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!

Well, after meeting up with Deanna and Dan in Atlanta, we drove down to Orlando, FL for the J4P event there…and it was massive. Thousands of people gathered at the Discovery Church to hear Chris & Shane tell their story. I have to tell you it was certainly the most fashionably dressed group of any on the tour, and I’ve pretty much been wearing the same cargo shorts for the last 5 weeks. Looks like they dug the story, as they were clearly moved by the message and eager to share their own stories with Chris and Shane after the event.

I’m most excited that my dear friends Zack and Andrea McKinley drove up to visit us and hang out. Zack has been a part of The Simple Way story years before there was an organization called The Simple Way, as he was a part of the group of us back at Eastern who came across the amazing moms and kids of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union who’d taken over the abandoned St. Edwards Roman Catholic church to get out of the cold, then subsequently arrested by the police on behalf of the church (and tried to have their kids removed). Anywhoo, important times and I’m so glad they got to visit. Here’s a shot of Zack & I back in the day while studying ethnomusicology in Cuba.

Jamie and I parted with Dan and Dee to head down to Austin with our
faithful photographer/driver Sam Lamb.  D & D were off to New Orleans
then Atlanta where we will reunite.

Jamie spoke at a session during the Netroots Nation conference, a gathering
of progressive bloggers. He, along with Zack Exley, dialogued with
folks about faith and politics. Jamie pretty much talked my ear off about how much he enjoyed the conference and was encouraged by Zack and the excellent panel discussion & people excited about this movement

We also had some great conversations at the GQ party we happened to get invited to the night before (from
GQ parties to camping with mennonites - really?). Well, back in the
saddle.

Here’s the Lubbock, TX local Fox station’s coverage of the J4P event there:

Fox News local coverage of Jesus For President tour

On the road from Denver to San Francisco we make a stop. This one filled with hope as well as despair. Laramie, Wyoming, is our destination. The location where, on October 7, 1998, a horrible hate crime was committed. A young man named Matthew Shepard was taken to the outskirts of this small town, tied to a split-rail fence, beaten and was left out in the cold of the night to die. This tragedy helped the nation see that hate and discrimination still exist in our neighborhoods, schools, and in ourselves. As a result, many organizations, artists, and community activists have spoken out through music, words, and action to replace hate with understanding, compassion and acceptance. For more information on the life and tragedy of Matthew Shepard go to www.matthewshepard.org.

So, Canada. Toronto to be exact. We crossed the border with minimal difficulty. Although the question was brought up, “Have any of you guys been arrested?” To which we replied, “Um… arrested?” We defaulted to answering questions with questions. After a bit more in depth explanation of our legal histories the Canadian border patrol let us ALL through. We hit Niagara Falls and booked it to our host church/community in downtown Toronto. The city is beautiful. It is perched on the edge of Lake Ontario. The city is very diverse in terms of faces, races, languages, and architecture. They have a law in the city that won’t allow folks to chop down trees over a certain diameter without a permit. Nice! I can’t wait to get back up there and sink in a bit seeing as how we sort of skipped across the surface with our short visit. Thanks Canada. We got back across the US border without a problem… We simply stated our purpose and presented our passports. The border guard waved us through with a smile. Thanks US.

Looks like CNN’s listening, or at least it’s on their radar. Let’s see how they tell the story, or better yet which story they decide to tell.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/29/evangelical.campaign/index.html

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.

It’s exciting to see folks interested in talking about this movie while still in production! Honestly, we’ve got suuuuuuuch a long way to go to really have this piece ready to show, but we’re honored to have people asking the hard questions about who we are and what we’re trying to accomplish with this film. On behalf of the 10 people currently in production on this movie, I’d like to thank the folks at Jesus Radicals for starting the dialog. Stop by and add to the conversation, and let us know if there are other forums and groups talking about these important topics!
Thanks so much for walking with us on the journey,
~jamie

The Ordinary Radicals Documentary forum on JesusRadicals.com

Hey family,

Holy crap this trip is so much fun! Driving 11,000 miles is a great way to meet amazing folks using faith as their fuel to lead remarkable lives and take action for what they believe in. I’m truly inspired by the people we’ve met so far and can’t wait to meet more! Let us know if you know of ordinary radicals that might be heading to any of the J4P events, we’d love to get ‘em in front of a camera and hear what they’re up to.

In other great news, I wanted to give you a heads up that our follow travelers in the Jesus For President veggie bus are blogging while on the road as well.

Check em out at: http://jesusforpresident.org/blog –we’ll be cross posting a bunch, but there’ll be great stuff there directly from Chris & Shane’s perspectives.