Other Stuff

My plan is not to always be about Farm Drive and what we are doing here. Sometimes it will be more about my thoughts and ideas or things I have been reading about. Every day I have about an hour commute so I don't always like to listen to the radio or music on my Ipod. So I listen to podcasts. Lately I have been listening to Rob Bell, Irwin McManus, and Efrem Smith. I guess to say it correctly it would be Mars Hill Church, Mosaic, and Covenant Community podcasts! All 3 have been speaking to me right where I am at right now, so I guess that's why I enjoy hearing what they have to say about different parts of scripture.

Today I was listening to Rob Bell and he is doing a series "God is Green". Today he commented that when people complain that they don't feel very close to God, they are missing a connection. People today go from their air conditioned house to their air conditioned car in the garage. They open the garage and drive to work and work all day in their air conditioned office building. Then they leave their air conditioned office building and the parking garage and drive home in their air conditioned car to their air conditioned houses. They hardly step outside. How can you connect with God if you don't spend anytime outside enjoying His fresh air, His sunshine, His people? So the challenge is to find ways to decrease the degrees of separation between us and God. This can be our food, the air we breathe, people we come in contact with.

By the way - tonite as Patty, Jessica and I left an air conditioned restaurant and walked outside to our air condtioned car - we met Dave in the parking lot. Dave just moved back in the area and is looking for work. He and his family are living in a motel while they wait for an apartment to rent and for Dave to get a job. Today he didn't make enough at the odd jobs he does to pay for the motel. So we gave him some of God's money to help him out. Pray for Dave. He was very thankful as I told him that this money was a gift from God to help him get back on his feet again. Dave is tired of the trial that God is leading him through. Pray for Dave.

Guys Nite

Saturday nite we had a game nite for the older boys. We set up 3 projectors and connected 3 xboxes and played Halo. 3 teams of 4. They all enjoyed it. Robbie picked up some guys that used to live in the FD area and have moved out but he still stays in contact with. We also had pizza and made ice cream sundaes. Had 4 college guys help us from our small group that meets here at FD downstairs apt every saturday morning. I didn't take too many pictures since it was too dark inside and as it was they were not too happy with the flash it took to take this one!

Girls Nite Out

On Friday, July 27th I and several friends had a bunch of the neighborhood Junior High and High School age girls over to color hair, get manicures and eat pizza. We even had fun putting on "dress up clothes" and took pictures. What a blast!

We had a great turnout of girls, some we weren't sure would come and lots of help (thank you ladies!)

We will continue to love these girls, be real with these girls, accept these girls, encourage these girls, and build relationships with these girls. It was nice watching them all interact with my friends, some just a few years older than them (Gathering girls) and some not as young but still young at heart. Everyone got along great! This place was rockin to the oldies all night!

We will do this one again!

SF Conservatory of Flowers

On Saturday, Rich and Beth Anselm and Patty and I took some kids to the Conservatory of Flowers at Golden Gate Park. Below is a picture of all of us with the conservatory in the background. They have quite a collection of beautiful orchids. One is shown below.

The special exhibit they have running right now is called Chomp. It is a collection of plants that are carnivorous. This one attracts insects with it's color and they fall down the slippery sides. There is water in the bottom in which they drown in because they can't get out and the water dissolves the insects and the plant uses the minerals from the dead insect to live on.

Afterwards we drove on up to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a beautiful day with a few fog clouds rolling in by the bridge. After this we went to a robust lunch at McDonalds.

Apple Pie with Elizabeth and Bekah

Tuesday night 2 Junior High girls, Elizabeth and Rebekah showed up at the apt. When they come by, which is rarely, they never stay long. This night was an exception. They stayed and we talked and talked and talked. We talked about our trip to Thailand, our trip to New Orleans, 13 year old friends getting pregnant, sex outside of marriage, curfews, all kinds of things! I was peeling apples while we talked and finally got those pies in the oven after 10. They were still here (it had been 3 hours) when the pies came out! We had such a good time, talking, looking at recipes and just hanging out. What a night!

To finish off the night, 2 other Junior Highers, Donald and Raylene showed up at 10:30 with 2 Vietnamese neighbor kids. The kids were 5 and 7. Long story short, the mom just gave these kids to Raylene to watch. She didn't want them with her at the time. How sad. I have been praying for these 2 little boys ever since. Please do the same. God knows their situation. At 11:00 I told all the kids they needed to go home. These little boys especially needed to go to bed. They were even in their pj's.

Just when you think you may not reach some of these older Junior High kids, God surprises you! Pete and I need to be available, listen to these kids, don't condemn, but just love on these kids, always pointing them in the right direction. (to the Lord who loves them)

Keep praying for us, please.

SUNSETS AND SUNRISES

This blog will not always be about our experiences of our move. I like to take pictures. I really like the idea that you can capture a moment in time and enjoy later. I believe that God has created this world for us to enjoy-to discover it's beauty. I think some of the best of the beauty is in the sunsets and sunrises. Here are a few that I have captured over the years.

The sunset above was taken in Thailand in the summer of 2005. It was monsoon season so getting to see a sunset was not easy but I was able to get this one.

This Sunrise was taken in the summer of 2004 in a small town in Honduras called Pinalejo.

This sunset was taken in Victoria BC on our vacation to the northwest. From one of our favorite spots at a cafe overlooking the bay.

Sunset in Santa Cruz taken from near the Crows Nest.

Sunrise from the island of Kauii taken last December.

Girls Nite Out

On Friday, July 13th we had a Girls Nite Out for the younger elementary age neighborhood girls....all 11 of them! We had pizza, played with our dress up clothes, and then we did our hair and nails. Some of these girls are very talented at doing each others hair! What a fun night!

In 2 weeks we'll do the same thing with the older girls.

It was fun walking each and every one of them home. We all walked together until the last girl was dropped off. That's a lot of girls!

Thanks to Holly and Betsy who were there the whole night and were a huge help! Thanks for loving these girls!

Some Interesting Days

The other day a few of the kids gave me a little tour of the hood. They went to show me a fort they made behind an apartment building but it was torn down. So they took me out back of the hood where there is an open area they say is owned by the complex next door and is used as a dog walk area. There were a few crude tree forts there but they seemed proud of them. A little further was a drinking area with a lot of empty beer cans scattered all over. They didn't know who had done that. But as we were walking back, one of the apartment complex owners was telling us that we shouldn't be back there. I said isn't it a dog run for the neighbors? He mumbled something and moved on. The kids say he always yells at them except when there is an adult nearby. I told them that some adults think that all kids are punks.

Last nite we were having dinner on our patio when we heard a fire truck come into the hood. We knew it was close so we went over to see what was going on. Right on the corner of Dakan Court and Farm Drive there was a guy in the middle of the street with blood and guts on the ground and he was convulsing. The paramedics were working on him. Found out from a few of the kids that a car was driving down Farm Drive and this guy was hanging way out the window Then the guy falls out of the car onto the pavement. (paramedics said he was high). The driver got out and took a look at him and then took off. Our friend Adam works for the fire department and was there busy working on the guy. Patty asked the kids hanging around if anyone saw anything and a few did. So we encouraged them to share what they knew with the police. Some were reluctant.

We left for awhile and came back a few hours later and there were 2 cops still there and a bunch of the kids. They were waiting for the crime scene clean up guy to show up and clean up the blood on the street. One of the cops, Ed, was talking to the kids and Patty and I introduced ourselves. The kids said he was a real nice guy to them unlike some ot the others that come through the hood. The kids were all sitting on the hood of his car. Nice cop. Ed said the guy that was hurt was brain dead and they were waiting for the parents to show up to pull the plug. How sad. Nobody in the hood knew him.

Today we heard that they arrested the driver and were still looking for the guy who lives in the hood (in Dakan Court) who was a friend. One of the younger kids mentioned that he could not sleep last nite due to thinking about what happened. This was a teachable moment. Patty asked him if he prayed for God to help him get to sleep. Sad that a 7 year old has to see this. The comment going around was that no one in the hood had ever actually died. This was a big thing to the kids.

Adjustments

Some of the frustrating things that are always involved in a move are adjustments. You live at a place for awhile and you have a system, a way of life, certains things you can count on. When you move that all gets turned upside down. For instance...

1. The cats are taking longer to adjust to their new home. It is said that it may take up to a month. They sleep during the day, are back on kitty litter, and are knocking things off their perch (our bedroom windowsill) in the middle of the night. So we get less sleep. They are also scared of kids so they run and hide whenever their are kids around. We have been shutting our bedroom door at night to keep the cats out of the room so we can sleep. Last night I got up to go to the bathroom and shut the door behind me so that the cats could not get into the room. Locked myself out! Patty couldn't hear my knocks! Fortunately she had her cell phone in the room with her so I called her! Candy gram.

2. The washing maching and dryer are now downstairs and out in the garage area. Before they were in the house and now we share with another family.

3. Since we are in a new neighborhood and we don't know everyone that lives here, we do not feel quite as safe as we used to in our house. At our old house we had neighbors that really looked out for one another. We just have to take more precautions which is sometimes a bother.

Some of the plusses far outweigh these obstacles or inconveniences. Friday nite we took Cosmo for a walk around the hood and ended up with 6 kids at the little park on Hillsdale. We played on the swings and ran Cosmo to death. Then we came back for hot chocolate out on the patio. That was welcome as it was a cool nite.

Tonite we had about 12 kids over for hot dogs and sodas! Pure fun. A little chaotic. But God is teaching me patience. And of course when kids know there is food, they come out of the woodwork. Some showed up long after the hot dogs were gone. Catch'ya next time.

After playing pool, teatherball and with sidewalk chalk, downstairs in the garage for an hour, we sent the kids home.

I just got back from taking Cosmo out for a walk and was assisted by 7 girls! That gave Patty some peace and quiet to see if she could find Jack and Lily our cats, who went outside this am after getting locked out of the house. She found both of them out around the bushes around the apartment complex. So that is good news. They were still a bit frightened but survived the nasty hood with all the wild cats.

Patty is planning an elementary age girls nite this Friday from 5-9. Older girls will have a party later in the month. Word will get out and us boys will have to do something.

Looking forward to what is in store for the rest of the week!

The 4th

We spent the last few days trying to find out what people in the neighborhood are doing on the 4th. It appeared that they were doing a variety of things. So we decided to stay with our original plan and go over to a friend's house for dinner and then go over to a local park to watch fireworks. But we didn't want to leave our animals alone for that long so after dinner we went back home. We saw a few kids and said that after we checked on our animals, we were going to walk Cosmo over to a local school and watch the fireworks from Church on the Hill. We ended up with 17 people walking over! It was too many for Cosmo so we took him back home. It's amazing what happens when you just make yourself available to the neighborhood. We had fun with the kids and 2 parents that joined us also.

Off to work I go

It is interesting when you live some place for 11 years and then all of a sudden you change and all of your daily habits will have to change. For me it is now getting up and taking Cosmo for a walk so he can relieve last nights food. For Patty her commute to work went from 10 minutes to 10 seconds. Even today Patty said the move doesn't seem real.

Last nite we took Cosmo out for a walk around the hood. Lots of kids saying hey Pete, hey Patty. Being somewhat dark and the yelling coming from windows, I couldn't even see who it was! Then 3 gals from Patty's small group from a few years ago joined us. So we walked further and then they hung out with us on the patio til 11 (Ronnie, a neighbor kid joined us too). (Less tv watching and book reading for me!)

One of the gals said that if she runs away from home she can come sleep at our place outside on our swing. Hmmm. Safe place?

So how did this idea of moving here get started? I have been thinking about that for awhile because I don't remember it all. I'll start with what I remember.

About a year ago Patty and I went to the Center one Saturday eve to pick up something from her office which she needed. While we were there about 5 kids just showed up. It made me wonder what would happen if we would open the Center one evening and just hang out and play. So a couple of weeks later we did just that. For about 2-3 hours we played street hockey, basketball, pool, etc. and had about 20 kids come by. We did it a few more times and tried to invite others from church to join us. This is the part I don't remember to well. But Patty and I started talking about what it would be like to live here in the hood. At that time we were reading Irwin Mcmanus' book Chasing Daylight and in it he talked about deciding if doing something was God's calling for you or not. Most christians wait and wait for God to show them something. Irwin's comment was just start doing it. God will open or close the doors if it is to be or not. (I would look up the particular part of the book and get the wording more exact, but who knows where the book is!)

So we decided to just go for it and see what happens. Go through that open door and see what happens. The journey has been amazing. Jon gave us a book by Shaine Claiborne called Irresistible Revolution. In it he shares about how they started a community of christians that lives in a poor neighborhood in inner-city Philly. Then shortly after that, I was listening to a Rob Bell podcast one Sunday and a gal was interviewed by Rob on how she and her family was asked by the church to move into a house in downtown Grand Rapids.

Our next big step was to ask Betty the Director of Farm Drive and then the landlord of the apt. building about our moving in. They were very excited about the idea. What surprised me and at the same time encouraged me was the fact that they totally supported us, were excited for us and even helped us think through the next steps. They totally supported this move! That made us feel all the more that we were moving in the right direction. I think that was the clincher for me.

There have been some minor roadblocks that came up but none that couldn't be resolved or removed. The door has been wide open throughout this whole process so we've continued to walk through those doors and move ahead.

We've already seen Gods blessings from ..... (ahh, that's another post!)

Macaroni and Cheese

We had some amateur photographers around today. These pictures were all taken by the kids.

It was an interesting night last night. The cats were not too happy about the move so they decided to spend the whole night reminding us of that! So now they spend the day hiding and sleeping all day!

After spending the afternoon cleaning, unpacking, and having kids play with Cosmo, we decided to cook and eat dinner with the kids that were around. One of the kids said this is just like family!