Obama & Biden held a rally in Fredericksburg yesterday. According to reports about 26,000 people showed up…and about 26 billion raindrops.

Jamie & I arrived at about 2:30, waiting in line for about and hour and a half and made our way into Ball Circle at the University of Mary Washington. Obama spoke about 7:00pm…it rained pretty much his entire speech. Needless to say, we were soaked, but the rally was good despite that. Below are some photos from this inspiring event.

I discovered “This I Believe“a while back while perusing a Cracker Barrel before Jamie & I left on a trip back to Indiana. We were looking for a book on Tape (err, CD) for the car ride and ran across a collection of “This I Believe”. We listened and fell in love.

This I Believe is a radio segment on NPR that allows people, in spoken essay form to articulate their beliefs in a 5 minute time slot. They accept essays from anyone and everyone, from house wives to intellectuals already known for their ideas. This series originally began by Edward R. Murrow in the 1950’s, and was picked-up again in recent years and new life breathed into it by Jay Allison.

There is something inspiring and deeply entrenching about listening about what other’s believe. The essayists’ statements are spurred by and smelted in the heat of life’s difficulties and passions. They are clear, and show a direction that I often wish I had. They aren’t dogmatic or a wrote creed. As much as I love and find solidarity the Christian creeds that I do believe, there is something about the crystalizing of personal experience and brings things home.

Reflecting on these beliefs makes me wonder what I really believe and how I, a) live my life b) how what I believe is actually lived out, and c) what do other people perceive as my beliefs based on how I live. I want to do a better job formulating my beliefs, maybe I’ll write an essay someday.

Check out This I believe and subscribe to the podcast:
www.thisibelieve.org

The nameless church is organizing a film screening and discussion as apart of our quazi-monthly Dia:Logos Series. Here is some info about the event.

The Wounded Bookshop
Friday, May 12 at 7:00pm
109 Amelia St.
Fredericksburg, VA 22401
view a map

Come and watch the award winning documentary, “The Corporation,” and stay for an interesting discussion on the good, the bad and the ugly of Corporations in America and the world.

At Dia:Logos, we value everyones opinion and encourage participants from diverse backgrounds to come and share their unique views. Dia:logos is a culturally relevant conversation series that we host on a quazi-monthly basis.

Get more information on the Film:
http://thecorporation.com

RSVP if you are intrested in attending

As always, check out our blog:
http://www.thenamelesschurch.com/

I read an article today about a politician in Ohio who was running for a local office. But, much to his chagrin, the election ended in a tie. To top it all off his two sons didn’t vote. So, if we were pointing fingers we could suggest that his son’s irresponsible lack of respect for their father and of their civic duty caused this electoral stale mate. However we’re forgetting about the hundreds, if not thousands of other people who didn’t vote in the same election. A Similar incident happened to a friend whose mom was running for a local office and lost by a handful of votes, and finding out that a few of our friends didn’t vote. They are not on trial, though. Rather, this does illustrate a good life principle: the power of the few… That a few people/things/etc. can make a big difference. I think this is in the Tipping Point somewhere…Sorry, Mr. Gladwell for stealing this.

I had to remind myself of this while sleeping in on the cold, damp ground of John Marshall Park in D.C. last weekend. That 60,000+ people made the decision to do the same thing I did and that hopefully, a few hundred members of press and the government listened…not just to our sleeping (or lack thereof), but to the pain of the children of Northern Uganda.

Ok, so that is macro living—big, you know. But i forget all the time that my life is made up of little chunks, little decisions—micro living. Everyday microlving: when I decide to get up in the morning, how I react to people I work with, how i love Jamie, what i eat, what my time is used for, how I choose to experience or not experience God.

I suspect that my micro living choices are the things that make my macro living more…well, macro. That if I love those around me better, eat better, etc. that if I live better in the small things, I might pave the way for bigger and better things.

From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. Luke 12:48

The Global Night Commute was really an amazing experience. We (Chris,My fiance - Jamie, Jamie J., Jimmy, Jack and Daniel) met up in Fredericksburg yesterday at about 4:00 to head up to D.C. for a night’s stay at John Marshall Park in D.C. It was really cold and very unsleepable., but if I can miss one night of sleep to help end the war in Northern Uganda, then that is what I needed to do.

If you have not seen Inivisible Children yet, you have to. It is a documentary about the victims of the war, the Children of Northern Uganda.

• My photos of the Global Night Commute
• Check out Chris’ audio blog from the Global Night Commute
  

Yes, that is me being interviewed on D.C.’s Channel 9 News at 11. No, my name is not Bobby Bailey, my name is Ian Soper, who according to the video is a teenage girl. Thanks for uploading the video to MySpace, Chris.

I’m leaving in a couple of hours to head up to D.C. for the Global Night Commute. This is will be a powerful event that will hopefully push the U.S. into making effort to ending the war in Northern Uganda. You may have heard of this if you saw the Invisible Children filmmakers on Oprah the other day. Their documentary is an eye opening and powerful look at the war that is going on their and the children that fear abdcution, death and a horrific life at the hands of the rebels day in and day out.

I’ll be trying to blog about this through out the night tonight on the nameless church blog. Check it out tomorrow.

My good friend Ryan just created a very cool video and has posted it on MySpace and YouTube. Check it out.

I found an interesting new technology that being marketed in the UK. It is a power generator that utilizes the energy that we are already using, our cars.

Ramp creates power as cars pass

Basically they are small ramps that are installed on roads (most likely on highway roads, not town or street roads, that is my guess at least). When the car drives over it generates electrcity, between 5 - 50Kw of it. Apparently this “is silent, comfortable and safe for vehicles.”

I love this passive power generation. Will people go for more of these, less intrusive, passive ways of generating alternative engergy? I hope so.

I personally would love the idea of roads filled with fuel cell, solar and hybrid cars, made of recylced materials, driving to their homes that are powered by the recylced energy from that same trip.

Let’s use energy smarter and not harder.