CampusAmerica - 24/7 Prayer

Check it out - a new vision from the guys and gals at 24/7 Prayer...Campus America. What would happen? What if?

I pray Freedom.

Intensive Class

Well, last week I taught a class here at Ozark Christian College on Cross-Cultural Church Planting. It was a lot of work, but fun and refreshing. I was blessed with thirteen great students and was encouraged to hear how many of them were heading into cross-cultural work around the world. We concluded the class on Friday by hosting the group at our house for lunch, talking about the importance of the table in the ministry of Jesus.

I love cilantro...

It has been great being back in a land where cilantro flows like honey. We've learned to grow our own in Italy, but it is small and takes time and effort. Here you can buy it by the bushel and it is cheap and plentiful. Everything tastes better with cilantro.

Have three minutes to kill? Check out this video. Go to www.highwayvideo.com, click on Visual Illustrations, then Volume 18 and then View the Cilantro video...good stuff...

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas! Hope this day is filled with love and joy!

A Gift Idea

Well, we're heading out tomorrow morning, Monday, at 6 am. Heather's dad is driving us to Dallas and my folks are coming down to get us. It has been a great 10 days here in New Braunfels - it has been great seeing friends and family. The temperature has swung from the 70's down to the 30's. This evening we are sitting around playing the Seinfeld Scene-It. Fun stuff.

Hey, by the way, Heather's sister, Jennifer (Jenny), has recently published a children's book called 'A Match Made in Heaven'. It is a great gift, especially for Christmas. You can order it online or download the digital version immediately. Check out www.tatepublishing.com and search for the book title or click the book link above.

If we don't see you before, have a Merry Christmas!

Our Italian Blog

While we're stateside we are keeping an Italian blog for our friends back home. We will be putting pictures and things on there that you won't see here. Check it out at http://iviaggideicasey.blogspot.com - you may not be able to read it, but you can enjoy the pictures and video. The last post is about Taco Bell's insane suggestion that we add a 4th meal to our diet...yeah, real healthy...(but delicious)...

On Being Stateside...

Well. We're in Texas. I'm sitting in my in-laws' guesthouse, listening to Bon Iver, studying and preparing lectures for a class I'm teaching in January. Man, it is a lot of work. It is one of those intensive, one-week classes - five days, 35 hours of class time. I'm reading the book Organic Community by Joe Myers right now - really, really good so far - putting into words things I've been thinking/feeling/experiencing.

Really smooth transition this time around. I miss my team, church and home - but it has been smooth. I feel some timid tendrils of cultural stress already, but different than ever before. Whereas in past trips 'home', I've raced out to buy the food and sweets I've missed or run to the stores to shop and see what latest game or gadget is out, this time I find myself, well, not.

It all seems too glittery. So big, so very, very big. And loud. So much junk, crap. I'm sure it is worse because it is the Christmas, shopping season, but I still feel it. My ears and eyes are especially sensitive to the commercial nature we're surrounded in. I'm not used to having cable. Not used to paying so little for gas, so much freedom, so many options.

I want to retreat to the silence of this little guest house and yet find myself wishing I were sitting at Yuri's caffe at Piazza Roma where I know how to speak and what to order.

I'm sipping a Dr. Pepper, happy to be with family and spending dollars. I'll lay down on this grass for it is green but I find myself increasingly homeless, increasingly rootless...

Go hug a missionary today. We're weird for good reason...