many hats

The garden/landscaping hat: We took advantage of the long weekend to work in the yard on some major projects. We've been trying to remove many of the weedy vines throughout the yard and especially congregating in the old garden area and along the fence. Some of these weed trees--about the diameter of a quarter in the trunk--have vines reaching several feet deep and many feet to the sides. We've often referenced the scene in the Garden when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, thus giving us some of these troubles (working the soil). Anyways, we were able to clear the area and level it out enough to put plastic down and solarize the ground over the next couple of months. Supposedly the weeds will be killed and the soil, once tilled, will be ready to grow grass after we seed it this fall. The frustrating yet beautiful thing about gardening and working the soil is that everything is a process and takes planning as well as patience for the fruits/rewards. No wonder it is often used as an image for describing faith.

The Blood:Water Mission hat: I'm working part-time 20 hours/week--donor relations coordinator, officially--and I've had lots of work to accomplish. It seems like I just barely catch up and then get overwhelmed with more things to do. I will be traveling to Washington, D.C. Sunday and Monday for a conference (the One Table Conference), including workshops and some promotional events for BWM. Our director, Jena, is heading to Africa for 3-4 weeks on Saturday to follow up and research in Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa...this is thrilling, yet puts a lot on our plates to maintain the day-to-day while she's gone. Please pray for her and Joel, our resident water expert, as they travel and spend time with our brothers and sisters in Africa.

The bass hat: I played on a Jars song that will be on a soundtrack for "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" last week. This month provides some opportunities that will take me on the road a little bit. I'll jump on a bus to play a couple of shows with Jars this month, in Hershey, PA and in New York City (Billy Graham event). Also, I'm playing 3 out-of-town shows with the country group Little Big Town, including one in Birmingham, AL and one in Lafayette, LA this weekend. We have shows at Country Music Fest (FanFare), the Grand Ole Opry, and the Wild Horse Saloon here in nashville as well. I look forward to the travel, but only in the small doses and will greatly miss home. God has provided these opportunities and I am able to do them without sacrificing the in-town priorities. I also have some days in the studio throughout June and am growing in this regard.

The writing hat: This one's unfortunately taken low priority while other things come together, but I've written another piece for the Relevant 850 email newsletter...I'll post it here when I have a finished draft. I'm finding that reading and writing go hand in hand, so I'm trying to get more reading in as well now that transition seems to be settling down. My unusual travel time this month will hopefully help in this regard.

Ok, there are other hats, but I'll stop here for now. Blessings, grace and peace to the glory of God.