Tag: fire

I’ve come to start a fire


Fire and Water
Originally uploaded by peasap.

“I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
Luke 12:49-53

Wait a second… what happened to the God of Peace and Love!? What’s he talking about here?

The Simple Way fire :: one year later

From Ordinary Radicals and The Simple Way:

Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of the 7-alarm fire that consumed an entire block of Kensington. The Simple Way has been working hard trying to get justice for their neighbors. But still, a year later and the city has yet to rectify this situation. Below is the press release, and videos about the fire and its aftermath.

7-alarm fire destroyed an entire block of Kensington, residents still face tens of thousands of dollars worth of fines from the City.

On June 20, 2007 an abandoned, city-owned, factory caught fire and burned down an entire block of Kensington, forcing evacuation of over 100 families and leaving 400 others without power of families as it ripped through the 3200 block of H Street. Dozens of homes were damaged and destroyed, cars exploded, a neighborhood in turmoil. Now, one year later, those families are being told they owe the City of Philadelphia money.

Victims of the fire were sent notices from the City of Philadelphia’s Licenses and Inspections Office saying the charred ruins that remained of their homes was an “eminent danger” to the neighborhood. This is all after the neglected City property caught fire for the third time that year and consumed their homes. The lot where the factory used to stand, along with the dirt block where there homes once sat, is now filled with broken glass, tires and trash, a scar on what was once a vibrant block of North Philadelphia.

One of the buildings lost in the fire was a community center belonging to The Simple Way, an influential nonprofit organization that has been serving in the neighborhood for over 10 years (along with the home of Simple Way founder and best-selling author Shane Claiborne). As people heard of the crisis, financial gifts came in from around the world and The Simple Way has worked with a neighborhood coalition over the past year to help families stabilize as they rise from the ashes. The fire garnered national attention, and now their petition to the city has thousands of signatures. Despite pleas to all major players, and a visit from Mayor Nutter himself, the City of Philadelphia they are having a hard time not going to court over this.

“Despite being advised to declare a class-action lawsuit, we are doing everything we can to invite the new Mayor and administration to do what’s right. All we are asking is that the City forgive the fines that have been imposed on victims of the fire so that we can continue to rebuild our neighborhood. It’s an easy opportunity to shine in an ugly situation.” — Shane Claiborne (author, resident and fire victim)

“We have been told by sympathetic folks in nearly every department in the City that this situation is embarrassing and shameful on the part of the City. But at the end of the day, one year later, we still face tens of thousands of dollars in fines.” (Darin Peterson, Exectuive Director of The Simple Way)

related links ::

Re: Things in the fire

Well the Dallas Stars lost — another Dallas team fell short of the championship after making it to the playoffs. I should say I’m mortified, saddened, in a state of disbelief – but I think I’ve lost some of my competitive nature and/or just lost interest in most professional sports. In fact I’ve probably lost any real interest in just about every professional sport other than the Dallas Cowboys and maybe the Green Bay Packers (although that’s now diminished a lot since Brett Favre retired).

Thought I’d go back and check up on my “things in the fire list from last week.”

Let’s see…

* …finally finished uploading over 1700 photos to Flickr for the CWF. – CHECK
* …added several new videos to GodTube as well. – CHECK
* …plan to add several more videos to GodTube and probably YouTube. – FAILED
* …hope to build a new light box for our lights at encounter. – “DELEGATED” TO ANOTHER VOLUNTEER – CHECK
* …hope to finish a keepsake box I started for Laurie as a wedding gift (long story there…) – CHECK
* …plan to launch the new encounterthis.com around midnight tonight if not before. – CHECK
* …tomorrow is a men’s event for SniperInstinct – a cool blending of outdoor paintball and laser tag. – CHECK
* …finish updating the HTML files for various degree plans for work. – CHECK

New things on my plate…

I think we finally decided on a name for the pending podcast that Thomas and I are working on. I think we’re going with “Something Beautiful – conversations with ordinary radicals.” Now we just have to figure out some of the logistics in setting up interviews and such with a six hour time difference between us. The name comes from Brian McLaren’s Everything Must Change:

If we believe, we can be transformed into agents of something beautiful that is trying to be born in our world. We can be caught up in the unfolding, emergent, spiraling process of God giving birth to a beautiful whole, the Kingdom of God.

Thoughts? Our idea for the podcast is a unique blend of This American Life & All Things Considered on NPR with a focus on “ordinary radicals” and those finding ways to live their life based on the Third Way of Jesus. We’ll primarily focus on those ordinary folks who as Acts says, “have been with Jesus.” Maybe we’ll get lucky and get a few “celebrities” along the way but we’re really interested in hearing and seeing how the Jones’ are putting the teachings of Jesus into real life application. So if you have ideas for a topic or show, let us know.

Also, I finally ordered a couple new books from Amazon today – Pagan Christianity? and A Christianity Worth Believing. I wish I had been one of the lucky ones to get a PDF copy of Doug Pagitt’s A Christianity Worth Believing, so I could blog about the book and review it right away – but then again folks may have gotten upset when I printed the entire book out on my home or work printer.

I’m looking forward to starting both reads – now I just have to figure out which to start with.

Well that’s about it. I thought I’d wait up a bit to see if Thomas wakes up in time for us to do a little pre-podcast Skyping/recording. If not – no biggie we’ll catch each other on the flipside.

Beaten again and again

So Friday night is date night around Casa de Blundell. It’s been kind of inactive due to the holiday season.
So I think we both figured it was time to reenact this important piece of legislation.
The great thing about date night is there’s no requirements for what we do, where we do it or how we do it – just as long as we do it together – just the two of us.
We had a great time last night.

We made a huge dinner of homemade spaghetti and meatballs along with salad and bread.

dinner

Ok – it was homemade in that we put it all together for a full menu.
HEB had one of their great specials a week ago that I’m a super fan of. Buy a package of frozen meatballs, get spaghetti noodles and sauce for free. Awesome! $6 for the whole thing. Laurie bought some artisan bread and pre-packaged salad Friday evening and we put it all together. We also made a dipping sauce for the bread with crushed red peppers, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

After dinner we talked a little more about the Casa de Blundell.com re-design and then headed to our local Starbucks to enjoy some hot drinks and reading.
She’s working on “Emily Ever After” that I got her for Christmas and I did some more reading in “Ragamuffin Gospel.”
Although with the girls working at Starbucks I found it hard to concentrate on what I was reading verses the latest gossip about their relationships.

We came home and I built the first fire we’ve had in our new house.

first fire

It was a rough start – hadn’t realized how small our fireplace actually was and the big log I put in never really got started. Glad we had some fire starters and Duraflame logs.

As the fire grew we played three rounds of Sequence. Laurie beat me again and again and again.

sequence

We started with one game, went to best of 3, then best of 4/5. Apparently she didn’t want to give me a chance to win ;-). That’s OK. She beat me three straight games. Everytime I started to get some offense built I had to jump over and play defense. And if I remember correctly I was usually three good cards away from beating her each game. But no excuses – 2nd place is the first loser :-).

After the games we had the pleasure of cleaning up after Presley and her upset stomach. We finally called it a night and crashed for the long night.

Great time! Doesn’t get much better than spending time alone with my life. I LOVE YOU BABY! Thanks for making my life fun and memorable.

Churches rise from the ashes

One year has passed since nine churches in central and western Alabama were set on fire by three college-age students. Members continue to meet for worship as they begin rebuilding their churches — with a little help from volunteers. Listen to the full report from NPR.