may and june?

hey friends,

sorry for our delay in updates. we are planning on doing a may and june update combo in the next few days. things have been very busy and very good. the weather in minneapolis has been great. we have some really exciting stories to share and hopefully pictures to accompany them.

guess which famous person we recently met? no cheating those who have heard the story!


stay tuned beloved family and friends.

2 years of marriage!!!!

on tuesday dana and i celebrated 2 years of marriage. we had a great day off of work, a wonderful greek lunch, a long bike ride and rest. the past 2 years have been wonderful as we continue to get to know one another and Jesus through each other. we have a little tradition of watching our wedding DVD each anniversary to remind ourselves of our vows. i am so grateful for such a great wife!!!!

for those of you who are awaiting our may update, it will be coming, but not till next week. we are in our second day of our Urban Ministry Training which is really busy and really awesome.

may update coming soon!

may madness

well, we are only 9 days into may but it has been crazy already. we worked really hard last week building a giant goose bridge float for MayDay parade as well as lots of prep work for the festival. it was our first MayDay experience and was exhausting. it would have been nice to do only the float or the booth.

the last few weeks have been beautiful. we started tilling up our front yard this week to put in a big vegetable garden. we have been biking almost every day instead of driving which has been wonderful. i feel new life within me. i have been getting in a lot of conversations lately with many different people. one of the most encouraging conversations was with two men in a park. they overheard my friend and i talking about paul and his life. they came over and asked if they could listen. we ended up have an amazing conversation about the kingdom of God and losing our lives for Jesus that we can truly find them. these brothers have renounced all things in order to seek the kingdom of God first.

today i did something i don't usually enjoy doing-i went flyering. i went to intermedia arts, the alt bike and board shop and 5th element. it was great to bike and adventure around the city. i look forward to doing it more.

dana and i are way too busy yet we still make time for dates and rest. this summer is going to be great!

and to top things off here is a picture i found of me from 3 years ago when i did my internship at source. yarg!

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

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.

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.