12 Stones

Joshua 4:21-24
21Then Joshua said to the Israelites, “In the future your children will ask, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22Then you can tell them, ‘This is where the Israelites crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ 23For the Lord your God dried up the river right before your eyes, and he kept it dry until you were all across, just as he did at the Red Sea when he dried it up until we had all crossed over. 24He did this so all the nations of the earth might know that the Lord’s hand is powerful, and so you might fear the Lord your God forever.” NLT

So, its April 1st. This year it is Palm Sunday and April Fools Day, an odd joining of two worlds. It also happens to be a memorial day for the Andersons. Today, three years ago, we left a beautiful city, a vibrant church community and all of our dreams to begin a year long nomadic trek through the valley of the shadow of death. Today, is the anniversary of when we left Santa Cruz, literally homeless. You can read that story here .
To remember this day and to celebrate God's faithfulness to us in our most desperate hour, we started a tradition. The day we left our small red house in Mt. Hermon just outside Santa Cruz, we packed everything we could into our car, including Jake and Ben, and sent the rest to a storage unit. So, now on April 1st we go out pack the trunk of our car (we use the van now) with stuff, not to haul around, but to give away. Since being in the Pacific North West and having a tie to a church in PDX that cares for homeless teens and other people downtown we choose to get a "trunk full" of whatever they need most. Mostly socks, individually packaged food stuffs, "Charmin To Go" toilet paper, toothbrush kits, tarps and deodorant, etc.
"Home PDX" is an off shoot of The Bridge and today was their first meeting. We literally met up with some friends (Jessi and Nathan Willard) underneath the Hawthorne St. bridge where Home PDX was gathering. Today they were just making friends and serving a free lunch to anyone who wanted. Ken the pastor was ever so gratetful for the trunk stuff and we were thankful for the chance to give and eat lunch with them.
So April 1, 2007, another year to thank God for his mercy, another year to care for others and another year of teaching our boys the lessons of our history.