Houses built for hospitality

Houses built for hospitality

     One thing about the town of Evanston, where we live, is that there are a lot of large old houses – built when people had large immediate families. Evanston is still a fairly quiet place to live, especially considering we are less than a mile from the city of Chicago. Fancy condos are being built right around the corner from us too.

     We know a couple that lives here at Reba Place that is zealous for the poor. They have been spending a lot of time in the poorest part of Chicago, a neighborhood called Fort Heights. Ironically, Fort Heights was once a suburb built for people to raise their families in. The wave of poverty and urban decay, mixed with gentrification forced the poor of the inner city to move out to places where they could afford housing. The middle-class and wealthy either moved back into the downtown area, or further out to more comfortable suburbs.

     All that to say we’ve heard the houses of Fort Heights are not very good for hospitality. Reba Place here in Evanston owns some of the largest houses I have seen (keep in mind multiple families will live in one). A Reba house has plenty of room in the dining area for lots of people to face each other. A Fort Heights house has several tiny bedrooms, a kitchen that’s small, and no dining room.

     Anthropologists might look at the differences and note that older generations were willing to spend time at home with guests. Suburbanites moved away from the crowd to live a more isolated life. Isolated with a front lawn.

     We are struggling financially. Whenever we say that, people seem to get uncomfortable and want to ignore it. People in Evanston are upwardly mobile, climbing ladders of success. And I am seriously tempted by that lifestyle. We came to Reba Place to find another way of living. “Downward mobility is inward mobility,” says Henri Nouwen.

     I am not trying to get people to send us money. I am trying to be transparent about our place in life. We don’t have all we need, but I am coveting comforts that I see around. I am trusting God to provide, but that trust ebbs and flows. Some days I feel like panicking.

 

 

An update on the family…

 

Jedidiah seems to be finding his routine again. We have had several weeks of feeling “off” – none of us sleeping very well, finding our way around a new area, still trying to unpack boxes, and just generally adjusting to new ways of doing things. I think it’s still going to take us awhile, but at least we are all finding more of a daily rhythm. We are beginning to see more familiar faces when we walk to the park or go to a meeting. Jedidiah gets excited now to see people he recognizes. These are small steps, but they give us hope. I always forget how long it takes to feel at home in a new place.

 

The pregnancy is going well. I still feel exhausted and sick frequently, but I am now having days in between when I feel fairly energetic. After visiting with all of the midwives in the state of Illinois who legally do home birth (there are only 4), we have decided on the ones we want to work with (2 of them who work together). We feel thankful that we were able to find these women so quickly and that we have found midwives with a great deal of experience. We feel like God is taking care of us in all of this. I am about 15 weeks along now, and I still have not had an official appointment! I am very much looking forward to getting things started in this way. With Jedidiah, we had the freedom and open schedules to be able to spend more time focusing on praying for him and preparing for his arrival. This time, I haven’t really had a chance to think about being pregnant – too many other things going on! Thank you to all of you who have been lifting up this little one in prayer!

 

Josh’s job continues to go well. He enjoys his coworkers, many of whom are artists. We are thankful that he gets to come home for lunch every day. I am still looking for work. There is a possibility of a short-term position at our church. Other people from the community have mentioned other possible job opportunities. Please pray for us to be able to discern what is the right job and for that job to pay enough to cover our family’s expenses. We are trusting God that He will provide, and we need you standing in prayer and faith with us.