GroshLink

Hi All,

Thought I'd update you all on the latest things Eden's been up to, starting with her annual therapy evaluation. The organization that provides her services does this evaluation every year and it's been a year already, since we started Physcial Therapy at least. She had this yesterday. All her therapists come to our house and together put together a progress report and evaluate (using the Battelle Developmental Inventory) and write new goals for her. Here are the results for Eden at 16 months old (click below for the details) . . .

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It's been quite awile since I've come across Jerry Boyer, who gave a number of evangelistic presentations for IVCF-CMU several years ago. So it brought back a number of memories when I came across The Bible is unabashedly pro-immigrant in the Sunday Post-Gazette. I would commend this piece to your consideration. Please pray for his health and if you have time check out some of his podcasts.

In the coming months, we're going to take some time to look back on the experience of cancer and how it, alongside the death of baby Elise Faith, taught us to live day-by-day in Christ, dependent upon His Presence/Grace, His People, and His Word. An area of particular concern is delving into how our walk with God demands that we relate to the real world, intersect w/the suffering elements of the fallen creation. If you have thoughts on this topic, please submit so they're part of conversation.

Click here to enter the site and explore links, pics, and so much more as we walk with Christ as a family in ministry. Check out a report on faculty camp.

As GCF's considered how to redesign U-Connect PGH into a more interactive site that reflects the conversation on campus regarding our fall topic What is Revelation and summer book discussions of The Gospel in a Pluralist Society we've found Goodbye, Blog quite an inspirational piece. Thought I'd bring it to your attention. More later, including where we're going w/U-Connect PGH and also where you are right now, groshlink.net

I took some time to browse the additional scenes from Everything is Illuminated. Good editing (or just deletions) as I might have stopped watching the film after The Collector scene and the inappropriate sexual material was more than I could have taken. I guess according to the film, life goes back and forth between the play and life itself. I agree that we must have perspective on life, but we must set ourselves in the larger story instead of making up our own ways of navigating reality. See the author's perspective below:

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The CMU faculty discussion group recently discussed A New Kind of Urban Christian by Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church, NYC. We found this an excellent piece, but hard to put into practice. Part of the time I gave testimony to the social, cultural, and spiritual impact of our family's local congregation Allegheny Center CMA. Toward the end of the conversation, one faculty member asked us to consider the University campus our neighborhood. And to ask the question, How can followers of Christ be a counterculture for the common good? I really like this analogy b/c it is very much the case as the city/campus goes, so goes the culture.

Our next phase of pioneering ministry will explore how followers of Christ called to be lifers in the academy must prayerfully embrace their Kingdom responsibility in these strategic cultural-shaping centers. Please pray for doorways to relationships and conversations in which we can borrow/modify some of the below talking points from Tim:

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Attention soccer fans (and others): Check out this IFES prayer chart based on the World Cup.

I particularly like the click on a country for focused prayer requests and stories giving direction to one's daily intercession for the work of God across the world.

Today marks the death of Muhammed in 632. A confirmation of his mortality. While preparing for a Sunday School Class on Islam, as part of a series on World Religions, I came across the following quote in Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet (2002 PBS special recently used by Muslims at an outreach on CMU campus) w/regard to Muhammad's death:

Whoever worshipped Muhammad, then knew that Muhammad is dead. But whoever worshipped God, know that God lives on and never dies . . . a danger inherent in religious tradition is that the object of worship becomes the messenger and not the one sending the messenger.

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If you're in the Pittsburgh area, please come out to our July 9 Taste of Lancaster for a time of food, friends (including a number of alum such as Andy and Jodi who just purchased our house, Mike and Shayna Bowling all the way from Canada, Peter and Kelly, hopefully the Daleys with a new born . . .), fun, and sharing as to our next stage of life and pioneering ministry which will seek to redemptively engage the whole campus through university academics and professionals. The whole of Schenley Park is available for us to enjoy: playgrounds, tennis, Frisbee golf, or bring your own lawn games.

2-4pm, drop-in, rain or shine, w/a little program at 3pm

Schenley Park Ice Rink Meeting/Banquet Room, directions and RSVP info below.

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