Participant: Field Notes from Here and Now

The author sets off to pay attention to realities seen and unseen and discovers that he is surrounded by gifts. "I am an observer, a collector of raw data... I sometimes make assumptions that turn out to be incorrect, inferences that are premature. Yet, I have a responsibility to offer interpretation. I am a hermeneut, one who has come across a treasure map and has no other choice but to discover sign and report to others what I find."

Participant will make explorers out of each of us and will prompt us to look differently at the familiar and the unknown. This is a call to be curious about the world and about God with the biblical text as a regular part of the conversation. "I make no apology for talking about bears and bugs, about mountains and oceans, about soil and skies, about people and calendar in the same conversation with the biblical text... the fact is, I can no longer stare into the sky or dig in the garden or talk to anyone without thinking about the text. And I can no longer read the text without thinking about places and situations and people that I will discover on any given day."

These colorful and lyrical "field notes" highlight mysteries that become tangled with ordinary experiences and take us into places dangerous and glorious while putting us in the company of wonder and causing us to say "Wow."

Randy Saultz is a graduate of Ohio Christian University and Ashland Theological Seminary. He has worked as pastor and therapist. Randy enjoys reading, the outdoors, and making observations about how the details of our lives become tangled into a larger story than we first imagined.