10.10.10

It's almost here.  Our 4th annual 1010 Community Day.  And this one not only falls on 10.10.10 (a magical sort of date, isn't it?), but it also falls on a Sunday.  We're canceling church to....have church.  Ha.  What I mean is there won't be a church service in the sense of church services that happen all over the country on Sunday morning that you might be thinking.  You know what I'm talking about....worship, teaching, kids' programs, laser light shows. And don't get me wrong, there is purpose in these gatherings and the Spirit is present in many of these gatherings.

But we're doing things a little bit differently this Sunday. Instead of bringing the church to people; we're bringing church to the people.  Kind of like Jesus was doing when he was here.  ;)  There are projects, events and just overall neighboring that's happening this Sunday, October 10th all over Norwalk, CT.

OUR SCHEDULE
10:10-10:30am: Gathering Point/Rally at West Rocks Middle School in Norwalk (everyone meet here for a time of praise & prayer as we go out)

10:45am-1:00pm (happening simultaneously): Clean-Up at West Rocks Middle School
Clean Up at Ryan Park in South Norwalk
Home Renewal/Makeover in Wolfpit Neighborhood
Adopt-a-Laundromat at Soundview Wash & Dry in Norwalk

1:00-2:30pm: Community Lunch in partnership with the Bridge Church RV project at Ryan Park

2:45-4:30pm: Neighborhood Block Party/Kids Celebration at Ryan Park

The day will end with a community prayer walk through South Norwalk.

You can find out more info by visiting www.NECCLife.org.

I am going to go back to being stoked.  See you Sunday!

How lonely is a forgotten blog?

Lonely.  I came back today after a long season of what seemed to be ups and downs, and immediately felt at home.  Like an old friend that had been waiting patiently on me to return.  I'm not sure how patient the blog readers would be ;) , but the blog, well, it didn't judge me or avert its eyes from me.  Just was here waiting quietly for the inevitable return.

Spring is Sprung(ing)

Yesterday was almost, dare I say it?  Warm.  I didn't even wear a coat yesterday as we were setting up the breakfast table.  With the warm weather came one of our oldest friends -- our very first breakfast friend.  His grandmother and him came our very first day we were out there.  You could tell they (or mainly his grandma) thought we were just a wee bit...ok a lot...crazy, but I admire that they sat right down and asked all the requisite questions:

Who are you? 
Why are you here?
Will you always be here?
Why are you here?
Who are working for?
Why are you here?

Admittedly, all of those answers weren't clear to us, but we fumbled through some replies and they became some of our most faithful advocates.  When the weather is especially cold, they drive to school instead of coming to the bus stop.  So we were glad to see them again yesterday.

My new word for yesterday was "viejo."  Our greatest friend is a man that lives right next to the park.  He's cautiously and quietly watched us for the past nine months.  He speaks mainly Spanish, but his English is better than my Spanish and we stumble through conversations with lots of hand motions and hasty iPhone translation app help and over the past nine months have become friends.  Real friends.  Two weeks ago he told a new parent I was his English granddaughter and I nodded without thinking twice.

He helps us unload some Tuesday mornings.  And quizzes our Spanish.  He asks about our weeks. He does all of this things without thinking, because that what friendship is.  And we reciprocate because I know more than anything we've been brought into his life purposefully.  I don't know what the purpose is beyond just neighboring and letting him know that we care about his little neighborhood, but it seems like enough.  And we're glad to know him and be his English granddaughters.

Yesterday when he was helping us unload, he told me to tell him, "Hurry up, viejo!"  or "Hurry up, old man!"  We just laughed and dropped the chairs we were all carrying and stumbled through the pronunciation of a new word -- a companionable word that symbolized our joking, affable friendship that's blossomed in one certain city park.  Here's the "viejo" himself.  :)

Wrecked

Yesterday, for 12 hours straight, I sat through the Academy Award best picture nominees in a thing AMC Theaters does every year called the Best Picture Showcase.  It's the second year I've done it and it gives me a chance to see (hopefully) amazing movies back-to-back.

Fourth movie in yesterday, I had the opportunity to see "Precious" for the first time.  I had known about the book Push that it was based on, so I knew what to expect, but I wasn't prepared for how emotionally drained it left me.  It's the story of a teenage girl named Precious in Harlem in the late 80s who is abused mentally, physically and sexually by both her mother and father throughout her life.  It follows her at 16 the mother to two children (both fathered by her own father) and the people who come into her life: including a social worker and a reading teacher in a literacy program that's a part of the alternative school that Precious is attending.

I wish I could say that it ended up being a feel-good story, that everything worked out in the end.  But that's not always how life works.  There was a really moving scene toward the end where it becomes obvious that Precious doesn't understand love because she's never received it.  It reminded me of Deidox's awesome first short film about Lindsay, a NYC school teacher.  Deidox is an amazing company that produces short films that show God active in everyday people.


Deidox | Lindsay from Deidox on Vimeo.

I love in the film at around 2:15 when Lindsay is describing what kind of love she has for her kids in her class each year.  May we all show that sort of love to the people around us.  May we show it to precious kids & adults everywhere.

When it rains, it pours...when it hails, it's just cold.

Remember how just last week I was saying that the weather always seems to be on our side.  This week, we got introduced to some icy rain.

The little icy specks on the table were pelting us in the face before they landed so nicely on the table.  Add to that the wind and the cold, and we just had to laugh.  We almost thought the kids might not show up b/c it was so bitterly cold, but they all pulled through and we huddled at the breakfast table under our makeshift tent (thanks to one of my ingenious and tall (!!) partners that's there on Tuesdays)

I swear this is not an advertisement for Minute Maid, but it does show some moms and kids bearing down in February for some good old-fashioned time together before the bus comes.  

Remember my sticker hoarder/soccer extraordinaire from last week?  He took yesterday to ask me, "Does this mean that you'll come here...even when it snows?"

"Yep, we'll be here even when it snows.  As long as you're getting on the bus, you can count on us being here."

In his awesomely innocent and trusting 2nd grade voice, he replied, "I do."  

And I wasn't cold anymore b/c my heart was melting.  ;)   

Oh, and don't forget, when the bus had come, we, of course, had to walk the moms and little siblings (too young to go to public school yet) back home.   Have I mentioned I love Tuesdays?

Winter Break for everyone

Yep, it's winter break this week, which means the kiddos and their families are hopefully tucked away safe in their houses and not out waiting for a bus.  We miss them when we're not there and hope they miss us.  I think, deep down, they do, but I may just be dreaming.  ;)

One thing I will say is we have been so lucky in regard to extreme weather.  One of our main concerns in not having an indoor space and instead using the park was, duh, what do we do if it rains/snows?  Well, every single week we've been there, it has only rained once.  And it stopped raining 5 minutes before the kids showed up!  It was just generally wet, but we had  a blast.

This Tuesday, while we were all on winter break and weren't out there for one week, it snowed.  Hard.  Funny how things work like that, huh?

Since, we weren't there, I'll share a pic from a few weeks ago:

This little guy is actually someone I think about a lot.  He's shy until you get to know him and then you realize he's:

-a soccer dynamo
-a sticker hoarder
-a protector of his little brother (who he brought to meet us once). 

...among other things.  My prayer for him is always pretty much the same.  That no matter what else is going on -- and I sometimes get the feeling it's a lot for a little guy -- he knows that there are three girls...women, whatever...that love him and care about him and just think about him when he's not around.  Because we do.  We really do.

Church Done Differently

If you've been around for the past...oh, decade +...you've heard this.  I've heard this.  I've probably said this.  It means a lot of things to a lot of people.  Or maybe it just means a lot of things to me.  I dunno.  I do get the sense that it's a little overplayed because a lot of times when I hear it, I think, Nah, that's church done just the same. 

What I do know is that last week, I watched the live stream of a conference called Verge and just happened to listen to a dude named Hugh Halter talk about Adullum Communities in Denver and I thought, Whoa, that really is church done differently.  And, you know what, I think I liked it.  I think it made sense.  I'm still unpacking some of it, but I do know it made me sit up and take notice---especially as it related to this idea of being in the community and not apart from it. 


On their website, under About Us, it says:

Adullam is a congregational network of incarnational communities that are apprenticing kingdom people.

I don't know exactly what that means, but I think I might be willing to try to find out...