godspeed

our local learning group is a movable feast of characters. over the years we've had lawyers, students, soldiers,  artists, activists, mommies, coaches, and even pastors. okay, quite a few pastors. but even that's been a diverse group: episcopal, baptist, lutheran, catholic, church of God, presbyterian, methodist, non-demoninational, post-denominational. we've had conservatives, liberals, middle-of-the-roaders, and post-dichotomists.

two of our cohort friends are leaving San Antonio this week: Laura is an independent contractor working in humanitarian & refugee affairs — she's 'marching' to Pretoria, South Africa to do research on human trafficking. Thomas is in the US Air Force, being sent to Baghdad, Iraq on a deployment. [UPDATE: Thomas' deployment either got canceled or postponed!]

feels like we were just getting to know these two. you'll both be missed.

tonight and over the next few, Thomas and I will be recording some of our cohort, creating an audio artifact of this time before everyone ships out. we'll be talking about social justice and the gospel; we'll be talking about poverty, about hope, about where the pneuma of God is blowing. We'll hopefully be joined via Skype by Pamela, who is also a former member of our learning community, serving as a missionary in Managua. [UPDATE:I recorded Pam on Tuesday morning and recorded Laura's story Tuesday at lunch]

Since Thomas is being deployed, I'll take on the editing of the episode, and I think we're going to then provide it to Emergent Village's podcast [and Nick & Josh]