Packing Up and Memories

The feeling remains that God is on the journey, too.

Saint Teresa of Avila

In 2004, after eagerly anticipating a new accommodation at Highfield Oval, I moved into my wonderful home in Building 7. Little would I have imagined how many friends would enter the doors of that house from so many different nations over the last 9 years. And now it is time to move on to a new home down the road.

Tomorrow a few friends and myself will load up my furniture and a huge chapter in my life will be transitioning to start a new chapter in Luton. The house is being worked on so we aren’t quite ready to move in, but tomorrow is a big step of closing out my home at the Oval.

As I have been anticipating this next season, I have been reminiscing about all the special times, I have had at Highfield Oval. I first visited the Oval in 1994 to attend a UofN event where I first heard Lynn talk about his plans for the RW and where I went and talked to him about what I had been doing with my DTS from Lausanne, Switzerland. I eagerly told him that I wanted to be involved and the rest is now history. My next visits to the Oval would come as we began to plan the RW and then during the RW, as I flew in to meet with Lynn and the team. The beauty of the Oval and the surrounding countryside would bring rest to a weary soul each time I came. I would walk along Cooter’s Lane just enjoying the quiet and the beauty of the rolling hills (and maybe eating wild blackberries) as I prepared to return to the Middle East and that wonderful world of diversity. But in those years, I never anticipated living in this beautiful spot, but God had other plans.

So when I first moved to the Oval in 2003, I thought I would return to Beirut in a year or two, and instead the Oval has been my home for the last 9 ½ years. I’ve lived in Building 7 and so enjoyed it with all the changeable conditions of a transient community. In my first year at the Oval, my niece Meghan and her brother Adam both worked at the Oval, and I had such an incredible time being able to have part of my family close at hand. And then a couple years later, Meghan and Victor were married at the Oval since our whole family had fallen in love with England.

 I’ve seen old friends leave and new ones arrive, and so there are so many stories to cherish. I can’t help but remember all the late night discussions of students’ dreams and outreach plans, theology, politics, future dreams, prayers for seeing the world impacted by God’s love, the planning of new schools and new adventures, the drumming, dancing and singing praising God (my neighbors heard this too)….and the eating of a lot of meals around a table that can hold a few or many.

In this room, I heard God urge me to volunteer to lead the first DTS on the Next Wave, to join with Peter Adams on a journey to China, to continue to build the School of Reconciliation and Justice and to believe God for all He wanted to accomplish at the Oval. It has been a rich time and so all those memories are going with me to a new neighborhood and a new chapter of this wonderful journey with God. Life has not been dull as we all sought to understand our part of building God’s kingdom. I am grateful for all who have so enriched my life and helped teach me in so many ways what it means to be a part of the family of God.

Here are a few snapshots of life over the last few years...randomly chosen and arranged!!! Enjoy the journey of life..even the bumps have so much to teach us! Thank you all for helping me move along through life!

The Next Steps of the Reconciliation Walk Community

Outside my window, it is a spectacular snowy Palm Sunday, and I am wrestling on how to tell you a short story about the Journey God has had us on since I last wrote. These have been days where one marvels at how God leads one step by step. Like the Hobbit movie, it has been an Unexpected Journey as it unfolded.  I may not have always understood what was going to happen next, but I have definitely known that a loving Heavenly Father was and is guiding us.

The School of Reconciliation and Justice has come to an end for this year, and

both Eliceli and Rabecca have successfully finished , and each has done an outstanding job of learning and shaping their projects for the future. Rabecca’s project explored the issues of extreme poverty in her home country of Zambia, and she hopes to intern either in Zambia or in Rwanda with a project that brings hope to a community.  Eliceli’s project was on the use of storytelling that records the stories of those from a conflict area who have seen their lives and hope restored. She plans to visit Rwanda, and as a journalist collect stories that would motivate others to seek peace in their country. (see the video at the end)

In Newcastle, Rabecca, Solomon, Elicelli, Nanzip and Cathy

As the school progressed, we waited to hear the decision from the Bishop of Bedfordshire on the use of the Vicarage at St. John the Baptist Anglican Church in Luton. We now have the approval by all concerned and the blessings from the Bishop and the Vicar of St. John’s, Rob O'Neill  The tenants move out of the house on the 28^th and then work can begin on any repairs. In the meantime, from the YWAM side, we will be working with the Oval on the details of moving to Luton.

Vicar Rob announcing that the RW team is moving to the neighborhood

The Vicarage next door to the church

In moving into the Vicarage, our desire is to live as a reconciled body of believers who are learning how to be followers of Jesus rooted both in partnership with a local church and in a local context where we can seek to be a place of hope and light in our neighborhood.

St John the Baptist Anglican Church, Farley Hill

With our history of training others both in and from conflict zones and with developing the message of the Church to be the reconciling body of Christ to their neighbors both Christian and people of other faiths, we see in Farley Hill a place where in partnership with the Church that we would be able to both live, train and serve others through prayer, a rhythm of life, and mission. Through this work together, we would hope to see the church grow as it seeks to be the light in helping further the social cohesion in Luton.

In living in Beirut, I often dreamed about what it would be like to have a group of people living and training in a neighborhood where we could be salt and light to those who may not understand one another and to help them be able to meet others who are different from themselves. Luton is a diverse town blessed with numerous ethnic and religious communities as well as the local university that draws many foreign students. We hope to strengthen our work both at the university and with the other faith communities. And as we prayed and asked God to relocate us, Farley Hill is the neighborhood that God has directed us to and I am delighted to work with a local church that has a big vision for serving the neighborhood and town.  

So this is now the big step. There are lots of details to be developed, finances to be released, and lots of packing, discussing, and praying to be done. Please pray with us (Nanzip, Solomon, and Sarah) as this unfolds, and I will keep adding in details step by step.

“Mother Theresa said: ‘We should be the fragrance of Christ.’ As we come through the world as a community of people, we should remind folks of the goodness of God by whose grace we are together. And this is certainly not so that people will praise the things we do, but that they can’t help but recognize how good our God is.” Shane Claiborne, New Monasticism as Fresh Expressions of Church

Packing our Bags and Hitting the Road

We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! I can't think what anybody sees in them." ~ The Hobbit

Nanzip, Ashlee and Cathy with the gallery of past students...It was great to have Ashlee with us once more to start this school and then to send out this brave Hobbit to a new adventure in a country where reconciliation is needed

There is a part of me just like a Hobbit and having just seen the new movie, the Hobbit, a couple of weeks ago with Nanzip, I could so identify in this season with Bilbo’s beginning response to “let’s go on an adventure”.  But there is also a side of me like the Hobbits’ that finds out more about oneself in walking into a new adventure.   

So I am going to calling the SORJ 2013, the school of the unexpected journey. Our band that is travelling together are a more likeable group than Bilbo’s companions. but definitely adventurers.  Eliceli: Brazil; Kate: New Zealand; Kelly: Canada; Rebecca: :Zambia; Sarah :Ireland. That almost covers all the continents. Together with Nanzip and hopefully soon, Solomon, we have begun the process of becoming a community that wants to make a difference in this world.

Each has brought their questions and their own stories of life to this SORJ, and as we begin to study together, we are on an amazing journey towards moving to Luton and a new home. Since my last update,  our discussions with the Bishop of Bedfordshire and the Vicar of St. John the Baptist Church have gone very well, and if all continues to progress as planned, we will be moving to the Vicarage in the early Spring.  

Nanzip, Ashlee,, Kate, Rabecca, Kelly, Eliceli, Sarah

 

In the meantime, we, the SORJ, will start meeting new friends in the Farley Hill neighborhood and connecting with others in Luton who work in building bridges in the communities. We will begin to walk our neighborhood and hopefully despite the cold weather, meet a few people and begin to hear the stories of those who live in this place.  

Farley Hill is a council estate neighborhood and with the current downturn in the world’s economies, there are major changes being made in social services for the unemployed but also there are currently fewer jobs available. In a neighborhood that was already experiencing many difficulties and concerns, there can be a sense of alienation and further hopelessness.  I will share more about this neighborhood and its relationship to the rest of Luton in the next update and how this fits with our RW message. Here is the link to the new neighborhood:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=200481023992561633097.0004d320251419027215a

In the meantime!!! The school began almost 2 weeks ago here at the Oval, but we are now going to prepare to move to a new home for possibly the rest of the 10 weeks of the school. A couple who are good friends have offered us their home which is out in the country but close to Luton.  It was an “unexpected” part of the journey. It will give us more flexibility to be able to begin our work in Luton and for us to adjust to working as a team away from the Oval. A safe first step!

So this Hobbit is looking around her cozy home here at the Oval and all of the familiar nooks and crannies of my life, and remembering lots of good times in this place.  I’m not moving from the Oval permanently yet since we may be coming back here before the vicarage is ready for us, but this is the first step of change

As Bilbo told Frodo "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door," he used to say. "You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to." ~ The Fellowship of the Ring

Thank goodness that we know that the one leading the way on this adventure is the Creator of the Universe and a very good Shepherd.  Blessings on your journey wherever you are right now.