We made it back

We're finally back in the Burgh! I'll post the remainder of my journal entries from Mexico City soon. We had an amazing time in the city, and I learned many urban ministry principles that should be applicable to Pittsburgh. I'm looking forward to sharing these experiences in person with family and friends. I now have 60 days to complete a project regarding the implementation here in this city.

BGU Journal 7/21/09

There is a lot of diversity in the Zocalo, the political, economic, and religous hub of Mexico City. Street vendors interact with businessmen in suits. Poor, middle class, and affluent people all interact with one another, including many different cultures and races. In America, our zoning and city planning have intentionally divided subgroups of people. There is usually not much diversity in American cities because we have set things up so that different groups of people do not interact. This type of city planning originated in London, where the first modern suburb was created. During that time, a group of Wesleyans did not want their women and children exposed to the messiness of urban London, so they withdrew to the outskirts of town to set up a sterile environment devoid of any unpleasantness. This process continues to this day, with many evangelical Christians in America withdrawing their families from the messiness of urban environments. I argue that this process harms society on many different levels, and sterile environments often bring about unintended negative consequences to these families.

God calls us as followers of Christ to engage and influence culture, not to withdraw from it. Why are so many Christians in Pittsburgh fleeing the city for the suburbs? Many Christians are fleeing older suburbs such as Shaler and North Hills for newer suburbs in Wexford and Cranberry because the urban problems have started to spread out from the city. In a few years the problems will reach Wexford and Cranberry, and then the suburbs will probably go out even further from the city center. Does God call us to be comfortable? Did Jesus live in a sterile environment apart from sinners?

Professor Gomez lectured again today about the rise and fall and rise again of the powerful Roman Catholic Church in Mexico City. It was a fascinating lecture about the gospel that is lost when church leaders intend to become influential and powerful. After the lecture, we visited Compassion International's offices in Mexico City. Many people know about this organization, and they work with over 20,000 children in central Mexico. We studied their ministry model, in which adults (many from the United States) sponsor a child for around $40 per month. I could tell that many children were being impacted, and the organization was very passionate and efficient about their calling. Compassion has a huge niche in the nonprofit world, but they are very much a top-down model of transformation. In other words, they bring outside resources (from other countries) to needy people. Bottom-up ministries work with poor people by equipping and empowering them to draw themselves out of poverty without much outside assistance. The bottom-up model is extremely transformational for communities. This does not mean that organizations like Compassion are not effective in what they do, it is just that often their ministries lean more towards mercy instead of justice.

Tomorrow we will be visiting a ministry model that is intentionally integral, or bottom-up. I am looking forward to seeing how this is implemented. I do not really have any problems with Compassion, but I am sometimes frustrated by people who give money to children who live in poverty half way across the world but do not notice the children living in poverty in their own city? It is easier to write a check to a child in a distant land than it is to mentor a child in Homewood. Mentoring kids in Homewood costs not only money, but time and talent. This is where much spiritual growth occurs, more so than writing a check. Also, much tranformation and life change occurs through the combination of compassion and justice.

BGU Journal 7/20/09

Doctoral study is not about sophisticated content. It is about a new level of intentionality regarding the most basic things in life. The basics include such things as food, water, housing, and fellowship. If our ministries are not clearly addressing the basics of the human condition, then we are doomed to fail. We are also doomed to fail apart from God's intervention in people's lives.

Our first lecturer this morning was Professor Christian Gomez, who spoke to us about Aztec culture. The Toltecas came before the Aztecs, and they actually worshiped a monotheistic god that had dual masculine and feminine characteristics. The people described the god as "always near." It was not a bloodthirsty religion. The goal of humanity during this period of time was to grow in moral character. Medidation on god was important and art forms developed. This all changed during the Aztec era when they emphasized a super-god system among many gods, including the offering of human sacrifeces to the sun god. At one point the Aztecs were sacrificing over 8,000 people per day, with four lines of people stretching at least one kilometer long from the temple. The people that were sacrificed were captured from neighboring tribes. Their hearts were pulled out while they were still alive. The people burned certain parts of the bodies to the gods, and they ate many of the body parts that were left. The Aztecs believed they were commissioned by the sun god to be rulers over the other tribes, so they justified their practices. This same justification was used later on by the Catholic Church for torturing and killing indigenous people if they did not accept Catholicism.

Today there are over 10 million indigenous people in Mexico who speak many different dialects. Because they yearn for independence, they often look to their past and the glory of the Aztec days instead of progressing forward or reinventing themselves. They worship many different things, which often causes difficulty in modern attempts to spread the gospel message. The mestizo culture, which is the majority in Mexico, is still strangely tied into forms of pre-Columbian worship which they have mixed in with Roman Catholicism. The Catholic Church has allowed these mixtures of religous symbols, and many people did not have access to the Bible for hundreds of years so they did not know any other way to worship. The Protestant Church has a difficult time making progress in Mexico because they ordinarily do not allow people to continue worshipping other idols tied in to ancient religious practices.

Roman Catholicism was the only religion practiced in Mexico for 400 years, starting in the 1500s when the Spanish arrived. For most of this time, indigenous people were violently tortured or killed if they did not convert to Catholicism from their old religions. A person who did not pay their tithe to the church was either stoned to death or burned alive. Catholic beliefs were imposed by fines, by having feet and hands put into stocks, having stones hanging from your feet, or by being placed into slavery to work for priests. The Bible itself was prohibited, and the Spanish intentionally made sure the indigenous population had a 100% illiteracy rate. The Catholic Church for much of this time owned over 50% of the land in Mexico, and they were rich in cash that was piled up in storehouses in the churches. Eventually the indigenous people and the mestizos rebelled. In 1821 they gained their independence from Spain, but only after forming a strange union with the Catholic Church that stated that Roman Catholicism would be the only religion practiced in Mexico. Currently, the evangelical church is gaining ground in Mexico, even though the Vatican II opened the Bible to the Catholic people of Mexico in 1961. It is still a struggle today because the Catholic Church is tied into every aspect of life here, including politics and the economy.

Another lecturer, Professor Fermin, spoke about the history of relations between the USA and Mexico from a Mexican perspective. When the Spanish conquered the indigenous people in Mexico, it created a culture of death and defeat that continues even to this day. When Columbus arrived there were 100 million people living in Latin America. After 100 years, there were only 5 million indigenous people remaining because of the arrivial of the Spanish. Over the past two hundred years ago, Mexico has felt like it has always had to push the US back due to geographic proximity. The US played a huge role in the revolution of 1910. Basically, the Catholic Church wanted to maintain power against the revolutionaries so they supported the US militaries interests. 10,000 US troops invaded Mexico illegally, but the revolutionaries eventually won anyway. This created great resentment on the part of the Mexican people toward the US. Things improved following WWI, when the US was permitted to build up infrastructure in Mexico to import their oil and mining materials. Tourism to Mexico greatly increased as well during this time. Things continued to improve after WWII, but they got progessively worse when America became a world superpower. Mexico got into debt to the US, and the relationship now is very inhumane and predatory. This has especially occurred with the arrival of NAFTA. It was intended to be a good policy, but the US has looked out for its own interests to produce profit and not supported the intentions of improvements in Mexico's economic infrastructure. There are many problems with free trade between the countries. There is a move to stem the influence of American culture here, even though that process has been made more difficult by the rise of globalization.

Protestants missionaries from the US have helped to spread the gospel in Mexico recently, but many Mexicans still feel like they are imposing American culture on the country instead of sharing the gospel. Many pastors in Mexico think they can succeed by rubber stamping American models into their churches, so things like the prosperity doctrine are huge here among evangelical churches. A competitive spirit has grasped the mind of Christians here, and the country is becoming a free market for souls and churches.

This afternoon I participated in a scavenger hunt with Julie, Derek, and Muthu. It was an interesting way to learn about new things in the city. I loved the National Palace, which had many murals depicting the historical life of Mexicans. I also loved the Cathedral, but it was hard for me knowing that such a beautiful church was built on the backs of indigenous people who were tortured and killed by the people in the church.

For the remainder of the day we rode a tourist bus around the city. Everything about this place is amazing, from the parks to the statues to the modern buildings to the traditional architecture and everything in between. This is probably my favorite city I have ever been to, including LA and NY. It is much bigger and it has much more culture. This place is the soul of Hispanic culture around the world.

The presentations this morning provided a solid background from which to study this great city. You cannot grasp the culture here without understanding the history. Pittsburgh feels extremely small compared to Mexico City. However, I did pick up on some things that I may be able to apply in my ministry context. I need to be careful of projecting my culture onto my friends in Homewood. I need to respect the work that God is already doing in Homewood through other individuals, churches, and organizations. I need to continue to seek to understand the history of oppression that is such a large part of the African American culture in America. I should not offend people and then try to explain it away by saying that it was "unintentional." Studying context is a huge part of my development as a leader.

BGU Journal 7/19/09

It is Sunday, and our group has a travel day. At 5am this morning we said goodbye to our friends at SENDAS (students and faculty). As we flew in to land at Mexico City, I was overwhelmed by the magnitude of the urban sprawl. I have never seen anything like it. It makes Los Angeles and New York look small, but then again it does have 28 million people. We are holding our classes in a building called Casa de las Amigos, a place owned by Quakers who welcome international students and volunteers from around the world.

Julie and I walked around the city in the afternoon. It was so cool experiencing new sights and sounds. The city is much more modern and clean than I had anticipated. It has its own unique culture that has been greatly impacted by globalization and urbanization. I walked the streets with an urban lens, focusing first on people and then on structures.

In the evening our professors led us through a time of reflection from the previous week, while introducing us to what we can expect for the upcoming week. Several things seperate Mexico City from San Jose. It is much bigger, has a much greater depth of history, has a convergence of three main cultures, the role of the Catholic church is much different (much more secular here), and it has intense regionalism. I'll be learning much more tomorrow.

Internet difficulties

I have had a tough time getting connected to the net here in Mexico City. Hopefully I have figured it out and I can now continue posting my daily reflections.

BGU Journal 7/18/09

I am writing this while sitting on the back porch of our apartment here at SENDAS. It is 7:30pm here, and it has already been dark for over an hour. A thunderstorm has yielded to a rain storm that is falling gently on our aluminum roof. This is my last night in Costa Rica. Today we woke up early for a day of touring the areas around San Jose. It was nice to see the rural areas of Costa Rica after spending most of the week in the urban environment of San Jose. We visited a volcano at 11,000 feet above sea level, stopped by the oldest church in Costa Rica where a wedding was being held, fished for trout that we ate for lunch, and finished the day off with coffee and desserts at a restaurant overlooking a lake in paradise. Life does not get much better than this!

Rest is an important part of urban ministry. I cannot lead well if I am not physically and spiritually healthy. One of my favorite authors is John Eldredge, who writes about finding our hearts in nature. Another one of my favorite authors is Ray Bakke, who writes about finding meaning in cities. I have had a difficult time bridging these two philosophies in my life. For me, life is a mixture of intense work in urban places and intentional rest in natural areas as needed. I believe that God can be found in nature and in cities. God is present in the power of a waterfall, or in the living room of a single mother in the inner city who is desperate to keep her son out of a gang. Today I experienced what it was like to rest in the beauty of nature after experiencing the beauty of complex urban environments throughout the week. God set a great example for us by resting during creation, so we should also seek time to rest.

I am learning that most Christians in America view God through a rural or suburban lens. Cities are understood as messy and complex, while nature is viewed as beautiful and normative. I never really paid any attention to this until about three or four years ago, but when you look closely you'll notice that most Christian images in America depict images of nature. In other words, God is found in nature, not cities. Many suburban Christians in America try to escape the messiness of cities in order to create their own natural comforts in suburbia. People do not like to think of life as messy.

Please don't misunderstand me. I am not saying that the suburbs and nature are bad, or that people who live this lifestyle are wrong. I lived in these areas for most of my life, and most of my friends and family still live in areas like that. The suburbs and rural areas are important to the life of healthy societies. I am only saying that God is in the city as well. God can be found in complex urban environments. Jesus did not come to the earth to be comfortable, devoid of any type of unpleasantness. He came to the earth to suffer and die for all of us. He spent most of his life as a homeless person, and he spent a great deal of time with sinners in complex, urban settings. He valued urban places, but he also knew how to withdraw and rest in places where there was not much activity. Jesus modeled a life of engaging in intense urban ministry and withdrawing to nature in order to be ready for the next time out.

I would love to learn how to rest more effectively upon return to Pittsburgh. Usually about every six months Julie can tell that I need some time away by myself. Over the past few years I have taken refreshing trips to places like Gettysburg, Laurel Highlands, and Niagara Falls. Lately, these DMin classes have proven to be an effective break for me from urban ministry. Although I spend a great deal of time studying on these trips, at least I am able to step away from the routines of life and focus on one thing for a period of time. In addition to having a huge impact on my leadership skills, I have also been able to reset my life in order to plunge back in to my ministry context in Pittsburgh.

BGU Journal 7/17/09

It's another beautiful day in Costa Rica. Dr. Tink and Dr. White started our day off by debriefing our experiences from the past two days. Dr. Tink noted that heresy is a truth exagerrated that ignores the balance of the rest of truth. Orthodoxy is designed primarily by heresy, so perhaps heresy presents an opportunity even while presenting a great danger. He believes God can convert cults, so we should study these movements to see if we can find leverage. TV evangelists are influential because they address the issues of moral, economic, and charismatic empowerment that needy people are looking for in their lives. The heresy is that the Holy Spirit does empower, but he also cleanses. Empowerment without cleansing is legalism, and it is deceptive or even demonic. It does nothing for you because cleaning and empowerment need to be married. Also, sustainable empowerment and life change are not ordinarily instantaneous because a process of discipleship is ordinarily needed.

Dr. Tink then described an analogy of an urban jungle. Similar to natural jungles, urban jungles are very different places depending on whether it is night or day. A jungle canopy has many different layers, ranging from the powerful animals at the top to the vermin and insects at the bottom. Similarly, urban jungles are multilayered with affluent people, poor people, and many other kinds of people in between. Transformational urban leaders are able to connect with all layers of people in the urban jungle. We cannot focus on the poor and turn our backs on the affluent when seeking to transform communities. Nehemiah is an example of a leader who leveraged the complexities of the urban jungle to achieve the transformation of a city.

This week I have been experienced the collapse of discreet boundaries between Catholics and Protestants, poor and wealthy, male and female, church and parachurch, academics and praxis, history and hope, action and reflection, and private spirituality and public pain. Transformational leaders learn to embrace joy in the midst of suffering. Urban ministry is costly, but suffering is the gateway to joy. We should tie our suffering to the suffering of Christ. Most church leaders engage in solutions without first seeking to understand the people or context of the problem. America's motto is "Don't just sit there, do something!" In the case of urban ministry, our motto ought to be "Don't just do something, sit there!" There are lessons to be learned when we put ourselves in proximity to suffering that cannot be learned otherwise.

I need to influence the influencers in Pittsburgh with this message of redemptive suffering. Working with the poor is great, but businesses create jobs and politicians create policy. I need to make sure I influence the influencers when implementing a vision as well. Both Homewood and Wexford are in need of transformation, as are both LAMP mentors and mentees. Seeking first to understand before acting is a great place to start in personal and social transformation.

BGU Journal 7/16/09

This morning I went to a neighborhood in San Jose that is infiltrated with drugs and crime. I played a game of soccer with children right next to two houses that are a front for the Columbian drug cartel's operations in Costa Rica (I scored two goals in case anyone is wondering if the soccer skills came back to me). I was not permitted to speak any English while I was there with our group because people would assume I was associated with the drug trade. Also, I was not permitted to take any pictures. We were only able to enter this neighborhood through one entrance, a rickety bridge of wood planks crossing a polluted river, with the presence of a pastor who was respected in the community. Our group served meals to children who are being supported by an organization called Food for the Hungry International in Costa Rica (FHICR). They have partnered with a local church to deliver social services, including food and medical attention, to children, single mothers, and drug addicts living in this part of San Jose.

I learned a lot about the power of calling and perseverance in urban ministry while we were here. The drug cartel has expelled every other church that has tried to make inroads into this community over the past thirteen years. The church we visited has had a presence here for the past thirteen years in two old abandoned drug houses and one former brothel. The congregation was intimidated and persecuted for the first three or four years in this community, and now they have established intense credibility to the point that they are the only organization allowed to operate in this community. They are transforming this community, and they offer services that impact all levels of family life, such as career training, addiction counseling, medical attention, food, education, and much more. They intend to be an integral, or holistic, church aimed at meeting the needs of the community. The pastor told us that she did not pick this calling, but God chose her and she would be disobedient if she did not follow through with these responsibilities even when she is persecuted.

Calling has greatly impacted my life in Pittsburgh. Early on, I felt called to provide leadership for LAMP at North Way. Currently, I have been called to move my family to Homewood. I do not think I could compare my calling to that of the pastor serving in this community in San Jose, but I definitely could connect with the feeling that when God calls you to take risks there is no way that you can ignore him. Anything else would be disobedience. We don't choose our calling from God, God chooses us for his purposes. Although it is an active process that involves our ongoing obedience, calling is definitely central to us as humans finding our place in the roles that God has for us during our lifetimes.

BGU Journal 7/15/09

I just walked through the door to our room and it's 12:32am Tico time. This evening Julie and I ministered to prostitutes in the city center for several hours. Our class partnered with a local church ministry called Nexus that delivers integral services to people involved in prostitution in San Jose. This ministry is 100% committed to transformation through relationships. The time we spent with young men and women on the streets was heartbreaking. Many of them were open to talking with us, although several cut the time short to return to their business. We prayed together, shared stories about life, and the church volunteers spent time ministering through Bible scriptures with the prostitutes with whom they have built relationships. I have never experienced anything like this before. Although I am still processing everything, I do know that I was privileged to be able to participate with this church in living out my faith with people on the margins of society.

Prior to our trip this evening, we spent the bulk of the day listening to lectures in the classroom here at the seminary. We learned that the evangelical movement has three broad themes. Rehabilitation ministries fix things that are broken, creative ministries create things that do not yet exist, and confrontational ministries name and confront powers. Most evangelical churches in the world focus on rehabilitation, but creativity and confrontation may need to be emphasized in moving forward if the church is going to survive and flourish. The church is always only one generation away from becoming obsolete.

We also learned more about heresies and cults in the Latin American church. One popular cult that has gained great influence is called Growing in Grace, which is led by a man who claims to be Jesus Christ reincarnated. Another influential cult is called the Church of the Universal Reign of God, which demonizes everything and attributes all sin to Satan and demons. They perform mass exorcisms for random daily activities, such as driving a car or eating, which are supposedly possessed by demons. Both of these cults prey on poor people, but they thrive because they have a twisted prosperity doctrine which is filled with control and little accountability for its leaders. So called Christian television is also deceiving many believers in Latin America. Other forces shaping the church are secularism, feminization, and the third wave of Pentecostalism which is overusing power and prosperity while neglecting social responsibilities and brokenness.

On a more positive note, we learned about how some Latin American churches are becoming agents for social transformation by equipping the laity to engage broken systems. People are participating as Christians throughout the work week in areas such as urban planning, engineering, architecture, economics, politics, environmentalism, transportation, education, and all aspects of life outside the walls of the church. Similar to the examples of William Wilberforce and Dr. Martin Luther King, the church should become involved in formal political action, participate in social movements, engage in a strong fight for human rights, and stand up against unjust laws and oppressive systems. Still, many churches are still working over in a corner by themselves. We need to get involved in other sectors because this is a cultural mandate from God. He designed us as social beings.

I have much to apply to my context back in Pittsburgh and Homewood, but it is getting late and my writing will stop making sense at some point. Tomorrow we spend all day at a ministry that feeds the poor in San Jose. It should be another new adventure!

BGU Journal 7/14/09

This morning Father Roberto Salazar, a priest from a parish in San Jose with over 14,000 members, spoke about partnerships in Latin America between Catholics and Protestants. He believes that God is moving to help Christians live out a more authentic faith through relationships and shared experiences. He noted that Catholics and Protestants should learn to be able to serve together for the common good of society because they are all a part of the body of Christ. This is difficult, especially in a place like Latin America, because many walls have been built up on both sides.

The next lecture was from Dr. John Stam, an 81 year old missionary, professor, and author from San Jose. Dr. Tink introduced him to us as an underground revolutionary, and Dr. Stam even described himself as a conservative liberal radical Orthodox Evangelical. Regardless of the unique description, he had a lot to say about the state of the evangelical movement in the world today. He thinks that many Protestants are comfortable in today's society, and that is not a good thing. A relationship with God has traditionally been characterized by persecution, suffering, and poverty. It should not be easy to be a Christian. He thinks that many forms of prosperity doctrine in today's megachurches are leading large numbers of people to the gates of hell. Nearly every page of the Bible is filled with passages about poverty, opression, compassion, or justice. Many churches are lethargical because they are unwilling to engage new believers in the discipleship process (which is often time consuming and difficult). He noted several heresies present in the modern church. They are the money centered gospel, demon centered gospel, miracle centered gospel, apostolic gospel, prosperity gospel, rapture centered gospel, and authoritarianism (pastors trying to control people's lives without being held accountable by others). He finished by saying that pastors are not teaching people to be critical thinkers, and that is causing problems worldwide because the gospel message is often paradoxical.

This afternoon our group travelled to a parish in Cristo Rey, the toughest neighborhood in San Jose. Over 400,000 Nicaraguan immigrants have come to this area in search of a better life, but unfortunately they have not found work which has led to much illegal activity. We walked down the "worst street in San Jose for drugs and prostitution" according to our guide from the parish. This parish has established a holistic community outreach ministry which cares for orphans, homeless people, over 800 single moms, disabled people, and poor senior citizens. They have established over 40 ministries in the past seven years to care for the diverse needs of this community. Julie and I had an amazing experience connecting with the children in the orphanage. One little girl hugged and kissed Julie and held her hand for nearly the entire time we were there. She reminded us very much of Kyra. At one point she captured a beautiful butterly, and this was cool for us to see because Kyra loves butterflies as well. All in all we witnessed a powerful agent of community transformation through this small parish in the most troubled neighborhood in the city.

I thought it was interesting hearing Dr. Stam describe himself as a conservative liberal radical. I have been disoriented in my own philosophies since starting these BGU courses, and I seem to relate to many things that I have never paid much attention to while at the same time rejecting idealogies that I once held. It's good to see an 81 year old theologian still wrestling with his identity.

While the parish in Cristo Rey was a great learning experience, I walked away wondering what they were doing to address the systemic issues related to social justice in that neighborhood. Why were people remaining in poverty? I saw many similarities between Cristo Rey and Homewood. Both communities suffer from systematic oppression that keeps cycles of generational poverty in place. Both communities have significant illegal underground economies. Both communities suffer from isolation apart from access to the mainstream economic, political, and religous power structures in their regions. However, I see many signs of hope in both communities.

BGU Journal 7/13/09

Well, Julie and I have arrived safely here in San Jose, Costa Rica. I will be posting my journal on this blog as I did in Seattle in January for Overture I. There won't be too much to write here today because we essentially got an overview of transformational leadership principles (leadership is calling-based, reflective, contextual, servant, incarnational, and global). We did have the opportunity to "exegite" the city this afternoon.

When Julie and I walked around the city, we were looking for several things: signs of hope, signs of need, symbols, and surprises. I saw a lot of economic development and opportunities in this city, which I believe to be the greatest sign of hope. Still, the biggest need in this city is infrastructure development (such as transportation, waste disposal, etc.). The various colorful advertisements were the biggests symbols to me. I was surprised by the lack of cell phone usage (and ensuing abundance of pay phone usage), the fences and barbed wire surrounding every house and business, the number of security guards at businesses, and the large number of people walking around the downtown area.

All in all this has been a great experience so far. I'll have more of the in depth content from lectures and observations in future blog posts.

Costa Rica and Mexico City... Here I come!

Julie and I leave early tomorrow morning for my next DMin class at BGU called Overture II: Central America. I'm so excited that Julie will be going with me on this trip. She spent a semester in Central America while we were dating in college, and it has always been a dream of ours to go there together some day. I never thought it would be through a doctorate program (I wasn't exactly interested in academics very much when we were dating), but this will work!

I'll be building on the transformational leadership principles that I learned about in Overture I. These include global leadership, calling-based leadership, reflective leadership, contextual leadership, and incarnational leadership. I'll be learning about these by experiencing how God is moving in the complex urban environments of San Jose and Mexico City.

Please pray for Julie and I during these two weeks that will be shaping our worldviews in dramatic ways. This program is helping us to determine how we can be more effective as Christian leaders. We'll be gone from July 12-24.

Radio Interview About Homewood

I've been invited to be interviewed on the radio this morning, KQV, to talk about our move to Homewood. I'm happy to talk about the excitement that is being generated in the community with new housing, and also about how much we are enjoying the city so far. The east end is really a unique and fun place to live. I'm not always the most elequent speaker, so hopefully I won't put my foot in my mouth!

It is fun seeing how God is opening up opportunities like this to share about the good things that are going on in Homewood. I've seen several people driving up and down our street looking at the homes and dreaming about living life there. Julie and I have had some great conversations with some people who see us hanging out on our front porch. It's a quiet neighborhood, and there really is a lot of positive development going on. It still seems like a strange experience, but it's an adventure. It's supposed to be strange for a while!

Life in Homewood

We're finally getting settled in Homewood. This has been a great experience. We had amazing friends who helped us move on both Sunday and Tuesday. Our closing at Howard Hanna on Tuesday was really a celebration of sorts. Julie and I have purchased homes before, but this was by far the most intersting experience of them all. The closing had representatives from Howard Hanna (our realtor), Northwood Realty (the realtors for the Suasquehanna plan), Builders United of Southwest Pennsylvania (the development company), and the Urban Redevelopment Authority (funders of the development). They took our picture, shared stories about the building process, and caught us up to speed on the plans to develop that part of Homewood with more new housing. It really was a joyful moment for everyone involved.

We did not sleep well the first night because we were listening to all of the new noises in the house and in the neighborhood. Now the noises are starting to feel normal, and we're sleeping well. It's actually very quiet in our neighborhood. We've had several LAMP mentors and mentees stop by to visit us, and on Wednesday and Thursday I was able to just walk right over to the Faison Primary school to hang out with the kids in the summer program. I have been really looking forward to that... no more driving across town to spend time with kids!

I have much more to share, but for now I need to get back to unpacking boxes. Our new address is:
7508 Susquehanna St., Pittsburgh, PA 15208

We won't have a new phone number since we don't have a land phone line anymore (gotta love cell phones).