civil customers?

elizabeth and i were eating dinner in a quaint local eatery the other night. our dining experience was going normally, or as it normally would when elizabeth and i sit down to enjoy some yummy grub.

any way, our waitress, who had been taking good care of us, getting us our drinks and meals, came to our table and informed us that we were the most civil customers that she had ever had. sweetness.

she then elaborated, telling us how odd it was that we were sitting there actually paying attention to one another and carrying on a conversation. she stated, "i have walked by here three or four times, and each time y'all are in converstion." apparently, most couples simply stare silently at each other or text or talk on their phones to other people the whole time they are eating. how strange and sad. what kind of date is that? no wonder so many marriages fail these days. if you can't talk over dinner, especially while you are still dating, then when will you talk to one another?

anywho - congrats to elizabeth and me for winning the civil customers of the year award.

cheers,
jw

tour stop 2 - greenwood

and the intermission "never say die" tour continues... here are some thoughts and pics from tour stop 2 in greenwood.



what is up with cam touching my head so much? does rubbing my head give some mystical power like rubbing buddha's stomach?



so greenwood's first presbyterian church is in the downtown, which really appeared to be a ghost town. all the stores seemed to be deserted... except this place - club wispers. ha! way to spell. i don't even want to know what goes on in this place.



sweet pic, guys!



here is bryan kicking it ghetto-style during sound check.



shea picking on his banjo sufjan-style.



elizabeth up to no good. for those of you who know what elizabeth is like when she drinks carbonated beverages, you can imagine what she was like for the rest of the evening. i thought we were going to have to tighten her seatbelt and tape her mouth closed on the way home after she exploded into a fit of craziness during an insane version of "undigified."



"you and i were made to worship!" us leading worship. as you can see, we once again had a good crowd.



awwww. aren't they cute. something is just not right with these two.


all in all, another joyful and crazy night! one more to go - tupelo next sunday...

cheers,
jay dub

to write love on her arms...

i just wanted y'all to check out this organization called to write love on her arms. they are dedicated to sreading awareness about depression and addiction to young people and are really doing some cool things. any way, check them out at http://twloha.com and www.myspace.com/towriteloveonherarms.

tour stop 1 - leland

here are some pics and thoughts from our first stop of the intermission "never say die" tour:



me driving... who knew that hwy 82 was so hilly between starkville and leland? we all felt a little sick when we got there.



typical cameron. by the way, if any of you ever go on a trip with cameron, don't expect him to stay awake for more than about 5 minutes. whatever it is that cameron has is apparently contagious - check out bryan.



leland presbyterian has some amazing stain glass windows. these faith, hope, and love windows were especially nice. as we looked closer, we realized they appeared to be in... wine bottles? let's hear it for the new wineskins!



here we are leading worship. we had a great crowd, some of which you can see in this pic, and we met 5 incoming freshman at the delicious meal they had for us after the service. go bulldogs and hooray for $90 worth of chicken fingers (where is a chicken's finger any way?). boo for yellow delta water, though. thanks for the pic, jason. you are a great roadie.



and he is up. check out this sweet delta sunset behind b-dog. where am i in this pic?



so, on the way home, we decided to stop for a snack. it was a hard choice between what would make us the sickest (and make us have to pee the worst), either krystal's or sonic. sonic won out. sure, krystal's is disgustingly greasy, but sonic has the foot long chili cheese coney and the route 44. any way, we took this pic at the sonic we stopped at in greenwood (we wanted to stake out the local eateries, since we will be there this sunday for tour stop 2). this was inside the sonic building by the door (what exactly goes on in this building is a mystery. just how do they make those slushes the way that they do - the mixing of flavors to make a taste explosion in your mouth?). if you look closely, there is a piece of paper on that hanger that says, "hang your attitude here." sweetness! i will make one of these for my church office one day!

an hour and a half, two broken bladders, and 3 cases of indigestion later, we arrived safely back at the church. after two days of rest, we are pumped and ready to do it again this sunday!

cheers,
jw

intermission tour

we are taking intermission, our contemporary service at first presbyterian, on the road the next few weeks. i will be posting blogs from our road trips over the next three weeks. i hope you enjoy! we are in leland, ms tonight...

good times

i thought i would practice what i preached two weeks ago and take some time to reflect where i've come from, so i am compiling a list of all the great memories from the college ministry over the past three years. please help elizabeth and me remember by posting your favorite memories in the comment section. also, check this post over the next few weeks. we will continue to add stuff as we think of it (and as it continues to happen!). these are in no particular order:

1. a new one: indo boarding in a box-filled apartment
2. the gourmet gospel (the first one was just jason, elizabeth, and me at strangebrew. oh, the memories that came out of these times!)
3. steamroller
4. this is........... airport train
5. getting locked out of the van in birmingham
6. getting locked out of the church in atlanta at 2 a.m.
7. eating a huge ball of greasy cheese before worshiping with crowder
8. warning - water polluted! do not swim! "too bad the ducks can't read."
9. cold outside showers
10. bringing hope to a family in pearlington
11. meeting jesus in biloxi (actually, i think his name was michael)
12. the long ride home (and the long wait on the side of the road) after meeting michael (aka jesus)
13. bird man
14. team gnilleps - turbo cranium and game nights in general
15. saved by the bell
16. impersonating charlie hall... and matt redman... and todd agnew... pretty much any and all worship leaders
17. volunteering at the food pantry
18. what if heaven is one big musicial?
19. passion lives here
20. the jon and elizabeth friends and family roast
21. the last two intermissions of the semester
22. icing eating contest
23. undigified... at a gas station in birmingham
24. sticking things up our noses... and in our ears
25. all the laughter and tears and love... and giving God the glory for it all... priceless!



to the olden days, the golden days (although there are many more incredible days ahead),
jw

what?

a little e.e. cummings for you to wrap your mind around...

n
OthI
n

g can

s
urPas
s

the m

y
SteR
y

of

s
tilLnes
s

cheers,
jw

the face of Christ

this is the face of Christ. yes, it is just two children, but do not be fooled - it is the face of Christ.

these are two of the kids we met last weekend while working at a community center in an impoverished part of town. it was immediately obvious that these children were in much need of love and attention. so we played with them a while. i regret that we couldn't have spent the rest of the day playing with them.

in reflection that afternoon, i remembered matthew 25:34-40. Christ said that when His disciples served the hungry, thirsty, naked, imprisoned, and sick they were serving Him. we went out on saturday to bless. what we found was that we were blessed instead.

mother teresa said, "Jesus comes to meet us. to welcome Him, let us go to meet Him. He comes to us in the hungry, the naked, the lonely, the alcholic, the drug addict, the prostitute, the street beggars. He may come to you or me in a father who is alone, in a mother, in a brother, or in a sister. if we reject them, if we do not go out to meet them, we reject Jesus Himself."

we go to church to worship and to find Christ, but often times we leave disappointed. it isn't that Christ isn't there - He is. what we miss is that true worship begins in serving. it is there that we find the Christ we are looking for.

"we should not serve the poor like they were Jesus. we should serve the poor because they are Jesus." - mother teresa

let us go out to meet Christ.

cheers,
jw

the first... but not the last

(sorry this is sideways. to fix it, just pick up your monitor and rotate clockwise!)

the first box.

we packed up all the stuff in the bathroom closet, some of which had not been used as long as we have lived here. i asked elizabeth, "honey, don't you think we will need some of this stuff before we move?" her response: "no, we haven't used any of that stuff in a long time. why would we need it now?" good point.

you can guess what happened next. moments later, we needed the hydrogen peroxide for a nasty sore on elizabeth's foot. this is the very item i was asking about before. very tritely i asked, "did we just pack that?"

cheers,
jw

passion lives here...

brother and sister??? nope, husband and wife!

how elizabeth and i plan on greening up the burgh...

may i get on my soapbox for a moment?

i have be called a 'tree-hugger' once or twice in my life. i recently read an article in christianity today, where a fellow environmentally concerned christian was asked if he claimed this title. he responded, "no, i'm a people-hugger."

if you read the article about pittsburgh's soot problem, you know that how we choose to live affects others. reports are showing that this pollution is causing an increase in heart disease and respiratory ailments, such as asthma. the post-gazette reports that "each ton of boosts heath costs $100,000 annually." there are enough people who can't afford health care right now. we don't need to make things worse for them. this also translates into crazy weather around the world - rain where it is not needed (the Northeast), droughts where rain is needed (Africa), raising temperatures, unusually strong and frequent storm systems (do you remember hurricane season '05?), etc. we end up with situations like new orleans and darfur.

i do not want to start a conversation about whether global warming exists. we could speculate about that all day and have done nothing to fix the problem. frankly, i don't care. the fact is that God has called us to live responsibly and not overconsume (do you remember the story about the man who built another barn because his first one was full - see luke 12:13-21, or all the warnings Scripture gives about wealth - see 1 Timothy 6:6-10?). He has also called us to be stewards of this earth (see Genesis 2:15), not just to take care of His creation, but in order to love and respect those around the world.

any way, here are some things elizabeth and i are currently doing and have planned to do in order to keep our area of pittsburgh green (warning - some of this is a little disgusting):

1. we recycle... everything... from plastic bags from the grocery store to cereal boxes!
2. we use fluorescent lighting... they last longer and use less energy.
3. we turn things off when they aren't being used. this includes the power strips that we have appliances plugged up to. you wouldn't believe how much energy is wasted due to appliances that are on 'stand-by' mode.
4. we try to do laundry only when we can fill the washing machine.
5. we wash our clothes in cold water.
6. we try to keep our apartment at a reasonable temperature.
7. we try not to flush our toilet unless absolutely necessary - i will leave it at that.
8. we have fuel efficient cars and will use public transportation. we ride bikes when we can.

those are just a few of the things we do. if you have any other suggestions, i would love to hear them!

okay, i am off my soapbox.

cheers,
jw

this blog comes to you using 100% recycled electrons!

in transition... congrats pittsburgh

so, elizabeth and i are moving to pittsburgh. for those of you who haven't been keeping up with us, that is what is going on currently in our lives. we just found out about a month and half ago that this is where we will be spending the next three years. in february, i found out that i had been accepted to pittsburgh theological seminary (the alma mater of the rev. fred rogers of mr. roger's neighborhood and current home of the great pastoral theologian andrew purves), and elizabeth heard in early march that she had been accepted at the university of pittsburgh docatorate of physical therapy program (number 3 in the country - go panthers). we did both get into duke as well, but they just didn't cut it for us. so, just recently, our life has kinda been revolving around finishing up our time here in starkvegas and preparing for the big move.

any way, i have been checking the pittsburgh post-gazette online, which is the burgh's newspaper, to find out what is going on in our future home. some days i find stuff that excites me about the burgh... other days i find out stuff that worries me slightly. so today, i find out that pittsburgh just got ranked the second most polluted city right behind l.a. (we know the kind of trash that comes out of that city - keep your panties on Britney). here is the article: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07121/782412-113.stm. i like the positive spin they put on this.

hooray! pittsburgh - you should be proud of yourselves! it takes a lot of work to pollute the city with soot more than any other city in the u s of a. somehow, despite this recent ranking, pittsburgh managed to be awarded the "most livable city" in america. see the article: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07116/781162-53.stm. pittsburgh's new slogan should be: it is great to live here... if you can hold your breath.

in other news, the pirates beat the cubs and smoking has been banned in restaurants and bars.

cheers,
jw