A couple weeks ago, one of my housemates and I decided to get some pizza and share it with some guys who we’ve seen sleeping out around City Hall here in Camden. To be honest, I only went because Jason invited me along; I wasn’t particularly excited. I just did it because I didn’t have much else to do. In fact, I was a bit afraid. I’d tried before to meet these fellows and they were pretty uninterested in me. …
We started planning for our neighborhood Christmas party over two weeks ago. One night we made dozens of invitations with construction paper, glue, markers and crayons for neighbors on our block, people from our church, people we work with, the nuns who live a couple blocks away and a few homeless people: nearly 50 people in all. When it comes to snacks, we definitely decided to err on the side of leftovers. On the savory side, we had three different …
A lot has been happening. Last week, all of the Mission Year teams in our area had a commissioning service. We had been here for nearly two months, so we all made a ceremonial decision to committ to our year together. It was a beautiful service and it helped me to feel closely bonded not just to the people I’m living with, but with the other thirteen people in the Philly area as well. We may not share all that …
Last Tuesday we moved into our new house. We live right across from an elemtary school and just a couple blocks from our church. Our neighbors are wonderful and my housemates and I are getting to know each other better with each day. I’m excited to learn from my neighbors and journey through this year with them. Tweet
It’s taken a few weeks, but we’re finally starting to get to business here in Camden. I came to Philly three weeks ago and spent a week getting to know the other team leaders and Caz, our city director. It was a wonderful time. Once the rest of our housemates came, we took a trip to a farm outside of Atlanta where we camped for a week and had some orientation with all of the Mission Year team members and …
I’m leaving this morning; soon enough I’ll be doing instead of planning, which will be a welcome change of pace. Thanks to all of you who have prayed for me, encouraged me, donated money and asked questions. I’ve been moved to tears more than once over the past couple weeks, as I’ve felt your prayers and counted my blessings. I hope you’ll continue to be my partner throughout this crazy year. Tweet
“Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” James 2:17 I don’t want a dead faith or even a nice, healthy faith. I want a faith that never stops growing. As I close my eyes to go to sleep each night, I want to be able to recognize the specific ways that my faith has grown that day, and I want to question how I ever survived with the mere faith I had the day before. …
