8 days a week

On Sunday I cooked Moroccan spiced chicken with lemons and green olives.
Today I made Zinfandel braised short ribs with mashed potatoes and parsnips.
Tonight I am making homemade marshmallows for my parents small group.
Now seriously... can anyone tell me why I am single?

Haha welp, I was asked to start a youth ministry at my new church and I'm going to take it on. Which, while I am excited, means a third job and officially no days off. So I am praying that God will grant me some reprieve from job stuff... whatever that may entail.

Clay sent me and Hannah his "missions statement" for what he wants our potential community house to look like. It was so great, and encouraging... it was so much of what I want too. Just tell me if you want to read it, I was going to post it but it's so long. Ok here's part of it...

1. We’d have a home full of love. Our home would be a place that people would want to spend time in whether that is an afterschool activity, a supper or a bible study. This home would be open to friends, family and sojourners alike always heeding the scripture that says “some have accommodated angels without knowing it” (paraphrase). It would be a safe house for those who need a place of refuge (Num. 25), may that be from others, the busyness of life, the thundering rain or a place to simply be held by someone. I envision a place where children can flourish through our ability to show them love through listening to them, applauding them, assisting them, teaching them and letting them teach us. I imagine a home where people would stop by and upon viewing our lifestyle, they would not marvel at our lifestyle but that they see faith in action: true “phileo” love being actualized because of our response to/from “agape” love.
2. I envision each of us bringing our own talents, gifts, vision, passions and desires to love those in our community. I see us not spending all of our time working for a company but rather we’d work full-time as ambassadors of Christ’s love and work part-time to sustain ourselves in a culture that flows because of money.
3. I see all of us participating in an afterschool tutoring program that not only teaches neighborhood children how to read or the molecular structure of organism but that they also have worth in the eyes of God and the eyes of us as their friends. I see Carly with a chef hat whizzing around a kitchen singing and teaching kids how to turn on the oven, how to sauté and how to pound chicken for chicken cordon bleu. I see Hannah leading the neighborhood women in a morning yoga class imploring her students to find, acknowledge and live Zen amongst the turmoil of their lives in the inner-city. I see myself giving massages to those who feel the corresponding physical stress that comes from inner-city pressures and casting and fulfilling vision to have fresh fruits and veggies to our neighborhood, may that be bringing produce in from our rural Mennonite friends or dispersing the goods from our community garden. Eventually, I see us getting another building where we can localize our efforts filled with more yoga classes on a bamboo floor, more cooking classes with larger stoves and counter space, more desk space for little ones to draw maps of the Americas and a coffee stand clad with fresh vegan goodies.
4. I see us tending to a (or more) community garden(s) where children can get dirt underneath their fingernails and take home some lettuce, carrots and rhubarb, that they helped grow, to their family at home. I envision us planting dozens of trees and flowers on our street not only for beautification reasons but to raise the property value and self-worth and self-appreciation of those in the neighborhood.
5. I envision us having parties with kids dancing to music and playing in opened fire hydrants with shaved ice in hand. I envision bible studies, movie viewings, community meetings, rousing discussions and long suppers over wine. I see us playing with our dogs, playing stickball in the street and greeting our neighbors not only by name but with a hug.
6. I see us as a team dedicated to one another in accountability, to sharing joy, to weeping and mourning with each other, to assisting each other, to pushing each other and being vulnerable, real and open with each other. I see us carving out a little slice of shalom sprinkled with times of uncertainty, pain and doubt in some neck of the woods in N. Philly..

Come on, tell me that doesn't sound amaaaaaaazing.