6/20-6/22: Christian Hippies #5

Location: North Lexington, Kentucky
This group was really great to me as well, hospitable of course. It is always so reassuring to feel people are excited to talk to me or are enthused to hear about my project.

This group was mostly made up of couples who lived separately in terms of separate houses but were part of a hosue church together. One couple moved out of communal living the day I was there. Several families had individuals living with them.

I was struck by how God's mark or mission looked so different on each couple I encountered. The couple I stayed with were wonderfully hospitable people. They demonstrated a humble servanthood and love for their neighbors, admitedly largely ignorant of the larger "movement" going on worldwide, they simply lived out as urban missionaries in their neighborhood, no frills attached. That kind of humility is stricking and hard for someone as prideful as I can be sometimes to grape with. They spent a few hours each night just sitting in their front yard in order to greet neighbors while their kids played around.
It was a pure love. They had so many funny almost "tricks"--picking up ants as an excuse for walking down the street, borrowing lawn equipment as a mode for building trust.

Other couples were a little more engaged in the intellectual talk several talked to me about Emerging churches alot. Many had graduate degrees.
I watched people speak honestly about whether they'd made real change, whether they were following what God wanted. I watched someone cry out that they didn't understand the cross in light of the suffering they'd seen in the world, that at this point, it was beyond their grasp.

I also love meeting people who I can look at and say--oh! I see something in what they're doing that I could purely desire for myself. I watched a young couple lead a seeker's Bible study together and in watching them pastor/minister together I was overwhelmed with a desire to someday be in that position, to be in team-ministry with someone someday, whether husband or not.
Lexington, Kentucky taught me much so many of the same lessons I've learned so far--that faith is a lifelong journet with large bumps, confusions, and adjustments that will never end.