you are quoted as saying

“The Obama campaign tapped me to campaign with them and I would have never done that before.”

But I am fairly sure I have audio of you saying you campaigned for John Kerry. I think it was when you called into a radio show called Key Life ministries or something, and the conservative host jokingly called you a “pinko communist.” So did you campaign for Kerry?

Not that I care. Just seems to be an incorrect statement.

I’ve been doing missionary work in Nepal for the last 2 and a half months. I’ve got 2 weeks to go and I’m, starting to feel the burnout of intense third world travel. I’m also starting to fear returning back to the States due to the huge gap in culture and living conditions. My nice comfy futon seems like a king’s bed in relation to the straw mats and bus seats that have often been my bed.

At any rate, Blue Like Jazz is one of my favorite books and I’ve been anticipating reading it again when I got home. Much to my surprise, I found it in a used bookstore in downtown Pokhara. Your book in a hole in the wall bookstore in the middle of Nepal, go figure.

Feel free to look at my blog if you get bored. I plan on writing a book, or essay, or something inspired by my trip. I’m sure you get the “Hey Dan, check out my (fill in the blank)” often. So just check it out if you get bored.

Grace and peace

I think true comics can rock you without having to drop too many F-bombs and Porno slapstick. I did not mind giving Nick $18 but knowing that Porno King and F-Girls got some of my money chills me with a bad chill. It’s 3 days later and I am still laughing at Nick.

Hello Folks:
My name is Jeff Campbell. I’m involved in leadership in a church in Massachusetts. I’m also a Special Education Teacher. I work with emotionally disturbed adolescents. As a Christian and an educator, your amazing work resonates with me on lots of levels.

We are making some plans for the summer. It appears that at this time you are only partnering with churches in your area. Is this correct?

A sermon series this summer that the pastor will be leading us through is on “The Shack.” As you may know, this book contains themes of abondonment by fathers and how this plays out in our relationship with God the Father. This seems like a point of connection to what you all are doing.

We are very much in the planning stages for this and I am not yet in a position to have much in the way of details. I’m looking for any guidance or suggestions that you all might have for me to share with the leadership team.

Yours in Christ,
Jeff Campbell

I wonder how many lives you have changed with Blue Like Jazz? I am sure hundreds of people have told you stories of how they were influenced by your book. Maybe it will be redundant for you if I thank you for your life changing words, but I still want to thank you all the same.

When I used to believe in God, in my heart something felt wrong. Now I think maybe I didn’t believe in God, maybe I was pretending – going through the motions. I will never know the truth of what I actually believed back then, but I do know that whatever it was, things are different now. I know that the joy and happiness and love and acceptance that I know now as God was not the same God I used to know. The God I know now is real and truthful and makes me want to dance. And that came from reading your book, Don.

But that all happened quite a while ago, and that is not what made me want to write this to you. What made me want to write this was that I gave Blue Like Jazz to my older sister, the person in the world that I am closest to and love more than anything. Her happiness makes me happy. When I gave her the book for Christmas I didn’t tell her how much the book did for me, I just gave it to her with hope and faith that it would speak to her as it did to me. I have been waiting since December for her to read it, and I was worried it would never happen. She finally called me today because she started reading it only a week ago. And we talked for a long time. And it was weird and wonderful because we have never talked about those things before. And she cried, and for the first time she feels beautiful in God’s eyes. She says that she thought of how much she and I love each other, and how God must love her even more than that, and Don, she finally feels worthy of being loved.

Thank you, Don. Thank you so much for helping God find us and so many others.

-Elizabeth

I guess you didn’t need to know that really, but there ya go, such is life