Life as I know it

So for the past three weeks or so, you could almost say that life is becoming routine. Our household has come up with a schedule for our evenings: Monday = Allendale area meeting, Tuesday = men's and women's groups, Wednesday = neighborhood dinner and chores, Thursday = Barrett date night and HH free night, Friday = HH night (work for an hour then do something fun, though working together is really fun too), Saturday = Lord's Day, Sunday = get ready to do it again. Laura Brummer and I (the two members of our household who have the most time available for mission work) have been working on developing a weekly schedule. The best/our available times to do mission work vary according to the day and what type of mission work we want to do, so we have a set amount of hours budgeted each day for things like billable work, mission work, and meditations and then assign exact times during our morning run. I had the wonderful revelation this week that my current "normal" pattern of life means that I am usually doing a different activity every couple of hours. To give you an idea of what life is like, here's some of the things I was doing at various times last Thursday,

5:25am wake up to go running at the Galiliee track with Laura
6:30 household morning prayer and breakfast
7:30 personal prayer
9:00 work - I do administrative work for Action and Partners in Service. Its almost time to start applications for Action trips so on Thursday I did some work getting ready for that and finished the thank you cards and end of year statements for Partners in Service regular donors
1:00pm - taking a grandma and some of her grandkids (some good friends of ours in the neighbohood) to see another of the grandkids who is in the hospital
4:00 - visiting and praying with a neighbor who is very sick from Lupus and cancer.
4:45 meditation on Jesus' presentation in the temple
6:00 dinner with household. Joan, who usually have class on thursday nights, gets to join us.
7:30 skype conference with the MIS work section in Dinkytown. They are designing the Action application website.
8:30 phone conversation with Mike Zusi about action work
9:45 laughing in the living room with Cathy and Laura, reading a chapter from a book I got for Christmas: Jesus of Nazareth, Benedict XVI's scripture study on Jesus.
10:30 bedtime

Though I know that its extremely likely life could look very different in a few weeks (and am totally fine with that) I must admit that I have enjoyed three weeks of a somewhat similar structure. Praise God for all the work he has given us to do!

Thanksgiving and Office Transformation

I'm in vast danger of becoming an ex-blogger if I don't post something soon. If I tried to write about the whole fall it would just be a horrid over-simplification and boring, so I will write as if I have been posting regularly and if you want to be filled in on some missing details just send me an e-mail.

We got to celebrate Thanksgiving three times this year in Allendale. T1 was the Saturday before thanksgiving with the Shreveport branch. It was a pot-luck thanksgiving, the food was wonderful, and its always great to spend time with the branch and find out what God is doing in their lives. T2 was our neighborhood thanksgiving celebration on Tuesday. There were 47 people there!! And we (household, Seitzes, plus Chris Veick and Ellen Reed (here from headquarters to help us figure things out in Allendale - Praise God)) only made up 14 of those people. That means we had about twice as many Allendale neighbors as came to thanksgiving last year. We made a turkey and two hams and a few desserts, and relied on the Lord and our neighbors to bring the rest. There was more than enough food for all. We had a sit-down dinner in the great room of 34 and before dinner we praised God together and Nathan talked about how God wants us to work with him to build his Kingdom. T2 was a real tangible sign that we are building city-life in Allendale.

T3 was a whole weekend celebration involving the Work College graduates, the Indy missionaries, Jen, Amy and Kathleen from Dinkytown, and J.T. making a return visit to Allendale. People arrived and left and various points in the weekend. We turkeytrotted, the guys had a turkey-bowl (football game) with neighborhood guys, we played volleyball in the rain, built puzzles, made music, and cooked and baked and ate and talked and cooked and baked and ate and talked some more. On Sunday those of us still here all went to Sunrise baptist (the church that the Chatmans attend) and the pastor there read the Isaiah for Allendale prophecy (its in the Allendale issue of Vine and Branches) while Sean and the communications work section videotaped him and other parts of the service. They are making a movie that will go up on U-Tube.

In typical Allendale fashion we put all our guests to work on Friday. Doors got moved at Windows Doors and More and we painted the two back rooms of 42 (the house where the guys used to sleep but which is now a common house). Then when rain spoiled our plans of going to a lake on Saturday, many not up for volleyball in the rain volunteered to keep painting. One thing led to another, and by Sunday night we had decided that now was the time to execute our plans to transform the common office. Thus began a whirlwind week. The office is now totally repainted, all of the desks and stuff that had piled up in it are gone, we have beautiful tables and shelves that we made from doors (thank you again Windows Doors and More), and the new design will allow more of us to work in common in the office. All that was possible thanks to Genevieve, Cathy, and Chris coming up with the plan, Nick leading the charge on painting, everyone pitching in on painting, guys working till 10:30 on thursday night making the tables after a long day of work in 1430, and much much more. Thanksgiving honestly feels like a really long time ago because of how much work we got done this week!

So as I was thinking about all of this (both our wonderful thanksgiving celebrations and the miraculous transformation of the office) I am truly in awe of the life the Lord has given me. A life where people will drive 13 hours through the night just to get here and spend the whole next day painting or moving doors. Where people who don't even live here have so much ownership in the life that they are all too happy to spend their vacation redoing our office. The Lord really cares about paint, and furniture, and arrangement of space. When Jesus said I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly he really meant it. These past two weeks of celebrating and working have been full of abundant life and much of the work has been to make our daily life more abundant. Thank you Lord.

I'll post pictures as soon as everything is set up...

End of the Summer

Summer in Allendale is officially coming to a close. The last team came and went, the summer staff has packed their bags and headed back to college, David, Gretchen, and Liz have moved to South Bend, Brian and Tom have moved back, Joan is back teaching, and Nathan and Genevieve's wedding is fast approaching. I'm wondering when it will sink in that I'm really staying here and that for the first time in seventeen years I won't be going back to school this fall, and all of us are trying to figure out what God wants us to be doing in the neighborhood and as a household this fall. Yet despite these uncertainties, life in Allendale continues to be as rich as ever. Here's some highlights of the past few weeks:

A whole day spent with neighbors: On the last day of the last team I was blessed with many opportunities to serve our neighbors. In the morning I took a neighbor to the doctor for a checkup and played with her two children while we waited, during lunch I helped a neighbor call her gas company to resolve a suspicious looking bill, in the early afternoon I gave one of the neighborhood boys his first piano lesson, and before dinner I gave a high school girl a ride to work. God keeps making it clear to me that there is a whole lot of work he has for us to do in the neighborhood, and that he is excited that I am here as a missionary and won't be working full time.

Baking Cookies: I spent a recent morning backing cookies with three junior high/high school age girls from the neighborhood. Two of the girls were good friends, but it was fun to watch the three of them get to know each other better as we backed. And we had such fun baking. I was hoping to persuade the girls to give some of their cookies away to other people in the neighborhood, and they ended up suggesting that idea themselves. They put the cookies in small bags on which they wrote, "the Lord loves you." We then spent about 30-45 minutes driving around the neighborhood delivering the cookies to both friends and strangers.

A household vacation: All ten of us got to spend a weekend together at the Lynch's cabin on Lake Clairborne. I hadn't realized how much I had missed going up to my grandparents cabin on Big Eagle Lake in MN until I got my first view of the Lake, it was like the Minnesotan part of my soul was finally at peace. The vacation was amazing. We had beautiful weather and plenty of time for swimming, diving, kayaking, volleyball, hikes, walks, cards, good food, good conversations, getting sunburnt, and spectacular stargazing. And then Brian and Tom surprised us for Lord's Day! All in all it was great time to spend together as a household and an opportunity to honor David, Gretchen, and Liz as we send them out to serve the Lord in South Bend.

An unexpected trip to South Bend: On Wednesday August 15th, David, Gretchen, and Liz moved to South Bend. Brian and Thomas were going with them to attend the Company Convention in South Bend. The five of them had to take three cars because two cars were staying in South Bend with Gretchen and David, and Brian and Tom needed a car to come back. Thus there were 5 drivers and 3 cars - less than two drivers per car for a 16 hour road trip. So, given that I don't have a job or a fixed schedule yet in Allendale, I was able to go with them to help drive. It was a really fun. It was great to literally see Gretchen, David, and Liz off and get to be a part of all Work College preparations going on that weekend. We stopped in Indy on the way there and the way back and were fed both times - the first fruits of having more People of Praise cities in the Mississippi Valley. I stayed with the one:ten women at the Colfax house (a glorious house) and the Indy missionary women visited on Friday and Saturday. I also got to attend my first South Bend branch community meeting - which is fitting seeing that I am technically a member of the South Bend branch.

Praise God for all that he is doing, I don't know what the fall will entail but I can't wait to find out.

Pictures from Camp

Here are some pictures from camp. There are more on www.citybuilder.org

Walking home from camp

Tronoid, Ranzell, Snappy and Rico wait for their cars

I'm making Rudy Rootbeer

Drumming in the Rain

A Thankyou note from a camper

Courtney and Latrell under the parachute

Praise Dancing

Making Puzzles

Jump-rope

Lots of Kids

I got you!

Allendale Day Camp 2007

The two week whirlwind of camp is over, and I still can't stop praising God for how well it went. The best thing about camp this year was the number of campers! Last year we averaged about 20 kids a day the second week, with only a core group of 10 coming almost every day and on one afternoon we had 30 kids. This year we had a core group of 25 kids who came every day, and an average of 30 kids each day during the second week, with 36 coming on the last day. We've never had that many kids come every day and it made a huge difference. We were really able to build relationships with the kids, show them God's love, and have tons and tons of fun!

Here are some highlights from this year:
- making so many chalk pictures on the street that we had to keep going to the store to buy more chalk
- decorating leather bracelets with cool stamps lent to us by Bunny Simmones
- home-made gak, silly putty and play-doh, especially the gak made from glitter glue
- making magnets with our favorite scripture verses
- endless jump rope
- learning to throw frisbees, playing ultimate football, using the water balloon launcher
- making ice-cream, s'mores, and ants on a log
- plaster paris hand prints
- making and racing pinewood derby cars
- BUBBLES!
- The Shark and Birdy Song
- Praise Dancing: the older girls learned a dance to the song Something About the Name Jesus, they would practice for an hour every day and love every minute of it, and gave an excellent performance at the barbecue
- Drumline: the boys drumline, led by Jared Gonzalez and Mark Sklorenko, had several different parts to it this year, which included some of the boys marching around and Jared singing Lean on Me. Practicing drumline was one of the boys favorite activities, and it was very evident at the barbecue.
- All the older and younger girls singing and doing the actions to the Love the Lord your God song at the barbecue
- Rudy Rootbeer!
- Honoring our campers on the last day
- Receiving thankyou notes from some of our campers one morning
- an amazingly awesome staff!

Camp was not without its difficult moments. Having so many kids, particularly more older boys than ever before, meant we had new discipline problems and that our staff had to be always adapting and changing. We learned what it meant to be at the end of our rope and discovered that God is right there, giving us the energy we don't have and making our supplies go just a little farther.

Now that camp is over I am working to continue building the relationships that started at camp. I am trying to stay in contact with all the kids and keep having them over regularly, in the hope of creating some kind of after school program in the fall. Jesus says let the little children come to me for the Kingdom of God is theirs. Father, help us to bring your kingdom to the children of Allendale.

Camp has started!

Yesterday was our first day of Allendale day camp. On Tuesday I finally got to meet all of my camp staff, we had an extremely productive training day, and were ready for kids on Wednesday morning. One of the challenges of Allendale camp is you never know how many kids are coming and who is coming. Usually they aren't many kids the first few days, but as camp continues more kids keep trickling in. I had been talking to kids that I knew in the neighborhood about camp all summer but I really had no clue who was going to show up that first day. We had 18 kids come yesterday! That was more than twice as many as we had on the first day of camp last year. And most of our campers were between the ages of 9 and 12 which is just awesome. This morning we had 20 kids, and this afternoon we had 28. Last year the most we ever had was 30 and that was at the end of camp. Praise God! He is truly sending us kids and these kids want to be here. Thus far we have made and decorated hoola-hoops, built bug boxes, played with water balloons, made home-made magnets with scripture verses on them, made plaster paris handprints, and tons of chalk, jump rope, four square and tag games. Keep praying that God sends us kids and that we can really show them the Father's love.

A week in Indy

The week of the 4th was our week off in Allendale (i.e. we didn't have a team down), and Laura Brummer and I were blessed to be able to visit our fellow missionaries in Indianapolis (Indy). There are 12 People of Praise missionaries living in Indy this summer. This past school year they were preaching and talking to as many college students at IUPUI as they could (check out jesusatiupui.com) and this summer they have been preaching in a neighborhood called the South Side. Though the houses are not falling down as much as they are in Allendale, the neighborhood has many of the same problems. Basic poverty, drugs, crime, broken families, and lonely people who are afraid to step out of their houses. The missionaries spend about four hours each day in this neighborhood, knocking on doors, preaching, offering people a new way to live, baptizing them in the Holy Spirit, teaching them how to pray or how to ask forgiveness, healing people, and visiting the lonely. They get weird looks, polite no thankyous, hostile rejections and have to eat plenty of doorknobs to find the people who are hungry to the know the Lord, and want to join us in building Christian community in this broken neighborhood. It was a real gift to be able to join them in their work for a week. I got to preach to several people in Spanish and witness first hand that being a missionary is not about knowing the right thing to say, its about having no clue but opening your mouth anyway and trusting in God to act, and then seeing Him do it!!

It was also wonderful to be able to join the household in their everyday life. The Indy missionaries are living by faith, thus all the food that they eat and all the furniture in their house is what the Lord has provided. I never knew that rice and beans came in so many varieties. They also spend large parts of their day devoted to prayer, study of scripture and the lives of holy men and women, and missionary training. I'm learning that to be a missionary it's necessary to really know scripture, to be able to quote it chapter and verse in a language that everyone will understand.

Another definite highlight was getting to spend time with so many of my brothers and sisters. I got to spend time with Naomi Caneff, my former roommate and housemate at the University of Portland, and had the unexpected delight of seeing the 1:10 household at our joint 4th of July celebration half way between Indy and South Bend. It was a beautiful day and not lacking in joyous and competitive volleyball games.

Thankyou Father for all you are doing in Indianapolis, continue to build your kingdom there, in Allendale, and in all the places that you send us!