So technically our “day” started with a post-midnight grease adventure.  Folks headed out in the early hours of the morn to get some waste veggie oil so we can kick on to Indiana.  We scored over 50 gallons… so on we go.

Indianapolis – twas a day filled with emotion.  We were hosted by the fantastic folks of Lockerbie United Methodist.  The community there has a missional coffee house that is the only all-organic, fair-trade coffee house in Indianapolis (also serving a specialty — orange latte, wow), along with beautiful community gardens and a wholistic and empowering homeless outreach.  The tour presentation was to a packed house, with friends from Englewood and Doulos Christou Press seriously representin’ (Doulos is a community-based Christian publishing house in Indy).  It was a diverse spectrum of folks – some living on the streets, some academic folks whose scholarship we have deeply admired (Ecclesia Project folks), and even young teenie-boppers that are dreaming big dreams.  We made some new friends that shared with us that they were gay, another atheist, another very “conservative but inspired”… and they all seemed quite touched by the evening.



On a terribly sad note, just as the presentation was kicking off, Lucy the superstar tour-dog, got scared and jolted into a run.  As she was being pursued in the concrete world here in Indy, she was struck by a car, and did not survive.  So it was a very sad day for all of us, especially Cassie and Chris.  In the midst of the chaos, it was heartening to feel everyone pulling together to help carry the weight of the loss.  Lucy now rests in the community garden of our hosts there in Indy. Chris shared about how any loss and grief draws us closer to those who suffer even more deeply than ourselves, like the families in war-torn Iraq.  But that still doesn’t make any pain easy.  We will remember Lucy with big smiles and she’ll be missed so greatly by all her friends back home, around the states, and for us on the bus—even though this clunky thing scared her a lot.  (Above is a picture of her glorious melancholy face.) The night went on (albeit with tears)… and it is a good thing that this whole tour is not dependent on our own strength or wisdom, but it is through our vulnerability, brokenness, and emptiness that God shines.  God works well with human weakness, in fact that’s at the core of the JFP message – God chooses the weak to shame the strong and the foolish to confound the wise.

A LATER UPDATE from Cincinnati: We just received these pictures from folks back at Indianapolis. At the grave we dug last night, they brought a spirit of grace and honor to the bitterness of Lucy’s passing:

They also adapted the following prayer from St. Francis:
Blessed are you, Lord God, maker of all living creatures. You called forth fish in the sea, birds in the air and animals on the land. You inspired St. Francis to call all of them his brothers and sisters. We ask you to bless Lucy.  … May we always praise you for all your beauty in creation. Blessed are you, Lord our God, in all your creatures! Amen.