Photographer, Eric Gruneisen for Westword, took these at Heaven Fest and I loved what he captured this way. These are the people who came: real, everyday people. Some normal, some maybe not-so-much. Some came for just the music and fellowship and fun. Some came to make the Name of Jesus glorious.
I smile at some of these t-shirt sentiments because I love the truth and the creative ways they found to share it and I cringe at others because, though this is my “family” – the whole, big crazy bunch of Jesus followers from every possible denomination and set of values, some of those shirts just won’t play well to others, they won’t know the wearer’s personality or what, in life and experience, has made them choose the shirt they wear. Like any fam, there are some crazy opinions and thoughts out there. You get 30,000 people together and there is bound to be some hilarious differences along with the familial similarities. But they are mine – these people, part of the household of faith.
Love IS the movement
Heaven Fest: Mostly Jesus lover/followers and passionate crusaders. They are people who are willing to live their lives for something other than themselves. And they don’t mind letting you know what they think. And it is too bad that often Christians are the only ones people want to censor.
Definitely register at the site and leave some comments for the slideshow. Tell them your favorites and support the fam, the Body! Someday we may have to do the same for you!
I couldn’t find a live version of John Denver (which I like a lot), so enjoy this original version, silly-but-o-so-true song by the extremely tomato-insightful Guy Clark:
There ain’t nothin’ a homegrown tomato won’t cure!
Guini’s birthday celebration was delayed by the Heaven Fest craziness. So how could I refuse when she asked for a really big cake, purple and yellow, chocolate with buttercream icing and lots and lots of color and flowers…plus sparklers on the top. Presents first, dinner and swimming, then cake and ice cream. A lovely way to spend a summer Sunday evening.
And as you feel it, you’ll know it’s true
that you are blessed and lucky
It’s true, that you are touched by Something
that will grow and bloom in you
Left: Amelie Belle is 4 and a half months now and she is good buddies her Aunt Stephanie. Center: Guini the birthday girl loves her baby cousin. Right: Aunt Tara is always popular with nieces Averi and Gemma May.
My amazing and insightful sister-in-law, Dawn recently commented that these family times together, the little cousins playing tug-of-war over some toy or the other and whatever mischieviousness they can all find to get into will be memories they will cherish as they grow up. I hope they’ll know that they ARE “blessed and lucky” and that the love of these days will grow and bloom in their lives, too.
These are days you’ll remember
when May is rushing over you with desire
to be part of the miracles you see in every hour
Here we are, Dave and I and our 6, very longsuffering grandbebes. They pose for us, they smile and coo and endure photo ops. They act silly and one day, when they are old enough, they will really wonder about us! Perhaps they already do.
You’ll know it’s true, that you are blessed and lucky
It’s true, that you are touched by Something
that will grow and bloom in you
It was Guinivere’s birthday celebration. She just turned 5. Hunter is 5 and a half. Gavin who is holding baby Amelie Belle, is 7 and baby girl is 4 1/2 months now. Best friends and cousins Gemma May and Averi are 3 and 2 1/2 respectively. These are the grandbebes on a summer’s evening in August.
These are the days
that you might fill with laughter
until you break
Left: Jovan is such a good mommy to her girls. My son married well. Middle: These are the men of the family – Dave and Tristan, 2 sons-in-law who could not be more wonderful if they tried, my husband and lover of 29 years (and a very flirtacious friend for almost 3 years before that), Dave and Rocker-Bo, the kid probably most like me in the world…only waaaaay better. Right: And my beautiful firstborn, Tara with her beautiful firstborn, The Little Prince.
These days you might feel a shaft of light
make its way across your face
Dave’s hair looks really gray in these pictures, but not in real, up-close-and-personal life (except for the salt and pepper facial hair and a little in the temples). Hmmm…wonder what is up with that? I KNEW that camera was trying to make me look old against my will. This is proof! The little girlie-grandbebes rely on Poppa to keep them safe from the splashing boys in the water.
And when you do
you’ll know how it was meant to be
Left: Averi following the grandbebe swimming ritual, which is, you get out and dry off so you can go right back in again. Middle: Steph loves her cake. Right, Gemma and Averi are always in deep discussion and generally some disagreement about some topic or another. But they are besties.
See the signs and know their meaning, it’s true
You’ll know how it was meant to be
The grandbebe painted, wooden stools…crazy-looking-maybe-I-should-have-planned-before-baking-but-the-brithday-girl-loves-it-anyway cakes…a zinnia that both Amelie Belle and I took a fancy to last night on our way around the yard (where new bikes for Stormie and Rocky, no less, were being assembled, a game of catch was going on, kiddies were splashing in a pool and sweet conversation floated on the summer air). These are the signs…
Hear the signs and
know they’re speaking to you, to you*
NOTE TO SELF: To get over myself {for the love!} and get over my ridiculous heartbreaks…See the signs, hear the signs…it’s true. These are the days…
* LYRICS: “These are the Days” by Natalie Merchant
“A sigh is an audible exhalation of air arising from tiredness or emotion, usually sadness, which itself could be stemming from feelings of sadness or futility. A sigh can also arise from positive emotions such as relief. Some people do it just to cool down organs or suppress emotions”. -Wikipedia
A recent stay at Marriott’s Springhill Suites presented something intriguing. A card on the mirror in the sitting room asked: “Can you sigh backwards?” And below mentioned the smoke-free policy, or some request to refrain from smoking, or something like that. I wasn’t quite sure how they went together? Were they asking, based on a sigh being a relief from stress or a sign of relaxation, ‘how can you be relaxed fully if you are inhaling a cigarette?'” Perhaps.
But the way I first took it, I guess, was as the opposite of a sigh of exasperation or a sigh of frustrated resignation. I thought they meant, of the “backward sigh,” the thought of enjoying life by your breath being taken away, or the way you gasp in a breath with delight at a wonderful event or a sweet surprise, like Will Smith said in the movie, Hitch (2005),
“Life is not about how many breaths you take, it’s about the moments that take your breath away.”
How many ways can you sigh, anyway?
Sighing does show up during both stress and negative emotions like panic or pain and extreme fatigue (Tredessa and I have both been accused of sighing a lot). But also during positive emotions like ralaxation or relief (*whew!).
But since you actually have to breathe in to be able to exhale a sigh, I am not quite sure how you can actually “sigh backwards,” as the Marriott sign seems to suggest (would you have to breathe out first and then in??), though, if my original thoughts were to hold (which they should, I believe, naturally), I kind of like the reminder. Look for the “catch your breath” moments in life. They are they ones to hold onto and cherish!
A *sigh in a song
Turns out there are quite a few songs about sighing. Here is one I like. It sounds like a sigh, too. A really good, long, soft sigh.
And then sometimes you’ve just been waiting to exhale…Sighs in scripture:
Isaiah 35:8
There will be a highway called the Holy Road. No one rude or rebellious is permitted on this road. It’s for God’s people exclusively— impossible to get lost on this road…The people God has ransomed will come back on this road. They’ll sing as they make their way home to Zion, unfading halos of joy encircling their heads, Welcomed home with gifts of joy and gladness as all sorrows and sighs scurry into the night.
Romans 8:26
Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans…
Psalm 31:6
I hate all this silly religion, but you, God, I trust. I’m leaping and singing in the circle of your love; you saw my pain, you disarmed my tormentors, You didn’t leave me in their clutches but gave me room to breathe. Be kind to me, God— I’m in deep, deep trouble again. I’ve cried my eyes out; I feel hollow inside. My life leaks away, groan by groan; my years fade out in sighs…
Psalm 55:16
I call to God; God will help me. At dusk, dawn, and noon I sigh deep sighs—he hears, he rescues. My life is well and whole, secure in the middle of danger…
From The Message…”I sigh deep sighs and He hears…”
Kari Jobe (one of my all-time favorites) leading worship at main stage near the end of the night, mixed with scenes from the day. This is just 4 minutes of over a week of cool stuff, because as soon as volunteers set foot on the property, the miracles and love started flowing! THANKS FOR THIS VIDEO, GREG “HD” VERSPOHL! Love ya!Seriously!
“I do not believe that…birth makes people sisters and brothers. It makes them siblings. Gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood are conditions people have to work at. It’s a serious matter. You compromise, you give, you take, you stand firm, and you’re relentless…And it is an investment. Sisterhood means if you happen to be in Burma and I happen to be in San Diego and I’m married to someone who is very jealous and you’re married to somebody who is very possessive, if you call me in the middle of the night, I have to come.”
S I S T E R S ~ A song I adore! Dedicated to Tamara Dawn Moslander Ayento!
BTW – I am definitely the Rosemary Clooney (blue eyes/Bing Crosby) of this scenario, and Tami is Vera Ellen (brown eyes/Danny Kaye). ;p
The Preacher’s Wife
My little sister (both little at barely 5 feet AND younger by 6 years), Tami Ayento, is a preacher’s wife. They recently took a pastorate in the heart of Chicago, so the neighborhood reminds you of the movie by the same name starring Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington (The Preacher’s Wife, 1996). I think it is cruel and unusual punishment that I got her when I was almost 6 and we shared a room for many years and then suddenly, we both marry and move thousands of miles apart. She knows my faults, my secrets, the worst of me. And has yet to disown me. She is and will always be the sister of my family heritage, and the sister of my heart.
The Moslander crew at Tami and Gerron’s 1987 wedding. I had already provided 5 of the 7 grandchildren and nieces and nephews for this family. Come on, people!
Our HR team is unbeatable. Seriously. They got requests from HF leadership for something like 1800-1900 volunteers to run a festival to welcome 35,000 people to Union Reservoir at Longmont this year. And they have been out to churches all over the metro area and along the Front Range telling the Heaven Fest story and making the vision plain. And people are answering the call! How cool is that?
The volunteer link is only up for a few more days and only 168 positions to fill.
Volunteers are already hard at work
Volunteer already, will you? You’ll help promote a culture of honor, you’ll make the Name of Jesus glorious and you’ll sweat and work hard and get to serve some of the greatest people you’ll ever meet anywhere! Plus? Because we didn’t have to pay some one to do what you’re doing? There will be money for orphans and resources to help end child sex slavery through www.love146.com. There’ll be offerings for the poor and the homeless and Jesus wells dug in India. THAT is what YOU volunteering will do.
Kristie Allbritten and Stephanie Morgan? I am humbled and blown over by you. Thank you. thank you. Thank you. You leave me speechless…
VOLUNTEER, says Tredessa
WHY HF, Dave Powers explains
A Look Back at The Sacred Assembly
The lightening show was straight from the heavens – not some effect added later. An incoming storm stopped dead in its tracks and we just had the coolest worship time at the end of the night! Volunteers help soooooo much! PRAY ABOUT IT THEN SAY YES!
I got the coolest e-mail (well, I was one of 4 recipients which included DP and Tara and Tredessa):
I’m sitting here reflecting on everything right now. We’re 12 days away. Things are really starting to come together. We have an amazing team we nearly had to kick out last night because it was getting late! We’re on a crash course to have [more than 35,000] people. This year we did better on our vendors, our sponsorships, our donations, our materials, our volunteers. Tickes sales are through the roof and climbing…
I guess I’m just grateful to be in this with you guys. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine getting to this place. Love you guys!
-Luke
The thing is? Luke painted a picture we could see. He was a young guy (DP’s lifelong friend) who came weekly to eat leftovers at my kitchen table and would tell us the story of what Heaven Fest could be. And believe me – getting on board that dream was a defined and specific call of God. I had no desire to fund and produce a festival for the masses, but somehow there, in those summer days of 2007, we decided to say yes.
Dave, Tara, Luke and I “went public” in September of 2007 (Tredessa joined in the spring) and Heaven Fest was born July 26, 2008. Oh, but conceived so much earlier.
The 2010 Leadership Team at the final training July 18, 2010. Crazy visionary, Jesus-loving, self-sacrificing, mission-minded, giving, praying, worshipping, enemy-defeating, gifted, talented, called and appointed people! Oh, I am in awe! {By the way – do you see how Luke is trying to self-promote and be seen in this picture? Yeah. I didn’t think so. Because he doesn’t.}
And I never could have imagined what God would do or the people He would send who are just so unbelievably a-ma-zing! But I feel especially honored to get to work with Luke. He is one unique individual, a true-hearted, authentic visionary and I am so glad I got to hitch my wagon to his star. It is a crazy fun ride.
“Celebrate the little things in life, appreciate tomorrow, love your neighbor…never condemn yourself to a life without cause to celebrate and be thankful for what you have. Never forget the people you love and love them when you have an occasion to do so. Celebrate their life and celebrate yours.” ~Unknown
Feu de joie, a French term meaning “fire of joy,” is actually a gun salute, described as “a running of the guns” as they are fired on occasions of public rejoicing and celebration. It can also reference a large bonfire being lit as a token of national joy.
But we have just navigated our way through our very own rapid-fire of joy and celebration. For during a 12 week period between Dave’s birthday (March 23) and Father’s Day (3rd Sunday in June), we do a whole lotta shaking! There are 9 family birthdays during that time…no wait! Amelie was born a few days after Dave’s birthday, so now 10! This is immediate right-here-local family, people! Plus, there was a HF fundraiser, a big baby shower or two, the aforementioned birth of a new grandbebe, some travel among us, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, a couple of theater productions for the patriarch, a holiday, tax-day and some end-of-the-school-year plays and programs. Oh. And cakes.
I think I feel a summer cold coming on. A little worn out, but whew! Still, mostly intact.
Jubilate
Oh, how Averi loves her little Flintstone-esque car; Gemma said of her big sister, “Guini is so nice.” Hunter is a great big-cousin to the girls!
“That it will never come again
is what makes it so sweet.”
~Emily Dickinson
Dave with original 5, and with the 6 grandbebes. On Father’s Day.
Make merry
Scenes from good times: Jovan and Aunt Dessa with baby Amelie. Gemma and the cone.
The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another’s desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together. ~Erma Bombeck
Dave with grandbebes, left-right: Hunter (5), Amelie Belle (almost 3 months), Gemma (3), Guinivere (almost 5), Averi (2), and Gavin (7)
Celebrate ~ a LIST of reasons:
Birthdays, anniversaries, firsts, promotions, making the yellow light, getting the good parking spot, your husband’s first novel getting published (buy here!), a moist spring, summer arriving, a full moon in an azure-blue sky, the first sip of amazing morning coffee, a grandbebe tying his own shoes and riding without training wheels, tomatoes ripening on the vine, and a new granddaughter. Also, achievement and success, failures we made it through together, a good movie, really green freshly-cut grass (that deserves an ice cream cone at the very least), a completed project, an upcoming festival, finding out some one is praying for you, healing for dad and brothers in light of heart junk, first teeth, first lost teeth, seeds that sprout, weeds that pull out easily. Moms. Dads. Brothers, sisters, neices, nephews and grandbebes. Aunts and Uncles and family in the faith. Growing love and re-ignited passion. Good times. And even hard times with people who won’t leave.
For these and many other reasons, throw a party. It can be filled with lavish decor and a seemingly endless buffet of tempting tidbits, or as simple as a blanket on the grass with milk and cookies as the stars come out to dance. Find your reason.
Can you over-do on celebrating?
I guess that remains to be seen. On our deathbeds, when total clarity and perspective comes to us, we may realize that some of the extra fancy cakes or over-the-top decor wasn’t themost important thing, but I doubt I will ever regret using every possible chance I could to show the people I love the most their great worth to me by planning, scheming and finding ways to celebrate their lives and existance. And if it should disrupt “normality,” or be a little taxing, so be it. I’d rather know I did it because I loved them. And not regret missed chances to say so.
My family always complains that when I take pictures, I never count and give them warning. See left. Well, when I FINALLY did a one-two-three count, this is what I got (see right). Improvement? Not sure. My photographic philosophy: just snap away and hope for the best.
“Love your life and prove it.” ~You may quote me on this, actually
Nehemiah 12:43 (New Living Translation)
Many sacrifices were offered on that joyous day, for God had given the people cause for great joy. The women and children also participated in the celebration, and the joy of the people of Jerusalem could be heard far away.
I would say our neighbors, based on what has been “heard far away” would think we have!…Jeanie
