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Pastor James Ford on grammar

Posted on July 29, 2010 by Melanie Jongsma, Wordsmith

This past Sunday, my church (Living Springs Community Church) hosted our annual Taste of Reconciliation event, and it was genuine celebration of diversity. I plan to post more about the event later, but for this week I’m just sharing a 50-second clip from Pastor James Ford, who preached the message that evening.

I just appreciate a man who can work a grammar lesson into a reconciliation sermon!

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Melanie Jongsma is an experienced writer who loves to help people, businesses, and ministries share the stories that are important to them.

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The ProBlogger 7-link challenge

Posted on July 21, 2010 by Melanie Jongsma, Wordsmith

I’m taking ProBlogger Darren Rowse’s “7-link challenge” for this week’s post. He says, “The idea is to publish a post that is a list of 7 links to posts that you and others have written that respond to the following 7 categories.” So here we go:

1. Your first post

It was just about a year ago that I started blogging. I burst onto the scene with a stunning post titled Social Media Frenzy. I’ve learned a lot since then. Most important, I’ve learned how much I need to learn!

2. A post you enjoyed writing the most

My Photo essay: A week on the beach was not only enjoyable to write, but also enjoyable to re-read. And the comments I got from readers were very encouraging.

3. A post which had a great discussion

A few weeks ago I posted When Christians and nonChristians Collide, and the comments people left were lengthy, profound, and generally respectful in spite of how passionate people are about their religious views. I appreciate that.

4. A post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written

I appreciate the good people at Ghostwrite Pro. And when Joey Robert Parks authored the post Top 3 Reasons I Ghostwrite for a Living, I really appreciated the clarity with which he captured some of my own feelings about writing.

5. Your most helpful post

This is an interesting category, and there are a number of different posts I could choose as “most helpful,” depending on how I choose to interpret “most helpful.” In the end, I’m linking to my Thanksgiving Top 10 post. Not only was it helpful for me to review my past year of writing and thank God for the projects I’ve been privileged to be a part of, but also the post gave some exposure to some of the great people I’ve worked with.

6. A post with a title that you are proud of

Honestly, I think Under the skin is a great title that I gave to Dave Brown’s post about cancer and race and unity. It has so many levels of meaning!

7. A post that you wish more people had read

In a sense, I wish more people had read Random observations about Classis Illiana. I think I said some important things, and it was helpful to have a forum to express what I was feeling. My unspoken hope was that this post might reach people in leadership levels in my classis and my denomination, that it might cause them to stop and think about how insular and trivial we often are, that it might spur some kind of revolution, calling people back to authentic Christian community. But I think the fact that it didn’t just confirms the feelings I had when I wrote it.

But that’s kind of a downer to end with! So I’m going to add another post I wish more people had read: From China to Glenwood: Adventures in diversity. This is a lighter, more fun post that still says some important things. It’s still about wanting to change the world, but it’s more about enjoying the process.

Thanks, Darren Rowse, ProBlogger, for encouraging us fellow bloggers to take the “7-link challenge,” and for giving us a forum to share with each other.

Fellow readers, were any of the posts I shared above new to you? Is there any topic you want to see more of? Less of? Let me know in the comments!

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Melanie Jongsma is an experienced writer who loves to help people, businesses, and ministries share the stories that are important to them.

About Melanie

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4 reasons to join us at this year’s Taste of Reconciliation

Posted on July 15, 2010 by Melanie Jongsma, Wordsmith

1. The food.

Photo from 2008 Taste of Reconciliation

Not all the sign-up sheets are in yet, but a sampling so far includes promises of Swedish meatballs, slow-cooked ribs, German potato salad, greens, dirty rice, banana pudding, Italian ice, cracker pudding, sweet potato pie, almond bars, pizzelles, and even a few open-ended commitments like “Something Nigerian” and “Something Argentine or Mexican.” The Taste of Reconciliation gives people an opportunity to share their own favorite cultural foods, and to experience the favorites of others.

2. The fellowship.

Photo from 2008 Taste of Reconciliation

If you’re looking for a place to have a good meal and quiet conversation, this is not it. But if you can appreciate being surrounded by the joy and noise and flavors of diverse people who are all united in a desire to understand each other better, the Taste of Reconciliation is a good place to start. It’s a community event in the real community sense of the word.

3. The family-friendliness.

Photo from 2008 Taste of Reconciliation

Taste of Reconciliation is something whole families can experience together. Not only are there plenty of games for the children, but the food and fellowship present wonderful teaching opportunities for families. Let your children watch you try a dish you’ve never had before. Let them learn from your example when you express interest in another culture. Let them be impressed (though they may not show it) when you offer to help by getting someone else a plate or a glass of lemonade. Then, after the food and fellowship and worship service—maybe in the car on the ride home—ask them questions about their experience, what they liked and didn’t like. Could be an enlightening conversation!

4. The freedom.

Photo from 2008 Taste of Reconciliation

True reconciliation is difficult, lifelong work, but it leads to real freedom. People who let go of old hurts find themselves released to discover new joys. “To forgive is to set the prisoner free,” says a proverb by Lewis Smedes, “and discover that the prisoner was you.” This kind of freedom and joy is celebrated at each year’s Taste of Reconciliation, culminating in the 6:00pm worship service led by representatives from black, white, brown, yellow, and mixed churches in Glenwood (IL) and surrounding communities. It is a profound blessing.

For details about this year’s Taste of Reconciliation (July 25, at Living Springs Community Church), check out the Event page on Facebook.

If you been to a past Taste of Reconciliation, will you post a comment and share your favorite part of the experience? We’d love to hear from you!

Like This!

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Melanie Jongsma is an experienced writer who loves to help people, businesses, and ministries share the stories that are important to them.

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Photo essay: a week on the beach

Posted on July 7, 2010 by Melanie Jongsma, Wordsmith

I spent last week vacationing with my family on Indian Rocks Beach, Florida. Florida is a tradition for us. When I was a child, my grandparents moved to Florida so my grandfather could find more regular work in construction. My parents and siblings and I would spend two weeks vacationing with them every summer. Three years ago, we returned, in celebration of my parents’ 45th anniversary. We spent a week on the beach at the Chic-a-Si Cottage, sharing our family traditions with the next generation (my siblings’ children). It was so much fun, we decided to return again this year!

So there’s no deep message in this week’s blog. It’s just a reminder of how precious family is, an encouragement to develop your own traditions, and a few photos of my beautiful week on the beach. Enjoy!

We arrived at the Chic-a-Si (a cottage we rented) on Saturday evening in time to enjoy a gorgeous Florida sunset.

This is the view of the cottage from the beach. The Chic-a-Si is on the right, and six adults and three kids stayed there. My brother and his wife and five kids stayed next door (on the left) at the Colonial Court Inn.

The next morning's sunrise over the cottages was a great way to start the Sabbath.

This was the view I walked out the door to each sunny morning.

I took a walk most mornings, and the beach wildlife was fun to watch. I don't know what kind of bird these are, but I think they are breakfasting on coquinas, a small clam. (Update: blog reader Nancy Buis let me know in the comments below that these are White Ibis. Thanks Nancy!)

Herons are also common on the beach. They stand next to the early morning fishermen, waiting for handouts.

Another Florida tradition is lizard-catching. This little guy was sunning on the boardwalk when I grabbed him. I released him after snapping this photo.

The colorful chairs on our patio served as a useful landmark from the beach. They overlook an area that's been replanted with native sea grasses to keep the beach from washing away.

Sunset over sea oats

Random footprints after an evening beach rain shower

My brother-in-law (right) spent much of the week constructing this giant starfish with the help of his daughter (left) and the rest of our nieces.

Another awesome sunset—with rainbow!

Crabby Bill's Seafood is a local, family-owned restaurant. Their flagship location is right across the street from where we stayed on the beach. Click the photo to visit the Crabby Bill's website.

This is an evening shot of the cottage on our last night. I'm going to have an 8x10 print made of this and hang it on my porch as a reminder of the great vacation we had this year.

One final sunset shot. This was our last evening on the beach. The sky is always pretty over the gulf, with different cloud formations and colorings, but our first and last nights were really the most spectacular sunsets.

I do have a video of my “Florida Family Fun,” but it’s too long to upload to YouTube, and I’m not sure I like Vimeo.com. I had to fool around with the settings a lot to get it to look presentable and play smoothly. If you decide to watch the video, will you let me know if you experience any technical difficulties? And if you know of any other video hosting sites, could you tell me about them? I’m looking for options.

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Melanie Jongsma is an experienced writer who loves to help people, businesses, and ministries share the stories that are important to them.

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Happy Fourth of July

Posted on July 2, 2010 by Melanie Jongsma, Wordsmith

I don’t have much to say this week, but I didn’t want Independence Day to pass by without a mention. So I’m posting a photo of the Fourth of July tee-shirt I bought while vacationing in Florida. My family and I stayed on Indian Rocks Beach, right near the original Crabby Bill’s seafood joint. Not only do they have a fine selection of local delicacies, but they were also selling all their Fourth of July tee-shirts for $5.00 each.

What are you doing to celebrate the Fourth?

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Melanie Jongsma is an experienced writer who loves to help people and businesses share the stories that are important to them.

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After the storm

Posted on June 26, 2010 by Melanie Jongsma, Wordsmith

(Photo credit: Apple desktop images)

Storm wipes out power

Freezer slowly loses cool

Grilled chicken tonight

This morning I joined Plinky.com, a site full of creativity-enhancing writing exercises, and the assignment was to write a haiku about the last meal you ate.

I don’t know, do you think exercises like this make good blog posts?

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Melanie Jongsma is an experienced writer who loves to help people and businesses share the stories that are important to them. She occasionally dabbles in poetry as well.

About Melanie

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A Taste of Heaven

Posted on June 24, 2010 by Melanie Jongsma, Wordsmith

If you were at Living Springs for Super Salsa Sunday last month, or you saw the video I posted about it, you got a small sampling of what our annual Taste of Reconciliation is like—new expressions of praise, new flavors of worship, and renewed appreciation for diverse, authentic cuisine. Each year’s Taste of Reconciliation is a celebration of not only the rich cultural variety in our community, but also the extravagant God whose diverse beauty we all reflect.

The Taste of Reconciliation reminds us that our churches are incomplete when they are composed of only one race, or one age group, or one socio-economic class. It’s an invitation to not only tolerate differences, but to embrace them, to enjoy them, to celebrate them.

To see a few photos of last year’s Taste, visit the photo album on the Building Bridges Facebook page. (It’s not a lot of photos because I got too caught up in the event to think about taking pictures. I hope to do a better job this year, but I’m not making any promises.)

I also posted what I think is a pretty good blog about last year’s event. You can read that here. The same truths I shared then apply to this year’s Taste too.

July 25 is the big day for this year’s Taste of Reconciliation—mark your calendars! Here’s what you can look forward to:

  • 4:30pm – Multi-cultural Art Appreciation, an interactive experience led by a former docent at the Chicago Art Institute
  • 4:30pm – Outdoor games and activities for the children
  • 5:00pm – Multi-cultural Food Booths in Room 145, with free food samples from 20–30 different cultures

All of that leads up to the 6:00pm Multi-cultural Praise and Worship service, a service that reflects the promise of Revelation 7:9. Choirs, soloists, praise teams, readers, dancers, and preachers from different cultures will all lead us in heartfelt praise—some expressions familiar, some less so, but all God-focused.

If you are in the Glenwood area (it’s south of Chicago, Illinois) on Sunday evening, July 25, stop in at Living Springs for the Taste of Reconciliation. We’d love to see you there!

And if you want to be even more involved in the event, we could certainly use some volunteers! We need people to:

  • Help supervise the children’s games
  • Bring an ethnic dish and help serve it to the masses
  • Help wash dishes, move tables, and mop floors quickly at 6:00pm, so we can all enjoy the worship service
  • Smile at our guests and make people feel welcome

Interested? Send an email to Karin, who is coordinating the volunteers. She can send you additional information about any of the above opportunities.

Whether you are able to volunteer or not, we do hope you’ll stop by this year’s Taste of Reconciliation. It’s inspiring! In fact, if you’ve been to the event in the past, post a comment letting people know what your favorite food was, or what part of the worship service you most enjoyed. I often hear these comments verbally from people, but I don’t have them in writing anywhere!

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Melanie Jongsma is an experienced writer who loves to help people and businesses share the stories that are important to them.

About Melanie

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Five gifts from my father

Posted on June 16, 2010 by Melanie Jongsma, Wordsmith

My dad learned to play tennis when he started working at Victor Sports, Incorporated, distributor of TA Davis tennis racquets and Victor Imperial gut strings. He's the kind of guy for whom nothing is "just a job;" it's something you believe in and invest yourself in. My whole family grew up playing tennis with Davis racquets. Dad still plays tennis most Friday nights and Saturday mornings. And he still beats me.

1. Applicable Wisdom

Whether I need help understanding a business problem or a fresh perspective on an annoying relationship, my dad is able to give advice without sounding paternalistic. I still turn to him when I need advice, and I still rely on classic bits of wisdom from my growing-up years, including:

  • “Garbage in, garbage out.”
  • “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.”
  • “Take what you eat and eat what you take.”
  • “Nobody likes a smart-alec.”
  • “Life is not fair.”
  • “B+? Why not an A-?”

2. Good-natured Humor

My dad is a funny guy. Not “stand-up comedian” funny, but “make people smile” funny. He enjoys a clever turn of phrase, an ironic observation, and good-natured ribbing. And he always manages to use humor to make people feel better about themselves and about life. I like that.

3. Willingness to Learn

For most of my childhood, my dad worked for Victor Sports, Inc. of Chicago. He was the Vice President of International Sales, and whenever he came home from an international business trip, he brought us fascinating souvenirs, including the tiny soaps from his hotels, which we loved! My dad was good at sales then (and he’s good at his ministry job now) because he respects people and considers them interesting. He listens and remembers. He’s always willing to meet new friends, try new foods, explore new locations, learn new things. That combination of confidence and humility set the tone for our whole family.

4. Quiet Generosity

My dad is as generous with his time as he is with his resources. I know of situations from many years ago, when he did things like secretly dropping off groceries for a family in need, or anonymously paying bills for people who were struggling. I’m sure he continues to commit incognito kindnesses today. He’s been a blessing to countless people facing a variety of material needs, but the real blessing is that he manages to help without hurting. His good-natured humor and genuine respect leave people feeling better about themselves. That’s a gift.

5. Worthy Example

A lot of people tell me I’m a lot like my dad, and I always consider that a profound compliment. If I can internalize the gifts he has given me, I’ll find myself surrounded by beautiful people, enriched by interesting experiences, and able to face disappointment with optimism. As I said in my Mothers Day blog, in all the most important ways, I want to follow in my dad’s footsteps. I do not take his example for granted.

In the Bible, God tells his people, “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” (Deuteronomy 6:6–7) That’s the kind of faith my dad has—not just talked, but lived. I thank God for that legacy.

Happy Fathers Day, Dad. Thank you for everything you do, and everything you are!

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Melanie Jongsma is an experienced writer who loves to help people and businesses share the stories that are important to them.

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A Little Christian Humor

Posted on June 10, 2010 by Melanie Jongsma, Wordsmith

It might be true that Christians take themselves too seriously. It might also be true that atheists take us too seriously (judging from the Christian-atheist debates I’ve seen on some blogs; not this blog, but other blogs)!

So in the interest of lightening things up, I thought I’d dedicate a post to a little Christian humor. Speaking of lightening things up, let’s start with—

Light bulb jokes

How many charismatics does it take to change a light bulb?
One, since his hands are in the air anyway.

How many Calvinists does it take to change a light bulb?
None. God has predestined when the lights will be on.

How many evangelicals does it take to change a light bulb?
Evangelicals do not change light bulbs. They simply read out the instructions and hope the light bulb will decide to change itself.

How many Pentecostals does it take to change a light bulb?
10—one to change it, and 9 others to pray against the spirit of darkness.

How many TV evangelists does it take to change a light bulb?
One. But to ensure that the message of hope continues to go forth, send in your donation today.

How many campfire worship leaders does it take to change a light bulb?
One. But soon all those around can warm up in its glowing.

How many Lutherans does it take to change a light bulb?
One to actually change the bulb, and nine to say how much they like the old one.

God Texts the Ten Commandments

Here’s something I read in the June/July issue of Reader’s Digest (and they were quoting Jamie Quatro on mcsweeneys.net):

  1. no1 b4 me. srsly.
  2. dnt wrshp pix/idols
  3. no omg’s
  4. no wrk on w/end (sat 4 now; sun l8r)
  5. pos ok – ur m&d r cool
  6. dnt kill ppl
  7. :-X only w/ m8
  8. dnt steal
  9. dnt lie re: bf
  10. dnt ogle ur bf’s m8. or ox. or dnkey. myob.

M, pls rite on tabs & giv 2 ppl.

ttyl, JHWH

ps. wwjd?

And finally, one of my favorite jokes—

Did you hear about the agnostic, dyslexic, insomniac?

He lay awake all night wondering if there is a dog.

Thank you, thank you very much—I’m here all week!

_____

Melanie Jongsma is an experienced writer who loves to help people and businesses share the stories that are important to them.

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When Christians and nonChristians collide

Posted on June 3, 2010 by Melanie Jongsma, Wordsmith

I recently consulted an atheist I know about the possibility of using this blog to explore some of the ways Christians end up offending the very people they’re trying to share God’s love with. He’s a guy I ran into on another blog, through a series of comments about the existence of God. Although we disagree with each other, I think it would not be too presumptuous of me to say we’ve developed a mutual respect.

I’m filing this post in the “Diversity” category of my blog because I think it’s another example of cross-cultural communication. Now, the thing about crossing cultures is this: you often don’t know where the cultural differences are until after you’ve done something culturally offensive! When you’ve grown up in a culture where everyone drives on the right side of the road, you assume that everyone everywhere drives on the right side of the road. Until you run into someone.

The same thing is true of Christian culture and nonChristian cultures. For the most part, I think we Christians don’t realize that our language and practices are unique, and they are different from how other people speak and act.

And, sometimes, they’re unnecessarily offensive.

For example

The most striking example I have of this is a blog post called “I’m Lost” that I happened to read when I was looking for information about the TV show Lost for a book review I was writing. The author of this blog is a self-described “’normal dude, about 30ish. I have a great wife, decent job, and a hobby that I want to make into a career. Nothing special.”

Here’s what this guy says in his “I’m Lost” post:

I’ve been told I’m one of the Lost. Not in the cool way, like on a primetime scifi TV show. This is in the “Not Christian” way. I guess if that’s what Lost means, then they are right. But I hate that term. Because I’m not lost.

I’m as much on track as any other schmuck on this Earth. I’m going from place to place. I’m learning new things and replacing bad information with better information. I also see the beauty in things without imposing a supernatural story to it. Reality is awesome.

I’m afraid, though, that we’ll never be rid of this religion crap. It’s sad, but I try not to dwell on it. I’m going to enjoy this one life. I will not waste my only life on a stupid story.

Honestly, I had never thought about how offensive it might be to call someone “lost,” but reading about it from this guy’s perspective really opened my eyes.

It makes me wonder, what other language am I using—what other assumptions am I making—that might be offending people who aren’t Christians?

And what’s the best way to make myself aware of what I’m not aware of?

Any ideas? Any examples from your own experience?

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Melanie Jongsma is an experienced writer who loves to help people and businesses share the stories that are important to them.

About Melanie

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