trust and make new connections with one another.

It is also in this vein that we have been thinking about Jesus in the Gospel of John. Think about all the of relationships he “risked.” Who was he really? And what was he up to? It seems like we can learn a lot by just looking at who it was he entered into relationship with, let alone the things he demonstrated and taught. Some we might ask: Who does he speak with? What new connections does he make between himself and those around him? How does he undo and redo our assumptions about what it means to be faithful? Continue reading →

This week we are reflecting on the story of Lazarus, Mary and Martha and Jesus. There is a lot that happens in this long passage, but one of the main events is of course Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. For our series in Lent we’re thinking about “Who is Christ” and “What Canst Thou Say?” Both of these questions are intertwined. What do we learn about Christ in the story below? And following the encounter with Lazarus at the tomb why do you think the people respond the way they do?

“Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Continue reading →