Wednesday, March 31, 2010

40559 Day 212

2_things


great meeting this morning with eric, mac, and nathan regarding a potential partnership between sojourn at umass and eric and mac's church.  we're trying to help them start an SAT tutoring class for students in the upham's corner (dorchester) area.  very exciting!


our newly multiplied community group is going really well.  i feel like we've found our rhythm now and i am so pleased with our 5 minutes/5 questions approach to the text that is helping us approach the text in a fresh way.  good stuff!

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

40459 Day 211


waldo

we attended a fund raiser for jon waldo tonight at the rattlesnake downtown.  great to see him gather his supporters (and potential supporters) and explain his passion for our mission here in the city.  it also reminded me that it was almost a year ago i did the same thing in the same place.  come a long way in a year! (ps. that's jon on the left)


Monday, March 29, 2010

40359 Day 210

askpursuelive


lots to process from today.  discipleship...the areas i lead...rain...gentrification...resident aliens...creating a peculiar people...how people change...the census...budgeting...and a bunch of other stuff.


so here's some of bobby's amazing work on some of our promo stuff.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

40259 Day 209


seder


we participated in our first seder tonight with some friends from the neighborhood.  rituals of deep significance plus a lot of laughs is always a great combination =)

40159 Day 208

good_story


i haven't posted much about quincy street recently.  this story comes via nathan.


"yesterday Willie shared with me that he was watching some of our kids play in the yard outside his house and after a moment he realized that they were playing church! They were each standing up in front of the others and asking, "what did you learn in Sunday School today?"! This story certainly warmed my heart and reminded me that in the midst of so much negative influence and so many impossible obstacles God's love shines through. He has provided hope in our neighborhood in the same way as he has in our own personal lives and it's so encouraging to see that!"

Friday, March 26, 2010

40059 Day 207

the_T


lots of time on public transportation today.  field's corner to kenmore (red to green).  kenmore to umass (green to red to shuttle bus).  umass to bu central (shuttle to red to green).  bu central to porter square (green to red).  davis square to field's corner.  whew!

Thursday, March 25, 2010

39959 Day 206

resident_aliens


finished this book this week.  excellent...maybe even top 10 excellent.  can't believe it is 20 years old!  completely relevant to today.  Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

39859 Day 205

good_stuff


community group tonight was awesome...no pictures though and i am needing to go to bed (despite being somewhat energized by our time together).  so i'm sharing our (amy and I) favorite song of the moment...enjoy =)

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

39759 Day 204

part_two


following up from yesterday's story...turns out our BU group meets at the same time and in the same room as the universalist/unitarian group.  they just hadn't been around the other two weeks we've met.


jon and i (mostly jon) struck up a conversation with two of the girls from the UU group and since none of their other members showed we invited them to join us.  and they did.  and they loved talking about character and story.


when it was over they said they would like to come back next week!  this is exactly what these campus expressions exist for.  these girls would likely never come to a church, or a Bible study, but they would love to talk to someone about whether they are living a good story with their lives.  another huge affirmation from last night.

Monday, March 22, 2010

39659 Day 203

quote_of_the_day

we continue to use some of the story language from a million miles to help explain the Ask.Pursue.Live. sojourn lingo for our on campus gathering at BU.  tonight we talked about character: a character is what he or she does...who are our favorite characters...what is it that they do that is so compelling (or repulsive)...and ultimately do our actual lives/character match up with the kind of story we want to tell.

billy, as an expression of his frustration over the fact that the life he wants to lead doesn't always match reality said this: "i want my life to be an action-adventure but it feel more like a social satire."

hilarious.

on a completely different note: please pray for our neighborhood...it is pretty clear that there has been some dealing going on in the park next to our house and that our street and the park are being watched closely.  when i left for BU tonight there was an unmarked police car in the street with all the doors open and the engine running and three detectives questioning and searching a dude right at the edge of the park.  been a crazy week.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

39559 Day 202

another_sunday

this is a random picture from leadership gathering the other night...nothing to do with today, i just like it.  

great morning of gatherings with reunion.  feeling more and more a part of the team there.  amy read some scripture this morning and we are both excited to be a part of the new follow up system.  

dinner tonight with QST crew was fun...good to be back over there.

now amy is reading me old emails i wrote (she opened a gmail account)...i sure was in to her early on...funny stuff =)

Saturday, March 20, 2010

39459 Day 201

beautiful_day


we've had a good run of awesome weather here in boston this last week.  here's a view of umass from our back porch which was a great place to hang out today!

Friday, March 19, 2010

39359 Day 200

leadership


sojourn leadership gathering tonight. played some telephone pictionary (never disappoints)...got to hear from bobby on james 4 and nathan on missional communities...plus good discussions and fun hanging out.  great night!


ps. 200 days!  going strong on project 365.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

39259 Day 199

blogs_and_stuff


...lost in the shuffle of all the excitement of yesterday...while umass is in spring break we've spent some time setting up our webpage and blog.  still both works in the progress but off to a good start!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

39159 Day 198

the_good_and_the_bad

the good: a few months ago amy applied for a scholarship through the American Physical Therapy Association.  the scholarship was for minority students who are in the final year of their program and who have demonstrated strong academics and a commitment to serving under-resourced communities.  amy applied, with some encouragement from her advisor, and today we found out that she had received the award!  aside from the money that comes with it, she will also be recognized at APTA's 2010 conference...wicked cool, way to go babe!

the bad: on a completely different note, for a while we have really been struggling with one of our neighbors.  there is a group of guys who hang out on the porch right next to ours (same floor), and smoke weed all the time.  they don't really cause any problems but they are a strong presence on the street and if nothing else it makes you sad to see them wasting their lives and time.  we've not really known how to connect with them at all...most of my waves and hellos have gone unheeded.  today 8-10 police cars showed up and raided the house...like you see on The Shield.  still not sure what exactly went down, or why, but something did and it was intense.  hope we find out more soon.  it seems like there is a lot going on in our neighborhood right now...prayer would be great.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

39059 Day 197

more_don...

ya'll are probably sick of posts referencing donald miller, story, a million miles, etc.  one more, humor me please!  i gave the book to ramon, my film making co-worker at sbux, before leaving for idaho.  as a story teller and film maker i wanted to see what he thought.  he's been tearing through it.  he said he hated it at first, mostly due to his aversion for "rules" that pertain to art, but when he got to jason's story (chapter 9 i think) everything changed.  his two younger brothers have gotten in to some trouble and even been to juvee.  he realized that he, and his family, have not been offering them a better story.  so ramon wants them to tell their story...they are going to make a film together and maybe enter in to some festivals like this one, and see if maybe the story telling process helps them move their stories forward in some positive ways.  how cool is that!

Monday, March 15, 2010

38959 Day 196

Tyrone


saw tyrone again (3rd time in boston), with stacey and amy (two tyrone veterans).  he's always great but the ending tonight seemed to mean a lot to everyone in the room (his rendition of "when all is said and done", acoustic, no mic, gives everyone major chills).  good stuff!





Sunday, March 14, 2010

38859 Day 195

fantasy_baseball


it all starts again tonight!  draft in a few minutes...

Saturday, March 13, 2010

38759 Day 194

dave_dravecky


ran in to this Giant's great this morning at the airport!  for those who don't know dave, here is a nice summary of his story.  very humble, nice guy...you never know who you're going to meet.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Thursday, March 11, 2010

38559 Day 192

idaho_pt_2


i realize i haven't explained what i am doing in idaho at all.  we're here (some of us from both sojourn and reunion) to learn from a church that is doing discipleship and small groups really well.  one of our "mother" organizations thought this would be a good experience for us (and they were probably right...despite my not so hot attitude about it).


anyway, every time i got to something like this i tend to run in to someone i know from some other chapter of my life.  i mentioned this off to one of the guys on the way in and not more than two minutes later i ran into will hoffman (svcc friend).  turns out he's on staff at this church now.  small world.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

38459 Day 191

idaho

we made it...here's the first thing we all did when we got here.  email our sleeping wives =)

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

38359 Day 190

alice


just got back from seeing alice in wonderland with amy and stacey.  pondering if i have "lost my muchness" or not.

Monday, March 08, 2010

38259 Day 189

official


official indeed.  we found out today that our application for a student organization was approved at UMASS-Boston.  i am so excited and relieved.  i have no doubt that we could have done some cool stuff with students even if our application was rejected but it is so good to be affirmed by the school, to see all of caleb's hard work pay off, and to have some more opportunities to get the word out about sojourn and hopefully connect people with our community.  furthermore, this should also put some energy behind an initiative we've been working on to pilot an SAT prep class for youth in our greater neighborhood area.  all of this is wonderful stuff and huge opportunity to tell a good story in a few different arenas.  big win!

Sunday, March 07, 2010

38159 Day 188


soccer


a few pics from our intense game this afternoon.  ok, maybe not that intense, but so good to be playing again!

Saturday, March 06, 2010

38059 Day 187

spring?

the day in a nutshell:

woke up...airport...sbux (b.fish gives us free drinks)...leadership community with reunion...convo with bob (good convo)...train ride home (good opportunity to catch up on some reading)...home...toilet fixed by landlord...watch office on hulu...walk with amy and stacey along the beach in south boston (photo is from walk)...short drive...shaws for snacks...home...shower...homemade pizza...dinner around table...movie and more snacks...time for bed.  good day

Friday, March 05, 2010

37959 Day 186


sisters


stacey is coming to town...bright and early.


woohoo!!!

Thursday, March 04, 2010

37859 Day 185

half_the_sky

lots to think about tonight after watching the "movie" event of half the sky.  this is a book (Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide) that has influenced amy's clinical instructor and amy has been reading it over the past several weeks and passing many of the stories on to me.  it was great to see some of the stories that are told in the book and gain a greater awareness of how important investing in women (and girls in particular) is to fighting global poverty.  lots of resources too...check this video out:

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

37759 Day 184

resident_aliens


no word yet from umass.  expect that tomorrow according to caleb.  speaking of caleb, we're reading this book together (Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony.  tim's been reading it and taking every opportunity to read it aloud to anyone who will listen =)  it's good stuff!  

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

37659 Day 183

half_way_top_five


day 183 means that i have made it past the halfway point of the 365 project.  5 interesting things from today:


1) article published on the association of collegiate ministries blog.  read it here or click on the link to the left.


2) tomorrow we (finally) find out what our status is at UMASS.  final request for prayer!


3) still buzzing a little bit from yesterday.


4) there is a baseball game tomorrow!


5) still infatuated with angels and airwaves.  free music!

Monday, March 01, 2010

37559 Day 182

first_day_on_campus
what a day! i'm a bit spent, so i don't have a ton of words...pictures will have to suffice.  nonetheless, what a fun, fun day on campus.  we passed out several books, had many wonderful conversations with students, and slowly are building the identity of sojourn at BU.  it was also a blast to see jon waldo, our graduate intern, do his thing and as he grows in to his position as a campus minister.