Im trying to get rid of some things. Any of this is free for the taking. Just let me know if you want it an ill get it to you. If it involves shipping just pay me for the shipping, plus a bit for the time and materials.

Ok…here we go…

I made this box in college, it held my portfolio. Its made out of cardboard and aluminum its 14x18x6 inches. It has all thread that goes through the lid and box to hold it closed, so its not very practical, but would be cool as a gift box, prop, or something like that.

Old software:

About 200 empty CD cases. Really I have no idea why anybody would want this…perhaps conceptual art about the death of the cd or something:

Finally, a bunch of prints of some of my photography. I thought I would try to sell these, but never really put the effort into it that it takes. They are various sizes, and some of them are unfortunately glued to cardboard. Let me know which ones you want…you dont have to take them all of course. Just ignore the prices…they are free…unless you want to pay for them, I wont turn you down.

I had 3 months worth of my belongings packed into the back of the BRAT.

(credit)

I drove into camp, Javier took my keys from me & parked my car in the middle of the ballfield & sent me away to find the other staff. Where we were immediately interviewed on video & then, before I knew it I was loading up to head back to MO at the end of the summer with a BRAT full of thrift store finds, rolls of film, a quote book, and a million memories of new friends.

It was a life-changing summer for me. And I am grateful that this was not the last thing I ever heard from Tom Graney:

From: Tom Graney <tom@newliferanch.com>
Subject: Re: summer stuff
To: “Beth Rozier” <befro80@yahoo.com>
Date: Tuesday, March 6, 2001, 8:53 AM

Beth,

I hope you all had a great time in Malibu. I look forward to getting your
application, but like I said we have a lot of girls and basically all the
positions are currently taken. But ya never know! This past week I had two
girls say they aren’t able to come now. Thankfully the Lord is in control
and we can trust Him with everything!!

In His grip,
Tom

There are lots of reasons we are going to Uganda this summer. I thought a little mini series about why we are going would be good. We will do three or four over the next few days.

In some ways the story starts here:

This is one of our first days at Garnett. This contraption is a method to hand dig wells developed by water4. We were learning how it works and testing it out on the front lawn of the church. The guy in the red is Bobby Garner. He and his wife live in Jinja, Uganda and work for Kibo Group. Got all that?

Then there is Roy:

Roy is from Uganda, and is good friends with the Taylors who used to live in Uganda, and Greg Taylor is now the pastor of our church. Roy came to visit the Taylors and we got to spend a good amount of time talking to him about Uganda. It seems like every day we met somebody who was doing something in Uganda (the Jacksons, Courtney, the random people we met at Topeca…). All of these people are involved in interesting things in Uganda. They are planting churches, developing economies, building camps, helping orphans, digging wells, and planting trees. For some reason God has pointed a lot of things in our life to Uganda.

One of my favorite songs has these lyrics:

Those who journey can easily understand,

the more they see the more they’ll learn,

the more that they will be.

So this I swear to you, and this I swear to me,

I’ll never rest till I’ve seen all I can see.

No, I’ll never rest till I’ve seen all i can see.

- Brendan James read the full lyrics here. Its worth it.

There are times when I think I live those words, and sometimes I don’t. But they do sum up a lot of why we want to go to Uganda. Simply to learn. To learn how other people live, to learn how God is glorified in other cultures, to see how people lives can be impacted by planting a tree, harvesting coffee, or loaning them a book. It’s a long plain ride, but we think that it is worth it to understand the stories and lives of other people.

We have a few details about the trip: We will be in Uganda for about 13 days, and there are 8 (I think…) of us going. The trip is at the end of July. We will spend most of our time in Jinja, but will travel around a bit (more on that in a later post).

We don’t know the exact budget yet, but it is a significant amount of money (around 6 – 7 thousand dollars). Right now, for me this is the part of the this that is weighing on me most. I know God will provide the funds it takes for us to do this, but right now its hard to see. We are raising the funds to do this from people who are willing to give. If you want to help this all be possible through your finances just go to www.kibogroup.org/give/ for info, if you do give just put our names in the memo line or purpose line.

There is a lot we have to do to get ready for all of this (like get a bunch of shots), so we covet your prayers that we will be able to continue to be effective in the things we do on a day to day basis and also be able to prepare spiritually, physically, financially, emotionally, and whatever other allys there are.

Ok, thanks for reading! Ill post about Beth’s all time favorite drink next time…and how our trip to Uganda ties into this hot, black, slightly acidic drink.

Oh, one last thing, if your world geography is not so strong (like mine) Here is the map (I know Ryan does not need this, but some of us do):
View Larger Map

It seems that Ben has been posting much more than I have lately.

I thought I’d share a few pictures from our life recently.

This shows two things I’m loving right now. (And honestly, I have been for awhile now.) Topeca coffee and Tulsa.

I’ve been spending every spare moment (of which there are not very many) finding new supplies for my cards & increasing my inventory. Leah & I are vendors at the Dogwood Festival this year! Also, a good friend of ours is opening up a retail store in Fayetteville called “The Moustache Goods & Wares“. And he wants to sell my cards there! More details on this fun opportunity soon. For now, a few treasures I recently rescued from the dusty shelves of a thrift store.

Anyone recognize this? It should be familiar to some of you. It’s a carabiner that we gave away as the favors at our wedding…almost 8 years ago! I’ve been using it on my key ring since then, and was really sad when it broke a few weeks ago. Thankfully we still have a few left! (Now I’m sporting a green one.)

I apparently have this thing for old, funky green chairs. You can’t really see the green color of this one by this picture, but you can see the awesome flower pattern. (I rescued this beauty from Wagon Inn before it was torn down!)

And this is one of my “to-do” lists. (I have several.) This one is on one of those really large pieces of memo board paper that you can stick on your wall-like a really HUGE post-it note. I get great satisfaction from taking the thick sharpie & marking things off the list.

So there are a few snapshots for you of life around here lately. Things are ridiculously busy…but really good.

For a long time I have thought that it wold be fun to learn how to throw pottery on a wheel. It’s kind of amazing that you can get some mud and suddenly it becomes a bowl. Turns out its a bit harder then that (goes more like this: get some mud, put it on the wheel, can’t get it centered, finally get going, mess up, start over, repeat. Make something you like, wait for it to dry, trim, wait for it to dry, fire in kiln, glaze, fire in kiln, hope it does not crack). I have been taking classes for a several months. I have actually made some real stuff:

I am really enjoying learning to throw, the process is good for me. It’s creative and does not involve a computer, its something i can practice and hopefully get good at…and its kind of like being a kid again.

There is actually a lot to write about the place where I am taking classes: 3rd Street Clay Works, it is a unique place with a lot of talented people. Ill write about it sometime….but for now I have other work to do. There is a post on my other blog about some marketing ideas for the studio if your into that kind of stuff.

By the way, 3rd Street has a retail gallery, if your looking for Christmas presents and want some unique handmade stuff you should drop by. The address is 1001 East 3rd Street, Tulsa. Say hi to Jeff (the owner), im sure he would be glad to give you a cup of coffee and talk a while. He might even convince you to come play in the mud.

This is my trusty D70. We have been through a lot. This camera has take thousands of pictures. It has survived a lot of trips up the poles of NLR’s ropes course. It has taken pictures of five years worth of NLR campers and family campers. It has taken pictures of my friends and their kids. It has been hiking, splashed, dirty, cold and dusty.

Unfortunately it (mostly) does not work any more. So, i got a new camera. It’s all fancy, more pixels, shoots video, and faster. But, I do feel like I am replacing an old friend (i know…it’s kind of lame to call a camera a friend) and I hope the D70 will forgive me for replacing it. It’s been a good 5 years.

There are a lot of talented people i the world, I am honored to know a few of them.

It’s awesome to see people who are doing what God created for them…i might right about that later, but for now here are two you should check out.

First is Cass Harris

I talk about Cass a lot on this blog, but he has some new music out. Listen to this one:

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You can download some of his music free at www.cassharrismusic.com.

Next is Freewater, which is our friends Jared and Lauren.

Check out this video:

You can find there music on their label’s page.

By the way, if you like their stuff tell people about it…thats the best way you can support them.

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.

I used to be a student of design. I spent a lot of time looking for inspiration, reading magazines, stuff like that. somewhere along the line I kind of list that, so i am recommitting to seeking inspiration. Here are a couple videos i found tonight:

The Attenborough Design Group from Tom Judd on Vimeo.

and