Daniel just came over to fix our internet to which I am greatful because I didn’t realize until it was gone how much I use it. Especially for work.
I had a great weekend in the mountains with the house and David. We were truely on top of the mountain in the boondocks. We stayed at Matthew’s Grandpa’s “Camp” which is an old one room school house that has been converted into a cabin. No running water. No paved drive way, not even gravel. We crossed a little stream on a foot bridge to get to the cabin. You couldn’t see the place from the road due to the trees. It was so pretty. It rained all weekend however just sitting by the fire and listening to the rain was incredibly relaxing. It was nice to slow down for a bit after a whirl wind of life change.
Other than that there is not much to update. I finish up my month at work teaching on the human body and America. October I will teach about weather and I am not sure what social studies topic they would like me to teach on. I am liking work a lot. It is a very grass roots non-profit organization and the directors of the center are great.
I am going to try and go to a development meeting for one of the projects in the area. The housing and urban development are planning on tearing the project down and building mixed income housing. The problem with that is they don’t build enough units for everyone who lived in the project to move back into the area. Also, they ussually make new requirements which a lot of the people who live in the projects don’t meet so they are unable to move back. It breaks my heart that the city would take away peoples homes. They think it solves problems but in my opinion it would end up causing more because it would cause more homelessness. There are 400 some people living in these houses and affordable housing for that many would be incredibly hard to come by.
Something I have found since living here is that I can see the Bible being more relevant to life. The Bible is a story of struggle and redemption, of misfits and outcasts. I love that I can see the hope, grace and mercy the Bible preaches in the people and the community all around me. I pray that I can reflect that hope, grace and mercy to the people I meet. I want to do it in the little things though, I want to do it in the everyday ordinary sharing of a meal, a telephone or giving a neighbor a ride. I want my life to ressonate with it.
So life has been going full speed since college. So much change has occured in such a short time. I am living at Gabriel house now and loving it. Everyone contributes in their own way, it truely feels like what I imagine the acts church might have been like. We are having community dinner twice a week and the conversations and company are great. Lonnie’s grandkids and two of his daughters ussually come so the house is filled with the shouts of children. Some days I think it sounds like a looney bin, but most days I think it sounds beautiful.
The stories I hear are authentic, tragic, hopeful and joyus all in one. My neighbors are great, I love that I can celebrate differences here. I am going to start taking a class called redeeming Richmond which is on the history of Richmond with a racial reconciliation view point. It sounds interesting, only drawback is it is on pot luck night which is still pretty much my only link to a social life with people about as close to my age as ive gotten since moving. I have decided that is ok though. I have always hung out with people older than me and I imagine that won’t change.
I process things a lot more, Matthew and Sara are king and queen of it and really challenge me to think. I don’t know if they realize that, I ussually tease them about processing so much, but I truely think it’s great and healthy. Our house plus some other community members are going on a retreat to the mountains this weekend. I am excited, it’s getting chilly, Im really excited to bundle up and drink hot things. It will be a nice break from all the change that has occured. I will hopefully be able to just sit and be and process all the change without being amungst it.
We went on a Catholic worker retreat this past weekend and it was great but still hectic. Met a lot of great people, saw an anti war action take place and was able to be somewhat of a support in that. Definitly something new for me, but something I believe is a worthy cause. To see kids with machine guns and people celebrating weapons of mass destruction was just heartbreaking. Something has to change. When did people, Christian people, forget that Jesus is the Prince of Peace. Not the Prince of revenge, of destruction, the Prince of Peace.
Im sitting at a coffee shop now, our internet is out. Im sick of spending money on coffee to get internet, however, there is something I enjoy about being at a coffee shop and taking in the atmosphere. This coffee shop has an interesting mix of people. I am in a smaller back room and there is a bunch of middle aged men sitting and chatting with each other, they must come here a lot. In the other room it is a mix of young and old and everyone is chatting, some are using computers but there is a happy buzz. I was hoping to take a stroll by the river before going to work but It looks like ill have to go back to the house to prepare my lesson.
