Nongeographical Community

I am now in Indianapolis at the Porter's, a family in the branch down here. They have given us a place to sleep and good food to eat now for the last week. Here we are in the upper room above the garage, which has been converted into a study. The bright light is a lamp and below it is Nick's computer, on it are Brian Couch and Thomas Duddy, who are still in Allendale building down there.

The five of us are working to stay connected and present to one another. We use an internet phone service that charges something like $5 a month, and includes a parallel video feed, so you can see who you are calling. It's really sweet.

We started using this cheap mode of communication during last summer with the Allendale Video Project, which used a similar set up that included a chat program so that we could give talks in Allendale to the high schoolers (known as Action Division) who were down there working on houses and neighborhood fix-it projects across the POP. Each week the folks in Allendale would gather in one house and listen to a talk while folks from across the community would tune in on the internet. You check them out at Citybuilder.org (in the links on the sidebar).

Here we are talking with Brian and Duds about what they've been up to and share a little about what we've see thus far in Indy. It was a really interesting experience doing communication this way over the summer as you never felt like you were far away from folks, even though you were actually across the country. When you can talk to someone face to face, even if its through a screen, it goes along way to building friendship regardless of geographical location.

Some thoughts from the rails

As I finished up work last Friday. I pulled the extension cords into the warehouse, nailed the back door shut, and Duddy locked up the front. Climbing into the box truck that WDMO now owns I needed to let the diesel engine warm up, so I sat there a while as Duds started back towards the house.

As I was sinking into the driver seat of the truck I found myself staring across the road, across the tracks at this piece on a standing boxcar. I quickly remembered TJ and our excursion into the Bunge. 'He would love this,' I thought jumping down from the front of the truck and making my way across the now deserted road.

There were a few pieces up and I meandered down the rail lines snapping a few photos as I went. After taking this last one I turned to return to the now warm truck and was astonished at what I'd mindlessly missed. There behind me, tucked up under the overpass I had wandered beneath was someone's home.

Sermon on the Mount

This is something a lot of friends and I have been thinking about since Paul DeCelles, gave a talk on it at the Missionary Conference.

As I read it more and more I'm more and more convinced that it's a pretty whole picture. Like if Jesus was asked today to give a sermon, he'd say this. It brings up some interesting things I've been thinking about.

Jesus starts out with the Beatitudes which name the new people of God. He uses the phrase "Fortunate are the poor for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven" repeating this 9 times. This phrase was common in the Old Testament referring to how fortunate Israel is. Here God through Jesus is naming His new people.

Next He gives them a mission. That they be a light to the world. In the same way that when you turn on a light the whole room is lit so too should God's people light the world. He also mentions salt and what can be done once it loses it' s saltiness, but throw it away. This is a real inflammatory statement as he is reffering to the people of Israel who have abandoned God. And I think this still holds true today, even in Christian circles. God's people are described as things that exist by what they do. Salt has no use unless it is salty and what is a light but that which lights. These things are not just things, but things that DO SOMETHING.

How different is this than much of today's preaching on personal salvation as the end goal. Once you accept Jesus, you're saved. Finale. The end. Hang out a while, while everyone else comes to terms with it, right? Well, here God's people's mission is to shine so that others shine God's glory. Personal salvation is a subplot in God's plan, its the first step, not the end. Christ's mission to the world was not to help people get him (as in accepting Him as a personal savior) but to "bring good news to the poor, proclaim liberty to captives and new sight to the blind; free the oppressed and announce the year of the Lord's mercy" (Lk4.18-19). Realizing his power to change lives is but the first step. So, this is something that has been striking as I've been reading.

Next Jesus goes on to give God's people a new law, but one that does not abolish the old but works to fulfill it. The law was what had been passed down since Moses, most easily recognizable of these; the Ten Commandments (Ex 20, Deut 5). In this Jesus intensifies the law, saying not only is the act of murder or adultry wrong but being angry and lusting is sinning just the same. Here the law is now not just about actions but about intentions. And this is followed by how to pray and fast in a manner that is more than just the act of praying and fasting. So it is not enough to do what God says but one must also be as God is. "For your part you shall be righteous and perfect in the way your heavenly Father is righteous and perfect" (Matt5.48).

At this point I think of what I learned about perfection and sin growing up in the church. 'We are human beings and we sin. We make mistakes.' But here Christ is saying that we are to be perfect. How can we possibly do this?!

As Jesus goes into not judging, he talks about asking God and His giving. Which to me, makes no sense. What does this have anything to do with living more in God's way and doing His work? However, all 4 gospels have this passage and both Luke and John shed a lot of light on this. Starting in Luke 11.9, the paragraph is almost repeated verbatim. Except in Luke it is not talking about God giving us what we ask for, but that if we ask Him, He will give us His Spirit. And in John 14.13 this is furthered, as Jesus says after him the Helper, the Spirit of truth, will be sent. God will not abandon his children. Here the passage is saying God will come to dwell in you and God will fulfill this New Law. This is clearly evident in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. A book which is almost entirely devoted to the Spirit coming down on the apostles at Pentecost and what happens as a result. After this the apostles are emboldened and heal the sick and the lame, cast out demons, and become Christ to the world. This is huge. Paul talks about being co-crucified with Christ and that is no longer he who lives but Christ who lives in him. For folks who didn't know this is actually what Christianity is supposed to be about, becoming and being friends of the creator of the Universe, and collaborating and doing His work. And this is only possible if He dwells in us through the Holy Spirit, otherwise we can't even observe His law much less accomplish His mission.

So Jesus, gathers a new people, gives them a mission, a new law and teaches them about being in God not just the law, and that if we ask God, He will make us perfect through the sending of His Holy Spirit. I must say I have been greatly saddened to go to church and find so few people having even heard about what His Spirit does.

Lastly, Christ sends us off with a warning and mode of operation. Saying three things. (1) strive to enter through the narrow gate, for wide and broad is the gate and road to destruction. Do it all. As Paul says, run the race intending to win it and as athletes train in order to win, so should we train and strain for God's work. (2) You will know a tree by the fruit it bears. God's people and work does not whither. If the fruit of something is rotten so is the tree, again this brings us back to doing something. If we who claim God on our side are not setting free the captives and undoing the thongs of oppression, there's a good chance we've missed something. This is also an indicator that God's will produces real world change. (3) Not everyone who says Lord! Lord! will get into the Kingdom, but those who hear my words and act will be very wise. Again praise and worship without doing God's Will is like white washed tombs. We might look cleaner but that says little of what's inside.

This may have a bite to it...what do folks think? Thoughts? Ideas? Does this ring true?

Building in Gadgetland

So, this week I've been working at the warehouse that WDMO, nonprofit that funds some of our work, is moving into...as soon as it gets done. Most of this week has been by myself because the flu has taken out a Brian and John, and Thomas is at the functional WDMO helping sell windows, doors and more.

The biggest project this last week was the subflooring. We ripped up the carpet that had been covering much of the front of the warehouse and plan to put new vinyl down but the subfloor under the carpet didn't come up clean; leaving chunks of old vinyl tiling stuck to sections which made it really uneven. So we're putting in new subfloor over the old and this required a lot of cutting and custom fitting 4x8' sheets of plywood. As you can see I didn't do the best job on this piece.

I wasn't sure of the amount of error I could tolerate. Would this be alright as the mistake is in a corner and would not see a lot of traffic? Or is this still an issue and needs resolving? Well, the guys who know Brian or David, manager of WDMO, are both sick (there's a lot of us who've come down with the flu, so your prayers would much appreciated). So, I took a picture with my phone and sent it to the blog here. David was able to get on his computer back at home and make the call from there.

Problem solved. It turns out this is still a problem, but that all I needed to do was cut some scrap to fit the gaps.

The Work Begins

We set out on the road with a few bags to our names, no money but that which had been given to us, and the Lord as our guide. Brian drove most of the way and we switched drivers a few times. Duddy sat shotgun and Gapp and I were in the bak seat. We drove through Indianapolis, Evansville, a portion of Tennesse and Kentucky and finally into Louisiana, headed for Shreveport.

It's the four of us now, we had discerned at the beginning of this last Fall semester that God is calling us to live the life of missionaries on the road, going from town to town "bringing Good News to the poor, proclaiming liberty to the captives and new sight to the blind; to free the oppressed and announce the time of the Lord's favor" (Lk 4.18-19).

This looks like locating and securing 200 new places to move into and live with folks. Begin communities that don't just talk about giving to the poor and feeding the hungry but DO it. But this is bigger than the four of us this involves thousands of folks all over the country, many of whom were at the missionary conference I mentioned earlier. Allendale, a neighborhood in Shreveport, is only our first.

This is 1426, where I'm living in Allendale with Brian, Tom, and John. It looks nice but the houses behind us are literally tipping over. Over 1/3 of the property in Allendale is abandoned. Packs of dogs make off with our stuff at night and folks suffer from terrible poverty, but in spite of this the people and scenery are beautiful. It's really hilly and has poor drainage, which is why all the poor folks live here. The light just does something incredible down here and its usually sunny out. Everyone has front porches and the missionaries down here have been here for nearly 5 years. Everyone is Baptist or Methodist, but few receive much help from the churches (either due to their own poverty or the churches plans to gentrify the neighborhood).

We own 9 lots currently and are about to acquire and 14. Most of the houses are in this 'shotgun' motif; meaning you could fire a shotgun through the house from back to the front with both doors open...why you need to do this is as of yet beyond me. But last summer Action Division, highschool group in the People of Praise, built our 6th house, which is being termed the living room of the neighborhood. We have structured our houses to share facilities, so as to share more life. One house has the main kitchen and dinning room, another the main living room and so on. This one is being built for the whole neighborhood.

Right now I am working for Windows, Doors and More Outlet (WDMO), a non-profit firsts and seconds milling products company that funds our building projects and community projects. A friend David Zimmel but we will be adding another location by the end of January (if we can get the place ready by then). That's been my job along with John and Duddy (Tom). We've been dry-walling, and taping and we still need to finish wiring the place (which is being headed by an electrcian in the Shreveport branch of the POP). Then we'll paint it and start moving windows, doors and more in.

Cubbies

Hey Rob,
I stayed with Brian Couch, friend who lives in South Bend, while I was there. He took the sofa downstairs and gave me his bed. I thought you would get a kick out of this.




Cubbies. Till Harry Carry returns.

Planning the Revolution

This Abe Olson, from Portland, Dudmaster, and Gaptastic working hard on the FAQs post-Missionary Conference in the dinning room of the Old Raclin Mansion (also on Greenlawn property) where POP headquaters is located.

We sent most of Thursday working to create a list and help answer some FAQs for the Mishcon.org forum. At the website the 100 plus participants have been carrying forward a discussion on what now. We've heard God call us to start communities up and down the Mississippi River Valley and it is members of the future Missionary Company who will be "locating and securing" new city sites.

As I've mentioned earlier God has been uniting all things in Him since the beginning (Eph 1.10), which is much more than personal salvation. Personal salvation is only a subplot throughout history and today. We are called to be children of God, co-crucified with Christ (Gal 2.20) and sharing in his mission, which he announced at the beginning of his ministry. "...bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and new sight to the blind; to free the oppressed and announce the year of the Lord's favor" (Lk 4.18-19). It is simply part of living with God that we are saved, but there is still a lot of work beyond this. Praise God.

Ed's Bday

This was Monday night. Ed's 21st isn't until late January, but his family and friends were in town so we decided to do it now. The blur on the left is Rich Preuss, Ed's dad, explaining that there was 'extra spicy' ketchup for all the folks from MN.

I first met Ed on a trip to Allendale last Christmas. We framed doors together at Windows, Doors, & More Outlet, a reuse company that takes 3rds, 2nds, and actually a good chunk of 1sts that contractors don't want.

Most of these are donated which we then sell at 100% profit; similar to Habitat for Humanity. This funds the work in Allendale. Just last semester WDMO paid rent in exchange for the work of the missionaries down there mentioned earlier. This was a huge commitment as WDMO wasn't even one year old. The added cost of rent could have been a big problem, but the Lord provided by making the last 4 months our biggest yet; more than providing for rent and the business' growth.

Then the following summer (last summer) Ed headed the household I lived in. Heading a household means he was incharge, we all had respoinsibilities, but Ed helped us all stay on task. Ed watched the dirt level, made sure things were running on time, and still found enough time to drop a few buckets of ice water on some unsuspecting showerer. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun. Paul Kane from Northern Virginia Branch (seen above wearing a blue shirt, crossing his arms at the back) toasted Ed at the party describing how Ed's "balance of hard work and love of fun" really was an amazing gift.

A late breakfast

This is Thomas Duddy (he's from Hawaii branch) in the Behren's kitchen. We're about to head over to Brian Couch's where he and Ed Preuss from South Bend are watching some football. Couch, Duddy, John Gapp, and Joe Gleason all took leaves of absence from school this semester because God has called them and a few others to be missionaries. I had one semester left until graduation so another senior, Abe Olson at the U of Portland, and I went back to school last semester.

Six Days

I've officially been gone 6 days. I've got 2 weeks of clothes, a sleeping bag, and a Bible.

We began on Wednesday night. After a 12 hour car ride from Minneapolis to South Bend, IN. I was in a minivan with Mike Stapp from the Hawaii Branch, Matt Brickweig, Ben Reinhardt and John Bowar from my household in Mpls, Mike Coney also from Mpls but he lives in the 1027 household and we picked up Eric Yost from the Portland Branch at Chicago's O'Hare Airport on the way. It got kind of packed.

Upon arrival, we called up Brian Couch who is enrolled at the U of M in Mpls but has been living in Shreveport, LA for the last semester doing Citybuilding with 3 other guys - John Gapp and Thomas Duddy also enrolled in Mpls, and Joe Gleason enrolled at Notre Dame. He said to park at the Art building which is a small workshop just off the side of the old Studibaker mansion (known now as Greenlawn) the People of Praise (POP) has aquired for offices and running Trinity High School in South Bend. It's dark as we pull into the drive way through the old iron gate. The windows spill yellow light out onto the section of concrete next to the Art building designated for parking.

I've been here before. All last summer I spent 40 hours a week on this property working for Gabriel Property Management under John Gapp. I mainly painted and scraped, but I came to know the mansion and much of the two block estate it sits on in the process.

Everyone was already eating. There were about 25 guys stuffed into that room, and a great din of welcome filled the house, when we shuffled our weary selves into the dinning room. We were all here for the Company Convention, which is held once at Christmas and once in August. The Company is a young men's group within the POP, dedicated to Citybuilding. Man, it was great to see those guys, some I hadn't seen since the last convention.

The Company Convention usually only lasts a day or two. We catch up with everyone who's scattered all over the nation and how our responsibilities have been coming, we share stories and plan, and of course there's the Funeral Games which consists of a grueling competition between the Company junctions (different places where Company members are located). However, this Convention will prove different.

Headquaters of the POP has called Citybuilders from around the country to meet in South Bend for the weekend to discuss Citybuilding. There are 100 people confirmed to show up (for my organizing friends, the rule of halves does not apply in the POP - more than 100 showed up), and that meant a lot of food. So, after we had finished dinner, cleaned up, and updated each other we turned in early for a long day of cooking on Thursday after the early morning Funeral Games.

The Games are always held at 5:30AM, because that is when our day begins in the Company. We are up early most days for phyiscal training, personal prayer, group morning prayer and breakfast. On most days we are done with this, dishes and ready for the day by 8AM. We share this day schedule in the Company, eventhough we're all over the US.

Allendale Junction (in Shreveport, LA) has won many Funeral Games, but this time I think South Bend Junction won (I'll get back to you on that). Then at 8:30AM Trish Brewer from the one:ten household (group of men and women who work at one:ten communications who also live together) in South Bend had created a detailed set of instructions for us to make 5 meals for 100 people. It was impressive.

Cooking took up most of the day. But once we had finished we were assigned host families in the South Bend Branch who we would be staying with during the weekend (we slept on the floor of one of the classrooms in Trinity the night before). I stayed at the Behrens and am here until the end of Monday, with Thomas Duddy, David Zimmel from Allendale, Bart Durand and Dan Ficker from Mpls.

The Conference was Fri thorugh Sun, and most of us stayed for a New Year's party. The focus of the Conference was missionary work and how all God's children are called to be missionaries, whether to Mongolia or their department at work. We sang a lot of songs, ate good food, shared a lot of stories, and the Lord really blessed our time together. I really got two words from the Lord that struck me.

It would be important to note at this time that I love God (not as a topic of discussion or a thing but as a friend and mentor). I know that is not the case for all of you, please do not let that stop you from reading. This is me sharing my life, and I hope you all do the same with me.

The first was from a sharing on Firday, given by Brian Couch. He was talking about the city we are building at Allendale (neighborhood in Shreveport). Allendale is beautiful and desperately poor. There are a lot of people stuck in a place where sin, death and decay are killing not just people but their souls too. We've been living there for 5 years now and continue to grow with the neighborhood. Brian and Nathan Barret also from Allendale have been walking the streets day and night praying with folks, and pulling neighbors together who also love Allendale and are looking for change. Couch said, "The Lord is really showing us he's serious about this." As they've baptized more than a few people in the Holy Spirit the last couple weeks.

Really quickly, the Holy Spirit is not the baptism of forgiveness (or the baptism by water) which is what John the Baptist preached. John said, "After me comes one who is more powerful than I am; I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit" (Mark 1:7-8). The baptism of the Holy Spirit is when God's Spirit comes to reside within you (note: not all everyone baptized in the Holy Spirit is receives forgiveness, not everyone baptized for forgiveness has been baptized in the Holy Spirit). The 12 disciples received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2) which gave them the ability to speak in other nations tongues, great wisdom, ability to heal, and work miracles, prophesy and discernment (1 Cor 12:7-11).

Brian mentioned how when they would walk around it was almost as if they had appointments with folks. They would show up and open their mouths and God's great miracles would change hearts, and bring allies together.

The other really strong word I got this last weekend was during Saturday in a talk that Sean Connelly from one:ten household and editor of Vine & Branches (POP newsletter) gave. He talked about Paul, and how history can hide how difficult his missionary life was. When reading the Bible I've found it's hard to imagine how the disciples could doubt as it's laid out so plainly, but life on the road, especially Paul's life was wrought with danger. Almost every city he went to the folks were out to kill him, at one point they actually catch him and stone him. He would be starving a lot of the time, bruised and beaten on the road to the next city or running from the last after starting underground Christian communities. Paul describes his life as being violently taken from him, when Jesus visits him on the road to Damascus (when he stops killing early Christians and becomes one of them - Acts 9). Sean talked about Paul had been chained behind Jesus chariot and was being dragged from town to town living out God's will. I found this greatly encouraging.

Christ is not only our friend but our king. This is admittedly a difficult collection of roles for us as we Americans really hate kings. The idea of one is difficult to understand and I think this is where the fluffy bunny Chrisitans come from. God is love and this is true. He wants us to be be free, liberated from the confines of sin; also true. How then can we be obedient to a king and be free? This is a very good quesiton, one which I won't spend much time on here but probably later.

I was encouraged as I want to do the will of God. He wants my people/His people liberated from the oppressions of the world, the flesh and the enemy to love Him with all their heart, mind, soul and strength. His Kingdom come to earth will be a place where oppression doesn't exist, where community happens, where no one has too much nor too little. This is what I want. I also know I make a lot of mistakes. I say the wrong things. I still sin. I am hardly the right person to help an all powerful God. Yet he'll still use my work if I ask and the image of Paul being draged behind the charriot was not one of death but one of life and love.

Jesus has a plan and I don't know enough to do it myself, nor am I wise enough to execute it, but if I could chain myself to his charriot - I could do His work. I don't have to know how to convert a crowd of 5,000 as Peter and John did after Pentecost, all I have to do is open my mouth. It is a great reasurance that the Lord will provide.

If you have gotten this far you are indeed a very faithful friend, thank you. I will work in the future to make these posts a little shorter, but so much has happened this week. Please feel free to email me rusjlyons@gmail.com or give me a call 612.709.1245 Otherwise, this is what I've got for now. God bless you and I pray I will see you again soon.

Reserection

I'm done. Done with education for a life time, and I know what some of you thoughtful people are thinking 'you never stop learning' or whatever, but I finished school and education is over. HAH. I win.

Now, (that felt good) I've got one week here in Bville and then I'm off. Throughout my adventures thus far I've met a lot of life changing people and I also learned that friendship is meant to last forever. This becomes difficult in the US today, with our ba-gillion things to do and the terminal-nature of so many activities in our lives. It seems that when an activity like HS, college, even something like a student orginization ends, so do the friendships built there. I'm working on a hunch here, but I think that's wrong.

This blog is not a solution. But a start, and hopefully a resource for folks who really don't want to stop when the world says we should. I will be working hard to stay in touch from my end, but it will require a lot of work from both sides. Here are some things though that have come to mind as I think about how to do non-geographical friendship:

Letters
Skype
Gmail with Gchat
Phone calls (I'm verizon if that helps entice anyone) and even a quick text message is enough to let each other know what's new


This is what I've got for now, but more on this later.

Sand Blasting

Yesterday we had a full day of work at Gabriel Property Management. The old Studebaker mansion is getting old and everything is in dire needed of another paint job. Gabriel, which manages all the People of Praise properties, rented a sandblaster for a day that quickly turned into a day and an half and then two days.

As it turns out sand blasting is really difficult, and painful. I wasn't paying attention as I was jumpiung to the next ladder ( we set up ledders on after the other to keep us working rather than having to come down) and the blaster swiped across my arm - its a nice battle wound (Mom don't worry I can barely even see it now).

The sand blaster has a huge Ford engine that runs a air compressor, this then mixes the sand and air and 20 foot hose delivers the mixture to the wall we were blasting. The molding/gutters a long one of the sides of the house was flaking off and we needed to get if off to repaint it - painting actually involves very little painting - prep work is everything. So the sand blaster saved us days of sanding the molding down by hand.

It was like reverse spray painting. The paint came off like an aresol can puts paint on. Well, at least that was how it worked for the paint that was still pretty well preserved. Later we moved to the side that is directly hit by the sun and looked like it hadn't seen a new paint job in about 10 years. The paint was flaking off in sheets, but it actually took longer to blast that. The paint acted like a shield and the sand just deflected off it rather than penetrating and removing it.

We had been using silica at the beginning but opted out once we relized how cancerous it is. In its place we used play sand. Which was interested. The silica just formed into dust while the play sand rained down like snow. It was like a warm christmas at the top of the latter and surroundings. Everything was covered in sand by the time we were done. Monday our job will be to finish the job with 5-in-1's and elbow grease.

The Schedule

So we have a pretty gruelling schedule...

5:55AM wake-up
6 Physical Training
6:30 Personal Prayer
7 Breakfast
7:45 Morning Prayer
8-4:30 Work
6 Dinner
8 Evening talk
9 Evening Prayer
10:30/11 Lights out

and repeat...

New Beginnings

Its 4PM the Sunday following Philosophy Camp, and I think I finally got everything unpacked and resituated for the next two months here at the Company Summer Institute. I showed up late Friday afternoon and have spent much of the weekend spreading out my stuff and taking the talks I missed in. Abe, the company cook, recorded them for me.

The house we're staying in is quite long, it looks like a rambler, but with another half a house attached to one side. Everything is in common (shared). We have 2 regular meals with everyone 6 days a week (some people are gone for lunch and Sunday is free-for-all). We have triple bunks all in one room and have turned the house, the 14 of us are sharing, into a revolutionary barracks.

Wednesday through Saturday have consisted of 7 talks that make the social norms and codes conscious. The talks are about orienting us new comers to the experiential/spiritual knowledge the Company and the People of Praise has gained from living in intential community. We have talked about things like speech, friendship, and frogiveness and reconciliation in order to create a space to learn to grow/live in community.

However, tommorrow is when I will experience my first real Company day. Wake up at 5:25AM, PT, pray, Breakfast and begin work at 8AM. We then have a full day of work, dinner crew starts dinner at 4:30PM, with dinner at 6. Then evening talks will take place nearly every night as we continue to intentionally learn to build/live in community.

The CSI is about training ourselves to live community grounded in Jesus, and discerning what the Lord is doing in the world and what He has for us.

And so Philosophy Comes to an End...

It is the last day of Philosophy Camp out here on the plains of Southern Minnesota. We spent the last four weeks building intentional community and learning about 'lives worth living.' I started out needing to learn how to be.

My goals have changed and now I realize my life is about living in and building community (see Blog on Philosophy Camp website). I have grown socially, mentally, and spirtually. We have had an incredible time. Mary's all to intimate details, Birna's strong direction, Peter (nuff said).

Walking on our own paths we saw our beaten and beating trails converge. For one brief day we grew from a lone drifter to a small crowd each walking parallel down the same trail. We shared laughs, the nights and praire grass will forever murmur with our laughter. We told stories of terrifying joy and bone soaking sadness, and of other things. It was brilliant living. And now as the day's night turns to morning we one by one, ducking under low branches, take our own path back into the wood. Disappearing after hugs and warm good byes, but going nonetheless. Morning is coming and soon this road will be empty again. Me and the dust; open for new traveling companions.

Welcome

This is the first post and a welcome to those who I have shut out. It is my hope that this space can facilitate further communication and provide insights into my experiences while encouraging others to share theirs with me.

Letter from Mary Gaffney

I would like to start this by saying that this is a sharing of gratitude and I think thatit would be a real mistake not to take the opportunity to give glory to the Lord for sparing my life. I am not sure how much of the story everyone has had the opportunity to hear, and with such a vast body of Christ, I am sure that it is quite possible that some of you have not heard anything about it at all. Well, in short, if all odds went as they should have, I ought not be standing here sharing today.

Tuesday, January 16th was the first day of classes for the semester at the University of MN. It was 4 pm and I was on my way to meet Kevin for Management class. I bike around campus in all weather and especially during the winter because I am able to get places much faster and I found that I stay a lot warmer. It had snowed the day before so I decided to take the sidewalk with my bike instead of the street. As I picked up speed on my bike I noticed ahead of me that a car was backing out of the next driveway that I was approaching. Everything happened so fast that I only had time for thoughts and not for reactions. The next thing I knew the bumper of the car was knocking me to the ground. I realized that I was caught and that the driver had no idea I was even there. I never actually fell off my bike, so I was pulled under the car with my bike and dragged out into the street face down. I felt the wheels pressing harder against my back the driver accelerated to get out into traffic. I thought for sure that the car was going to roll right over me, but all of a sudden it stopped. The driver could not go any further because the bike and I were lodged under the front axle.

Right before the accident I had observed that I was alone on the street. When the car stopped backing up I thought for sure that the driver knew I was there but quickly found out that they did not because they shifted gears and began going up the driveway to take another attempt at backing out. As the car pulled forward I was flipped onto my back and all of a sudden I could hear other voices. I then saw a young man running towards the car and yelling for the car to stop. I felt then like I could finally stop yelling myself. I was told later that he was driving by, and he pulled over jumped out of his car and ran across all four lanes of traffic on University Avenue to stop the vehicle. That was the Lord. When I have gotten to this point in telling the story a number of people have said that I must have had guardian angels around me and that they all must now have grey hair.

One young woman offered me her coat, and adjusted my bag under my head to support it
because I was so awkwardly lodged under the car. The driver of the car sat next to me and held my hand. I told someone that I lived three houses down and asked them to go get someone from the house. As the paramedics, fire department and police were arriving, Ben Reinhardt came to the scene. It was such a relief to see someone that I knew. Ben told me that everyone was praying and then knelt down next to me, put his hand on my forehead and began praying over me. I had recently been reflecting on a talk that I once heard about prayer and intercession, and what stuck with me most about that talk was that when people intercede the situation IS changed—and I knew that to be immediately true here. I knew that my brothers and sisters were praying and I was being healed right at that moment. I found out later that the Lord had me on a few people’s hearts even before they knew about the accident. They were just moved to pray for me. As Ben prayed over me, there was a peace that was strengthened within me—something that words cannot describe. The situation had already changed.

The doctors and nurses in the trauma ER were so very good to me. As I reflected upon it later, I knew that I had the army of the Lord surrounding me. My faith in humanity was greatly strengthened, and rightly so. When they finished the CAT scans of my entire body they took me to a stabilization room where Genevieve, Hannah, Mike, and my dad were able to come and be with me. Another way in which the Father was watching out for me here was that my dad was in town. He had been trying to leave town for the past 24 hours at least and things kept coming up. And there are too many reasons to count for why his being able to be there was such a blessing.
I was still in shock and shaking constantly, not because I was cold, but I just could not settle my nerves. Every one in the room prayed with me and within about 5 minutes it had completely stopped, which was the first time since the scene of the accident. The doctor then came in and told me that they needed to keep me over night because there was free fluid in my abdomen which indicated the possibility for internal injury, and in addition to that they needed to clear all the CAT scans of my spine. Genevieve stayed the evening with my dad and me until I was finally able to take the collar off and get a permanent room. Then Hannah stayed the night with me, which allowed my dad to go home and be with my mom and brothers.

One quick story about the evening with Hannah…one that I am very proud of… It was about 10 or 10:30 pm when they finally let me have something to eat. Hannah had gone home earlier in the evening and the household had put together a sweet care package full of chocolate goodies for me, as I am a true choc-aholic. Hannah did her best to convince my doctor that I ought to be able to eat the chocolate, but he did not seem to understand how chocolate fit into a clear diet. So we had to surrender to the orange sherbet, which is my next favorite treat. Things were not too bad. Anyway, I had to remain flat on my back, so Hannah was feeding me sherbet. I had recently been hooked up to a few new IV fluids and a pulse-ox monitor. One of the machines started beeping. Now, I am not sure where this thought came from, but my immediate reaction was to play possum…cry wolf…however you want to think of it. So imagine this machine going
beep, beep, beep! Hannah stops spooning sherbet and sits erect and says with concern, “Mary, what is that?” I look at Hannah and grab my chest and start gasping for air. This sent Hannah launching out of her chair and me bursting out in laughter. For a moment there Hannah’s face got so red that I thought she was going to combust, but then it all turned into laughter and we laughed for about 10 minutes, no kidding. I was exceedingly proud of myself. This instance was a good representation of how my room was for the remainder of my stay—full of laughter. It was a great contrast to what was going on in the rest of the rooms around me, and it was the Lord.

The next morning at 8 am Mike Wacker waltzed right into my room disregarding all hospital rules about visiting, but doing so with ease and a big smile by cleverly wearing his sticker from the day before. Anne Varevice was now with me as well. She came that morning at 5:45 am to relieve Hannah so that Hannah could go to Trinity to teach for the day. Around that time the doctors came in and announced that I could sit up which meant that my spinal scan had been cleared. At 10 am they came in and told me that I could eat solid foods—this meant chocolate and it also meant that the fluid in my abdomen had cleared, Praise the Lord! Mike left later to go get household members who were available to visit me. Angie and Matt were able to come, and it was such a treat to see them. My mom also came around the same time, and again the room was full of laughter. This is when the stories about the revenge of the squirrels came in.

About a month or two before this accident I had the unfortunate, or fortunate, depending on whom you talk to, occurrence of running over a squirrel with my bike. I tend to bike quickly and
the squirrel just ran right into my path and was toast. It has been a division wide joke that the revenge of the squirrels was coming eventually, and so it was unanimously agreed upon that this was it. I even received a plush gift-squirrel to commemorate it! At 1 pm I was released. That was only 22 hours in the hospital. I was released only with abrasions on my face and legs, and scrapes and bruises on the rest of me. No stitches, no torn or stretched ligaments or muscles, no broken bones, and no internal injuries. Before I left the hospital my head doctor came in and said, “Just so you are aware, people do not walk away from things like this as you are. At the very minimum you should have had three surgeries and 4 months in the hospital.”

When I arrived home I was greeted by a number of brothers and sisters, everything that I needed, and many things that I did not need but really liked. One example that really illustrates the thoughtfulness and love of the members of my household is that because my bunk is the top one, Amy and Colleen had moved everything to the bottom bunk. I never would have thought of that on my own. My needs were met before they even registered with me as needs. I received countless phone calls and emails and some visitors. I was really heartened by the way that SO MANY took the time to tell me that they were praying for the driver as well. That was something that was so important to me and to be so strongly supported in that was a great gift.
I also have to share yet another still ongoing instance of the Lord outdoing himself in service and love for me. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and immediately after the accident, it occurred to me how heavy the repercussions of the accident could be on my arthritis. When Genevieve, Hannah, and Mike first saw me, though, they gave me a word of encouragement which was that the Lord would not only heal me of the effects of the accident, but also from my arthritis—that I had been given a NEW life. I also received confirming words of this throughout the next week from a few other people from other branches and divisions around the country. I still have the arthritis, but this much I do know: I have not had one bit of arthritic pain due to the accident, and for the week after the accident I was basically immobile, which usually causes flare-ups and I have not
experienced anything. Glory to God!

As I was reflecting and praying after the accident, I remembered praying the Our Father that morning before the accident, and in praying “give me today what I need to do all that you want me to do” and “do not put me to the test, but deliver me” I prayed “Father, don’t give me enough so that I am just making it, but give me an abundance. Give me all of creation.” And he did. I received that abundance. The enemy tried not only to get at me, but this was an effort to get at all of my brothers and sisters…at the whole body of Christ. It was an effort to distract us, and I was not going to stand for that and neither was the body.

I was right back at classes the next week, and back on my bike…yes, my bike…the same bike!! The Lord really outdid himself again on this one and my bike was found to be more than ride-able. I feel very confident that I could do commercials of endorsement for Silver Ridge Bikes, Columbia Sportswear, and Timbuk2 messenger bags due to how my things survived the accident, but not for Ford Motor Vehicles... My bike definitely has character…more so than it used to. I was also right back in the pool. Before the accident I had been swimming 5 days a week and I was not about to give that up. I kick-boarded it for the first couple of days, but by the end of the week, thanks to physical therapy exercises given to me by Jen Torma for my legs, I was back to swimming full throttle. I also decided that I wanted to continue to build on what Jen started me on with exercises, so Laura Brummer is training me in weight lifting. By looking at me now, you would not even know that any of this happened to me. The only physical mark left besides a few bruises is that part of my left eyebrow is missing where my face came in contact with the pavement. This actually has been a great source of jokes and laughter since the accident.

When the cut on my eye healed the women in my household would say things like: “Oh, I think your eyebrow is growing back, Mary!” “Maybe you ought to fill it in with a bit of pencil like my grandma does.” Or “Maybe you should get squirrel fur implants!” At dinner one night someone made a comment about being willing to give up more than an eyebrow for me and someone else followed that up by saying, “Hey, we should all join with Mary in this and shave off the same section of our eyebrows.” It was unanimously agreed upon that it would be fitting to do so. So we made a spontaneous household event out of it. Now I tried to encourage everyone to accomplish this task in the most natural was possible—by friction! They were not so excited about that, so they managed other ways. We decided to call this act of love “Mary Solidarity”. School has been a definite challenge, but I decided to keep all of my classes. I really saw the Lord’s protection for me in that I am taking 4 out of my 5 classes with people in the division—two with Laura, and one each with Angie and Kevin. The Lord spoke a really clear word to me after the accident and that was that all of my brothers and sisters are laying down their lives for me that I may be able to keep going with the work that the Lord has for me…that I may keep building his kingdom with my brothers and sisters as a missionary, that I may continue to pursue the biological sciences in school, and that I may do all of this because of the body of Christ and come out of this even
greater than I went into it.

All of these things that I have described—all the instances in which I am able to glorify the Lord—these are all instances of Unity of the Spirit where love is both the foundation and the fruit. Thank you all for your prayers and letters and conversations. Please continue to pray that the Lord completes his healing of my arthritis. Glory to God!

Allendale

neighborhood in Shreveport where the People of Praise has started building a city, our first of 200 on the next 40 years. There are 6 houses built with shared space in mind (ie. one has the main kitchen and dinning room, another the main living room, and so on).

IG4

stands for Initial Group, 4 people. This is a group within the Company. Fall '06 this was Brian Couch, Thomas Duddy, Joe Gleason, and John Gapp in Allendale. Spring '07 this is Brian and Thomas-both in Allendale, John, Nick Holovaty and me in Indianapolis.

People of Praise

community (not church) of Christians who, moved by the Holy Spirit, try to live their lives as much together as possible. Comprised of about 1,800 adults in 21 branches across the US, Canada, Jamaica and Grenada.