Saturday, March 28, 2009

17359

i've mentioned a couple of times how cool our community group experience has been here in boston with reunion.  so, i thought i'd introduce (with permission) three of our new/good friends.

jenna...grew up outside of buffalo, ny.  she went to college in ny as well, at a small christian college.  she moved to boston this summer, after graduating, to join the AmeriCorps program City Year.  it has been a difficult year of transition for her as she has had to deal with some intensely personal issues surrounding her identity.  it would have been super easy for her to check out of everything, but she has stayed very much engaged in our community group.  she calls our group "the highlight of her week," and has grown fascinated with the concept of community.  her struggles this year have taken her away from City Year, but she has recently made the decision to stay in boston for another year and serve in some capacity that helps her more fully understand the vision for community that she is developing.

caleb...is a local from the Dot (shorthand for dorchester).  he grew up in the church but essentially gave up on christianity after high school when he joined the navy.  after doing his four years he has returned to dorchester and is attending Umass-Boston (which is five minutes away from our house).  since coming back to boston he has reengaged Jesus and the church.  it's been fantastic to watch him grow so much in the past four or five months.  he loves scripture and genuinely cares for the other people in our group.  he has also agreed to be my apprentice (kind of a small group leading in training sort of thing), which i am stoked about!

kaitlin...another sort-of-local (quincy, one town over) just graduated from the University of Delaware and moved home.  she is from a self-professing atheist family.  the first sunday she visited reunion she white-lied and told her parents she was "going out" because she was too afraid to tell them she was going to church =).  needless to say, the concepts of following Jesus, church, community groups, and reading scripture is all new to her and she shares some of the freshest perspectives and best questions with us every week.  she also has struggled with the "post-college" transition and seems to take real joy in having a group of friends, even weird, community group friends!  

we'd love it if you would continue praying for our community group and the life change that is happening there.  i know jenna, caleb, and kaitlin would appreciate it!

peace 

Monday, March 16, 2009

17259

many links...

thanks to everyone who responded to last week's post.  one of my jobs this week is to get the first prayer update out to people.  if you didn't get a chance to read it, scroll down or click here

sarah's baby came...many update and pics will likely be found here soon

we had a party for our very cool community group.  check out this video to see/learn more.

and check out the generous boston website (though our church: reunion), most excellent!

also, kaitlin, from our community group, who is new to following jesus has a video on the page as well.  check it out here!

finally, amy has a new post and it is amazing...read it here

Saturday, March 07, 2009

17159 big_decisions_&_new_life_directions

i've been teasing out big family news for a while now. sorry for the delay.  i also realize that sarah is going to have a baby at any moment, news which may trump this post (for good reason).  nonetheless, now is the time to fill everyone in on our plans.

big decision #1
we have decided to stay in boston for the foreseeable future.  at one point we thought/planned on leaving when amy was done with school, but we feel like the city is really becoming home and we want to stay.  so stay we will!

big decision #2
and this is the main thrust of this post: we have decided to go on staff with sojourn collegiate ministry (well, steve is going on staff, officially, but amy is pretty into it too).  many details, regarding what this will look like and what we'll be doing, are still falling into place.  however, i thought i'd share something i wrote for our fundraising materials to provide a bit of insight in to our vision for this opportunity:

"We feel that living in the unique urban environment of Boston provides us with an amazing opportunity to use our gifts to serve the Kingdom of God. On the one hand, Boston boasts many of the finest institutions of higher education and some of the richest history our country has to offer. On the other, Boston also struggles with some of our nations darker historical realities, such as class and racial inequality, and failing public schools, which leave many of its own sons and daughters without access to its colleges and universities. Boston is the least and the greatest, the haves and the have-nots, often times separated by nothing more than a train track or a freeway.

Is there a way to bridge these worlds that so often feel too far apart? We believe that there is. This is why we choose to intentionally live in the forgotten neighborhoods of Boston. It is why we serve students at Boston University and the other schools around the city. We hope to be living examples of an integrated, kingdom lifestyle and to inspire students to experiment with and aspire to similar life commitments."

i hope that vision resonates with you at some level and that you will commit to praying for me and amy and the sojourn team as we work together to make this happen.  i'll be sending out emails to people i hope will partner with us in prayer, but if you already know you want in leave a comment, or send me an email (rmps59@yahoo.com) or facebook message, and you will begin to receive handy updates on a regular basis.  

also, questions are more than welcome!  thank you everyone, especially those of who have been reading and praying with me here for a long time...you are much appreciated.

(ps - 3909 - check out this article for an idea of the needs in the part of the country)

Sunday, March 01, 2009

17059

at some point early in my sophomore year of college someone gave me a cd (probably kevin) by this band called jimmy eat world.  i had never heard of them at the time.  the album was called clarity.  it quickly became one of my favorites and served as a soundtrack for some of the momentous occasions of my life over the next couple of years.  clarity both defined the "emo" sound of the late nineties/early 2000's and was, in my opinion, a cut above other efforts by bands such as the get up kids, juliana theory, and the promise ring

that was in 1999.

it's now 2009 and the band decided to do a 10 city/10 show tour where they honored the 10 year anniversary of the album by playing the whole thing live.  great idea, right?  right!

except it's made me feel old.  a ten year anniversary tour for a band and an album that i fell in love with in college!!! yikes.

the worst part was that there were modern day college students at the show.  which means most of them were, oh, ten or eleven at the time the album came out.  sheesh.

so, all that to say, it's been a week of contemplation and reflection on the last ten years.  i'd like to think i've come a long way from all the angst over girls, what i'm going to do with my life, who am i going to be, etc, that defined me in 1999.  i think i might actually be growing up a little bit.