I created this as part of my Final Project for our CQ Missional 10-month internship. Today marks 1 year of living in Tulsa for us, & that seemed worthy of a little reflection.

It’s nearly impossible to sum up a year like we experienced in mere words…that’s why I used pictures for my Final Project. I wanted to mark today as special, so after church I walked across the street to Chimis, paper in hand, & satisfied my craving for Mexican food. And as I walked back home I was struck by a couple of thoughts.

1) I LOVE seeing the skyline from that Chimis parking lot. Love it. It’s maybe one of my favorite views of the city.

2) One year ago, after a long day of moving all of our belongings to the city, we went to dinner with some friends at Chimis. I remember feeling very odd that after a very normal moment of, “Hey-let’s go grab some dinner,” we just walked across the street & were at a restaurant. “Hey-let’s go grab some dinner,” usually involved a 15-minute drive into town. Walking home from that meal felt like we were staying at a hotel somewhere on vacation. Where you settle in to your room, and then walk across the street to a restaurant. And today, as I made that same walk, it felt fairly “normal.” I kind of like that.

Friends, I just got some really exciting news when I opened my email Inbox last night. Here’s what it said:

The Indie Emporium committee has reviewed all of the applications and you have been accepted as a 2010 vendor! Congrats friends!  We had more applications than ever, so you should be proud of your stellar work!

The Indie Emporium is this super cool/hip craft fair that happens here in Tulsa. This will be it’s 3rd year. I went last year, just after we moved in (one of my first Tulsa experiences, in fact.) And it was wonderful. And this year, I get to be a vendor! Seriously, I’m so pumped about this. Especially because I get to share it with my good friend, Leah. Check out her stuff here.

And make plans to come to Tulsa to check out the Indie Emporium!

(This is the booth we shared at a craft sale a few years ago.)

So, remember how we mentioned that we really love living in the city? Well, we do. For the most part.

Not so much last night when they turned off our water at 8pm & proceeded to dig up the street right in front of our house to try to fix some sort of water pipe problem. But that part wasn’t so bad, really.

It was at midnight when they started digging up the pavement with a backhoe. And continued to do that until at least 2am. That’s when I finally was able to fall asleep. Do you know what that sounds like? Basically they were using the backhoe as a sledgehammer. Which is not really a pleasant sound in the middle of the night.

This morning the water is back on, the street is mostly put back together, and there is a giant hole in our front yard.

(This isn’t meant to be a “complaining” post…  just a “we’ve been wanting to blog more often & well, this is something significant to tell you about” post.) Honestly, I’m grateful for those guys who were out there working all through the night-away from their families & probably really frustrated that they couldn’t find whatever they were looking for.

I am working on a little project for church where we are going to illustrate some specific themes from the Bible using short movie clips. Want to help me think of good scenes to use? I’m going fo un-obvious. For example, i will not use The Passion for the crucification…but a complex Christ character would be great (say the green mile). Here are the chapter names and the focus that i am looking for:

• The Beginning of Life as We Know It (creation)
• Deliverance (exodus and moses)
• New Commands and a New Covenant (moses and the law)
• The Battle Begins (joshua and invading the promised land) – ok, i might go a bit obvious on this one…it hard to pass up the lord of the rings for beginning battles.
• From Shepherd to King (david)
• A kingdom Torn in Two (the division if israel)
• The Return Home (ezra)
• The Birth of the King (Jesus)
• No Ordinary Man (jesus)
• The Hour of Darkness (jesus crucifixion)
• The Resurrection (jesus)
• New Beginnings (early church and pauls journey)
• The End of Time (2nd coming, etc)

Any ideas? Let me know the movie and the scene you are thinking of.