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sports thoughts...

- the red sox have their work cut out for them this october to pull off the repeat, but it's going to be fun to be here while they try.

- the giants will likely to do one dramatic thing this off season (no sure yet what it's going to be)

- i finished second in my yahoo winner's league.  this is a small miracle considering the hole i got myself in during the may-june stretch of neglect my team experienced.  my two great regrets on the season: i contemplated adding carlos quentin to my opening day roster and i didn't...i ended up trading for him much later in the season...could have had him for free.  also, i had ryan ludwick for a day in april and then dropped him...and he went on to have a ridiculous season.  if i had kept those two guys, i might have pulled off the repeat!  nonetheless, i still won my college buddies' league for the second year in a row.

- the premier league is off and running and arsenal is once again at the top of the standings...and once again we'll see if they can actually stay there this year.

- usc broke our hearts this week =(  otherwise, i don't really care about football.

- amy and i got to go to a Revolution game this saturday.  so much fun!  (mls soccer for those who are wondering).  if anyone wants to help kick in for season tickets for '09 let me know (only 700-900 bucks).

peace

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boston observations

- the radio stations play lots of 90's music...lots of it...pearl jam, nirvana, sublime, red hot chili peppers, etc, etc.

- this is the most humid place i've ever lived (also the weather here is crazy in general...even more so than colorado)

- lots of bad drivers

- many excellent places to eat

- good/interesting public transportation

- not very mexican friendly

- sports=life...not just the fact that the teams are really good (which they are), there are a lot of active people (running, biking, hiking) too

- people who live in cambridge and beacon hill (and places like that) are essentially disconnected from life in dorchester/roxbury/jamaica plain

- people don't know how to say "oregon" and also say a lot of other word weird too

- dreyers=edy's

- the red line is way faster than the green

- the mayor's name is on everything

- there are a lot of huge catholic churches

- sprinkles (that one would put on ice cream) are called "jimmies"

- people definitely dress differently than in california...and that's not because of the weather...it's hard to describe, but it is kind of fun to make fun of (for example: pink polo shirts with popped collars)

- there aren't many old people in the city

- the roads have tolls (lame) and the streets are not always clearly marked (frustrating)

...and a bunch of other stuff, but i think that's it for now.

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so, something that's been difficult about living in the city has been dealing with the reality of "hollerin'"...this is a phenomenon where a male will "holla" at a female using a variety of methods including words, whistles, and body gestures.  the goal is to let the female know that she is physically appealing to the male.  awesome.

consider the following examples:

1) tiffany, my TA at Bird Street, gets "holla'd" at every time we take the kids outside.  it's pretty ridiculous, and she has a good sense of humor about it, it's become somewhat of a running joke, but is still totally inappropriate...do these guys not see the 20+ kids running around and realize that maybe then is not the time?  then, and this is not funny to me, one of the parents called her on our school phone to ask her out.  

2) on sunday, walking home from church, some dude yells at me: "hey man, your girlfriend's beautiful."  i said, "that's my wife, knock it off!!!"  and then he had a bunch of other things to say, most of which i didn't hear as he was (luckily) on the other side of the street.  and he was probably only 16!  what the heck.  amy was grateful for the "protection" but also glad i didn't get punched in the face.

3) i've even seen at starbucks on charles street (a very different area of boston!)...our manager had to ask a guy to leave because of some of the things he was saying to my co-worker abby.

all this in the span of one week.  i'm sure most, probably all, the female can offer their own examples, i've just been a little overwhelmed with the concentration of incidents here in the last couple of days.

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- wrapping up my first week of "full-time" work between starbucks and bird street...it's been busy but fun: learning drinks, getting to know the kids, seeing two very different parts of boston.  it's tiring but i am enjoying it.

- tomorrow we'll be with the quincy street gang.  check out our friend kim's blog.  she had some fun stuff related to quincy street on there.

- also, you could, dear readers, pray for amy and i as we attempt to make a rather large life decision.

- last: i really, really, really dislike the back and forth sniping between presidential camps (all in the name of "campaigning"), but in the middle of that both candidates do have some insightful things to say (you have to do some sifting, but after a while you find gold).  anyway, here's Obama on the community organizing comments that got me riled up (just click on the thumbnail):

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some updates and thoughts after a busy week...

- school has started which means i have officially begun my work as the site coordinator for one of bird street's after school programs.  i am at the nathan hale elementary school and it's already a bit crazy.  one of my TA's got a different job yesterday, so i'm understaffed right off the bat.  also, i feel like we have not been prepared well at all.  i am struggling with finding a balance between "humble new guy in a different culture," and "knowing a 100 better ways to run this program."

- furthermore, the decision was made a few weeks ago to make all site-coordinators part time (26 hours a week)...i am discovering that this might not be enough hours to actually do this job well!  nonetheless, it also isn't enough hours to meet our household budgetary requirements so i have been searching for other jobs.  a good possibility would be to sub at a high school down the street from the elementary school...however, that vision may not be realized for weeks, if not months, due to the extremely slow moving behemoth that is the Boston Public Schools.  so, i will be donning an apron starting monday, and embarking on yet another random job in a long line of random jobs: starbucks barrista!

- amy and i have a lot of cool church opportunities developing as well.  we are strengthening our connection to the quincy street/sojourn community that live close by and we are really excited about some of the relationships forming there.  we are going on a leadership retreat with them (sojourn) this weekend.  we also will be leading a small group through reunion starting up in a couple of weeks.  the community pastor has been heavily recruiting me to help with many aspects of small groups in reunion.  finally, hank, the lead pastor, and i have been able to connect and he invited me to a church planting forum at the end of the month, so that should be fascinating!

- finally, i've been following the convention(s) coverage in an attempt to be well-rounded and well-informed.  i'm afraid it's just making me more cynical.  all this talk of change and non-partisan/bi-partisan politics and it sure feels like business-as-usual to me.  like i said, i'm trying to be open to both sides in order to make a well-informed decision (as a registered independent i'm a coveted voter in this election!), but i have to say the republicans turned me off big time when they started dissing Obama's community organizer background.  do they not know what a community organizer does?  certainly there are legitimate questions about his "lack" of experience, but to me this shows just how far out of touch republicans are with the inner-city.  yikes!

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- a small world story...

thursday i was sitting in a coffee shop on newbury street talking with someone from church.  in the middle of the conversation he paused and slyly nodded towards another table.  "i think that guy is reading a christian book," he told me.  i looked over, half expecting to see Blue Like Jazz or something by Rob Bell, but it turned out to be Responsible Stewardship of God's Creation by Ken Gnanakan.  Ken is the founder of ACTS ministries in Bangalore, India, a ministry I visited a couple of years ago (amy has been there as well), and long time partner with SVCC.  apparently, the fellow reading the book heard Ken speak at Gordon-Conwell and is fascinated by what he is doing in India.  Ben, my new friend, and I are having coffee on tuesday.  nice!  

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- not a well thought out post, so bear with me...

- camp is over!  it was a lot of fun, but i am ready to transition in the school year program.  however, as i make this transition i've had some time to reflect on the summer and some of my early observations from living in dorchester and working at bird street.  i find that as far as work goes, i oscillate between hope and despair often...

- for example, this week, for the first time all summer justin's dad came to pick him up from camp.  normally his aunt takes him home, but, for whatever reason, on this day his dad came and the kid was pumped.  justin has struggled all summer with choosing his words well, especially when he gets frustrated.  i have talked to him several times about which words are acceptable while at bird street and which words are not.  so, it was incredibly discouraging when his dad rolled up in his escalade, with the music pounding, and yelled out the window: "get in the f*&#ing car dummy!"  and it goes on and on, stories like this one.  joao, the kid with jimmies all over his face, had his wallet stolen on friday, etc etc.  these moments of ugliness always juxtaposed with the face of a kid totally enjoying himself, lost in a world far removed from some of the harsh realities of "normal" life.

- i've observed many reactions to the idea of inner-city ministry.  however, two stand out in my mind.  one is exemplified by a conversation i had with someone at our wedding reception.  this woman came up to me and said: "it's so great that you are going to be working with 'those' people in the inner-city.  i only support overseas missionaries, but 'they' need Jesus too, in the city."  i call this the "overseas missions is more important but i guess the inner-city needs Jesus too" perspective.

- the other side of the coin, in my experience, is the wide-eyed naivete of mostly young white people (myself very much included in this critique) who see working with kids in the inner-city as this amazingly radical and "pure" ministry.  

- of course, the reality is lies somewhere in the middle of all this...i wrote a couple of weeks ago about the beauty and the ugliness at the beach, and that is really the story of my summer.  there is both incredible beauty and incredible ugliness in working at a place like bird street.  the realities of the inner-city really expose many of the atrocities of our society but also bring out some of the best kingdom moments possible on this side of heaven.  the mature perspective, i think, is the one that can hold those realities in tension and keep choosing to love.

- we've been talking, at church, about having hearts that break over the things that break God's heart, and i think that is ultimately what happens when you serve in this context.  i hope i brought some light into the world's of the people and especially the kids i worked with this summer, but more importantly i think i've gained some insight into some of the things that break God's heart.

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another camp story...

maybe i'm pumped from all the swimming i've been watching, maybe i'm tired of all the "camp drama" that takes place at the beach, or maybe i just needed to do something to get the attention of the boys in my unit.  but, today, i swam across the lake and back.  

ok, not all the way across (which is not all that far to be honest), but out to a buoy in the middle of the lake.  interpretations of this endeavor are all a matter of perspective.  my father, and my wife, would have laughed at my rusty stroke, my gasps for air, and the pace that fell off dramatically as the swim wore on.  if you were to ask my boys, however, they would tell you about my feat of strength, about the great distance i swam, and the snapping turtles i fought off to get there.

an exaggeration perhaps, but i don't think they've ever seen anyone swim that far before!

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- a 3 minute look at what i've been doing this summer...enjoy!

- so the quality of the video is somewhat muddled with the youtube compression.  it actually looks a lot better than that.  here are my ten favorite pics from the video.

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- a cool story and pop culture updates...

story: the morning amy and i moved in we were greeted by our neighbor Leroy, who lives across the street from us.  Leroy often sits on his porch and watches over our street.  the first thing i observed about Leroy was the long-stem, hand carved pipe he was smoking.  he immediately held my interest!  over the weeks we've had many brief conversations, but i never mentioned my own pipe smoking tendencies.  finally, i drummed up the courage and i said, "Leroy we need to smoke one of these days."  we then discussed the beauty of pipes and where to by tobacco in boston.  the next day when i got home from work, Leroy was on the porch as usual and he called out, "hey steve, i got something for you."  he then produced a bag of cavendish and handed it to me.  sweet!

updates: jonathan lethem is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.  the fortress of solitude is outstanding.  also, while on the topic of books, scot mcknight is quickly becoming one of my favorite theologians.  

i love the new coldplay album.  i think they get better with each album...a rarity for bands.  also, check out amy crawford...our friend in boston (via pacific grove...small world).  we got to see her last night. 

last, but not least, i finally saw the new batman...creepy...still can't decide if it was such a unique experience because the movie was good or because watching a posthumous performance was so weird.  

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amy has a blog!

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a few weeks ago at reunion, hank (the lead pastor) was speaking on valuing kids. he made the following statement based on Jesus' comments about children found in the gospels (Matt 19:13-14, Mark 9:36-37): "You will never fully understand the Kingdom if you don't hang out with kids."

i found this statement, and the whole sermon for that matter, to be both compelling and extremely relevant to my job at the moment.  i am not one who loves working with kids; i don't consider it to be a strength, passion, or desire.  nonetheless, i spend nearly ten hours a day with 11-15 boys between the ages of 10 and 12.  many of these boys come from broken families, difficult socio-economic realities, and bad schools.  they bring a lot of baggage with them to camp, and therefore can be very difficult to work with.

case in point: yesterday, while at nantasket beach, two boys got into a fairly nasty fight (over 4-square rules, of all things).  before i could get on the scene to break it up some awful words and names were exchanged and a few blows landed.  it is painful and sad to see 11 year old boys acting like hardened thugs.

counter-point: later in the afternoon i rewarded three boys with ice cream for having had a great week.  it was fun to treat them to soft-serve and "jimmies" (bostonian for sprinkles) and to watch their reactions.  tariq and eddie are both pretty low-key and they said "thank you" and quietly went about the business of eating their treats out of cups.  joao, a loquacious cape verdean who has been very difficult himself at times, and i made the mistake of ordering ours in cones.  i wish i had my camera because words cannot capture the mess joao made trying to get his cone into his mouth.  but he ate the whole thing with a huge smile on his face, his nonstop banter both hindering his progress and making the moment even more enjoyable for us onlookers.

there was ugliness and beauty yesterday at the beach.  the highs and the lows of working with kids experienced within hours (and often seconds) of each other.  if nothing else i think this summer is providing a context for hank's comments that i shared earlier.  yesterday i saw the kingdom in a kid who dropped his facade for a minute and let his joy in the moment radiate through his soft-serve and jimmie stained smile.

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- thoughts on church...

...so, for those of you who don't know i am a pastor's son, a seminary graduate, an intervarsity alumnus, and i just finished a two+ year church planting experience.  on top of that i've read (probably) way too many books about church.  so i bring along some baggage when i go to a new church.  it is difficult to take the critic hat off and fully enter into the experience.  for these reasons, and many others, the church transition has been, perhaps, the one i've been most nervous about...

...all that being said it seems like we're settling in with Reunion Christian Church.  reunion is a new non-denominational church in boston (they are associated with the big idea, for the church model nerds out there).  this weekend amy and i are going camping with some folks from reunion's sister ministry Sojourn.  check the links if you want to know more about them.  pray that we'd have a good weekend and that we'd start some new friendships.

peace

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- thoughts on work...

my job as a unit leader with bird street's summer day getaway program is three weeks old at this point (and has finally produced income...woohoo!).  this job is a nine week position helping run bird street's summer day camp.  i am in charge of a unit of two junior counselors (high school seniors) and 13-15 eleven and twelve year old boys.  every day we bus these kids out to hale reservation, a cool spot about forty-five minutes out of town in the woods.  mostly i just supervise, take care of paper work, and make sure the group gets to their various activities on time.  

my group has turned out to be one of the biggest which means i have more direct interaction with the campers (ideally the group would have ten campers, five with each of the jr counselors and i would be doing supervision and leading the jc's).  also, i've discovered this job to be pretty physically demanding...lots of walking, throwing kids in the water, lifting coolers, carrying a first aid bag and my backpack in humid and hot weather).  by the end of the day i am pretty beat...but, i am getting toned and tanned =)

i'm also learning the lingo a bit.  probably the most important word here is "mad."  this can be used in a variety of situations to describe both amounts and qualities.  for example: "mr. steve there are mad bugs at this camp."  (i.e. there are a lot of bugs)  or, "mr. steve it's mad hot today."  (i.e. it's very hot today)  to clarify, if you are acutally mad (i.e. angry) at someone you wouldn't say "I'm mad mad at you,"  you'd say "i'm so heated with you."  so there's your slang lesson for the day.

peace

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- hope everyone had a great 4th!  here are some pics from the festivities in boston...

...lots of people...

...sunset on the charles...

...the city at night...

...fireworks!!!

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- cool pictures from the road and the red sox game...

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alright, alright...i'm getting some flack for not posting for a while. it's been a little crazy in the boutry household over the last two weeks.

recap: amy and i got married on june 7th, honeymooned in mexico for a week, packed up a budget rental truck the day after we got home (the 16th), hit the road the next morning in the wee hours and drove all the way to durango in one shot. wednesday morning we packed up my stuff, had lunch with some friends, and were back on the road (we spent the night in denver with my aunt and uncle). thursday morning...more driving, followed by more driving, and then...some more driving. we didn't stop until we hit boston in the late hours of friday night/saturday morning.

so, after many miles and hours and a small fortune in gas we slept in our new home and then saturday (the 21st...my birthday) we began unloading the truck and moving in. we've made some good progress over the last couple of days (no pictures yet...still working on getting the 'net in the new house), but we've been busy with other things as well.

what other things? i had my first fenway park experience monday night. i started work yesterday. we saw dave matthews last night. and on top of all of this, amy's grandfather passed away sunday night.

please pray for amy's family and for amy as well (she just got here and now has turn around and go back to california to be with family and go to the funeral).

there's been a lot going on. oh, and our roommate arrives in town today.

anyway, we are not complaining. we love being married! but pray for rest and comfort and for a slower pace of life to settle in soon!

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...the wedding day has come and gone, with all the planning and details and people to talk to and hands to shake now in the past. it was hectic but full of great moments, with some great people. see, for example, this picture:

...the honeymoon has also come and gone, with it's sitting around doing nothing and looking at this:

...which means that the time has come to drive a great distance...all the way from Salinas to Dorchester, via Durango...

...that's the quick update...more pictures and updates and reflections to come in the near future!

...for now: much gratitude is felt to our wonderful family and friends for all the help we've received in the last weeks to make all of this possible.  we are deeply indebted to many of you for your generosity and helping hands!

...so a major thank you, from amy and steve!

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