Tonight, our friend Jim Wallis will be the guest on The Daily Show with John Stewart.  Be sure to check it out.

www.thedailyshow.com

A friend of TOR, Mike Morrell, posted this link, and I thought our TOR community would find this interesting.  Community… it seems a lot of people are longing for it.

NPR’s All Things Considered- A Social Experiment: Communes In Cul-De-Sacs

Link to the organization in the report: http://www.wecommune.com/

Screening: Crossroads Film Festival

Well, I have to say I just about had the best time ever at the Crossroads Film Festival in Jackson, MS.  I was picked up by my favorite character of the whole event, Jimmy Taylor.  Jimmy, when not driving film directors to and fro, is a full time Mississippi Private Investigator with enough amazing stories to fill a season of Magnum PI…we just need to find him a good Higgins
Anywhoo, I had the pleasure of meeting fellow directors Paige Williams and Micki Dickoff at the opening reception.  Paige’s film, “Mississippi Queen“, follows her coming home to Mississippi, digging past southern hospitality to examine gay values and the ex-gay ministry her parents run.
Micki spent the last 5 years working on Neshoba, a film about race, murder and reconciliation in Philadelphia, Mississippi.  Watch it!

AND, we managed to convince Michael Wong and Brandt Russo to come join us for the film and talk back session.  Good times indeed.  Special thanks to Chris Spear, Marvin Snell, Nina Parikh, Carolina Whitfield-Smith and everyone at the Crossroads Film Festival for their hospitality and for supporting independent film!

Hey folks,

I’m packing bags for the screening of The Ordinary Radicals at the Crossroads Film Festival in Jackson, Mississippi!  Here’s the details:

Thursday, April 2nd @9pm
Regal United Artists Theaters, Theater B
1075 Parkway Blvd.
Flowood, MS 39232

Michael Wong, featured in the New Orleans section of the film, will be hanging out with me.  Come out and say hey!

~jamie

Hiya folks,

We’ve had quite the good times back home in Philadelphia: sharing meals, telling stories and participating in a favorite past time – Buy Nothing Day.  It comes from the fine folks at Adbusters, read up on the where & why at their website.

You might be aware some of the interviewees from The Ordinary Radicals have tons of fun every year putting on Buy Nothing Day events all across the US & Canada.  One particular BND event close to our hearts here is the Philadelphia event.  It’s organized by friends connected to The Simple Way and features everyone’s favorite thrift store super friends: The USAntiheroes!

Read up on their past antics while Jamie heads out to film their latest adventure.

Had the chance to sit down with Sandra B. from radio 105.9FM in London, Ontario.    Sandra, her friend Clay and I got to hang out at their studio and talk on air about all sorts of what nots.  I really enjoyed talking with them (we talked just a much off air as we did on air).

Jamie Moffett Interivew: London, Ontario 105.9 FM

OK, time to drive to Ontario.  I’m sure there’s a Tim Horton’s somewhere I can snag a cup of coffee.  Why don’t we have Tim Horton’s in Philly?  Too bad for us.

~jamie

This Sunday, “The Ordinary Radicals” will debut in Orlando.

In preparation for Sunday’s debut, there will be a LIVE radio program discussing the film. This Friday, Sept 19, from 8-9PM, Director Jamie Moffett, and Lisa Sharon Harper (Executive Director of NY Faith and Justice and featured interviewee in the film) will be guests on The People Power Hour with George Crossley on WAMT 1190AM – Orlando, FL. AND you can also listen live online at www.peoplepowerhour.com.  Make sure to tune in!

And then there was Cincinnati. We met back up with quite a few of our PAPA friends. In particular, Les and our coffee friends who would be hosting us at Rohs St. Cafe (www.rohsstreetcafe.com)– a welcoming location full of familiar faces and bottomless mango Iced tea and homemade sweet potato pie. A side note **JP we still want you to be our official sound guy! ** Les has been creating relationships with coffee farmers in guatemala to assure they are getting paid directly and fairly for their beans. This allows the families to retain their land and sustain their businesses. Purchasing Fair Trade Organic Coffee is one of the ways we can commit to spending our money in a way that directly supports people. We stayed with Brandi and friends at a community house that is working closely with neighbors educating in home maintenance and gardening with the local children after school. It was an honor to see them again and run around in their town for a minute.

Hey all,
Just got an email from Chris Smith of Doulos Christou Press in Indianapolis. It’s the story of a member of the community who’s given most all his possessions away and lives as a full time volunteer.
If you know folks like this in your community, let us know!

**************************
Jamie–

Hope that the tour is going well and that you’re staying sane!

Kyle came around for our church dinner on Wednesday, and I had him walk me through his story. This morning, I had a chance to write up the conversation.

Peace,
Chris

——————————-

Six months ago Kyle Schlenz had a decent job and was living on his own in an apartment, with all the typical stuff that a twenty-something guy enjoys: video games, movies, etc. Kyle had dropped out of college a couple of years earlier on the realization that his degree in English would not offer him many opportunities to eliminate the debt that he would build up. Such a debt, he believed, would be like “promising years of his future,” committing him to focus his life on paying off the money he owed. So, he set himself to working a variety of jobs. Having grown up in a fundamentalist church and having more recently felt compelled to deconstruct those religious roots, Kyle wrestled to understand what the shape of his faith would look like in this new, independent phase of his life. However, he had found a new church home that offered him the freedom to question and wrestle with challenging issues. At the same time, he was reading the Gospels, especially Jesus’s teachings on wealth and poverty, and had a nagging sense that he was only building up his own kingdom. Stories of gross poverty from around the world helped him to realize that despite his modest means, he was – as an American – very wealthy. It seemed to him that the church of his youth, and many other Christians, were quick to dismiss or explain away the Gospel teachings about wealth. Over several months, God used these troubling realizations to lead Kyle to relinquish control of his possessions and indeed his life. He sold or gave away everything he owned, except for a few odds and ends that would fit in his pickup truck. He finished out the lease on his apartment and decided that for now his truck would be his home. He had a strong sense that his church would help him with any needs as he followed the call of Jesus in this way.

Today, Kyle serves his church in urban Indianapolis for no pay, doing whatever needs to be done; he helps with the church’s tutoring efforts, and with their work of providing affordable housing. In the urban people that he works with, Kyle has seen profoundly that a primary factor in homelessness is an individual’s isolation and thus the lack of an adequate “support system.” Thus, even though he lives out of his truck now, he does not consider himself homeless, and he is deeply grateful for God’s abundant provision for his needs through the church. He has had people offer to help support him, without his even asking. He is being mentored by the church’s pastor and he has a passion to connect people in his church that have resources with those who have needs that such resources could fill.

This is a new adventure for Kyle, and he realizes that challenges will come his way as he continues down this road. He will soon have to take on some part-time work to meet his needs, but those needs are much fewer than they were six months ago. But in the face of uncertainty, Kyle reads the scriptures, thanks God for the ways in which he has already been provided for and trusts unswervingly that God will continue to use the church to meet his needs.

Here’s a clip of an interview I shot with painter Aaron Fiordimondo.

PS: Did you hear The Ordinary Radicals will premiere September 2nd @ the Bryn Mawr Film Institute? We’re looking for indie film houses in cities all over the US to bring the movie to. Let us know if you have a suggestion for one!