This fall I've found myself looking down at the grass quite a lot. Here's some of what I've seen. All but 3 of these photos were taken one morning in Iowa.

This morning at 6 am my grandmother, Mary W Hess passed away at the age of 88. This is a letter I wrote to her this week after it became clear she would only be with us for a few more days. Dear Grandma, I'll miss you. You've meant a lot to me over the years. Here are a few of my memories from your time with us. I remember sitting with you so many years ago reading from The Miller Five and other classic Mennonite morality tales. You passed your love of reading on to mom who in turn....

This week I had the opportunity to be part of a conversation looking at the bible through the lens of civilization skepticism. Theologian Ched Myers took us through the first 11 books of Genesis looking at the way that much of the sinfulness in this story is caught up with the rise of civilization, from the Garden of Eden to the Tower of Babel.

This morning my friend Kristin preached on 2 Kings 17:7-23, a passage that lays out the sins that led the children of Israel into exile. As Kristin spoke, I began to notice things about the passage through the lens of civilization skepticism. I thought I'd share some of those thoughts with you here.

Imagine that you are a poor Colombian farmer who has worked all week in the fields from sun up to sun down. Sunday comes and you head to the nearby small village to relax in the central park with your friends. Suddenly, a military truck pulls up and demands to see your proof of military service. When you can't produce anything, you are pushed into a truck and driven to the military barracks. I wrote about forced recruitment I witnessed like this a few months ago.

Yesterday I heard about Diego, a member of Red Juvenil (Youth Network in English) who was forcibly recruited by the Colombian military soon after he turned 18 years old. He immediately declared himself a conscientious objector, but the military refused to release him. While Red Jevenil worked from outside for his release, he refused to cooperate in any way with the military. When they handed him a gun, he would drop it. When they told him to fix up his uniform, he left it wrinkled.

I've written twice here before about my journey with my friend Dale through his stroke and recovery. This weekend I, along with three of his other friends, accompanied him back to his home town of Hillsboro, Kansas, where his brothers and sister live. Dale was leaving Chicago, his home for over 30 years. I took my camera along to document this transition in his life.

We left Chicago in a rented RV around noon on Friday after packing up some boxes from his house and checking him out of The Imperials, where he's been living for 5 months.

Last weekend Charletta and I travelled out to Iowa to visit her parents and the weekend before we visited Plow Creek Farm in Tiskilwa, Illinois. Here are some of photos from the autumn countryside across the two states.

Barn in the fog across from the Kalona Cheese factory in Iowa

T: So what criteria does family systems theory set out for mature leadership?

C: I’m looking for certain characteristics such as self differentiation, which is being clear in one’s own thinking about one’s beliefs, values and practices while at the same time keeping an open relationship with others and connecting with them across differences.

Anton has lived in LaGrange for 15 years and for 10 years he taught at LaGrange College. Today his full time, unpaid works is with Alterna. During the week, I've noticed he is often on his cell phone as he recieves calls from people in crisis. Whether it is legal, health related or housing crisis, Anton help Latino immigrants navigate the situation in this small town of 28,000.

This week I spent three days in Winnipeg, Manitoba as part of Mennonite Central Committee's New Wine New Wineskins process. Wine, you might ask? What are Mennonites doing talking about booze? Well, it turns out that Jesus used alcoholic metaphors in his teaching (see Matthew 9:17 for the story). For MCC, this means bringing together the constituency of MCC (especially those on the growing edges) to revision new structures and programs together.

As I walked toward the corner I watched a swirl of motion erupted as four or five kids took swings with their legs and fists at a sixth boy. As I continued walking toward the corner, the officer sitting in his car did nothing but sit and smoke his cigarette. By now the victim of the attack was on the ground as the other kids took turns kicking him.  As I got closer,  the officer began to back his car up, almost running over the kid on the ground. Then as soon as it had begun, it ended. The kid on the ground was apparently not hurt too badly as he was also quickly away from the scene.