Travel Troubles Up Date

After our fiasco in late March with Delta I sent a strongly worded e-mail to their customer service department. Loosing the luggage was bad, but the multiple times people lied to me on the phone simply to get off the phone with me was what pushed me over the top.

Anyway, I feel obliged to inform you we got 3 $75 vouchers in the mail last week. Certainly Delta did not have to do anything, but I appreciated the gesture of this token offering. For us in our current situation it was well timed. We booked our flights back to Wilmington for the Jamie Miller wedding the same evening we got the $225 gift. Our tickets were still outrageous, but the $225 we saved was much needed.

Take a Deep Breath...and Jump!

Our public gathering began this week.

It was a success, much of what we are doing is unorthodox and unconventional so we have few examples from history to look at making it difficult to judge success. However, we have a deep desire to foster community, community in a deep and interpersonal way. I believe our first week was a step in that direction.

I was most pleased with the atmosphere of our first gathering. As we started it felt a little like a first date, awkward. However, quickly our group settled in and a sense of community filled the room. The vibe was open and engaged. I have no idea what to expect next week or the week after that. To confess, I long for a sense of control again. Ministry before now seemed very controlled. This is the advantage of working in long established places, work wasn't always easy but it was controllable. I have no control over what is occurring now, I simply trust God and follow my heart and values. 

I will hope things continue to go well, but for now I am thankful for the first week. It went well, we have a lot of work to do, but it went well.  

Free Jones Soda

Today was a cool day, part of our publicity strategy for the church was to purchase about 500 bottles of Jones Soda with our church logo and info about our public gathering and website on them. Jones Soda allows you to personalize bottles if you buy more than a case of them. 

Jones Soda is a trendy Seattle based company that probably appeals to the 25 and under crowd. However, their soda is delicious!

Anyway, we took our 500 bottles of Jones Soda today and went over to Montana State Billings and Rocky Mount College for a free give away. It was pretty cool. Our flavor choices were Green Apple, FuFu Berry, Berry Lemonade and Sugar Free Black Cherry. Our strategy was simple, give it all away.

So on a nice 80 degree day Jon and I headed over to the campuses and started giving away our soda. We were well received. The combination of the hot day and the bright colors of our sodas coupled with the end of a long semester seemed to provide a small spark for people.

A few people asked why we would do such a thing which allowed us to direct them to the info on the bottles. Believe it or not a couple of different people had actually heard of us. 

I have no idea if this publicity will help, but if nothing else for this one day we were able to make a couple of college campuses a little bit brighter. Unfortunately there was non left for me and Jon so we stopped and got a Gatorade on the way home.