Spring update!

I've been completely quiet here at Inside Outside Upside Down, but my family and I have been really busy back in the real world. Change is in the air... so thick we're almost choking on it.  We started a company named "Just Fair Goods".  Our goal is to use that company to make it easier for people in our community to access fairly traded products. It's also a means to support local ministries. Thirdly, we will be at the local farmer's market beginning in only a few weeks (eep!) and I'm really hoping that this will be a great place to start conversations, build relationships, spread the word on Fair Trade, find other like-hearted souls, and oh, maybe sell some great coffee.  So, we are excited.   We have also joined a new church community. That has a pile of emotions tied to it. I still love my old church and didn't leave for any negative reasons, it just felt like God was calling us to something new. We have landed in an awesome new church, I'm really inspired by their love for justice and mercy.  They are great people and I'm so glad we found them.

I've really, really, rulllly been thinking a lot about that old mainstay of loving our neighbours and putting that into action. I'm thinking about service, I'm thinking about meeting needs, I'm thinking about indifference and not knowing the needs I could know about. I'm thinking about building God's kingdom in my neck of the woods. I'm thinking about what to do, where to start.  I'm seeking God's guidance and trust me, he has been very clearly pointing things out to me. So now, I need the gumption to move on that and not to cower in fear of rejection.  Pray for me! 

Finally, I've come across a fantastic book called "Common Prayer" by

Shane Claiborne: http://www.thesimpleway.org/shane/
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove: http://jonathanwilsonhartgrove.com/
and

Enuma Okoro: http://reluctantpilgrim.wordpress.com/about/

It is a book of common prayer (no surprise) that is clearly justice and mercy-minded. It is a collection of prayers and reflections from a variety of Christian traditions and a number of Christian writers, leaders, and saints. It has been a very useful prayer book for me. Each day's morning prayer includes reflections for the day (like a devotional) plus a reading from the psalms, OT and NT, a song, as well as a place for prayers for others.  There are also evening prayers for each each day of the week.  I have been really blessed by this book. And the best thing I've since discovered, is that you can follow the website (which posts the daily prayer) for free! Of course, you will probably fall in love with it and want to buy your own copy too. Here is the website to check out: http://commonprayer.net/

Well, just wanted to give you all an update on life around here! Hopefully, I'll get to write more soon,

J