Tag Archives: Community

Defining Rhythms to Life Together

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Those four things have become central to our life in downtown Vancouver. When people gather three of those four things nearly always happen. Those four things are not only rhythms to our gathering but they’re really rhythms to how my brain is starting to function.

Eat– Eating is one of the most deeply spiritual things we do. In the western world much of this has been lost to capitalism because we’re more concerned with getting things quick and cheap than we are with engaging the actual process and experience. Good parties happen around food and drink, the historical accounts of Jesus happen around food and drink (especially the story that the gospel of Luke tells), relationship happens around food and drink, life doesn’t happen without food and drink. Food and drink should never be worshiped, but food and drink is an act of worship. It’s a celebration, its a proclamation of our togetherness–togetherness with each other, togetherness with our soil, togetherness within ourselves (our hands prepare the food, our mouth enjoys the food, our body needs the food, etc.)

Storytelling– storytelling is not just about regaling people with a fantastic narrative, storytelling is what happens around a table. Storytelling is why I’m writing this in a coffee shop. Storytelling is what you discover when you listen to others. Everyone’s got a story to tell there are just not many people who are willing to listen and care about others stories. When we choose to listen, to ask questions, to remember and value others lives we are engaging in and valuing the practice of storytelling. We are all storytellers at heart, we’ve just lost our audience. Storytelling however is not just an individual thing–neighborhoods and cities have their stories, communities have their stories, even our house has a story. One of the most beautiful gift we received at our housewarming was a nicely written chronology of our house. A woman did research and discovered who its owners were, when it was built, and some of the things that had happened in the life of our house. I don’t know about you but I get consumed myself–with the fact that nobody wants to hear my story. I get so caught up with what’s next that I stop pausing to learn the story of my city, my community, even my own home. We don’t care about the past we care about the future! Innovation! Discovery! New ideas, new places, new experiences! But what is so profoundly true is that there’s no better soil for dreaming a new future into existence than the rooted and powerful stories of our past.

Dream– As was just alluded to, dreaming is a natural extension of healthy interaction with our stories. When we listen to others we catch some of their dreams for the future, when we learn about our community we start to hear potential new realities emerge from the movement of the past. Dreaming is rooted in our stories, in listening to each other, in knowing who we are and where we’re from. Part of the reason that listening to each other is so important to dreaming is that for a dream to become a reality we’ve got to share it, it’s got to become the shared dream of the community. Dreaming invites to question what could be, it engages our often dormant imagination, it invites us into the godly pursuit of creation.

Act– Dreamers don’t change the world unless they or someone else carries those dreams and makes something happen. Action is not only important it is essential for life together. We do not act on everything  (can you imagine the exhaustion?!), but we do act. We do not always take action, but it’s always a part of the horizon. Acting, innovating, actually creating is not an end goal as much as it is a healthy natural response to eating together, to listening to each other, and to dreaming new realities. I’m starting to believe that if we throw ourselves into the first three rhythms the fourth will be inevitable.

Faceless People

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I’m sitting in a café walled on one side by windows from floor to celling. Surprisingly I’m having a hard time seeing my computer screen because of the streams of sunlight coming through the windows. It feels good for the left side of my body to be hot from direct sunlight.

Strangely enough as people walk down the street next to me I cannot see any of their faces. The bar that runs the length of the wall of windows just happens to block my view of the face of every single person that walks by. So I stare out the windows at a faceless people. I was struck by the fact that as far as I was concerned these people had no identity without a face. Bodies without faces are nobodies. Had my wife changed her clothes she could have walked by and I would not notice. The mayor could have just passed and I’d never know the difference…all because I can’t see their face.

The Internet is a dangerous place for dialog because we cannot see people’s faces. Yes, maybe we have an icon that represents that person, but the person we’re actually in dialog with is a figment of our imagination. They are fictitious in every way as much as The Social Network’s take on Mark Zuckerberg is fictitious.

In life and online we prefer to deal with icons. Rather than making space to listen to you, to allow you to inform me about yourself I have preconceived ideas of who you are and what you’re about. An icon. We prefer to deal with representations of people than real people. Real people are complex while icons are simple.

My hope is to find enough peace and courage within myself to allow you to be a person in the fullest sense of the word. Yes I’ll still have my preconceived ideas about you, but am I willing to lay those down and allow relationship to reveal your face? For the love of Facebook I hope so.

Sitting with Heroes

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I’m here in Durham, North Carolina anticipating a major winter storm tomorrow and attending my final grad school week long getaway. Prior to our four days of dusk ’till dawn class time that starts tomorrow we have been able to spend the weekend with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and the Rutba House community.

Saturday night we crashed an area wide meal and prayer gathering celebrating the season of epiphany.  As I sat back and listened to the conversations that were happening and observed the way each person treated the other I was amazed. I was sitting amongst a group of rock stars, heroes of nearly mythical proportion. I was sitting with people who fought for the dignity of all peoples, immigrants, convicts on death row, peacemakers who have been imprisoned, and the homeless (to name a few). The people I sat with on Saturday night go to jail for their beliefs, they fight (non-violently) for peace, they give of themselves for others. One woman was even responsible for sta

rting an amazing non-profit that many of you are familiar with called Witness for Peace. It was beautiful to hear them celebrate the season of Epiphany which is a time when we are reminded of the surprising and radical activity of God as is seen in the invitation of the Magi to visit baby Jesus. Outsiders, foreigners, and yet invited into the birth narrative of God himself. The group shared some of the striking appearances of hope they witnessed in the world during the last year, they then dreamed of what they might experience in 2011. It was beautiful. It was inspiring. And it challenged my imagination concerning what God might do in downtown Vancouver, WA over the next year.

Community Living

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The seven of us (five adults and two kids) have now been living together in the community house for a few days over two months. Here’s is some of what I have learned in two short months:

  • Assume the best–We often assume the worst, but more often than not the reason I did not take out the garbage when I told you that I would is not because I’m trying to get you back but because I forgot. By assuming the best of each other we have discovered much more space for grace and honest dialog.
  • Patience is painful— We are all eager to add in creative, fun, and challenging rhythms to our life together, but we believe that we will be better off long term if we take a patient approach to our life together. Speaking personally this has been one of the most challenging aspects. I want us to all do certain things, to live certain ways, to challenge each other in certain areas, etc. I want to get started now, I want to begin things now, I get fidgety and restless…patience is painful, but crucial as we pursue life together in an authentic way.
  • Conflict is crucial— The most healthy moments in our life together thus far have been when we’ve chosen the path of conflict over burying hurt feelings or frustrated moments. Thus far the points of conflict have served to further define who we are and who we desire to become.
  • Money is awkward— Every time we talk about money it gets weird…and yet we keep doing it. At this point in time we have two areas where we share money (this is in addition to bills, utilities, etc.): we all pool our money together for groceries/household items and we all pool together amounts of money that is dedicated to giving away (in Christian circles we’re talking about tithing here). We talk openly about bills, each of our individual poverty, and our community budget…and its always awkward.
  • Rewards vs. Sacrifice— Westerners value our individuality, we even value a certain level of isolation. Some people think we’re crazy for living with other people and for always having visitors over. And they’re right for thinking this because the sacrifice associated with living in community has been present…but with out a doubt the reward of living in community has far outweighed any sacrifice that was made. Simply said, we’re better together than on our own. Maybe we just have amazing housemates, maybe we’re in a honeymoon period, maybe both…but does it matter?

There’s always more to say and there’s definitely more to come.

Compassion Vancouver in Hindsight

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The weeks leading up to Compassion Vancouver were chaos. Posting fliers, hanging posters, and printing those fliers and posters minutes prior to their needed delivery. In one afternoon we lost all of our one eye clinic partner in the morning only to gain a new one by afternoon and then another by the evening of that same day. In that last week volunteers flooded the online signup, social service agencies came out of the woodwork to join in, and last minute doctors volunteered. That last week was chaotic. Who’s buying the hotdog buns?! Who’s picking up the coffee? Do we have enough shuttle drivers? What about garbage cans!? Recycling for water bottles? Do we have enough water bottles? Even amidst the chaos, however, were reminders of what we’re all about. There was a unique request that I do not have permission to detail here regarding a family in need of emergency orthodontic work. While there were no orthodontists at Compassion Vancouver, when I heard the special request I was confident that our team of people would be able to find the resources necessary to bless this family. In 24 hours two emails were sent off requesting help, and one private clinic offered to do whatever work was necessary for this family for free. It was beautiful that amidst the chaos of planning and preparing, our dental team was able and willing to do extra work to provide a special service for a family. This story is a perfect way to capture what I loved so much about being a part of this event. Compassion, dignity, and love are central to the identity of the Compassion events. What a blessing!

Back to the chaos…so many questions, so much to do, and all that chaos culminated on Friday-the day before the event. As some of us showed up five hours prior to the volunteer training that would happen that evening we discovered that the tables and chairs were not delivered. Try hosting a health care event without 60 tables and 150 chairs. As the school district tried to figure out what to do and what happened, and as I started counting in my head how many tables I could gather from local churches, up drove the truck–only a few hours after we discovered its absence. As we began setting up the event, constant adjustments were made as each group (dental, medical, social service agencies, etc.) began to see the reality of their needs for space and materials. We setup bounce houses for the kids, carried in mobile dental chairs, wheelchairs, boxes of medical equipment, etc. Essentially what we were creating was a mix between a M.A.S.H. unit, a mess hall, and a preschool all in one! And whether we were ready or not, come 7pm in flooded hundreds of volunteers. I nearly teared up as I looked out from the stage at a gymnasium filled with individuals who gave up their whole summer weekend to serve at Compassion Vancouver. It was breathtaking. (skipping forward a bit…I remember in an one hour stretch of time on Saturday around 11am I had to start turning away additional volunteers because we were already overstaffed. What a problem to have!)

On Saturday my day started at 5am as I got up, showered, printed some last minute documents that we’d need, and headed out to the school at five ’till six. At 6:45 we had our first guests in line waiting to get dental treatment. By 7:00 a line had begun. By 7:30 the first wave of guests had been triaged and shuttled to an off site clinic for dental work. While the event did not technically open until 9am, by 8:00 the social service fair was filled with people (though all the social service were not there yet) and both haircuts and chair massages started. Our six stylists and our massage therapist worked with only a handful of short breaks from 8:00 until 3:00. I truly consider their manual labor one of the greatest gifts that was offered at Compassion Vancouver. And even though I tried to elicit it, I heard zero complaints about cramping hands, arms, or sore feet from any of these dedicated technicians!

The social service fair, which functioned as the central hub of the whole event, was filled with thirty different social service agencies from our neighborhoods. It was a beautiful blend of addiction recovery groups, Christian ministries, services for women and for children, gardening opportunities, mentoring programs, marriage enrichment opportunities, legal aid, and more. Not only do the social service that were present already do so much and offer so much to our neighborhoods but at Compassion Vancouver they were gracious, kind, and thorough in their presentation and conversation.

I will do my best to post and forward on the stories that begin to emerge from the event. I have been out of commission over the last week and have therefore not worked to solicit stories from participants. Because my work was with the social service fair I cannot speak to what happened with those who were working in the onsite dental clinics, the onsite medical clinics, the shuttling to off site dental clinics and optometrists, those working with the children, the team of wonderful hospitality people who brought trays and trays of food to volunteers, people waiting in lines, and doctors working. Let me close by giving some of the numbers. Some of these are estimates at this point while others are more solid. But they all help to give a picture of what happened on August 7th at our first Compassion Vancouver event:

  • 250 volunteers
  • 128 guests received dental work
  • 125 guests received medical treatment
  • 300 Danner boots were given away (via custom personal fittings)
  • 30 social service agencies present in the social service fair
  • 700 meals served
  • 100+ haircuts given away
  • 130 kids went through the children’s program
  • 50 custom fit prescription glasses were given away
  • Estimated 400 guests were a part of Compassion Vancouver

This is what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Good stuff. Thank you to everyone who dedicated time and energy at the event itself, before the event, and those who are currently serving in follow up services. You are an amazing bunch of people.

If you still need treatment there are additional Compassion events happening. Visit www.compassionconnect.com and get in line at 6:30 and get your work done!

peace.