Friday, June 5, 2009

wedding dress

This story made me cry a little this morning:

A girl walked into a well known bridal fabric store in the east of Pretoria, she promptly asked the shop assistant for the noisiest white fabric that they have.

Frowning a little, the assistance pointed out the nosiests white fabric they have amongst the mountains of soft silks and laces..

While cutting her order, he couldn't help but ask:

'Why are you buying this stiff nosy fabric, normally brides look for the softest flowiest ones?'

She answered: ' My future husband is blind, and I want him to experience the wedding and my dress'


beautiful.

grace&peace

pierre

Monday, June 1, 2009

new space

Hi guys
Today is big day in the story of 3rdplace.. we just gave notice at our current venue and trusting God for something more central and more with the people...

anyways, the way we view/use our gathering spaces.. is that it is part of the message.. i'm sure you've heard the whole the medium is the message message.. 'you can paint a smiley face on a atomic bomb.. but it won't change the message' or something like that at least.

So our first space was a reputated gay bar, owned by our buddhist mates. It taught that we are part of this city part of this world.

second space continued that line. It was 'the bar'. A friend of ours owns a bar, that is closed on sunday's so we used it as a gathering space. It taught: God is everywhere. We need to live towards and in the 'world'

the third space, is a completely stark white gallery like space with a concrete floor and no chairs. you had to bring your own. I taught two things.
1st: The person is important, no people no church. The people are like artworks in the stark space, the beauty that exists in us is that which the world needs.
2nd: It teaches us to live simply, to engage God in silent, to move towards a contemplative life

now we are moving again, I've been wondering and we have been chatting about what the 4th space should be..

at the moment I am thinking, maybe 3rdplace should be a story space.. wherever our community gathers it should create space for stories. Lately stories have been bubbling up more and more in 3rdplace.. and it's taking centre stage. Stories inspired and teach. We live in a story, we define ourselves by the story of Jesus and scripture. We live our lives in God's story.

So where ever 3rdplace gathers, we should make space for stories...
houses, coffeeshops, bars, a rented hall.. what ever..

whacha think?