The lights are out and I can’t see my own hand. I am groping and wondering when I might stumble into God. And then I hear the query, “Do I live in vital relationship with God?” and am asked, “Is Christ’s presence evident in my life?” Now that can be an intimidating question. Is Christ’s presence even evident to me? What does it mean to live in a vital relationship, anyway? Well, what are my vital signs? What are my signs of life? And how might they relate to my spiritual life? Read the rest of the story.

There are many ways God leads in our lives. Let me briefly touch on five of them: a knowing that something is the right thing to do, an “audible” voice, discerning among F/friends, through books, or an impulse to do something.

One kind of leading may be more like a nudge. I had dusted off my Greek and was doing an in-depth study of the Sermon on the Mount. Going not only verse by verse, but word by word was teaching me so much that I knew I had to share the discoveries I was making. And so But I Tell You was born. Not only did this nudge from God enable me to share my discoveries with others, but it let me fulfill a lifelong dream of becoming a published author. Sometimes God speaks more audibly.
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Mario Macias walked into my office in May 2006, along with Angel and Hernan Diaz. “We want to introduce you to our friend,” they said. The Latino Ministries Task Force of Northwest Yearly Meeting was hoping to start a Latino ministry in Portland. Four months later, in August, 2006, Colin Saxton, Angel Diaz, Marvin Mardock, and I met to consider Mario Macias for a position at Reedwood. Mario came to us from a Baptist background. He had pastored in several American Baptist churches in California, Florida and Oregon and he has traveled to Cuba to minister on more than thirty occasions. Mario may have ministered among American Baptists for fifteen years but what we saw and heard of his testimony that afternoon concurred with Friends.
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Needing help was where we found ourselves at Camas Friends Church as we began our planning for our third annual Peace Playhouse. After two successful years with Peace Playhouse, working to create “peace ambassadors” for our community, we decided it was time to put in some extra effort to develop a program that would be so clearly laid out that any of us could carry out the activities on fairly short notice. We remembered that before the yearly meeting’s reorganization, the Peace and Social Concerns Committee had developed Peace Trunks. Read the rest of this story.

I’ve got a secret: I was not entirely surprised when I found bottles of Smirnoff’s vodka behind books on the bookshelves of our childhood home. My father was still showing of heavy drinking, even though he had promised to quit, so the stuff had to be somewhere. In those years, I kept my own secrets in a different way–the small padlocked cabinet I built in my high school carpentry class. There I stashed the money I saved by not eating lunches at school, and I kept the diaries in which I confided my anxieties about the hidden alcohol. (I still have the diaries, locked up at a bank!)
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For one week in October, George Fox University students and staff were challenged to live lightly. Skip a Shower Day, Bring Your Own Mug Day, and A Day Unplugged encouraged the university community to try some environmentally-friendly practices during its Week of Living Light, Oct 18-24. The event was sponsored by a sociology class taught by Professor Lisa McMinn. Read the rest of the story.

The first semester of the Friends Leadership Program at George Fox University is nearing completion. The group has met every two weeks to deepen our relationships with each other and the Friends church, sharing the many ways we see the Lord working in our midst. We have explored what it means to be a Quaker, how we have seen people leading in our midst, and how we can be faithful to Christ as full-time students. Read the rest of the story.

Gene Christian was at North Seattle Friends on the 15th of November and did an excellent job talking about estate planning. He spoke in worship in place of the sermon and his presentation was very appropriate for worship.
My clerk agreed to have Gene and Brendon come to church that day and then told me about it. He never does that, so it was clear to me that Walt was particularly impacted by the communication from the YM about Gene and estate planning. I am pretty committed to saying yes to my people when they have a leading, so agreed to let Gene and Brendon come, and now I’m glad I did. Read the rest of this article.



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