a new week

A few thoughts from Candace…

 Well, we have been in Evanston six weeks, now. This has been a huge transition time for our family. I feel certain that God has been seeing all that we have gone through and has been taking care of our little family. These six weeks have been full of ups and downs, moments of faith and moments of doubt, arguments, tears, hospitality, and loneliness. It’s really easy for me to focus on the worst times and forget that God is here being faithful in all of it. When I think about it, I am sure that God has really taken care of us in more ways than I realize. I know that many of you pray for us – thank you. God has provided us with work and money when we have needed it most. I also believe that God helped us to find a good midwife here in Chicago, which could have been a much bigger challenge. He has also given us the small encouragements and conversations when we needed them. From a sermon we needed to hear this morning to friends coming over tonight – God is with us and ministering to our hearts during a difficult time. For this I want to say, “Praise the Lord!”

 

A prayer request: I have a job interview on Wednesday at 3pm. The job is working part-time helping independent adults with disabilities with life skills. Please pray that I would have discernment about whether or not this is the right job for me. And, if it is, that we would be able to work out our schedules and Jedidiah’s care to accommodate this job.

 

And from Josh:

     Lots of good from this week. Good friends came over tonight. Several different pot-luck meetings. Church this morning was really really good. (I know church can be a frustrating place for people, and you think it should be going a lot better than it is… well Reba church is pretty close to the way it ought to be, in my opinion.) We hosted small group on Tuesday, and I had some thoughts, so I’ll focus in on that.

     It turns out that Bill Maher has a movie out that makes fun of people who have faith (not just Christianity, but all of them). Some people think he’s a genius and really funny. People in our days think that critics are great, and this goes for art as well – it’s best if an artist is commenting on some social problem that they weren’t a part of. I didn’t see the movie or anything, but it led me to some other thoughts. First, I say that Bill Maher can seem really enlightened because he is just criticizing people. He isn’t actively doing anything.

     In group we were talking about stuff, about intentional community and how we want to make Disciples, how I have some evangelical roots and feel I should be helping the lost to know Jesus. But with community living, you’re not always verbalizing your opinions so that people know where you stand. Instead you stand in some place. You stand with your life. Shane Claiborne says we vote every day through our actions.

     I am liking the idea that through community we are actually doing something with our lives. I have always had a lot of interpretations and philosophies and ideals, but there wasn’t a proof of it all. So when I would proselytize it would be about two people agreeing about something or someone. What we are doing now is really basic. There isn’t a fancy way of putting it. It is vulnerable to criticism. But we are doing something. We are trying to live as the Church. We’re trying to obey what we understand to be God’s call on our lives. It may not impress people at parties. But it feels good to be involved with our very lives. 

The Home Front

Family Fun

I wanted to give you guys a quick update on the family. My sister & brother-in-law, Mallary & Chip, came to visit last weekend. We had a great time catching up and exploring new places together. We got to show them around our little neighborhood and introduce them to several new friends here. We also got to go into downtown Chicago, including going to Millennium Park. Mallary, Jedidiah, and I went to the Chicago Botanical Gardens on Saturday afternoon – such a beautiful place! I can’t wait to go back in different seasons. If it was this beautiful in October, I’m

 sure it will be magnificent in the Spring! We also got to go to Reba Church together on Sunday morning. It was great to have some more people see where we are and what we are doing. And it was really great to have people we know and love around – we miss our friends and family! Please know that all of you are welcome to come and visit anytime!

 

Pregnancy update:

I had my first real appointment with my midwife on Tuesday. Everything went really well. I am healthy. The baby is healthy and even a little big for this point in the pregnancy. I will probably be able to have a sonogram in about a month!

 

A few recent Jedidiah stories:

I made homemade carrot cake pancakes tonight. Jedi could not get enough of them – I think he might have eaten more than I did! After several helpings, he looked at me and said, “More pancakes, please.” I said, “I’m worried that you’re going to get sick from eating too many pancakes.” He thought for a second and then replied: “Oh well.”  When he got up from eating his tummy was v

isibly full, and he enjoyed pooching it out to show us his pancake belly.

 

At my midwife appoint

ment on Tuesday, Jedidiah was su

ch a sweetie. The midwife gave him toys to play with during the appointment, but he was really more interested in watching everything she did. He especially enjoyed listening to the baby’s heartbeat. He even watched intently while the midwife drew blood from my arm – surprising that it wasn’t disturbing at all to him! At the end of the appointment, as we were leaving, Jedidiah turned and looked directly at the midwife. He told her, very sweetly and responsibly, “Thank you for toys. Thank you for hearing baby.” The midwife was touched by his kind recognition. I think he is finally beginning to have a faint idea about the reality of there being a baby inside of mommy; although, he still thinks he can feel the baby by putting his finger in my belly button!

 

Jedi has a funny new thing that he does lately. He finds a spot – maybe on his bed, on the couch, or even sitting on the arm of the couch. Then he piles blankets, shirts, coats, stuffed animals – whatever he can find – on top of his lap. THEN he just sits – for a long time! He’ll be really quiet, and we’ll ask, “What are you doing, Jedi?” His simple reply is “sitting.” He’ll sit for up to half an hour like this!

 It’s really a nice, quiet activity – but so funny to me!

insight + job

     We have talked about trying to blog at least every Sunday, starting today.  I hope that this happens, but that is just talk at the moment. 

Insight:

     I’ve had several insights in the last two weeks, but haven’t taken the time to write them out. They are a little stale in my mind, but I’ll try to recount them.

     It is refreshing to be around the congregation / community / church that is Reba Place. The people here are committed to Jesus in a way that we are or at least as we want to be. Coming from the institutional religious environment we were in, I can say that we are refreshed, challenged, and ministered to by this new place.

     The worship meeting is something really special for me. It is really different to spend time with folks who believe that Jesus’ commands and teachings are a serious possibility. Different in the light of our experiences with more socially acceptable type Christians, and interpretations that make Jesus more palatable for Americans. 

     Last Sunday at the end of the service, there was a young woman who came to the front during our congregational sharing time and she was really open about her troubles and she felt safe to do that. Though I always like the sharing time because it’s spontaneous and interactive and people come to church with the idea that God may speak through them or want them to do something, this instant was significant for me. This lady speaking from her heart about her own problems, being really vulnerable was revealing the environment of sincere people with genuine acceptance of messy people and their flaws. The reaction of the congregation was full of grace as well, and I would guess the woman feels more comfortable after doing this. I am thankful to have finally found a church like this. Because I am a mess, and I need to talk through it.

     This accepting environment isn’t complicated or hard to pull off logistically. The thing is, it takes a group of people well trained in grace and truth. It takes a lot of trust on the part of the vulnerable one. And for me, I feel like I keep loosing trust in church folk. So there is hope here.

Job front:

     I really like the job I’ve had at the picture frame shop. I like the quality of work that we do, and I really like working with a lot of people who do not know Jesus. Unfortunately, as I have already reported, the pay doesn’t cut it. So through a lot of stress and some prayer, and some sharing, I have been offered a job at Plain and Simple (the Amish furniture shop that Reba Place owns). We should be able to make the pay work at the new salary. Something particularly cool about this is that I will get a first-hand look into the practical business side of running a community. If we continue on this journey to one day form a community of our own, this experience will be really good, and I would have never thought to train myself in business on my own. Plus, I’ll get to work directly with the Amish – awesome!

JWM Sunday 10.19.008

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.