MMMMmmmmm. The Land of Enchantment. And enchanted it was. We had a blast driving through the desert, playing on some dunes, watching Scott try to tackle a cactus. Some of us were very disappointed that we didn’t get to ride down into the Grand Canyon on donkeys (like Jesus into Passover… not because we are democrats)… but there’s just not enough time for all the fun to be had, so we had to skip the big hole. The desert has been an important place for Christians throughout Church history, so it was brilliant to feel the Spirit at work out here.
The New Mexico stop was our first bi-lingual one, full translation into Spanish and we were excited to hear all the energy from our latino brothers and sisters down here on the border. We had a journalist for the big independent paper for Albuquerque who was excited about the whole JFP deal and is doing an article for his (primarily non-christian audience), right alongside all the sex ads (his words, not ours), for which we are honored. One of the magnificent parts of this event (in addition to 2 great intermission artists – JC Represent and Alyssa Yarber band) were the folks who hosted us. Over a dozen families live in a cooperative housing complex together – Casa Shalom. Several of the folks at Casa Shalom are middle-aged families who sold their homes and assets to help create this beautiful community. They do beautiful hospitality, teach each other Spanish and English, share meals and worship, and raise their kids together.

In the event that this blog is just wetting your appetite, and you are hungry for more… here’s a blog from our film crew friends on the road with us…
The film crew for Ordinary Radicals…
www.theordinaryradicals.com/blog

We were also glad to begin some healthy conversation with some of our critics (one of whom was at the event). We hope to make our critics our friends, be good listeners, and be known as people who disagree well, and treat those who see things differently with the same grace we hope to feel from them.