3rd Floor Balcony

From one of our board members working on Raising the Village website 2.0: (and did you hear the one where RTV got charity status? shhh, we've yet to make the announcement official but it's true)

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As you may or may not know, we're in the middle of revamping the website of Raising the Village.  Our current website has been good to us all, but as we're now entering this next chapter of our organizational growth (which will be indicated by a series of to-be-announced milestones), it's time to take it to the next level.  There is a SEA of websites out there all vying for your attention, and we want to make sure we're the one that grabs and holds it.  You have been selected as an important supporter of Raising the Village, and as such as we would like to give you the chance to influence the content of the future RaisingtheVillage.org website due to be launched this fall.  The survey will not take more than 10 minutes to fill out, and I personally guarantee that all of your input will be incorporated into our redesign and subsequent management of content.

The link to the survey can be opened by anyone, so feel free to send it around to get feedback from anyone I might have missed in MY email list.  The ONLY stipulation is that responses must be entered before September 6th at 12:00am.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=wwlK51LrRqDI7G8AAbHeig_3d_3d

Survey monkey won't let me add a "Thank you" page at the end of the survey, so I'll thank you in advance for taking the time to complete this survey.  Your free gift is the chance to see YOUR ideas on the internet, and a pat on the back from yours truly ;)
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So help us out, fill in the survey some. Thanks!

You dance over me while I am unaware
You sing all around but I never hear the sound...
Lord I'm amazed by you, how you love me

As I think back on a whole bunch of years in youth ministry, and as I think about this graduating bunch of snot-nosed highschoolers, and as I see the attitudes of young, seemingly religious folk, I can't help but feel that most of us haven't a clue.

But I can't help but rejoice because there was a time when we were all blind and still, yet still, this place called us home. We were bitter, bitter kids. We thought we were smarter, better. We were so cynical. Some of us left of our own accord, some of us just complained a bit too loudly and never lifted a finger. And some of us even stayed and implemented our version of heaven. And as I look back now, I can still hear... greater love has no one than this, that one lays down their life for their friends.

This is it, isn't it? The ones who know, who believe, they can sing the truth of this song because they remember when this song was true, and now it's meaning has spirit. That it's a two-part episode, summaried to a few scant lines. That our story, every story, starts in a garden and a turning to selfishness. But only some stories find the truth. It is those few that amaze me.

And for the story of everyone else? Well, we continue to dance and sing, and wait.

You dance over me while I am unaware
You sing all around but I never hear the sound...
Lord I'm amazed by you, how you love me