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updates_and_thoughts
in no particular order:
1) on thursday Northeastern goes before the Student Government for our final approval to become an RSO (registered student organization) at that campus. pray for us!
2) finished A Band of MiSFits...thoroughly enjoyed reliving the Giants' run to the World Series title last year.
3) speaking of baseball, check out BaseballMonk whenever you get a chance...our "viewership" is ever increasing over there and it continues to be a fun outlet. btw: 2 days until the season starts!
4) amy and i are now both back in boston, together, for the indefinite future. the last two weeks saw us traveling apart from each other (i went to KY with students and she went to NC for a PT conference). both trips were good but it is GREAT to be back together. this has been the most time we've spent apart since we were married. funny story: i used to think one of the hardest parts about being married would be sleeping in the same bed (i am a sprawler =), but i do not sleep as well by myself now which is an interesting discovery.
5) also finished Love Wins...i defer to Eugene Peterson' comment on the book: it's about elevating our conversation and expanding our imagination.
6) much time is being spent towards ending the semester well with students and setting ourselves up for what should be an incredible fall!
7) very much looking forward to the weather warming up.
8) should have a post up by the end of the week on Manning Up and its implications for the church and collegiate ministry.
that's it for now...
tutoring
this completely hilarious picture was taken last night at our first "real" gathering of students and tutors at St. Mary's in Dorchester (St. Mary's is where we had our recent ReadRetreatServe and with whom Sojourn has been developing a partnership over the last year). St. Mary's has been a focal launch point for Episcopal City Tutoring. our students at UMASS-Boston have jumped on this program and are helping run a supplemental aspect of the tutoring curriculum over the next ten weeks.
this has been a long time coming for us and it is encouraging to see these UMASS students stick around long enough to see their faithfulness and hard work rewarded. i am also really impressed with the high school students we get to work with (two of whom you can see on the right...the others bailed on the picture!). these are some driven, hard working, ambitious young people!!
it's going to be exciting to watch this develop and I am eager to see this great group of people work together (although it is pretty clear we struggle to make a good picture happen).
storytelling
last week 11 staff and students spent the week in lexington, ky, working alongside the Fuller Center for Housing. we helped rehab two homes on the boston court (nice!) block of the shawnee neighborhood.
aside from the work done on houses the week served as an experiment in telling better stories for our students. i loved watching them jump into this experience completely and was blown away by their enthusiasm for each other and for better stories.
there are so many things i could share, but i will narrow it down to two: first, i have never seen a more mature group of students on a trip of this nature. i was continually humbled by the grace they extended to us (as staff), each other, and in the midst of difficult circumstances (we had some bad weather and some REALLY hard work). no trip is conflict free, and that is not the goal, but the way in which these students responded to each challenge demonstrated a maturity beyond their years. and i am super impressed by each one of them.
second, i have never seen a group of students so genuinely interested in each other. no one turned the tv on all week. no one got lost on their computer or their phone. even on the long ride home, when it would have made total sense to sleep or put the headphones in and tune out, they continued to ask each other questions and engage one another with genuine curiosity. they loved each other well and respected each other, and as a result there was a lot of space to explore relationships and God's movement through each other. truly amazing to watch.
thank you to those who were praying for us during the week. here are a few more pics:
what_i'm_doing_this_week
spring break = road trip! this week (tomorrow through next saturday) i'll be down with some of our students in Louisville, KY on the Fuller Center's Derby City Build. Pray that this would be a formative moment for our students, for me, and for our ministry. pics and updates when i return!
pics from umass-boston this week.
layers (friday_reflections)
i think that if you do life right you spend your first 25 years accumulating layers, the next 25 peeling those layers away, and the last however many years you live just letting it all hang out.
this is a gross oversimplification, but i do think the central idea is true: maturity is all about delayering, if you will.
maybe another way of putting it is this. i think we equate maturity with more: more patience, more kindness, more joy, more love.
but i would argue maturity is about less busyness, less attatchment to things, less clutter (physically and spiritually).
i can sense already some push back to this "negative" stance (sounds too buddhist!). but i think scripture supports this (for example and for another) and i know my experience certainly does.
the delayering for me began with marriage (in my humble opinion it has to start here, if it hasn't already, or you are in for a short marriage). then it became vocational. then it started to affect the way i dress, which is pretty superficial...
...but i can feel it getting deeper and deeper. soul delayering. i know that i am in the middle of a moment of significance in my story but i can't put my finger on what that means quite yet. i do know that it feels like getting rid of layers. that i am identifying less and less with external sub-cultures and other markers, and more and more with inner convictions.
so there's that. more later.
