Andrew Howe
About Mission Year
Mission Year is a year long urban ministry program focused on Christian service and discipleship. We take teams of young people, place them in an area of need, and help them to serve people and create community. We are committed to the command of Jesus to “love God and love people,” by placing the needs of our neighbors first and developing committed disciples of Christ with a heart for the poor. Learn more about our first year program…
Andrew Howe's Blog
Mad Farmer Liberation Front / Feb 25, 09:39 AM
The longer I’m here, the more I identify with this classic (well, at least I think it should be a classic by now). Especially in light of the contrast between the political debates and the devastated lives here, I can’t help but feel a bit revolutionary as I walk these streets with no money in my pockets.
Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion – put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.
Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” from The Country of Marriage, copyright © 1973 by Wendell Berry
October's Newsletter / Nov 2, 10:31 AM
Friends & Family,
October has been a very full month. Having started our official service work, the team and I have battled a cold (as a team), met a whole lot of neighbors, played with the local kids, and started to understand what life in New Orleans is all about. Although a few setbacks have slowed things, our house is nearly ready for us to move in, and we’re eager to be able to spend more time around the neighbors we’ve been developing friendships with.
Our commissioning service was this Sunday—a time set aside to commit ourselves to one another and to the program we’ve chosen for this year, now that we have had a chance to get a feel for how much will be required of us. It’s really exciting to be living with a team of people who are willing to put themselves in difficult places along with me (even though we don’t know everything that is coming). We are learning that we each have our own way of looking at things, and thanks to our different service sites we’re all bringing different insights home every day.
My community development work is well underway, and most of my days have been spent preparing to hit the streets with both a physical building structure inventory as well as a study of the needs of our neighbors in the community. In about two weeks, we should be going door-to-door putting together a detailed picture of how a 31 block area of the central city neighborhood is doing after Katrina. The hope is that this information will allow Urban Impact and other organizations to do a good job of redeveloping the area.
Next Thursday, I will start teaching a digital media class to the students at Urban Impact’s alternative high school once a week. The school got the money to purchase a whole lab of new Mac laptops this summer, and they have barely had the chance to teach the students to use them. I’ve developed the first few projects for the students, and I’m pretty excited to see what happens when the students are charged with tasks like writing music and creating music videos.
While I have visible achievements to talk about and more to anticipate, there is something much more important going on behind the scenes. I am learning how to have conversations with groups of people I have never been able to relate to. I’m finding relationships with people who have endured far more difficulties than I, who in many cases have emerged far more joyful than I. Through these friendships, I’m finding God’s continual desire to grow me in many ways I could not experience in a more comforting location. There are certainly setbacks and difficulties I would not have chosen, but in enduring these distractions it seems I find myself closer to Christ; more clear about why I’m here. It seems incredibly appropriate that commissioning happened just this month, as I am now feeling the weight of what God is growing in me. While I still can’t say what precisely that is, I can feel the growth, see new gifts emerge, and am growing in my ability to trust the goodness of this call. I’m thankful for this journey, and I anticipate that I have not yet felt the full force of the ways I am growing.
There are quite a few prayer needs in my life right now, both here and elsewhere. While there isn’t enough time to go into detail, please remember these names in your prayers: Patrick, Greg, Aline, Willie, Joan, the Branch family, Hannah, Charity, Melody, Daniel, Rebecca, and of course the rest of my team—Jen, Matt, Ben and Lacey.
I am incredibly blessed to have so many who are behind me with prayers and insights—thank you for your continual support and encouragement.
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September's Update / Sep 25, 11:33 AM
They’re here! It’s been just over a week since the rest of my team arrived, and we have had plenty of time to bond (and stretch). There are plenty of new things to work on and be thankful for (I’m starting to anticipate a never-ending list of these things).
I’m blessed to say that in terms of pledges, I’ve nearly reached ¾ of what Mission Year has requested I raise. If I haven’t had a chance to thank you personally, expect word soon- I’ve been very busy but have not forgotten you all! Considering how easily this first bit of fund rais-ing has gone, I know this means I can raise a whole lot more. I feel like I’m working off of a strong foundation of friends and family—helping with the finances really does energize me (even though I hate asking for money). So, please keep those pledge payments coming— and consider contributing if you haven’t already. For those of you who are on the donor list, an-ticipate a real old-fashioned note or phone call sometime soon!
It is difficult to know where to start. In the last week, I’ve been through four different states, walked my neighborhood with the team (without getting lost), traveled from the grocery store with a week’s worth of food on a bus, and attended Castle Rock Community Church for the first time (I even slept in there somewhere, too). In the mix of all this moving around and getting acquainted, though, we have seen the beginning of relationships with our soon-to-be neighbors. We have already experienced some of the discouragement brought by the reali-ties of the neighborhood (disrepair, drugs, and the neglect of the city)—but encouraged and charged by meeting neighbors who are glad to see we’re moving in (and promise barbecue).
After a week training with all of the rest of the Mission Year teams at a farm near Atlanta, the team returned to our temporary housing, “The Yellow House,” where we have been cooking meals, walking the neighborhood, and taking on more training. Because of the state of our permanent house, the team and I are waiting in The Yellow House until mid-October when Urban Impact (a charity run by our church, Castle Rock) finishes rebuilding. Thankfully, the yel-low house is only a block from our primary service site and spiritual home, Castle Rock Church. I have enjoyed the walks around the neighborhood and short conversations with our neighbors, and can’t wait to get started at my service sites in just a few weeks.
Pray for our safety in the neighborhood, strong relationships with each other, and patience as we wait for a permanent dwelling and solidified work positions. The decision-making process on service sites may be a difficult one for some of us, so please pray for that, too. Thanks so much for all of your encouragement and prayers. I’m excited to see where the year takes us. I can’t wait to tell you more as October rolls around!
Big News! / Jul 27, 11:27 PM
I have my assignment.
I will be spending the year in New Orleans. News came to me late this evening, so I haven’t had a lot of time to process. It makes things much more real to know where I will be, it seems pretty concrete now.
I’ve also been asked to be a team captain for New Orleans. So far I can’t find any reason why not to. While this will increase how much of a stretch the first few months will be, it will definitely be worthwhile experience.
I have far too much to leave behind. As I sit amongst a pile of generally useless stuff, I can see Christ’s call for us to live simply as incredibly good advice. If we are to move around to where we are called, life will be a lot easier if we just trust that our needs will be met, and not hoard things.
New Orleans is essentially a new mission year site. Though some program alumni were in the city last year, this will be the first year that first-timers will be in the city. Among other things, this means that the communities we will be moving into have not experienced the presence of Mission Year kids on the scale that they soon will.
By now, it should seem straighforward to you all that this project is about relationships. Between team members, between teams and communities, between neighbors, we need to be developing Christ-filled, depth-seeking relationships. Pray for the growth of all of us. Whether or not we anticipate it, both the senders and the receivers are about to experience a major stretch.
I hope that, despite our limitations, the team I’m about to join will be able to contribute something worthwhile, and remain open to receiving what God has for us to learn and experience in New Orleans. Please pray with me as we prepare to meet unthinkable situations, unique faces, and unquenchable needs.
My heart is being pulled in a lot of different directions as I prepare. Charity will be leaving on Monday to go home for a bit, and I will visit her for a few days in Michigan on my way to California for a week right before I fly for ‘Norlans. While we can confirm that God is calling us toward this year of distance, knowing how to leave space and remain connected is pretty difficult.
I am facing a lot of new things that I never thought I’d know how to do. As it turns out, I was right :-P. Thankfully, God has seen me (and quite a few others) through some of these blind corners, and I have some confidence (at least for now) to ride on. Pray for that too.
I think that’s all the thoughts I have for now. I’ll update as I find out more :-P.
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Building up... / Jul 6, 09:51 AM
It’s difficult to know where to start with my first post. I just graduated, the summer has been long and tiring thus far (I’m not cut out for retail), and while I am certainly looking forward to Mission Year, there’s still a lot to be worked out. When should I quit my job so I can go visit home before I leave? How much stuff should I store, how much to throw away, how much to sell?
It is becoming clear, however, what a blessing it will be to work with Mission Year. I’m currently living in an edgy neighborhood, but I don’t really have a “team” to help me branch out safely and make a clear image (plus I won’t be staying long). I have a job in which I want to develop real relationships with customers… but that’s pretty difficult to do with anywhere between 2 minutes and an hour with each of them. While I don’t anticipate it will all be easy, I can welcome the difficulties of really taking part in an inner city community in light of the meaningful impact I might have.
Last night I had a wonderful time, walking back from the train station around 11:30, experiencing the neighborhood as it was quiet (while still on edge for anyone passing through), praying for its growth. It’s fascinating to wonder what these inner city communities would be like with more connections to the outside world, and a mix of the right resources.
The transition still looms. If you’re reading this, you should pray for that. Charity (the girlfriend) and I are likely to have a few confusing months very soon, and it’s hard to know what tools we will need to survive the journey. I’m not sure how we will adjust to having so little time, how I will organize my thoughts… or even how I’m going to move in! It’s hard to wait!
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