Reclaiming Christmas 2007

Man and Child
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

Every year, Jeff Street celebrates the Birth of the Christ by means of our Reclaiming Christmas Project, in which we encourage others to NOT give to us (since we have so much already) but to give to various relief projects.

This year, the Reclaiming Christmas Project will pay for two very important projects in two very needy parts of the world. The first effort will be to pay for a furnace in the school in the city of Ifrane, which is in Muslim Morocco.

An-Nasar (Victory) School has nearly 700 students and serves the poorest neigborhood in Ifrane, Timdiqqin. This is where former country folks and shantytown dwellers live. There is a great deal of misery in Timdiqqin. They have 5-6 months of cold weather in their mountains and the government wood stipend runs out after about two months. The children then are charged to bring in wood for the wood-burning stoves that heat a tiny part of a big classroom.

Putting a furnace in the school will go a long way towards making it easier for the children of the An-Nasar School to get an education.

Our second project this year is to aid in relief efforts in Nicaragua in the wake of Hurricane Felix which devastated Nicaragua in September. As the second poorest country in Central America, Nicaragua simply does not have the governmental resources to promptly respond to all the need.

Our gifts will be channeled through American Baptist missionary doctors David and Laura Parajon who work through CEPAD, the Protestant ecumenical body in Nicaragua. They have been working fulltime helping with various aspects of the hurricane recovery efforts of CEPAD.

By partnering with our Muslim family in Morocco and the needy in Nicaragua, we will be doing our part to promote understanding and true peace in a troubled and often-violent world. And what better way is there to honor the Prince of Peace?

Every Common Bush Afire with God...

fall Leaves 2
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

Autumn is impossibly regal at the As Yet Unnamed Farm...

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
And only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and glowing, on sea and continues and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.

~John Muir

Jeff Street 2007

Sassy Girls
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

Jeff Street just celebrated yet another fall retreat at Camp Kavanaugh. The trees were beautiful; the weather a delight; the songs, clear and harmonious; the skits, of questionable artistic merit; the joy, tangible; the community, one.

Enjoy some of God's Word along with some of God's People.

Love Rejoices

Shameka and Graham
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

If I speak in the tongues of humanity and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

~Paul

The Greatest of These...

Sliding Girls
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

~Paul

These Little Ones

Michaela and Sofia
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward.

And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because she is my disciple, I tell you the truth, she will certainly not lose her reward.

~Jesus

Your Right Hand

Mackenzie Juggles
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.

You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

~Psalm 139

Mourning into Joy

Cindy W Dancing
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

"They will come and shout for joy on the height of Zion, and they will be radiant over the bounty of the LORD--

Over the grain and the new wine and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; And their life will be like a watered garden, and they will never languish again.

"Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old, together, for I will turn their mourning into joy and will comfort them and give them joy for their sorrow.

"I will fill the soul of the priests with abundance, and My people will be satisfied with My goodness," declares the LORD.

~Jeremiah

Dances of the Merrymakers

Roger Dancing
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

"At that time," declares the LORD, "I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people..."

The LORD appeared to him from afar, saying, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.

"Again I will build you and you will be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel! Again you will take up your tambourines, and go forth to the dances of the merrymakers."

~Jeremiah

A Time to Dance

Dancers
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven--

A time to give birth and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear down and a time to build up.

A time to weep and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to dance.
A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.

A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
A time to be silent and a time to speak.

A time to love and a time to hate;
A time for war and a time for peace.

~Ecclesiastes 3

Bless the Lord!

Reyna
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

Bless the LORD, O my soul!

O LORD my God, You are very great; You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering Yourself with light as with a cloak, stretching out heaven like a tent curtain...

God sends forth springs in the valleys; They flow between the mountains; They give drink to every beast of the field; The wild donkeys quench their thirst.

Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell; They lift up their voices among the branches.

God waters the mountains from the upper chambers; The earth is satisfied with the fruit of God's works.

God causes the grass to grow for the cattle, And vegetation for our labor, so that we may bring forth food from the earth, and wine which makes our hearts glad... and food which sustains our hearts.

The trees of the LORD drink their fill, the cedars of Lebanon which God planted, where the birds build their nests, and the stork, whose home is the fir trees...

God made the moon for the seasons; The sun knows the place of its setting.

You appoint darkness and it becomes night, in which all the beasts of the forest prowl about.

The young lions roar after their prey and seek their food from God.

When the sun rises they withdraw and lie down in their dens...

O LORD, how many are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all!

Psalm 104

Friends

Friends
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaint. As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever.

Amen.

~Peter

Look at the Birds in the Sky

Walker
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

…Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?

Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them… So, seek first the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.

~Jesus

Jeff Street 2007 Retreat

Jeff Street 2007 Retreat
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

Where's Waldo??

Someone missed our Jeff Street group shot, but I snuck a photo of them in there anyway. Can you spot He or She Who Was Not There?