It has been a while since I have posted. I have been busy to say the least. This last month has been an interesting time in life. For the last two weeks of July I was house sitting for Katie’s (my girlfriend) parents house while Katie, her family and some members of her church were in Israel. During those two weeks I was also in an intensive class at Fuller called Modern Church Theology, where we studied Western Church Theology since the 16th century. The class was good but way to much information to try to remember in two weeks. During these two weeks I was also helping prepare for our youth groups Mexico missions trip so I was busy.
I was though very happy to have my girlfriend back at the end of her trip and I know she was also glad to be back.
With the end of July my sister and her husband also traveled back to their home in Korea. My sister had been in the States since mid-June and her husband since the beginning of July. Much of the time they were in town Katie and I spent time driving back to my parent’s house or trying to meet them half way somewhere in Riverside County. It was hard to say goodbye to them but I know I will see them again in December. I have to admit though it has been nice to not have to spend so much of my weekend driving back and forth to Riverside County.
Two weeks ago I was Mexico with my youth group. There were a total of 21 of us and the trip was good but hard at the same time. During the week we built a 22 x 22 foot house for a family of 10, a single mom and her nine children. The family was previously living in a shack no bigger than 10 x 15. The new structure we built them will provide housing with doors and locks for many of the children to live in. It seemed as if many of the students were moved by the poverty of Mexico and by the family themselves. Many of our students connected with the family through playing with the children. One of my favorite memories of the trip actuality happened after the trip when a mom of one of our students came up to Janelle and myself and told us that her son was in tears telling her about how Jesus, one of the children, was running in and out of the house on the last day screaming “Mi Casa Nuevo!” The mom told us that he was moved by the fact that a child would be so excited about a new house that was barely the size of his living room.
Since I have been back from Mexico I have been working on work from my modern Church theology class. The work is coming slowly, needless to say I am a little burnt out on school. Since I have been back I have also gotten to have some conversations with a friend of mine named Christiana. She works for CRM and her and her husband are moving to San Diego in January to start an intentional missional community through CRM. Both Christiana and her husband Derek, my churches worship leader, have a calling to work with and in intentional communities. Last week Christiana and I had a great conversation about intentional communities because she is aware that I am interested in the topic. After our hour long conversation over the phone she has asked me to compel a group of people to meet with her boss Sam and talk about doing intentional communities. The hope is that Sam will be a resource for us as well as helping some of us think through what an intentional community might look like. Christiana warned me that many times she has seen people that have good ideas but who are not willing to make the sacrifice to make things happen. She really urged me to start praying and thinking about how God has gifted me and my calling in life. I know that God has called me to life in intentional communities but now it is just flushing out the who, where, when and sorts. I hope that the conversation with Sam will help. I have to say I am sad though that more people who have affected a lot my thinking, such as Garrett, will not be able to be at the meeting. As of now it will only be Katie, Tim and I. We hope to ask more people to join in to the conversation but have not yet. I am sure as this gets flushed out more I will be updating.
Sorry if this blog seems a little forced, because it was, I just felt I needed to post something but am sick of writing, but hey here it is so…love…
