Reflections on the day...

Today in class we started by playing the game "Honey, If You Love Me"... yes it was jouvinile (did I spell that right?) Abby... if you're reading this, I pulled the whole "I love you. I've loved you since the day I laid eyes on you..." and got someone to crack a smile.

We then transitioned into what worked to get people to smile. You have to be creative. You can't just go striaght to the point. You need to tailor it to the person, which requires knowing the person. We then translated that into how we need to present the Gospel to the culture of the community surrounding The Mercy House.

After class we started "debating" whether we wanted to have a Sunday night worship time and if so, would it be every Sunday and would it be interns only or open to the church. We realized this was being debated because of a bigger issue of some people not feeling like our sense of community is what we wanted from the beginning. We need to be intentional. We need time to voice our hurts and frustrations with each other. This time cannot be scheduled, it needs to happen, and that can only happen if we live inentionally.

Came back to the house for lunch. There was a note on the front porch for Matt. He read it to us. It was from a guy who has been attending our church (Matt didn't tell us the name) and he said that he had gotten caught up in the wrong crowd, had been drinking and doing drugs, had a bad relationship with a girl, etc. Had been searching for God on his own and has felt like all the sermons at TMH have been aimed directly at him and he wants so badly to feel like a part of the community.

We keep throwing that word around, but do we really know what it means?

Later this afternoon we went back over to the church to hang out. There were some kids on the playground and I started swinging with them. I started talking to one of the girls, she's going into 4th grade. She was telling me how her sister is 22 and has a baby. She said she wanted to go to college and be a teacher and a doctor. She asked if we owned the playground. I told her we bought the building (for those who don't know it's an old elementary school) and that the playground was part of it, but they could use it whenever they wanted. She asked if we were in high school. I told her we were in college. I told her that the guys lived in the building. She told me her stomach hurt. She told me she needs help with math and science but she likes spelling. She told me next fall her teacher is going to be Miss Brown and she asked if I had her. I told her I lived in Michigan.

I realized that so many Christians (myself included) feel like they can go on a trip to NYC or DC (or anywhere else) and hang out with some underprivilaged kids there and feel good about themselves. There are kids who are just as hurting in our own towns. Get out there and hang out with them! It's not that hard.

Oh and I got to hang out with Shannon for a bit today. I like her. She's cool. (She went on the trip, we bonded, and she is dating Chris, one of the interns, and her brother, Steven, lives w/ the guys though he is not an intern and is at our house a lot. Like right now. Playing the guitar. I like the sound).