What New England is teaching me

8/3/2006
Location: Providence, Rhode Island

I think I’m beginning to see some of what New England had to teach me about my faith.

I’ve seen a picture of Christian unity in New England unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Maybe its because they have smaller numbers, maybe its because somehow they’re all oddly friends. But it’s really refreshing to find that the church I’ve gone to is connected to Christians who come from other states to a weekly bible study, some of which who go to Brown University. And at Brown, some of these students are in a Christian Fellowship lead by people I’ve met as well—who also happen to be close friends with not only some of the Christian hippie communities but also are friends with a girl who ended up at the same church small group led by another wonderful church couple. Hard to follow? Its like a big web.

So many people I’ve met here in Providence have said that people in Rhode Island aren’t welcoming and its really hard to make friends because people have the same friends for most of their lives here and aren’t interested in new friends.
Well for one, I haven’t met a lot of native Rhode Islanders so my observations are probably highly skewed. But all of my non-Brown interactions have been almost opposite of that idea.
I’ve never felt so welcomed and loved and accepted as quickly as in the Christian community here in Providence. Reminds me that the church/God/ Christians are all actually supposed to be a part of the same body—connected in some mysterious way.

I think the people here really seem to understand that. They know that even though they only met me 5 minutes ago, we are already family, already somehow connected—so they embrace me like family, love me like family, invite me over like family. There is no suspicion, only love. They’re excited to hear about how the rest of the body—maybe I come from the hand or the toe or something—but they want to know how the rest of the family is doing, they’re thrilled to get to share life with me for a month and then pass me onto the next part of the body for safe-keeping, we’ll see each other again sometime.