21 Days in the Dorms: Days 3-6

I apologize for not being so on top of my posting!

Through tabling on campus, flyering in the dorms and visiting with cookies, we have continued to build a long contact list!
We hung in the dorm Wednesday night until late, enjoying a common room and some casual conversation with people in the halls.

If nothing else we're building up face time and some friendly images as people who bring cookies and good cheer.

Our interest meeting in our dorm is scheduled for Tuesday 8:30pm, location TBA, pray for a place!
And pray for ways to pull together and build community there!

21 days in Darnall: Day 2

Today we attended the Protestant Student opening service where there's a chance to meet new students who are looking for Christian Fellowship.
We met two girls and a guy from Darnall hall who were interested in a Bible study.

Beyond that, found some facebook pages online listing different students living in the dorms!

Pray for opportunities to make contact with more students!

leadership retreat georgetown

21 Days in Darnall: Day 1

Freshman move-in day!

We followed in groups of students and wandered around the dorm. A great friend and prayer partner from college came and prayed for campus and Darnall in specific!
We met the chaplains in residence, Episcopalian and Catholic adults who were super friendly and excited to help us facilitate a Bible study in the dorm along with helping us meet students! Major blessings.

Got to see the student leaders of the dorm Bible study Claire and Alex around campus today. Alex and I went to buy tape to put flyers up.....then realized the book store line was over an hour long! We walked up to the front and talked a mother into adding our tape onto her order. Turns out her son lived in Darnall too!

Both Claire and Alex have been super enthusiastic and I'm really blessed to be working with them! Alex and I even bought Darnall residence hall t-shirts on our way out--now people will really think we're freshmen!

Blog I've been writing on

For the summer I've been interning along with a student in the summer urban program for "Bread for the City" as a community blogger on issues of affordable housing.

Here's a link to what I've been up to:
http://www.breadforthecity.blogspot.com/

Seek the Welfare of the city i've sent you to

I awoke last night to the sound of jack hammers and road crew equipment. It was about 2AM. I sat for almost 30 minutes wondering-I wanted to call and complain to someone and say seriously, who does that kind of roadwork on a residential street in the middle of the night?

For the past two weeks-and seemingly the next few months the District will be repairing the sewage system in this area of town to fix long standing water pressure issues. But I had a difficult time deciding to make the call. Was I just a light sleeper? Would/could they even stop the construction?

This week of our urban program our theme has been relocation. For those of you who know me, you know Christy Sherman, my co-worker and I moved into Anacostia, a low-income area of Washington DC almost a year ago. My boss once called it a process of re-neighboring. By changing who are our literal neighbors, suddenly Christ's command to "love your neighbors" takes on new meaning. Our students in this program have voluntarily relocated to this area of the city for five weeks this summer.

So there I was, wide awake, knowing my walls were very thin and the chances of falling back asleep were slim. Suddenly I thought of the bible study we used this week to frame our study of relocation-Jeremiah 29. There God challenges the Jewish exiles in Babylon to put down roots in a new community and "seek the welfare of the city." In some very odd and small way-would calling the water and sewer authority at 2:30am be a way to seek the welfare of my neighbors? Maybe more than just me were thinking they'd lost another-usually the jack hammers start at 7am even on weekends-- good chance at sleep?

Issues like this-and with much more importance confront us regularly when we place our daily lives alongside situations of need. I often step back and have to wonder if my own sense of indignation at any given situation-whether the recycling truck not coming on time or the constant stream of trash in our front yard-is just another case of a privileged girl who grew up in the suburbs needing to get used to life in the city. I wrestle with the question of whether my own standards are too high? How do you decide what's a battle worth fighting for?

However, at other times, this same sense of indignation fuels a passion inside of me and others to be able to speak out when a situation is simply wrong. We ought not have to just "deal" with a night of little sleep, sub-par school systems, a dirty environment, literally thousands of district residents waiting for affordable subsidized housing, or lack of access to basic goods and services. I didn't need to think twice about whether the residents of the Georgetown neighborhood of the city would've tolerated the same noise in the middle of the night. There are many broken systems and relationships in the world that God did not intend to be the way they are-but will we stand by and let it be? When does a situation become an issue of justice and worthy of seeking to set right?

God promises the exiles that when they become a part of seeing the city prosper-they too will prosper. As we tie our lives in with the residents of this neighborhood, sometimes what affects our next door neighbor affects us as well. When I finally got the courage to call the sewer authority, within 15 minutes, most of the noise subsided. Was it my doing? I don't know. But hopefully some of my neighbors were able to sleep a little easier last night as well.

At the end of this summer we're challenging students to consider making a long-term commitment-each focusing on one of our three theme weeks. One of these commitments would challenge students to consider "relocating to a place of need" for two years or more. I accepted a similar commitment through an InterVarsity summer program to Bangkok, Thailand that has led me to where I am today.

Jesus for President hits DC!

The "Jesus for President" book tour hit DC this past weekend. With over 500 in attendance, it was a great meeting place for people of all ages from many different churches and organizations all over the city!

Because I've followed the "New monastic" group some for the past couple of years, I'm pretty familiar with the group that came into town. It's always interesting to see the evolution of thought and honestly, also the staying-power of some of these people. Seeing the transience of life in the DC area especially--knowing that almost 4 years ago I went to Camden and met a house of 8 people.....now of which I believe 5 or 6 still live in the neighborhood--well that's becoming a powerful witness!

Basically a synopsis set to music of the book, Jesus for President chronicled the story of God's people--from beginning in an idyllic garden into a set apart people from Egypt, exile in Babylon to the coming of Jesus to earth. We saw how God asks the question of not which political party to choose--but how will we engage (or should we?) engage the political system? What would it mean to hope in the church to make change in the world? Are we still supposed to be a set apart people today?

It was challenging to many visitors on lots of levels--and what an honor and priviledge for me to be involved in the organizing of the event!

CNN even recently highlighted the event and surrounding energy: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/29/evangelical.campaign/?iref=mpstoryview

City Friends

I think if my life had a soundtrack, the best times of my life would be set to John Mayer's Room for Squares or classic James Taylor. When I say the best times of life--I don't necessarily mean those trial-by-fire or challenging best times of life. I mean more the generic "best times" of life where I am genuinely content and satisfied.

When I feel really "right" with the world and content I get a certain look or smile on my face. I didn't really know this until one of my students said I always look at him and smile and nod. I do this when I'm just simply happy---no other thoughts in my mind, content. (sometimes this is out of awkwardness.....what do I say now? I might as well smile.....).

Tonight I had one of these moments. I went into inner-city Dallas to visit some friends from church. They are an older couple that moved into the neighborhood almost a year ago onto a street of newly developed condos. People have come to these condos from all stages of life--there are young couples, some people who live alone, no children. Really an eclectic group.

We had a wonderful evening--I really enjoy visiting people who are learning/living in neighborhoods like theirs. I think it starts to remind me of my time researching. There's something I really enjoy about learning about the sociological issues of an area, seeing the historical factors that created a neighborhood and all the up and coming things. In this area of Dallas we saw the new homeless resource center, some great new arts attractions, a jazz restaurant, and a great apartment complex/artistic urban lofts center.
We met so many people! An artist who lives in his studio inside the old Sears building (http://southsideonlamar.com/) with his dog, a bunch of musicians who moved into a complex together, the owner of a restaurant.
I love walking around with friendly people who have a strong desire to engage, be friendly, and become a part of a community. It really helps inspire me to continue to do similar things in my neighborhood, meet new people, go to random attractions, plays, ask questions when new things are coming in. Maybe it's nosy--but also, why else are we there if we don't care about what's going on around us?

But back to the feeling of contentment. So after a wonderful night out on the town, seeing this great neighborhood and meeting so many interesting people who have moved there, we retired back to their own condo apartment strip, 13 small homes with a great view of downtown Dallas. Sure there are drug dealers and prostitutes on their corner all night long--but it was evident that this group of neighbors were not judgmental or scared people. They loved living in this area---and had come to love one another, as unusual a group they could be!

For those of you who know me from college--I sat back and thought, wow this is like a grown up version of TTT (my friends in school had a weekly party we'd call Totally Tubular Thursday, a no-pressure, small crowd event were the 15-20 of us who had lived in the same freshman dorm committed to be together every Thursday evening). I always loved TTT time because I could have these moments to sit back, not even have to make conversation and just enjoy myself, secure I am known and loved.

I think that's what community is supposed to be about a lot. Joy in being with others, no matter how dramatically different we are from each other--knowing that we in some sense "belong" to one another, we'd give up time to meet a need or listen to an issue. Socialization is effortless and forgiving. It's where you go to have easy conversation and don't have to worry about what you say or even if you have enough to say.


I think it was a profound experience for me to see a marriage of two things I have yet to see some together in my life--my passion and intrigue for urban areas and dilapidated urban centers with friendship and relaxed good times. In my life in Washington, most of my friends live in the Virginia suburbs where I always have to take a lot of time and effort to get to them and spend time together. How grateful I've been this year for my friend who lives even in my same quadrant of the city. Pray for friends who live nearby--and who have a desire to spend some good, carefree time together!!! I felt very happy for my friends that they had found this--fun and camaraderie in the midst of such an exciting and interesting location.

She was 19

Tonight I went with my home church (I'm back home for a month to rest and raise support for the next year) to a meal in downtown Fort Worth that feeds mostly homeless people.

I've been to this weekly meal probably 4 or 5 times now, it's different style than many soup kitchens because volunteers sit with the guests and we eat family style.
So I was a table "host" tonight to 7 people, one homeless man who'd been at my table I'm almost certain the year before, a blind man with a female companion, a woman in a wheel chair with a male companion, and another couple. All were black except the last couple--a white girl and an older hispanic man, both looking to be mid to late 20s.

When the last couple walked in, the woman looked annoyed--I asked her name and tried to start a conversation but she blew me off. The man with her was very friendly and said she was suffering from heat stroke (it's upwards of 90 most days here now) from being outside all day.
Within 5 minutes she was talking non-stop.

She started talking about how her baby had been taken from her because she didn't have a place to live--her 9 month old. I gathered a lot more through the one hour with them. She grew up in child protective services herself, the child of two drug addicts who unashamedly talked about using drugs. She said she met the guy she was with at Salvation Army, he didn't like the story of how she got there because it involved her being raped alot. She said she didn't care about being raped because it had happened to her again and again over almost her whole lifetime--I think she said age 3? I asked if it was a family member, she said yes.
She had lost the money she was saving to start renting some place when being raped another time and couldn't keep a job because of health problems--she was hypoglycemic and carried a few prescriptions with her.
Yes, I do know many homeless suffer from mental problems so it is difficult to be sure of the validity of many of her stories--but it was heart breaking to hear. Defeat after defeat.
And all this in a setting where for the most part people don't go on pouring out their life stories....they simply come in and eat, engaging with simple, polite conversation but rarely anything more.

As the church service part of the evening started, everyone else at the table had left except this couple. A baby across the room started to cry and she started to lose it thinking of her own girl. After awhile they offered anyone interested to get communion. They both got up and I followed them, taking the opportunity, and probably out of a lot of curiosity to ask how old she was. She was 19.

My guess--maybe 26? surely older than me. Of course, there's the fact that she's younger than me, having been pregnant and now depending on an older man, very nice mind-you, but someone she met at a shelter. But actually it was the realization that as my heart broke for her--and I started to cry for the first time in a setting like this, I'm usually the strong, seasoned volunteer type.......realizing I work with 19 year old women all the time. I lead a bible study of 19 year old women, watched them grow, develop and blossom. And here was another 19 year old in a completely different station of life. How far she seemed from the whimsical women of Georgetown!

I felt my heart wanting to do the things I usually do with 19 year old girls, sit them down, listen, follow up with them, pursue their needs. But like this program facilitated, I watched them walk through the door. Who are the people out there doing my kind of job with girls like her? How different my skills would need to be! I was surprised to see my gut reaction to her pain---and yet the commonality--how she talked about how when she came into a church she usually just found herself "talking and talking, then praying to Jesus---and it doesn't make the pain go away."
Somehow, unlike when i've heard similar comments from people of older ages who I don't think I'd know how to respond talking about spiritual difficulty or the pains of being in poverty except to say "i know" or something equally moronic--I somehow thought I could relate a little better, having been that young before......though how worlds apart our lives have been.