Squash-a-Palooza and Ultimate Frisbee at Harmon Field

We'll meet at the church at 4 p.m. and then carpool down to Harmon Field where we'll play on the playgrounds there, and play Ultimate Frisbee. For worship, we'll wrestle with what is ultimate in our lives by reflecting on Matthew 13:44...

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

Then it's Squash-a-Palooza! Everybody has to have too much squash and zucchini this time of year, so bring it. Cook it your favorite way and bring it to a squash-any-way-you-can potluck. Of course, if you don't like squash or are already sick of it bring PBJ or whatever pleases you.

If it gets hot, we can cool off in the Pacolet River so bring a towel... and a friend!

Stone Soup for July 22...See Kyle's video
Meet at the Wesley Cottage at 4 p.m.

Below is the prayer exercise we are using this week.
Work with it, see if you find it helpful and post your comments.

The Daily Examen of St. Ignatius Loyola–

Abridged and adapted by Kyle A. Tade

Prayer to begin the Examen:

Holy Spirit, help me to remember those little moments you were with me, those seemingly insignificant glimpses I catch of you in the surprising and unexpected places of my life, this and each day. Allow me to be open to your presence now in this moment as I reflect upon the day. Though I know my prayer is never truly complete, I ask that you guide me through and strengthen me for the hope and the possibility of what tomorrow may bring. Amen.

v Be Still & Remember

o   Take some time to relax, take some deep breaths begin to tune out the distractions and open yourself to the Spirit in the silence.

o   You are always in the presence of God, but in this time of prayer we focus our energies, our bodies, our minds, and our hearts on our creator.

v Give Thanks & Notice

o   To God for the gifts of the day.

o   The gifts you have received and what you gave.

v Look & Call Upon

o    At the ways you have responded to God’s gifts this day, both those you have received and what God has enabled you to give this day.

o   The Holy Spirit, to help you look at your actions and responses, both positive and negative, being aware of and understanding of your limitations.

v Review, Reflect & Ask

o   Notice the details: from your dreams, to waking up, and the context of all that happened throughout the day; reflect upon how you acted. Ask yourself: what motivated me today? How did I feel today: overall, at particular moments?

o   Did I fail today? Where did I not feel at my best? How conscious was I today of God’s presence and actions in my life? For that matter, were there any barriers preventing me from feeling God’s presence?

o   Did I love today? If so, when and how? If not, why and what stopped me?

o   Are there any habits or vices that are harming or preventing my ability to be open to God’s presence? Are there any people?

o   Are there times when God helped me to respond positively to life? Are there times where, I could have been more willing to accept help from God in my response?

v Open & See

o   Allow yourself to look honestly at the day and to be open and to see some of the unexpected and surprising ways God has of appearing in your life; be it through people, through various sights on drives or walks, through conversation, through the first deep breath upon waking, that first stretch in the morning, to the meals shared with others or with the silence. Where have you seen God today?

The Ignatian Daily Examen (it's even more fun than it sounds!)

The Daily Examen is a technique of prayerful reflection on the events of the day in order to detect God’s presence and discern his direction for us.  The Examen is an ancient practice in the Church that can help us see God’s hand at work in our whole experience. (from IgnatianSpirituality.com)

We'll be studying this spiritual exercise as an ancient way of encountering God.

We'll also be working on what I consider the wonderful summer discipline of Grilling (and by grilling I don't mean interrogating).
Here's some cool links:
 finding God on the Metro
The Daily Examen

So we'll meet for Stone Soup at 4 p.m. at the Wesley Cottage and then walk down to McCreery Park and have a potluck grill out and play in our officially Playful City. Bring all those vegetables and herbs from your garden you've been wanting to grill. Bring meat, chicken or veggie burgers if you want and whatever goes well with grilling.

Call me with questions.

Here are pictures from last week. Thanks so much for our friends visiting from Bryson City UMC and River of Life.

Let's Go to the Lake!

Stone Soup for 7/8 The Day After Coon Dog Day...

We'll meet at Saluda United Methodist Church at 4 p.m. and then carpool to Lake Sheila.
This is such a beautiful place to play, sun, swim, picnic and worship together. So, bring a suit and sun screen.
We'll have a picnic potluck. Bring whatever you would like to share at a picnic (no grills).
We'll continue in our theme from last week, "Lord prepare me, to be a sanctuary..."
To that, we'll add the concept of embodied worship.
Our text comes from John 4, Jesus and the Woman at the Well. Read it and see what it says to you.

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, ‘Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John’— although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized— he left Judea and started back to Galilee. But he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink’. (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?’ (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink”, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?’ Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’

 Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come back.’ The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, “I have no husband”; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’ The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am he, the one who is speaking to you.’

 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, ‘What do you want?’ or, ‘Why are you speaking with her?’ Then the woman left her water-jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, ‘Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?’ They left the city and were on their way to him.

 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’ But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ So the disciples said to one another, ‘Surely no one has brought him something to eat?’ Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, “Four months more, then comes the harvest”? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, “One sows and another reaps.”I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.’

 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I have ever done.’ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there for two days. And many more believed because of his word.They said to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world.’