Intentional Community

Recently, I have been thinking about community. I know the word "community" is possibly the broadest term out there, so let me bring it down a few notches. Digital community is all the rage. Online, you can attend a church service, do a service project, or even "have community". A lot has been made about this in recent months...you can read some comments on Out of Ur by Bob Hyatt. While I don't really feel the need to weigh in on this is debate, an aspect of this discussion has stuck out to me in recent conversations and readings.

I was reading a newsletter recently that was talking about the use of Facebook as a marketing tool. The premise of the piece was that the beauty of Facebook is that you can check in on someone's life (stay connected, follow what someone is doing) with little to no actual interaction with someone. Some may just call this "Facebook stalking" and there isn't anything inherently wrong with this. The article was praising it is as good thing. From their perspective, your customers can tell everyone via facebook that they are involved in your brand without actually needing to say much in person.

Birthdays, Weddings and Moving

A few updates from the last few weeks...


- I (Bethany) turned 26 yesterday. And Nate did a fantastic job in making my first married birthday special! We were involved in a wedding on Saturday and then the festivities started. We explored the town of Geneva, IL, after the wedding and went out to dinner at a cute little Thai restaurant. Then on Sunday, we enjoyed a picnic in a local park after church and played some frisbee. Sunday evening was the big surprise...a surprise party! Friends came over for a BBQ and game playing. Yesterday evening, we went out to dinner at the Cellar Bistro in Wheaton and then enjoyed some Cold Stone ice cream. He also bought me a beautiful handmade earring and necklace set made in Guatemala. He is a wonderful and loving husband!


- Our friends, Emily and Jason Miller, were married on Saturday afternoon, August 29th. They are great friends, fellow camping adventurers, and Emily has been a co-worker of mine for several years. I had the previlege of serving as her personal attendant for the day and was running around taking care of details all morning. The wedding was beautiful and we are so excited they are in the marriage club!

- The latest development in our life is...we've decided to move! We're relocating to a 1 bedroom apartment in Wheaton, which will save us money and help us downsize a bit. Since we hope to move to Europe withing the next 2 - 3 years, this is the beginning of getting rid of things we will not need. I'm a little intimidated by the process of packing and moving all over again, but it will be well worth it. We've been selling items on craigslist and will be having a garage sale in a few weeks, in anticipation of the move.