Tuesday, April 29, 2008

April Update

"That's a good feeling"
Last night we had our usual monday night Boiler Room meeting. It was a typical night of gathering for a meal, lots of conversation and laughter followed by a discussion of a chapter of PunkMonk and praying together. One of our friends, Kamp, came in, left, came back, left and came back again. Kamp is a friend and 'regular' at our open mic nights. He is in his 50s, his wife is in a nursing home with alzheimers, he lives in assisted housing and takes classes at U of M. He carries a lot of baggage from bad church experiences and lets everyone know. Last night Kamp told Tim that this place (the Fallout) means a lot to him and has been really good for him. He talked about previous seasons of life where he was alone in his apartment but now he comes here regularly. He said here he feels important, needed, wanted. He said, "You know, i come here and do my open mic thing and feel like if i missed one people would say, 'Hey, where's Kamp?' That's a good feeling." This is what our heart is and a great story of how God is healing a heart through friendship and a place of belonging. Here is a picture of Kamp playing at our Good Friday service called disgrace.



Prayer Prodigal Pilgrimage
This month we had another one of our full weeks of nonstop prayer. Long before we had the dates, April 19-26, set our friend Jeremy planned a Prodigal Party for April 20th. This date is significant because it marks his one year of returning to the Father. Sunday, April 20th, started out cold and grey but ended up warm and sunny. A thin layer of ice covered Lake Calhoun when we arrived but was blown away within an hour. Prodigal Party included a BBQ feast, delivering parables of Jesus through drumming and spoken word, testimonies of some prodigals and two baptisms in very frigid water. It was a joyful celebration of prodigals returning to the Father.
Praying for prodigals was also one of the main themes of our week of prayer. One of the stations was a 'family tree' where people wrote names of family, friends, etc. who are prodigals. People then prayed for them by name to know the Father's love and desire to welcome them home. The week of prayer was great and gave us a great chance to simply rest and pray. It was very timely as we are entering our busiest season at Source. To read the journal, see pictures and read about 24/7 prayer visit our website http:/www.sourcemn.org/247prayer/247april08/index.htm.



Mohamoud
A week ago Thursday we moved Mohamoud into a studio space in our Art Co-op building and are able to give him the space for free. Tim has had some great converstions with him lately. Please continue to pray for him. We are also looking into visiting a local mosque to learn more about Islam and building relationships with more Somalian muslims. Mohamoud came over to our house for a dinner last night and here is a picture of Tim and him!


Our Birthday



For those of you who were unaware. Our birthday is on the same day, Apr. 26th. We turned 24. It was a great day of celebration with friends. We enjoyed a wonderful Indian meal together and great fellowship as the community night and wrap up of 24/7 fell on our birthday.

We are doing well. The weather has been slowly but surely getting better. We have been able to bike a lot. We are putting in a garden at our house and have been able to do some yard work finally.







Tim and Dana Kramer




































Saturday, April 26, 2008

birthday

today is dana and i's birthday. that is right, we have the same one! we have enjoyed being together, being with God and being with friends. we had a good chat over indian food today about purpose and hope. every since we began following Jesus we are excited about each new day and new year. we have experienced a lot in the last year and are excited to see what this year holds. it is a gift to enjoy life and look forward to it. there are many who do not feel this way.

who knows what this next year may hold. lots of growth, maturing, learning to love. children. trials. joys. new friends. old friends. art. music. silence. life. death.

one thing that never changes is that God is with us always.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

experiment


we are going to experiment with a blog so that more people can hear what we are doing more often. will it survive? will it work? you only determine the outcome..... er, sorry, i don't know what that was.




just experimenting with pictures.