Report from Down Under

Tom & I arrived back from Australia on Saturday. At least my body is back but for some reason I still feel as though my mind is only halfway across the Pacific. It is great to return to spring time in the Pacific Northwest. The daffodils are still out and the tulips and flowering trees are bursting into bloom. I must confess however that I am a little overwhelmed by the 80 tomato plants that are rapidly taking over my front porch. Wish i could send some to my friends scattered around the world.

We had a great trip (more of that later when the cotton wool gets out of my brain) and much has happened while we were away. The Other Journal published my article on Why We Live In Community. Here is a brief exerpt.

At the core of our small Mustard Seed House community and of its parent organization Mustard Seed Associates, is our belief in this wild hope of the resurrection and our vision of God’s eternal world as a place in which all of creation is restored and made whole. Through the redemptive work of Christ, one day together with sisters and brothers of every culture, from every age we believe we will be made whole and live together in the love, joy, and mutual concern for God’s original creation. Read the entire article

I also have an article published in the British magazine The Bible in Transmission. This one is entitled Living Into God’s Shalom World

The spiritual rhythms we need for healthy living have been severely disrupted and we haven’t even noticed: ‘Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work, driving through traffic in a car you are still paying for, in order to get to the job that you need so you can pay for the clothes, car and the house that you leave empty all day in order to afford to live in it.’ Read the entire article

It looks as though someone was busy while I was gone.