The Move
5/22/07
So the first three days have come and gone and it is already proving to be all that we thought it would be. Thanks to many of our amazing friends (Mike, Andrew, Maria, Jessica, and Brooke) we managed to pack the whole truck on Monday. Also we want to thank many of you who have already invested in this vision as it allowed us to rent a storage truck and trailer and transport our lives to our new home in Charlotte. We were surprised that our stuff actually filled the whole truck, it seemed like we had more “stuff” than we thought. But the truth is we all used this opportunity to rid our lives of almost everything of non-necessity. We ended up with bags and bags of clothes, supplies, and toys that probably would have gone to the goodwill. But leave it to God to place a burden on our hearts that also puts a burden on our trucks. We have been dreaming for some time, among the myriad of dreams, of having a free store. It would be a place in the community where the most needy could come occasionally to find the necessities they need and where we our lives could begin to intersect with theirs. The idea has already begun to evolve and will probably be one of our first big initiatives but I will address this more later. It seemed as though half our truck was full of stuff we plan on given away but none the less we set off Tuesday morning with our trucks full and our hearts full of excitement and anticipation. It only took us three hours and some change to get to the rental place and we had our lease signed and keys in hand in no time. At four o-clock we pulled up to our new home and it hit us like a ton of beautiful bricks “We don’t have to go home, we are home!” We unpacked our stuff into the house and set about the business of bringing order to chaos.
I guess it would be appropriate at this time to tell you a little about our new home base. It is a two bedroom duplex built in 1954. It has only one window ac, a tiny kitchen and a mudroom. We have decided to liquidate the mudroom and make it our dining room and we are all going to share one bedroom and make the other for study and relaxing. Late Tuesday night as we continued to unpack Carlos came to see us. I will go further into our story of falling in love with this place and the vision God has given us for it at a later time but it would be hard to overstate the importance Carlos has played in this story. He has been a huge encouragement, grown to be a close brother, and his advice and practical help have been invaluable. He hung out for a while and we continued to dream about what our lives hopefully will be and about what God is already doing in this community.
5/23/07
Today I (Aaron) got up early to go to meet with Scott and Matt (Watershed’s co-pastors) at Starbucks. I guess this is as close a thing to a staff meeting that Watershed ever has. It was a wonderful reunion and our hearts burned as they told me of all that has been going on lately and I informed them of all our “news”. After an hour or so we prayed over the prayer request cards from Sunday and we couldn’t help but get choked up as we prayed through so many praises and needs. It means so much to read a name aloud and meanwhile have our minds register not just that name but also a whole story. There is something so amazing about living amongst people who really value and treat each other as epic novels worth closely rereading and investing themselves in. The rest of the day was spent continuing to put our house in order and meeting our neighbors. We met a man named Roy with a box full of trinkets for sale. It was a short conversation but the exchange was pleasant and he gave us free incense even though we didn’t buy anything and now the house smells great. Our five-year-old neighbor has also taken up the habit of people watching and even though our contact has been limited thus far there is a good chance he will be a close playmate in the near future. Before we knew it night had fallen and still worn from the move we crashed.
5/24/07
This morning began late, as we are still tired from the end of school and moving. We headed straight to Sam’s to finally buy some food as we have been living off scraps so far. We loaded up on the essentials, ate as much free samples as possible (lunch), and headed home. Jesse and Jeremiah got to work on building our kitchen table and I continued to make sense of the house. A few weeks ago, while helping a lady move her fabric store, Jeremiah accrued five large handmade tables. Monday Jeremiah and I had stripped the wood and packed it into the truck first. We had planned on using this wood to build three sets of three man bunk beds for our bedroom. The plan is to have plenty of room to show hospitality to others and nothing will happen in the bedroom except for sleep. Not even our clothes will be kept there. Also we had built a platform in our old house for stadium seating and we had dismantled and packed this as well. This has been transformed into what has already become known as our “Nordic-Viking-man-table”. It looks amazing and cost us nothing. When we finish the bunk beds we will have furnished our entire home with free furniture and furniture built from pre-used wood. It is amazing how much stuff gets thrown away and how much can be redeemed with a little time and effort.
Right as we were about to eat dinner we were lucky enough to have a visitor, Lisa came to visit us. Lisa is another person of peace in this community and she runs a prayer environment here called “24-7”. It is a beautiful place here in Optimist Park where people come to pray, spend time with God, and share a common vision for what the Lord is calling of his people. Lisa had come to share with us that the neighborhood association is reforming in an effort to be more focused in bettering Optimist Park. Apparently there are many avenues to obtain local, state, and national funding for projects that would continue to breath new life into this community. However, as with most things, such opportunities are not possible without leadership and structure to cast vision, plot details, and create structure. Lisa asked if one of us would consider stepping up to be a part of the cabinet. After much discussion it was decided that I (Aaron) would be nominated as either vice-president or secretary. We do not want to be perceived as the new guy know-it-alls but Lisa correctly pointed out that half this neighborhood is just as new as we are and with the new buildings going in we represent the new guard. I hope this will be an avenue to even more effect the kind of change we have been praying for. Hopefully it will be an opportunity to glean the wisdom and gain the respect of the others in the neighborhood and elicit their aid in redeeming every aspect of this community.
We are trying to be as intentional and careful as we can to be the best stewards of everything we come in contact with. Whether it is money, materials, food, or even people we want to be as responsible as possible to make the most of every opportunity. Right now we are almost overwhelmed by all of the options before us but God has given us a subtle peace and we continue to tackle the things before us.
So the first three days have come and gone and it is already proving to be all that we thought it would be. Thanks to many of our amazing friends (Mike, Andrew, Maria, Jessica, and Brooke) we managed to pack the whole truck on Monday. Also we want to thank many of you who have already invested in this vision as it allowed us to rent a storage truck and trailer and transport our lives to our new home in Charlotte. We were surprised that our stuff actually filled the whole truck, it seemed like we had more “stuff” than we thought. But the truth is we all used this opportunity to rid our lives of almost everything of non-necessity. We ended up with bags and bags of clothes, supplies, and toys that probably would have gone to the goodwill. But leave it to God to place a burden on our hearts that also puts a burden on our trucks. We have been dreaming for some time, among the myriad of dreams, of having a free store. It would be a place in the community where the most needy could come occasionally to find the necessities they need and where we our lives could begin to intersect with theirs. The idea has already begun to evolve and will probably be one of our first big initiatives but I will address this more later. It seemed as though half our truck was full of stuff we plan on given away but none the less we set off Tuesday morning with our trucks full and our hearts full of excitement and anticipation. It only took us three hours and some change to get to the rental place and we had our lease signed and keys in hand in no time. At four o-clock we pulled up to our new home and it hit us like a ton of beautiful bricks “We don’t have to go home, we are home!” We unpacked our stuff into the house and set about the business of bringing order to chaos.
I guess it would be appropriate at this time to tell you a little about our new home base. It is a two bedroom duplex built in 1954. It has only one window ac, a tiny kitchen and a mudroom. We have decided to liquidate the mudroom and make it our dining room and we are all going to share one bedroom and make the other for study and relaxing. Late Tuesday night as we continued to unpack Carlos came to see us. I will go further into our story of falling in love with this place and the vision God has given us for it at a later time but it would be hard to overstate the importance Carlos has played in this story. He has been a huge encouragement, grown to be a close brother, and his advice and practical help have been invaluable. He hung out for a while and we continued to dream about what our lives hopefully will be and about what God is already doing in this community.
5/23/07
Today I (Aaron) got up early to go to meet with Scott and Matt (Watershed’s co-pastors) at Starbucks. I guess this is as close a thing to a staff meeting that Watershed ever has. It was a wonderful reunion and our hearts burned as they told me of all that has been going on lately and I informed them of all our “news”. After an hour or so we prayed over the prayer request cards from Sunday and we couldn’t help but get choked up as we prayed through so many praises and needs. It means so much to read a name aloud and meanwhile have our minds register not just that name but also a whole story. There is something so amazing about living amongst people who really value and treat each other as epic novels worth closely rereading and investing themselves in. The rest of the day was spent continuing to put our house in order and meeting our neighbors. We met a man named Roy with a box full of trinkets for sale. It was a short conversation but the exchange was pleasant and he gave us free incense even though we didn’t buy anything and now the house smells great. Our five-year-old neighbor has also taken up the habit of people watching and even though our contact has been limited thus far there is a good chance he will be a close playmate in the near future. Before we knew it night had fallen and still worn from the move we crashed.
5/24/07
This morning began late, as we are still tired from the end of school and moving. We headed straight to Sam’s to finally buy some food as we have been living off scraps so far. We loaded up on the essentials, ate as much free samples as possible (lunch), and headed home. Jesse and Jeremiah got to work on building our kitchen table and I continued to make sense of the house. A few weeks ago, while helping a lady move her fabric store, Jeremiah accrued five large handmade tables. Monday Jeremiah and I had stripped the wood and packed it into the truck first. We had planned on using this wood to build three sets of three man bunk beds for our bedroom. The plan is to have plenty of room to show hospitality to others and nothing will happen in the bedroom except for sleep. Not even our clothes will be kept there. Also we had built a platform in our old house for stadium seating and we had dismantled and packed this as well. This has been transformed into what has already become known as our “Nordic-Viking-man-table”. It looks amazing and cost us nothing. When we finish the bunk beds we will have furnished our entire home with free furniture and furniture built from pre-used wood. It is amazing how much stuff gets thrown away and how much can be redeemed with a little time and effort.
Right as we were about to eat dinner we were lucky enough to have a visitor, Lisa came to visit us. Lisa is another person of peace in this community and she runs a prayer environment here called “24-7”. It is a beautiful place here in Optimist Park where people come to pray, spend time with God, and share a common vision for what the Lord is calling of his people. Lisa had come to share with us that the neighborhood association is reforming in an effort to be more focused in bettering Optimist Park. Apparently there are many avenues to obtain local, state, and national funding for projects that would continue to breath new life into this community. However, as with most things, such opportunities are not possible without leadership and structure to cast vision, plot details, and create structure. Lisa asked if one of us would consider stepping up to be a part of the cabinet. After much discussion it was decided that I (Aaron) would be nominated as either vice-president or secretary. We do not want to be perceived as the new guy know-it-alls but Lisa correctly pointed out that half this neighborhood is just as new as we are and with the new buildings going in we represent the new guard. I hope this will be an avenue to even more effect the kind of change we have been praying for. Hopefully it will be an opportunity to glean the wisdom and gain the respect of the others in the neighborhood and elicit their aid in redeeming every aspect of this community.
We are trying to be as intentional and careful as we can to be the best stewards of everything we come in contact with. Whether it is money, materials, food, or even people we want to be as responsible as possible to make the most of every opportunity. Right now we are almost overwhelmed by all of the options before us but God has given us a subtle peace and we continue to tackle the things before us.
posted by My Epic at 8:43 PM
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