Midtown Friends is Dreaming of an Orange Christmas! In a movement to fight slavery, we are giving slave-free, handmade gifts for Christmas! In the months of November and December, Midtown Friends will be hosting a space to create handmade gifts before services every Sunday. Tune in for more info!
Yesterday we had church in the park and a "Grand Opening" style picnic... It was not warm by any means, but we managed :)...
We had art to look at
and stuff to make art laid out, a drum circle, and fair trade coffee and chocolate tastings :)...
We BBQ'd for about 65-70 people and somehow, even though we used all our meat (and meat substitutes), everyone seemed to get fed...
The music went well, and despite our worst fears, the generator stayed on through the whole service... The stories that were told really touched some hearts
as did the reverb (Becky's sermon)...
We may not see the fruit of this labor right away, but there were some real conversations had with real people seeking something to fill the void in their lives and Lord willing, they will find a home at Midtown with us :)...
This was our "Communal" art piece that really came together well I think... I had a lot of fun working on it with Becky and it turned out pretty much how we envisioned it :) Thanks to everyone who prayed for us!
Cultivating:
Life
Taking care of myself has never been numero uno on my priority list, but as this little life is growing inside of me, I have had to be more conscious of when and what food I put into my body... Even still, my blood sugar was elevated a consistent three points in both the 1 hr and 3 hr glucose tests :( So I have had to be even more careful by avoiding stuff with refined sugar (ie: no soda, candy, or other sweets) and spacing my intake of fructose (ie: fruit) which has been very difficult since I practically live on fruit, which is what probably got me into this mess in the first place... Too much of a good thing really can be bad :(... Toby and I have also been attending Birthing classes at Kaiser and I am signed up for pretty much every other class they offer (Breastfeeding, Newborn Care and CPR, etc.) I can't say we will ever be ready for this little one, but I think we are becoming more and more aware and prepared for him everyday...
Community
Toby and I have become part of the leadership team at a new church plant in our denomination (Evangelical Friends Church South West, aka Quakers) called Midtown Friends... We are small, but I really feel God working in our community... Many of the pics in the post below are from Midtown (mostly the "Making New Friends" part)... Our launch is coming up October 4th, so if you are the praying type, please pray that God will shine through us and show who we really are that day, an open community committed to living our lives as mission, walking as Jesus did, and being radically open and real with each other...
Forgiveness
If you click the link, it will take you to Steve Diehl's Forgiveness Ministries... Toby and I went through a seriously rough patch earlier this year, and we were able to pull through it because we focused on forgiving each other rather than rubbing our mistakes in each others faces... I am also working on some of my other relationships that have remained broken for far too long because of a lack of forgiveness and understanding... I could use some prayer for that as well...
Spirituality
I have never really fasted before this month (unless you count that 30 hour Famine we did as a youth group, which we were allowed to break early out of convenience and In N Out lol), but as we are coming up on our launch, our leadership team at Midtown decided to choose one thing to fast from while we prepare for everything God has for us... I chose to give up refined sugar (soda, candy, sweets, but not bread, because I need to eat that for baby)... I didn't feel particularly stressed about it for most of the month, but I realized I have also slipped up a few times without realizing it... I do feel however that I have become a target for spiritual attacks in other areas of my life that I have been working hard on and making progress on in these last few months... Toby gave up video games, and if you know my husband, that is huge... He has definitely struggled in this because they are his release... We have had to really rely on each other and God to get us through some times this month... We have also been reading through the book of John (another thing I have trouble with is opening up my Bible everyday)... I get behind and then get bogged down with the idea that I have to catch up... I need prayer to not get discouraged...
An Open and Real Life
Our culture is totally not used to being "Open and Real"... We hide our dirt from each other and live in our own dark squalor till there is nothing left of us... When I started hanging out in the Midtown Community, I was shocked at how real they were with each other... I was deeply depressed at the time, and became increasingly so after finding out I was pregnant with Cohen (the one thing I wished for and finally had and I was depressed about it, go figure...) I shut out the world and shut down, delving into a fantasy world where I could be what I wanted to be (yes, I'm talking about World of Warcraft)... I didn't come out of said depression until I called Becky and let her in on what had been happening, in me and in my marriage... I was open and real with her... And through that I was able to be open and real with myself and all the other people I had been shutting out... Soon after, Toby asked if we could go to Midtown for service on a Sunday night, which was followed by coffee with the gang another night, and so on... Living openly and real-ly in community... Wow... The difference was radical... Our hurt began to melt away as we became increasingly real, increasingly open... I am convinced that it is the only way to live... It's not without it's dangers, but what in life is? I feel like a renewed person, more of me than I have ever been able to be... Sure it may turn some people off, but the people who love me for me are still around... They may not "get me" right now, but it's okay because they have grace for me... And I have grace for them... I love you guys :)
